BGSQD

A Gathering of the Tribes Presents: THE STOOP PROJECT: NO SUCH THING AS WRITER’S BLOCK Facilitated by: UGBA (in person only)
2025-07-21 18:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
NO SUCH THING AS WRITER’S BLOCK
Facilitated by: UGBA
This is a generative writing workshop, open to all skill levels.

$5 DONATION, RESERVE YOUR SPOT – MONDAY, JULY 21

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
In this session, I will be sharing tools gathered over my 15+ year career as a professional writer and writing-workshop facilitator to equip writers (both novice and veteran) with the confidence to quiet that little voice in their head that says: I’ve gone as far as I can. I haven’t got anything left. It’s a lie! There are always more words—sometimes you just need an instructor willing to teach you how to find them: I am that instructor!

THE STOOP PROJECT: SUMMER SERIES 2025
Hosted by A Gathering of the Tribes, The Stoop Project: Summer Series 2025 features a curated selection of generative writing workshops by bearded poet Thomas Fucaloro. Sessions are open to all skill levels and will be held in person every third Monday from June through August 2025 at The Center’s bookstore, Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, in NYC. Each workshop will be led by a different facilitator and focus on a unique theme. A $5 donation reserves your spot — see calendar for all event listings.
In tandem with the workshops, each month Tribes will select a featured book from the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
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.
Please note: the Bureau is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We will open at 6 PM on Monday, July 21st, for this workshop, which will begin at 6:30 PM.

THE HISTORY OF THE STOOP
The Stoop Poetry Workshop (1991–1995) was established and facilitated by Tribes’ founder Steve Cannon with fellow Lower East Side poet Bob Holman. Conceived on the stoop of Cannon’s East 3rd Street residence, the workshop served as a creative incubator held before the Nuyorican Poets Café’s Friday Night Slams — allowing poets to refine their work and perform it the same evening. An extraordinary roster of poets participated in the Workshop, including reg e. gaines, Edwin Torres, Tracie Morris, Dana Bryant, Mia Hansford, Keith Roach, Paul Beatty, Willie Perdomo, Dael Orlandersmith, Ed Morales, Ra, and Mike Tyler.
Building on Cannon’s ethos of “Each one, teach one,” The Stoop Project expands the original vision of the Workshop by inviting a wide array of guest facilitators to carry forward its spirit of collective growth, experimentation, and intergenerational exchange.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
UGBA (‘oog ba’) Ungrateful Black Artist (pronoun inclusive) is a queer poet, rapper, playwright, actor, and activist based out of Brooklyn, NY. UGBA is the founder/host of CEREMONIES—a Brooklyn-based monthly Black-Queer artist showcase held in honor of Essex Hemphill. UGBA is also the founder of “Dark-Skin Support Group,” a virtual support network for dark-skin Black Americans in need of a space to discuss the realities of colorism. In 2020, UGBA was named a “Black LGBTQ+ playwright you need to know ” by Time Out NY. UGBA is the former script assistant for the Pulitzer Prize-winning and 5 time TONY nominated Broadway show “Fat Ham.” He is an alumnus of the Public Theater’s #BARS program and Emerging Writers Group 2020-2023 cohort.

Drag Story Hour with Lil Miss Hot Mess, author of MAKE YOUR OWN RAINBOW: A DRAG QUEEN'S GUIDE TO COLOR (in person only)
2025-07-20 15:00 - 16:00 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
Join author and drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess for a very special Drag Story Hour, as we celebrate her recently-released book Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color. Kids of all ages are also invited to sing and dance along as she reads her classics If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish. Bonus points to those who attend dressed in their most colorful and fabulous looks, as drag is all about letting your inner light sparkle brightly on the outside!
Please note:
This event will take place in person at The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011. The Bureau currently features a very adult exhibition of photographs, so this event will take place in a kid-friendly room on the second floor of The Center.

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

Reserve a copy of Make Your Own Rainbow (Running Press Kids, May 13, 2025, hardcover, $18.99) or any Lil Miss Hot Mess book by writing to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Make Your Own Rainbow for July 20th event” in the subject line. If you’d like to reserve other titles, please just let us know in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

About Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color :
By Lil Miss Hot Mess, Illustrated by Olga de Dios
Running Press Kids, 2025 (more info)
Explore a kaleidoscope of colors beyond the rainbow in this celebratory and empowering book by Drag Story Hour storyteller Lil Miss Hot Mess!
Drag queens love to dance to their own beat, speak their minds, and let their best selves shine. They love all the colors of the rainbow—as well as all the colors beyond!
From scarlet, marigold, lemon, and emerald, to azure, periwinkle, Byzantium, and onyx, the world’s diverse range of colors allows drag queens and kings to be authentic and creative. And you, too, can use any color or hue to express yourself and your fierce imagination! Travel through a colorful, playful, and uplifting world with Drag Story Hour superstar Lil Miss Hot Mess and whimsical illustrator Olga De Dios in their latest inclusive picture book.

Lil Miss Hot Mess is the author of the children’s books Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color, If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It, and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish, and has written essays for HuffPost, Slate, and Wired. She serves on the board of Drag Story Hour, and has appeared on world-class stages like SFMOMA, Stanford University, and Saturday Night Live. Follow her on social media @LilMissHotMess, and learn more at lilmisshotmess.com.

