BGSQD

BOOK LAUNCH: UNTENABLE MYSTIC CHARM by travis l. tate (in person & live-streaming)
2024-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join UNTENABLE MYSTIC CHARM author travis l. tate and friends— Dom Martello, Jack Sullivan, Kyle Turner, & Omari K. Chancellor— for a night of readings from UNTENABLE MYSTIC CHARM, followed by a short Q&A.
UNTENABLE MYSTIC CHARM is a collection of eight short stories by travis I. tate ranging from the sensual to the humorous, and the vaguely historical to undeniably erotic told with poetic tenderness, a flair for the dramatic, and a love of the absurd.
To reserve a copy of Untenable Mystic Charm (Stanchion, February 27, 2024, paperback, $13), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Untenable Mystic Charm for March 27th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Dom Martello is a writer, performer, and visual artist based in NYC. Their work is rooted in queer magical realism and has been developed by The Elif Collective, Syracuse University, The Strides Collective, and The Workshop Theater.

Jack Sullivan is a queer writer and visual artist living in Brooklyn, NY. His plays, performance texts, and video design have premiered at Dixon Place (NYC), The Tank (NYC), Belconnen Arts Centre (Canberra, Australia), and New Zealand Fringe Festival. His prose and poetry can be found / are forthcoming in BODEGA, JAKE, WHISKEY TIT, and GHOST CITY REVIEW. He is very in love with Travis.

Kyle Turner is a queer writer based in Brooklyn, NY. His writing on film, queerness, and culture has been featured in W Magazine, The Village Voice, Slate, GQ and the New York Times, and he is the author of The Queer Film Guide: 100 Films That Tell LGBTQIA+ Stories from Smith Street Books and Rizzoli. He is relieved to know that he is not a golem.

Omari K. Chancellor is a Brooklyn based actor and writer. They can be seen in Peter Farrelly’s film, The Greatest Beer Run Ever on Apple+ after a world premiere at TIFF. Omari was seen in the world premieres of Soft by Donja R. Love and I Am a Walrus by MJ Kaufman at the Williamstown Theatre Festival as well as appearing in amani at Rattlestick. Omari’s writing can be found in American Chordata, SoftPunk magazine, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn among others.

travis l. tate is a poet, playwright and performer living in Brooklyn, NY. Their plays have been seen at Breaking The Binary Theatre Festival, Theatre East, Victory Gardens, Dorset Theatre Festival and Luna Stage. Their poetry collection MAIDEN is out on V.A. Press. Their writing has appeared in Vassar Review, Joyland, 3views among others. Find more information at travisltate.com

Game Over Books Queer Poetry Showcase ft. Myles Taylor, Dena Igusti, Liv Mammone, Mya Matteo Alexice (in person & live-streaming)
2024-03-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us on March 28th at the Bureau for a reading from four emerging authors in partnership with Game Over Books. Myles Taylor, Dena Igusti, Mya Matteo Alexice, and Liv Mammone will be reading from their forthcoming or currently available titles. There will be time allotted to purchase and sign books after the reading.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Participants’ biographies:
Mya Matteo Alexice is a non-binary, Black and white graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA. Their poems can be found in or are forthcoming in publications such as Pleiades, Black Warrior Review, Copper Nickel, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Bennington Review, Barrelhouse, The Pinch, Cherry Tree, underblong, and elsewhere. They were the runner-up in the 2023 Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest judged by Gary Soto. Their debut poetry collection, A Shape We’ve Yet to Name (March ’24), is forthcoming from Game Over Books. They enjoy video games where you can make the characters kiss.

Liv Mammone (she/her) is an editor and poet from Long Island. Her poetry has appeared with Button Poetry, The Poetry Foundation, The Medical Journal of Australia, and in many other places. In 2017, she competed for Union Square Slam as the first disabled woman to be on a New York national poetry slam team. She was also a finalist in the Capturing Fire National Poetry Slam in 2017. She has edited multiple books across genres, including the poetry collection They Called Her Goddess We Named her Girl by Uma Dwivedi, which was nominated for a Write Bloody Book Award. A Brooklyn Poets Fellow and Zoeglossia fellow, she is currently an editor at Game Over Books. In 2022, hers was one of the top ten most read poems at Split This Rock’s poetry database, The Quarry. Her first collection is forthcoming in 2025. Follow her on Instagram @mammoneliv.

Dena Igusti is an Indonesian Muslim writer born and raised in Queens, New York. They are the author of CUT WOMAN (Game Over Books, 2020), which has been listed as a 2022 Perennial Award Winner, 2020 Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick, and Entropy Mag’s Best Of 2020-2021, and I NEED THIS TO NOT SWALLOW ME ALIVE (Gingerbug Press, 2021). They are the co-playwright of the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater (2023 A is For… Winner). They are the Inaugural 2023 NYFA Ryan Hudak Playwright Award Winner. Their work has been featured in BOAAT Press, Peregrine Journal, Colorbloq, and several other publications. Their work has been produced and performed at LA Times, The Brooklyn Museum, The Apollo Theater, Women Deliver, the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit, Players Theatre (SHARUM, 2019), Prelude Festival (Cut Woman, 2020), Center At West Park (CON DOUGH, 2021), The Tank (First Sight 2021 at LimeFest), The Public (BLISS at Breaking The Binary Theatre Festival, 2023) and several other venues internationally.

Myles Taylor (they/he) is a transmasculine writer, organizer, educator, food service worker, Capricorn-Aquarius cusp, and glitter enthusiast. They are the current Producer of the historic Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge and former President and alum of the Emerson Poetry Project. They have represented Boston and Emerson College at the National Poetry Slam, FEMS Tournament, CUPSI, and others, and have been performing internationally for over 8 years. Their various publications and performance videos can be found at myles-taylor.com, and their neuroses can be found on social media @mylesdoespoems. They live amongst the rats of Allston, MA. Masculinity Parable (Game Over Books, 2023) is their first full-length collection.

RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring (in person & live-streaming)
2024-03-30 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Perhaps more than any other, the singular street art of Keith Haring became emblematic of a particular cultural time and place: an at-once vibrant and decaying downtown New York of the 1980s, marked by both rebellion and excess, and soon to be ravaged by AIDS. Today, Haring’s instantly recognizable images grace everything from kid’s sneakers to Coach backpacks. The short, meteoric career and stunning achievements of this iconic American artist are richly documented in RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring (Harper, March 5, 2024) by National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling biographer Brad Gooch. Granted access to Haring’s extensive archive, Gooch interviewed or was helped by more than two hundred people in assembling this definitive account of the magic and mystery of a barrier-breaking visionary.
Brad Gooch will be joined in conversation by Ricardo Montez, author of Keith Haring’s Line: Race and the Performance of Desire (Duke University Press, 2020).
Copies of Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring (Harper, 2024, hardcover, $40) will be available for purchase and signing, as will copies of Keith Haring’s Line: Race and the Performance of Desire (Duke University Press, 2020, paperback, $24.95). To reserve copies of either/both books, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “reserve book(s) for March 30th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

About Radiant:
Keith Haring arrived in downtown Manhattan from Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 1978, age 20. He discovered a city filled with urgent messages, taped to blank walls or spraypainted on the sides of buses. He was soon leaving his distinctive, unsigned chalk drawings on the black matte sheets pasted over outdated ads in the subway, drawings that featured images that would become his basic alphabet: flying saucers, pyramids, ziggurat stairways, barking dogs, crawling babies suffused in rays. Before long, Haring was a global artist, part of an influential cultural crowd that included Andy Warhol, Madonna, and Basquiat. He played a significant role in breaking down the wall erected between high art and popular culture, creating accessible work for all that provoked and inspired radical social change. Haring died of AIDS in 1990; his work, once radical, is now timeless.
“I saw my first Keith Haring circa 1980, though I can’t say exactly when, only that from the first crawling babies spotted in SoHo, his artworks were a marker, a sort of placeholder in my memories of the decade,” writes Gooch, whose memoir Smash Cut chronicled his own exuberant youth in the New York arts scene in the 70s and 80s. “With his early belief that art could change the world for the better, and wishing to make accessible and affordable for everyone, Haring, against all odds, succeeded at his democratizing mission. In our own era of engagement by so many artists with any available surface; with personal icons and licensing; with activism, collaborating, communication; and with the fostering of community, Keith Haring seems more than ever one of us.”

