BGSQD

Apogee Issue 6 Launch
2015-12-10 19:00 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | NY
Join us in celebrating the launch of Apogee Issue 06 with a reading featuring Derrick Austin, Chase Berggrun, Victoria Brown, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Soyini Ayanna Forde, Leila Ortiz, and Nina Puro.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Derrick Austin is the author of Trouble the Water, selected by Mary Szybist for the 2015 A. Poulin, Jr. Prize (BOA Editions, Spring 2016). A Cave Canem fellow, he earned his MFA from the University of Michigan. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry 2015, Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion, New England Review, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The Paris-American, Memorious, and other journals and anthologies. He is the Social Media Coordinator for The Offing.

Chase Berggrun is a genderqueer poet and the author of Discontent and Its Civilizations: Poems of Erasure, winner of the 2012 jubilat Chapbook Contest. Their work has been published or is forthcoming in inter|rupture, No Tokens, Cosmonauts Avenue, Cutbank, BOAAT, Beloit Poetry Journal, the anthology Time You Let Me In: 25 Under 25, and elsewhere. They are Poetry Editor at Washington Square Review, and an MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU.

Victoria Brown is the author of Minding Ben (Hyperion 2011), which was released in paperback as Grace in the City (2012). Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, New York Magazine,NBCnews.com, Sunday Salon, Moko Caribbean Arts and Letters, and in Perigee, Apogee Journal’s online blog. Her work is also forthcoming in Caribbean Quarterly.She teaches at the City University of New York and is currently at work on her second novel.

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is a Japanese-Chinese-British-American writer with an MFA from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop. Her work has been published in TriQuarterly, NPR’s Selected Shorts, The Tin House Open Bar, and The Indiana Review.

Soyini Ayanna Forde is an island grrl in Florida. She has poems and fiction included in MokoMagazine, SX Salon, The Caribbean Writer, Tongues of the Ocean, The Guidebook, St. Somewhere Journal and Black Renaissance Noire. Her poetry chapbook Taste of Hibiscus was published by Dancing Girl Press. She is very interested in West Indian identity and culture, diasporic connections, and what she can learn from the resilience of strong women.

Leila Ortiz is a poet and social worker in NYC public schools. Leila grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and now resides in Bay Ridge. Her poems can be found in No, Dear Magazine, Referential Magazine, Stone Canoe, and The Ledge. She received her MFA in Poetry from the Queens College Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation.

Nina Puro’s work can be found in Guernica, H_ngm_n, the PEN Poetry Series, and other places. A member of the Belladonna* Collaborative; the author of two forthcoming chapbooks (Argos Books and dancing girl press); and the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Syracuse University. Nina cries and works in Brooklyn.

TELL 19: Family
2015-12-11 19:00 - 22:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
Family is the theme of the nineteenth installment of TELL. Featuring Austin Hernandez, Poison Ivory, Tommy Pico, and Linda Saegert.

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

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

Austin Hernandez is an esé from SA. As a Tejano living in Brooklyn, his quest for decent tacos is never ending. His creative work is strongly influenced by his mom’s second-wave feminist leanings, working-class origins, riot grrrl, and complicated love of hip hop. A product designer by day and DJ by night, Austin is a recent recipient of The White House LGBTQ Tech and Innovation Fellowship for his work teaching and empowering low-income LGBTQ youth to learn programming skills. He spends his free time with headphones on, creating playlists and dancing on the subway.

Kevin Blumenthal Photography
Crowned Miss Starlet Burlesque at the Hollywood Burlesque Festival and winner of the Pennsylvania Burlesque Festival’s coveted Crystal Corset Award, Poison Ivory is a New York based burlesque performer who is beginning to make her mark. With a background in theater and dance, Ivory’s combination of thoughtful musicality, sultry expression and sensual movements always leaves her audience wanting more. (Pronounced I-vo-ree, Like the soap.)

TOMMY “TEEBS” PICO is the author of absentMINDR (VERBALVISUAL, 2014)—the first chapbook APP published for iOS mobile/tablet devices—was a Queer/Art/Mentors inaugural fellow, 2013 Lambda Literary fellow in poetry, and has poems in BOMB, Guernica, and [PANK]. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now lives in Brooklyn and co-curates the reading series Poets With Attitude (PWA) with Morgan Parker. @heyteebs

Linda Saegert is a butch who currently works in sales. Being a Gemini, has had many careers: social worker, nurse, retail store manager and French Chef! In love with the woman of their dreams, they have 6 dogs! Linda also has 2 grown sons. Linda considers themself Genderqueer.

Fiction Reading by Paul Russell
2015-12-12 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Paul Russell will read from his latest novel Immaculate Blue.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

To reserve a copy of Immaculate Blue, please contact us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Paul Russell is the author of seven novels, including Immaculate Blue, The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov and The Coming Storm. He is a two time winner of the Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction. His work has been translated into 14 languages.

After Meth: Rebuilding Your Life, Intimacy and Sex
2015-12-13 16:00 - 19:00 | NY
Join psychotherapist and sex therapist Dr. David Fawcett as he shares selections from his new book Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery and outlines a post-meth pathway to healthy sex and intimacy.
Based on years of clinical research and practice, Lust, Men, and Meth explains the perils of the “perfect storm” of methamphetamine, high-risk sex, and HIV, and how it has created an epidemic within the gay community. Fawcett will reveal how the drug commandeers desire by fusing an altered state with heightened sexuality. Most important, Lust, Men, and Meth offers hope, by describing a clear path to recovery and the restoration of healthy sex and intimacy.
Following a brief presentation, the author will have a discussion with audience members. Refreshments will be served and David will sign copies of his book.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
To reserve a copy of Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery please write to contact@bgsqd.com
Join us for a reception afterwards in Room 201B, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM catered by Richard Ferrara Event Planning & Catering

David Fawcett, PhD is a psychotherapist and writer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He specializes in gay men’s health and has worked with addictions and recovery for over thirty years. His writing about substance use, mental health, and HIV appears in TheBody.com and other journals, and he is a highly praised speaker and trainer, frequently presenting workshops both in the United States and internationally.