Robert W. Fieseler discusses his new book AMERICAN SCARE: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives (in person & live-streaming)
2025-07-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join award-winning journalist and author Robert W. Fieseler as he discusses his new book AMERICAN SCARE: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives. A vital exposé for both our history and our present day, AMERICAN SCARE tells the riveting story of how the Florida government destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century—with chilling parallels to today.
Robert Fieseler will be joined in conversation by author and critic Bill Goldstein.
This event is presented in partnership with The American LGBTQ+ Museum‘s book club, The Lavender Literary Society
To reserve a copy of AMERICAN SCARE: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives (Dutton, June 17, 2025, hardcover, $34), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve American Scare for July 16 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
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Journalist of the Year and recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, his debut book Tinderbox won seven awards, including the Edgar Award, and his reporting has appeared in Slate, Commonweal, and River Teeth, among others. Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia Journalism School and is pursuing a PhD at Tulane University as a Mellon Fellow. He lives with his husband on the gayest street in New Orleans.

Bill Goldstein reviews books and interviews authors for NBC’s Weekend Today in New York, and was the founding editor of The New York Times books website. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Goldstein received a PhD in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is writing a biography of Larry Kramer, to be published by Crown, and was awarded a 2024-25 Public Scholars grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities to support his work on the book. He is the author of The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature, published in 2017.

A Reading with Leigh Curran ("Going Nowhere Sideways") and Richard Willett ("A Friend of Dorothy's") (in person & live-streaming)
2025-07-13 14:00 - 15:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Playwrights Leigh Curran and Richard Willett, longtime friends and colleagues, read from their first novels, each set back in time.
About Going Nowhere Sideways:
August, 1969. Molly Williams is young, conservative and inexperienced when she discovers her boyfriend necking with his male roommate in a Greenwich Village restaurant. She freaks out, hitches a ride to Woodstock, does drugs for the first time and winds up in a medical emergency tent in the arms of Johnson, a gentle, spiritual Asian-American. When things don’t work out with Johnson, Molly becomes emotionally, physically, and artistically involved with her former sister-in-law, Nancy, in a relationship full of fire. In Leigh Curran’s Going Nowhere Sideways, Molly survives twenty years of emotional adventure and emerges a full-blooded, middle-aged woman with her sense of humor and authenticity intact.
About: A Friend of Dorothy’s
It’s 1986 in New York City and 27-year-old Eric Summerfield knows that “yuppies” are supposed to be obnoxious, easily dismissed, but he envies the clarity of their delusions, their seeming ability to keep mortality at bay. He yearns, in fact, to be one of them. The catch: He’s no Wall Street insider, but instead the underpaid employee of a Canadian chain bookstore in Midtown Manhattan, a Canuck himself, and gay, and AIDS suddenly seems to be everywhere, including in the body of his flamboyant friend and coworker Dale, who inexplicably singles out a reluctant Eric to be his chief caregiver. It’s an experience that will change both of them. Richard Willett’s A Friend of Dorothy’s is a timeless, universal coming of age novel, in which the crucible of illness compels one young man to reach for something greater.

To reserve a copy of A Friend of Dorothy’s (Magic Show Press, June 15, 2025, paperback, $17.99), and/or Going Nowhere Sideways (Fithian Press, 1999, paperback, $14.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a book(s) for July 13 event” in the subject line and specify titles 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
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Leigh Curran is an award-winning playwright, novelist, poet and teacher. Her first novel, Going Nowhere Sideways, looks at the coming of middle age when the struggle to stay the same is no longer an option. It was published by Fithian Press and is now available through on-line bookstores.

Canadian-American Richard Willett is best known as an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, and internationally. He wrote his only novel, A Friend of Dorothy’s, when he was in his twenties. Excerpts appeared in the legendary gay literary magazine Christopher Street and in Permafrost at the University of Alaska, as well as being short-listed for New American Library’s Men on Men: Best New Gay Fiction, but the novel itself was never published before now.

EMOTICON LOVER. A performative event. (in person only)
2025-07-09 18:30 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Celebrating the release of his zine EMOTICON LOVER, artist John Hanning invites the audience back to 1983—to remember, reflect, and honor those we’ve loved and lost.
Rooted in memory and shaped by the legacy of AIDS candlelight marches, the evening offers space for remembrance, resistance, and connection. The event opens with spoken words by Camilo Godoy.
Copies of the zine will be available for purchase.

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

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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Closed for July 4th
2025-07-04 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on Friday, July 4th.
Happy holiday!

Closed for Pride
2025-06-29 | NY
The Bureau will be closed
on June 29 for Pride.
Happy Pride, friends!!!

Rebel Satori Annual Pride Reading (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-28 15:00 - 16:00 | 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.

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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Visible Voices Fest - Creative Lane Workshop & Authors' Showcase
2025-06-26 15:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Welcome to the Creative Collective Workshop & Authors’ Showcase—an extraordinary dual experience that invites you to explore the world of creativity. Join the esteemed Seven King as he leads an engaging workshop, where he will share tactical approaches to creative project development and his unique methods of art production. This is your chance to be part of a dynamic, interactive experience!
Join us for the workshop from 3:00 to 4:30 PM, followed by the Author Exposition, where from 5:00 to 9:00 PM, you’ll have the splendid opportunity to meet and connect with talented authors.
This event is a celebration of diverse voices and a tribute to the literary creatives who illuminate our world. Come be a part of this vibrant community!

