Closed for Juneteenth!
2024-06-19 | NY
Happy Juneteenth! Both the Bureau and The Center will be closed for the holiday on Wednesday, June 19th.

CURATOR TOURS: Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau (in person only)
2024-06-20 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Juno Rosenhaus, co-curator and founder of the Dyke+ ArtHaus, for an in-person tour of the over 60 artworks by Dyke Artists 40 and elder in the Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau exhibition. Learn about the Dyke+ ArtHaus, the exhibiting artists, and where this exhibition sits in the lineage of Dyke Art Shows. Curator Tours will occur on the following dates:
● Thursday, June 20, 1-2pm (also with co-curator Lola Flash)
● Thursday, June 27, 1-2pm

Check out the exhibition website at:

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

Book Launch: Unsettling Queer Anthropology, Margot Weiss with Martin Manalansan and Shaka McGlotten (in person & live-streaming)
2024-06-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join editor Margot Weiss and contributors Martin F. Manalansan IV and Shaka McGlotten for the launch of Unsettling Queer Anthropology. A brief reading will be followed by a conversation about new queer of color, decolonizing, and abolitionist approaches to queer studies and queer ethnography.

About the book:
A field-defining volume, Unsettling Queer Anthropology foregrounds the brilliance of a queer anthropology grounded in decolonial, abolitionist, Black feminist, transnational, postcolonial, Indigenous, and queer of color approaches—and accountable to the vitality of queer and trans life.

“If you think you know queer anthropology, think again: Margot Weiss and the contributors to this volume shake up, mess with, and reinvigorate conversations about the possibilities and limits of queer anthropology for the twenty-first century. Unsettling Queer Anthropology is a timely, vital, and very necessary read for anyone engaged in queer and/or anthropological studies.”
— David A.B. Murray

To reserve a copy of Unsettling Queer Anthropology (Duke University Press, May 17, 2024, paperback, $29.95), please write to contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Unsettling Queer Anthropology for June 20” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Margot Weiss is the editor of Unsettling Queer Anthropology: Foundations, Reorientations, and Departures, which came out in May 2024 from Duke University Press. Her other books include Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality and Queer Then and Now: The David R. Kessler Lectures (coedited with Debanuj DasGupta and Joseph Donica). She is currently finishing a book entitled Desiring Otherwise: Transformative Knowledges of Queer Left Activism. She teaches anthropology and queer studies at Wesleyan University.

Martin F. Manalansan IV is the author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora and the forthcoming Queer Dwellings: Mess, Mesh, Measure. He has edited several collections, including Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America and Beauty and Brutality: Manila and Its Global Discontents. He is the president of the Association for Asian American Studies, and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University. Before his academic career, he worked for ten years at the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

Shaka McGlotten is the author of Dragging: Or, in the Drag of a Queer Life and Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect, and Queer Sociality, as well as coeditor of Black Genders and Sexualities (with Dana-ain Davis) and Zombies and Sexuality (with Steve Jones). Their work has been supported by Data and Society, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Akademie Schloss Solitude, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. They teach media studies and anthropology at Purchase College-SUNY, where they also serve as Chair of the Gender Studies program.

Dyke Artists in Conversation: Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau (in person & live-streaming)
2024-06-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Artists in the current Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau exhibition will discuss what participating in this show means to them, why it matters to the larger Dyke-identified artist community, and how it continues the lineage of lesbian artist exhibitions including A Lesbian Show (1978, NYC), Great American Lesbian Art Show (1980, Los Angeles), and Rebel Dykes Art and Archive Show (2021, London).
We will discuss considerations in identifying as a Dyke artist, and the importance of centering artists over 40 years old.
ARTISTS EXPECTED TO ATTEND:
★ adrians black
★ Allison Michael Orenstein
★ Angela Muriel
★ Anne Keating
★ Caroline McAuliffe
★ E. Lombardo
★ Elisabeth Jacobsen
★ Erika Kapin
★ eva r. barajas
★ Jeanise Aviles & Kenzi Crash
★ Julie Lindell
★ Juno Rosenhaus
★ Karsen Heagle
★ Kate Conroy
★ krissy mahan
★ Liz Ensz
★ liz margolies
★ Maya Alam
★ Melissa Wilkinson
★ Michelle Schapiro
★ Nancy Rodrigo
★ Sarah E. Brook
★ Shelley Marlow
★ Valarie Walker
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

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

Check out the exhibition website at:

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

Launch for Michael Nott’s new biography of Gunn, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life (in person only)
2024-06-22 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a celebration of the poet Thom Gunn and Michael Nott’s new biography of Gunn, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life. Michael Nott will be joined in conversation by writer Tom Sleigh.Thom Gunn was not a confessional poet, and he withheld much, but inseparable from his rigorous, formal poetry was a ravenous, acute experience of life and death.

