How to Unsilence the Silenced: Karen Tintori's Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family
2017-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Karen Tintori, author of Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family, reads and shares research techniques in how to exhume tragic family stories. Annie Lanzillotto hosts and runs the Q & A.

“Nearly every family has a skeleton in the closet, an ancestor who sins against custom and tradition and pays a double price–ostracism or worse at the time, and obliteration from the memory of succeeding generations. Few of these transgressors paid a higher price than Frances Costa, who was brutally murdered by her own brothers in a 1919 Sicilian honor killing in Detroit. And fewer yet have had a more tenacious successor than Frances’ great niece, Karen Tintori, who refused to allow the truth to remain forgotten. This is a book for anyone who shares the conviction that all history, in the end, is family history.” — Frank Viviano, author of “Blood Washes Blood”

Copies of Unto the Daughters 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!

Karen Tintori is an American author of fiction and nonfiction. Her books cover a wide range of human experience, from the mysteries of the Kabbalah to the lives of Italian American immigrants. Her books include: “Unto the Daughters: the legacy of an honor killing in a Sicilian American Family,” and “Trapped, the 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster.” She writes both as a solo author and in collaboration with New York Times best-selling author Jill Gregory with whom she wrote: “The Book of Names,” and “The Illumination,” among others. For more info: www.karentintori.com

Annie Rachele Lanzillotto is the author of “L is for Lion: an Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Mfemoir” and the book of poetry “Schistsong.” Forthcoming in March is Annie’s double book: “Hard Candy: caregiving, mourning and stagelight” and “Pitch Roll Yaw.” As a singer/songwriter, Annie’s albums include: “Blue Pill,” “Swampjuice: Yankee With a Southern Peasant Soul,” “Never Argue With a Jackass,” “Carry My Coffee.” For more info: www.annielanzillotto.com

Gender-fluidly Yours: an Evening of Queer Non-binary Non-Fiction with Hida Viloria & Jeffrey Marsh
2017-10-11 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Non-binary pioneers Hida Viloria and Jeffrey Marsh will discuss and read from their respective books, Born Both: An Intersex Life (Hida Viloria, Hachette Books) and How to Be You (Jeffrey Marsh, Penguin Random House), with a Q & A to follow.

Born Both: An Intersex Life and How to Be You 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!

Hida Viloria is a Latinx writer and LGBTQIA activist in the vanguard of bringing intersex and non-binary issues to human rights organizations as a consultant (United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Lambda Legal), and to the masses as a frequent television and radio guest (Oprah, 20/20, NPR, BBC…) and one of the most extensively published writers in the field (HuffPost, The Daily Beast, The Advocate, The NY Times, Ms….). Hida spearheaded the first global call by and for intersex human rights, was the first openly intersex person invited to speak at the UN, and is a leader in the fight for non-binary gender recognition with the non-profit s/he founded, the Intersex Campaign for Equality, and as the recipient of the second intersex birth certificate in the U.S.. This spring, s/he was interviewed by Rolling Stone, Psychology Today, and NPR about her memoir Born Both: An Intersex Life (Hachette Books), which was selected as one of People’s best new books and praised by The NY Times, The Washington Post, and more, and is the first book by an intersex author published by a Big 5 publisher.

Jeffrey Marsh, author of ‘How to Be You’ from Penguin Random House, is an LGBTQ activist and icon whose message of inclusion and acceptance has amassed over 300 MILLION views on social media. Named ‘Viner of the Year’ by CBS, Jeffrey has 500k+ fans on their social channels, and is the creator of the global trends #NoTimeToHateMyself and #DontSayThatsSoGay. Jeffrey is a regular contributor, writer, and on-air host for Snapchat Stories, Facebook Live, O Magazine, Oprah.com, TIME.com, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Mashable, and Mom.me, to name a few. Other notable achievements include Jeffrey as social media ambassador/correspondent for MTV/LOGO, VH1, GLSEN, GLAAD and PFLAG. As a fashion model, Jeffrey changed the garment industry by becoming the first gender non-binary bride in a bridal gown lookbook. Jeffrey is the first non-binary author with Penguin Random House, and the first multi-hyphenate talent to use ‘they/them’ pronouns (as opposed to he/she/his/her’). Jeffrey’s fans are updated regularly on their self-acceptance fan club app, available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and Jeffrey will soon be seen as the fashion model for their own line of genderfluid clothing.

It Makes Me Whole
2017-10-12 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Please join us for an evening of films by artist Doug Ischar. In conjunction with his show of drawings at the Bureau, Love me Tender, Jared Buckhiester presents three of Ischar’s works BRB, Alone With You, and Tristes Tarzan. A new collaborative film by John Neff and Steve Reinke will be screened as an introduction to the program.
The screening will begin shortly after 7 pm.
Total Run Time 69min.

Image: Still from Alone With You,

Since the early 1990s, Doug Ischar has worked in sound, video, and photography. His work has evolved from large-scale multimedia installations to single-channel videos that address issues surrounding gay identity, desire, and loss. Currently an associate professor of photography at the University of Illinois, Chicago, he has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa; Photographers Gallery, London; L.A.C.E., Los Angeles; and Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo.

John Neff is a Chicago based artist working with photography, installation, and video. His works have been shown at Artists Space, New York; Donald Young Gallery, Chicago; Golden Gallery, Chicago and New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New York University’s Fales Library and Special Collections; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Neff is a founding curatorial board member of Chicago’s Iceberg Projects and codirector of the Ravenswood Elementary School Curatorial Practice Program. In 2016, he served as a consulting curator to the Chicago iteration of the traveling exhibition “Art AIDS America” at Alphawood Gallery. His co-edited volume Militant Eroticism: The Art+Positive Archives is forthcoming from Sternberg Press.

Steve Reinke is an artist and writer best known for his videos. His work is screened widely and is in several collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Pompidou (Paris), and the National Gallery (Ottawa). Born in a village in northern Ontario, he is currently associate professor of Art Theory & Practice at Northwestern University. In the 1990’s he produced the ambitious omnibus The Hundred Videos (1996), and a book of his scripts, Everybody Loves Nothing: Scripts 1997-2005 was published by Coach House (Toronto). He has also co-edited several books, including By the Skin of Their Tongues: Artist Video Scripts (co-edited with Nelson Henricks, 1997), Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video (with Tom Taylor, 2000), and The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema (with Chris Gehman, 2005).

XXO Reading featuring DJ Ashtrae & all his Friends
2017-10-13 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
The Triple Love Reading series (XXO) began as a dirty dream in a twisted era. It celebrates the ways poets struggle with and make out the world. It also aspires to mix different communities in NYC. XXO is funded in part by the Greater Los Angeles Cotton Candy Fortune.

In the summer of 2016, DJ Ashtrae (Joshua Escobar) graduated from the Master of Fine Art program at Bard College where he was the Dean’s Fellow in Writing, as well as the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a Merit Fellow. His first collection, Caljforkya Voltage, winner of 2017 No, Dear/Small Anchor Press Chapbook Competition, launched this September. He is a CantoMundo fellow. He lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with dj lil piñata. IG: djashtrae17.