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.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle’s Reading Series, June Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-25 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Rob Byrnes welcomes Alfred Doblin, Lauren Melissa Ellzey, Sarah G. Levine, and Vincent Traughber Meis.

Join us in-person or watch the live-stream to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-23 18:00 - 19:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Sarah Schulman will read and discuss her new book: The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity.
To reserve a copy of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity (Thesis, April 22, 2025, hardcover, $30), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity for June 23rd 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.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BUREAU IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS AND TUESDAYS. WE WILL OPEN AT 5:30 PM ON MONDAY, JUNE 23, FOR THIS EVENT.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

About The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity :
From award-winning writer Sarah Schulman, a longtime social activist and outspoken critic of the Israeli war on Gaza, comes a brilliant examination of the inherent psychological and social challenges to solidarity movements, and what that means for the future
For those who seek to combat injustice, solidarity with the oppressed is one of the highest ideals, yet it does not come without complication. In this searing yet uplifting book, award-winning writer and cultural critic Sarah Schulman delves into the intricate and often misunderstood concept of solidarity to provide a new vision for what it means to engage in this work–and why it matters.
To grapple with solidarity, Schulman writes, we must recognize its inherent fantasies. Those being oppressed dream of relief, that a bystander will intervene though it may not seem to be in their immediate interest to do so, and that the oppressor will be called out and punished. Those standing in solidarity with the oppressed are occluded by a different fantasy: that their intervention is effective, that it will not cost them, and that they will be rewarded with friendship and thanks. Neither is always the case, and yet in order to realize our full potential as human beings in relation with others, we must continue to pursue action towards these shared goals.
Within this framework, Schulman examines a range of case studies, from the fight for abortion rights in post-Franco Spain, to NYC’s AIDS activism in the 1990s, to the current wave of campus protest movements against Israel’s war on Gaza, and her own experience growing up as a queer female artist in male dominated culture industries. Drawing parallels between queer, Palestinian, feminist, and artistic struggles for justice, Schulman challenges the traditional notion of solidarity as a simple union of equals, arguing that in today’s world of globalized power structures, true solidarity requires the collaboration of bystanders and conflicted perpetrators with the excluded and oppressed. That action comes at a cost, and is not always effective. And yet without it we sentence ourselves to a world without progressive change towards visions of liberation.
By turns challenging, inspiring, pragmatic, and poetic, The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity provides a much-needed path for how we can work together to create a more just, more equitable present and future.

Fire, Water, and Other Queer Subjects: The Sea Gives Up the Dead and Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-22 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Debut author Molly Olguín will be in conversation with Jason Schneiderman about her story collection The Sea Gives Up the Dead and his book of poems Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire. Both authors will read from their work and answer audience questions.
To reserve a copy of The Sea Gives Up the Dead (Red Hen Press, April 29, 2025, paperback, $16.95) and/or Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (Red Hen Press, August 13, 2024, paperback, $17.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for June 22 event” in the subject line and let us know which title(s) you’d like us 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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Molly Olguín is a queer writer, educator, and monster enthusiast. Her debut collection The Sea Gives Up the Dead was selected by Carmen Maria Machado for the 2023 Grace Paley Prize, and is out now with Red Hen Press.

Jason Schneiderman is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen, 2020), and including the forthcoming Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (Red Hen, 2024). He edited the anthology Queer: A Reader for Writers (Oxford UP 2016). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. His awards include the Emily Dickinson Award, the Shestack Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. He is longtime co-host of the podcast Painted Bride Quarterly Slush Pile and a guest host for The Slowdown. He is Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

TELL: Movie Stars (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is a monthly queer storytelling show hosted and curated by Drae Campbell. It is the longest running event at the Bureau! 10 years and going. Each month there is a different theme and a different line up of queer artists who tell true stories from their lives on a theme.
The theme for June is Movie Stars, featuring storytellers Carolyn Connolly, Emilio Garcia, Glenn Marla, and Swetha Regunathan.

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

Drae Campbell is the host and curator of TELL, an award winning podcast that can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Theater: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater & National Tour, Lortel Nominated), Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Teatro Circulo), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Storm Still (DirectorFest, Drama League), La Cage Aux Folles (Barrington Stage Company).
Film and TV:Senior Escort Service, Blunderpuss, It’s Very Common, TOW.
TV: Bull, New Amsterdam.
BFA, The University Of The Arts
Ig @draebiz and @tellqueerz

Carolyn Connolly is a blue collar jill of all trades. Sex educator, poet, mountain climber and Carpenter. Carolyn came out in 1989 in blue collar Brooklyn. Carolyn has spoken across the US and Canada on queer/trans, anti racist and US foreign policy. She has been quoted in the New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal The Advocate on our backs and the book whipping girl. Carolyn has performed in the HERE theater series New York and radar Productions in the Bay Area.

A born Michigander, Emilio Garcia has spent the last four years pursuing the arts in New York City. With a fresh degree from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a proclivity for poetry and a love for history, Emilio is thrilled to find himself where he is today.