Union Square Slam presents PORSHA O and the Women of the World Poetry Slam FINALS
2015-12-14 18:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam presents PORSHA O and the Women of the World Poetry Slam FINALS
(Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays. We will open at 6 PM on Mondays for the Union Square Slam.)
We are quaking in our boots with excitement as we welcome our feature, the legendary Porsha O, and buckling our seatbelts for Union Square Slam’s first Women of the World Poetry Slam Finals!!!
There will be FOUR ROUNDS of competition tonight. Each poet will read in the 4 minute round and the 1 minute round. We will then cut to 5 poets to read in the 2 minute round. The Final Round is the top three poets reading a 3 minute poem.
Because of the length of competition tonight, we will be substituting our open mic with a few brief spotlight poets.
6:00pm: Free Writing Workshop, hosted by Sara Emily Kuntz
7:00pm: Spotlight Artists
7:30pm: Feature
8:00pm: Women of the World Poetry Slam Finals (invite only)
About our Feature:
Porsha Olayiwola is the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion. Black, poet, dyke-goddess, hip-hop feminist, womanist, friend: Porsha separates herself from the field of issue-based performance poets by applying advanced political analysis to examine injustice while providing perspective on concrete solutions A native of Chicago, Porsha now resides in Boston where she writes and teaches.

Celestial Body 3—Opening the Closed Doors: BDSM, Underground Sexuality . . . and God.
2015-12-16 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
“Is our often-censored urge towards sex and our great, undeniable urge towards a union with God . . . the same urge?” Perry Brass, The Substance of God.
CELESTIAL BODY 2 was a huge hit. More than 50 people came to discuss the link between sexuality and spirituality, between the body and the sacred. To talk about: What core feelings link queer sexuality, the outsider regions of BDSM and spirituality? Is submission spiritual? Is sexuality at its deepest point prayer? Does it link us directly to the God-force, part of a universal glue holding human feelings together?
The 3rd and final session of Celestial Body will talk about opening the closed doors in your psychic house—the doors leading to your Deeper Self, the authentic Self that loves you and stays with you your entire life.
Perry Brass (The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love, Belhue Press), hosts this discussion leading to the question: “Is God a lot kinkier than you thought?” Celestial Body is about finding depth, honesty, and truth in your life.
Attendance at previous two sessions not required—all are welcome.
Join us in this fascinating, life-expanding conversation.
Guest speakers include writer Donna Minkowitz on sex and God; trans and polyamory activist Kyle Applegate on submission to self, and others to be announced.
Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015 7 PM (half-hour mixer).
Program begins at 7:30 @ the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011.
For more info: belhuepress@earthlink.net
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Perry Brass has published 19 books, including poetry, novels, short fiction, science fiction, plays, and bestselling advice books (How to Survive Your Own Gay Life, The Manly Art of Seduction, The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love). Active in the movement toward lgbt rights (gay equality) since 1969, Brass’s work continuously deals with issues of sexual freedom, personal authenticity, and personal politics coming out of his involvement with the movement for gay liberation. He is especially interested in that connection between sexuality and spirituality; with the world of the body, the mind, and a deeper “soul” consciousness connecting the two. Aside from his books, poetry, plays, and essays, he also regularly blogs for the Huffington Post. For more information: www.perrybrass.com

Wonder (Wo)man
2015-12-17 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Questioning identity, sexuality, society, and reality: Dresden Castle invites all humanity to a night of art and wonderment featuring a very special preview screening of the incipient video diary A Doge’s Life, episode 1. A fundraiser for the future of fantasy, this event will open your eyes to the truth of your true power.
Reception to begin at 7:00pm
Performance at 7:30, followed by screening and Q&A.
Frivolity throughout.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

What's Normal Anyway book release party and comic reading
2015-12-18 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
A couple of the first thoughts Morgan Boecher had when coming out as a trans guy were:
1. Can I still have a happy life?
2. Well, I now have a cool story to tell.
After that, he wrote a comic. Morgan, creator of What’s Normal Anyway: a comic about being trans male, reads funny and heartfelt scenes from his comic, published by Kickstarter and now Scout Publishing, at this book launch party. What’s Normal Anyway discusses the trans male experience through the story of Mel, who takes the big risk of being himself and transitions from female to male. Stick around for a discussion and author signing after the performance!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Morgan Boecher has been making comics about all sorts ever since he was a youngster in Florida. His educational focuses were in anthropology, social work, and traveling the world. Now living in the New York City area, he uses his learning to market music festivals and create art.

Valerie Geffner
2015-12-19 20:00 - 22:00 | NY
Valerie Geffner will give a performance of original poetry and song.
Creatrix. vessel of expression . authentic. intense . super sensitive. soul full. powerful Valerie Geffner is excited to celebrate and honor 2015 and to the upcoming wonderful year.

Valerie Geffner is a graduate of the Juilliard School. classic theatre. has been on the stage her entire life. since elementary school, starring in musical theatre then going to a high school of performing arts, in long island. years later she taught performance coaching there and she still coaches people to free their voice and themselves and to authentically sing, share and be.

this show is dedicated to shamanic living miracle: Domonique Echeverria. soulmate. genuis. artist. fashion designer . icon. nighttime show girl.
Domonique recently survived a tragic accident and thank Good she is alive and miraculous healing.

Valerie Geffner will be wearing a green lace gown that Domonique hand made her and gifted her
(images of it on patrickmcmullan.com)

Domonique introduced Valerie to the Bureau, when Domonique had a fashion show/installatioin at Strange Loop Gallery, the Bureau’s first home. Valerie was a model for the live installation fashion show.

Valerie Geffner is now excited to be performing her original song and poetry at the Bureau.
for studio visits of The Valerie Galerie in soho: email: valeriegeffner@gmail.com
Valerie is on Facebook and instagram
Suggested donation of $5 for the performer.

Valerie Geffner is a multifaceted artist. The Creatrix. Based in NYC, she has recently completed her album “antenna” which she both wrote and produced. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Valerie has a background in theatre, film and tv. She is a magnificent artist, producing paintings and drawings as well as clothing and bags. Able to engage audiences everywhere, Valerie has been declared “a commanding presence” by the LA Times. She can deliver the classics as effectively as contemporary, pop, and avante garde electronica. interviewed by Deepak Chopra : https://soundcloud.com/valeriegeffner/deepak-chopra-and-valerie

