From Harlem to Broadway: A reading and conversation with two New York novelists
2016-06-08 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NY
At first glance, these two debut novels don’t seem to have much in common. Richard Taylor Pearson‘s The Role explores the comedy and tragedy that goes on behind the curtain of a contemporary Broadway play, while Joe Okonkwo‘s Jazz Moon presents a personal and artistic odyssey set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and glittering Jazz Age Paris. However, both books feature tantalizing drama with highly creative protagonists who face challenges in art, life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Join us for a lively reading and discussion.

Richard Taylor Pearson is a triple threat: author, actor, and attorney. He grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he appeared in many plays and musicals. After graduating from Rhodes College, Richard went on to obtain a law degree from Rutgers School of Law. While he works as an attorney by day, his nights and weekends are spent writing novels and performing in theatrical events all over New York City. Richard lives in Jersey City with his brilliant husband, Brian, and their amazing daughter, Natalie.

Joe Okonkwo is a Pushcart Prize nominee who has had stories published in a variety of print and online venues including Promethean, Penumbra Literary Magazine, Chelsea Station, Shotgun Honey, and Best Gay Stories 2015. In addition to his writing career, he has worked in theater as an actor, stage manager, director, playwright and youth theatre instructor. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from City College of New York. Jazz Moon is his debut novel.

Bi Book Club discusses Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown
2016-06-09 18:30 - 20:00 | NY
The Bi Book Club meets on the second Thursday of each month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise.
Dinner after nearby (so far, we always go to Village Den.)
On June 9, The Bi Book Club will discuss:
Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown
A landmark coming-of-age novel that launched the career of one of this country’s most distinctive voices, Rubyfruit Jungle remains a transformative work more than forty years after its original publication. In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes—and she refuses to apologize for loving them back. This literary milestone continues to resonate with its message about being true to yourself and, against the odds, living happily ever after.
We will be reading this “lesbian classic novel”, that is really quite bisexual in its telling, through a bisexual lense.
Come and join the discussion, even if you haven’t read the book. We take turns reading passages aloud from the book and discuss them-anyone can participate!
Please purchase your copy of Rubyfruit Jungle from the Bureau!

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on meetup.com (not required)

Reading by Leslie Lawrence from her new book: The Death of Fred Astaire--and Other Essays From a Life Outside the Lines (SUNY Press)
2016-06-10 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Author Leslie Lawrence will read from her debut collection, The Death of Fred Astaire–and Other Essays from a Life Outside the Lines (SUNY Press).

As a child of the sixties, Leslie Lawrence knew she didn’t want to duplicate her parents lives, yet she never imagined she’d stray so far outside the lines of their and her own expectations. The Death of Fred Astaire opens with the story, both wrenching and funny, of how Lawrence says her goodbyes to the iconic images she’s held since her youth; she then proceeds to bear a child and raise him with her lesbian partner. Some essays in this debut collection reflect on legacies Lawrence inherited from her Jewish family and culture. In others, she searches gamely for a rich, authentic life a voice, a vocation, a community, even a god she can call her own.

Always a seeker, an adventurer resisting fear, Lawrence, a city girl, creates a summer home in the back woods of the Live Free or Die state. She attempts the flying trapeze and takes part in a cross-dressing workshop. Traveling alone to Morocco, she assists a veterinarian tending to an ailing donkey. Teaching in a vocational high school in Boston, she questions her methods and assumptions about race and class. With rare honesty, she confronts the complexities of motherhood, of caring for her ill partner, and of widowhood. In “Wonderlust,” the collection’s most ambitious piece, she explores the role of beauty and creativity in our spiritual lives, revealing how lifelong learning in dance, music, and the visual arts can make us all more alive even as we age.

Leslie Lawrence was raised in Queens and attended New York City’s public schools. A graduate of Oberlin College, Brown University, and Goddard College’s M.F.A. program (now Warren Wilson), Lawrence was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her work has been widely published in many journals, periodicals and anthologies including Prairie Schooner, Witness, The Boston Globe, The Women’s Review of Books, Women on Women, Feeding the Hungry Heart, Lesbians Raising Sons et al. She is a world traveller and an active practitioner of contact improvisation.

Bertie Marshall reads From Sleepwalking to Sleepwalking
2016-06-11 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
A reading of From Sleepwalking to Sleepwalking, a new novella by Bertie Marshall.

They are not what you expect, these spiralling invitations to regret…

camera flashes of surprise, sharp insights, luminous imagery. Little trips toward oblivion that are almost the opposite—laments, in fact, about our inability to forget— a stunning tribute to the indestructibility of the creative brain.

Bruce Benderson.

Part artist notebook, part meditation on grieving, From Sleepwalking to Sleepwalking is above all an apparitional soundtrack through memory and 21st century cityscapes that haunts like a dream through waking hours;

Travis Jeppesen.