Carina del Valle Schorske is a poet, essayist, and Spanish language translator at large in New York City. Her work has appeared at the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Yorker online, Lit Hub, Boston Review, New York Magazine, The Offing, Washington Square, and elsewhere. She recently won Gulf Coast’s 2016 Prize for her translations of the Puerto Rican poet Marigloria Palma. She is the happy recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, the MacDowell Colony, and Columbia University, where she is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature. carinadelvalleschorske.tumblr.com /Twitter: @fluentmundo / IG: @psycheandstupid

María Fernanda Snellings is an award-winning poet from Washington, D.C. Her poems & translations have appeared in Luna Luna Magazine, The Wide Shore, Kweli Journal & elsewhere. In 2017, she received fellowships from Callaoo Writers Workshop and CantoMundo. María Fernanda is a Black-Ecuatoriana and a proponent of open-lingual space.

Omotara James writes and lives in New York City. Her poetry chapbook, Daughter Tongue, was selected by African Poetry Book Fund in collaboration with Akashic Books for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set. Her work has appeared in The Recluse, Winter Tangerine, Cosmonauts Avenue and elsewhere. She is a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow and has been awarded scholarships by the Home School and Cave Canem. Her awards include the Nancy P. Schnader Academy of American Poets Award. Her debut full length collection, Mama Wata is forthcoming from CCM press. Currently, she is an MFA candidate at NYU. www.omotarajames.com /@omotarajames (IG, twitter)

Mel Elberg is a cyclical homosexual garden variety poet at large.

Tanya Zamirouskaya was born in Borisov, USSR, Soviet Belarus. Zamirouskaya writes surreal short stories about memory, ghosts, alienation and language deprivation. Her literary works have been published in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where she worked as a journalist and music critic. She is the author of two short stories collections, Life Without Noise And Pain (2010, Moscow, AST Publishing House) and Sparrow River (2015, Moscow, AST Publishing House). She is currently attempting to write in English in order to study the effects of the language insufficiency on memory, narration, and representation. In 2017 Zamirouskaya finished her MFA in writing at Bard College. She lives in New York City.

TELL 37: HalloQween
2017-10-14 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.
Dusty Childers is the special guest host of TELL 37!
HalloQween is the theme of the 37th installment of TELL. Featuring Katharine Case, Poison Eve, and Princess Flicky.
$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Dusty Childers (Dusty Tea Shoulders/ @duddylynn) directs, dramaturges, conjures costumes, speaks their truth in front of audiences, drags it up periodically, and instructs the future via the classroom. Childers’ body and body of work have graced the likes of Joe’s Pub, Abrons, The Whitney, Dixon Place, BAM, La Mama, the Soho Playhouse, Sid Gold’s Request Room, NY Live Arts, Irving Plaza, House of Yes, BAM, The Mix Festival, Bureau of General Services Queer Division, The Edinborough Fringe Festival and St. Ann’s Warehouse. He has worked with Justin Sayre, Taylor Mac, Heather Acs, Mister Wallace, Big Dipper, Miguel Gutierrez, Silas Howard, World Famous *BOB* and Amber Martin (among others).

Katharine Case started publishing an anarcho-feminist zine at the age of 14 in Phoenix. She has used writing as her primary tool for stirring shit up ever since. She moved to San Francisco in her 20s where she did regular readings at rancid bars as the token feminist party girl columnist for the seminal punk magazine, Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll. She currently resides in New York, where she’s spent the last ten years teaching English at a public school where she helps complicated kids find their own voices.

Poison Eve:
Creator, Destroyer, Shredder and petty thief. Boylesque, draglesque, performance art and puppeteer. A rare carnivorous night-blooming lily – flaunting neither falsies nor realies, this downtown stalwart has performed in Blacklips Performance Cult, the Jackie 60 factory, and such spaces as the Wild Project, PS122, HERE, Howl!, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Guggenheim, and (remarkably) both The Cock and The Hole!

Princess Flicky aka Hollywood South aka Cape Middleton aka Courtney Love Kardashian reigns over Ptown and Nola throwing the most lavish shindigs thru out the continental USA. Currently owns a Blackberry, former Sidekick 2 owner. Mother to little Willie Nelson (puppy) and favors all shades of pink and denim Loves vodka and good lighting

In the Province of the Gods: Kenny Fries and Matthew Gallaway
2017-10-19 19:00 - 20:30 | NY
Kenny Fries, who was born missing bones in his legs, travelled to Japan to explore how the Japanese view people with disabilities. In Japan, he discovered (it’s almost a rumor) a god with a disability, although whether he’s Shinto or Buddhist is unclear. Fries returned to Japan a second time, but before arriving, he is diagnosed with HIV.
Fries’s HIV diagnosis shakes up all of his assumptions about Japan, the body, and mortality and he is propelled to a new understanding of how to live with the constant knowledge of impermanence and threat of loss. In the end, not only was Japan the right place to discover a culture unlike his own, but Japan was also the perfect place to learn how to re-conceive and re-enter his life.
Author Matthew Gallaway joins Fries in conversation.

Copies of Kenny Fries’s In the Province of the Gods and In the Gardens of Japan 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!
This event is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Press.

Photo by Michael R. Dekker
Kenny Fries is the author of, most recently, In the Province of the Gods, as well as Body, Remember: A Memoir and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, winner of the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. He is the editor of Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out and author of the libretto for The Memory Stone, an opera commissioned by Houston Grand Opera.

Matthew Gallaway is the author of #gods — described by Lambda Literary as “epic” and “riveting” — and The Metropolis Case, which was praised by the New York Times for being “driven by exuberance and morbidity, fatalism and erotic energy.” He lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City with his partner and four cats.