Union Square Slam presents SARAEVE and Open Slam 2.1
2015-12-21 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is delighted to welcome SaraEve to feature at our first open slam of the second quarter!!
6:00pm: Free Writing Workshop
7:00pm: Sign-ups for Open Mic and Slam
7:15pm: Open Mic
7:35pm: Feature
8:00pm: Open Slam
Bureau of General Services-Queer Division
(located in the LGBT Center, 208 W 13th St, #210)
$5 // ALL AGES // 18 and under FREE
About our Feature:
SaraEve is a performance poet and epilepsy advocate from New Jersey. A 2015 Best of the Net nominee, she has performed for both local and national events, including the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam and for the Greater Los Angeles Epilepsy Foundation 2015 Care and Cure Benefit to End Epilepsy in Children. The Editor in Chief of Wicked Banshee Press and a Contributing Editor for Words Dance Magazine, her work can be found or is forthcoming in GERM Magazine, Words Dance Magazine, Drunk in a Midnight Choir and the University of Hell Anthology We Can Make Your Life Better: A Guidebook to Modern Living ,among others. Her first full length book, View From The Top of the Ferris Wheel, will be published be Emphat!c Press in 2015. She believes in the power of foxes and self publishing. Learn more here: https://saraeve41.wix.com/saraevepoet
About our Slam:
In order to represent Union Square Slam at any National Competition, you must meet the following requirements:
Be 18 years old or older (if you are under 18, you can still slam! We just can’t take you to national events)
Be an active member of PSI at the time of competition (register at www.poetryslam.com you cover your annual registration fee of $20 — questions? Talk to Cecily or the current slam manager)
Read, sign, and adhere to the PSI Code of Conduct
Participate in BOTH one New Shit Slam AND one Theme Slam during the current season (those going for IWPS may complete this requirement during the summer quarter)
::Union Square Slam National Team Competition::
There are 3 quarters of competitive poetry slam, each culminating in a Semifinal. Each quarter consists of six open slams (one or more of which is a New Shit slam — competition in New Shit slams counts towards your total points!)
Each open slam will :
consist of up to 8 poet competitors
have a 3 min time limit for each round with a 10-second grace period
will go from 8 in the first round to 5 in the second round and 3 in the third round (this is subject to change depending on the number of competitors that night — see below)
be scored cumulatively — the winner of the night will have the highest cumulative score from all three rounds.
At the end of each quarter, the poets with the 8 highest cumulative scores FOR THE QUARTER, are invited to compete in Semifinals. If a qualified poet opts out, then the next highest ranking poet qualifies. Semifinals are run using the same rules as the Open Slams. The top two highest ranked poets in each Semifinals bout will advance to Finals Stage, along with the top two winners of the Last Chance slam.

Closed for Christmas
2015-12-24 - 2015-12-25 | NY

Union Square Slam presents MCKENDY FILS-AIME and the HOLIDAY WHAT? Theme Slam
2015-12-28 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam presents MCKENDY FILS-AIME and the HOLIDAY WHAT? Theme Slam.
Need a break from all that Holiday Cheer? Got some choice words for the streetcorner Santa incessently ringing that tinny bell? Come on down to Union Square Slam for our Holiday What? theme slam, with none other than the brilliant boss McKendy Fils-Aime, hosted by Joanna Hoffman!!
(Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays. We open at 6 PM on Mondays for the Union Square Slam.)
6pm: Free Writing Workshop with Sara Emily Kuntz
7:00: Sign-ups
7:30: Open Mic
8:00pm: Feature
8:30pm: Slam

Bureau of General Services-Queer Division
(located in the LGBT Center, 208 W 13th St, #210)
$5 // ALL AGES // 18 and under FREE

About our Feature:
Mckendy Fils-Aime hails from Manchester, NH. He is the author of three self-published books of poetry and is currently working on a fourth. He is one of the organizers behind Slam Free or Die, NH’s most popular poetry open mic. The only thing Mckendy likes as much as poetry is his sneaker collection.

About our Slam:
For many of us, holiday season make us have ALL THE FEELINGS. Here’s a mic: let’s hear it!!! Dust off all your praise poems, odes, rants, gripes, celebrations, durges, toasts and bones to pick with the holidays, and bring them all to us! Or write some new ones! Or make them up on the spot!
All slammers who are competing to represent Union Square Slam nationally in 2016 and beyond, at either IWPS, WOWPS, or as part of the Union Square Slam Nationals Team, MUST participate in BOTH a New Shit Slam and a Theme Slam at any point during the slam season. (9/14/15 – 4/28/15). You may compete in any or all of these slams, whether or not you intend to go out for the team, however, preference may be given to competitors that have qualified for Semis or Finals.

::THEME SLAMS::
We have a variety of Theme Slams, meant to introduce different artistic elements, challenges, and inspiration to our work. Points will be recorded for the sake of naming a “winner”, however, these points do not count towards your total score for the quarter. Your participation in one Theme slam meets your requirement for Final Stage Participation. All theme slams will take up to 8 competitors, and will be ranked in an 8-5-3 cumulative fashion. Each round has a 3 min time limit unless otherwise stated.

Closed for New Year's Eve
2015-12-31 | NY

Closed for New Year's Day
2016-01-01 | NY

Union Square Slam presents MWENDE "FREEQUENCY" KATWIWA and Open Slam 2.2 (NEW SHIT SLAM)
2016-01-04 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Union Square Slam is starting off this New Year right and a NEW SHIT SLAM, featuring the New Orleans powerhouse Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa!!
(Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays. We open at 6 PM on Mondays for the Union Square Slam.)

6:00pm: Free Writing Workshop with Sara Emily Kuntz
7:00pm: Sign Ups
7:30pm: Open Mic
8:00pm: Feature
8:30pm: Slam
ALL AGES // $5
About our Feature:
Born in Kenya, Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa is a 24 yo Black, Immigrant, Queer, Womyn poet based in New Orleans, LA where she is the 2015 Grand Slam Champion. An award-winning spoken word and slam poet, FreeQuency is also an Anti-Racist and Reproductive Justice organizer who has spent most of her life living and writing at the intersection of art, serive, education, and activism.

About our Slam:
All slammers who are competing to represent Union Square Slam nationally in 2016 and beyond, at either IWPS, WOWPS, or as part of the Union Square Slam Nationals Team, MUST participate in BOTH a New Shit Slam and a Theme Slam at any point during the slam season. (9/14/15 – 4/28/15). You may compete in any or all of these slams, whether or not you intend to go out for the team, however, preference may be given to competitors that have qualified for Semis or Finals.
::NEW SHIT SLAMS::
New Shit is defined as:
– any piece of work that has not been heard on the USS mic.
– any work that has been on the USS mic that has been overhauled/edited (at least 50% new material)
We will take up to 8 poets in each New Shit Slam. The points you earn will be added to your total in the quarter (1,2 or 3) and help you in qualifying for that semifinal. Your participation in one New Shit slam, regardless of placement/score, meets your requirement for Final Stage Participation.