Union Square Slam presents: The Super Cute and Adorable Book Release of "Depression Cupcakes" By Thomas Fucaloro
2016-06-14 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is delighted to roll out our new summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a truly stellar featured artist.
This week will be the book release of Thomas Fucaloro‘s Depression Cupcakes by Yes, Poetry
7:00pm: Mingle and socialize
7:30pm: Open mic begins
8:00pm: Spotlight Features
8:45pm: Featured Poet: Thomas Fucaloro
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
We will also have some amazing poets for you as well:
Elisabet Velasguez
Aimee Herman
Patrick Roche
Roya Marsh
There will be depression cupcakes there to be eaten backed by the great poet
Trae Durica

About our Feature:
Thomas Fucaloro is an NYC poet. He has 2 books out by three rooms press, his latest one, “It Starts from the Belly and Blooms” has received rave reviews. He has graduated with an MFA at the New School for Creative Writing. He is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is a writing coordinator at the Harlem Children’s Zone. He just recently won a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs. His new chapbook “Mistakes Disguised as Stars” by tired hearts press was released in March and his next chapbook “Depression Cupcakes” will be released in June through “Yes, Poetry.”

When Your Child Is Gay: Reading, Book Signing, and Q & A with Authors Wesley C. Davidson and Jonathan Tobkes, M.D.
2016-06-15 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join us for a reading from When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need to Know, by Wesley C. Davidson and Jonathan L. Tobkes MD, with foreword by Cason Crane. Davidson and Tobkes will read from their book, followed by a Q&A.

About When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need to Know:
Coming out can be fraught with difficulty for both parents and child—but Wesley C. Davidson, a popular blogger on gay rights issues, and Dr. Jonathan Tobkes, a New York City-based psychiatrist, provide a road map so families can better navigate this rocky emotional terrain. Emphasizing communication and unconditional love, Davidson and Tobkes help parents untangle their own feelings, identify and overcome barriers to acceptance, encourage strong self-esteem in their child, handle negative or hostile reactions to their child’s sexual identity, and more. Filled with case studies and interviews, along with useful action plans and conversation starters, this is a positive, progressive guide to raising healthy, well-adjusted adults.

Wesley C. Davidson has written about parenting and health for such publications as Adoptive Families, Good Housekeeping, and Family Fun. The mother of a gay adult son, she has guest blogged for parenting websites on the topic of raising gay children, a subject she tackles in her own blog .https://straightparentgaykid.blogspot.com. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and The Authors Guild. Wesley lives in Vero Beach, Florida. Her web address is www.wesleycullendavidson.com.

Jonathan Tobkes, M.D. is a psychiatrist in Manhattan. His practice includes straight parents who have gay and lesbian children as well as gay children. He teaches and supervises psychiatry residents at The New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. Dr. Tobkes lives in New York City with his husband and their two children. His web address is www.jonathantobkesmd.com.

20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2016-06-16 20:00 - 21:30 | NY
If you are new to the city, recently out, just looking for friends, or whatever experiences brought you to us – we offer a safe space where we can mingle and talk about our experiences as an LGBT person in New York City. We recommend this 20Something Meetup to anyone who is looking for a more casual space to explore their sexual/gender identity. There will be light refreshments. Bring friends!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau and 20Something. No one turned away for lack of funds.
20Something is the largest social events organization for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in New York City, aged 21 to 30. We hold a monthly social, and two monthly icebreaker/discussion groups at the Brooklyn Pride Center and at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the queer cultural center and bookstore on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center, in Manhattan. With more than 2,500 members, we engage young adults across all 5 boroughs with a safe, confidential, and respectful platform to meet other LGBT folk. Many of our members have made long lasting friendships, relationships, and have been connected to important LGBT services and resources. Whether you are new to the city, recently out, or just looking to make friends – 20Something offers a space for you to pave the way to your own adventures in New York City – and make living here a little easier. Become a member: meetup.com/20SomethingNYC

TELL 25: Success
2016-06-17 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
Success is the theme of the twenty-fifth installment of TELL. Featuring Marcus Hicks, Roni Laytin, Larry Darnell Penn Whitfield, Ashley Young, and Judy Yu.

$10 suggested donation – no one turned away for lack of funds

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at BGSQD. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Marcus Hicks is a designer/performer living in Brooklyn NY. Originally from Ca. SDNBrooklyn.com

Roni Laytin is an actress, writer, mover, shaker, improviser and lover of story. She graduated from Pace University with a BFA in Acting and additionally pursues film production. Recent credits include “Mother May I?”, “Be Our Guest” feature film, “Mad Full of Dreams” and most proudly a laundry detergent B2B where her hands did all the talking. She’d like to thank Drae for this awesome opportunity and everyone else that is allowing others a glimpse into their world tonight. You can read about creative updates as well as contact her at ronilaytin.com.

Larry Darnell Penn Whitfield is a NYC based actor, writer, singer and aggressive mover. He is creator of Confessions of a Plussizetwink a one man cabaret series. Southern and sassy roots govern his everyday creativity. Live. Love. Create.

Ashley Young is a Queer feminist poet, author and teacher. Her work has been published in three anthologies, Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press), All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color (University of Wisconsin Press) and Glitter and Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy (Portland Studio). She a contributor at Elixher magazine and has been featured in various online magazines, such as Autostraddle, Rvkvry Journal and more. She is a 2010 Voices of Our Nation’s Foundation Poetry Fellow and a 2011 Lambda Literary Foundation Nonfiction Fellow, to return summer of 2016. She has taught her biomythography workshop at the Fire and Ink Conference in 2015 and at the Northeast Queer and Trans Conference at NYU. She performs her work at various readings throughout the country and will be reading at her first solo show at Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe and Activist Center in New York City. She is currently working on a collection of poetry and prose entitled Chronicles of Bipolar Living and is completing her first novel, a biomythography entitled The Liberation of the Black Unicorn. Ashley lives in New York City with her wife, four wild cats and her sweet service dog.