2017 NY Queer Zine Fair
2017-10-21 12:00 - 19:00, 2017-10-22 12:00 - 19:00 | NY
We are excited to be presenting the third New York Queer Zine Fair on October 21 and 22. The event will bring more than 40 queer artists, zine makers. collectives and publishers from around the world to present and sell their current work.
This year we’ll take over three rooms on the second floor of The LGBT Community Center – Room 201A, The Keith Haring Bathroom and of course the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
Saturday, 21 October / 12:00pm to 7:00pm
Sunday 22 October/ 12:00pm to 7:00pm
There will be a few different exhibitors on Saturday and Sunday so be sure to check out both days.
Free admission.
We look forward to seeing you there!
SATURDAY and SUNDAY:
3 Dot Zine www.3dotzine.com
Anand Vedawala www.anandvedawala.com
Anthony Malone www.anthonymaloneisalive.tumblr.com
Anxiety Dreams www.anxiety-dreams.com
Authorized to Work in the US Press www.authorizedtowork.us
BEARPAD www.thebearpad.com
Belladona Series https://www.belladonnaseries.org/
Bound Leather Zine www.boundleatherzine.com
Brusque Babe www.brusquebabe.com
Cameron Dailey / scum bag fag rag Instagram.com/yescameron
Chris Moody www.cargocollective.com/chrismoody
Christopher Clary www.christopherclary.com
Doable Guys www.doableguys.tumblr.com
Gay Sex Is The Answer www.Davidmodel.com
headmaster www.headmastermagazine.com
homie house press www.adrianastories.com/homiehousepress/
HOMOCATS www.HOMOCATS.com
“Homos in Herstory” by Mr. Elvis www.elvis007.wordpress.com
Institue 193 www.institute193.org
Joe Ovelman. www.joeovelman.com
Karen Kaye Llamas www.Karenkayellamas.com
khaleel www.thisnumberisinvalid.tumblr.com
Knowsgay www.knowsgay.tumblr.com
Matthew Scott Gualco www.matthewgualco.com
Olivia M. www.etsy.com/shop/ParadoxNowCreations
Pink Mince www.pinkmince.com
Raw Material www.tumblr.com/blog/rawmaterialzine
Slow Youth www.slowyouth.info
Straight To Hell chapbooks & editions www.straight-to-hell.com
Sula Collective www.sulacollective.com
The Bettys www.thebettys.com
Vanessa Adams mwww.vanessaadams.bigcartel.com/
Wabisabizinez www.Wabisabizinez.Storenvy.Com
SATURDAY 21 ONLY
Barnard Zine Club twitter.com/barnardzineclub
Cakeboy www.cakeboymag.com
GenderFail www.genderfail.space
Ginger www.gingerzine.net
Pegacorn Press www.carolinepaquita.com/gallery/
Stephen Grebinski www.stephengrebinski.com
SUNDAY 22 ONLY
Arno Mokros + Nona Schamus www.arnomokros.com +www.nonaschamus.com
Arthur DUMPLING – Cock au Soleil www.legrosmonsieur.fr/cock-au-soleil/
Cassandra Leveille www.secondhandemozine.tumblr.com
Multiform www.instagram.com/mullteforme
the queefs
Troll Hole NYC www.trollholenyc.com

Intersex & Chill: NYC Annual Intersex Awareness Day
2017-10-26 20:00 - 21:30 | NY
Intersex kids are routinely told from a young age that our being intersex is something private, something that should be kept secret, something that you cannot disclose to others at all costs. As a result, intersex adults and teens who are out and proud often have much difficulty finding other intersex people to connect with, become friends with, and even just be in the same room with. “Intersex and Chill,” this year’s NYC Annual Intersex Awareness Day event, allows intersex people to come together to share space, talk, laugh, share, chill, and just enjoy being in the company of a bunch of rad intersex people. While large hangs with many intersex people are uncommon outside of intersex organizations, we hope that this event will inspire others to find and create their own communities of fabulous intersex folks and enjoy the profound joy of existing together. (This event is hosted in affiliation with the Point Foundation for LGBTQ scholars.)

Claudia Astorino is an intersex person and activist who co-founded the NYC Annual Intersex Awareness Day events. She has raised awareness about intersex issues via writing (The Guardian, Everyone Is Gay, Autostraddle), presentations and workshops (NYU, UC Davis, Bluestockings Books) and interviews (First Person PBS, HuffPost Live, Circa News), and formerly served as the Associate Director of Organization Intersex International’s US chapter (OII-USA). Claudia lives in New York with her girlfriend, and she really, really wants a cat.

Writers Explore the Lesbian Body: A Sinister Wisdom Reading
2017-10-27 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
A sterling, fabulous, joyous line-up of writers and artists will read in celebration of The Lesbian Body, Issue #106 of Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary & art journal which works to seeks to open, consider and advance the exploration of lesbian community issues. Issue #106 was guest edited by the ever-kind and admirably fierce Tara Shea Burke. Indefatigable Julie Enszer is editor of Sinister Wisdom. Among the readers, some local, some flying in for the event are Vi Khi Nao, Sarah Fonseca, Jenny Factor, Amber Carpenter, Ayasha Guerin, Tara Shea Burke, Julie Enszer, Joan Larkin, Sarah Sarai, Red Washburn, and others TBD.

Copies of Sinister Wisdom Issue #106 will be available for sale. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

Tara Shea Burke is the editor of Issue 106 of Sinister Wisdom – “The Lesbian Body.” She is author of Let the Body Beg (ELJ), a collection of poems which Tim Seibles described as “part of the cure.” At Old Dominion University in Virginia she created reflective poetry and essays to promote study abroad courses and utilized field research in Africa to apply global pedagogies and greater global awareness in university writing programs.

Amber Carpenter is an MFA candidate within the Creative Nonfiction program at Columbia College Chicago. She completed her MA in English from East Carolina University in 2012 with a concentration in both poetry and nonfiction. Her work, which includes writing and photography, has been published in Sinister Wisdom, Mount Hope Magazine, and Glassworks Magazine.

Alexis Clements is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. A regular contributor to Hyperallergic, her writing has also appeared in Salon, Bitch Magazine, American Theatre, The Brooklyn Rail, the Guardian, Nature, and Two Serious Ladies, among others. She is currently working on a documentary film about physical spaces where queer women gather. Follow her @alexisclements

Scholar and poet Julie Enszer is the editor of Sinister Wisdom and author of four poetry collections, Avowed (Sibling Rivalry Press, Lilith’s Demons (A Midsummer Night’s Press), Sisterhood (Sibling Rivalry Press), and Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press); She is also editor of The Complete Works of Pat Parker and Milk & Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry. We are grateful to her for her many contributions to lesbian literature.

Jenny Factor is an archaeologist of object and mind; she is also a feminist, a mother, and a dog-lover. Her poem collection, Unraveling at the Name (Copper Canyon Press), was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her work has been supported by an Astraea Grant in poetry.

Sarah Fonseca is a publicly-educated writer who lives in New York City. Her essays, criticism, filthy ideas, and their overlapping iterations have appeared (or will soon appear) in Autostraddle, Best Lesbian Erotica 2018, The Lambda Literary Review, Math Magazine, Nylon, and Slate. She’s currently working on a series of essays on women and strength pursuits.

Ayasha Guerin is an artist and scholar based in Brooklyn. Her art and writing concern themes of the urban/natural, public and private space, ecology, community and security. She shoots her analog photography on a Canon A-1 that has passed through three generations of family. It is the same camera that captured her baby photos. She is currently a PhD candidate in NYU’s American Studies department.

Vi Khi Nao is the author of the forthcoming story collection A Brief Alphabet of Torture, which won FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. Her novel Fish in Exile was published by Coffee House Press, and her poetry collection, The Old Philosopher, won the Nightboat Books Prize for Poetry. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brown University where she received the John Hawkes and Feldman Prizes in fiction and the Kim Ann Arstark Memorial Award in poetry.