Raised in Kent, England, and educated at Cambridge, Gunn found a home in San Francisco, where he documented the city’s queerness, the hippie mentality (and drug use) of the sixties, and the tragedy and catastrophic impact of the AIDS crisis in the eighties and beyond. As Jeremy Lybarger wrote in The New Republic, the author of Moly and The Man with Night Sweats was “an agile poet who renovated tradition to accommodate the rude litter of modernity.” Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life chronicles, for the first time, the largely undocumented life of this revolutionary poet. Michael Nott, a coeditor of The Letters of Thom Gunn, draws on letters, diaries, notebooks, interviews, and Gunn’s poetry to create a portrait as vital as the man himself.
Nott writes with insight and intimacy about the great sweep of Gunn’s life: his traditional childhood in England; his mother’s suicide; the mind-opening education he received at Cambridge, reading Shakespeare and John Donne; his decades in San Francisco and with his life partner, Mike Kitay; and his visceral experience of sex, drugs, and loss. Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life is a long-awaited, landmark study of one of England and America’s most innovative poets.

To reserve a copy of Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, June 18, 2024, hardcover, $45), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Thom Gunn for June 22” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Praise for Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life:
“Thoroughly engaging . . . Nott’s accounts of Gunn’s experiences at each dramatic stage in his life are rewarding to read, while his drug-infused sexual and poetic experiments are, by turns, shocking and sublime.” —Raúl Niño, Booklist (starred review)
“The great achievement of Nott’s biography is that it shows how poetry influenced Gunn’s life and how his life influenced his poetry, discussing, for instance, how reading Shakespeare and Stendhal made Gunn feel “as if anything were possible” and how he intended his 1971 collection, Moly, to be “an invitation to discuss homosexuality and LSD.” The result is a triumphant celebration of a larger-than-life writer.” —Publishers Weekly
“This is the Thom Gunn I came to know the last 20 years of his life and the world he inhabited. I find it startling that such a young scholar and writer who never crossed the man’s path succeeds in bringing the subject in all his emotional and intellectual complexity so vividly back to life. I was deeply moved. But that is Michael Nott’s rare gift, the artistry of the master biographer with genuine feeling for the man and his art he finds, justifiably, compelled to portray.” —August Kleinzahler, author of Snow Approaching on the Hudson
“Thom Gunn was the most exciting poet of his generation, and he lived an exciting life. He loved adventure, but he was also self-disciplined and blessed with acute intelligence. If these sound like contradictions, they don’t seem to flummox Michael Nott, who, though he never knew Gunn, gets him exactly as I remember him: kindly, courteous, self-deprecating, daring, playful, and a master of words. Nott’s skill as a biographer is exactly suited to his subject. Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life is gripping from the start and beautifully written.” —Clive Wilmer, author of New and Collected Poems

Michael Nott is the author of Photopoetry, 1845–2015: A Critical History and an editor of The Letters of Thom Gunn. He was a Fulbright fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and a postdoctoral fellow at University College Cork. He lives in England.

Tom Sleigh, author of The King’s Touch, is an award-winning poet, journalist, and essayist. He is the author of eleven books of poetry and has worked as a journalist in the Middle East and Africa. Sleigh lives in Brooklyn, NY and is a Distinguished Professor in the MFA Program at Hunter College.

Lost & Found (in person literary workshop)
2024-06-23 11:30 - 12:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Lost & Found is a literary workshop designed to provide an opportunity for writers to read, review, and receive constructive criticism of their work, especially projects or pieces that are still works-in-progress or have hit a roadblock. Participants are required to bring one page (up to both sides) of material of any genre they’re working on to read aloud. Then, as a group, we workshop the piece—asking questions, providing feedback, offering solutions, and so on. The goal is to provide writers with a framework for creative development and a consistent network of feedback.
This will be the third of six sessions scheduled on alternating Sundays.
Future sessions will take place on: 7/14, 7/28, and 8/11
RSVP here for the third session!

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

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

Moderator bios:

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

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

CURATOR TOURS: Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau (in person only)
2024-06-27 13:00 - 14:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Juno Rosenhaus, co-curator and founder of the Dyke+ ArtHaus, for an in-person tour of the over 60 artworks by Dyke Artists 40 and elder in the Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits the Bureau exhibition. Learn about the Dyke+ ArtHaus, the exhibiting artists, and where this exhibition sits in the lineage of Dyke Art Shows. This is the final Curator Tour in June.
Check out the exhibition website at:

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

Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution (in person & live-streaming)
2024-06-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join author Amin Ghaziani for a discussion of Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution with writer and curator Hugh Ryan.
In this exhilarating journey into underground parties, pulsating with life and limitless possibility, acclaimed author Amin Ghaziani unveils the unexpected revolution revitalizing urban nightlife.
Far from the gay bar with its largely white, gay male clientele, here is a dazzling scene of secret parties—club nights—wherein culture creatives, many of whom are queer, trans, and racial minorities, reclaim the night in the name of those too long left out. Episodic, nomadic, and radically inclusive, club nights are refashioning queer nightlife in boundlessly imaginative and powerfully defiant ways.
Drawing on Ghaziani’s immersive encounters at underground parties in London and more than one hundred riveting interviews with everyone from bar owners to party producers, revelers to rabble-rousers, Long Live Queer Nightlife showcases a spectacular, if seldom-seen, vision of a queer world shimmering with self-empowerment, inventiveness, and joy.

