BGSQD

Across Genres, All Genres: A Night of Queer Writing
2014-09-05 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Join us for an evening of multi-genre reading by today’s queer practitioners of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press). Her work has been widely anthologized and appears in publications including The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Glamour, Post Road, Salon, New York Times, Hunger Mountain, Portland Review, Dissent, and Bitch Magazine. The recipient of a 2013 Barbara Deming Memorial Fund artist grant, a 2012 Bread Loaf nonfiction fellowship, a 2014 Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellowship, and MacDowell Colony fellowships in 2010, 2011, & 2014, she is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Monmouth University and MFA faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). The daughter of a sea captain and a psychotherapist, she was raised on Cape Cod, and lives in Brooklyn.

Matthew Hittinger is the author of two poetry collections, The Erotic Postulate (2014) and Skin Shift (2012) both from Sibling Rivalry Press, and three chapbooks. His work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, has been adapted into art songs, and in 2012 Poets & Writers Magazine named him a Debut Poet on their 8th annual list. Matthew lives and works in New York City.

Joseph O. Legaspi is the author of Imago (CavanKerry Press) and two chapbooks: Aviary, Bestiary (Organic Weapon Arts), winner of the David Blair Memorial Prize, and Subways (Thrush Press). Recent works appeared in Poets.org, jubilat, The Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, BLOOM, and the anthology Coming Close (Prairie Lights/University of Iowa Press). He co-founded Kundiman (www.kundiman.org), a non-profit organization serving Asian American literature.

Shelly Oria was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Israel. Her short story collection, New York 1, Tel Aviv 0, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and Random House Canada in November. Shelly’s fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, TriQuarterly, and fivechapters among other places, and won the Indiana Review Fiction Prize and a Sozopol Fiction Fellowship among other awards. A MacDowell Fellow in 2012 and 2014, Shelly holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, curates the series Sweet! Actors Reading Writers in the East Village, and teaches fiction at Pratt Institute, where she also co-directs the Writers’ Forum.

Bold Strokes Books Reading: Mixed Grill
2014-09-04 19:00 - 22:00
Jane Hoppen, Jeremy Jordan King, Andrew J. Peters, Nora Olsen, Joel Gomez-Dossi, Daniel W. Kelly, Trinity Tam, and Nell Stark present a tasting platter of their freshest, most recent Bold Strokes Books novels. Here’s something to whet the appetite for all genres, all genders, and all interests.

Jane Hoppen‘s debut novel, In Between, was published by Bold Strokes Books in December 2013 and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her novella, The Man Who Was Not, was released in June 2014. Jane has also had stories published in a variety of literary magazines.

Jeremy Jordan King grew up on the Jersey Shore and studied theater at Marymount Manhattan College. His Immortal Testimonies series, published Bold Strokes Books, was listed in Advocate’s “Top 10 Books for Young LGBT Folks and Anyone Who Wants to Understand Them” and recommended by the American Library Association’s GLBT Round Table. He’s also a librettist.

Andrew J. Peters is an author, an activist and an educator. His published work includes the young adult fantasy The Seventh Pleiade and the Werecat series. While writing, Andrew has spent most of his career as a social worker for LGBT youth. He is an administrator and an adjunct professor at Adelphi University, and lives in Kew Gardens, NY with his husband and their cat Chloë.

Nora Olsen is the author of the YA novels Frenemy of the People, Swans & Klons, and The End: Five Queer Kids Save the World. Her next book, Maxine Wore Black, is forthcoming from Bold Strokes Books in October.

Joel Gomez-Dossi started his career as a theatrical stage manager. He then became a production manager and producer for PBS, and finally turned to freelance writing, working for regional publications across the country. He is the author of two novels published by Bold Strokes Books, Pursued and Deadly Cult.

Daniel W. Kelly is the author of the erotic horror novels Combustion, No Place for Little Ones, and Rise of the Thing Down Below. He is also creator of Boys, Bears & Scares, a website dedicated to gay male horror.

Nell Stark is an award-winning author of lesbian romance. The Princess Affair (2013) was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and in 2010, everafter (with Trinity Tam) won a Goldie award in the paranormal romance category. When she is not writing, Nell works as the Chair of English, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at a college in the SUNY system.

Trinity Tam is a marketing executive in the music industry and an award-winning writer/producer of film and television. She and Nell live, write, and parent their rambunctious child and dog a stone’s throw from the historic Stonewall Inn in New York City.

East Coast Book Release Party for Sarah Fran Wisby's new book, the heart's progress. Reading with Sarah Fran Wisby, Amanda Davidson, and Dia Felix
2014-08-27 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the East Coast Book Release Party for Sarah Fran Wisby‘s new book, the heart’s progress. Wisby will be joined by Amanda Davidson and Dia Felix.
What begins as an exercise in anthropomorphism quickly becomes a raucous joyride and moving confession. THE HEART’S PROGRESS’s pitch-perfect timing, dark hilarity, imaginative range, and spot-on insights into the spastic stations of the human heart perform a seduction so complete, I’m ready to follow Sarah Fran Wisby off a cliff — or at least, read everything she writes.
–Maggie Nelson, author of The Art Of Cruelty
Sarah Fran Wisby is the author of the heart’s progress and VIVA LOSS. She writes poetry, essays, pornography, novels, and status updates. She lives in San Francisco and works in the food trenches but is currently living out of her ’98 Lexus for three months on tour. See more pictures of her wearing fur and read her woefully outdated blog at www.sarahfranwisby.com.
Dia Felix is a writer and filmmaker who lives in New York. Her first novel, Nochita, was published by City Lights/Sister Spit, earlier this year.
Amanda Davidson’s chapbook Arcanagrams: A Reckoning is forthcoming on Little Red Leaves’ Textile Series. Her fiction chapbook Apprenticeship (New Herring Press) was a finalist for the 2013 Calvino Prize. She is currently at work on a performance novel about the mystic Swedenborg. She never knew how much a person could love one small dog.