Judy Yu writes stories on the number 2 or 3 train from Brooklyn to Harlem, and advocates for LGBTQ youth in the youth justice system at the Juvenile Justice Project of the Correctional Association of NY. She has lived in New York for over 20 years and calls Brooklyn home. She has an MFA in writing from Sarah Lawrence and an MPH from Hunter.

Lorraine Hansberry: Activist & Writer
2016-06-18 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
Join us for an evening of talks on the life of Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, with a Focus on Her Political Activism and the People Who Influenced Her
Q & A to follow
Guest Speakers:
Reginald Manning, Union Organizer
Karen Murphy, Actor & Writer
Leila Ortiz, Poet & Activist
James Wright, African American Scholar
Program:
James Wright: Biographical Overview of the Life of Lorraine Hansberry
Reginald Manning: Lorraine Hansberry’s Involvement With the Civil Rights Movement
Leila Ortiz: Lorraine Hansberry as a Feminist and Lesbian
Karen Murphy: Lorraine Hansberry’s Journalism

Union Square Slam presents GOWRI K
2016-06-21 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, we host the fantabulous DC-based poet/author/organizer extraordinaire, GOWRI K!!!
7:00pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
9:00pm: Featured Poet: Gowri K.
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our feature:
Gowri K. is a Tamil American poet, performing artist, teaching artist, and lawyer whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka. Her advocacy has addressed animal welfare, the environment, the rights of prisoners and the criminally accused, and justice and accountability in post-war Sri Lanka. Gowri was a member of the 2010 DC Southern Fried Slam team and has performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Capital Fringe Festival, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and conferences in the U.S. and Canada. She serves as poetry coordinator at BloomBars, a poetry events host at Busboys and Poets, senior poetry editor at Jaggery (a South Asian inspired arts journal), and co-editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Gowri tweets on-the-spot haiku @gowricurry.

From Trauma to Activism
2016-06-22 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Please note: There are no more reserved seats available for this event.
To place your name on the stand-by list please email Steven Dansky at: SFDANSKY@COX.NET

Reserved seats must be claimed by 7:15. At 7:15, unclaimed seats will be made available to those on the stand-by list. A limited amount of standing room will also be made available to those on the stand-by list.

The program will begin at 7:30 at the latest.

The narratives in the film, From Trauma to Activism unpacks our history with stories from audacious pathfinders and academics, gay liberationists and transgender militants, dykes and lesbian separatists, feminists and radical fairies, queers and queens.
These trailblazers came out-of-the-closet: suffering familial estrangement and shunning; risking their livelihood; and chanced harm during hostile demonstrations. Determined to transform the world by living openly despite reprisals, they were committed to social change and making the planet a more just and safer place. They formulated a daring politics with insights about human existence; trans-and gender identity; and sexual orientation that has inspired generations of post-Stonewall Rebellion activists and change-agents; academics and historians; and artists, filmmakers, and writers.
Trauma and activism appear to be in contradistinction—the former defined by elusivity and concealment, being hidden and out-of-sight; and the latter by action, out-in-the-open, in public. However, the evolution of activism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) people begins with, and is inseparable from, psychological reclamation and regeneration.
After the film, Dansky will discuss saving our history through the project OUTSpoken: Oral History from LGBTQ Pioneers, conducting interviews from New York City to Portland; Durham to Los Angeles; from the rural communities of Columbia County, New York, to San Francisco; and globally via Skype in Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne.

Dansky asks attendees to please refrain from taking photographs or recording video at this event.

Steven F. Dansky has been an activist, writer, and photographer for more than 50 years. He was on the cusp of the modern LGBTQ movement after the Stonewall Rebellion as a member of the legendary Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and was a cofounder of the group the Effeminists that continues to generate controversy into another millennium.
Pre-Stonewall Rebellion at sixteen-years old he was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements; and as a community organizer on New York’s Lower Eastside. He published a bilingual, one-cent mimeographed newsletter, Peace/La Paz, and was a reporter for The New York Free Press and a contributor to the SoHo Weekly News.
Post-Stonewall Rebellion he was influential in the development of the modern gay liberation movement. As such, he is referenced in most books on the LGBT movement—from 1971 in The Gay Militants and Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation; to 2012 in Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution; and in 2015, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle. He was a member of Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in 1969 and was an effeminist and coeditor of Double-F: A Magazine of Effeminism.
During the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, from 1983 to 2001, he served as a volunteer with Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) and Body Positive. As a hospital administrator and psychotherapist, he worked in the undeserved communities of New York City. He wrote the books, Now Dare Everything: Tales of HIV-Related Psychotherapy (1994) and Nobody’s Children: Orphans of the HIV Epidemic (1997).
As a frequent contributor to the Gay and Lesbian Review, he has written essays about everything from camp to Gore Vidal and Malcolm X to queer culture. His essay, “On Anger: The Months After the Stonewall Rebellion,” was anthologized in After Homosexual: The Legacies of Gay Liberation (2013) and “The Effeminist Moment,” in Smash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation (2009).
His photography has been in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Massachusetts, and Las Vegas and has been published in LensWork (2012), Art and Queer Culture (2013), and Protest!: Photographs of Social Justice in the 21st Century (2016).

