TELL 50: BELIEVING
2019-01-19 19:00 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | 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.

BELIEVING is the theme of the 50th installment of TELL. That’s right, the 50th TELL!
Featuring stories by Juju Garcia, Linden Crawford, Wo Chan, Jordana De La Cruz, and REXYLAFEMME.

$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. 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 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Juju Garcia’s passion for fashion, film and music magnetized him away from the most economically segregated city in the country – San Antonio, Texas – all the way to New York City, at the age of 18. After some growing pains, he discovered a skill for writing pop songs and is now determined to inject queerness into the music industry, while being a voice for young, queer folks trying to find their way in the world.

Linden Crawford grew up in Sacramento, California, and went to the same high school as Joan Didion, which they hope counts for something. Linden moved to Brooklyn after an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of New Orleans, and recently had their first publication, a personal essay about getting top surgery, called “All in One Piece”, in the New York Times.

Wo Chan is a queer poet and drag performer living in Brooklyn. Wo has received fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts, Kundiman, and the Asian American Writers Workshop. As a member of the Brooklyn based drag/burlesque collective Switch N’ Play, Wo has performed at venues including The Whitney, National Sawdust, New York Live Arts, and BAM Fisher. Check them out on instagram @theillustriouspearl.
Photo by AJ Jordan

Jordana De La Cruz is a Brooklyn-based director, cultural producer, queer babe, and dog mom extraordinaire. She creates events, performances, and public programs that spark cross cultural dialogue and challenge the traditional notions of identity. She has worked with JACK, La Mama, The Flea Theater, IATI Theater, INTAR Theatre,The Story Pirates, and Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, among others. Jordana is currently curating public programs at the Park Avenue Armory, a cultural arts institution dedicated to producing unconventional work.

REXYLAFEMME (rex renée leonowicz) is a visual + performing artist, writer, and songwriter born and raised in NYC. As a working class trans femme, rex’s work is grounded in a politics of radical resistance, healing, and witness. rex blends genders and genres, often utilizing drag and burlesque, to critically respond to the relationships people “on the margins” have with our surroundings and each other. rex’s book of poems and illustrations, when there is no one and there is everyone, is available from Magic Helicopter Press. S/he was a 2017 EmergeNYC Performance Fellow with the Hemispheric Institute at NYU and has an MFA in Poetry from Mills College.

Physique Pictorial Volume 47 Release Party
2019-01-20 16:00 - 18:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Come celebrate the release of Physique Pictorial, photographer Bob Mizer’s art journal that fought censorship laws back in the day — and freed up the nude male physique throughout American culture.

The new Physique Pictorial relaunched last year and you can help us celebrate the release of the latest volume with The Bob Mizer Foundation and the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division.

Come and meet Physique Pictorial’s spokespersons, Ross Collab and Edward Joseph who are hosting the event in the incredible space that is the Bureau. Enjoy queer art, conversation, drinks, music, vintage Bob Mizer films, and even a chance to win a copy of the new Physique Pictorial V47!

Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

BED 26: Memoir of an African Man's Asylum in the United States
2019-01-31 19:00 - 20:15 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Edafe Okporo marks his publishing debut with the release of Bed 26 (published by XlibrisUS), a memoir charting the experiences of refugees in America and the life of a gay man amidst discrimination.

Based on a true life story, Bed 26 narrates the experiences of Nigerian and West African gay, bisexual men and the reason they are forced to flee from their home country. The book also talks about the experiences of immigrants in an immigration detention, and the gap between the perceived American dream and its reality of racism, discrimination and phobia for people of color in America.

Through the book, Okporo stresses why people should not be categorized based on accepted norms “that are created to suit people who created them.” His story encourages looking beyond labels such as “refugees” and “citizens” and looking inward into human character and behavior. “The stigma in today’s society is overbearing and this book helps us to accept people the way they are and love them just the same,” he adds.

“I want my readers to be more compassionate and caring for people around them, their loved ones and people who are close to them. You should not judge people without knowing how far they have come,” Okporo reminds. “This book is also about forgiveness for people who have wronged you in the past, and resilience for young and old people to challenge the norm.”

Copies of Bed 26 are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Edafe Okporo is the Executive Director of RDJ Refugee Shelter, a Nigerian LGBTQ refugee, and advocate for human rights of LGBTQ, immigrants, and minorities. He is the author of BED 26: A Memoir of an African Man’s Asylum in United States. Host of the Pont Podcast promoting LGBTQ and Refugee access, awareness and education. Twitter @edafeokporo.