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-edge Queer Artists AUGUST EDITION! w/Kelli Dunham, Kevin Ritter, Julie Aslop, Ariel Speedwagon and Sabrina Chap
2014-08-21 19:30 - 22:00
Post-Clown Disaster, Ariel Federow and Cabaret Idiot, Sabrina Chap bring you this new works-in-progress series featuring new work from cutting edge queer artists. Built on the notion that there’s no greater inspiration than a deadline, this series forces renegade artists to bring new and developing work to an audiencefor the first time. Part experimentation + part guaranteed failure = 100% awesomeness.
PRESENTING—————-—-
STAND UP/COMEDY STORYTELLING by KELLI DUNHAM!
“The piece is ostensibly about my botched knee replacement but really about trauma and how it gets stored in your body and how you can still learn to read your body’s signals.”
PERFORMANCE ARTIST – KEVIN RITTER!!
“”Kevin Ritter Plays Kevin Ritter” takes the subject of four people named Kevin Ritter: Kevin Ritter, the German; Kevin Ritter, the baseball coach; Kevin Ritter, the kitchen designer; and Kevin Ritter, the performance artist. This piece explores identity through mimicry, video, and original writing. A meditation in the form of a refracted palindrome.”
PERFORMANCE POET, JULIE ASLOP!!
“Susan, Susie and Suzanne are three versions of the same person. Their alter-realities begin slipping together when each receives a mysterious package The piece explores the political implications of boredom alongside themes of sexual and economic violence.”
MUSICAL BOOK REVIEW BY SABRINA CHAP
Sabrina Chap will do a musical book review of Madison Young’s new memoir, “Daddy”.
*****************************
Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow‘s work has been seen on Broadway, Lafayette, Houston, Chrystie, Fulton, N 6th, and other streets and avenue in NYC and beyond. Her stories, slideshows and slapstick have been seen places like LaMama ETC, Dixon Place, the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, Pussy Faggot, and Hey Queen! Company member: the Ballez and Butch Burlesque.
Deemed, ‘Rousing!’ by the New Yorker, Sabrina Chap is a writer, musician, cabaret artist and all around dilettante. Her latest album, the anthemic queer bonanza ‘We Are the Parade’ was deemed, ‘Joyous’ by the Advocate. She also edited the book, ‘Live Through This- On Creativity and Self-Destruction’, now with an intro by Amanda Palmer and essays by Nan Goldin, bell hooks, Swoon, Kate Bornstein and more. sabrinachap.com
Kelli Dunham [https://kellidunham.com/] is the genderqueer nurse-comic-author-ex-nun hybrid so common in modern Brooklyn. Kelli was one of Velvet Park Magazine’s 25 Significant Women of 2011, was named to the 2012 Campus Pride Hotlist and has appeared on Showtime and the Discovery Channel and nationwide at colleges, prides, fundraisers and even the occasional livestock auction. Kelli’s fifth book, Freak of Nurture [https://freakofnurture.org/] a collection of humorous essays published by Topside Press caused award-winning author Barbara Carellas to give Kelli the moniker “the David Sedaris of the queer world.”
Julie Alsop is a poet working in radio. Sometimes she has a Canadian accent.
Kevin Ritter is a queer playwright and performer. His performances include Lawn Play, Rebecca and Jeremiah: The Strange (Semi-Finalist, Indie Boots Theater Festival, 2013), The Cosmos (performed at Cleveland Public Theatre’s “Pandemonium” benefit, September 2013), Leave ‘Em Fallin’ Down, and Erato: a tragedy perhaps. He is a member of the Britomartis Devised Theater Ensemble; shows have included A Totally Real True-to-Life Play, harlot/nun, Mixtape, and, most recently, an adaption of Milton’s Paradise Lost. kevincritter.wordpress.com

Bureau Book Club #2: Zipper Mouth by Laurie Weeks
2014-08-20 19:00 - 21:00
The Bureau Book Club is a home for freewheeling discussion about the books and the issues that captivate us. Inspired by the conversations that break out after so many of the Bureau’s more formal events, we’ll have a one-hour session each month about a different work of fiction or non-fiction. Buy the book from the Bureau and get a 10% discount. We know you have busy lives: if you can’t finish the whole book, why not come and talk about the parts you’ve read? Just come prepared with a favorite quote. The Book Club discussions will be moderated by Ben Miller.
This month’s book will be Laurie Weeks‘ novel Zipper Mouth. Its publisher, The Feminist Press, calls out its “ranting letters to Judy Davis and Sylvia Plath, an unrequited fixation on a straight best friend, exalted nightclub epiphanies, devastating morning-after hangovers.” Michelle Tea calls it “a brilliant rabbit hole of pitch-black hilarity…and drugs, drugs, drugs.” What could be better for August?
———–
Ben Miller is a Brooklyn-based writer. Current projects include award-winning biographical research on early gay activist Harry Hay that has taken him to archives in California and conferences from Pennsylvania to New Mexico, an adaptation of an early Mozart libretto for performance at Carnegie Hall, serving as dramaturg for Circuit Theatre Company’s production of The Walk Across America for Mother Earth, and new short fiction influenced by his historical research. His teachers in history and writing have included Linda Gordon, K. Kevyne Baar, Marcelle Clements, and Jonathan Safran Foer. Ben is the winner of New York University’s Bessie and Louis Levy Prize for Excellence in American History, and was named Steffi Berne Research Scholar in the Humanities by the same institution. He is a co-founder of Squid Ink Magazine (launching soon), works as Web Associate at the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and serves on the communications committee of the New York City LGBT Anti-Violence Project. He tweets @benwritesthings.

Night Gardener: Gio Black Peter
2014-08-15 22:00 - 2014-08-17 19:00
NIGHT GARDENER GIO BLACK PETER August 15-17 2014
Drawings and paintings; including the first glimpse of GBP’s 2014 COMMUNION portraits on wood.

Opening Reception Aug 15 / 10pm-3am

“The colorful and defiant universe of Gio Black Peter’s videos, songs, drawings and paintings, seep with humour, absurdity and fantasy, where misappropriations rule. Black Peter incarnates various fantasies, he is able to embody a multitude of characters, each a facet of the artist’s personality. His work remains anchored in reality, while diverting into satire and parody of politics and today’s world.” – Yann Perol

Midnight performance of; THE LONGEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR
Performed by: Susanne Oberbeck, Brian Kenny, Gage of the Boone, Max Steele, Jordan Hall & Gio Black Peter with music by Gordon Beeferman.

During the 3 day run of the exhibition the Bureau will be offering an exclusive limited edition C-type print (only available in person). Each print is 8”x 5”, signed, dated and numbered on site by Gio Black Peter. Edition of 50. Also available will be a signed copy of GBP’s sophomore LP “The Virgin Shuffle”.

From August 16-17 Gio Black Peter will be doing a live photo shoot with his COMMUNION portraits. Everybody is welcome to participate. Each model will receive a copy of his/her shoot.