To reserve a copy of Long Live Queer Nightlife (Princeton University Press, March 26, 2024, hardcover, $29.95), please write to contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Long Live Queer Nightlife for June 27” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Amin Ghaziani is professor of sociology and Canada Research Chair in Urban Sexualities at the University of British Columbia. He is the award-winning author of The Dividends of Dissent, Sex Cultures, and There Goes the Gayborhood? (Princeton). His work has been featured widely in international media outlets, including the New Yorker, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, USA Today, and British Vogue.

Hugh Ryan is a writer and curator, and most recently, the author of The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award for Nonfiction and the W.A. Percy Foundation’s William Johansson Award. His first book, When Brooklyn Was Queer, won a New York City Book Award, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. He has been honored with the Allan Bérubé Prize from the American Historical Association, multiple grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Duberman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, and residencies at Yaddo and Watermill. He teaches in the MFA Program at Bennington College.

Rebel Satori Pride Reading (in person & live-streaming)
2024-06-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Since 2002, Rebel Satori has been committed to releasing cutting edge fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, with a focus on amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices and promoting diversity through its press and imprints Queer Mojo, Queer Space, Arabi Manor, and the Library of Homosexual Congress. Please join a bevy of our writers as they read work new and recently resurrected.
Featuring readings by:
ANTONIO ADDESSI
BRIAN ALESSANDRO
TOM CARDAMONE
LARRY CLOSS
DALE CORVINO
SVEN DAVISSON
SCOTT HIGHTOWER
DAVID NAZARIO

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

Antonio Addessi is a poet and writer living in New York City. His debut full-length book of poetry was published by Rebel Satori in Spring 2022. This year he was the Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation’s visiting poet at the New Mexico School for the Arts.

Brian Alessandro is a novelist, essayist, literary critic, and screenwriter. He has co-adapted Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story into a graphic novel, co-edited Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs, and his third novel, Julian’s Debut, will be published by Rebel Satori Press in March 2025. He also has a second feature and limited series in development.

Tom Cardamone is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning speculative novella Green Thumb as well as other works of fiction. Additionally, he edited Crashing Cathedrals: Edmund White by the Book and co-edited Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs. Currently he is co-curating the Rebel Satori Press imprint The Library of Homosexual Congress, dedicated to returning works of gay literature back into print -with a focus on the AIDS crisis. He will be reading from Allen Barrett’s The Body and Its Dangers, originally published in 1990 to great acclaim.

Larry Closs is the author of the novel “Beatitude” (Rebel Satori), described by Kirkus Reviews as “A realistic and engaging love story in a finely illustrated setting,” and winner of a Gold Independent Publisher Book Award. As a journalist, photographer and videographer, Closs has contributed to NBC, CNN, Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, USA Today, TV Guide, HarperCollins, Out Magazine, The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics, The Travel Channel and The Wildest, among many others.

A 2021 Lambda Literary Emerging Fellow in nonfiction, Dale Corvino’s essays have appeared in Salon, the Rumpus, and the Gay & Lesbian Review. Bonds & Boundaries is his debut collection of short stories. His memoir of sex work, Kept Boy in the Afterlife, won the 2023 Nonfiction Prize from C&R Press and will be released in September.

Sven Davisson is the innovative force behind Rebel Satori Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to pushing boundaries and amplifying marginalized voices. Under his stewardship, Rebel Satori continues to be a beacon for groundbreaking literature that resonates
with readers seeking fresh perspectives. In his latest book, Breeding Devils in Chaos, Davisson delves into the enigmatic realms of traditional witchcraft, infusing them with a postmodern and requeered perspective. The book navigates the intricate landscapes of male mysteries, offering a provocative exploration that challenges heteronormative notions.

Scott Hightower is the author of five books of poetry in the US and two bilingual collections in Spain. His awards include a Copper Canyon Hayden Carruth Book Award and a Barnstone Translation Prize. Originally from Texas, he has itinerantly sojourned in Spain, Italy, and India. He now works and teaches in Manhattan.

David Nazario is a poet, educator, and author with no writing schedule. They write when they feel. They write when they love. They write when they lose love. They write when they travel. They write for change and growth. They write for healing – their own and the world’s. Sometimes they write before crying uncontrollably. When they write, teach, and perform poetry, they aim to share their unique perspective as an Afro-Puerto Rican gay man living and loving in New York City and beyond. Their third book of poetry, Cum On Your Heart will be published by Rebel Satori Press in 2025.

Closed July 4th and 5th
2024-07-04, 2024-07-05 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Center will observe holiday hours on both Thursday, July 4th, AND Friday, July 5th: 5 PM to 9 PM.
The Bureau will be closed on both dates: July 4th and July 5th.
The Bureau will be open on Wednesday, July 3rd; Saturday, July 6th; and Sunday, July 7th: 1 to 7 PM.