A mostly Hudson Valley and very often Brooklyn based theater artist, puppet maker and art therapist, Glenn Marla‘s performance work focuses on themes of body liberation, gender, queerness, fat, and shifting cycles of trauma. Glenn sun and moon are in aquarius with leo rising.

Swetha Regunathan is a writer and filmmaker based in NYC. Her work has screened at festivals internationally, including Aspen Shortsfest, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, True/False Film Festival, Tribeca, New Orleans Film Festival, and on platforms like NOWNESS, NoBudge, and Short of the Week. She produced the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Between Earth & Sky (2023) and is currently developing her debut feature-length film. She has also had writing published in Huffington Post, n+1, Guernica, and other outlets. Starting Fall 2025 she will be Assistant Professor in the Visual Studies program at Haverford College.

Reading of Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing is an anthology of stories highlighting compassion in sex work. Join us for an evening of readings and discussion by authors JoJo Bear, Eva Alio, Emme Witt-Eden, e.b. cotenord, Don Shewey, and Remi Newman.
To reserve a copy of Hands On: Stories of Sexuality Work, Intimacy, and Healing (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, April 21, 2025, paperback, $19.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Hands On for June 20 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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

The Center (and the Bureau) closed for Juneteenth
2025-06-19 | NY
The Center (and the Bureau) will be closed on Thursday, June 19th, for the Juneteenth holiday

Shadow of My Shadow: A Book Talk with Jennifer Doyle & Avgi Saketopoulou (in person only)
2025-06-18 19:00 - 20:45 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Anchored by an account of the experience of being stalked by a student, Shadow of My Shadow (Duke, 2024) takes on workplace harassment—the forms of loss it induces, and the paranoid ecologies it nurtures. Jennifer Doyle will share a passage revolving around a detail taken from her own case and join Avgi Saketopoulou in a conversation. Saketopoulou and Doyle share an interest in thinking carefully about vulnerability, the ethics of writing from the case, and a commitment to, as Saketopoulou writes “the opacity in the other” and “the opacity in ourselves.” The intention is to get a dialogue going and to make lots of room for conversation with the audience.

To reserve a copy of In the Shadow of My Shadow (Duke University Press, August 27, 2024, paperback, $25.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of In the Shadow of My Shadow for June 18th 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.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Jennifer Doyle is the author of Campus Sex/Campus Security (2015), Hold It Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art (2013), and Sex Objects: Art and the Dialectic of Desire (2007). She is also a curator. Her curatorial projects include Scientia Sexualis at the ICA LA (a collaboration with Jeanne Vaccaro, 2024-2025); Nao Bustamante: Soldadera at the Vincent Price Art Museum (2015); and The Tip of Her Tongue, at The Broad in Los Angeles (2015-2017). She teaches at UC Riverside.

Avgi Saketopoulou is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York and a member of the faculty of New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia (NYU Press, 2023) and co-author of Gender Without Identity (The Unconscious in Translation, 2023). She is currently at work on her forthcoming book, provisionally titled The Offer of Sadism: Demand, Exigency, Aesthetics.

A Gathering of The Tribes Presents: The Stoop Project, USING THE PERSONAL TO INVESTIGATE, COMPLICATE & REVEAL THE SOCIAL/POLITICAL Facilitated by: Jeanann Verlee (in person only)
2025-06-16 18:30 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
USING THE PERSONAL TO INVESTIGATE, COMPLICATE & REVEAL THE SOCIAL/POLITICAL
Facilitated by: Jeanann Verlee
This is a generative writing workshop, open to all skill levels.
$5 DONATION, RESERVE YOUR SPOT – MONDAY, JUNE 16
THE STOOP PROJECT: SUMMER SERIES 2025
Hosted by A Gathering of the Tribes, The Stoop Project: Summer Series 2025 features a curated selection of generative writing workshops by bearded poet Thomas Fucaloro. Sessions are open to all skill levels and will be held in person every third Monday from June through August 2025 at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the independent, all-volunteer queer bookstore in room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, in NYC. Each workshop will be led by a different facilitator and focus on a unique theme. A $5 donation reserves your spot — see calendar for all event listings.
In tandem with the workshops, each month Tribes will select a featured book from the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
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.

THE HISTORY OF THE STOOP
The Stoop Poetry Workshop (1991–1995) was established and facilitated by Tribes’ founder Steve Cannon with fellow Lower East Side poet Bob Holman. Conceived on the stoop of Cannon’s East 3rd Street residence, the workshop served as a creative incubator held before the Nuyorican Poets Café’s Friday Night Slams — allowing poets to refine their work and perform it the same evening. An extraordinary roster of poets participated in the Workshop, including reg e. gaines, Edwin Torres, Tracie Morris, Dana Bryant, Mia Hansford, Keith Roach, Paul Beatty, Willie Perdomo, Dael Orlandersmith, Ed Morales, Ra, and Mike Tyler.
Building on Cannon’s ethos of “Each one, teach one,” The Stoop Project expands the original vision of the Workshop by inviting a wide array of guest facilitators to carry forward its spirit of collective growth, experimentation, and intergenerational exchange.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Jeanann Verlee is the author of three books: prey (finalist for the Benjamin Saltman Award), Said the Manic to the Muse, and Racing Hummingbirds (silver medal winner in the Independent Publisher Awards). She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, the Third Coast Poetry Prize, and the Sandy Crimmins National Prize. Find her at jeanannverlee.com.