'We Are The Gentle Angry People': Emotional Legacies of South African LGBT Activism
2016-01-07 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Activist Kyle Bella writes:
“In November and December, I traveled to South Africa to explore LGBTQ activism around HIV/AIDS. I focused most of my work on Simon Nkoli, born in one of the townships outside of Johannesburg, who would later become the country’s first recognizable Black and gay activist. I would like to talk about his legacy, what it means for a younger generation of activists to access this material today, and explore what these emotionally charged histories can mean for us in the United States.”
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
This event is presented by the Bureau in conjunction with the Bureau’s exhibition The Uses of Anger.

Kyle Bella currently resides in Bushwick. He’s the founder of Our Viral Lives, an online archive of stories related to HIV and sexuality for an under 35 LGBTQ audience. He also writes for various publications, and is working on a book project about queer archiving in 2016.

Union Square Slam presents EIREAN BRADLEY and Open Slam 2.3
2016-01-11 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
All the way from Denver, Eirean Bradley will be leading us in a night of pure revelry!
6:00pm: Free Writing Workshop with Sara Emily Kuntz
7:00pm: Sign Ups
7:30pm: Open Mic
8:00pm: Feature
8:30pm: Slam
ALL AGES // $5

(Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays. We open at 6 PM on Mondays for the Union Square Slam.)

About our Feature:
Eirean Bradley is the multiple time pushcart award nominated author of two full length books of poetry the I in team and the little BIG book of go kill yourself on acclaimed independent press University of Hell. He is also the poetry curator for the online literary magazine Drunk in a Midnight Choir as well as being an editor for pop culture poetry stalwarts FreezeRay. He has been published in numerous journals and anthologies all over the place.
He is a decorated Slam Poetry veteran as well, having placed in the finals of the National Poetry Slam twice. He competed at nine national poetry slams and has only failed to make at least the semi finals once. He has toured all over the country and has featured in all 48 continuous states (yes, even North Dakota). He is well known for having a distinctly kinetic performance style and crowd pleasing approach which lends a frenetic energy to his humorous poems about really not humorous subject matter and has had numerous videos published online by well known websites Button Poetry and Poetry Slam International.

About our Slam:
In order to represent Union Square Slam at any National Competition, you must meet the following requirements:
Be 18 years old or older (if you are under 18, you can still slam! We just can’t take you to national events)
Be an active member of PSI at the time of competition (register at www.poetryslam.com you cover your annual registration fee of $20 — questions? Talk to Cecily or the current slam manager)
Read, sign, and adhere to the PSI Code of Conduct
Participate in BOTH one New Shit Slam AND one Theme Slam during the current season (those going for IWPS may complete this requirement during the summer quarter)
::Union Square Slam National Team Competition::
There are 3 quarters of competitive poetry slam, each culminating in a Semifinal. Each quarter consists of six open slams (one or more of which is a New Shit slam — competition in New Shit slams counts towards your total points!)
Each open slam will :
consist of up to 8 poet competitors
have a 3 min time limit for each round with a 10-second grace period
will go from 8 in the first round to 5 in the second round and 3 in the third round (this is subject to change depending on the number of competitors that night — see below)
be scored cumulatively — the winner of the night will have the highest cumulative score from all three rounds.
At the end of each quarter, the poets with the 8 highest cumulative scores FOR THE QUARTER, are invited to compete in Semifinals. If a qualified poet opts out, then the next highest ranking poet qualifies. Semifinals are run using the same rules as the Open Slams. The top two highest ranked poets in each Semifinals bout will advance to Finals Stage, along with the top two winners of the Last Chance slam.

Fundamental Awareness: Source of Mind and Matter
2016-01-13 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
A Bureau Fundraising Event!
Does mind make the world? In his lively, conversational way, Dr. Neil Theise explores the nature of consciousness and its relationship to us and to the cosmos through the three lenses of contemporary science, Western philosophy, and diverse metaphysical systems.
From this, he will lead us to an integrative model called Fundamental Awareness as the substratum from which the world emanates, providing a set of concepts to potentiate cross-talk between these varied world-views.
Videos of Dr. Theise engaging these topics can be viewed at:
https://vimeo.com/44013533
https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/neil-theise/profile

Suggested donation of $20 to benefit the Bureau (no one turned away for lack of funds).

Neil Theise is a physician-scientist, complexity theorist, contemplative (senior student of Roshi Enkyo O’hara, Village Zendo), and now (apparently!) philosopher. He is a diagnostic liver pathologist at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC. He is considered a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity with publications in the highest level scientific journals such as Science, Nature, and Cell. Those studies have taken him further and deeper into the nature of existence, a journey which he will be exploring in this talk.
Videos of Dr. Theise engaging many of these topics can be viewed at:
https://vimeo.com/44013533
https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/neil-theise/profile

Bi Book Club discusses Static, by L.A. Witt
2016-01-14 18:30 - 20:00 | NY
The Bi Book Club meets on the second Thursday of each month to discuss bi-themed books and the issues they raise.
Dinner after nearby (so far, we always go to Village Den.)
Our book for January: Static, by L.A. Witt. (We suggest you buy or order your copy from our host, BGSQD.)
After two years together, Alex has been dreading the inevitable moment when Damon learns the truth: that Alex is a shifter, part of a small percentage of the population able to switch genders at will. Thanks to a forced implant, though, Alex is suddenly static—unable to shift—and male. Overnight, he’s out to a world that neither understands nor tolerates shifters . . . and to his heterosexual boyfriend.
Damon is stunned to discover his girlfriend is a shifter, and scared to death of the dangers the implant poses to Alex’s health. He refuses to abandon Alex, but what about their relationship? Damon is straight, and with the implant both costly and dangerous to remove, Alex is stuck as a man.
Stripped of half his identity and facing serious physical and social ramifications, Alex needs Damon more than ever, but he doesn’t see how they can get through this.
Especially if he’s static forever.
Pick out some phrases, paragraphs or scenes that you’d like to discuss, give us your critique of the book: what worked, what didn’t, how was bisexuality represented? If you haven’t had the chance to read the book, come anyway because we read passages aloud for discussion. As usual, we’ll also be using the text as a jumping off point to further discussion of bisexual issues and personal experiences.