PERSONS OF INTEREST: SELF-TAUGHT VISIONARIES
2016-06-23 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
Artist+ Members Raynes Birkbeck, Jerry the Marble Faun, and Joyce McDonald discuss their artwork in Visual AIDS‘ summer exhibition PERSONS OF INTEREST. PERSONS OF INTEREST: SELF-TAUGHT VISIONARIES brings together these artists to consider the imaginative potential of work by self-taught, visionary and outsider artists.
Prominently featured in the cult classic documentary Grey Gardens, Jerry the Marble Faun now carves majestic sculptures out of limestone, marble, and more; he first took up sculpting in his partner’s apartment stairwell in 1987.
The spirit of Joyce McDonald‘s artwork erupts from internal visions and the range of emotions she has experienced throughout her colorful life, as a minister, in recovery, and beyond.
Raynes Birkbeck‘s idiosyncratic drawings and sculpture blend the supernatural and science fiction with the vernacular and commonplace, resulting in work that he hopes shows “the beauty, the power, the love and the need of nature or a higher power. And even in the most mundane and commonplace things that “the Force” is always present.”
PERSONS OF INTEREST, curated by Sam Gordon for Visual AIDS, features a wide cross section of Visual AIDS artist members and friends. The term, “person of interest” often identifies someone in an investigation that possesses characteristics that merit further attention. The investigation presented here is a collection of drawing, painting, photography, performance, video, and sculpture.
PERSONS OF INTEREST, presented by Visual AIDS at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division features the trained and self taught, long term survivors and the prematurely lost, and individuals who live for us very much in the present, some only in our hearts and minds.
The exhibition includes work by Raynes Birkbeck, Mark Carter, Ben Cuevas, Chloe Dzubilo, Arnold Fern, Tim Greathouse, Keith Haring, Hudson, Affrekka Jefferson, Jerry the Marble Faun, Joyce McDonald, Lucas Michael, Nicolas Moufarrege, Luna Luis Ortiz, Hugh Steers, Hunter Reynolds, Tseng Kwong Chi, Muna Tseng, and Frederick Weston.
Pictured works from left:
Jerry the Marble Faun, Pairs (Big Edie and Little Edie), 2009, Limestone with moss, 13 1/2 x 19 x 6 1/2, Courtesy the artist and Jackie Klempay Gallery
Raynes Birkbeck, Untitled, 2012 Acrylic on paper
Joyce McDonald, “In Emotion”, 1999, Terra cotta, cloth & paint, 9x6x6

James Magruder reads from LOVE SLAVES OF HELEN HADLEY HALL
2016-06-24 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Playwright and fiction writer James Magruder (SUGARLESS, LET ME SEE IT) reads from his latest novel, LOVE SLAVES OF HELEN HADLEY HALL, a sexed-up Ivy League telenovela set at Yale in 1983.

James Magruder’s fiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, New England Review, Subtropics, Bloom, The Normal School, Gargoyle, New Stories from the Midwest, and elsewhere. His début novel, Sugarless, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award; his linked story collection, Let Me See It, was published by Northwestern University Press in 2014. His adaptations of works by Molière, Marivaux, Lesage, Labiche, Gozzi, Dickens, Hofmannsthal, and Giraudoux have been staged on and off-Broadway, across the country, and in Germany and Japan. He teaches dramaturgy at Swarthmore College and fiction at the University of Baltimore.

Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island - A Q&A with photographer Susan Kravitz
2016-06-25 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem: Independence Day on Fire Island celebrates Human Rights and Freedom of Expression
Mascara, Mirth & Mayhem is a collection of photographs taken by renowned photographer Susan Kravitz over the past thirty years at the annual LGBTQ event known as the Invasion of the Pines.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
The Invasion of the Pines occurs every July 4th and involves participants from the Fire Island communities of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines. It began in 1976, when a member of the Cherry Grove community had been refused service in a Pines’ restaurant because he had been dressed in drag. In protest, a small group of Cherry Grove residents cross-dressed and took a water taxi to the Pines on Independence Day of that year, to stand up against this “height of insult” by “invading” their neighboring community. Four decades later, the Invasion has evolved into a uniquely raucous event that joyfully celebrates human rights and freedom of expression by thousands of people, straight and gay.
Kravitz’s photographs capture the rebelliousness, the high camp, and the joy of the Invasion. They are provocative, introspective, sad and funny, and tinged with sexual innuendo. Yet they also reflect another journey, one that gives insight into the LGBTQ movement itself. From the fearful, AIDS-ridden years of the 1980s and 1990s, to the joyous years of this decade when LGBTQ people are out and proud (and, if they choose, legally married), these Invasion photographs celebrate a day to be free, to be whoever you want to be, and to be gay.

“My photographs are as much about the times in which they were taken as they are about the people who populate them. Ultimately, they are about human rights and freedom of expression seen through the lens of the Invasion,” said Kravitz of her eighty-eight color and black and white photographs.

Closed for Pride Sunday
2016-06-26 | NY
Happy Pride!!!