Talkback with Rahim Thawer: The Mental Health Guide for Cis & Trans Queer Guys (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-15 15:00 - 17:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
What are the determinants of your mental health?
Join us for a community conversation to celebrate the release of the much-anticipated book, The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Publications, 2025). This guide examines the social determinants impacting the mental health of queer men—including internalized shame, heteronormative milestones, disenfranchised grief, and body-conscious culture—and offers therapeutic tools such as cognitive-behavioural techniques, Gestalt role-play, and psychodynamic inquiry to foster insight and resilience.
This event welcomes GBTQ folks, allies, and service providers.
Author: Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW
Talk Back Moderator: JT Mikulka, LCSW
Schedule
3:00 Welcome and Digging Deeper Exhibit (Solo or interactive)
3:30 Moderator’s opening remarks
3:35 Talk Back
4:25 Audience Q&A
4:50 Closing remarks and book signing
5:30 End
Sign up here: http://rahiminnyc.eventbrite.ca/

To reserve a copy of The Mental Health Guide for Cis & Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Publications, June 1, 2025, paperback, $19.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Mental Health Guide for June 15 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
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Rahim Thawer (he/him) is a registered social worker (OCSWSSW), psychotherapist, and Canadian Certified Supervisor (CCS); he’s also a consultant, public speaker, and writer. He is the founder of Affective Consulting & Psychotherapy Services (est. 2014), through which he has delivered nearly 200 presentations and talks that inspire critical
conversations and reflection on mental health, interpersonal effectiveness, systemic oppression, and innovation in queer relationships.
Rahim calls Toronto home and teaches in Tuscaloosa, at The University of Alabama, where he is a full-time instructor and also enrolled in the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) program. As a queer Muslim, his clinical work and scholarship consistently explore the intersections of mental health and systemic oppression. His doctoral research focuses
on how anti-racist, queer-affirming psychoanalytic frameworks can better support social workers, therapists-in-training, and organizational leaders.
He is the recipient of multiple awards that recognize his leadership and contributions to education, social justice, and anti-oppressive practice, including:

The Mary Smith Arnold Anti-Oppression Award from the Counsellors for Social Justice (CSJ), American Counselling Association (2025)
The Honorary Award in Education from South Asian Americans for Change (SAAFC, 2025)
The DSW Award for Writing to Advance Social Work and Social Justice from The University of Alabama (2025)
The Distinguished Leader Award from the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW, 2024)

Rahim was a co-editor of Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer (Coach House Books, 2016), which was nominated for the Toronto Book Awards. He has also self-published four clinical guides addressing assessment, treatment planning, documentation, and countertransference.
Forthcoming Books:
1. The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Press,June 2025)
2. The Politicized Practitioner: The Essential Reader for Social Workers & Psychotherapists (Blue Cactus Press, November 2025)
3. Queer Muslims: On Faith, Family, and Healing (Co-editor; University of ReginaPress, April 2026).
Keep Up with Rahim Here
@the.politicized.practitioner

lesbian book club: June edition (in person only)
2025-06-14 11:00 - 18:00 | 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 our June 14th meeting, we’ll read If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, translated by Ann Carson (Vintage, paperback, 2003, $20). Purchase a copy before June 14th, and receive a 15% discount ($17 instead of $20). Just mention the lesbian book club when making your purchase.
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.

gender liberators viewing party (in person only)
2025-06-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Come celebrate the history of trans culture making, organizing, and activism! gender liberators is an anthology of writing, poetry, correspondence, photos, paintings, flyers, and other ephemera by trans*, Two-spirit, nonbinary, and trans-adjacent authors and creators from 20th-century Turtle Island/North America. There are only about 100 copies of it, each one is handmade and unique. A copy is being donated to the Manhattan LGBT Center archives and will be available at the Bureau tonight for viewing and flipping through!
This book seeks to let the authors and materials included speak for themselves and dialogue with each other and honors the multiplicity of voices, formats, and perspectives. The materials in this book were identified and selected based on hundreds of interviews conducted with elders, archivists, scholars, and cultural workers about their lives and work and about moments, individuals, and groups that were deeply influential but have been under appreciated in accounts of trans* history. Through this community guidance, this anthology centers the perspectives and visual and print culture of trans and queer life and resists some of the biases of existing histories and archives that under represent the geographic South and Midwest, trans* communities of color, and trans masculine communities.

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.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick Book Launch (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-11 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
When a police officer stood at his bedroom door on August 3, 1982, Michael Hardwick had no idea that he would become an avatar of the gay rights movement. Arrested for sodomy, Hardwick sued for his right to privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic spiraled. When he lost, his era-defining case inspired a half-million people to protest the Court. Today Bowers v. Hardwick continues to reverberate as the rights of privacy underpinning abortion, contraception, and same-sex relationships come under fire.
In this fiercely empathetic blend of biography and history, Martin Padgett tells the story of Hardwick’s life—as a child of Stonewall, as an artist, and as one of thousands claimed by the epidemic. The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS (W. W. Norton, June 3, 2025, hardcover, $31.99) reveals the halting shifts of American sexual politics, poses urgent questions about the Supreme Court, and returns to Hardwick some of the humanity stolen from him.
Author Martin Padgett will be joined in conversation by John Voelcker.
To reserve a copy of The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS (W. W. Norton, June 3, 2025, hardcover, $31.99), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick for June 11 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
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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 The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick :
“A fascinating story, grounded in the complex oppression endured by American queers before the contemporary dynamics of commodification and legalization. Padgett’s loving engagement with Hardwick’s life reminds us that—despite stigma and state violence—queer, and AIDS history is fundamentally the story of regular people who change the world through the power of personal integrity rooted in the truth of our lives.”
— Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP, New York 1987-1993