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Brad Gooch is a poet, novelist, and biographer whose previous ten books include Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and New York Times bestseller; City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara; Godtalk: Travels in Spiritual America; and the memoir Smash Cut. He is the recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships and lives in New York City.

Ricardo Montez is Associate Professor of Performance Studies in English and Art History at Rutgers University. He is the author of Keith Haring’s Line: Race and the Performance of Desire (Duke University Press, 2020).

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Three/Drei (in person only)
2024-04-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be in person at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

Please join us for Three / Drei (2010), directed by Tom Tykwer, starring Devid Striesow, Sebastian Schipper, and Sophie Rois.

Wednesday, April 3 – 6:30 pm to 9:30 pmBureau of General Services—Queer Division
208 W 13th St, Rm 210
New York, NY 10011

We’ll meet at 6:30 pm at the Bureau (in room 210 of The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street) for pre-screening socializing and start the movie at 7 pm. The event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.

Synopsis: Hanna and Simon, a heterosexual couple approaching their twentieth year together, separately meet and fall in love with the same man.

Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. In German with English subtitles.

Anamot Press x the Bureau present: the right amount of light to appear whole (in person only)
2024-04-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The right amount of light to appear whole is an evening of poetry readings curated by Anamot Press and hosted at the Bureau.
In celebration of andriniki mattis’ debut poetry collection Quiet Fires and inspired by / in solidarity with fellow authors, Megan Pinto, Emily Lee Luan, India Lena González.
The right amount of light to appear whole is a line from andriniki mattis, it encapsulates how these poets stretch the elasticity of the English language through visual poems, empty spaces, shapes and line breaks. Their poems attempt to return from a time that felt separated from oneself and move toward a wholeness, despite daily acts of violences, homesickness, heartbreak, and a fear of shame and sadness returning.

To reserve a copy of Quiet Fires (Anamot Press, 2023, paperback, $18), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Quiet Fires” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Readers:

Emily Lee Luan is a poet and educator. Emily’s debut poetry collection Return was published by Nighboat in April 2023, it explores Taiwanese diasporic experience through the porosnous of language. Tatevik’s favourite poem is ‘Reversible Poem in Dishwasher’, here is what Cathy Park Hong says about Emily’s book: “Luan’s poems, which alloy Chinese and English into feats of formal ingenuity and beauty, translate the unspeakable. Read it once, then read it again slowly to perceive the spectrum of emotions Luan unseams with dexterity.”

Megan Pinto is a Brooklyn based poet. Megan’s debut collection of poetry, Saints of Little Faith, is forthcoming with Four Way Books in Fall 2024. Tatevik’s favourite poem is Harvest.

India Lena González is a poet, editor, and multidisciplinary artist. India’s debut poetry collection fox woman get out! was published by BOA Editions in 2023. Tatevik’s favourite poem is “una parda, which is me,”. Here is what Terence Hayes says about India’s book: “India Lena González’s debut is made of exhilarating body language. Her serpentine stanzas, upper- and lowercase characters, and bold exclamations move like Alvin Ailey dancing to lines of June Jordan.”

andriniki mattis is a Brooklyn based poet. His debut poetry collection Quiet Fires was published by Anamot Press in 2023. Tatevik’s favourite poem is how to live between the lines. Here is what Ocean Vuong says about andriniki’s book: “With an ear finely tuned to the shape and sorrows of living, to the celebration of transformation and survival, mattis has brought forth a work of lyrical prowess that fashions from the self a site of linguistic power and searing dexterity.”

Cynthia Carr and Mx. Justin Vivian Bond present CANDY DARLING: DREAMER, ICON, SUPERSTAR (in person & live-streaming)
2024-04-07 15:00 - 16:30 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
Join the acclaimed biographer Cynthia Carr and cabaret legend Mx. Justin Vivian Bond for a discussion of Candy Darling, the first full portrait of the queer icon and Warhol superstar.
Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, she was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. Candy Darling found her turn in New York’s early Off-Off-Broadway theater scene, in Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and at the famed nightclub Max’s Kansas City. She inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. She became friends with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, borrowed a dress from Lauren Hutton, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed alongside Tennessee Williams in his own play.
Yet Candy lived on the edge, relying on the kindness of strangers, friends, and her quietly devoted mother, sleeping on couches and in cheap hotel rooms, keeping a part of herself hidden. She wanted to be a star, but mostly she wanted to be loved. Her last diary entry was: “I shall try to be grateful for life . . . Cannot imagine who would want me.” Candy died at twenty-nine in 1974, as conversations about gender and identity were really just starting. She never knew it, but she changed the world.
Packed with tales of luminaries and gossip and meticulous research, immersive and laced with Candy’s words and her friends’ recollections, Cynthia Carr’s Candy Darling is Candy’s long-overdue return to the spotlight.

To reserve a copy of Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 19, 2024, hardcover, $30), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Candy Darling for April 7” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person in room 301 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011. Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Cynthia Carr is the author of Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, winner of a Lambda Literary Award and finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. Her previous books are Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America and On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century

Mx Justin Vivian Bond has appeared on stage (Broadway and Off-Broadway, London’s West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories, television (High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Get Down), nightclub stages (most notably a decades long residency at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater in NYC), and in concert halls worldwide (Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House).
Their visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the US (Participant, Inc, The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London).
Their memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press) won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.
They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grant.
They have self-released several full length recordings: most notably Dendrophile, and Silver Wells. As one half of the legendary punk cabaret duo Kiki & Herb they toured the world and released two cds: Do You Hear What We Hear? and Kiki and Herb Will Die For You at Carnegie Hall.
Mx Bond has been at the forefront of Trans visibility and activism since the early 1990s.
They have a Masters Degree in Live Art from Central Saint Martins College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College.
Currently Viv divides their time between residences in New York City’s East Village and the Hudson Valley.
In December of 2019 they made their debut at The Vienna Staatsoper in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando as Orlando’s child.
Mx Bond is the narrator of the forthcoming Candy Darling audiobook.