Social Sculpture for Individual Goals
2019-02-02 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-02-16 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-03-02 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-03-16 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-03-30 11:00 - 13:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Social Sculpture for Individual Goals is an opportunity to check in with others about your personal goals.
The way it works is very simple: A group of individuals gathers together, and, depending on how many individuals are present, together we decide on a specific amount of time that each person will be allotted to speak to the group about their personal goals. We ask for one person to volunteer as a timekeeper, and that person keeps track of time, letting the person who is speaking know when they have one minute remaining, and when their time is up.
As each one of us takes our turn to speak, the group listens quietly and gives us an opportunity to speak from the heart about our personal goals. This process of personal goal-related sharing can go in many different directions, and each person who speaks is welcome to use this time in whatever way feels most helpful to them. This process provides an opportunity for the speaker to sort out their thoughts, to gain clarity around personal goals, to share setbacks and successes, and to be accountable to others. As we listen to others, it is an opportunity for us to practice deep listening and to receive inspiration from others.
While this is not an overly rule-bound process, we do ask that attendees keep the following guidelines in mind:
– When it is someone else’s turn to speak, others in the group do not interrupt or query that person. We allow the person who is speaking to have ‘the stage’ to themself during their turn.
– During your own turn, keep the focus on yourself, and do not give feedback to others who have already spoken (note: it is okay to reference something someone else said, for example, something that inspired you–as long as you are mentioning it in relation to your own goals and your own process).
– Nobody is required to share. It is okay to attend and just listen to others, without sharing anything yourself. Also, it is okay if someone wants to speak for less than their allotted time.
– Please keep in mind that this is an open community forum; therefore, information that attendees choose to share is not considered confidential or anonymous.
This project is a collaboration between the Bureau and Ben G. Adams, a psychologist and artist whose work focuses on approaching tropes of personal and social transformation as art forms. The term ‘social sculpture’ was originally developed by 20th century conceptual artist Joseph Beuys in reference to the idea that all human beings are artists, and that all aspects of life can be approached as art forms. Ben’s previous work includes an art book and dieting system titled The Creative Process Diet, mixed media works in printmaking and sculpture, and another (currently ongoing) iteration of Social Sculpture for Individual Goals developed in collaboration with the Religious Society of Friends of Truth (a.k.a. ‘Quakers’) beginning in January 2017.

There is no required cost to attend Social Sculpture for Individual Goals, which is being very generously sponsored by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, an independent organization that is operated entirely by volunteers. During the meeting we will pass around a bowl so that everyone who attends will receive an opportunity to make a voluntary donation to support the Bureau. The suggested donation is $10, and we ask attendees to be as generous as possible in their support of the Bureau, which generously sponsors Social Sculpture for Individual Goals and many other community-building projects.

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Three/Drei
2019-02-06 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On Wednesday, February 6th, please join us for Three/Drei, (2010), directed by Tom Tykwer, starring Devid Striesow, Sebastian Schipper, and Sophie Rois.

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

Synopsis: Hanna and Simon, a heterosexual couple approaching their twentieth year together, separately meet and fall in love with the same man. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. In German with English subtitles.

Baby Gay
2019-02-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for the first installment of Baby Gay, a night of queer stories centered around those early days of budding queerness! Presented by Claire Fleury and Alesia Exum. Hosted by Dust Tea Shoulders.

Stories by Bureau co-founders Donnie Jochum and Greg Newton.

Image of Greg Newton (left) is a detail of a photograph by Dietmar Busse from the early 1990s.
Photograph of Donnie & Greg (center) by Daphne Chan.

Office Hours Craft Class & Reading with CAConrad
2019-02-09 11:00 - 14:30 | NY
Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: “Poetry & Ritual”– a FREE craft class and reading with author CA Conrad.

The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A public reading with CA Conrad, Carrie Hohmann-Campbell and members of the Office Hours Workshop will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.

Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com and include your full name, relationship to writing, and a brief bio.

POETRY & RITUAL:
CAConrad has successfully used (Soma)tic poetry rituals to overcome depression after the murder of their boyfriend Earth (aka Mark Holmes). CA has also created writing rituals using the night sky to design homemade star constellations, another ritual to experience what the impact of hearing the word “drone” has on the human body, and many others from talking with trees, ghosts, translating Shakespeare’s sonnets with crystals, and coping with the destroyed wilderness of our planet. Please bring notebooks, pens, and your imaginations with you.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing. The workshop culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are woman-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

CAConrad is a 2019 Creative Capital Fellow, and the author of 9 books of poetry and essays. While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books), received the 2018 Lambda Award. A recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, they also received The Believer Magazine Book Award and The Gil Ott Book Award. Their work has been translated into Spanish, Greek, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Danish and German. They teach regularly at Columbia University in NYC, and Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam and their poetry can be found online at https://bit.ly/88CAConrad

Queer PechaKucha: 3 New Books on Sex in the Americas
2019-02-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Book Launch for Greta LaFleur‘s The Natural History of Sexuality in Early America; Tavia Nyong’o‘s Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life; and Zeb Tortorici‘s Sins against Nature: Sex and Archives in Colonial New Spain.

All three titles are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve copies please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Greta LaFleur is Associate Professor of American Studies at Yale University, where she writes and teaches about the history of sexuality, the history of science, and the history of race.

Tavia Nyong’o is an American cultural critic, historian and performance studies scholar, and he is a Professor of American Studies at Yale University where he teaches courses on black diaspora performance, cultural studies, social and critical theory.

Zeb Tortorici is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at New York University, and he writes and teaches about gender and sexuality in colonial Latin America and about queer archiving.

TELL 51: FRIENDSHIP - FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION!
2019-02-16 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.

FRIENDSHIP is the theme of the 51st installment of TELL. Come celebrate the fifth anniversary of TELL!

Featuring stories by Nilan, Summer Minerva, Seedy Edie, Jes Tom, and Lisa Haas.