Joan Larkin’s poems, plays, and other writings have won awards from Lambda Literary–including the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, the National Endowment for the Arts, NYFA, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the American Academy of Poets and many other. She has published many poetry collections and anthologies, plays, and nonfiction. Her most recent collection is Blue Hanuman (Hanging Loose Press).

Sarah Sarai’s poems and stories are in Barrow Street, Callisto, Fairy Tale Review, Posit, decomP, Lavender, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Collagist, Cleaver, Boston Review, Threepenny Review, Bone Bouquet, and other publications. Her most recent chapbook is Geographies of Soul and Taffeta (Indolent Books). Her collection is The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX). She is a freelance editor and adjunct prof. Follow her everywhere @SarahSarai

Red Washburn, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of English and Co-Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Kingsborough Community College. Her articles appear in Journal for the Study of Radicalism, Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and Journal of Lesbian Studies. Her poetry collection is Crestview Tree Woman (Finishing Line). She co-edited Sinister Wisdom issue 103, “Celebrating the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.”

NYC Launch: Andrea Lawlor's Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
2017-11-01 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Come celebrate Andrea Lawlor‘s debut novel Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl in NYC on the official publication date! Short readings, discussion, and Q&A. Andrea will be introduced by M./Megan Milks.

Copies of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl 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!

Andrea Lawlor lives in Western Massachusetts and teaches writing at Mount Holyoke College. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is their debut novel. Lawlor is a fiction editor for Fence and the author of a chapbook, Position Papers (Factory Hollow Press, 2016). M./Megan Milks is a fiction writer, cultural critic, and scholar. Their first collection of short fiction, Kill Marguerite and Other Stories (Emergency Press, 2014) won the 2015 Devil’s Kitchen Award in Fiction and was named a Lambda Literary finalist in the Debut Fiction category; and their third chapbook The Feels was released by Black Warrior Press in 2016.

Poetry chapbook launch, Portraits in G Minor (Folded Word Press), by Paco Márquez
2017-11-04 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
Poet Paco Márquez will be launching his first chapbook, Portraits in G Minor (Folded Word Press). Paco is originally from México and Northern California, and his writings are fed by his immigrant experiences, his years working several jobs, and his background in philosophy and creative writing. He will be accompanied by Eva Maria Saavedra and Sean Denmark.

Copies of Portraits in G Minor 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!

* Eva Maria Saavedra was born and raised in New Jersey and now resides in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in writing and translation from Columbia’s School of the Arts. Her chapbook, Thirst, was selected by Marilyn Hacker for the Poetry Society of America’s 2014 New York Chapbook Fellowship. Her poetry has appeared in Callaloo, Catch-Up, The Acentos Review, Generations, Prick of the Spindle, and Apogee Journal.

* Sean Denmark is from Alabama. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon and a public school teacher in the Bronx and Manhattan. Now he writes fiction and sometimes poetry, tutors, and teaches around and about. He just moved to Brighton Beach.

* Paco Márquez: Originally from México and Northern California, Paco Márquez’s work has appeared in Apogee, Ostrich Review and Huizache, among others. His chapbook, Portraits in G Minor, will be published by Folded Word Press in November. Recipient of fellowships from New York University, The Center for Book Arts, and the Squaw Valley Writer’s Workshop, he holds an MFA in poetry from NYU, where he was poetry editor of Washington Square. Currently, he is poetry editor at OccuPoetry, and lives in New York City with his partner of 12 years.

Death Café at the Bureau
2017-11-07 16:00 - 17:15 | NY
This death café is a non-expert environment in which to discuss issues relating to death that feel relevant to those participating. Tea and Home Made cake will be available for free.

For more information about the concept of the Death Café https://deathcafe.com/what/

Photograph by Christa Holka
Oreet Ashery is a visual artist and an educator working with political/bio-fiction, gender materiality and potential communities, in local and international contexts. Ashery’s recent work is an artist web-series Revisiting Genesis, shortlisted for the Jarman Film Award 2017, on digital death, memory as identity and feminist art reincarnations, https://revisitinggenesis.net/

Johanna Linsley is an artist, writer and researcher working on sonic fiction, queer domesticities and the politics of encounter and assembly. She is a founding partner of UnionDocs, a centre for documentary arts in Brooklyn, and works with the London-based performance collective I’m With You.www.jhlinsley.com

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Frida
2017-11-08 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.

Please join us for Frida (2002), directed by Julie Taymor and starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina.
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 more people come, the more likely we’ll continue the event! The event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.
Synopsis: Despite illness, injury, and life-long pain, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo lived a full and extraordinary life. She and her husband, painter Diego Rivera, both had many other relationships over the course of their marriage. Frida’s doctor told her that Diego “has never been, nor ever will be, monogamous.” Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes.

John Hanning reads from his book Unfortunate Male
2017-11-10 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Join us on Friday evening for a special performance by artist John Hanning. The lights will go out at 7:30. Seating is limited – Do not miss this! A special edition of the artist book is available, 25 copies.
Unfortunate Male chronicles John Hanning‘s diagnosis with AIDS with his medical records, photographs and memory text. Hanning’s book is a meditation on memory. Why do we remember some things and not others? Do memories sustain us or ruin us? Is it possible to rewrite or reenact memories? How do photographs and medical forms – relics of sorts – facilitate or challenge our ability to remember and tell stories?
John Hanning is a Brooklyn based artist and writer. He connects places and ideas – pictorially and conceptually, composing his personal iconography as he traces his life to the present. He is the author of Unfortunate Male.

Photograph by Michael McFadden. @mcfaddenphoto

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CENTER WILL OPEN AT 5 PM ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH, IN OBSERVANCE OF VETERANS DAY.
THE BUREAU WILL OPEN AT 6 PM FOR THIS EVENT.

TELL 38: Overcome
2017-11-11 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.
Overcome is the theme of the 38th installment of TELL. Featuring Thomas March, Ali Lemer, Rosie Frascella, Simba Sandra Yangala, and Mariel Reyes.

$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 BGSQD. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Originally from Springfield, IL, Thomas March is a poet, teacher and critic based in New York City. Aftermath, his first poetry collection, was selected by Joan Larkin for The Word Works Hilary Tham Capital Collection and will appear in Spring 2018. His poetry has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, The Good Men Project, Pleiades, and Public Pool, among others. His reviews and essays have appeared in The Believer, The Huffington Post, and New Letters. With painter Valerie Mendelson, he is the co-creator of A Good Mixer, a textual-visual hybrid project based on a 1933 bartender’s guide of the same name; it will have gallery previews beginning in early 2018. Appearing regularly in Lambda Literary Review, his poetry column, “Appreciations,” offers appreciative close readings of excellent poems from recent collections by LGBTQ poets. A past recipient of the Norma Millay Ellis Fellowship in Poetry, from the Millay Colony for the Arts, he has also received an Artist/Writer grant from The Vermont Studio Center. In recent years, he has written and performed monologues at a number of venues in New York City, including Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, The Peoples Improv Theater, and Sid Gold’s Request Room. Twitter: @realthomasmarch, Web: www.thomasmarch.org

Ali Lemer is a writer and editor and the author of numerous guidebooks and travel articles for companies such as Thomas Cook and Lonely Planet, as well as the co-editor of Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home (2013, Affirm Press). She’s also been a radio DJ, a roller derby announcer, a tech support assistant, a first-year English teacher, a desktop publisher and a waiter, so her mother is still waiting for her to settle down and find a good job already.