GBP Communion photo shoot dates: August 16 , 6pm-9pm / August 17, 3pm-6pm

Vigil for Gaza: A Gathering to Mourn, Share and Unite
2014-08-14 19:30 - 21:30
In response to the devastation in Gaza, artists and queers gather to mourn the dead, connect with like-minded people and give voice to our feelings of grief and outrage. With contributions from M. Lamar, Pauline Park, Viva Ruiz, Luciana Achugar and more TBD, with a work-in-progress by Sarah Schulman, in absentia. Facilitated by Dan Fishback.

We’ll be accepting donations at the door for MECA – The Middle East Children’s Alliance, www.mecaforpeace.org

Photo of Palestinian woman in Gazan district of Beit Hanoun by Mohammed Abed / Getty Images

NEWFANGLED 3: Robert Siek Introduces Lawrence Kaplun, Rickey Laurentiis, and Robert Whitehead
2014-08-08 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the 3rd installment of NEWFANGLED, a series of poetry readings by young poets hosted by Robert Siek.
For NEWFANGLED 3 Siek introduces Lawrence Kaplun, Rickey Laurentiis, and Robert Whitehead.

LAWRENCE KAPLUN is from California, and received his B.A. in English from San Francisco State University. He has attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Program and the Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore. His poems appear in Sonora Review, Southern Humanities Review, Toad, and The Gay & Lesbian Review. He lives in Brooklyn.

RICKEY LAURENTIIS was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the recipient of a 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, a 2013 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a traveling fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy. His poems appear most recently in Boston Review, The Kenyon Review, and Poetry magazine, and have been commissioned by the International Art Exhibition, Prospect.3 New Orleans. He lives in Brooklyn.

ROBERT WHITEHEAD received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, and fellowships from the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets and The Ashbery Home School. His work appears or is forthcoming in Assaracus, Gulf Coast, Vinyl, ALL HOLLOW, Upstart, and elsewhere. He was born in Madagascar, reared in Rangoon, and currently lives in Park Slope.

ROBERT SIEK is a poet who lives in Brooklyn and works at a large publishing house in Manhattan. His poems most recently appear in The Good Men Project, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, as well as the anthology Between: New Gay Poetry. In 2002, the New School published his chapbook Clubbed Kid, and Purpose and Devil Piss, published by Sibling Rivalry Press, is his first full-length collection of poetry.

Screening of "Sergio and Simone," a film by Virginia de Medeiros--followed by a Q&A with the artist
2014-08-06 20:00 - 22:00
The film Sérgio e Simone (2009/2014), a work by the Brazilian artist Virginia de Medeiros selected for the 31st São Paulo Biennial (2014) and awarded by ICCo at the 18th Festival de Arte Contemporânea Videobrasil, documents the life of Simone, a transvestite who lived at the Ladeira da Montanha, in Salvador, capital of Bahia. Like most the residents of the borough, Simone was an avid drug user. However, after a crack overdose, she suffers a mystical delirium causing her to “find God” and circumvent death. From this episode onwards Simone abandons her identity as a transvestite, retakes her baptism name of Sérgio and becomes an avid evangelical preacher in a delirious quest to save humanity.
Virginia de Medeiros creates work that centers on documentary strategies, as a means to transgress mainstream accounts and to question the boundaries between reality and fiction. She deals with three themes within the field of art and documentary: dislocation, participation, and fabulation. Adapting documentary images and lived accounts, she employs the latter for subjective and conceptual use to revision the representation of reality and alterity. De Medeiros works primarily with video and audiovisual installations, always seeking to converge the language of art and media and expand the aesthetic and technological possibilities to engender new modes of expression.
Medeiros is a recipient of the 2014 ICCo residency award at the 18th Festival de Arte Contemporânea Videobrasil and is currently an artist in residency at Residency Unlimited.

TELL 5: Without a Net
2014-08-01 19:00 - 21:00
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.
Without a Net is the theme of the fifth installment of TELL.

Penny Arcade aka Susana Ventura occupies a unique position in the American counter-culture and the American avant-garde. She is an internationally respected writer, poet, and she is one of the handful of artists who created contemporary text based Performance Art beginning in the 1980’s. She has continued to define Performance Art for nearly three decades, She is particularly known for her high content, complex, long form performance pieces. Her contributions to American experimental theatre began in her teens and she has left her mark on every decade from the 1960’s to the present. Her work has always focused on the human condition , on the other and the outsider, giving voice to those marginalized by society. Her decades long focus on creation of community and inclusion as the goals of performance and her efforts to use performance as a transformative act mark her as a true original. Many of her theatrical devices, not to mention her one liners , have passed into the mainstream. Her unique voice, marked by a great articulation of complex ideas still forming in the collective consciousness and her magnetic stage presence have given her mainstream career recognition far beyond America’s shores. In 2010 Semiotext(e) published a hard cover book on Penny Arcade’s Performance work Bad Reputation.
www.pennyarcade.tv pennyarcadenyc twitter pennyarcadesuperstar FB

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Besides winning the 2011 Miss LEZ title, Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in fesivals globally. Drae was dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell throws a monthly party in Brooklyn called PRIME. Check her out online and around town. www.draecampbell.com

Cecilia Gentili is a Trans-Latina originally from Argentina by way of Miami. She is currently the Trans* Health Program Coordinator at APICHA community health center. Cecilia has worked at the Gender Identity Project at the LGBT Center since 2011, as a volunteer, intern, and now consultant, facilitating groups, organizing, and working on prevention, harm reduction and self-empowerment, focusing mostly on undocumented Trans-Latinas, a reality she lived for many years. Ms Gentili is also a board member of “Transbodies” a nonprofit organization about to published a trans-resources guide book for trans-folks. She received her education at the National University of Rosario in Music studies and worked as a music teacher for special needs children.

Rosa Jurjevics is a writer, multimedia specialist, and product of New York City. Currently the owner/principal of the tiny-but-mighty Big Creature Media, Jurjevics spends most days editing video, animating critters, and removing (live-action) cats from the desk.

Elsa Waithe is a 26 year old comedian from Norfolk, Va. She’s a 3x winner of the ViRginia Beach Funnybone’s Clash of the Comics. Comedian, Actor, Motivational Speaker, Epicenter of every awesome party, and Inventor of the Nike Swoosh.