$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Photograph by Grace Chu

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 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Nilan is a performer, creator, teaching artist, and company member of A Certain Something. In April 2019, Nilan will be holding a stage reading of his new play BY HIS HANDS, IF NOT BY GODS a story about the intersectionality between race and sexuality in northern Alabama. Some playwrighting/screenwriting credits: AND THEN I WOKE A VICARIOUS CATACLYSMIC EVENT (Downtown Art), EXTRA ROOM (web),BLOOD PROMISE (workshop, New Shakespeare Exchange), ENDANGERED SPECIES (workshop, 2017 Bay Area Playwrights Festival), (workshop, The New American Theatre Co. NY), (reading, Red Fern Theatre), JOAN (reading, Oppressed in Heels) THE SHADOW IN THE CORNER (48 Hours in Harlem),OLD SCHOOL (24 Hour Pridefest),WATER FROM THE TAP andAN AMERICAN TALE (NY Indie One Minute Play Festival), FROM CANAL TO 207 ST and GENTLEMEN (Intar One Minute Play Festival),AMERICAN IDIOT (Our Country/Our Response Play Festival),THE SAINT AND THE SINNER (reading, Wagon Wheel Arts). Some acting credits: NYC: And Then I Woke: A Vicarious Cataclysmic Event (Downtown Art),Next Faggot Nation Self-Accusation: The Remix (LPAC, Bedlam MadLab), (Dixon Place)Bar Play (Peculiar Works Project),Trojan Women (Oppressed in Heels),The Champion (Bric Arts), Regional:Metamorphosis, Assassins, A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park, The Parchman Hour, Henry IV, Henry V, and The Imaginary Invalid (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Radio Golf (Deep Dish Theater), 10×10 in the Triangle (ArtsCenter Carrboro). Internationally: Playback Theatre (Playback Berlin) (Second International Conference for the Arts in Society, Kassel, Germany). Some Media: CONSENT IS SEXY, a four episode PSA campaign about supporting consensual sexual behavior (YouTube). He holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. www.nilan.me

Summer Minerva is an Italian American actor, performance artist, writer, public speaker and educator. As a respected authority and published writer on the intersections of gender, spirituality and performance (Written on the Body, 2018; Voyages of the Black Madonna, 2019), they have spoken at Sarah Lawrence College, Temple University, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance in Rio de Janeiro, the LGBTQ pride of Napoli and Pompeii 2018, and Peace House Haiti. Their solo performances have shown at Gibney Dance Center, the American Dance Festival and Judson Memorial Church.Their mission right now is to love the people of the world boldly and specifically.

Photograph by James A. Ridley

Born in Canada and based in Brooklyn, Seedy Edie is an actor and burlesque performer who specializes in giving you nightmares and giving good face. Recent credits: Bettie Page, Becoming Bettie Page (Coney Island USA); Girl 1956, The Miss Twin Peaks Pageant (Joe’s Pub at the Public).

Jes Tom (they/them) is a New York based actor, writer, and weird queer stand up comic, gleefully providing the nonbinary queer Asian American radical cyborg perspective that everyone never knew they wanted. They have appeared in videos by Funny Or Die and Seriously.TV, and their writing has been published by Reductress, By Shondaland, and Condé Nast’s Them. Jes has been featured in GO Magazine, Splitsider, and the Fader, and they were named one of TimeOut New York’s “LGBTQ POC Comedians We’re Obsessed With.” Jes was a 2018 StandUp NBC semifinalist. Follow Jes on Twitter @jestom and Instagram @jesthekid.

Lisa Haas is a writer and actor. She has appeared in films and performed in many NYC downtown venues—and—you can catch her on episodes 1 and 2 of the third season of “Search Party”. Please pay a visit to her website! www.lisa-haas.com

Scissoring Publication Extravaganza!
2019-02-23 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
This month SCISSORING is officially released by Dramatists Play Service and we want to celebrate its publication with a gathering and small series of readings from the play. Join us for a spirited celebration of queer lady lit & love–plus donuts!

Copies of Scissoring will soon be available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
2019-03-06 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On March 6th, please join us for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), written by William Goldman and starring Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Katherine Ross.

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

Synopsis: Based on the true story of the train/bank robbers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who led a gang in the early 1900’s, the film follows them as they are hunted by a super-posse. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes.

Office Hours Presents: Craft Class & Reading with JP Howard
2019-03-09 11:00 - 14:30 | NY
Office Hours Poetry Workshop presents: “Telling Your Story: Poetry & Memoir”– a FREE craft class and reading with author JP Howard.
The craft class takes place from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A public reading with JP Howard and members of the Office Hours Workshop will follow from 1:30 PM-2:30 PM.
Spaces for the craft class are limited to 15 persons so please RSVP in advance to sarahmariesala@gmail.com and include your full name, relationship to writing, and a brief bio.

“Telling Your Story: Poetry & Memoir”
Participants will use objects of significance, including family photos, memorabilia, personal narratives and/or oral her/histories to enter memoir-themed poems. We will ask questions that both challenge and inspire us. Whose story are we telling, particularly when writing about loved ones that are no longer with us. How important is it that our poems be historically accurate? When do we give ourselves permission to honestly write our painful Herstories? Whose story are we trying to tell? Is this our story to tell? These are a few of the questions we will explore as we use our personal narratives, photos and oral Her/histories to enter poems. If possible, participants should bring a minimum of 2-3 family photos and/or photos of significance (either actual photos or photos on a tablet/smart phone), 1-2 photos of family memorabilia or objects of significance and come prepared to use oral family Her/histories to write poems that use memory as foundation. Poetic forms written in class may include haibun, persona or narrative poems. Handouts of poems in the memoir genre will be distributed and discussed. Some of the poets we may read in workshop include Angel Nafis, Amber Atiya, Mahogany L. Browne, Elisabet Velasquez, and Pat Parker.