A Good Sport Signing with Soizick Jaffre (in person & live-streaming)
2024-07-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
French cartoonist Soizick Jaffre will be signing copies of her graphic memoir A Good Sport at the Bureau, on Wednesday, July 10th at 7:00 PM. Jaffre will discuss her work and her experiences representing France in the 2018 Gay Games. She will also read excerpts from her latest work.
A Good Sport is a graphic memoir written and drawn by Soizick Jaffre, detailing her participation in the 2018 Gay Games, her lifelong love of athletics, and her own personal search for freedom. This memoir is visually rich with Jaffre’s colorful, expressive illustration style that runs the gamut from realistic portrayal to eye-popping surrealism. A Good Sport deftly balances both personal and world history to paint a picture of feminist triumph and queer self-determination.

To reserve a copy of A Good Sport (Stacked Deck Press, 2024), please write to contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of A Good Sport for July 10” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Soizick Jaffre is an author and comics artist born in Angoulême, France in 1978. She has published fiction, poetry, comics, and autobiographical stories in various independent publications in North America and Europe, such as ALPHABET (Stacked Deck Press) and Drawing Power (Abrams Books). Her typical style combines strong colors and surrealistic details.

Lost & Found (in person literary workshop)
2024-07-14 11:30 - 12:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Lost & Found is a literary workshop designed to provide an opportunity for writers to read, review, and receive constructive criticism of their work, especially projects or pieces that are still works-in-progress or have hit a roadblock. Participants are required to bring one page (up to both sides) of material of any genre they’re working on to read aloud. Then, as a group, we workshop the piece—asking questions, providing feedback, offering solutions, and so on. The goal is to provide writers with a framework for creative development and a consistent network of feedback.
This will be the fourth of six sessions scheduled on alternating Sundays.
Future sessions will take place on: 7/28, and 8/11
RSVP here for the fourth session!

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

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

Moderator bios:

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

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

Poetry for the Apocalypse (In Person & Live Streaming)
2024-07-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us on July 18th (6pm) for Poetry for the Apocalypse—a celebration of art making in the face of destruction to commemorate the publication of C. Russell Price’s “oh, you thought this was a date?!: Apocalypse Poems” (Northwestern University Press). From the New York Times: “This debut by an ‘Appalachian genderqueer punk writer’ is as playful and provocative as you might guess: One poem is titled ‘My Sexual Identity Is a Toaster in a Bathtub.’” Price will be joined by NYC darlings of the literary scene Omotara James, Joseph Osmundson, Anthony Thomas Lombardi, and Robert Wood Lynn. A $10 suggested donation to the Bureau is greatly appreciated and punk af.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
C. Russell Price is originally from Glade Spring, Virginia, but now lives in Chicago. They are a Lambda Fellow in Poetry, a Ragdale Fellow, a Windy City Times 30 Under 30 honoree, an essayist, and a poet. They are the author of a chapbook, Tonight, We Fuck the Trailer Park Out of Each Other. Their work has appeared in the Boston Review, Court Green, DIAGRAM, Iron Horse Literary Review, Lambda Literary, Nimrod International, PANK, and elsewhere. Their debut collection oh, you thought this was a date?!: Apocalypse Poems was published by Northwestern University Press. They are a poet in residence with the Chicago Poetry Center and work with the Ragdale Foundation, Story Studio Chicago, and The Anarchist Review of Books. Their current project Bisquick: Seance Poems is about a ghost cowboy and his ghost, blue horse.
Omotara James is a writer, editor and visual artist. She is the author of the chapbook Daughter Tongue, selected by African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she is a recipient of the 2019 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize. She earned her BA from Hofstra University and received her MFA from New York University. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, The Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. She is a fellow of Lambda Literary and Cave Canem Foundation. Born in Britain, she is the daughter of Nigerian and Trinidadian immigrants and currently lives in New York City.
Joseph Osmundson is a scientist and writer based in New York City. He has a PhD from The Rockefeller University in Molecular Biophysics. His book of essays, VIROLOGY, is forthcoming in 2022 from W.W. Norton. His research has been supported by the American Cancer Society, published in leading biological journals including Cell and PNAS, and he’s currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Biology at NYU. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Gawker, The Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, The Lambda Literary Review, and The Feminist Wire, and elsewhere, too.
Anthony Thomas Lombardi is a Pushcart-nominated poet, editor, organizer, activist, and educator. He is the founder and director of Word is Bond, a community-centered reading series partnered with the Asian American Writers’ Workshop that raises funds for transnational relief efforts, bail funds, and mutual aid organizations, and currently serves as a poetry editor for Sundog Lit. A recipient of the Poetry Project’s Emerge-Surface-Be Fellowship, his work has appeared or will soon in the Poetry Foundation’s Ours Poetica, Guernica, Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Massachusetts Review, North American Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with his cat, Dilla.
Robert Wood Lynn is a writer from Virginia. His debut poetry collection Mothman Apologia (Yale University Press) was named a Best Book of 2022 by the New York Times and the New York Public Library. His chapbook How to Maintain Eye Contact was published by Button Poetry in 2023. Winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, his writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Poetry Magazine, New Ohio Review and other journals, as well as been included in the Southern Poetry Anthology: Virginia. A 2023 NEA Creative Writing Fellow, he splits his time between in Rockbridge County, Virginia and New York City, where he co-hosts the DGN Reading Series. He teaches creative writing at Juilliard and at Brooklyn Poets.