RSVP on meetup.com (not required)

Tongues Untied
2016-01-15 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
“Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act” ~Marlon Riggs
Please join us for a special screening of Marlon Riggs’ groundbreaking semi-documentary film Tongues Untied. Mixing poetry, music and performance art, Marlon grants us a glimpse into the complex lives of black gay men. As they navigate racism, homophobia, marginalization and create culture. The lives of black gay men as told by black gay men with all their style and fierceness. It’s time you learned how to snap like a diva.
After the film, please join us for a conversation with Pamela Sneed, Stephen Winter, and Bill Coleman, moderated by Sean Apparicio and Jim Fouratt.
This event is organized by Sean Apparicio and presented by the Bureau in conjunction with the Bureau’s exhibition The Uses of Anger.
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Sean Apparicio is the founder of One+Love. One+Love is a geo-local mobile LGBT community center—connecting users to local events, supportive online community, entertainment, lifestyle and news that reflect and celebrate diverse sexual and gender identities.
Before forming One+Love, Sean was multidisciplinary creative director specializing in digital media, commercial direction, Branding and Marketing Strategy. He has over 17 years of award winning industry experience. He’s re-launched multiple brands, strengthened their visual identity and introduced current trends in technology to develop solutions for his clients. Most notably, under his direction, the BET Redesign won 11 Tellys and a Promax/BDA Diverse Voices Award.
Sean has worked for over 26 years as an advocate and activist for LGBTQ issues. He’s done outreach and community organizing with the Audre Lorde Project, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and TransJustice. He has worked as a life coach at the Ali Forney Center; raised hell with ACT UP to raise HIV/AIDS awareness; mentored LGBTQ youth and lectured at UC Berkeley regarding coming out in the age of AIDS; provided safer sex education via the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project; served in a harm reduction center for at-risk clients; and has worked to become a griot of U.S. LGBTQ history.

BILL COLEMAN [Peace Bisquit]
Multi-faceted DJ, producer, remixer, music supervisor, performer, recording artist, writer and influential tastemaker Bill Coleman is renowned for his eclectic taste, acute ear and diverse musical expertise.
The tireless “renaissance man” has enjoyed success as a revered music journalist (Dance and Singles Reviews Editor for Billboard Magazine ’87 -’90), has written a music column for NYC style rag PAPER, sat on the initial editorial board for OUT Magazine and freelanced for numerous international media outlets such as the BBC and BET.
As the owner of Peace Bisquit, Coleman celebrates 25 years heading up the popular Brooklyn-based entertainment company representing an array of genre-defying artists and producers including: Ultra Naté, Amanda Lepore, French Horn Rebellion, Cazwell, Jill Jones and Cazwell. Peace Bisquit are also often recognized for their part in discovering and developing the influential, platinum-selling trio Deee-lite (“Groove Is In The Heart”).
Throughout the years, the much in-demand maestro has music supervised / sound designed for various films (“Party Girl,” “Beyond The Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater”, “Inside Deep Throat”, “Party Monster”), fashion shows (Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Marc Bouwer, DIFFA), Broadway premieres (Evita, The Color Purple, After Midnight), art installations (Deitch), nightclubs (Cielo, CBGB’s, Limelight, APT, Santos Party House, Ministry of Sound, SOB’s, Sound Factory, The Tunnel, Save The Robots, Pyramid, The Shelter) and special events (Lady Gaga’s inaugural Fame Ball, amFAR’s Inspiration Gala, Bowie Ball, Silent Disco at Lincoln Center).
Bill has lent he and his company’s talents, A&R and consultancy services to such esteemed clients as Bette Midler, Tom Tom Club, A&E Network, Beyoncé, Radiohead, The Kennedy Center, Sinead O’Connor, PETA, World of Wonder, Neneh Cherry, Swing Out Sister and Lenny Kravitz.
On top of that…Bill has found morsels of time over the years to spearhead late night performances by electropunk dance renegades, Daisy Spurs; has been a member of NY club art denizens The Dazzle Dancers; was inducted into Next Magazine’s Nightlife Hall Of Fame (Class of 2013) and is an occasional member of Grammy Award winner Jody Watley’s touring band!

https://www.youtube.com/user/peacebisquit
https://www.facebook.com/PeaceBisquit/
https://soundcloud.com/peace-bisquit
https://instagram.com/peacebisquit/

https://twitter.com/peacebisquit

https://www.peacebisquit.com/

The DJ Bill Coleman Podcasts:
https://peacebisquit.podomatic.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dj-bill-coleman-podcast/id291115649?mt=2

Jim Fouratt has been a political and cultural activist all his life . Broadway, Pacifica , Mercury Records, nightlife instigator (Hurrah, Danceteria, Pepperlitz, Studio 54 etc) featured guest Colbert Report , Charlie Rose, Stonewall Rebellion participant, Gay Liberation Front, Heal/Wipe Out AIds, pub SPIN, Rolling Stone, Village Voice etc etc, Founding Editor New Times.

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.

STEPHEN WINTER is an award winning filmmaker who has worked with Steve Harvey, Lee Daniels, John Cameron Mitchell, Xan Cassavetes, John Krokidas, David France, Gus Van Sant and Jonathan Caouette. Stephen’s new film as writer/director “Jason and Shirley” (2015) a fictionalized imagining of the 1966 Chelsea Hotel filming of “Portrait of Jason” with Sarah Schulman as Shirley Clarke and Jack Waters as Jason Holliday was called “One of the year’s finest” by Richard Brody in The New Yorker and played for two sold out weeks at the Museum of Modern Art.

TELL 20: The Dead
2016-01-16 19:00 - 22:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
The Dead is the theme of the twentieth installment of TELL. Featuring Heather M. Ács, Susana Cook, Melissa Febos, and Svetlana Kitto.

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

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

Photo by Alison Picard

HEATHER M. ÁCS is a Brooklyn-based, multi-media theatre performance artist, activist, curator, educator and high-femme troublemaker. Her work has been featured in festivals, theatres, and galleries across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including Vauxhall Tavern in London, Les Complices Gallery in Zurich, W2 Gallery in Vancouver, B.C., and the Public Theater, HERE Arts Center, the Kitchen, Dixon Place, the Culture Project, and the International Fringe Festival in New York City.
She performs and facilitates workshops at community spaces, colleges and conferences, past engagements include: Duke University, multiple Femme Conferences, and volunteer projects with LGBTQ youth at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York City.

Heather has worked with Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Nao Bustamante, Karen Finley, Lois Weaver, Claude Michelle-Wampler, and J. Ed Araiza of the SITI Company. She has also collaborated on projects with the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, the Department of Transformation, and MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival. Heather is the Co-Producer of the Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow, now in its fourth year.

Film credits include Building No. 7, dir. Steven Soderbergh; blink, dir. Silas Howard, co-starring Ben Foster; Valencia (the movies): Chapter 9 based on the novel by Michelle Tea; and most recently,Sunset Stories, an official 2012 South by Southwest Selection.