Union Square Slam presents HONEY SANAA
2016-06-28 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, we welcome New Orleans-based national slam finalist Honey Sanaa!!
7:00pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
9:00pm: Featured Poet: Honey Sanaa
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
Honey Sanaa is a spoken word artist from New Orleans, Louisiana by way of Mississippi. She is an educator by day, who holds 3 higher education degrees, including a Master’s degree in secondary education. Honey is the co-founder of C.H.A.O.S.: Collective Hip-Hop, An Artistically Original Society, a campus-based arts organization founded to help poetry and art students at the University of Southern Mississippi learn and grow in their particular branch of the arts.
Honey has traveled from New York to Florida to California sharing her words with audiences as an individual and as a part of Team Slam New Orleans, affectionately known as Team SNO. Honey is entering her second year in slam and is already ranked 4th in the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the current Last Chance Slam Champion from Women of the World Poetry Slam 2016.
In 2012 she published her first collection of poems entitled Firefly Kisses, and recently released her second collection of poetry entitled Truth from the Roots. Honey has been published in The Fem Literary Magazine, Shine: For Harriet, as well as the Painted Bride Quarterly, and Son of Baldwin blog. Honey’s work focuses on the intersections of race, womanhood, coping with trauma, and body positivity in today’s society where all of these are undervalued and underrepresented.
For booking please contact Honey directly:
Web: www.HoneySanaa.com
Email: HoneySanaa@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HoneySanaa
Twitter: @HoneySanaa
Instagram: @HoneySanaa
SnapChat: @HoneySana

Photo by Mary Cae

Queering Sexual Violence Anthology Reading and Discussion
2016-06-29 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Please join us for a reading and discussion with some of the contributors for the anthology Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement.

Featuring readings by contributors Amita Swadhin, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Nitika Raj, and Jennifer Patterson.

About the Anthology:
Often pushed to the margins, queer, transgender and gender non-conforming survivors have been organizing in anti-violence work since the birth of the movement. Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement locates them at the center of the anti-violence movement and creates a space for their voices to be heard. Moving beyond dominant narratives and the traditional “violence against women” framework, the book is multi-gendered, multi-racial and multi-layered.

This collection disrupts the mainstream conversations about sexual violence and connects them to disability justice, sex worker rights, healing justice, racial justice, gender self-determination, queer & trans liberation and prison industrial complex abolition through reflections, personal narrative, and strategies for resistance and healing. The contributors to this book are a feral and wildly compassionate collection of writers, bartenders, professors, therapists, sex workers, healers, sex positive educators, organizers, musicians, bloggers, non-profit workers, filmmakers and rabble rousers. Where systems, institutions, families, communities and partners have failed them, this collection lifts them up, honors a multitude of lived experiences and shares the radical work that is being done outside mainstream anti-violence and the non-profit industrial complex.

More information here: https://queeringsexualviolence.com/

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is a Black feminist lesbian filmmaker, writer, international lecturer, and activist. An incest and rape survivor, Aishah is the producer, writer, and director of the Ford Foundation-funded, internationally acclaimed, award-winning film NO! The Rape Documentary. NO! explores the international atrocity of heterosexual rape and other forms of sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African-Americans. Subtitled in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. She credits her 14-year practice of Vipassana Meditation as one of the non-negotiable tools that support her work on gender-based violence issues. She is the 2015- 2016 Sterling A. Brown Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. She is also 2016-2018 Just Beginnings Collaborative Fellow where she is developing #LoveWITHAccountability, her multimedia project, which will address incest and other forms of child sexual abuse. An associate editor of the online magazine The Feminist Wire, Aishah’s cultural work and activism have been documented extensively in a wide range of media outlets including The Root, Crisis, Forbes, Left of Black, In These Times, Ms., Alternet, ColorLines, The Philadelphia Weekly, National Public Radio (NPR), Pacifica Radio Network, and Black Entertainment Television (BET). You can follow her on twitter @Afrolez

Nitika Raj is a writer, dancer, healer and facilitator. She does social justice work for the same reason she prays – to seek truth and build peace. After working in anti-violence, racial justice, and economic justice movements for 12 years, she recently launched an independent practice -Moksh Creative Consulting. She also serves on the board of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. In 2015, Nitika co-produced, co-directed and performed in Yoni ki Raat (Night of Vagina), a theater production to raise awareness about issues of gender, sexuality, and violence in the South Asian community. Born in India and raised in Kuwait, she currently lives in Brooklyn with her wife.

Jennifer Patterson is a poet/writer, grief worker, creative and herbalist who uses words, threads and plants to explore queer survivorhood, the body and healing. She is the editor of the anthology Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Sexual Violence Movement (Magnus/ Riverdale Ave Books, 2016), facilitates somatic writing workshops and has had writing published in OCHO: A Journal of Queer Arts, the Outrider Review, HandJoband on The Feminist Wire.Jennifer is also finishing a graduate program at Goddard College focusing on trauma, queer communities, healing, craft, loss, pleasure, pain and creative non-fiction.

Bloom: Ten Years of Queer Lit
2016-06-30 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
BLOOM is a publication of Arts in Bloom Project, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to queer artists, writers, and audiences. BLOOM was founded to support the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender writers and artists and to foster the appreciation of queer literature and creation. BLOOM has published 248 LGBT writers and visual artists to date in its 10 year run.

Celebrate the 10th issue of BLOOM with readings by NYC-area queer writers published in the current issue, as well as those who’ve published in past issues.