Second Tuesday presents: Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City
2024-04-09 18:30 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Center is proud to present a lecture and conversation with Elyssa Goodman, the author of Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

To reserve a copy of Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City (Hanover Square Press, 2023, hardcover, $32.99) please write to contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Glitter and Concrete for April 9th event” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

About Glitter and Concrete
From journalist and drag historian Elyssa Maxx Goodman, an intimate, evocative history of drag in New York City exploring its dynamic role, from the Jazz Age to Drag Race, in queer liberation and urban life
From the lush feather boas that adorned early female impersonators to the sequined lip syncs of barroom queens to the drag kings that have us laughing in stitches, drag has played a vital role in the creative life of New York City. But the evolution of drag in the city—as an art form, a community and a mode of liberation—has never before been fully chronicled.
Now, for the first time, Elyssa Goodman unearths the dramatic, provocative untold story of drag in New York City in all its glistening glory. Glitter and Concrete ducks beneath the velvet ropes of Harlem Renaissance balls, examines drag’s crucial role in the Stonewall Uprising, traces drag’s influence on disco and punk rock as well as its unifying power during the AIDS crisis and 9/11, and culminates with the modern-day drag queen in the era of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Including original interviews with high-profile performers, as well as glamorous color photos from exclusive sources and the author herself, Glitter and Concrete is a significant contribution to queer history and an essential read for anyone curious about the story that echoes beneath the heels.
​​
About Elyssa Maxx Goodman
Elyssa Goodman is a New York-based writer and photographer specializing in non-fiction writing and documentary photography. Her first book, Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City, is out now from Hanover Square Press. She is represented by Melissa Danaczko at Stuart Krichevsky Agency. Her writing and photography have been published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, The New Yorker, them., InsideHook, Artforum, Elle, VICE, New York, i-D, and many others. She is also the host and curator of the Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading Series.

The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook: Specialties for Stage and Screen (in person & live-streaming)
2024-04-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Celebrating the release of The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook: Specialties for Stage and Screen, edited by Brooke M. Haney.
A reading and presentation of excerpts from The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, followed by a facilitated conversation with editor Brooke M. Haney and contributors Raja Benz, Kaja Dunn, Amy Northup, Chelsea Pace, Cha Ramos, and Olivia Troy.
The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook: Specialties for Stage and Screen explores the role of the intimacy choreographer with an in‐depth look at specializations that exist within the profession. With contributions by over 30 industry professionals, this book aims to bring awareness to the wide range of needs a project may have and how intimacy professionals use their cultural competencies and specialties in practice to create the most compelling storytelling. Specialties covered include working with minors, prosthetics, intimacy and disability, staging queer intimacy, working with fat actors, Black American intimacy, dance, working on scenes of trauma, sexual violence and non‐consent, and BDSM.

To reserve a copy of The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook: Specialties for Stage and Screen (Routledge, April 1, 2024, paperback, $42.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Publishing Triangle Finalists Readings 2024: First of Two Nights, Hybrid In-Person & Virtual
2024-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for the first of two night’s of hybrid in-person & virtual readings by finalists for Publishing Triangle Awards at the Bureau! Both readings will also stream on the Bureau’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/@bgsqd
Please note: the Bureau is usually closed on Mondays, but we will open at 6 pm for this event.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Readers on Monday, April 15th:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars (Penguin Random House) Finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, author of And Then He Sang a Lullaby (Grove Atlantic), Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction

Cookie Woolner, author of The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire Before Stonewall (University of North Carolina Press), Finalist for the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction

Barbara Jane Brickman, author of Suffering Sappho!: Lesbian Camp in American Popular Culture (Rutgers University), Finalist for the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction

A.V. Marraccini, author of We the Parasites (Sublunary Editions), Finalist for the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction

Leslie Sainz, author of Have You Been Long Enough At Table (Tin House), Finalist for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry

Marci Blackman, contributor to Sinister Wisdom 128: Trans/Feminisms (also features contributions by Talia Bettcher, Red Washburn, Claudia Sofia Garriga-Lopez, Cecilia Gentili, Kris Grey, Shereen Imayatulla, Nadine Rodriguez, Cassidy Scanlon, Catalina Schliebener Muñoz, Fitch Wilder, and Sarah Youngblood Gregory) (Sinister Wisdom), Finalist for the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature

Oliver Radclyffe, author of Adult Human Male (Unbound Press), Finalist for the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature

Justine Pucella Winans, author of The Otherwoods (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), Finalist for the Jacqueline Woodson Award for LGBTQ+ Young Adult and Children’s Literature

Curtis Campbell, author of Dragging Mason County (Annick Press), Finalist for the Jacqueline Woodson Award for LGBTQ+ Young Adult and Children’s Literature

J.M. Redmann, author of Transitory (Bold Strokes Books), Finalist for the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing

Books will be available for purchase! To reserve a copy of any title, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Publishing Triangle Finalists Readings” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

The Publishing Triangle’s 36th Annual Awards Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, April 17th, at 7 PM, at The New School, 63 Fifth Avenue (between 13th and 14th Street). The ceremony, which will be hosted by poet and activist Emanuel Xavier, will also be livestreamed, and a reception will follow. The awards ceremony and reception are both free and open to the public.
To see the full list of finalists for each category visit The Publishing Triangle’s website.

The Publishing Triangle is a group of queer folks who work to further the publication of books and other materials written by LGBTQ authors or with LGBTQ themes.
We come from all types of backgrounds. We are on staff and we’re freelancers. We are editors, agents, and booksellers; we work in sub rights, publicity, sales, design, and production. Many of us are writers. We are also librarians, teachers, booksellers, and even avid readers who don’t work in a publishing-related field.
Our primary method of shining a much-needed light on queer books is through our awards program. We give out ten awards annually (at an awards ceremony, usually in April at the New School in Manhattan), each with a cash prize of between $500 and $3000. Seven of these awards honor the best books published in the previous calendar year in nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and trans/gender-variant literature. There is a lifetime achievement award and an emerging-writer award; and we also honor a book-industry figure each year (not a writer) with our leadership award.
Through our social media and our newsletter—as well as through readings, social networking events, and other programs in the New York City area—we strive to promote a sense of camaraderie in the queer literary community.
Membership dues start at $40 a year for individuals (there are additional levels of membership for families and businesses). For more details, see our membership page.
If you have additional questions about the Triangle and its programs, please email us at info@publishingtriangle.org or write us at the address listed below.
The Publishing Triangle
511 Avenue of the Americas, #D36
New York, NY 10011

Publishing Triangle Finalists Readings 2024: Second of Two Nights, Hybrid In-Person & Virtual
2024-04-16 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the second of two night’s of hybrid in-person & virtual readings by finalists for Publishing Triangle Awards at the Bureau! Both readings will also stream on the Bureau’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/@bgsqd
Please note: the Bureau is usually closed on Tuesdays, but we will open at 6 pm for this event.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Readers on Tuesday, April 16th:

Emily Zhou, author of Girlfriend (LittlePuss Press), Finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction and a Finalist for the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature

Helen Elaine Lee, author of Pomegranate (Atria Books), Finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction

Elina Alter, translator of Wound, by Oksana Vasyakina (Catapult Books), Finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction

Chloe Chun Seim, author of Churn: A Novel in Stories (Texas Review Press: The University Press of Sam Houston State University), Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction

Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues (The Dial Press), Finalist for the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction

Zachary Zane, author of Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto (Abrams Image, an imprint of Abrams Books), Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction

Greg Marshall, author of Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It (Abrams Books), Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction

Alicia Mountain, author of Four in Hand (BOA Editions), Finalist for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry

Destiny Hemphill, author of motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life (Action Books), Finalist for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry

Casey Plett, author of On Community (Biblioasis), Finalist for the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature

Renee James, author of BeatNikki’s Cafe (Amble Press/Bywater Books), Finalist for the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing

Robyn Gigl, author of Remain Silent (Kensington Publishing Corporation), Finalist for the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing

Lawrence Lindell, author of Blackward (Drawn & Quarterly), Finalist for the Jacqueline Woodson Award for LGBTQ+ Young Adult and Children’s Literature

Books will be available for purchase! To reserve a copy of any title, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Publishing Triangle Finalists Readings” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

The Publishing Triangle’s 36th Annual Awards Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, April 17th, at 7 PM, at The New School, 63 Fifth Avenue (between 13th and 14th Street). The ceremony, which will be hosted by poet and activist Emanuel Xavier, will also be livestreamed, and a reception will follow. The awards ceremony and reception are both free and open to the public.
To see the full list of finalists for each category visit The Publishing Triangle’s website.