Heather is also a dedicated teaching artist. She uses theatre as a tool for social change with low-income youth in cities across the country and has studied with Cornerstone Theatre Company, Sojourn Theatre, the Living Theatre, and Augusto Boal. Heather can be contacted via email at acs.heather@gmail.com.

Born in Argentina, Susana Cook is a New York based playwright, director and performer who has been presenting original work for over 30 years. Her work is bold and funny, sometimes surrealistic and poetic, cleverly tackling issues of social justice. She approaches her theater as a ritualistic transformative force. Her most recent work focuses on the fluidity of presence and absence, life and death.
Her work has been presented in numerous performance spaces in New York City, including Dixon Place, W.O.W Cafe Theater and The Kitchen. She also teaches and performs internationally in Spain, France, India, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Canada.
Some of her latest shows are : Conversations with Humans, We Are Caligula, The Funeral of the Cow, The Homophobes, The Fury of the Gods, Homeland Insecurities, The idiot King, The Values Horror Show, 100 Years of Attitude, Dykenstein, Hamletango, Prince of Butches, Gross National Product, Hot Tamale, Conga Guerrilla Forest, The Fraud, Butch Fashion Show in the Femme Auto Body Shop, Rats: The Fantasy of Extermination and Tango Lesbiango.
Her work is archived at the Digital Video Library of The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics of New York University.

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press 2010), and the forthcoming essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury 2017). Her work has appeared in venues including The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Glamour, Post Road, Salon, New York Times, Guernica, Hunger Mountain,Portland Review, Electric Literature, Dissent, Poets & Writers, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, Bitch Magazine, and Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, and she has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, Anderson Cooper Live, CNN’s Dr. Drew, and elsewhere. Her essays have won prizes from Prairie Schooner, Story Quarterly, and The Center for Women Writers, and she is the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and The MacDowell Colony. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Monmouth University and MFA faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). She serves on the Board of Directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, and co-curated the Manhattan reading and music series, Mixer, for eight years. The daughter of a sea captain and a psychotherapist, she was raised on Cape Cod and lives in Brooklyn.

Svetlana Kitto is a writer and oral historian in New York City. Her fiction, journalism and essays have appeared in Salon, VICE, the New York Observer, the Huffington Post, ART21, OutHistory, Plenitude and the book Occupy (Verso, 2012) among other publications and anthologies. She has contributed oral histories to the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, and the Museum of Arts and Design. She is currently at work on a novel called Purvs, which means “swamp” in Latvian, and is the name of that country’s first gay club.

Union Square Slam presents Shira E. and the Say Their Name Slam!
2016-01-18 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
The incomparable SHIRA E. will be gracing us all with her magnificence!
(Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays. We open at 6 PM on Mondays for the Union Square Slam.)
6 pm: Free Writing Workshop
7 pm: Sign-ups for Open Mic and Slam
7:15 pm: Open Mic
7:35 pm: Feature
8:00pm: Open Slam
Bureau of General Services-Queer Division
(located in the LGBT Center, 208 W 13th St, #210)
$5 // ALL AGES // 18 and under FREE
About Our Feature:
Shira Erlichman is a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Israel and immigrated to the US when she was six. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her work can be found in The Huffington Post, Psychology Tomorrow, BuzzFeed, NPR, Bust Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, and Winter Tangerine Review, among others. She received her BA from Hampshire College & a James Merrill Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center. As a musician she’s shared stages with Tune-Yards, Mirah, Andrea Gibson, & Coco Rosie. Learn more at www.shirae.com
About Our Slam:
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, poems read tonight are in tribute to those murdered by police or vigilantes and the ongoing work towards justice, equality, and freedom.
We have a variety of Theme Slams, meant to introduce different artistic elements, challenges, and inspiration to our work. Points will be recorded for the sake of naming a “winner”, however, these points do not count towards your total score for the quarter. Your participation in one Theme Slam meets your requirement for Final Stage Participation. All theme slams will take up to 8 competitors, and will be ranked in an 8,5,3 cumulative fashion. Each round has a 3 minute time limit unless otherwise stated.

Opening Reception for Benjamin Fredrickson: Salon
2016-01-21 18:00 - 21:30 | NY
Please join us for the opening reception for Benjamin Fredrickson: Salon
Organized by Daniel Cooney Fine Art
On view at the Bureau: January 20 — March 20, 2016
Download Press Release

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and Daniel Cooney Fine Art are very pleased to present New York City artist Benjamin Fredrickson’s solo exhibition at the Bureau’s space in The LGBT Community Center on 13th Street. This exhibition coincides with Fredrickson’s collaborative exhibition with Juan Betancurth at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in Chelsea.
The exhibition, titled Salon, will feature previously unseen Polaroid photographs and new images made with paper negatives. Fredrickson’s early work documents his sexual life and his community of gay men. His new work, while less explicit, unexpectedly offers deep intimacy and beauty among his subjects. Fredrickson relies on his intuition while working with his subjects and achieves an ephemeral quality that is unique to this new work.
Fredrickson himself appears in many of his own images as part of the culture he photographs as his work is highly autobiographical. He photographs other men but he never photographs “the other”, instead he is interested in revealing himself, his humanity and his vision of the world around him. His photographs are loving and honest, brimming with sexual desire. Many of his subjects look directly at the camera, all of them are aware that they are being looked at and gladly present themselves for that purpose.
The consistent theme throughout Fredrickson’s images continues to be a longing for human connection, either by sexual interaction or through the act of photographing and being photographed. He makes himself vulnerable and in turn his subjects reveal themselves for his camera and the viewer’s gaze.

Fredrickson graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2003 and moved to New York City in 2010. He has been included in the Museum of Art and Design’s “New York Makers”, group exhibitions at Darkroom Gallery, La Mama Galleria in addition to collaborations with Visual AIDS. His work has been published in Apartamento, BUTT, Capricious, Dazed and Confused, and Pin-Up. He is represented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art.

Image: Benjamin Fredrickson, Dog, 10 x 8″. Gelatin silver print.

The Bureau will host a conversation between Benjamin Fredrickson and Hunter O’Hanian, Director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, on Thursday, February 18, at 7 PM.