A Reading and Discussion with Mark Zubro
2014-07-31 19:00 - 21:00
Mark Zubro is the author of 28 novels:
25 gay mysteries –
13 – in the Tom and Scott series
11 – in the Paul Turner series
1 – stand alone thriller – Foolproof
1 – gay young adult mystery
2 – in a gay science fiction series

When not writing he spends his time reading, napping, and eating chocolate

Opening of the Exhibition En,leak’in/ment Four/For/4/Fore 5/Five Wa’heeks & Other Men’chin;able Sight/Site-Specific Tran’sss-actions
2014-07-31 13:00 - 14:00
Opening of the exhibition En,leak’in/ment Four/For/4/Fore 5/Five Wa’heeks & Other Men’chin;able Sight/Site-Specific Tran’sss-actions.
Emory Sight has, until now, worked exclusively with accidental audiences and businessMEN. While arranging flowers they tug on their hair in the hopes of guilt free sleep.
En,leak’in/ment Four/For/4/Fore 5/Five Wa’heeks & Other Men’chin;able Sight/Site-Specific Tran’sss-actions is in diverted spaces — not/knot in diverted places.
The exhibition will run through Sunday, September 7th.

regarding JEF+KEV//SIM: a Happening @ BGSQD
2014-07-30 21:00
An interactive and delusional commercial for the upcoming premiere of the play JEF+KEV//SIM. About Dahmer, midwestern queer traumas, and meth-fueled seropositivity sorcery, this happening gives a glimpse into the interconnected stories JEF+KEV//SIM presents. A pair of complimentary tickets will be rewarded to one lucky person for the intragalactic premiere of JEF+KEV//SIM. Written and performed by Randal Barnett.

Randal Barnett is an actor and artist from the Pacific Northwest. He is sometimes called RJ.

Emanuel Xavier hosts an evening with Studs
2014-07-18 19:00 - 22:00
Studs: Gay Erotic Fiction
Edited by Richard Labonte, foreword by Emanuel Xavier

The event will feature contributors:
Charlie Vazquez
Lee Houck
Sam J. Miller
Emanuel Xavier

Rough and surly, smooth and sultry, or quick and raw — however you like it, you’ll find it in Studs, 20 of the hottest and best-written man-to-man sex stories to appear in print this year. In “Underground Operator” two men on a nearly empty subway platform indulge in rough, anonymous sex that lets them momentarily forget the stifling summer heat. “Donuts to Demons” finds a self-described “rock-n-roll artfag” searching for a lover “as patient and gifted and generous as he advertised on Craigslist.”

Charlie Vázquez is a writer and freelance editor, as well as the director of the Bronx Writers Center and New York City coordinator for Puerto Rico’s Festival de la Palabra. He is the CCO of Editorial Trance, an e-publishing platform, and is currently working on a novel and accompanying short stories set in the Puerto Rican terror/suspense genre.

Lee Houck was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and, in 2014, celebrates 16 years of living in New York City. His poems, essays, interviews and stories have appeared online and in print in the US, France and Australia, and in three limited-edition chapbooks. His debut novel, Yield, was the winner of Project QueerLit 2008, and was published by Kensington Books in 2010. More at www.LeeHouck.com

Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lightspeed, Shimmer, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, The Minnesota Review, and The Rumpus, among others. He is a graduate of the 2012 Clarion Writer’s Workshop, a 2014 nominee for the Shirley Jackson Award, and the co-editor of Horror After 9/11, an anthology published by the University of Texas Press. Visit him at www.samjmiller.com

Emanuel Xavier is author of the poetry collections Nefarious, Pier Queen, Americano: Growing up Gay and Latino in the U.S.A., If Jesus Were Gay & other poems and the novel, Christ Like. An LGBT History Month Icon, he also edited the anthologies Me No Habla With Acento- Contemporary Latino Poetry and Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry. He appeared twice on HBO’s Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry and continues to perform regularly throughout the country and around the world as a spoken word poet. He selected finalists and wrote the foreword for Studs. www.emanuelxavier.com

Poetry Reading with Greg Wrenn, Billy Merrell, & Paul Legault
2014-07-17 19:00 - 21:00
Three emerging gay poets will read from their latest collections: Greg Wrenn (Centaur), Billy Merrell (Talking in the Dark), and Paul Legault (The Other Poems and The Emily Dickinson Reader).

Greg Wrenn is the author of Centaur (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2013). A Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, he has received the Brittingham Prize in Poetry and a Stegner Fellowship. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2014, The American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The New Republic, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book of linked essays about coral reefs, the impermanence of beauty, and human destiny. (gregwrenn.com)

Billy Merrell is the author of Talking in the Dark, a poetry memoir (Scholastic, 2003), and co-editor of The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing about GLBTQ, and Other Identities (Knopf, 2006), which received a Lambda Literary Award. Merrell also writes for children, and is a contributor to Spirit Animals: Tales of the Great Beasts, part of the New York Times bestselling series. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Find him online at www.talkinginthedark.com.

Paul Legault is the author of three books of poetry: The Madeleine Poems (Omnidawn 2010), The Other Poems (Fence, 2011), and The Emily Dickinson Reader (McSweeney’s, 2012). He co-edits Telephone Books, an imprint of Nightboat Books focused on works of radical translation. Currently he is a Writer in Residence at Washington University in St. Louis, and can be found here: www.theotherpaul.com.

Author Leslie L. Smith Reads from and Speaks about his new book Sally Field Can Play the Transsexual
2014-07-16 19:00 - 20:00
Author Leslie L. Smith will read from and speak about his new book Sally Field Can Play the Transsexual
A serio-comic tale of sex, loss, redemption and pharmaceuticals in the modern AIDS era, Leslie L. Smith’s Sally Field is a coming-of-age story about one lost soul on a journey to find himself and his community.
But it’s also a saga about the last 25 years of gay and AIDS culture. A volume of bruising honesty and heartfelt emotion, Smith’s novel takes an unflinching look at difficult questions: safer sex, barebacking, personal responsibility, current treatments — and why HIV has once more become a rising threat among gay men.

Leslie L. Smith received his MA in Educational Theater and a BA in Creative Writing, both at New York University.
His 1997 film “David Searching,” starring Anthony Rapp, Camryn Manheim, and Julie Halston, was screened at more than 65 film festivals across the world and also had a British release. “David Searching” now belongs to the permanent collection at the Outfest Legacy Project/UCLA film archive. A New York City theatre producer, Smith is a member of the League of Off-Broadway Theaters and Producers and previously served on the Administration Committee for the Lucille Lortel Awards.
Smith is the editor of “Leaving The Rest: Gay Men On Alcoholism, Addiction, And Sobriety,” available from Magnus/Riverdale Avenue Books. He has written for numerous publications, including Premiere, Movieline, OUT, POZ magazine and The Advocate.
The author divides his time between New York City and the Jersey Shore.