The Publishing Triangle is a group of queer folks who work to further the publication of books and other materials written by LGBTQ authors or with LGBTQ themes.
We come from all types of backgrounds. We are on staff and we’re freelancers. We are editors, agents, and booksellers; we work in sub rights, publicity, sales, design, and production. Many of us are writers. We are also librarians, teachers, booksellers, and even avid readers who don’t work in a publishing-related field.
Our primary method of shining a much-needed light on queer books is through our awards program. We give out ten awards annually (at an awards ceremony, usually in April at the New School in Manhattan), each with a cash prize of between $500 and $3000. Seven of these awards honor the best books published in the previous calendar year in nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and trans/gender-variant literature. There is a lifetime achievement award and an emerging-writer award; and we also honor a book-industry figure each year (not a writer) with our leadership award.
Through our social media and our newsletter—as well as through readings, social networking events, and other programs in the New York City area—we strive to promote a sense of camaraderie in the queer literary community.
Membership dues start at $40 a year for individuals (there are additional levels of membership for families and businesses). For more details, see our membership page.
If you have additional questions about the Triangle and its programs, please email us at info@publishingtriangle.org or write us at the address listed below.
The Publishing Triangle
511 Avenue of the Americas, #D36
New York, NY 10011

TELL 91: FIRE (in person & live-streaming)
2024-04-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, 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.
The theme of the 91st TELL is FIRE. Featuring storytellers Christen Clifford, Léoh Hailu-Ghermay, Klondyke, and Marg Suarez.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

DRAE CAMPBELL’s first performance was at age 5 in a nightclub opening for a punk band. Drae has a BFA in Theater from The University of Arts in Philadelphia. Some Theater credits include: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective), Non-Consensual Relationships with Ghosts (La MaMa), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Oph3lia(HERE). TV includes “New Amsterdam,” “Bull ” and “Dinette ” (web series, directed by Shaina Feinberg). Drae has been hosting and curating TELL for more than 9 years which is now a SILVER Signal Award-winning podcast of the same name. www.draecampbell.com

Christen Clifford is a mother, artist, and writer. She has been a Mainstage Storyteller at The Moth, a bartender, waiter, art model, salesperson at Victoria’s Secret, and is now a PT AssocIate Professor at The New School- which is a fancy way of saying adjunct. Her risograph art book BabyLove was acquired by the Thomas J Watson library at The Met. Her work has been written about in Artforum, Art in America, artnet, artnews, Hyperallergic, NYT, Chicago Tribune and on some right wing websites. She lives in Queens and online @cd_clifford

Léoh Hailu-Ghermay is a first generation Tigrayan-American, Black queer artist and advocate (and former Drae Campbell-backup-dog walker) living on occupied Munsee-Lenape and Canarsie Land. They begrudgingly work for nonprofits in order to do some small amount of good in this evil world and ecstatically spend their free time creating art and gathering community together. They’re a proud Aries (everyone say happy belated birthday) so there is literally no better theme for them. They’re excited as fuck.

Klondyke is an alien tragg*t superstar!!! Child of a black hole and a supernova, raised by a 4th dimensional rockstar. Experimental musical theatre composer, and first winner of Cakeboys Takes the Cake Competition they are here to terrorize norms out of existence through the great unifier: MUUUUSIIIIIC!

Marg Suarez is a tinkerer, troubleshooter, and lifetime learner. By day, Marg works as a veteran union elevator mechanic in a Midtown Manhattan high-rise; by night, Marg teaches apprentices to diagnose electronic elevator controls. On weekends you can find Marg carting kiddo to swim lessons and birthday parties on their electric cargo trike, organizing volunteers with a community-owned Wi-Fi network, or procrastinating about home improvement projects. Marg lives in Brooklyn with 1 beautiful spouse, 1 precocious 6-year-old, and 5 rescued cats.

The Rainbow Book Fair Events at the Bureau (in person & live-streaming)
2024-04-20 12:00 - 18:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The New York Rainbow Book Fair is America’s longest-running LGBT book fair and the largest LGBT book event in the country. It has grown every year since its beginning in 2009. It brings together thoughtful, interesting people of all ages, from early teens to those in their 70s and 80s, from a spectrum of countries, ethnicities, gender identities, and viewpoints. It attracts readers and writers, of course, but also publishers, editors, agents, and media attention—people who have never experienced queer culture, and others who have made it the focus of their lives. Rainbow Book Fair is open to the public, with book discounts and giveaways.
Please join us for The Twelfth Annual Rainbow Book Fair, which will take place in New York City on Saturday, April 20th, from noon until 6 PM, at The LGBT Community Center. For more information on the biggest LGBT book event in the US, please click here.
The Bureau will host readings throughout the day in conjunction with the Rainbow Book Fair. Details below.

Noon
The Publishing Triangle Hosts Judy Grahn
in Conversation with Donna Minkowitz and JP Howard
***
2:30 PM
Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius
I. Augustus Durham + Brittnay L. Proctor in Conversation
Join the Bureau for a conversation with authors I. Augustus Durham and Brittnay L. Proctor to discuss Durham’s new book, Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press, 2023). Examining the works of Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, Marvin Gaye, Octavia E. Butler, and Kendrick Lamar, Stay Black and Die chronicles the relationship between black “mothers” and “sons” to argue for the black feminine/maternal, through the lens of abstraction, as the site of melancholy and genius.
To reserve a copy of Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press, 2023, paperback, $28.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Stay Black and Die for April 20th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

***
4 PM
Samra Habib Reads
Samra Habib (they/them) is a writer, photographer, and activist. Their bestselling memoir We Have Always Been Here is an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes them to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within them all along. It’s a triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, and a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one’s truest self.
As a journalist they’ve covered topics ranging from fashion trends and Muslim dating apps to the rise of Islamophobia in the US. Their writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Advocate, and their photo project, “Just Me and Allah,” has been featured in Nylon, i-D, Vanity Fair Italia, Vice, and The Washington Post. Samra works with LGBTQ organizations internationally, raising awareness of issues that impact queer Muslims around the world.

***
5 PM
Andrea Lawlor Reads
Andrea Lawlor teaches writing at Mount Holyoke College, is the recipient of a 2020 Whiting Award for Fiction, and has been awarded fellowships by Lambda Literary and Radar Labs. Their publications include a chapbook, Position Papers (Factory Hollow Press, 2016), and a novel, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, a 2018 finalist for the Lambda Literary and CLMP Firecracker Awards. Paul, originally published by Rescue Press in 2017, is out now from Vintage/Knopf (US) and Picador (UK & Ireland).

Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius--I. Augustus Durham + Brittnay L. Proctor in Conversation (in person & live-streaming)
2024-04-20 14:30 - 15:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join the Bureau for a conversation with authors I. Augustus Durham and Brittnay L. Proctor to discuss Durham’s new book, Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press, 2023). Examining the works of Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, Marvin Gaye, Octavia E. Butler, and Kendrick Lamar, Stay Black and Die chronicles the relationship between black “mothers” and “sons” to argue for the black feminine/maternal, through the lens of abstraction, as the site of melancholy and genius.
To reserve a copy of Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press, 2023, paperback, $28.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Stay Black and Die for April 20th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

This event is taking place in conjunction with the The Twelfth Annual Rainbow Book Fair, held at The LGBT Community Center on Saturday, April 20th, from noon to 6 PM:
“The New York Rainbow Book Fair is America’s longest-running LGBT book fair and the largest LGBT book event in the country. It has grown every year since its beginning in 2009. It brings together thoughtful, interesting people of all ages, from early teens to those in their 70s and 80s, from a spectrum of countries, ethnicities, gender identities, and viewpoints. It attracts readers and writers, of course, but also publishers, editors, agents, and media attention—people who have never experienced queer culture, and others who have made it the focus of their lives. Rainbow Book Fair is open to the public, with book discounts and giveaways.”