“As the increasingly right-leaning Supreme Court marches backward in time, all who believe that the arc of the moral universe will ultimately bend toward justice are in desperate need of a narrative as readable and moving as Marty Padgett’s The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick. Having argued the landmark constitutional case around which this gripping story pivots, I can say that it is by far the finest account of a personal, political, and legal saga like the one Hardwick’s brave life and premature death embodied.”
— Laurence Tribe, law professor at Harvard University

“Martin Padgett has heroically rescued the shooting star of Michael Hardwick’s errant 1980s Supreme Court story and placed it firmly in the constellation of the most urgent Queer American histories. Spinning the legacy of anti-sodomy challenges back to this foundational case in the AIDS crisis, The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick triumphs on both narrative and scholarly registers. Start polishing the awards.”
— Robert Fieseler, author of Tinder Box: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation

“Thoroughgoing history of a signal injustice committed against gay Americans by the American judiciary. . . A lucid, rightfully indignant study that demands a renewed commitment to equality for all.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Padgett combines incisive legal analysis with vivid evocations of the AIDS-era gay experience. . . a captivating account of one man’s awakening to injustice.” — Publishers Weekly

Participants’ biographies:
MARTIN PADGETT is the author of A Night at the Sweet Gum Head and The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick. Recipient of a Lambda Literary Fellowship, his writing has appeared in the Oxford American, The Paris Review, and Washington Post, among other publications. He lives in Pensacola Beach, Florida.

JOHN VOELCKER covers advanced auto technologies and policy as a reporter and analyst. As a Contributing Editor at Car and Driver, Green Car Reports, InsideEVs, and other outlets, he specializes in electric vehicles and the energy ecosystem around them. John edited Green Car Reports for nine years, publishing more than 12,000 articles on hybrids, electric cars, and other topics. His work appears in online, print, radio, and TV outlets that include Automotive News, The Drive, Charged EVs, Wired, and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He is the subject of the upcoming documentary A Son’s Journey: How I Became an Automotive Journalist from Hampton Films. In his off hours, he’s part of the deluded but cheerful team at the YouTube channel Tempting Fate Tours. He splits his time between the Catskill Mountains and New York City.

Traveling While Queer: A Conversation with Alden Jones, editor of EDGE OF THE WORLD, and contributors Nicole Shawan Junior, Andrew Ellis Evans, Zoë Sprankle, and Raluca Albu (in person only)
2025-06-07 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Bureau is pleased to welcome writers Alden Jones, Zoë Sprankle, Andrew Ellis Evans, Nicole Shawan Junior, and Raluca Albu for a discussion about what it means to be queer and moving through the world, the subject of Alden’s new book, Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing. Alden will read briefly from Edge of the World and then lead a discussion with four contributors who consider the joys—and the unique challenges—of traveling while queer.
After the conversation and audience Q&A, Alden and contributors will be available to sign copies of Edge of the World.

To reserve a copy of Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing (Blair, May 6, 2025, paperback, $19.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Edge of the World for June 7 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.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Participants’ biographies:
Alden Jones is the editor of Edge of the World and the author of The Wanting Was a Wilderness, The Blind Masseuse, and Unaccompanied Minors. Her travel writing has appeared in the inaugural edition of the Best American Travel Writing and named Notable Essays in Best American Travel Writing 2005 and 2011. A current Fulbright Specialist and a former professor on Semester at Sea, Alden is an assistant professor of creative writing and literature at Emerson College.

Raluca Albu is a writer, teacher, editor, and advocate. She was a recent Center for Fiction fellow, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship finalist, and has written for the Guardian, BOMB, Guernica, The Village Voice, Doctors Without Borders, Authors Guild, and others.

Andrew Ellis Evans is an author of award-winning memoir The Black Penguin, named one of “summer’s best travel books” by the New York Times. As National Geographic’s Digital Nomad, Andrew reported live from all seven continents. He lives in Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains.

Nicole Shawan Junior’s creative nonfiction appears in Oprah Daily, Guernica, The Rumpus, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere. They have attended residencies at Hedgebrook and Tin House and have received fellowships from Lambda Literary, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and more.

Zoë Sprankle is a writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in Roxane Gay’s The Audacity, The Bellevue Review, Quarter After Eight, and Go Magazine. She holds an MFA from the Newport MFA at Salve Regina University.