Lost & Found (in person literary workshop)
2024-07-28 11:30 - 12:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Lost & Found is a literary workshop designed to provide an opportunity for writers to read, review, and receive constructive criticism of their work, especially projects or pieces that are still works-in-progress or have hit a roadblock. Participants are required to bring one page (up to both sides) of material of any genre they’re working on to read aloud. Then, as a group, we workshop the piece—asking questions, providing feedback, offering solutions, and so on. The goal is to provide writers with a framework for creative development and a consistent network of feedback.
This will be the fifth of six sessions scheduled on alternating Sundays.
The final session will take place on: 8/11
RSVP here for the fifth session!

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

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

Moderator bios:

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

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

Revisioning Democracy podcast - Lessons in fighting right-wing criminalization and Project 2025 (hybrid in person & live-streaming)
2024-08-08 17:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
WHAT DO WE WANT IN AMERICA NOW?
HOW DO WE FIGHT RIGHT-WING ASSAULTS & CRIMINALIZATION OF GENDER?
What: Revisioning Democracy video podcast launch with guest Allan Maleche, Executive Director of KELIN in Kenya, and other guests

Who: Co-hosts Anne-christine d’Adesky and Jay W. Walker of Stop The Coup 2025 campaign
When: Thursday August 8, 2024, 5-7 PM EDT

Where: The Bureau, room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC (and live-streaming at youtube.com/@bgsqd)

Why? Because we are facing unrelenting attacks and must fight back. We must vision ourselves into a better future – for America & the world.
Strap yourselves Down! Tighten your seat belts! You’re invited to join the launch of Revisioning Democracy – a new video podcast Public Conversation about the times and challenges we face right now in America – and globally — to defend our democracy and rights – and revision the world we want. This Public Conversation will examine the escalating attacks on our civil rights, authoritarianism, and our lessons, resistance, and commitment to the unfinished project of our democracy and our visions for a better future. That includes dissecting Project 2025, the conservative blueprint to destroy our democracy and impose a Christian theocracy on America – and how we fight back. Join us to be inspired by leading activists and voices from the trenches.

stopthecoup2025.org

We will not live in a Christian fundamentalist Handmaid’s Tale! We have a greater vision!
Revisioning Democracy will examine the challenges we face in America from a queer and feminist lens, and engage activists, change-makers, and thought leaders on the frontlines of the political and cultural wars.
Our second guest is African human rights activist Allan Maleche, Executive Director of The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN), in conversation with cohosts Anne-christine d’Adesky and Jay W. Walker of the Stop the Coup 2025 campaign to fight Project 2025. Other guests may be added.

Info: stopthecoup2025@gmail.com

lesbian book club (in person only)
2024-08-10 11:00 - 12:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction — classic, contemporary, revealing and visionary. As a group we will decide what to read each month, focusing on lesbian authors and/or related topics. Co-founded by lesbian book lovers Judi Komaki and Piper Olsen.

For August 10th, we’ll be reading Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Mariner Books Classics, 2007, paperback, $18.99).

Purchase Fun Home from the Bureau before August 10th and receive a 15% discount ($16.14 instead of $18.99)! Just mention the lesbian book club when you purchase the book. Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required.

Gay Novels of James Baldwin (in person & live-streaming)
2024-08-10 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us on the occasion of James Baldwin’s 100th birthday for an exploration of Baldwin’s gay novels: Giovanni’s Room (1956), Another Country (1962), and Just Above My Head (1979). Hosted by Afro-American scholar James Wright with guests Dominic Ambrose and Donnie Jochum.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Lost & Found (in person literary workshop)
2024-08-18 11:30 - 12:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Lost & Found is a literary workshop designed to provide an opportunity for writers to read, review, and receive constructive criticism of their work, especially projects or pieces that are still works-in-progress or have hit a roadblock. Participants are required to bring one page (up to both sides) of material of any genre they’re working on to read aloud. Then, as a group, we workshop the piece—asking questions, providing feedback, offering solutions, and so on. The goal is to provide writers with a framework for creative development and a consistent network of feedback.
(Originally scheduled for August 11th, please note that this workshop will now take place on Sunday, August 18th.)
This will be the sixth of six sessions scheduled on alternating Sundays.
RSVP here for the sixth session!