I. Augustus Durham is an assistant professor of English at Lehman College, CUNY, whose research focuses on black study from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. His work has been published in Black Camera: An International Film Journal, Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International, and Journal of Religion and Health; and an essay on the film Moonlight for an edited collection on the work of Tarell Alvin McCraney. Prior to his appointment at Lehman, he was the President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in English at the University of Maryland, College Park. Durham is at work on two new projects: an examination of a singer, and a project on invention.

Brittnay L. Proctor is a researcher and writer of performance, popular culture, and sound/visual culture at the nexus of blackness, gender, and sexuality. She is Assistant Professor of Race and Media in the School of Media Studies at The New School (NY, NY) and author of Minnie Riperton’s Come to My Garden (Bloomsbury Press: 33 1/3 Series). She is currently working on two book projects; one of which soundtrack’s black Southern migration to California during the Second Great Migration and the other, which draws on LP records and Compact Disc’s (CD’s), to trace the sonic and visual discourses of gender and sexuality in funk music.

Queer Collage Workshop (in person only)
2024-04-27 14:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a queer collage workshop with Charlie Welch on Saturday, April 27, from 2 to 5 pm.
No experience necessary! All are welcome to join!
We will have some materials (magazines, printed matter, glue, cardboard) and tools (scissors) available, but we encourage you to bring materials and tools to share. Thank you!
The collages will be scanned to produce a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch zine!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Space is limited to the first 16 people who show up!
Free! But donations to support the Bureau’s work are much appreciated.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Pinko Issue 3 Launch: Reading and Discussion (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-01 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join the editors and writers of Pinko, a magazine of gay communism, for a reading and discussion on our third print issue. The issue contains our editorials on trans eradication and Palestinian survival, essays about black lesbian sex writing, consent and its limits, and a presentation of imbrication theory, plus a roundtable on political violence, an interview from our book After Accountability, and a memorial to the gay socialist publisher Jeffrey Escoffier. Illustrations by the artist KT Pe Benito grace the issue.
Copies of Pinko issue 3 and After Accountability will be available for purchase!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Poets of the Archipelago: Bruce E. Whitacre, Kelsea Valentine, and Gigi (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-02 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Bruce E. Whitacre, Kelsea Valentine, and gigi to launch Bruce’s second poetry collection, Good Housekeeping, from Poets Wear Prada. Whitacre will be joined by one or two other exciting poets reading from work that will entertain, inspire, and share the experience of LGBTQ+ life.

To reserve a copy of Good Housekeeping (Poets Wear Prada, April 1, 2024, paperback, $18), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Good Housekeeping for May 2” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Bruce E. Whitacre’s Good Housekeeping, Poets Wear Prada, is a BookLife Reviews Editors Pick. The Elk in the Glade: The World of Pioneer and Painter Jennie Hicks, placed 2nd in Contemporary Poetry at The BookFest Spring 2023. His crown sonnet about the culture of violence won the Nebraska Poetry Society’s 2023 Open Poetry Contest. More info at www.brucewhitacre.com.

Kelsea Valentine is a poet and multidisciplinary artist from the abysmal plains of Nebraska, now based in Brooklyn, NY. She founded the Poetry Is a Team Sport artists collective and organizes publications and readings across the city.

A multidisciplinary artist and educator living in Brooklyn, gigi explores gender, ecology, spirituality, and the Absurd through poetry, figure modeling, and visual art. Rarely working alone, gigi believes in the generative power of artistic collaboration as a means to continuously evolve the process. Some of their most notable influences are Sol Lewit, Taehyoung Jeon, Frankie Gallina-Jones, Dolan Morgan, and the southern red oaks of Anne Arundel County.

Queer(y)ing Bodies - Texts On Trauma, Transformation, and Truth (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-04 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Queer poets, E Kerr (they/he) and Billie R. Tadros (she/they), document their own lived experiences with identity, embodiment, and gender, through both traditional and experimental poetic forms. Kayleb Rae Candrilli has said that the “tenderness” of Kerr’s debut collection trans [re]incarnation “is in lineage with a growing chorus of trans voices, voices that demand space, safety, and softness,” and Katie Manning says that the poems in Tadros’s most recent collection Graft Fixation “interrogate our understanding of bodies, especially women’s bodies, through collisions of language and form.” Join these poets for an afternoon of readings that queer and query the body.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Elias Kerr is a Transmasculine poet, who writes under the pen name E Kerr. They graduated from the University of Scranton in 2023, with a masters degree in occupational therapy, and double minors in English and writing. They are the recipient of the inaugural 2022 Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Award. Their work has been featured in various publications, including Rappahannock Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and the Hollins Critic and their debut collection, trans [re]incarnation, was released in April, 2023, with Mason Jar Press. Kerr lives and writes in Scranton, PA, with their cat, Nola.

Billie R. Tadros is an Associate Professor in the Department of English & Theatre at The University of Scranton, where she also teaches in the Women’s & Gender Studies program and directs the concentration in Health Humanities. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her M.F.A. in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and she is a graduate of the Writers Institute at Susquehanna University. She is the author of three books of poems, Graft Fixation (Gold Wake Press, 2020), Was Body (Indolent Books, 2020), and The Tree We Planted and Buried You In (Otis Books, 2018).

Book Launch: Providence by Craig Willse (in person only)
2024-05-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Craig Willse for the New York City launch of his debut novel Providence, which Publisher’s Weekly calls “a sweat-soaked doom spiral . . . that turns familiar tropes of dark academia and fatal attraction on their heads.” Craig will be joined for a discussion and Q&A with Kyle Dillon Hertz, author of celebrated novel The Lookback Window.
To reserve a copy of Providence (Union Square & Co., April 23, 2024, paperback, $18.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Providence for May 8” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Advance Praise for Providence:
Providence’s bad gays will keep you up all night with their terrible decisions, hot sex, and irresistible trail of hidden clues. Is Craig Willse the secret love child of Tana French and Patricia Highsmith? There’s no other explanation. My new favorite thriller!
– Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

Providence is a deeply compelling meditation on the ways desire and loneliness conspire to make even the brightest people betray themselves. Willse’s clear, intelligent writing has both heart and thrills. I stayed up all night reading this incredible novel.
– Kyle Dillon Hertz, author of The Lookback Window

Providence is a page-turning thriller. It’s also a queering of the modern-day gay narrative. Willse has crafted a sexy debut with a protagonist who doesn’t fit the worn tropes of damaged victim or oppressed saint, but instead a morally-ambiguous anti-hero who keeps you guessing.
– Alejandro Varela, National Book Award Finalist and author of The Town of Babylon