Bureau Book Club 1: Martin Duberman's Stonewall
2014-07-13 19:00 - 22:00
The Bureau Book Club is a home for freewheeling discussion about the books and the issues that captivate us. Inspired by the conversations that break out after so many of the Bureau’s more formal events, we’ll have a one-hour session each month about a different work of fiction or non-fiction. Buy the book from the Bureau and get a 10% discount. Come prepared with a favorite quote. The Book Club discussions will be moderated by Ben Miller.
This month’s book, inspired by Pride and by the thought-provoking Helix stickers being given out with all the Bureau’s books this month, will be Martin Duberman’s Stonewall. A work of history that explodes preconceived notions of how history must be written, this captivating and novelistic work tells the life stories of six of the key actors at the Stonewall Rebellion.
Ben Miller is a New York-based writer and student of history. Current projects include thesis research on early gay activist Harry Hay that has taken him to archives in California and conferences from Pennsylvania to New Mexico, an adaptation of an early Mozart libretto for performance at Carnegie Hall, and new short fiction influenced by his historical research. He is the 2014 winner of New York University’s Bessie and Louis Levy Prize for Excellence in American History, and the recipient of the Steffi Berne Research Scholarship in the Humanities from the same institution. His teachers in history and writing have included Linda Gordon, K. Kevyne Baar, Marcelle Clements, and Jonathan Safran Foer. His academic writing has appeared in Historian, College Film and Media Studies, and the Chicago Journal of History; and his short fiction has appeared in Brio, Studio on the Square, and West 10th. He is editor or co-editor of several publications, co-founder of Squid Ink Magazine (launching soon), and serves on the communications committee of the New York City Anti-Violence Project. He tweets @benwritesthings.

DEADLINE: Works-in-Progress from Cutting-edge Queer Artists JULY EDITION: Sabrina Chap, Rachel Kerry, Ted Kerr, and Betsy Housten
2014-07-12 19:30 - 22:00
Post-Clown Disaster, Ariel Federow and Cabaret Idiot, Sabrina Chap bring you this new works-in-progress series featuring new work from cutting edge queer artists. Built on the notion that there’s no greater inspiration than a deadline, this series forces renegade artists to bring new and developing work to an audience for the first time. Part experimentation + part guaranteed failure = 100% awesomeness.
Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow will be your host this evening, presenting a very special book report sponsored by the Bureau.
Sabrina Chap will be performing the second half of her electric guitar radio musical, ‘Postcards from Nevermore’, visually scored by a projection from Anna Hovhannessian.
Betsy Housten will be reading a piece from her upcoming zine about queerness, quick fixes and questionable
choices.
Rachel Kerry will be performing The Heart Demands a Superhero Vogue Battle, A fierce spoken word/movement piece performed in spandex, masks, and at least 2 capes.

MORE TO FOLLOW: HOLD THIS SPACE!
Ariel “Speedwagon” Federow‘s work has been seen on Broadway, Lafayette, Houston, Chrystie, Fulton, N 6th, and other streets and avenue in NYC and beyond. Her stories, slideshows and slapstick have been seen places like LaMama ETC, Dixon Place, the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, Pussy Faggot, and Hey Queen! Company member: the Ballez and Butch Burlesque.
Deemed, ‘Rousing!’ by the New Yorker, Sabrina Chap is a writer, musician, cabaret artist and all around dilettante. Her latest album, the anthemic queer bonanza ‘We Are the Parade’ was deemed, ‘Joyous’ by the Advocate. She also edited the book, ‘Live Through This- On Creativity and Self-Destruction’, now with an intro by Amanda Palmer and essays by Nan Goldin, bell hooks, Swoon, Kate Bornstein and more. sabrinachap.com
Anna Hovhannessian is a filmmaker and editor. TV credits include a lot of sensationalistic murder shows and some talk show nonsense. Her film credits include in the documentaries ‘Bully’ (Tribeca premiere), ‘She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry’ (Boston Independent Film) and the short film ‘Happy Hour’. Her performance videography was featured in the dance production of ‘Echoes and Dreams’ (NYC Fringe Festival).
Betsy Housten is a Brooklyn-based queer femme writer, zinester, massage therapist, herbal medicine maker, tarot reader and astrology nerd. Her work can be read in such places as Hoax zine, Soon Quarterly and We’ll Never Have Paris, and has been seen at such places as Bluestockings, St Marks Books, Pete’s Candy Store and the How I Learned series. She most recently published issue 7 of her zine You Know Better.

Rachel Kerry is a director, writer, and designer interested in innovative, transmedia storytelling. She hosts the monthly East Village variety show Pop Culture Fondue! and is the artistic mastermind behind theatre/video company Brain Melt Consortium. Her work emphasizes devised movement, immersive environments, and the exploration of popular culture. Very often, her work features girls making out.

THE LATINA GURLESQUE: Monica McClure, Lucas de Lima, and Jennifer Tamayo
2014-07-11 19:30 - 22:00
¡OMDiosa!
Who let this “new grrly, grotesque, burlesque” poetics leak out of the border in a divine ooze of caliente pink?
Monica McClure’s debut collection, Tender Data, will be published by Birds, LLC this year. She is the author of the chapbooks, Mood Swing, from Snacks Press and Mala, forthcoming from Poor Claudia. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Tin House, Jubilat, Fence, The Los Angeles Review, The Lit Review, Lambda Literary Review’s Spotlight Series, The Awl, Spork and elsewhere. She curates Atlas, a collaboration series of visual artists and poets, and lives in New York City.
Lucas de Lima was born in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. He is the author of Wet Land (Action Books, 2014) and the chapbooks Ghostlines (Radioactive Moat) and Terraputa (forthcoming from Birds of Lace). A contributor to Montevidayo, he pursues doctoral studies in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jennifer BARRRRFFFF Tamayo is a New York-based performance artist, writer, and activist. She is the author of three collections of art and writing, most recently YOU DA ONE (Coconut Books, 2014). JT lives in Brooklyn and serves as the Managing Editor of Futurepoem.