Office Hours Poetry Workshop provides post-MFA poets access to continued support for manuscript-development and everyday writing. The workshop culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are woman-identified. Our name derives from our side hustle. Many of us are freelance, adjunct instructors, who continue to thrive in the margins of academia.

JP Howard’s debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians–We Are the Revolution! (2018). JP is a 2019 featured author in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program and the recipient of a 2019 Brooklyn Arts Council grant. She was a Split this Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism finalist and is featured in the Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. JP was the recipient of a Lambda Literary Judith A. Markowitz Emerging Writer Award and has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary, and Astraea. JP curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a NY-based forum offering all writers, but especially women, a monthly venue to collaborate. JP is an Editor-at-Large at Mom Egg Review online. Her poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Academy of American Poets, Anomaly, Apogee Journal, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, Muzzle Magazine, and The Best American Poetry Blog. Her poetry is widely anthologized. JP holds a BA from Barnard College, an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. Visit JP online at: jp-howard.com

Esther Newton & Jean Carlomusto: Book Launch & Film Sneak Peek
2019-03-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join author Esther Newton and filmmaker Jean Carlomusto for a celebration of MY BUTCH CAREER, Newton’s new memoir which tells the compelling, disarming, and at times sexy story of her struggle to write, teach, and find love, all while coming to terms with her identity during a particularly intense time of homophobic persecution in the twentieth century.

This unprecedented public conversation will combine selected readings from Newton’s memoir with a sneak peek of scenes from Carlomusto’s upcoming feature-length documentary. AGILITY: A PORTRAIT OF ESTHER NEWTON, which uses the lens of Newton’s love for a sport — competitive dog agility — to explore the flexibility, resilience and passionate inquiry that have driven her survival as a butch woman and trailblazing scholar in a world of obstacles. A reception and book-signing will follow the presentation.

This event is free, but attendees are encouraged to support the Bureau and the author by purchasing books and/or making a donation.

Copies of My Butch Career are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Director/Producer Jean Carlomusto, Producer Shanti Avirgan, and AGILITY film subjects Esther Newton, Sammy and Viva

ESTHER NEWTON is a founder of and leading scholar in LGBTQ studies. She is the author of several books, including Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas and Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town, both also published by Duke University Press, as well as the groundbreaking Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. She has taught at Purchase College of the State University of New York, the University of Paris VII, Paris, France and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She was active in Second Wave Feminism, Gay Liberation and the Lesbian/Feminist movements. Her work has been translated into French, Spanish, Hebrew, Polish and Slovak.

JEAN CARLOMUSTO’s films have been featured internationally in film festivals, museum exhibitions and on television. Her acclaimed feature documentary for HBO, LARRY KRAMER IN LOVE & ANGER, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition and was nominated for two Emmy Awards. Carlomusto co-produced, directed and edited SEX IN AN EPIDEMIC, which premiered on Showtime on World AIDS Day, 2011. Her personal films are often unorthodox investigative reports on subjects that have been all but erased from history. TO CATCH A GLIMPSE, (Museum of Modern Art, NYC, permanent collections) delved into her family history by trying to find out if the rumors about her grandmother’s death — from an illicit abortion back in 1939 –were true. In L IS FOR THE WAY YOU LOOK, she pieced together lesbian history using whatever scraps of gossip and memory she could find into a humorous portrait of a population’s creative tussle for visibility and inclusion.

PRAISE FOR MY BUTCH CAREER

John D’Emilio: “In My Butch Career Esther Newton takes her readers through her chaotic family history, the uncharted territory of coming to terms with an identity that is far outside the norms for her generation, and the transforming effects that new social movements had on her. Bringing personalities, scenes, conversations, and relationships to life, Newton has written a book that is powerful, gripping, and immensely readable.”

Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy: “Esther Newton’s sharp insights into her developing consciousness are sometimes so precise and revealing that they take my breath away. Her wit gives her personal traumas in a hostile society universal meaning, making her pain and pleasure available to all, while her reflections on the interconnections of gender, sex, and feminism in love-making remain fresh. Capturing the multiple layers of identity and examining how social forces shape our lives, My Butch Career is absolutely unique in the way it explores women’s desire as both personal and social. I know of no other memoir like it.”

Tim Retzloff: “[Esther] is a formidable scholar of striking and stern beauty. I am fortunate and grateful to know her. Get a copy of My Butch Career and delve into a past that belongs to Esther personally and, thanks to her generous sharing, to all of us queer folk collectively. Read it. Relish it.”

TELL 52: I MADE IT!
2019-03-16 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.

I MADE IT! is the theme of the 52nd installment of TELL. Featuring stories by Varín Ayala, Hector Canonge, Buzz Slutzky, and Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li.

$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Photograph by Grace Chu

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 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Varín Ayala: Off Broadway: The Taming of the Shrew (TFANA with Maggie Siff; dir, Arin Arbus); NY Theater: Contigo (Signature); 365 Days/Plays (The Public); Jackson Heights 3AM (Theater 167): Las Facultades, The Beep (Pregones); Barber Surgeons (Studio 42); End of Summer, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Kaleidoscope at Cherry Lane); Numerous readings and workshops at NYTW, The Public, INTAR, The Lark, among others. Regional Theater: Pinkolandia (Two River Theater; premiere), The Motherf**er with the Hat (Hartford TheaterWorks), The Road to Washington (Mountain Playhouse), Angels in America I/II (Civic Theater of Allentown). TV: Lie to Me, Hustling. Training: The Actors Center Conservatory, Shakespeare Lab at The Public, Groundlings.