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Off The Grid: A Crazy Cockette Who Spent His Adult Life Underground: Book Release Party, Reading, & Memorial (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
New book event alert! Join us for a rare and fleeting book launch and reading of Off The Grid by Rumi Missabu.
Rumi was a key figure in San Francisco’s now legendary Cockettes, a 1960s hippie gender-bending performance troupe. For 35 years, Rumi lived off the grid, surviving through under-the-table work with little money. In this short and snappy memoir, Rumi reflects on his life defined by defiance and transient living, with just an expired library card as proof of existence.
Sadly, we just lost Rumi on April 2, 2024, so this event will also serve as a memorial as well as a book launch party and a reading. Rest in power, Rumi! We love you and we miss you!
This reading will feature August Bernadicou (the book’s editor), Agosto Machado, Robert Croonquist, and Huckle Faerie.
One reviewer wrote, “Wacky and wonderful. Shocking twists and turns. Can you imagine living completely underground? Only in San Francisco can an actor pull off their greatest performance—surviving without a trace. Read and be amazed. Blink and you’ll miss it.”
Don’t miss this opportunity to dive into Rumi Missabu’s captivating story of resilience and unconventional living.
To reserve a copy of Off the Grid ($15), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Off the Grid for May 9” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

SECOND TUESDAY (ON A MONDAY!) PRESENTS: CHLOE O. DAVIS, AUTHOR OF THE QUEENS' ENGLISH: THE YOUNG READERS' LGBTQIA+ DICTIONARY OF LINGO AND COLLOQUIAL PHRASES (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-13 18:30 - 19:30 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
The LGBT Community Center’s Second Tuesday lecture series welcomes Chloe O. Davis, author of The Young Readers’ LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases, on Monday, May 13, at 6:30 PM. Chloe will be joined in conversation by actor-writer-comedian Amanda Bruton.
On The Queens’ English: The Young Readers’ LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases
This playful, richly illustrated visual dictionary is the perfect book for anyone who has ever wondered about the origin of phrases like “boi,” “drag,” or “demisexual,” the history of the word “queer,” and the wonderfully diverse, wide-ranging histories that have contributed to LGBTQIA+ culture and vocabulary.
Drawing from traditions as divergent as the ancient poet Sappho to the underground ball scene of the 1980s, from the Stonewall Riots to RuPaul’s Drag Race, this glossary is a colorful compendium—and a celebration of every king, queen, butch, femme, trans, folx, and enby who has shaped the history, identity, and limitless imagination of queerness.

This event will take place in person at The LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division will be on hand to sell copies of The Queens’ English: The Young Readers’ LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, April 30, 2024, hardcover, $19.99) by Chloe O. Davis. To reserve a copy please email contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of The Queens’ English for May 13th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
Chloe O. Davis is an author who works in the entertainment industry in New York. A graduate of Hampton University and Temple University, she has centered her creative platform on amplifying the narratives of Black culture and heightening the awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community. Davis’s work as a dancer, actor, and creative has allowed her to travel to all fifty states and internationally where she has spent fifteen years researching, writing, and creating The Queens’ English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases.

Amanda Bruton is an NYC based actor-writer-comedian. She has said words on several TV shows including FBI, Manifest, OITNB and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She is currently writing and developing the comedic podcast, Preggo My Lesbo, about her journey to becoming a queer parent. Amanda’s original sketch comedy character, Connie “Big Ballz” Bumbaloni has over 25K followers on TikTok which means she is fractionally famous in some parts of Jersey. @theamandabruton

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle’s Reading Series, May Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Alfred Doblin, David Santos Donaldson, Robert Graves, Destiny Hemphill, Fay Jacobs, James Pauley, and Emily Zhou.
Join us as in-person or watch the live-stream (see below) to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Opening Reception: Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau (in person only)
2024-05-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau (May 17-Sep 8, 2024)
Opening Reception: Friday, May 17, 6-8 PM
Dyke+ ArtHaus, based in Philadelphia, is a community-driven space for Dyke artists of all persuasions, centering those 40 and over. Invited to visit the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division for the summer, D+AH put out an Open Call for U.S.-based Dyke/Lesbian- identified artists, 40 years of age and over. Over 60 artists from 14 States responded by submitting works of sculpture, painting, collage, photography, textile, drawing, and installation. Visual art created at any time was considered.
Co-curated by Juno Rosenhaus, Dyke+ ArtHaus Founder, and Lola Flash, artist and activist, this exhibit aims to reflect the diversity of Dykes and the diversity of their art practices. The theme is the show itself.
The Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau exhibition continues the legacy of lesbian artist exhibitions such as A Lesbian Show (1978), The Dyke Show (1979), Great American Lesbian Art Show (1980) and Rebel Dykes Art and Archive Show (2021).
Let’s get this party started.
Check out the exhibition website at:

dykearthaus.org/dyke-arthaus-visits-the-bureau

ARTIST QUOTES:
“I have been creating art my entire life and I often feel like the token lesbian in shows and programs. I want to be part of this show to be in community with other dyke artists.” ~Emily Lombardo
“Because I believe we all gain when we set aside the reflex to be self-referential and instead make the effort to accept others on their own terms. And this exhibition encourages this possibility.” ~Kristina Feliciano

Exhibiting Artists
(in alphabetical order)
adrians black
Afua Kafi-Akua
Allison Michael Orenstein
Amina Cruz
Angela L Muriel
Anne Keating
Carol Massa
Caroline McAuliffe
Cassandra Langer
Charlotte Mia Rose
Chris Cinque
Coe Lapossy
Dorian Katz
E. Hynes
E. Lombardo
Elisabeth Jacobsen
Erika Kapin
eva r. barajas
Fumiko Ohno
Hannah Barrett
Heather Lynn Johnson
Heather Raquel Phillips
heidi andrea restrepo rhodes
Jeanise Aviles & Kenzi Crash
Judy Ornelas Sisneros
Julie Lindell
Karsen Heagle
Kate Conroy
Kate Fauvell and S. Willis
Katie Bush
Kris Sanford
krissy mahan
Kristina Feliciano
Lacey Erb
Leah DeVun
Li Studier
Liz Ensz
liz margolies
Lois Bielefeld
lorry morales waldie
Maureen Catbagan
Maya Alam
Megan Levine
Melissa Wilkinson
Michela Griffo
Michelle Schapiro
Morgain Bailey
Morgan Gwenwald
Nancy Rodrigo
Paula Allen
Penny Perkins
Rachel Beser
Ronniemae Painter
Sarah E. Brook
Shari Diamond
Shelley Marlow
shiloh burton
Sokari Ekine
Star Morris
Tracy Morgan
Valarie Walker
Vick Quezada

Book Launch: Out in the World (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-19 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join queer authors Amy B. Scher and Mark Jason Williams for the launch of National Geographic’s first-ever LTBGTQIA+ inclusive travel book, OUT IN THE WORLD! Celebrate as they share their local faves and raves (featured in the book), discuss the ever-expanding opportunities for queer travel, and reveal their top picks from destinations in the guide—fun spots around the globe that you must add to your list.
About the book:
This first-of-its-kind travel guide explores inclusive destinations around the world where LGBTQIA+ travelers and allies can have an uncensored and memorable vacation experience. Full of fun and practical travel information, this comprehensive guidebook takes you from familiar destinations to surprising spots.
With an eye toward memorable and meaningful experiences, each destination highlights what to see, where to eat, and where to stay—without focusing solely on gay bars and pride parades. Each robust itinerary—a guide to Curaçao’s beaches, Christmas in the Cotswolds, or a kitschy trip to Dollywood—provides all the information needed for a well-rounded vacation that also supports local LGBTQIA+ communities. With personality-focused chapters such as “Romantic Rendezvous,” “Boozy Trips and Trails,” and “Fun Haunts and Spooky Spirits” there is a destination in these pages for every type of traveler. Veteran travel writers Amy B. Scher and Mark Jason Williams offer can’t-be-ignored advice, including how to plan, ways to be safe while traveling, and important customs to honor while touring abroad.
To reserve a copy of Out in the World: An Lgbtqia+ (and Friends!) Travel Guide to More Than 100 Destinations Around the World (National Geographic Society, May 7, 2024, hardcover, $30), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Out in the World for May 19” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Amy B. Scher is the bestselling author of five books that help people become their happiest, healthiest, and most creative selves. As a longtime travel writer, she writes about how exploring our own neighborhoods and destinations around the world help us discover who we really are. Her books have been translated into over 20 languages and her work has appeared in the Washington Post, CBS, New York Daily News, Good Morning America, Oprah Daily, Thrillist, and more. Amy lives with her wife and their bad cat in New York City. Visit her at www.amybscher.com.