Reception at 7 PM

Reading at 7:30 PM

Featuring readings by:

Michael Broder

Max Freeman

Dean Kostos

Amanda Krupman

Tom Léger

Susan Ryan

Elaine Sexton

Frankie Thomas

Judy Yu
Art work for cover of Bloom 10 by Mira Gandy.

Michael Broder is the author of Drug and Disease Free (Indolent Books, 2016) and This Life Now (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2014), a finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His poems have appeared in many journals including American Poetry Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Court Green, and of course BLOOM. He lives in Brooklyn with his husband, the poet Jason Schneiderman, and a backyard colony of stray and feral cats.

Max Freeman is a poet and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. He holds an MA in English and American literature from Harvard University. His poems have appeared in Barrow Street and Poetry International. He also makes the web series The 3 Bits.

Dean Kostos is a poet. His poetry collections include This Is Not a Skyscraper (recipient of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award, selected by Mark Doty, published by Red Hen), Rivering, Last Supper of the Senses, The Sentence That Ends with a Comma, and Celestial Rust. His work has appeared in over 300 journals and his literary criticism has appeared on the Harvard University Press website and in Talisman. A multiple Pushcart-Prize nominee, and a finalist for the Gival Award, he won the Jot Speak Award (UK) for “Amadou Diallo’s Ghost Reminisces.” His poem “Subway Silk” was translated into a film and screened in Tribeca and at San Francisco’s IndieFest.

Amanda Krupman is a writer and (semi?) retired performer. Her prose has been published in BLOOM; A Clean, Well-Lighted Place; The Cleveland Review; xoJane; Time Out New York; and Punk Planet. Her literary zine PLUG was featured in the “From A to Zine” exhibition at Columbia College Chicago. She has performed on stages in Cleveland, Chicago, and D.C. She has performed in many NYC venues, with only a few left standing: RiFiFi (RIP), the Producer’s Club, Barrette (RIP), WOW Cafe, the Soho House, House of Yes, Kings County (RIP), Sugarland (RIP), Public Assembly, Coney Island Freak Show Museum, Sin Sin & the Leopard Lounge, and Element (RIP). She has an MFA in fiction from the New School.

Tom Léger is an essayist, dramatic writer, and publisher. He lives in New York City. https://www.tomleger.com

Susan Ryan was born in Ireland, raised in California and has lived for many years in downtown NYC. Her work has appeared in The New York Observer, The L Magazine and BLOOM. She is currently finishing a novel set in NYC’s Meatpacking District in the early ‘90s and another manuscript about surfing and love and leaving New York for Hawaii. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Elaine Sexton is a poet, critic, and educator. Her most recent collection of poetry is Prospect/Refuge,published by Sheep Meadow Press in 2015. She teaches poetry and text & image workshops at Sarah Lawrence College and New York University and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. www.elainesexton.org

Frankie Thomas is the author of “The Showrunner,” which received special mention in the 2013 Pushcart Prize Anthology, and “Equinox,” which was serialized on The Toast. Her fiction has also been published in H.O.W. Journal, BLOOM, and Volume 1 Brooklyn; her poetry has recently appeared on The Toast, and her essay “The Two Faces of Bisexual OKCupid” appeared last year on The Hairpin. She works as a writing tutor at the City College of New York.

Judy Yu writes stories on the 2 and 3 train from Brooklyn (home) to Harlem, where she works for the rights of court involved youth at the Juvenile Justice Project of the Correctional Association of New York. She has an MFA in fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She has taught writing workshops to LGBTQ youth; domestic violence survivors; and at after school programs in New York City. Judy was a featured reader at the performance showcase, WYSIWYG, at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City and performed with the multi-racial queer writing group Agent 409 in New York City. Her work has been published in Visible: A Femmethology, the chapbook Mamibaile, and issues of the Agent 409 zine.

The Bureau is Closed for Independence Day Weekend!
2016-07-01 - 2016-07-03 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We return to regular hours on Wednesday, July 6th.

Bureau Closed on Sundays in July and August
2016-07-03, 2016-07-10, 2016-07-17 | NY
For the months of July and August the Bureau will be closed on Sundays.
The Bureau will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays, from 1 to 7 PM.

Union Square Slam presents Justin Lamb
2016-07-05 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
This week, we welcome New Orleans-based national slam champ JUSTIN LAMB all the way to the stage!!
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: Featured Poet: Justin Lamb
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5
About our Feature:
Justin Lamb is an educator, writer and 2013 National Poetry Slam champion with Team Slam New Orleans. A four-time member of the nationally acclaimed Team SNO (2011-14), Justin is a two-time Slam New Orleans Grand Champion and author of the live poetry album However It Turns Out Is Perfect and chapbook Everything Has A Place. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of New Orleans.