Benjamin Fredrickson
Born: 1980 Minneapolis, MN
Lives and Works: New York, NY
Solo Exhibitions:

Benjamin Fredrickson, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, NY, January 8 – February 28th, 2015
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, NYC Makers: the MAD Biennial, July 1-October 12, 2014
The Darkroom Gallery, Vermont Junction, VT, XY; Masculinity in Photography, July 17- August 10, 2014
La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY, Ephemera as Evidence – Visual AIDS Exhibition, June 5-29, 2014
Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, NY, All the World’s a Stage, group exhibition with Bear Kirkpatrick and Rachel Stern. April 3-May 22, 2014
Luhrig Augustine Gallery, New York, NY, 16th Annual Postcards from the Edge, January 25-26, 2014
Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 15th Annual Postcards from the Edge, January 25-27, 2013
David Louis Fierman Projects, Brooklyn, NY, His and Hers: Lucas Michael and Benjamin Fredrickson,Two person exhibition of drawings and photographs. October 1-November 15, 2010
Lectures & Performances:
Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY, Play Smart Together: Artist Talk and Launch, February 20, 2014
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, Benjamin Fredrickson, Artist, December 2011
Special Projects:
Play Smart IV Trading Cards, Visual AIDS, 2014
Education:
BFA, Photography. Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2003
Advanced Studies, Photography. Paris College of Art, 2001

Canceled! Paper Cuts Zine Reading
2016-01-22 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
As of 2:30 PM, on Friday, January 22nd, The LGBT Community Center is closed until further notice due to a water main break. So the Bureau is now closed and our events for tonight, Friday, January 22, and tomorrow, Saturday, January 23, will be rescheduled. We will post updates, so stay tuned…
Paper Cuts is an exploration of the contemporary world of zines and DIY publishing that airs on Clocktower.org. In 2015, Paper Cuts took the show on the road in a monthly reading series that’s touring independent bookstores in New York. We feature writers, zinesters, artists, and performers who typically share their work in print, on paper, and in small editions. This series is a cross section of the varied landscape and rich history of publishing and the institutions that support it. Listen to voices that would normally live in your hands and demand your eyeballs.
Readers:
Paul Moreno
Arno Mokros
Posture // Winter Mendelson and M. Lamar
Sy Abudu
Nicholas Boggs

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Event image: Drawing by Paul Moreno
Sy Abudu is from Los Angeles and lives in Brooklyn, where she creates visual art and zines under the moniker great/grand/golden. Her work, which has been shown at the Black Lesbian DIY Fest, the Feminist Zine Fest, and the Allied Media Conference, features archival images from the Library of Congress “remixed” into new pieces that explore themes of visibility, African-American identity, and relationships through the lens of historical imagery. Sy earned her BFA in film & television from NYU, where she now works as a multimedia producer.
Nicholas Boggs is writing a book about his search for the untold story of James Baldwin’s collaboration with French painter Yoran Cazac, which has been supported by fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell and grants from the Camargo and Jerome foundations. Co-editor of a forthcoming new edition of Baldwin and Cazac’s “child’s story for adults,” Little Man Little Man: A Story of Childhood, his writing has appeared in the journals PANK and Callaloo and in the anthologies James Baldwin Now, The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin, and Best Gay Stories 2013. He teaches in the Department of English at New York University.
Arno Mokros is an aspiring art historian invested in the personal as political. He creates zines exploring queerness, art, and how histories are written. He graduated from Smith College in 2013, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Paul Moreno was born in Sparks, NV. Studied Literature at University of San Francisco and then moved to New York to attend the Gallatin School of Independent Study at NYU. After an early departure from a program in Critical Thought, Paul pursued careers as a Gallerina, a Home-maker, and most recently, a set and prop stylist. Throughout these careers, Paul, a self taught visual artist, has been making drawings, paintings, and zines that deal with sexual positions, tropes of masculinity, and notions of beauty. Paul, in collaboration with Charlie Welch, is the creator of KNOWSGAY, a zine that takes an artistic approach to gay iconography. Paul lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Posture is an online and print arts publication that explores identity, sexuality, and gender through artistic practice. The publication features extraordinary LGBTQI and allied individuals who seek to simultaneously address and overcome oppression. They believe that visual activism, fashion, and artistic practice are powerful forces that can further cultural progress and build community. Posture’s audience is unified by the shared interpretation of queerness as a lifestyle that is defined by an openness to possibility rather than exclusions or boundaries.
Posture’s featured artist for the Zine Reading is M. Lamar.

Canceled! January Moon Show in Manhattan
2016-01-23 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
This event has been re-scheduled for Friday, February 5th!
The Moon Show is excited to be expanding its series to the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in Manhattan which is wheel chair accessible!
Starting at 7 pm
Featuring:
Valerie Brooks, poetry
Maxine Montilus, dance
Sunny Wilder, poetry
Noia Isaiah, music
Kiki Williams, performance
Frances Damian Arpaia, film
The Moon Show is a queer, trans, anti-racist, intersectional feminist performance series.
We will be asking for a $5-15 suggested donation for the performers. No one will be made to feel unwelcome for lack of funds. There are plenty of chairs for everyone to sit.
https://ourmoonshow.tumblr.com/

Union Square Slam presents PAULIE LIPMAN and Open Slam 2.4
2016-01-25 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Come get warm with Denver’s own hometown hero/National Poetry Slam Veteran/Wild Wild Word Wizard Paulie Lipman and our 4th open slam of the second quarter!!!
(Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays. We open at 6 PM on Mondays for the Union Square Slam.)
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

6pm: Free Writing Workshop with Sara Emily Kuntz
7pm: Sign-ups
7:30pm: Open Mic
8pm: Feature
8:30pm: Slam
About Our Feature:
Paulie Lipman is a Jewish/Queer/Writer out of Denver, CO. He has toured the U.S. extensively (and a little bit of Canada) performing poetry, is the voice of Neal Cassady in the documentary ‘Neal Cassidy: The Denver Years’, and has had work appear in The Legendary, Radius, Borderline, Drunk In A Midnight Choir, The Write Bloody Publishing anthologies ‘The Good Things About America’ and ‘We Will Be Shelter’, and the upcoming University Of Hell anthology ‘We Can Make Your Life Better’.He has been a member of 9 Denver Mercury Slam teams, including 2004’s 2nd place finishers and 2015’s 4th place finishers.