Mark Jason Williams is an award-winning playwright, essayist, and travel writer who has visited 50 countries across all seven continents. In addition to writing for National Geographic, his work is published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, Wired, Time Out, The Globe and Mail, Thrillist, Salon, Out Magazine, Good Housekeeping, and more. Out in the World is his first book. Mark is a lifelong New Yorker with a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He lives with his husband and their two senior rescue dogs. Visit him at markjasonwilliams.com.

CU T Book Launch: R/B Mertz & Fellow Queer Poets (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
To celebrate the launch of author R/B Mertz’s first poetry collection, CU T (called an “astonishing debut” by CAConrad, “visceral and cutting, vulnerable and brave” by Craig Santos Perez), we will hear from a gorgeous cadre of queer poets: Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Sarah M. Sala, and andriniki mattis, as well as Mertz. Reading will begin at 7PM and books by all the poets will be available for sale.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $5.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

DARREL ALEJANDRO HOLNES is an Afro-Panamanian American writer. He is the author of Migrant Psalms (Notre Dame University Press, 2021), winner of the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, Stepmotherland (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022), winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, and the International Latino Book Award. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, the CP Cavafy Poetry Prize, and scholarships and fellowships to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Cave Canem, and CantoMundo. He has also received fellowships to MacDowell, UCross, and the Camargo Foundation. Holnes is also a playwright. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Civilians R&D Group, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Workshop, and other groups. His play Bayano was also a finalist for the O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference. His most recent play, Black Feminist Video Game, was produced by The Civilians for 59E59, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Center Theater Group, and other theaters and won an inaugural Anthem Award. He founded the Greater Good Theater Initiative, a festival of Latinx short plays, and a college professor in New York, NY.

andriniki mattis was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He has been awarded fellowships from Cave Canem, Poets House, and The Poetry Project. He received his M.A. in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths University of London and a B.A. in Political and Poetic Resistance from Brooklyn College. His writing has appeared in wildness, Indiana Review, Wasifiri, Montez Press, and elsewhere. He is the author of Quiet Fires (Anamot Press 2023) and the chaplet Living Btwn the Lines (Belladonna* Press 2018).

R/B Mertz (they/them) is a trans/non-binary poet and artist. They were raised inside Catholic fundamentalism, about which they wrote the memoir Burning Butch (Unnamed Press, 2022), which was a finalist for Memoir Magazine’s Best Memoir Grand Prize. They also wrote the essay, “How Whiteness Kills God & Sprinkles Crack on the Body” (Mistress Syndrome); and the play “Where the Heart Is” (Another Chicago Magazine). Mertz taught writing in Pittsburgh for eleven years and was honored to be a finalist for City of Asylum’s 2020-21 Emerging Poet Laureate of Pittsburgh. On January 1, 2021, Mertz left the US for love, and they now reside in Toronto, Ontario, traditionally the territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. They teach writing at Sheridan College.

Sarah M. Sala is a poet, educator, and native Michigander. Her debut collection, Devil’s Lake (Tolsun 2020) was named a Distinguished Favorite for the Independent Press Awards, a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, a Publishing Triangle Award, and an Eric Hoffer Provocateur Award. She is the founder of Office Hours Poetry Workshop, and teaches writing at New York University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in POETRY, BOMB, The Southampton Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and Columbia Journal. www.sarahmsala.com

Book Launch: Murray Out of Water by Taylor Tracy, with Nicole Melleby (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for celebrating Taylor Tracy’s debut middle grade novel in verse, MURRAY OUT OF WATER, out from Quill Tree Books, HarperCollins Children’s publishing, with a short reading and conversation with acclaimed queer middle grade author Nicole Melleby, author of the recently released WINNIE NASH IS NOT YOUR SUNSHINE.

MORE ABOUT MURRAY OUT OF WATER:
Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead, Natalie Lloyd, and Jasmine Warga, this beautiful novel in verse explores one girl’s struggle to regain her magic after a hurricane forces her to move away from her beloved ocean that, she believes, has given her special powers.
Bighearted and observant twelve-year-old Murray O’Shea loves the ocean. Every chance she gets, she’s in it. It could be because the ocean never makes her apologize for being exactly who she is—something her family refuses to do—but it could also be because of the secret magic that Murray shares with the ocean. Though she can’t explain its presence, the electric buzz she feels from her fingertips down to her toes allows her to become one with the ocean and all its creatures, and it makes Murray feel seen in a way she never feels on land.
But then a hurricane hits Murray’s Jersey Shore home, sending the O’Sheas far inland to live with relatives. Being this far from the ocean, Murray seems to lose her magic. And stuck in a house with her family, she can no longer avoid the truths she’s discovering about herself—like how she feels in the clothes her mom makes her wear, or why she doesn’t have boys on the brain like other girls her age.
But it’s not all hurricanes and heartache. Thankfully, Murray befriends a boy named Dylan, who has a magic of his own. When Murray agrees to partner with him for a youth roller-rama competition in exchange for help getting her magic back, the two forge an unstoppable bond—one that shows Murray how it’s not always the family you were given that makes you feel whole…sometimes it’s the family you build along the way.
To reserve a copy of Murray Out of Water (Quill Tree Books, May 21 2024, hardcover, $19.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Murray Out of Water for May 24th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Taylor Tracy writes books filled with humor and heart that explore the joys and hopes of queer kids, focusing on mental health, found family, and the importance of a sense of community. She lives in New Jersey with her family, including a fluffle of mischievous rescue bunnies, and loves everything her home state has to offer: the best bagels, pizza, and beaches. When not writing, she can be found down the shore, in the rock gym or next to her growing pile of books to read and love.

Nicole Melleby, a Jersey native, is the author of highly praised middle-grade books, including the Lambda Literary finalist Hurricane Season and ALA Notable Children’s book How to Become a Planet. She currently teaches at the Fairleigh Dickinson MFA Creative Writing program and lives with her wife and their cats, whose needs for attention oddly align with Nicole’s writing schedule.

Serkan Görkemli’s Sweet Tooth and Other Stories in Conversation with author Javier Fuentes (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-25 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Serkan Görkemli will read from his debut fiction Sweet Tooth and Other Stories, followed by a conversation with author Javier Fuentes (Countries of Origin). The short-story collection was called “a stellar debut” (Scott Alexander Hess) and “that rare linked collection with the emotional heft of an epic novel” (Nawaaz Ahmed).
To reserve a copy of Sweet Tooth and Other Stories (University Press of Kentucky, May 14, 2024, paperback, $24.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Sweet Tooth and Other Stories for May 25th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Serkan Görkemli is the author of Sweet Tooth and Other Stories and Grassroots Literacies: Lesbian and Gay Activism and the Internet in Turkey. Originally from Türkiye, he’s a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow and an associate professor of English at UConn and lives in NY.

Javier Fuentes is the author of Countries of Origin, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut novel. He’s a Spanish American writer, a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow, who earned an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, where he was a teaching fellow. Born in Barcelona, he lives in New York.