CANCELED! 20Something Monthly Manhattan Meetup
2016-07-06 20:00 - 21:30 | NY
Tonight’s meeting has been canceled. Stay tuned for announcement about the next 20Something Meetup.
If you are new to the city, recently out, just looking for friends, or whatever experiences brought you to us – we offer a safe space where we can mingle and talk about our experiences as an LGBT person in New York City. We hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 8-10 PM at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. We recommend this 20Something Meetup to anyone who is looking for a more casual space to explore their sexual/gender identity. There will be light refreshments. Bring friends!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau and 20Something. No one turned away for lack of funds.
20Something is the largest social events organization for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in New York City, aged 21 to 30. We hold a monthly social, and two monthly icebreaker/discussion groups at the Brooklyn Pride Center and at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the queer cultural center and bookstore on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center, in Manhattan. With more than 2,500 members, we engage young adults across all 5 boroughs with a safe, confidential, and respectful platform to meet other LGBT folk. Many of our members have made long lasting friendships, relationships, and have been connected to important LGBT services and resources. Whether you are new to the city, recently out, or just looking to make friends – 20Something offers a space for you to pave the way to your own adventures in New York City – and make living here a little easier. Become a member: meetup.com/20SomethingNYC

Union Square Slam presents an evening with the poets of La SoPA
2016-07-12 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.
We have been committed to exposing all the poetry this city has to offer. We want communities to merge and form into bigger communities. For this show we are happy to have the great poets of La Sopa.
Here’s a little more about La Sopa:
La Sopa (School of Poetic Arts) is a community-based arts program with its intellectual roots in the poetics of the Nuyorican, Black Arts, and Beat movements. From its home base at Loisaida Inc., a historic enclave for artists and people of color on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, La Sopa serves as an incubator for poets, performers, and other creatives to explore and expand their artistic selves, develop their voices, distribute the works in live performance and exhibition, and promote their works in various media.

This week, we welcome the poets of La Sopa (School of Poetic Arts)
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: La SoPA
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5

About our Features:
“Nessa” Acevedo is a Colombian American Artist and Social Worker who aims to serve as a catalyst for therapeutic and authentic expression; exposing her heart, mind, and spirit as an invitation for you to do the same and live to tell about it. She has been expressing herself through the written word since childhood, breaking through to the open mic in early 2012 at Capicu Culture’s: People’s Open Mic. She has since performed and/or featured at open mics and events including: La SoPA, The Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The New York Poetry Festival, Word at 4F, The DoJo, Great Weather for Media’s: Spoken Word Sundays, El Fogon, and Smokin’ Word and Drum.
Eric Acevedo is a very young man with an old soul who has been writing and performing poetry since 2008. He loves writing about Puerto Rican history, his abuelita, and what he sees going on in his hood and around the globe. He strives to influence his generation and is an aspiring English teacher. In his goal toward exploring what makes us who we are, he released a self-published chapbook, El Rice Is Cooking, in 2012. Acevedo has performed at universities including Columbia and Fordham and has been featured at Muevete, Queensboro Lit Crawl, Brooklyn Gypsies: Ghetto Hors d’Oeuvres and 35 poets for Oscar López Rivera. Eric hopes to obtain an MFA in the near future as he continues to be an artivist.
Sarah Serrano is a Puerto Rican educator, poet, writer, visual artist, actress, singer and voice actress. Pulling strength from adversity, she strives to connect with and educate her audience using personal experiences with domestic violence, mental health, mortality, social issues and cultural identity.
Known for her powerful spoken word poem entitled “Boricua,” Sarah was recently featured in the upcoming film Project Ñ (link), a documentary about Latino cultural awareness and identity. She has been featured and performed at the historical Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, WHCR Radio 90.3 FM, The National Black Theater feat. Full Circle Ensemble, CAPICU! Cultural Showcase, The Bushwick Starr Theater, Camaradas, Performance & Pints, Areito Live, Bowery Poetry Club, Bridging Boroughs, and I Know Some Tough Girls.
You can connect with her via Twitter & Instagram @cantfightthefro

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: 1st session
2016-07-13 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
A 5-Week Workshop, Wednesdays July 13, 20, 27, August 3 and 10, 6 – 8 p.m. Led by Ann Aptaker.
Is there a Queer perspective to writing crime & mystery fiction? This 5-week workshop will take students through the art and craft of crime and mystery writing, as experienced through Queer characters. Students will learn the importance of “voice,” character development, how character drives plot, and the distinctions of the genre’s various styles (cozy, hard boiled, noir, thriller, who-done-it, etc.,) through Queer experience. Students will write each week.
Cost: $50 per student for 5 week course.
Register at: QueerWriting@gmail.com
Ann Aptaker’s 2016 Lammy winning and Goldie finalist Tarnished Gold and 2015 Goldie finalist Criminal Gold have earned excellent reviews from Curve Magazine, Crimepieces, Rainbow Reads, and other print and internet venues. Her Cantor Gold crime series celebrates her favorite themes: Queer life, crime and mystery fiction, and New York City history. The third book in the series, Genuine Gold, is scheduled for release in January 2017 from Bold Strokes Books. Like her protagonist, Cantor Gold, Ann resides in her beloved hometown, New York.

Bi Book Club discusses Ariah by BR Sanders
2016-07-14 18:30 - 20:00 | NY
The Bi Book Club meets on the second Thursday of each month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise.
Dinner after nearby (so far, we always go to Village Den.)
On July 14, the Bi Book Club will discuss Ariah, by BR Sanders
Ariah, by BR Sanders, won the Speculative Fiction category of the Bisexual Book Awards and explores both bisexuality and polyamory. Ariah’s magical training has been interrupted. Forced to rely on a mentor, Dirva, who is not who he claims to be, and a teacher who is foreign and powerful, Ariah is drawn into a culture wholly different from the elven one that raised him. As his friendship with Dirva’s brother blossoms into a surprising romance, and he slowly learns how to control the dangerous magic in his blood, life finally appears to be coming together for Ariah—but love and security are cut short by a tyrannical military empire bent on expanding its borders. War, betrayal, passion, and confusion follow Ariah as his perilous journey leads him beyond the walls of the Empire, and into unfamiliar territory within himself. Along the way, he’ll discover just how much he’s willing to give up to find his place in the world, and he’ll learn what it means to sacrifice himself for freedom—and for love.
Come and join the discussion, even if you haven’t read the book. We take turns reading passages aloud from the book and discuss them-anyone can participate!
Please purchase your copy of Ariah from the Bureau!
Next book: The Life and Death of Sophie Stark. Get your copy from the Bureau.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP on meetup.com (not required)