David Pratt and Rafe Haze Read
2014-07-09 19:00 - 21:00
David Pratt reads from his sexy comic novel Looking After Joey. Rafe Haze reads from his hot (in more ways than one) new mystery, The Next.

David Pratt is the author of two novels, Looking After Joey (Wilde City) and Lambda Literary Award-winner Bob the Book (Chelsea Station) and a short story collection, My Movie, (Chelsea Station) He has directed and performed his work for the theater in New York City at the Cornelia Street Cafe, Dixon Place, HERE Arts Center, the Flea and the NY International Fringe Festival. David was the first American director of work by Canadian playwright John Mighton. He is currently working on two more novels and a novella for young people.

Rafe Haze was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives on the west side of New York City. Having worked for the legal compliance industry, fashion industry, music industry, art industry, and flesh industry (the most interesting people on earth have), his most life-changing employment was teaching Meisner Technique of Acting. He wrote himself out of one whopping funk with his debut novel The Next, and is ecstatically thankful for the entire, messy, beautiful cadence.
Rafe refuses to be handcuffed to one discipline only: he writes classical music for orchestra and small ensemble, country music songs, musical theater, plays, screenplays, and digs two-stepping, line dancing, and West Coast Swinging. Be it words, notes, or movement, the emotional origin, schlep, and endpoints are equally compelling and satisfying.
Rafe is grafeful to his twin brother (the straight one) who continues to make the slicing through this rambling, thorny life worthwhile.

ITNA PRESS Summer Readings
2014-07-02 19:00 - 22:00
An evening of reading performances by ITNA PRESS authors Slava Mogutin, Christopher Stoddard, and Prix de Flore winner Bruce Benderson (also reading on behalf of La JohnJoseph).
ITNA PRESS is a Brooklyn-based company dedicated to publishing honest works of American literature deemed too provocative for the mainstream.

Photograph by Michael Stipe
Slava Mogutin is the author of two monographs of photography published in the US and seven books of writings in Russian. His artwork has been exhibited internationally and featured in a wide range of publications, including i-D, Flash Art, Dazed & Confused, L’Uomo Vogue, Stern, and The New York Times. Food Chain is his first book in English.

Photograph by Leon Csernohlavek
La JohnJoseph is the author of the critically acclaimed solo memoir play Boy in a Dress. He’s performed at MOMA, the Royal Opera House, and across Europe, the US and the Middle East. He’s been published in The Gay Times Book of Short Stories, Bird Song, P.S. I Love You, Fat Zine, and 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves. Everything Must Go is his first novel.

Photograph by Daniel Moss
Christopher Stoddard is the founder of ITNA PRESS and the author of White, Christian (Spuyten Duyvil, 2010), chosen by the American Library Association for their 2012 list of commendable LGBT literature. His writing has also been published by Lambda Literary and Go Deeper Press. Limiters is his second novel.

Bruce Benderson is a novelist, essayist and translator whose most well-known book, The Romanian: Story of an Obsession, was awarded the prestigious Prix de Flore in its French edition. Other publications include the essay collection Sex and Isolation, the novels Pacific Agony and User, and the story collection Pretending to Say No. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Libération and many other American and French publications. He regularly translates books from the French. His new book, Urban Gothic: The Collected Stories, is forthcoming from ITNA PRESS.

QP@QD: Drae Campbell Hosts a Queer Pride Party at Queer Division
2014-06-29 16:00 - 22:00
Tired of the crowds and corporate-sponsored floats at the Pride March? Come celebrate Pride on the Lower East Side at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division! Join Mistress of Ceremonies Drae Campbell and a smart and sexy crew of performers for a day of festivities surrounded by a stimulating array of queer books, zines, and art works.

Featuring performances by:
Kaitlyn Holland
Lady Quesa’Dilla
Shane Shane
Max Steele
Elsa Waithe

At 4 PM, Hanna Exel of the Queer Crisis Collective will be discussing the rainbow flag intervention that is based at the Bureau this week. For more info visit

www.queercrisis.tumblr.com

and https://helixqpn.tumblr.com/collectives.

Stickers of the flag are available at the Bureau with a purchase

How Much?
Option 1: $20 (includes unlimited drinks: mimosas, beer, wine)
OR
Option 2: $5 suggested donation (drinks available at cash bar, $5 each)
Both options guarantee you hours of entertainment in a queer oasis!

The Bureau is up 10 stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. We are happy to provide assistance to anyone who requests it–please contact us in advance at contact@bgsqd.com.
A gender-neutral bathroom is available at the Bureau.

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Besides winning the 2011 Miss LEZ title, Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in fesivals globally. Drae was dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell throws a monthly party in Brooklyn called PRIME. Check her out online and around town. www.draecampbell.com

Kaitlyn Holland is toy designer/lesbian comedian that can be spotted around the bushwick comedy scene. She’s throwing a benefit comedy show for breast cancer on june 24 at 8pm, The Titacular Extravaganza. Tickets are only 10 dollars and all proceeds go to the avon walk for breast cancer. She would love to see you all come.

Lady Quesa’Dilla AKA Alejandro Rodríguez– Alejandro is a native Tejan@ from the El Paso and Ciudad Juárez border. Their work is at the intersection of cultural identity, drag, and community. “The Brown Queen,” an autobiographical solo performance about growing up queer in the southwest, premiered at HERE Arts Center in the spring of 2010. Most recent solo performances include “My Tia Lupe” and “The Faggot in the Pink House”. He has performed in New York City, El Paso, Texas, and Chiapas, Mexico. Alejandro is a member of The House of Bushwig, as Lady Quesa’Dilla, duties include Volunteer Coordinator for the annual Bushwig Festival.
Alejandro can also be found as an Information and Referral Specialist at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center in Manhattan; and as a Teaching Artist in The Bronx and Brooklyn.
Alejandro holds a BA in Theater from Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, and a MA in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and is an alum from The Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics. Resides in Brooklyn.

Shane Shane is the gay dance music project of Shane O’Neill. He tours constantly and has shared the stage with such acts as Kool Keith, Har Mar Superstar, and Big Freedia.
He also plays in a band called Screamin’ Cyn Cyn & The Pons and occasionally does drag under the name Anita Lane Bryant.
He recently moved to Brooklyn where he likes to sew hideous costumes and eat mayonnaise-based salads.
He has a cat named Wanda and is so totally super gay.