Rosie Frascella is a teacher activist and queer mama. She is a core member of the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) and a 12th grade English teacher.

Simba Sandra Yangala was born in Zaire (currently the Democratic Republic of Congo). She is a performing artist, choreographer, playwright, actress, dancer and educator. She studied Liberal Arts at LaGuardia Community College and Social Sciences at the College of New Rochelle. She is the founder and Artistic Director of her performing arts company JungleDom Network in which she founded the Kamutshima Dance Troupe.
As a daughter of Africa, she is committed to creating a greater awareness and appreciation of African culture, the performing arts and particularly, female performing artists. Simba has a special gift of emphasizing with children from her over 10 years experience of working as an ethics educator. She imbues them with confidence and strives to teach the importance of community. With her generous heart and enthusiasm for the arts she has already nurtured a generation of children through the Ethics for Children program at Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. Tapping into her breadth of experience working with children, she has also taught drama with the Young Peoples Theater, is an assistant teacher with Education in Dance and thought African Dance with Arts East New York. At Play Kids she taught African Dance, French Sing-a-Long and Folk Sing-a-Long for children and also African Dance for adults.
Sitting down with her sisters, brothers and cousins, before bedtime as a child, Simba enjoyed story time by many family members including her maternal grandfather. That cherished valuable time of her childhood later influenced her own talent as a wonderful story teller. She has been in many of Susana Cook’s plays and performing and producing off-Broadway theater since 2004. Catch her in her next wave of performances or caring and dancing with children.

While somewhat of a shy performer and storyteller, Mariel Reyes has written & produced works for some of your favorite experimental theater spaces in NYC (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Arts Exchange) and has also appeared on screen in the film “Appropriate Behaviour” which premiered at Sundance in 2014.

Debut Poetry Book Launch and Reading: The Carnival of Affection by Philip F. Clark. Featuring poet David J. Bauman
2017-11-15 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
Philip F. Clark and David J. Bauman will read from their current published work and works in progress. Refreshments will be served. The poets will sign copies of their books for sale at the close of the event.

PHILIP F. CLARK, a native New Yorker, received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry at City College, New York, in 2016, where he is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in English. He was the graduate editor of The Promethean Literary Journal. His poetry has been published in Assaracus Journal of Gay Poetry, The Good Men Project, “Between: New Gay Poetry, published by Chelsea Station Editions, The HIV HERE AND NOW Project, and most recently, Transition: Poems In the Aftermath, published by Indolent Press. His poetry reviews and interviews have been published in Lambda Literary. His blog The Poet’s Grin can be seen at https://philipfclark.wordpress.com His current debut volume of poetry The Carnival of Affection, is published by Sibling Rivalry Press. It was a winner of the Jerome Lowell De Jur Award for Poetry in 2016.

DAVID J. BAUMAN has recently published work in 2 Bridges Review, Barely South Review, and Yellow Chair Review. His poems have also been published in journals and magazines such as San Pedro River Review, Blue Hour, Contemporary American Voices, and T(OUR). He is a recipient of the Richard Savidge Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and Bloomsburg University. David’s chapbook Moons, Roads, and Rivers will be published in November of 2017 by Finishing Line Press. When he is not writing and publishing poems, David manages a small branch library in the Wilkes-Barre area, where he is the Editor of Word Fountain, the Literary Magazine of the Osterhout Free Library.

Opening Reception for Getting Lost in Oneself (PrOceSS)-Adriana Varella
2017-11-16 18:00 - 21:30 | NY
Join us at the Opening Reception for Getting Lost in Oneself (PrOceSS)-Adriana Varella
Performance by Raquel Maveck (QueefCore-music) at 7 PM

Getting Lost in Oneself (PrOceSS)-Adriana Varella is on view at the Bureau from November 16, 2017 through January 14, 2018 Sunday, January 21, 2018.

Artist’s statement:
Seventeen years ago I left Brazil to San Francisco and after NYC, as my work started being the object of censorship. Today a number of progressive and queer shows are being shut down as extreme alt-right conservative groups gain strength in Brazil and worldwide. This exhibition is a protest against repression and censorship.
About the works in Getting Lost in Oneself (PrOceSS):
In Cracks in Civilized Landscapes an experimental-video-performance, where we challenge architecture as patriarchal authority. In this work, Adriana Varella and her girlfriend are filmed having sex in a number of public, and somewhat “sacred” spaces: church, castle, museum, bank and other monuments such as Rio de Janeiro’s City Council, the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, the Military Fortress of Urca, Rio se Janeiro, the Eiffel Tower, Paris, etc etc . As we fuck, we attempt to subvert their sacred, heroic and sexist dimension. We infiltrate these buildings to decipher the oppressive power beyond their formal aspect and use sex as a revolutionary process of desecration. In New configurations for queer families Orion proposes a debate that defies normative concepts of family (as a reductive model of authoritarian state) as they play with images of polygamy and orgies. Orion also presents Barricades, in which they defy the police state as they steal NYPD barricades and transform them into art objects. In Manhattan Bridge, Jack and David collect trans man images from the internet and bring them to life in a large scale painting with the Manhattan Bridge walking pass in the background.

Adriana Varella will talk with curator Denise Carvalho and the artist: January 11th, 7 PM

MOMENTUM! 5 Years and Counting! A Birthday Party and Fundraiser for the Bureau!
2017-11-17 18:00 - 21:30 | NY
Join the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division to celebrate our 5th birthday!

MOMENTUM: 5 Years and Counting! will begin at 6 PM with an hour-long reception followed by a variety show MC’d by actor, entertainer, and former Miss LEZ Drae Campbell, and featuring author/blogger Jeremiah Moss (Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul); poet, writer, and performer Pamela Sneed; comedian, activist, and instructor Elsa Waithe; drag performer Lady Quesa’Dilla; and burlesque performer and porn star Chris Harder. DJ Viva Ruiz will bring guests to the dance floor for the final hour and a half!
Raffle prizes! Food! Drink! Dancing! Performances! Fun!

Tickets are only $25.
Purchase tickets

Flyer Design: Paul Moreno

Big thanks to our donors!
Lagunitas Brewing Company

Saxelby Cheese Mongers

Raffle prizes include:
T-shirts and other goodies from Tom of Finland Store

1 pair of tickets to Sasha Velour’s Nightgowns on New Year’s Eve!