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

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

Moderator bios:

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

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

Book Launch: Old Stranger: Poems, by Joan Larkin (in person only)
2024-09-05 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Joan Larkin and friends will read from her much-awaited new book, Old Stranger.
“There are few poets in America who can combine Joan Larkin’s formal mastery with her emotional intensity.” —David Bergman, author of Plain Sight.
Old Stranger is Joan’s sixth collection of poems. She co-founded Out & Out Books during the 1970s surge in feminist publishing and co-edited the groundbreaking anthologies Lesbian Poetry and Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time. Her honors include Lambda and NEA awards and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
To reserve a copy of Old Stranger (Alice James Books, 2024, paperback, $24.95″ please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Old Stranger for September 5th” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

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

Queer Art: A Conversation Between Gemma Rolls-Bentley & Penny Arcade (in person & live-streaming)
2024-09-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join iconic performance artist and playwright Penny Arcade in conversation with curator and writer Gemma Rolls-Bentley. The pair will discuss Gemma’s new book Queer Art: From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between. The book is a celebration of the relationship between creativity and the LGBTQIA+ experience, featuring nearly 200 artworks from around the world that reflect the richness, self-expression and resilience of queer life. There will be an opportunity to purchase the book on the night and have your copy signed.
To reserve a copy of Queer Art (Frances Lincoln, June 11, 2024, hardcover, $35), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Queer Art for September 6 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been at the forefront of contemporary art for almost two decades, working passionately to champion diversity in the field. She is the author of Queer Art; From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between published by Frances Lincoln in Spring 2024. Gemma has curated for a range of international institutions, most recently the Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Somerset House, the Tom of Finland Foundation, London Art Fair and Kkweer Arts. In 2022 she curated the Brighton Beacon Collection, the largest permanent display of queer art in the UK, for Soho House Brighton. Gemma has taught at numerous institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths, she co-chairs the board of trustees for the charity Queercircle, and sits on the Courtauld Association Committee.

Penny Arcade (a.k.a. Susana Ventura) is an internationally respected performance artist, writer, poet, and experimental theatre maker known for her magnetic stage presence, her take-no-prisoners wit, and her content-rich plays and one liners. She is the author of 10 scripted performance plays and hundreds of performance art pieces. Her work has always focused on the other and the outsider, giving voice to those marginalized by society. She debuted at 18 in John Vaccaro’s explosive Playhouse of The Ridiculous the seminal political, glitter/glam,queer, rock and roll theatre and was a Warhol Superstar at 19, featured in the Warhol/Morrissey film Women In Revolt. She considers herself a conceptualist and interdicipinary artist who mediates her work thru non fiction, perforamnce art, experimental theatre, poetry, video, and music.

Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits The Bureau Closing Celebration (in-person only)
2024-09-07 17:30 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us in celebrating the closing of the longest-running group exhibition in the US featuring original works by Dyke Artists over 40: Dyke+ ArtHaus Visits The Bureau. Stop in to buy art made by a Dyke, write us a note with your thoughts on the exhibit, and grab a free commemorative poster. We’ll say a few hundred words around 6ish PM and then celebrate, celebrate, CELEBRATE our Dyke Artist Community!
Visit https://dykearthaus.org/dyke-arthaus-visits-the-bureau for exhibiting artists details, artwork price list, and to learn all about the Dyke+ ArtHaus in Philly.
Contact: dykearthaus@gmail.com

Christopher DiRaddo, Richard Mirabella, Kyle Dillon Hertz, Daniel Allen Cox, and Nathan Xie Read From Their Latest Work (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join Richard Mirabella, Kyle Dillon Hertz, Daniel Allen Cox, Nathan Xie, and Christopher DiRaddo for readings from their work. Richard Mirabella will be celebrating the paperback launch of Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, and Kyle Dillon Hertz will be celebrating the paperback launch of The Lookback Window. Copies of The Geography of Pluto by Christopher DiRaddo and I Felt the End Before It Came by Daniel Allen Cox will also be available for purchase and signature. The evening will be hosted by Nathan Xie.
Copies of the titles listed above will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve any of these books, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for Sept. 11 event” in the subject line. And please let us know which titles you’d like to reserve in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Nathan Xie (he/they) is working on his first novel. He is a recipient of One Story’s Adina Talve-Goodman fellowship and support from Lambda Literary, the Periplus Collective, Tin House, and Yaddo. His writing can be found at nathan-xie.com.
Daniel Allen Cox is the author of four novels and I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, shortlisted for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly. Daniel’s essays have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Electric Literature, and Lit Hub and have been recognized by Best Canadian Essays, and The Best American Essays.
Richard Mirabella is the author of Brother & Sister Enter the Forest, a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice and Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. His work has appeared in Story Magazine, American Short Fiction online, split lip, and elsewhere. He lives in upstate New York.
Kyle Dillon Hertz is the author of The Lookback Window, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Vanity Fair named The Lookback Window one of the best novels of 2023. His work can be found in Esquire, Freeman’s, Time, and elsewhere. He received his MFA from NYU and a residency from Yaddo. He teaches at The New School.
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of two novels: The Family Way and The Geography of Pluto, both with Véhicule Press. He lives in Montreal where he is the founder and host of the Violet Hour Reading Series and Book Club, which has to date a provided a platform for more than 275 LGBTQ+ writers to connect with new audiences.