About Our Slam:
::Union Square Slam National Team Competition::
There are 3 quarters of competitive poetry slam, each culminating in a Semifinal. Each quarter consists of six open slams (one or more of which is a New Shit slam — competition in New Shit slams counts towards your total points!)
Each open slam will :
– consist of up to 8 poet competitors
– have a 3 min time limit for each round with a 10-second grace period
– will go from 8 in the first round to 5 in the second round and 3 in the third round (this is subject to change depending on the number of competitors that night — see below)
– be scored cumulatively — the winner of the night will have the highest cumulative score from all three rounds.
At the end of each quarter, the poets with the 8 highest cumulative scores FOR THE QUARTER, are invited to compete in Semifinals. If a qualified poet opts out, then the next highest ranking poet qualifies. Semifinals are run using the same rules as the Open Slams. The top two highest ranked poets in each Semifinals bout will advance to Finals Stage, along with the top two winners of the Last Chance slam.

Gay Art and History at the Louvre Museum
2016-01-28 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Certain American museums, like the Met or the MFA in Boston, have great collections of art on gay themes. There are also of course museums like this in Europe, and the greatest of all is the Louvre. Its excellent Greek, Roman, and Italian Renaissance collections are full of works that refer to the gay side of their cultural moments, such as the museum’s *four* statues or busts of the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s lover Antinous and the most rapturously languorous of Michelangelo’s captives. The museum also contains great collections of French historical pieces and patriotic works of the Napoleonic period, and both of these also contain fascinating gay themed works. A gay tour of the museum turns up many surprises and speaks to us of many centuries of gay history.

Image: Michelangelo Buonarroti. Captive (The Rebellious Slave). Marble. After 1513. H. 2.09 m. Louvre

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau.
No one turned away for lack of funds.

Dr. Andrew Lear is a world renowned expert on sexuality in ancient art and the author of Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods (Routledge 2008). He is also the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the world’s first gay history and art tour company. Oscar Wilde Tours gives gay art tours of the Metropolitan Museum, called “Gay Secrets of the Met” and will launch a gay tour of the Louvre this August as part of its Gay London/Gay Paris tour.

New Gay Fiction: Cardamone, Graves, Hoffman
2016-01-29 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Tom Cardamone, Michael Graves, and Wayne Hoffman will read from their new works of gay fiction.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Please contact the Bureau in advance to reserve books: contact@bgsqd.com

Tom Cardamone is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning speculative novella Green Thumb and the erotic fantasy novel The Werewolves of Central Park as well as the novella Pacific Rimming. His short story collection,Pumpkin Teeth, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and Black Quill Award. Additionally, he has edited The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered and the anthology Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy!, which was nominated for the Over The Rainbow List by the LGBT Round Table of the American Library Association. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, some of which have been collected on his website: www.pumpkinteeth.net.

Night Sweats: Tales of Homosexual Wonder and Woe

Set in Japan, small town America, midnight Manhattan, ancient Greece, Rome, and beyond, these stories run the gamut of urban nightmare, gay love lost and found, dragons, super villains, a fairy addicted to meth, and Satan on the subway. Readers of Night Sweats will find tales that push boundaries while supplying ample scares, erotic thrills, much wonderment, and some woe.

Michael Graves is the author of Dirty One, a collection of short stories. This book was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and an American Library Association Honoree. His fiction and poetry has been featured in numerous literary publications. Connect with him at www.michaelgravesauthor.com

Parade
Reggie Lauderdale suffers from a crisis of faith. His cousin, Elmer Mott, dreams of becoming their hometown mayor. Both boys are stuck in suburbia trying to be adults… but they aren’t sure how to be themselves yet. When a twist of fate sends them fleeing in a stolen limousine, the cousins escape to Florida where they meet a retired televangelist, who inspires them on a path of glitzy sermons and late night parties. But are the celebrations sincere or deceptive? And who is keeping tabs? Who is watching?
Parade is a tour-de-force, comic tale of religion and government.

Wayne Hoffman is the author of three books—HARD, SWEET LIKE SUGAR (winner of the Stonewall Book Award), and AN OLDER MAN. His essays and short stories have appeared in such collections as BEST GAY STORIES 2010, FRESH MEN 2, and MAMA’S BOY. As a cultural reporter, he has written for the Washington Post, Village Voice, The Nation, Billboard, and Instinct magazine; he is currently executive editor of Tablet magazine. He lives in the West Village and the Catskills.

AN OLDER MAN is about a gay man struggling to come to terms with getting older, while he searches for love and sex in Provincetown. Jeff Mann (CUB) called the book “as much a touching examination of aging and loneliness as it is a witty tale of sexual shenanigans during Provincetown’s Bear Week.” AN OLDER MAN is a sequel to Wayne’s debut novel, HARD.

The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics
2016-01-30 14:00 - 16:00 | NY
Please join us for a public discussion of The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics. The New Mutants explores the queer history of superhero comics in the late 20th century; with case studies on The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Silver Surfer, and Captain America among many others, the book explores how mainstream comics engaged with the left-wing politics of women’s and gay liberation, black power, and third world movements since the 1950s. Author Ramzi Fawaz will join scholars and cultural critics Rebecca Wanzo (U of Washington, St. Louis) and Alexandro Segade to discuss queerness, comics, and the politics of popular culture. The conversation will include a Q&A with the audience.

To reserve a copy of The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (NYU Press) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Ramzi Fawaz is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (NYU Press: Fall 2015), which received the 2012 Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Fellowship award for best first book manuscript in LGBT Studies. His research and writing has been published in GLQ, American Literature, Callaloo, and Anthropological Quarterly.

Alexandro Segade is a video and performance artist whose collaborative works use theater, genre, play and spectacle to confront conditions of mediation, alienation, identification and difference. Founder of the collective My Barbarian, which received the 2013 Foundation For Contemporary Art award for performance and had video and performance included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Segade has co-directed the group since 2000. Segade leads classes on performance art internationally, most recently on a pedagogical workshop project in Jerusalem funded by Creative Capital. He currently teaches part-time at Parsons the New School, and serves as faculty for Film/Video MFA program at the Milton Avery School of the Arts, Bard College.

Rebecca Wanzo is Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Associate Director of the Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St Louis. Her first book, The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling was published by SUNY in 2009. She has published essays on African American literature and comics, race and child abduction, black women film and television performers, and the role of feelings in police brutality discourse.

Feminists Read (and Watch): Carol, or The Price of Salt
2016-01-31 18:00 - 20:30 | NY
Lost your hearts to Carol? Desperate to discuss, analyze, gush?
We can relate.
Stop swooning and join us for our next meeting of Feminists Read (and Watch).
We will be discussing Carol – the book AND the movie. Once again, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division has graciously agreed to host us. See you there!
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Purchase a copy of The Price of Salt (AKA Carol), by Patricia Highsmith, from the Bureau! Write to us to reserve a copy: contact@bgsqd.com.