Hector Canonge is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and cultural entrepreneur based in New York City. His work incorporates the use of new media technologies, cinematic narratives, Live Action Art, and Social Practice to explore and treat issues related to constructions of identity, gender roles, and the politics of migration. Challenging the white box settings of a gallery or a museum, or intervening directly in public spaces, his performances mediate movement, endurance, and ritualistic processes. Some of his actions and carefully choreographed performances involve collaborating with other artists and interacting with audiences. His installations, interactive platforms, performance art work, and literary readings have been exhibited and presented in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

In the Summer of 2018, Canonge undertook two major projects that took him to North Africa, Asia, and Europe: his multinational project “TEMPTATIONS” produced and presented in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece, and “PORTALS” & “REFLEJOS” in collaboration with Verónica Peña presented in Marseille, France, and Mallorca, Granada and La Rioja in Spain. In the Fall of 2018, the artist presented and connected with artists and creatives in Moscow, Russia, and in participated in the Morni Hills Performance Art Biennale II in India where his project, “AWAKENINGS” was featured. Canonge was invited to participate in the Teacher’s College Teaching Artist Certificate Program (2018-2019), and is currently preparing for future presentations in the United States, Argentina, Mexico and Germany.

Buzz Slutzky is a non-binary transgender artist, writer, and performer whose practice incorporates drawing, painting, sculpture, and video. Their visual art and writing often play between autobiographical and historical content. Lately, they’ve been drawing mashups between instructional manuals. As a performer, Buzz has mixed stand-up comedy and musical comedy under the persona Stoni Butchell, among others. They currently teach film and art to 18 year olds at CUNY College of Staten Island and SUNY Purchase College.

Originally from Taiwan, Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li earned his Master’s degree in Performance Studies at New York University. He works as director, playwright, performer, and performance artist, having created projects addressed upon sexuality, philosophy, and politics, to give his unique perspectives on time, space, and power relations. His thesis performance piece “Kiss Me, so I am Queer”, curated by Chashama, talks about the temporality of queerness and the social construction of queer identity. Currently, he is the Associate Artistic Director of the Living Theatre, and the New York Directing fellow of Drama League.

Paradesign: The Work of Tobias Wong, A Panel Discussion
2019-03-21 19:45 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for Paradesign: The Work of Tobias Wong, A Panel Discussion moderated by designer, curator, and gallery director Olivia Shao, with Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Rama Chorpash, Associate Professor and the Director of Product Design at Parsons The New School for Design.
Paradesign: The Work of Tobias Wong is presented by the curators of Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) …, Dean MacGregor and Pablo Griff.
This event is free, but attendees are encouraged to support the Bureau by purchasing books and/or making a donation.

About the exhibition:
Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) …
January 18 – April 14, 2019
Download a PDF of the press release.
New York, New York –The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is proud to present Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) …, an exhibition of the late artist/designer’s work that played with the definition of what constituted art or design. The exhibition will present a selection of his work alongside objects from his personal collection that served as muses for his artistic design work. This includes a wide variety of table lamps as well as ephemera that he collected.
In a press release issued at the time of Wong’s death in 2010, architecture and design curator, friend, and colleague Aric Chen wrote: “Through his work, Wong helped bring forth much of what is now taken for granted in contemporary culture. Influenced by Dada and, especially, Fluxus, he questioned authorship through appropriation; held a mirror to our desires and absurdities; upended the hierarchy between design and art, and the precious and the banal; and helped redefine collaboration and curation as creative practices. Working within what he termed a “paraconceptual” framework, Wong prompted a reevaluation of everything we thought we knew about design: its production, its psychological resonance, its aesthetic criteria, its means of distribution, its attachment to provenance, its contextualization and its manner of presentation. Wong was a keen observer, an original mind, a brilliant prankster, and an unerring friend.
“Wong’s work was widely exhibited, including at the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. His many projects included those for Colette, Comme des Garcons, Prada/OMA, Cappellini and Swarovski Crystal Palace. In addition to the objects he created, re-created, repurposed, rarefied and otherwise manipulated, Wong’s work included events and happenings that included, among many others, a pop-up tattoo parlor at Art Basel Miami Beach/Design Miami and the Wrong Store, a “store” in New York that was in fact never open. (As with much of Wong’s work, both were collaborations.) Wong was named Young Designer of the Year by Wallpaper* magazine (2004) as well as the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2006). In 2008 and 2009, he served as founding co-creative director of 100% Design Shanghai, affiliated with the 100% Design fairs in London and Tokyo.
“Born and raised in Vancouver, Wong studied in Toronto before moving to New York in 1997 to attend the Cooper Union, from which he graduated with a major in sculpture.”

The exhibition is curated by:
Dean MacGregor, an artist who has done projects at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Morgan Library and many others. He recently did his sleeping project at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Pablo Griff is an artist and was a consultant to the retrospective of Tobias Wong’s work at the Museum of Vancouver in 2012.

Image: Tobias Wong, blue anus, 1998 (replica 2016 courtesy Lite Brite Neon, Brooklyn), Estate of Tobias Wong

Learn more about the work of Tobias Wong:
Tobi’s website
“From A to Wong, and Back Again,” Flash Art May-June 2015
Tobi’s works in San Francisco MOMA collection
NY Times obituary, June 3, 2010

Leo and David, a tale of two angels book signing
2019-03-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Leo Lives in a far away kingdom, a peaceful place where his family rules and he longs to bring joy and beauty to his people. Engaged to a princess, Leo soon fall in love with a man from his city. However, as political unrest comes to his country, Leo must flee and learn to navigate a new world, all the while trying to find love, and to love himself, along the way. Both a coming of age story and a fairytale, Leo and David: A Tale of Two Angels (Rosedog Books, $10) is a heartwarming and fantastical look into one man’s journey to a happy ending.