Conversation with Mark Salzwedel, gay novelist (in person & live-streaming)
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Conversation with Mark Salzwedel, gay novelist
Mark Salzwedel is a gay Brooklynite with 8 published short stories, and two published novels, including the sci-fi thriller THE LEVER and the epic magical realism novel THE MIRACULOUS LIFE OF RUPERT ROCKET. In conversation with Paul Hagen, a gay journalist, you will hear how the publishing process works, how ideas turn into science fiction and fantasy stories, and some other tips on writing. There will also be brief readings from his novels and one of his short stories.
Copies of the books will be available for purchase and signing. We encourage you to reserve a copy of either/both books in order to ensure we have sufficient copies.
To reserve a copy of The Miraculous Life of Rupert Rocket (Queer Space, 2024, paperback, $22.95) and/or The Lever (Queer Space, 2022, paperback $19.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book for June 5 event” in the subject line and let us know which book(s) you’d like us 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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Mark Salzwedel is an author, poet, screenwriter, singer, actor, director, editor, and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. One poem won the Comet Prize in September. One short story was included in an anthology in March. Forthcoming works include a gay time travel novel, TIME BUMP, a sci-fi short story collection, MRS. BABBAGE’S HOME FOR WAYWARD ROBOTS; a gay thriller, HONOR THE CREST; another LGBT magical realism novel, MISSING THINGS, and a feature-length bilingual gay rom-com script, DOCE CRUCES.

Queer Collage Workshop (in person only)
2025-05-31 14:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a queer collage workshop with Charlie Welch on Saturday, May 31, from 2 to 5 pm.
No experience necessary! All are welcome to join!
We will have some materials (magazines, printed matter, glue, cardboard) and tools (scissors) available, but we encourage you to bring materials and tools to share. Thank you!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Space is limited to the first 16 people who show up!

Free! But donations to support the Bureau’s work are much appreciated.
All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.
We will pass a bag for donations, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @bgsqd

Queer Moderns: Max Ewing's Jazz Age New York (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-29 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
In Queer Moderns, Alice T. Friedman tells the fascinating story of the queer avant-garde of the 1920s and ’30s in New York, Paris, and Venice, as seen through the eyes of Max Ewing (1903–1934), a young musician, photographer, and man-about-town who, although virtually unknown today, moved in extraordinary circles. In his photographs and letters, we meet the rising stars of modern art, music, dance, and literature and enter a world of interracial friendship, “queer space,” and experimentation that shone brightly before being swept away by the Depression. It is a remarkable story that reveals that the history of modernism is more queer and more Black than previously recognized.

Author Alice T. Friedman will be joined in conversation by Vanderbilt University Professor Kevin D. Murphy.

To reserve a copy of Queer Moderns: Max Ewing’s Jazz Age New York (Princeton University Press, May 27, 2025, hardcover, $49.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Queer Moderns for May 29 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
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Alice T. Friedman is an architectural historian who has written numerous articles and books about gender, sexuality, and queer space, including Women and the Making of the Modern House (1998), American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture (2010), and Queer Moderns: Max Ewing’s Jazz Age New York (2025). In 2023, she retired from teaching at Wellesley College, where she was the Grace Slack McNeil Professor of Art and a founding director of the Architecture Program. Friedman’s current project is a book of essays entitled Poker Faces which examines queer domesticities and modern designs for non-conforming households.

Kevin Murphy is Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities, and Professor and Chair in the Dept. of History of Art and Architecture at Vanderbilt University. He was previously Executive Officer of the Ph.D, Program in Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center. Prof. Murphy has published on queer artists and queer space in the Art Bulletin and elsewhere.

My Romantic Ideal Walkthrough (in person only)
2025-05-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
MY ROMANTIC IDEAL WALKTHROUGH
Wednesday, May 28th, 6-8 PM
Explore the queer photography exhibition curated by Slava Mogutin with an international group of artists including Benjamin Fredrickson, Brian Kenny, Francis Schichtel, Gerardo Vizmanos, Gio Black Peter, Jan Wandrag, Lukasz Leja, Miguel Villalobos, Quil Lemons, Robert Flynt, Ross Collab, Scott Hug, Stanley Stellar, and Victor Jeffreys II.

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.
To learn more about My Romantic Ideal click here.

Pestilence Comics Issues 1-5: Readings and Presentation by Jack Waters (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-25 15:00 - 17:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Jack Waters will read from Pestilence Comics 1 – 5 from the series of ten comic books based on the scenario of “Pestilence”, an intermedia musical opus (pestilenza.com). The reading will be accompanied by slides, moving image projections, and sounds. Jack will be present to guide browsers and sign copies from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM. The presentation will follow, ending at 5:30 PM.

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
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Jack Waters’ comic strip Attack Of The Murder Robins is the back page of Uranus Comics#3 Uranus Attacks, the 2023 anthology edited by Carlo Quispe. Jack is a member of the band NYOBS (nyobsnyc.com), the Terminally Queer Skinned Noise-Goth Kitchen Band. Jack co-wrote and performed the title role of Jason Holliday in the acclaimed indie film Jason And Shirley. Jack’s films have shown internationally and broadcast on Sundance Channel and PBS. In 1995 Jack’s own film short The Male Gayze screened in the cinema section of the 1990 exhibition Black Male: Representations of Masculinity In American Art at The Whitney Museum of American Art. Waters and life partner Peter Cramer, former co-directors of Abc No Rio, are co founders of Le Petit Versailles, a New York City Green Thumb urban garden presenting screenings, music, performance, visual art exhibitions, and new media.