Union Square Slam presents the USS Nationals Team Send-Off and Fundraiser
2016-07-19 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
The National Poetry Slam is right around the corner! Come celebrate and get a sneak peak at all the hard work the team has put in this summer, and pick up some sweet treats and a copy of the team’s limited edition chapbook!!
7pm: Sign-Up and Socialize
8pm: Open Mic
9pm: The USS National Team: Kearah Armonie, Patrick Roche, Nkosi Nkululeko, and Taylor Steele
Entry: $5
Chapbook: $20 ($15 with paid entry fee)
Cookies: $3, 2 for $5
Made by our lovely volunteer Theo!! Choose from the following:
– Chocolate Chip
– Rosemary Ginger w/ White Chocolate Chips
– Honey Jack Lemon
– Peanut Butter
– Apple Oatmeal
Meet the Team:
Nkosi Nkululeko is the 2016 NYC Youth Poet Laureate, and a Callaloo Fellow. He has been nominated for the Independent Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize. He was a member of the 2015 Urbana Slam Team and currently on the 2016 Union Square Slam Team. Nkosi”s work is published in VINYLpoetryandprose, No Token, decomP, and elsewhere. He lives in Harlem, New York.
Taylor Steele is a Bronx-born, Brooklyn-based writer and performer. Her work can be found at such esteemed publications as Apogee Journal, HEArt Journal, Rogue Agent, Blackberry Magazine, The Body is Not an Apology, and many forthcoming. Her chapbook Dirty.Mouth.Kiss will be available Fall 2016 on Pizza Pi Press. She is a triple-Taurus who believes in the power of art to change, shape, and heal.
Kearah-Armonie (Kearmonie) is a Brooklyn based poet, spoken word artist, MC, Filmmaker, Blogger, and Writer. She currently finishing up her B.A. in Documentary Film Production at Brooklyn College. Having been performing spoken word since 2011, she is now a mentor and teaching artist.
Patrick Roche is a New Jersey-based writer and performer who graduated from Princeton University. He has competed or featured at multiple national competitions, events, and universities around the country. His work has been featured on Button Poetry, SlamFind, UpWorthy, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and others, accumulating over 6 million views.

Writing Queer Crime & Mystery Fiction: 2nd session
2016-07-20 18:00 - 20:00 | NY

PERSONS OF INTEREST: PORTRAITURE & PERSONA
2016-07-21 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
Visual AIDS’ Artist+ Members Lucas Michael, Luna Luis Ortiz, and Frederick Weston discuss their artwork in the second program in conjunction with Visual AIDS’ summer exhibition PERSONS OF INTEREST. PERSONS OF INTEREST: PORTRAITURE & PERSONA, moderated by Alex Fialho, brings together these artists to discuss the ways in which they use the camera and photography as means of performance and a space in which to play with identity.
Lucas Michael‘s editorial photography for New York Magazine includes photographing polaroids of celebrities such as Lupita Nyong’o, Hugh Jackman, Lena Dunham, and Adele, while his artwork “Still Life (LM Squared)” finds him outfitted as a drag double of Liza Minelli.
Luna Luis Ortiz was inspired to pick up one of his father’s cameras after he became HIV positive at the age of 14 in 1986, beginning the birth of his self-portraits as a way to leave images for his family in remembrance before he became what he considered the images of AIDS in the 1980’s.
Frederick Weston communicates the soul of a thoughtful man feeling his way through physical realities and representation in America, often through themes of style, fashion, and the commercial male image.
PERSONS OF INTEREST, curated by Sam Gordon for Visual AIDS, features a wide cross section of Visual AIDS artist members and friends. The term, “person of interest” often identifies someone in an investigation that possesses characteristics that merit further attention. The investigation presented here is a collection of drawing, painting, photography, performance, video, and sculpture.
PERSONS OF INTEREST, presented by Visual AIDS at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division features the trained and self taught, long term survivors and the prematurely lost, and individuals who live for us very much in the present, some only in our hearts and minds.
The exhibition includes work by Raynes Birkbeck, Mark Carter, Ben Cuevas, Chloe Dzubilo, Arnold Fern, Tim Greathouse, Keith Haring, Hudson, Affrekka Jefferson, Jerry the Marble Faun, Joyce McDonald, Lucas Michael, Nicolas Moufarrege, Luna Luis Ortiz, Hugh Steers, Hunter Reynolds, Tseng Kwong Chi, Muna Tseng, and Frederick Weston.

Pictured works, from left: Luna Luis Ortiz, Self-portrait-Egyptian Pharaoh, 2003; Frederick Weston, “I’m In Here Somewhere”, Plaster, 10 x 6 x 5; Lucas Michael, polaroid self-portrait