Revisioning Democracy Podcast Episode 3: Resisting Europe's Autocrats (hybrid in-person & virtual)
2024-09-12 17:00 - 18:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Revisioning Democracy: Episode 3. Resisting Europe’s Autocrats presents a conversation about “Resisting Europe’s Autocrats” with Frederick Clarkson, Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates.
This discussion will include our new comprehensive look at European far-right allies of Project 2025, including Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán. We’ve dug deep to consolidate reporting on Orbán’s alliance with the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025’s architects, and how Hungary’s model of “illiberalism” has been adapted for Project 2025. We’ve also looked into the dark money and influence that is flowing between US Christian nationalists and European far-right populists who are newly allied with Orbán at the European Union.
Clarkson will be joined in conversation by podcast cohosts Anne-christine d’Adesky and Jay W. Walker of the Stop the Coup 2025 campaign to stop Project 2025.

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

Frederick Clarkson has written about politics and religion for more than three decades. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications from Mother Jones, Church & State, and Ms. Magazine to The Christian Science Monitor, Salon.com and Religion Dispatches. He has worked as an investigative editor at Planned Parenthood Federation of America; as Communications Director at the Institute for Democracy Studies; and co-founded the group blog, Talk to Action. He is the author, co-author or editor of several books including Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America and Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.

lesbian book club (in person only)
2024-09-14 11:00 - 12:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction — classic, contemporary, revealing and visionary. As a group we will decide what to read each month, focusing on lesbian authors and/or related topics. Co-founded by lesbian book lovers Judi Komaki and Piper Olsen.

For September 14th, we’ll be reading Anchee Min‘s Red Azalea (1993). Unfortunately, the book is no longer in print, so the Bureau is unable to offer it for sale. We recommend checking out your local library or searching on bookfinder.com.

For October 12th, the lesbian book club will read Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider.
Purchase Sister Outsider from the Bureau before October 12th and receive a 15% discount ($15.29 instead of $17.99)! Just mention the lesbian book club when you purchase the book.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required.

A Writer and a Publisher Walk Into a Bar (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-14 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Elisabeth Nonas will discuss Grace Period with Firebrand Books’ Nancy Bereano.
In Grace Period, just as 70-year-old writing professor Hannah Greene walks into her retirement party, she’s called to the ER because Grace, her wife of 25 years, has been in what turns out to be a fatal car accident. This was definitely not part of the plan the two had for their lives, especially since Grace was ten years younger than Hannah. The plan had been for Hannah to join her art history professor wife on a sabbatical trip to Europe. Grace would do research, and Hannah would figure out what she wanted to do in her retirement. How does an independent, feisty lesbian adjust to both her suddenly widowed and newly retired life? How can she survive the loss of the spouse who statistically should have survived her? Grace Period tackles these questions head-on in an intimate, witty portrayal of a woman grappling with the new and unexpected turn her life has taken. It is a tale of love, loss, and survival.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Elisabeth Nonas, the author of three published novels, has written several screenplays as well as short stories, magazine articles, and essays. She coauthored with Simon LeVay the nonfiction City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America. The author taught screenwriting and writing for emerging media at Ithaca College for twenty-five years. Nonas’s three novels focused on how lesbians form community and create family. Given that her first book appeared forty years ago when she was in her mid-30s, she clearly has different concerns now as she ages and her life continues to unfold. These were what sparked Grace Period. Originally from New York City, she lives in Ithaca, NY, with her spouse, founding publisher and editor of Firebrand Books, Nancy K. Bereano.

A Reading and Conversation with Nicole Zelniker, Marcia Bradley, and Karis Rogerson (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-15 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us for a conversation with Nicole Zelniker, author of FROM WHERE WE ARE, and Marcia Bradley, author of THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS. Moderated by Karis Rogerson.
FROM WHERE WE ARE: Gabi Keefer flees Holocaust-era Germany with nothing but her husband, her nephew, and the clothes on her back, but that isn’t the whole story. Over generations, her granddaughter, Lena, struggles with drug addiction and an unplanned pregnancy; her sort-of nephew, Zane, grieves for his wife three years after her death in an antisemitic mass shooting; and her great-niece, Miranda, advocates for Palestinian liberation against her family’s wishes. Each character’s tale begs the questions: What does it mean to be part of a family, what does it mean to survive, and is that enough?
THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS: While other adolescent girls are listening to grunge rock or swooning over boy bands and movie stars, Loretta knows little of life beyond the Home for Wayward Girls, the secluded ranch where her parents run a program designed to “correct” teen girls’ “bad behavior.” Many are failed runaways desperate to leave their controlling and sometimes brutal homes. Few have any idea of the suffering that lies ahead. Loretta witnesses firsthand how the adults use abusive discipline to crush these young women’s spirits and break their wills, until the day a horrifying act of violence forces her to make her own terrible choice. Terrified and with no other option, Loretta flees the ranch and hitchhikes across the country, ending up in New York, where she dedicates herself to working with lost, vulnerable, and defenseless teens, determined to prevent the same thing from happening to other girls like her.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Nicole Zelniker (she/they) is the author of several books, including UNTIL WE FALL, which was a finalist for the Forward Indie Awards in LGBTQ+ adult fiction. She’s also the founder and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Knee Brace Press. In her free time, Nicole enjoys re- reading her favorite books, listening to musicals, and bothering her cat.
Marcia Bradley earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College after receiving her BA from Antioch LA. Winner of a Bronx Council on the Arts BRIO Award for fiction, she has been published in literary magazines and journals. Marcia is very proud of THE HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS, her debut novel, and hopes readers feel a kinship with the protagonist, Loretta, and her journey.
Karis Rogerson is a passionate reader of all things, but especially YA fiction and adult romance, and a writer of essays that focus on books and their authors; mental health; relationships; and so much more. Karis is also represented by Eric Smith at P.S. Literary Agency and has written seven YA novels (and counting). She hopes someday you’ll be able to read her queer romances.