Book Release: Marcos Gonsalez presents In Theory, Darling (in person only)
2025-05-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for the launch of In Theory, Darling: Searching for José Esteban Muñoz and the Queer Imagination by Marcos Gonsalez. Combining memoir and cultural criticism, Gonsalez brings us along with him as he searches for Muñoz’s legacy in the streets of New York and situates themself in the lineage of the queer elders who have come before him. In Theory, Darling shows us what made Muñoz such a significant figure for so many and serves as a reminder of just how life-giving theory can be.
Marcos Gonsalez will be joined in conversation by scientist and writer Joe Osmundson.

To reserve a copy of In Theory, Darling (Beacon Press, May 20, 2025, hardcover, $26.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve In Theory, Darling for May 23rd 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.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

Marcos Gonsalez is an author, an essayist, a scholar, and assistant professor of English at Adelphi University. The author of Pedro’s Theory: Reimagining the Promised Land (2021), his research on queer and trans Latinx aesthetics and cultural production has been supported by the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Literary Hub, Transgender Studies Quarterly, Inside Higher Education, Ploughshares, Catapult, Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Inquiry, and elsewhere.

Joseph Osmundson is a scientist and writer. His latest book, VIROLOGY, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction, and was called “dazzling” by the New York Times.

Queer Happened Here by Marc Zinaman with Ande Whyland (in person and live-streaming)
2025-05-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Celebrate the release of Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places with author Marc Zinaman and special guest and book contributor Ande Whyland to celebrate the iconic queer spaces that have shaped LGBTQ+ culture, community, and activism for decades.
7 pm: Doors Open
7:15 – 8 pm: Marc Zinaman in conversation with Ande Whyland
8 – 8.15 pm: Audience Q & A
8.15 – 9 pm: Book Signing and Sales
9 pm: Event Ends
Please RSVP here. Note: RSVPs are encouraged, but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served.
The event is co-sponsored by Village Preservation.
We hope you can join us!

Signed copies of Queer Happened Here will be available for purchase on the night of the event, along with Whyland’s monograph, Shots, 1980–1986.
To reserve a copy of Queer Happened Here (Prestel Publishing, April 29, 2025, hardcover, $50) and/or Shots, 1980-1986, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book for May 22 event” in the subject line and let us know which book(s) you’d like us 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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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

About Marc Zinaman
Marc Zinaman is a New York City-based writer and historian. Since 2021, he has been running the social media account @Queer_Happened_Here, which maps the forgotten LGBTQ+ history of the city. He has also been a contributing writer for the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project and Making Queer History website. He was the contributing editor of the book Getting In: NYC Club Flyers from the Gay 1990s, and currently serves on the planning committee for the forthcoming American LGBTQ+ Museum.

About Ande Whyland
When artist/photographer Ande Whyland moved to the East Village in 1980, it was like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. She landed in Club 57, a now legendary performance/ gallery space that was a headquarters of the astounding East Village art explosion of the 1980s. Ande’s candid photos made her a vital new member of this exclusive underground enclave. It also gave her inside access to other venues that fostered the burgeoning, party-fueled scene – including The Pyramid Club, Area, Jackie 60, Wigstock, The Mermaid Parade, Easter Parade and Slipper Room to name a few.
These photos have been published in numerous books and magazines including two separate issues of Artforum, a full page in the Whitney Museum of Art catalogue “The American Century: 1950-2000.” Four photographs were chosen for the “East Village USA Show” at The New Museum, and an extensive slide show for the Club 57 exhibition at MOMA. Her book “Shots, 1980–1986” captures this period with writings by those whose photos are featured in the book. Her latest book “Balloons and Feathers,” out last year captures the Burlesque stars from the early 2000’s also in their own words. Both books are available on BLURB.

About Queer Happened Here
A sprawling, unique visual history of New York City’s queer spaces, Queer Happened Here documents the evolution of LGBTQ+ culture, community, and activism within Manhattan’s dynamic landscape over the course of a century, spanning from 1920 to 2020.
New York’s LGBTQ+ history is everywhere, but rarely is it visibly documented. Aside from current venues and a handful of landmark plaques, important queer spaces from the city’s past have otherwise been forgotten about, or remain entirely hidden.
This multifaceted book joyfully and poignantly explores a century of LGBTQ+ gathering spaces across Manhattan through hundreds of historic photographs, flyers, posters, club membership cards, magazine spreads, and more. Author Marc Zinaman’s carefully researched, engaging text includes first-person accounts and little-known facts that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking.
From 1920s bathhouses, drag balls, and the ascent of homophobia during World War II, to the protests and parades of the 1960s and 1970s, to the horrors of AIDS; from the vibrant nightlife scene of the 1990s to 2018’s Rainbow Wave, which saw a record number of queer elected officials in the US, to the rise of geosocial dating apps, every major milestone of LGBTQ+ social history is thoughtfully documented.
Published by Prestel. To find out more, visit penguinrandomhouse.com

OUTspoken: The Publishing Triangle’s Reading Series, May Edition (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its monthly OUTspoken Reading Series as host Carol Rosenfeld welcomes Christopher Bollen, Griffin Hansbury, Keetje Kuipers, Sue Landers, Esther Lin, and Robert Raasch.

Join us in-person or watch the live-stream to hear from some of queer literature’s most dynamic established and up-and-coming voices.

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
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