Copies of Leo and David will be available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Luca Leonvago first finished his degree in classical studies and then started his degree in business followed by an MBA and a doctorate in Economics. After working in the Fashion Industry in Milan, Rome, and Paris, he moved to London where he started his academic career. He is currently Associate Chair for Fashion marketing and luxury brand management at SCAD, Atlanta.He is also a member of the British Research group progressiveconnexions based in Oxford (UK). In 2013 he co-founded with David Boyd-Carrigan, greeceneedslove Inc., a non-profit organization pro the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles which mission is to help artists, artisans and researchers from Greece or with Greece as the main subject of their work. Greeceneedslove supports the production of contemporary Greek Art while preserving the Greek Art History as common roots to the world.

The Fops — A new play about Queer identity by Jack Shamblin
2019-03-23 19:00 - 21:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
THE FOPS by Jack Shamblin bubbled up out of recent work-in-progress performances at Dixon Place. Sharing his new script and his birthday at the same time, he welcomes you to an artful reading, live music, and some good pink cake.
“Partying too hard, the aging Queer Monty time travels to Victorian New York’s Paresis Hall, an all-male bordello. Engaging with the riff-raff, men-who-love-men, intellectuals, and twisted moralists; he confronts the frailty of his proud gay identity. Homo present meets past, and the future is up for grabs.”

Jack has come a long, long way from that Bible-Belt Eastern Oklahoma town where he grew up, a two-hour drive from the headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan. Back in the eighties, when he drummed-up enough courage to tell a friend he was gay, she told him he would “die of Aids and then roast for eternity.” His adoring mother went homophobic and threatened disownment. Depression followed, Jack was locked inside himself with so much to say but with no vehicle of expression. He calls it his “silent-state-of-Bohemia: a place full of singers without voices, dancers without legs and writers without hands.”
Fast-forward to 2018 and meet the new and evolved Jack/Mia — international writer, actor, director, comedian, performance artist, and activist. He’s created with Caryl Churchill, Kate Bornstein, Alexis Arquette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jayne Atkinson, Theodora Skipitares, Basil Twist, Ellie Covan, and Mark Wing-Davey. His plays performed at La MaMa, Dixon Place, HERE, and abroad. An anthology of his work Queering The Stage is on the shelves of BGSQD. He not only found his voice, his legs and his hands, but he clarified his direction as a queer leader and role model in the arts.
(This bio, crafted originally by Bob Criso for theatre blog Hi! Drama, has been edited by Mia Kunter Productions.)

Photograph by Bob Criso, from left to right: Graceann Dorse, Daniel Diaz, Goldie Luxe, Kevin Mimms, Michael Witkes, Brandi Azinionae, Nicholas Gorham, Matt “Ugly” McGlade.

Joe Ovelman Book Event, "On Grief," 2019 & Talk w/ Fred Howard
2019-03-24 15:00 - 16:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Book release and signing with Joe Ovelman. Join Joe and longtime companion, Fred Howard, as they discuss Joe’s new book, “On Grief,” 2019. “On Grief” recounts events from the artist’s life in illustrated text and drawings, serving a soothing balm for loss. Also by Joe Ovelman: “Pictures and Words,” 2018, sthEditions, and “Destination Wedding,” 2018.

Fred Howard is a NYC-based comedic writer and publicist. https://www.identitytalentpr.com

Joe Ovelman is a visual artist and author that lives and works in NYC and Philadelphia.
https://www.joeovelman.com

Virtual Tour of LGBT+ Secrets of Europe's Museums & Monuments
2019-03-28 18:30 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
OUT PROFESSIONALS PRESENTS PROFESSOR ANDREW LEAR ON THE HIDDEN ROLE OF SAME-SEX LOVE IN SHAPING EUROPE’S GREAT URBAN CENTERS.
Rome, Florence, Pompeii, Athens, Delphi, Berlin — all great places to visit, rich with fascinating history and fabulous art.
But are you aware of the key role that same-sex love played in shaping these urban centers? And of the roles that they, in turn, have played in creating gay history?
On Thursday, March 28, Out Professionals presents Professor Andrew Lear with “LGBT Secrets of Europe’s Museums and Monuments.” A longtime OP favorite for his private “Gay Secrets” tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lear has taught art history and Classics at Harvard, Columbia and NYU.
For this event Professor Lear focuses on European museums and monuments with roles in gay history. He discusses historical figures and relates stories behind historical events and great art, uncovering hidden meanings.
During the evening you discover:
· Which gay couple founded the world’s first democracy?
· Which emperor’s boy toy became a god?
· What was the first nude statue of the Renaissance?
· Which Christian saint did Japanese author Yukio Mishima venerate?
· What was the world’s first gay rights organization?
· Who was Berlin’s coolest gay, Jewish, anti-Nazi resistance fighter?
· And what was the ballsiest thing he did?
Professor Andrew Lear has taught art history and Classics at Harvard, Columbia, and NYU. Lear is the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the first company to offer tours focused on LGBT history, and the winner of the Travel Industry’s 2016 Travvy Award for best-escorted tour operator, LGBT; and of the Luxury Travel Guide’s 2016 award, LGBT Tour Operator of the Year.
WHERE
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Subway: 1/2/3, A/C/E or F/M to 14th Street; L to 6th or 8th Avenue.
WHAT’S UP
Meet at the Bureau at 6:30 p.m. for networking and seat selection. From 7 to 9 p.m., slide presentation, discussion, Q&A.
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is an independent, all-volunteer queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space located in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center. Beer, wine, and soft drinks available.