2 pairs of tickets to Chris Harder’s Porn to Be a STAR!

Performers and Readers:

Drae Campbell is an actor, storyteller, curator and all around entertainer. She received a BFA in Theater from the University of The Arts in Philadelphia. She’s been spotted on IFC.Com, Conan. Refinery29 and in numerous films. Some theater credits include: Only You Can Prevent Wildfires, Ricochet Collective, Non-Consensual Relationships With Ghosts, La Mama, My Old Man, Dixon Place, Oph3lia at HERE. She appeared as a radical lesbian in Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History Of Popular Music at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Drae once reigned as Miss LEZ and she hosts and curates a live monthly storytelling show called TELL at BGSQD.
www.draecampbell.com

Viva Ruiz is a queer big mouth.
thankgodforabortion.com

Photo by Christopher Schulz
Jeremiah Moss, creator of the award-winning blog Vanishing New York, and author of Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul, is the pen name of Griffin Hansbury. His writing on the city has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and online for The New Yorker and The Paris Review. As Hansbury, he is the author of The Nostalgist, a novel, and works as a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Photo by Patricia Silva
Pamela Sneed is a New York-based poet, writer and performer. She is author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, KONG and Other Works and a chaplet, Gift by Belladonna. She has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Time Out, Bomb, VIBE, and on the cover of New York Magazine. She has appeared in Art Forum, The Huffington Post and Hyperallergic. In 2017, She was a Visiting Critic at Yale and Columbia University. She is a Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts for 2017/18. She is online faculty at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute teaching Human Rights and Writing Art and has also been a Visiting Artist at SAIC in the MFA summer low-res program. She has performed at the Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Poetry Project, NYU and Pratt Universities, Smack Mellon Gallery, The High Line, and was an artist- in- residence at Pratt University, Denniston Hill and Poet-Linc, Lincoln Center Education. She directed a final showcase at Lincoln Center Atrium. Her collage work appeared in Avram Finklestein’s FOUND at The Leslie Lohman Museum in 2017. Her work appears in Nikki Giovanni’s, “The 100 Best African American Poets.” Her forthcoming chapbook, Sweet Dreams, will be published by Belladonna in February 2018.

Elsa Waithe is a comedian, activist, and instructor from Norfolk, VA. Now residing in Brooklyn, NY, Elsa’s comedy is a mix of lighthearted but critical jabs at attitudes and issues around homosexuality and race, but her 2 favorite topics are weed and herself.
She’s been featured on NPR’s This American Life, hosted the monthly comedy show “Affirmative Laughter” at The Experiment Comedy Gallery, and now teaches stand-up comedy to teen girls with Gold Comedy #ComedyForGirls.

Photo by: Alonzo Maciel. Wig by: Steven Perfidia Kirkham
Lady Quesa’Dilla

Photo by David Ayllon
Chris Harder is a New York male burlesque performer, writer, and porn star. Known as “The Raunchy Romeo of Burlesque,” Harder has toured his solo burlesque performances throughout the US as well as Europe including shows in London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Harder was named “Best of the Naked City” by the Village Voice (2011) and also crowned “Best International Male Performer” at the 2011 World Burlesque Games, London. Recently, Chris Harder was one of the American Headliners for the 2017 Helsinki Burlesque Festival and also a featured burlesque performer at the 2017 World Buskers Festival, New Zealand. Harder is also the writer and producer of the Nasty Drew and That Harder Boy series, New York. Find out more and #getHarder at www.HarderBurlesque.com and @HarderBurlesque on Instagram and Twitter.
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Why donate to the Bureau?
The Bureau is a vital, unique queer space in New York City. Visitors find themselves surrounded by LGBTQ books and publications by and about our community, whether they are new or treasured classics, well-known or obscure and difficult to find. From Audre Lorde and James Baldwin to Michelle Tea and Brontez Purnell, from the latest books on transgender youth and intersex activism to contemporary gay manga and fantastical polygender coloring books, visitors encounter an array of LGBTQ books and publications that they will not find anywhere else. With new work that we receive directly from zine makers and small independent presses, visitors always discover new friends.
The Bureau hosts over 200 events every year, many of which would not otherwise find a venue. These are both community-driven events such as book-discussion groups, activist strategizing meetings, and writing workshops, as well as book launches by both well-known and emerging authors and poets. Additionally, the Bureau hosts at least 5 exhibitions yearly: both solo and group exhibitions of art works as well as activist materials. The Bureau has collaborated with organizations such as Visual AIDS and Fire Island Artist Residency, as well as with veterans of The Lesbian Avengers activist group and activists fighting police violence against people of color to bring you provocative and inspiring exhibitions year round.
At 5 years and counting, we want to improve and enhance the experience of visiting the Bureau and attending our events and exhibitions. The Bureau needs new, sturdier bookshelves, new audio-visual equipment, cushioned seating, and office equipment that will facilitate our work for the community. The members of our community who share their work in our space and our guests deserve a high-functioning and comfortable venue.
Please donate to the Bureau to help us improve your experience of our space, our events, and our exhibitions so that we can serve you as we’ve always envisioned. As always, thank you for your support!
CLICK HERE to set-up a recurring monthly donation or to make a one-time donation.
One of the best ways to support the Bureau is by setting up a recurring monthly donation of any amount. This enables us to have a stable and reliable source of funds to cover operating costs, keep our inventory fresh, and address the needs of the project as they arise. Thank you for your support!

Anti-Fascist Book Club Reads Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower
2017-11-19 13:30 - 15:30 | NY
A reading group for those fighting fascism!
Hopefully our readings will inspire thoughtful and informed activism.
Join us for our fourth meeting on Sunday, November 19, from 1:30 to 3:30 PM. We will discuss Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is available for purchase at the Bureau. Please support the Bureau and purchase your copy from us. Thanks!
In our first meeting in April we discussed the first 100 pages of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.
In our second meeting in May we discussed James Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man.
In our third meeting in July we discussed Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Questions? Ideas for future readings?
Write to Grey Vild: greyvild@gmail.com

Reading with Actors of Olympus Nights on the Square, Book 2 of Juliana Series, LGBT History in the Early Post War Years
2017-11-28 19:00 - 21:30 | NY
What if Your Love Was Illegal?

Actors will read from Vanda‘s recently released novel, Olympus Nights on the Square. This is a story about LGBT history in New York City during the early Post-War Years (1945-1955). Sexy, funny and deadly serious. Full of mobsters, the FBI, McCarthyism, lesbian pulp and “cures” for homosexuality.

Copies of Olympus Nights on the Square 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!

Reception at 7.
Reading at 7:30.

Vanda is working on a series of novels about LGBT history in New York City.
Juliana (Book 1, 1941-1944) was released in February 2016. Olympus Nights on the Square (Book 2) was released October 17, 2017.
From 2014 to 2016, Vanda produced a show based on Juliana at the Duplex Nightclub in which actors performed chapters from the book every month. The show included singing and dancing from the 1940s.
As a playwright, Vanda has received numerous honors, among them an Edward Albee Fellowship. Her play, Vile Affections, published by Original Works, was a finalist for a National Lambda Award.