Lost & Found (in person literary workshop)
2024-05-26 11:30 - 12:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Lost & Found is a literary workshop designed to provide an opportunity for writers to read, review, and receive constructive criticism of their work, especially projects or pieces that are still works-in-progress or have hit a roadblock. Participants are required to bring one page (up to both sides) of material of any genre they’re working on to read aloud. Then, as a group, we workshop the piece—asking questions, providing feedback, offering solutions, and so on. The goal is to provide writers with a framework for creative development and a consistent network of feedback.
This will be the first of six sessions scheduled on alternating Sundays:
5/26, 6/9, 6/23, 7/14, 7/28, and 8/11
Please RSVP for the first session on May 26th at this link:
https://forms.gle/5ShUkKrrtutYs2my7

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Questions? Contact moderator Mark Alan Burger here:
markalanburger@gmail.com

Moderator bios:

Mark Alan Burger is a writer, poet, publisher, and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Fallible House. His work has appeared in Hello Mr., Interview Magazine, and Vanity Fair, and has received support from FAWC. He lives in Brooklyn.

Cortez is a poet and short fiction writer living in Brooklyn, New York. She is a current MFA candidate at Stony Brook University where she also teaches an undergraduate section of Intro to Creative Writing. She was named a finalist in the 2023 Honeybee Literature Prize in Fiction, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Brooklyn Rail and The Good Life Review.

PORTALS: Clarity Haynes and Alannah Farrell in conversation (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-26 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us for a celebration of Clarity Haynes: Portals, artist Clarity Haynes’ new monograph. At this event, Clarity Haynes will present a short slideshow as a background for her work, and then there will be a conversation between Haynes and artist Alannah Farrell, who has modeled for Haynes’ torso project. The event will start promptly at 3 pm and continue until 4:30 pm. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
To reserve a copy of Clarity Haynes: Portals (New Discretions Publishing, February 20, 2024, hardcover, $45), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Clarity Haynes: Portals for May 26th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Clarity Haynes is a queer feminist painter based in New York City. Her work centers on the torso as a site for portraiture, queer feminist altars as a site for still life, and crowning and birth. Recent solo exhibitions include Portals at New Discretions, New York (2024), Collective Transmission at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2021), and Altar-ed Bodies at Denny Dimin Gallery, New York, co-presented with New Discretions (2020). Her monograph, Portals was recently published by New Discretions and D.A.P. Haynes is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner award and a NYFA award, and her work has been discussed in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Artforum, Hyperallergic, and Artnews, among others.

Alannah Farrell is a queer gender-non-conforming painter who lives and works in New York City. They spent their late teens and early adulthood working and playing in queer NYC nightlife of the 2000s alongside even stranger side hustles while completing their BFA at The Cooper Union, New York, in 2011.
Throughout their life, they have consistently documented themselves, their friends, lovers, and community— and all the messy bittersweetness of being an imperfect, changing, growing human who loves humans for all those same reasons.
They have exhibited their work in solo and group exhibitions at galleries including Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA; Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX; Lyles & King, New York, NY; Alexander Gray Associates, Germantown, NY; Harper’s, New York, NY; Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; The Painting Center, New York, NY; Theirry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY; and UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA among others. Their work has appeared in Art in America, Artforum, New York Magazine, Hyperallergic, Interview Magazine, THEM, and more.

Cartoonists on Palestine (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a comics reading and performance by cartoonists writing about Palestine, including contributors to the collection Cartoonists for Palestine, MC’d by Solomon Brager and Shay Mirk. We will have readings from Jennifer Camper, Marguerite Dabaie, Eli Valley, Kazimir Lee, and Ben Passmore, and a live drawing to musical performance by Tracy Chahwan accompanied by Nebila Oguz and Omar Dewachi.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Cartoonists will be selling merch at the event to fundraise for the Gaza Scholarship Fund for Displaced Students. Co-sponsored by Jewish Currents magazine and Cartoonists for Palestine.

Tracy Chahwan is an illustrator and designer from Lebanon. She started her career in Beirut, producing street art and posters for local independent music venues like the Beirut Groove Collective, and working with the Samandal and zeez comics collective to publish experimental comics and anthologies.

Nebila Oguz is a Turkish-American animator and cartoonist currently based in Philadelphia. She started illustrating by making political posters during the 2013 Gezi Park protests while living in Ankara, Turkey. Her work has appeared in comic anthologies as well as in her zine I Didn’t Ask to be Here, where she breaks apart the absurdities of living and working in the United States. She is currently working as a Teaching Artist with Spiral Q.

Omar Dewachi is an Iraqi Canadian academic and sound artist based in New York City. Skilled in classical Iraqi and Arabic music, he performs across Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Since 2018, he has been involved in sound design and music composition for theater, and has produced experimental and electronic music projects under the alias “Puppets of Babylon.” He teaches anthropology at Rutgers University.

Jennifer Camper is the author of books including Rude Girls and Dangerous Women and subGURLZ, and editor of two Juicy Mother comics anthologies. She was the creating director of three Queers & Comics Conferences and has been featured in the documentary film No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and exhibitions.

Marguerite Dabaie is the author of the graphic novel The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories. Their most recent comic, Legends in the Heights, draws on autobiographical, socio-political, and historical-fictional comics with a decorative flair.

Kazimir Lee has lived for almost equal amounts of time in Malaysia, the UK, and the US. They now reside in Brooklyn. They enjoy queer subtext, parenthood, ghost stories, and karaoke.

Ben Passmore is the author of the ongoing comic book series Daygloayhole, as well as the Eisner Award-nominated and Ignatz Award-winning comic collection Your Black Friend. He also wrote and illustrated Sports Is Hell, collaborated with Ezra Claytan Daniels on BTTM FDRS, and now contributes to publications such as The Nib and The New York Times. He lives in Philadelphia.

Eli Valley is a Jewish Currents contributing writer. His comics collection Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in America and Israel is available from OR Books.

Hosts:
Sarah “Shay” Mirk is a graphic journalist, editor, and teacher. Shay was a contributing editor at comics publication The Nib, the author of Guantanamo Voices, and an editor of Cartoonists for Palestine.

Solomon Brager is the author of the graphic memoir Heavyweight (William Morrow, 2024) and the director of community engagement at Jewish Currents.

Celebrating the Reissue of the Classic Gay Novel Time Remaining by James McCourt (in person & live-streaming)
2024-05-30 18:00 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us in celebrating the reissue of James McCourt’s 1993 novel of drag, AIDS, New York City and beyond: 1993’s Time Remaining. Critic Harold Bloom listed Time Remaining as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.
“McCourt is that rarest of contemporary American authors — a true iconoclast.” Dennis Cooper.
To reserve a copy of Time Remaining (Library of Homosexual Congress, April 30, 2024, paperback, $19.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve copy of Time Remaining for May 30” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

James McCourt is the author of multiple works of fiction and nonfiction. He is best known for his acclaimed 1971 debut novel Mawrdew Czgowchwz (pronounced Mardu Gorgeous) which is currently available with the New York Review Books Classics imprint. Queer Street: The Rise and Fall of an American Culture, 1947-85, published in 2003, was identified by The New York Times as an “heroically imaginative account of gay metropolitan culture, an elegy and an apologia for a generation.” Critic Harold Bloom listed Time Remaining as one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.
James McCourt lives with his husband, author Vincent Virga, in New York City with summers spent in Ireland. They’ve been together since 1964.

Tim Young has written the new introduction for Time Remaining. He has been thinking and writing about the role of literature and music in the narrative of life for many decades. In addition to a series of essays on popular culture for Design Observer, he has contributed work for The Yale Review.