TICKETS

Dues-paying Individual or Business Member of Out Professionals, $10 with advance registration; $15 at the door, if available. Event limited to 40 attendees. Pre-registration is highly recommended and closes at noon on March 28. Sorry, no refunds or exchanges. Please print and pocket a copy of your online receipt. Thanks!

$10 for nonmembers of Out Professional with promotional code: OUTBUREAU

Be sure to enter the promotional code and select nonmember tickets in order to receive the discount.

JOIN NOW — ATTEND FREE!

Enjoy a 12-month Individual Out Professionals Membership PLUS one ticket for tonight — just $65. Individual membership includes free entry to every month’s OP.LOUNGE and discounted admission at other OP events. Or choose the enhanced benefits of Business Membership ($125): Enjoy free admission tonight and by registering in advance, enjoy free or discounted admission at a year’s worth of other OP seminars and workshops. All sales final.

Hal Schrieve presents "Out of Salem" with Jeanne Thornton and Cat Fitzpatrick
2019-03-29 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Celebrate the publication of Hal Schrieve‘s debut novel Out of Salem, a biting, hilariously macabre story of misfit monsters fighting repression and bigotry (and trying to pass 9th grade) in mid-90’s Salem, Oregon.

Hal will be joined by authors Jeanne Thornton and Cat Fitzpatrick for a conversation following the reading.

Copies of Out of Salem will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

“Set in 1997, this darkly humored fantasy explores censorship, government surveillance, homelessness, and real-world (not just magical) forms of oppression. . . Tension burns hot until the explosive conclusion, which begs for a sequel. On fire with magic and revolution.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

HAL SCHRIEVE grew up in Olympia, Washington, and is competent at making risotto and setting up a tent. Xie has worked as an after-school group leader, a summer camp counselor, a flower seller, a tutor, a grocer, and a babysitter. Hir current ambition is to become a librarian. Xie has a BA in history with a minor in English from University of Washington and studies library science at Queens College, New York. Xie lives in Brooklyn, New York, and hir poetry has appeared in Vetch magazine. This is hir first novel.

JEANNE THORNTON is the author of “The Dream of Doctor Bantam” and “The Black Emerald,” both Lambda Literary Award finalists. She is the co-publisher of Instar Books and creator of the web comics “The Man Who Hates Fun” and “Bad Mother.” She lives in Brooklyn.

CAT FITZPATRICK teaches at Rutgers University–Newark. She wrote the book of poems “Glamourpuss” and co-edited the Stonewall-Award-winning anthology “Meanwhile Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers.” She is currently working on a verse novel in Onegin stanzas about trans women making terrible choices. This is a topic she knows a fair bit about.

NYC Gay Guys' Book Club
2019-04-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
We are a group of gay guys of all ages who meet the first Tuesday of every month. We usually meet at the Jefferson Market branch of the public library on 6th Avenue & West 10th Street, but we’ll meet at the Bureau while the library is being renovated. We read an eclectic range of books from classics to newly-released works. We don’t necessarily read books with a gay theme or characters and always open to suggestions. Very easy going; more social than academic. You don’t necessarily have to commit to coming every single month, just whenever your schedule or reading tastes permit. This month (April) we are discussing Imagine Me Gone, by Adam Haslett.

On Tuesday, May 7th, we’ll discuss Rabih Alameddine‘s Angel of History.

On Tuesday, June 4th, we’ll discuss Joan Dempsey‘s This Is How It Begins.

The above titles (and many more!) are available for purchase at the Bureau. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you for your support!

OLNY Poly Movie Night: My Wife Got Married
2019-04-03 18:30 - 21:30 | NY
Open Love NY presents Poly Movie Night, a FREE series of feature films that focus on the portrayal of consensual / ethical non-monogamy in cinema. This month we’ll be at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On April 3rd, please join us for My Wife Got Married (2008), directed by Yun-su Chong and starring Ju-hyuk Kim, Ye-jin Son, and Seong-hun Cheon .

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

Synopsis: When Deok-hyun and In-ah fall in love, he thinks marriage will turn her monogamous, even though she’s very clearly told him that she’s not. When she meets another man, his jealousy and possessiveness threaten to ruin all their relationships. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. In Korean with English subtitles.

Audio Fiction Femmes — Panel ft. Eli Barraza, Lisette Alvarez, Lia Hagen, and Jordan Cobb
2019-04-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
AUDIO FICTION FEMMES” is a panel of queer podcast creators exploring questions of new media, marginalization, and magic. The panel features Lisette Alvarez (Kalila Stomfire’s Economical Magick Services, Magic King Dom), Eli Barraza (The Far Meridian, Ars Paradoxica) Jordan Cobb (Here Be Dragons, Janus Descending), and Lia Hagen (Overkill).