OUR HAPPY HOURS: LGBT Voices from the Gay Bars
2017-12-02 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
OUR HAPPY HOURS: Voices from the Gay Bars celebrates the heritage–and fast disappearing culture–of LGBTQ bars, often the only sanctuaries for LGBTQ expression and life. Eight authors featured in the OUR HAPPY HOURS anthology will read a short passage from their work, share reminiscences of LGBT bar culture, and participate in a Q & A with attendees. The authors will sign books, available for purchase at the event. Proceeds from book sales will be donated to the Ali Forney Center for LGBT Youth in New York, and the Attic Youth Center, Philadelphia.

To reserve copies of Our Happy Hours, please write to contact@bgsqd.com.

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family
2017-12-06 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.
Please join us for Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family (2004), directed by Susan Kaplan and featuring Sam Cagnina, Steven Margolin, and Samantha Singh.
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 more people come, the more likely we’ll continue the event! The event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.
Synopsis: Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family is a documentary following the lives of a New York triad over eight years as they build a family and business together. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

TELL 39: Just My Imagination
2017-12-09 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.
Just My Imagination is the theme of the 39th installment of TELL. Featuring Tyler Ashley, Ryan J. Haddad, Sasha Kolodkin, Alice Pencavel, and Jennifer Marline Rodríguez.
$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 BGSQD. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

Sasha Kolodkin is a Baltimore-bred, Brooklyn-based playwright, poet, and performer. A recent graduate of SUNY Purchase, she spends her days writing, studying drama, and devising new ways to degrade and destabilize the more dastardly departments of the United States Government (when she isn’t daydreaming at her disinteresting day job). She is also a dramaturgical consultant for The Cameri Theatre, and a school ambassador with PFLAG.

TYLER ASHLEY is a choreographer and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. Ashley has performed in the work of Elizabeth Streb, Walter Dundervill, Larissa Velez-Jackson, Yackez, Katy Pyle, and Biba Bell among others. Ashley’s own performances have been presented by Performa, Friends of the High Line, Times Square Alliance, NADA Art Fair, BOFFO, and seen at Art Basel, The Knockdown Center, The Chocolate Factory, Movement Research, Danspace Project and more.
Ashley is also known as The Dauphine of Bushwick – a nightlife personality, performer, and promoter. The Dauphine started the party called BABY TEA three years ago, which has raised nearly $20k for LGBTQI youth over the course of three trans advocacy fundraisers. The Dauphine has performed and/or promoted at The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, NADA Art Fair, BUSHWIG ’14-’17, The Austin International Drag Festival, Fire Island Pines, New York Live Arts, and more.

Jennifer Marline Rodríguez put some of her “best years” in her late teens writing weekly for a national newspaper on literature, visual and performance arts in her home country Dominican Republic (popularly abbreviated ‘DR’). She entered the world of experimental poetry readings in the early 2000s with an ensemble of poets, actresses, writers, musicians and filmmakers who produced and staged a multimedia show called Blues en Vértigo before spoken word was a hit in DR. Around the same time she joined a literary weekly gathering whose regular members were called erranticistas, the most elusive ism in Dominican contemporary literature and arts, and the most fascinating joint to be at in the city in those years. After graduating from college with a degree in Social Communication, Jennifer came to the US with a Fulbright scholarship to pursue an M. A. in Hispanic Literatures and Languages. Currently she is a PhD candidate at Princeton University, writing a dissertation on Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik and Guatemalan performance artist Regina José Galindo. She has published academic articles in Chile and Mexico, as well as a poetry collection in DR. Previously unpublished texts have been featured in anthologies in Argentina, Mexico and Santo Domingo. Recently, the activist and art collective Proyecto 21 from Mexico City incorporated her poetry in its performance repertoire. At Princeton, she was teaching assistant to Argentine theater director Vivi Tellas in a workshop on Documentary Theater and Biodrama. This spring she went onstage at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club for Susana Cook’s “Non-Consensual Relationships With Ghosts”, and this summer she co-curated F.isura a solo exhibit of performance art photographer Antonio Juárez which opened in Mexico City this June. But absolutely nothing on storytelling in public. Oh! oh!

Alice Pencavel is a writer, teacher, and performer whose work has been presented by IRT Theater, United Solo Festival, Portland Fringe, Naked Angels, Manhattan Rep., Superhero Clubhouse, Playlight Theater, and the Kitchen Theater, among others. She frequently hosts play readings and performs original work in local, covert spots. As a Teaching Artist, she has worked with Arts Connection, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, Brooklyn Acting Lab, Stages on the Sound, Girls Write Now, SAY (Stuttering Association for the Young), and others. Some general appreciations include coffee, tea, chocolate, dreams, the moon, etc. alicepencavel.com

Ryan J. Haddad is an actor, writer, and autobiographical performer. His acclaimed solo play Hi, Are You Single? was most recently featured in The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival. He has performed original work at La MaMa E.T.C., Dixon Place, and The New Museum. His credits include The Maids and two Lucy Thurber world premieres at Williamstown Theatre Festival, “Noor and Hadi Go To Hogwarts” for Theater Breaking Through Barriers, and an appearance on the Netflix series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” ryanjhaddad.com

Negative Press Reading + Launch
2018-01-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
New year, new cultural horizon! Negative Press, a gay Marxist poetry collective, invites you to an evening of poems and other provocations.

Kay Gabriel is a minor internet personality.

Zachary LaMalfa is a minor internet personality.

David W. Pritchard is a minor internet personality.

A.B. Robinson is a minor internet personality.

Cam Scott is a minor internet personality.

Art by Cam Scott

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Three of Hearts: Kinsey
2018-01-03 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.
Please join us for Kinsey (2004), written and directed by Bill Condon and starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, and Peter Sarsgaard.
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 more people come, the more likely we’ll continue the event! The event is free, although a $10 suggested donation to help fund future events is much appreciated.
Synopsis: When Indiana University Professor Alfred Kinsey turns his attention from insects to the scientific study of human sexuality, his controversial work has a profound impact on society’s attitudes toward sex. Along the way, he makes discoveries about himself as well. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes.

Artist Adriana Varella in conversation with curator Denise Carvalho
2018-01-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Join us for a conversation with our current exhibiting artist, Adriana Varella, and curator Denise Carvalho.

Varella’s exhibition, Getting Lost in Oneself (PrOceSS), is on view at the Bureau through January 21, 2018.

Image: Adriana Varella, CRACKS 1, metal barricade collected in the streets of NYC (5ft x 6ft).

Dr. Denise Carvalho is a Brazilian-born curator, art critic and scholar who lives and works in the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural studies, M.A. in art history from the University of California, Davis, a Masters in anthropology from Hunter College, and a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts.