Max Steele is a performer and writer living in Brooklyn. He has presented work at Dixon Place, the New Museum, Deitch Projects, BAM, Joe’s Pub, Envoy Enterprises, PPOW Gallery, UPenn’s Kelly Writers’ House, the Afterglow Festival and the Queens Museum of Art. He writes the psychedelic porno poetry zine Scorcher, and his writing has been featured in Dossier Journal, Spank, East Village Boys, Birdsong, Vice, Noisey, and Best Gay Stories 2014. He has been an Artist in Residence at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange since 2012.

Elsa Waithe is a 26 year old comedian from Norfolk, Va. She’s a 3x winner of the ViRginia Beach Funnybone’s Clash of the Comics. Comedian, Actor, Motivational Speaker, Epicenter of every awesome party, and Inventor of the Nike Swoosh.

Gays in The Great War Lance Ringel reads from his novel Flower of Iowa
2014-06-27 19:00 - 21:00
Writer Lance Ringel will read selections from his newly-released epic novel Flower of Iowa, a saga about World War I France in 1918 and two young soldiers – one from America, the other British – who unexpectedly find love together behind the battle lines. Chuck Muckle will sing songs from the period that appear in the book. In a Q&A afterwards, Ringel will examine the history of homosexuality in World War I.
The book is published as an e-book only and is available for purchase on the book’s site.

Reception at 7
Reading at 7:30
Suggested donation of $5 (No one will be turned away for lack of funds)
Beer, wine, and sparkling water will be available at a cash bar. Light snacks will also be available.

A journalist and writer for four decades, Lance Ringel has penned five novels and three plays. As editor of the Weekend section of the Taconic Newspapers in the Hudson Valley from 1996 to 1998, Ringel wrote theater and film reviews and maintained a weekly column. He served as Assistant Commissioner of Human Rights under New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Ringel currently resides in Poughkeepsie, New York, with his spouse of 37 years, actor-composer Chuck Muckle. Flower of Iowa is his first published work.

Something Way More Awesome: Trans Poets Perform
2014-06-25 19:00 - 22:00
A night of performance from a gaggle of sensational trans poets, featuring:

Phoenix Nastasha Russell

EC Crandall (and friends)

Charles Theonia

Paco Buenasnoches

Andy Eye

Cat Fitzpatrick

Charli Cleland

Mya Byrne

Kay Ulanday Barrett

J Mase III

Olympia Perez

Best Bi Short Stories--Book Release Party
2014-06-21 19:00 - 22:00
Best Bi Short Stories: Bisexual Fiction, edited by Sheela Lambert, is the first book of its kind, a literary anthology bringing together the very finest representations of bisexuality in fiction. This anthology offers a smorgasbord of genres that show bi characters through their own unique prism. Tonight’s reading will include:

Cecilia Tan: Dragon’s Daughter -speculative fiction

Sheela Lambert: Memory Lane -contemporary fiction

Kate Dureé: Companions -historical fiction-Medieval England

J.R. Yussuf: Face to Face -contemporary fiction

Florence Ivy: The Lottery -magical realism

Ann Herendeen: Pride/Prejudice -historical fiction-Regency England

Cut the Haters: a Showcase by Papercut Press
2014-06-20 19:00 - 23:00
In celebration of NYC Pride, Papercut Press is bringing together five queer artists who are bucking the system and creating their own ways to share their stories and art. The night marks the launch of the second edition of Max Schnuer‘s Estuaries #1, a hand-crafted comic book about the Staten Island Farm Colony, a former poorhouse that’s now a complex of ruins in New York City’s “forgotten borough.” Schnuer is joined by Acker Award winner Rami Shamir, the author of TRAIN TO POKIPSE, as well as writers Jillian McManemin and Francesca Normille and singer songwriter Frances Rex.

Lois Walden: Afterworld
2014-06-19 19:00 - 21:00
Lois Walden reads from her new novel, Afterworld. Meet four generations of the Duvalier family for whom sugar cane is both their blessing and their curse. From patriarch Carter, who perishes before the novel begins after being hit in the head by an exploding manhole cover, to his indomitable holy-roller wife, Lily, to their dysfunctional sons, Winston and Steven, and relations both dead and alive. Their story is rich, tragic, and funny. It steams and heaves with sugar, sex, drink, deviance and depravity.

Lois Walden is an American writer, singer, songwriter, librettist, record producer, performer, and teaching artist. The author of the novels One More Stop and Afterworld Lois Walden worked as a television writer in Hollywood with many major artists including Dionne Warwick, and Jane Fonda. As founder of the gospel group, The Sisters of Glory, she performed at Woodstock ’94 and at the Vatican for the Pope. She co-produced the group’s critically acclaimed album, Good News in Hard Times, for Warner Bros., as well as writing and co-producing her solo album, Traveller.
She was the lyricist for American Dreams Lost and Found, based on the book by Studs Terkel. Her life and music have been profiled on CBS Sunday Morning and Good Morning America. Her debut novel, One More Stop was a Lambda Literary Awards finalist and a Waterstones New Voices finalist. For the past 15 years Lois has travelled America for The Acting Company teaching teenagers in small towns and inner city schools how to tap into their emotions and understand their world through classic theatre and literature. She is currently co-writing the libretto for the Buddhist opera Mila, Great Sorcerer, and working on her third novel, Beyond Expectation.

Can We Come to the Table? - Stories About Gender Identity, Gender Expression, & Sexual Orientation
2014-06-15 19:00 - 22:00
Please join In Our Words Project for an evening of drink and performance of real stories from real people.
Can people from disparate views on LGBTQ issues come to meaningful consensus on the subject? And if so, how? These questions are answered through stories transcribed from interviews with people In Our Words Project Founder Alan L. Bounville met when he walked across the country for gender and sexual orientation equality. Through environmentally inspired staging, our actors will share some powerful, funny, and inspirational stories.
No matter how long you stay, everyone is sure to get a sneak peek of this entertaining and impacting piece of theatre. And please, bring some friends!

This event will directly support our upcoming New York City world-premiere production of: Can We Come to the Table? – Stories about Gender Identity, Gender Expression, & Sexual Orientation. A requested donation of $10 will be collected at the door, but no one will be turned away for inability to pay.

To learn more about In Our Words Project, visit our website: inourwordsproject.org

Alan L. Bounville (Founder and Script Curator) is a progressive-minded theatre for social change solo-performer, director, educator, and collaborator. He is also a civil rights activist. Earlier in 2013, Alan completed a 6,000-mile walk across North America to raise awareness for equality based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. During the walk he performed a solo interview-based play, When People Lead and now produces theatre, which is both engaging and designed to aid in social change efforts on a host of subjects.