Jordan Cobb: Jordan is a New York City based actress and writer. She trained at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating, she founded two production companies — Black Lace and Laser Beams, and No Such Thing Productions — which focus on the development of new and innovative audio drama podcasts. Jordan works as head writer and producer for both companies, and she voices the characters of Harper Bennett and Dr. Natalya Atlas in Black Lace and Laser Beam’s action/adventure audio drama, Here Be Dragons, and Chel in No Such Thing Production’s sci-fi/horror limited series, Janus Descending.

LISETTE ALVAREZ: Lisette is a podcaster, storyteller, digital strategist, and globetrotter. They are the writer, producer, and main character of the fantasy audio drama “Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services”. They also play Dom in the dystopic audio drama “Magic King Dom”. A third culture kid with 20 countries under their belt, Lisette is also a queer, witchy Latinx creator who wants more stories that reflect their reality. You can follow them on Twitter @lisettewalking or learn more about them at www.lisettealvarez.com.

ELI BARRAZA: Eli is the creator of The Far Meridian, a loosely magical realist audio drama. Her involvement in the world of narrative podcasting includes ars Paradoxica, The Bright Sessions, Our Fair City, Greater Boston, and more. In her spare time, Eli learns about astronomy, climbs rocks, and wanders the wayward streets of Los Angeles and its outlying areas. The best way to learn more about her is to follow her on twitter @EliLizzieLizbet

LIA HAGEN: Lia Hagen is an overly enthusiastic girl studying digital storytelling at NYU. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, she now lives in NYC. She founded the production company Gal Pals Present. Fans say “Gal Pals Present lovingly crafts every character, every interaction, every story,” and her team has been described as everything from “strong femmes under five foot four” to “local gays doing the Lord’s work.” She also writes and directs the podcast “Overkill.”

On Sex and Loss, Writing and Illuminations on Market Street with Wayne Hoffman and Benjamin Heim Shepard
2019-04-07 16:00 - 17:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Benjamin Heim Shepard and novelist Wayne Hoffman, discuss Shepard’s first novel, Illuminations on Market Street as well as Hoffman’s novels Hard, An Older Man, and Sweet Like Sugar, and his non-fiction anthology, Policing Public Sex. Both writers consider the lines between fiction and non-fiction, activism, loss, AIDS and the impacts of HIV on sex and culture in their works. Shepard’s novel begins in San Francisco in the early 1990s. Cab is on the deep end of a losing streak. After having been dumped yet again, he moves to Haight-Ashbury fresh out of college. It is the middle of a recession, before the dot-com boom, and AIDS is an immediate and untreatable reality. A story about AIDS and sex, acting up and praying for the dead, this is a story about living and fighting in the face of insurmountable challenges. Hoffman traces the stories Moe’s escapades through the Giuliani era War on Sex through years of trips to Provincetown to find something in himself as he ages and his community shifts.

Copies of Illuminations on Market Street and works by Wayne Hoffman are available for purchase at the Bureau. To reserve copies please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Benjamin Shepard is a Brooklyn based activist. He is also the author/editor of ten including White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic (1997), From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization (2002), The Beach Beneath the Streets (with Greg Smithsimon, 2011), Brooklyn Tides (with Mark Noonan, 2018), and Rebel Friendships (2015). Illuminations on Market Street is his first novel.

Wayne Hoffman is the author of the novels Hard, An Older Man, and the Stonewall Book Award-winning Sweet Like Sugar, and co-editor of the anthology Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism. Currently executive editor of Tablet Magazine, his cultural reporting has appeared in Washington Post, Slate, the Nation, Village Voice, Out, Poz, and elsewhere.

On Sabbatical
2019-04-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Writers Jonathan Alexander and A.W. Strouse are On Sabbatical.

Out to Lunch.

Gone Fishin’.

They will perform their enchanting, exquisite literary adventures.

Jonathan Alexander is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve previous books. A frequent contributor as essayist and reviewer to the Los Angeles Review of Books, he’s also Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine and lives in Southern California.

A.W. Strouse teaches medieval literature at The New School, and has published a wide variety of creative works, including My Gay Middle Ages (punctum, 2015) and with Patty Barth, Transfer Queen (punctum, 2018).

Image: Henry Scott Tuke, The Bathers, 1888, oil on canvas, H 116.8 x W 86.3 cm, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK.

Book Launch & Party for Victoria Noe’s Fag Hags, Divas and Moms
2019-04-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
A book launch and party to mark the publication of Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community by Victoria Noe.

The history of the AIDS epidemic has largely been told from the perspective of gay men: their losses, their struggles, and contributions. But what about women – in particular, straight women? Not just Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana, but thousands whose accomplishments have never been recognized?

Drawing on personal interviews and archival research, Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community is the first book to share the stories of women around the world, throughout the epidemic. Victoria Noe assures their place in women’s history, for their determination to educate and advocate, to end the epidemic once and for all.

She will be in conversation with one of the women in the book, Krishna Stone.

Victoria Noe is an award-winning Chicago author, speaker and activist. In 2006, she promised a dying friend that she’d write her first book about people grieving the death of a friend. That book turned into six-book series, including Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends. Her essay “Long-Term Survivor” won the 2015 Christopher Hewitt Award from A&U Magazine. She is a member of ACT UP/NY since 2013 and sits on the planning committee for the Chicago AIDS Garden.

Krishna Stone, one of the women featured in the book, is the Director of Community Relations for GMHC, where she has been a valuable staff member for over 25 years. In 2017, she served as a grand marshal for the NYC Pride March and will be honored next month with the Sam Ciccone Community Service Award from GOAL NY.