As a curator, her exhibitions include “Amor” (2016) at Oi Futuro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; “ Love on the Edge” (2015) at Galeria Arsenal in Bialystok, Poland; “Beyond Limits” at the Art Institute in San Diego and as part of the Postglobal Biennial (2013); the 3rd Mediations Biennale in Poznan (2012), with exhibitions at the National Museum, the Jesuit Gallery, the Zamek Culture Centre, and the Archdiocesan Museum; “Innerspacing the City” (2013) at the Chelsea Museum (2011); “Minimal Differences” (2010) at White Box, NYC; “Intangible Interferences” (2010) at Momenta Art in Brooklyn, NY; “Bodies of Dispersion” (2010) at Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland; “A Part of No-Part” (2010) at the Chelsea Museum, NYC. She is also the curator of “Preemptive Resistances” at Westport Arts Center (2009), “Holy Holes” at Dumbo Arts Center (2008), and “Infinitu et Contini” at Smack Mellon (2007). She has curated earlier international exhibitions and symposia, such as “Hybrid Dwellings” at Arsenal Gallery in Poland (2001) and “Fairy-Tale” (1999) at the Center for Metamedia in the Czech Republic. Her curatorial projects explore current theoretical issues through multimedia works.

As an art critic, Dr. Carvalho has published numerous articles and reviews in art magazines and journals, including Art in America, Sculpture, Art Nexus, NKA Journal of African Contemporary Art, Afterimage, and The International Journal of Art and Society, as well as in several artists’ catalogues. Dr. Carvalho is also an independent scholar and has taught at various universities in the United States, including Indiana University in Bloomington, Ohio State University, School of Visual Arts, Fashion Institute of Technology, Institute of Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, New Jersey City University, Pratt Institute, San Francisco State University, Humboldt State, and CSI CUNY.

TELL 40: First Look/Fresh Start
2018-01-13 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.
First Look/Fresh Start is the theme of the 40th installment of TELL, with special guest host Topher Gross. Featuring Harvey Katz, Mariah MacCarthy, Emily Ray Reese, and Wazina Zondon.

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

Topher Gross (photo by Asher Torres)
Topher Gross is a born and bred Brooklyn kid who learned the art of storytelling from his Jewish grandma, Edith. He is an appearance enhancement artist aka hairstylist, party thrower+ yenta, aspiring cartoon voice over actor and marijuana dispensary owner. Topherhas performed stories at Tell, Tell It, at various burlesque shows, dinner tables, on live journal and a blog for original plumbing magazine. He was featured on the Graham Norton show as the “big gay following” of Kylie Minogue.

Harvey Katz first became a woman at a turquoise and peach colored Bat-Mitzvah in Miami in the early 90’s before coming into his manhood in a small city in Georgia. He spent 13 years on the road as a spoken word poet and is currently maybe pursuing a career in nursing. His lack of boundaries and general impulsiveness means he’s collected a story or two over the years. Catch him hosting Take Two Storytelling or trying to convince people to buy his hats on Etsy. This is life post poetry career.

Mariah MacCarthy writes plays, Young Adult novels, essays, overly-revealing one-woman shows, and sexts. She’s won some awards, her favorite being the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She’s an angry queer and she loves you.

Emily Ray Reese is a Lesbian from a ghost town in the mountains of New Mexico. She came to New York ten years ago after volunteering for the Peace Corps in El Salvador. Reese is a filmmaker by day and a dance floor demolisher by night.

Wazina Zondon is a queer Muslim Afghan raised in New York City. She is the co-writer and co-performer of Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love, a personal storytelling performance capturing the stories and experiences of being queer and Muslim.
When she’s not agitating and reclaiming a truly radical Islam, she teaches Sex Ed at an all-girl, high school in Brooklyn, NY. She also co-hosts Follow that Flannel, a silly yet informative sexuality podcast.

'Queer City: A Reader' book launch & 'Queer City' film screening
2018-01-14 16:00 - 18:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Bodies that listen, dance, resist, manifest and become visible in our contemporary city. Bodies that dance the sounds of funk music, rap, samba, voguing, waacking, among other sonic styles of contestation, resistance and struggle. Through talks, dinners, experiences and exchanges, a city seeks to discuss how we live, work, share and survive the different LGBT + stories and realities… and how we understand all this through a queer, intersectional and non-normative lens?

The mini-documentary Cidade Queer – Queer City, directed by Danila Bustamante takes the name of a 2016 site-specific, collective curatorial process in São Paulo, Brazil. The overall process, film, and related publication, Queer City: A Reader were organized by Lanchonete.org, ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, EXPLODE! and many other partners. Queer City: A Reader contains an account of the site-specific program in São Paulo, but also invites other contributors at the intersection of the contemporary city and queer thought. The Reader is one of the first books out of Publication Studio São Paulo (in partnership w/ Publication Studio Guelph housed at the Musagetes/ArtsEverywhere office).

Copies of Queer City: A Reader will be available for purchase at the event for $20.
To reserve a copy of Queer City: A Reader please write to the Bureau at contact@bgsqd.com.

https://publication-studio.myshopify.com/products/queer-city-a-reader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opTx-OShKvI

Event image: photograph from Pato Hebert‘s Ataqueridas series

Lanchonete.org is an artist-led, cultural platform focused on how people live and work in, navigate and share the contemporary city with the Center of São Paulo as our outlook. It gets its name from the ubiquitous lunch counters—convivial, fluorescent-lit, open-walled, laborious, points of commerce—that populate almost every street corner. Lanchonete.org is about the issues that big cities face, the different forms of ‘urban power’, and the Right to the City, but not insomuch as to define these constructs…rather to stretch the platform as far as is necessary to consider diverse viewpoints. Lanchonete.org takes its cue from French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre’s Le Droit à la ville (1968), or one that “demand[s] a transformed and renewed access to urban life.”

Queer Sex Magic 101
2018-01-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
If sex is sacred, your body is a temple. Join writer, witch and tarot reader Ashley Young for an evening of learning how to worship It! This workshop provides hands on tools on how to incorporate magic into queer sex practices. From creating altars with candles and crystals, using divination such as tarot and developing sex rituals, participants will examine how to call on spiritual practice to enhance one’s queer relationship with themselves and others. This workshop will also look at alternative relationships and sex practices such as polyamory and kink.

Space is limited to 20 participants. The $10 fee will be shared equally between the instructor and the Bureau.
Tickets:
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/14193

Ashley Young is a Black Queer genderqueer (pronouns they/them/their) writer, teacher, witch and tarot reader. They are a spirituous, pagan and Santeria practioner reading cards through their small business Black Unicorn Tarot and in house at Catland Books in Brooklyn, NY. They identify as a polyamorous, kinky, Dominant Mama switch. Their work has been published in three anthologies and several online journals on topics such as POC LGBTQ issues, mental illness, sex/body positivity and more. Ashley lives in Brooklyn with a fellow witch and two sweet, wild cats.