MANBOOBS Launch with Komail Aijazuddin and Adam Eli (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
What do you do when you’re too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America, and ashamed of your body everywhere? How can you find happiness despite years of humiliation, physical danger, and a legion of Brooklyn hipsters who know you only as a queer from Whereveristan? How do you summon the courage to be yourself no matter where you are?
Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different—no one else at his all-boys prep school was pirouetting off their desks, or bullied for their “manboobs,” or spontaneously bursting into songs from The Little Mermaid. Aijazuddin began to believe his only chance at a happy, meaningful life would be found elsewhere: America, the land of the free, the home of the gays. But the hostility of a post-9/11 world and society’s rejection of his art, his desires, and his body would soon teach him that finding happiness takes a lot more than a plane ticket. Searching for his place between two worlds while navigating a minefield of expectations, prejudice, and self-doubt, Aijazuddin discovered, sometimes painfully, sometimes hilariously, that there are people and places he’d need to let go of to move forward.
Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake (Abrams Press; August 13, 2024; $27.00; Hardcover) is Aijazuddin’s riotous yet intelligent memoir of searching for love, seamlessly blending humor, politics, pop culture, and the bravery required to be yourself. Aijazuddin confidently announces himself as a sharp new voice in humor with his moving, wickedly funny reexamination of the American Dream and our search for home.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Komail Aijazuddin is a visual artist and writer with degrees from New York University and the Pratt Institute who lives and works in New York City. You can see his work at komailaijazuddin.com.

Opening Reception: You Left a Mark on Me (in person only)
2024-09-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
YOU LEFT A MARK ON ME
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 – JANUARY 5, 2025
Reception: Thursday, September 19, 6-8 PM
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division presents You Left A Mark On Me, an exhibition highlighting Queer tattoo artists with an art practice outside of their tattoo work; and Queer artists who utilize tattoo imagery in their work. Curated by Zach Grear and Nelson Santos, the exhibition features paintings, drawings, ceramics, and embroidery work by Colton Ackerman, Alexandria Deters, Virginia Elwood, Evan Paul English, Zach Grear, Christian Lord, Dewey Rice, Lancelot Runge, Tamara Santibañez, and Zyra West.
You Left A Mark On Me looks at the close ties that mark-making and queer bodies connect communities and the creative outputs that come from it. The tattoo artists in this exhibition find alternative forms of mark-making beyond the flesh, whether it’s using their hands to mold clay (Christian Lord, Tamara Santibañez), building sculptures and painting with yarn (Virginia Elwood), or making broad and colorful paint strokes (Evan Paul English, Dewey Rice, Zyra West). On the other end of the spectrum, You Left A Mark On Me, brings together queer artists (Colton Ackerman, Alexandria Deters, Zach Grear, and Lancelot Runge) that are influenced by tattoo imagery, and use ink, thread, and found images to mark the body on paper, playing with iconic tattoo graphics and colorful patterns.
The curators, Zach Grear and Nelson Santos are also artists and collectors of tattoos, interested in how these queer communities intertwine and connect. There is often a deep connection when a queer body is marked by another queer body and the way art expresses this queer magic and beauty.

Clement Goldberg In Conversation With Torrey Peters (in person and live-streaming)
2024-09-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join DOPAMINE Books author Clement Goldberg as they read from their debut novel, New Mistakes, and discuss cats, plants, aliens, love, sex and art with Detransition, Baby author Torrey Peters. Hosted by Publisher and author Michelle Tea.
In New Mistakes, classic human follies of desire and ambition foreground a revelatory awakening the planet needs. UFOs, cat influencers, telepathic houseplants; sex and drugs and art. By turns tender and hilarious, visionary and perceptive, New Mistakes wittily shows us how we live today and how we might – astonishingly – live tomorrow.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Praise for New Mistakes:
“Goldberg writes with such louche charm.” – Torrey Peters
“This is it, this is the thing, this is where we are.” – Daniel Handler
“Precise, profound and inventive” – Julian Delgado Lopera
“An emo pop sci fi hangout of the highest order.” – Bett Williams