Ron Dizon is native NYer and a graduate of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting Conservatory. Theatre credits include: Miss Saigon (Riverside Theatre); The Spanish Tragedy (Page / Genesis Repertory – Spotlight-On Awards Nominee: Best Supporting Actor); A Chorus Line (Paul/Broadhollow Regional Theater); The Choice (Charles/TNC’s Dream-Up Festival); Brecht in the Park (Elephant Run District); Glass Menagerie (Tom/ButterflyTheatre Co.). Ron has also performed at the Duplex in his sold-out one man show Transactions of Love and played Peaches in Simpatico – The Web Series. He starred in the indie film Rooftop Heist – which premiered at the 2012 Big Apple Film Festival, and can be seen next in the upcoming comedy short film, A Box Came to Brooklyn. www.rondizon.com

Adrian Gebhart (Actor) I’m a theater/film performer, as well as theater educator originally from Berkeley, CA. I’m especially interested in theater and film that is new, experimental, and/or LGBTQQIA-themed.

Ron Grimshaw (Director) is a New York based director, designer, and producer. Most recently Ron produced and directed Coffee/Evil, a new work as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Ron is also a founding member and artistic director of New York based ManTown Productions.

Beth Hintze (Intern) is a master’s candidate in Educational Theater in Colleges and Communities at The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Beth is a 2010 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Theater Production and History. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, games, and traveling.

Beth Maria is a working art teacher, musician, and stand up comedian.

Courtney Nolan Smith is thrilled to be a part of Can We Come To The Table? Originally from Massachusetts and a graduate of the University of Miami (BFA: Musical Theatre), she has performed with: Sierra Repertory Theatre, Ocean State Theatre Company, Cape Rep Theatre, Bristol Valley Theatre, Boston Children’s Theatre, Mt. Washington Valley Theatre Company and The Theatre Barn. Favorite credits include: PICk Love at The Rochester Fringe Festival, Cats (Grizabella), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Jolene), The Marvelous Wonderettes (Cindy Lou), The Full Monty (Estelle) and Enchanted April (Caroline). Thanks to Alan and Ron! www.courtneynolansmith.com

Book Launch for Pamela Sneed's Lincoln
2014-06-14 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the launch of Pamela Sneed‘s latest chapbook of poetry, Lincoln. Pamela will read from Lincoln and other new work, and will sign copies following the reading.

Pamela Sneed is a New York based poet and actress, featured in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Time Out, Bomb, VIBE, and on the cover of New York Magazine. She is author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, published by Henry Holt in April 1998 andKONG and other works published by Vintage Entity Press 2009. She has performed original works for sold out houses at Lincoln Center, P.S. 122, Ex-Teresa in Mexico City, The ICA London, The CCA in Glasgow Scotland, The Green Room in Manchester England, and BAM cafe. She has headlined the New Work Now festival at Joe’s Pub/Public Theater. In 2013, she performed at Central Park Summer Stage, The Whitney Museum of Art, Columbia University’s, “Geographies of Mass Incarceration.” In 2011, she performed in South Africa, in collaboration with the women’s organization FEW. She is a guest faculty member at Sarah Lawrence teachingWriting for Solo Performance and Solo Performance in Production. Her work is included in The 100 Best African American Poems edited by Nikki Giovanni. Her recent publications include work in Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays, Future Perfect, and LIU Teaching Narratives.

“Pamela Sneed’s latest ode breathes history, poetry, intellection, and mystery into the mouth of the world, making us, along with her characters and sensibility, sing, and sing.”

Hilton Als, Staff Writer, The New Yorker

What Is Queer Performance? Marissa Perel Workshop
2014-06-14 11:00 - 23:00
Queer theory meets the queer body in these workshops. This smattering of queer artists bridges queer writing practices with queer bodybased practices. Drawing upon the varied performative interests and inspirations of the teaching artists, the workshops touch upon text, sound, witchcraft, impulse, free association, and movement.
These workshops are for folks with none to a lot of performance experience. Come see what inspirations and mini-spectacles are always-already burgeoning in your queer bodies.
Workshops are $10 each, all money goes to support the teacher and the space. Drop-in or take all of them. Space is very limited, so pre-registration strongly encouraged. Please send an email with your name and a quick tidbit about yourself to whatisqueerperformance@gmail.com. Curated by Li Cata.
MARISSA PEREL / SAT JUNE 14TH / 11A – 1P

Touching Into Text
This class will combine somatic awareness with reading to create an embodied approach to understanding language. For each class a short selection of text will be presented for reading and discussion. Through exercises that draw from various somatic practices, and experiments made up by the instructor and participants, the class will play with ways of feeling language; bringing words and their meanings into an intimate experiential sphere. There is room in this class for contemplation, finding an individual pathway for movement and speech, and for giving space to the often daunting mind-body split. It’s possible that we will get emotional about language, that we will love or not love how some texts feel, and that we will invent radical interpretations of what we read. We will investigate who we are as bodies that are simultaneously reading and being read by others. The desired outcome of this class is that participants find possibilities for integrating language and movement in their artistic processes. Texts include selections from Judith Butler, Gregg Bordowitz, Susan Sontag, Faith Wilding, and Lucy Lippard among others

bio
Marissa Perel is an artist and writer based in New York. Her interdisciplinary work includes performance, installation, criticism and curatorial projects. She often uses collaboration as a platform for the exchange of disciplines, working methods and discourses with choreographers, composers and visual artists. She is interested in drawing from the polemics of identity and representation to create compositional models for performance and installation. She orchestrates an immersive world where text, objects, dance and video transmit experiences of personal and societal conflicts. Her materials are cathected objects, cues that connect an immediate physical and psychic state to past events. Her work has been shown at numerous galleries, theaters and performance spaces in the U.S. and abroad.
Perel asks, “How do we move across space and time with respect to our collected histories?” Her essays, reviews, experimental prose and interviews engage this question at the convergence of the fields of contemporary art and performance. She originated the column, “Gimme Shelter: Performance Now” for Art21 Magazine and edited Critical Correspondence, the on-line dance and performance journal of Movement Research. She also pursues this question in her curatorial work, seeking to bring visibility to a multitude of forms and discourses. She has curated performances, panels and talks at such venues as the New Museum, New York Live Arts and at the Aux Performance Space at Vox Populi where she recently served as Curatorial Fellow.
