AiOP 2023: DRESS "Walk & Talk" (in person & live-streaming)
2023-10-13 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
“Walk & Talk” is an intimate runway presentation of six projects from Art in Odd Places (AiOP) 2023: DRESS festival curated by Gretchen Vitamvas. The selected artists will walk the runway and discuss their work.
AiOP 2023: DRESS is the eighteenth edition of the iconic public visual and performance art festival taking place along 14th Street in Manhattan, October 13-15. The 35 participating artists’ projects explore the many facets of ‘dress’ with projects examining clothing production and colonialism, fast fashion and waste, transformation and gender identity (and intolerance), cultural identity, work and labor, censorship, the passage of time and its traces, beauty, disability, status, armor, joy and grief.
Featured artists:
Vanessa Fairfax Woods presenting The F Word
Molly Jae Vaughan presenting Project 42
Reid Arowood presenting NeXXXa
Clare Charnley & Farah Naz Moon presenting Ever Given Neelkuthi
Daniela Fabrizi presenting Garbagia
Juliet Johnson presenting Styling Sick
Photo credit: Gretchen Vitamvas, Camouflage Promenade, AiOP 2008: Pedestrian (photo by Jonathan Bumble)
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.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/@bgsqd
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
This event is free and open to all!
But donations to support the Bureau’s work are welcome!

AiOP is an annual festival that presents visual and performance art in public spaces along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. Active in New York City since 2005, founded and led by NYC artist Ed Woodham, AiOP aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas. Using 14th Street as a laboratory, this project continues AiOP’s work to locate cracks in public space policies and to inspire the popular imagination for new possibilities and engagement with civic space.

TRANSPOETHICALBODY: A Sensory Invitation (hybrid in-person & virtual event)
2023-10-14 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Welcome to an extraordinary literary gathering, TRANSPOETHICALBODY: A Sensory Invitation. This remarkable event offers an immersive experience where literature, translation, and LGBTQ+ issues converge. Prepare to embark on a captivating journey as you connect with the esteemed author and publisher, delve into the intricacies of translation politics, and indulge in a mesmerizing recitation of tantalizing poetry in both English and Portuguese.
Immerse yourself in profound conversations with the author, exploring the poetic realm while gaining insights into their lived experience as a Transman in Brazil. Engage in thought-provoking discussions that shed light on the current political and cultural climate surrounding trans* and LGBTQ+ issues in Brazil, expanding your awareness and fostering empathy.
At this event, you will bear witness to the unveiling of a groundbreaking literary work—the first, if not one of the few, books of translated Trans* erotic poetry, and translated Black erotic poetry. Discover the delicate dance of translation politics and celebrate the power of artistic expression across borders.
TRANSPOETHICALBODY: A Sensory Invitation beckons you to an evening of intellectual stimulation, cultural exploration, and a celebration of diverse voices. Join us on this unforgettable odyssey that will ignite your senses and provoke profound contemplation.
Join us in person for this event at the Bureau,
room 210 of The LGBT Community Center,
OR
watch the live-stream at youtube.com/@bgsqd
Tiely, the author of TRANSPOETHICALBODY, will join us virtually.
Dr. Tanya L. Saunders, the founder and editor-in-chief of Améfrica Press, will join us in person at the Bureau.
Copies of TRANSPOETHICALBODY (Améfrica Press, 2023, paperback, $14.99) are available for purchase at the Bureau and can be purchased at the event.
To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “reserve a copy of TRANSPOETHICALBODY” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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.

Tiely is a pioneering Transman rapper, writer, and activist from São Paulo, Brazil. With a career spanning over three decades, he has made significant contributions to the arts and LGBTQIAP+ advocacy, challenging societal norms through his work. Tiely’s thought-provoking poetry and unwavering commitment to social justice continue to inspire and empower audiences worldwide.
Tiely is a multi-talented artist and activist from São Paulo, Brazil, with a career spanning over 38 years. He began his artistic journey as an actor, dancer, and photographer, eventually venturing into music as a rapper in renowned rap groups. Tiely has made significant contributions to Brazilian rap as the country’s first Transman rapper. In addition to his achievements in music, Tiely has also explored various artistic disciplines, including literature, filmmaking, theater, and television.
Throughout his career, Tiely has been actively involved in cultural, social, and sports projects, advocating for LGBTQIAP+ rights, women’s rights, and diverse identities. He uses his artistic platform to address and raise awareness about societal issues and promote inclusivity. Tiely’s commitment to creating meaningful change extends beyond his solo work, as he collaborates with other artists and organizations to amplify his message and fight for respect and acceptance of differences.
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Tiely has continued to engage with audiences through virtual and hybrid performances, participating in festivals, seminars, and debates. In 2021, he published his collection of Trans Black erotic poetry, titled “TransCorpoÉtico,” showcasing his literary talents. Tiely’s recent accomplishments also include coordinating the “Território Hip Hop” program and working on his upcoming novel, “Deusa Pagã.” Through his artistic endeavors and activism, Tiely remains dedicated to creating a more inclusive and accepting society.

Dr. Tanya L. Saunders is a sociologist interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora throughout the Americas uses the arts as a tool for social change. As a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar in Brazil, Dr. Saunders began work on their current project about Black Queer Artivism in Brazil. Dr. Saunders is the founder and editor-in-chief of Améfrica Press.

The Gay Liberation Front: Making History (in person & live-streaming)
2023-10-15 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Many myths have been spawned about Stonewall and the rise of the modern LGBTQ movement. This afternoon a few of the surviving founders of the Gay Liberation Front, first and most radical LGBTQ organization directly after Stonewall, will present a true history as they witnessed it. First Martha Shelley will read from her memoir, WE SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE. She’ll talk about the pre-Stonewall days, when she was one of a handful of lesbians out in public, then about the Gay Liberation Front where she and others of her sisters and brothers worked and succeeded in changing US society and the world. A panel discussion will follow, after which the audience will be invited to participate.
Martha Shelley will be joined in conversation by fellow Gay Liberation Front Founders Perry Brass, Mark Segal, Dr. Flavia Rando, Mark Horn, & John Knoebel.

To reserve a copy of Martha Shelley’s We Set the Night on Fire: Igniting the Gay Revolution (Chicago Review Press, 2023, hardcover, $28.99) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

Martha Shelley organized the first gay protest march after Stonewall and was a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front. In addition to her work on radical newspapers and feminist presses, she produced the world’s first lesbian radio program at WBAI-FM. She is the author of four books of poetry, three novels and, most recently, the memoir We Set the Night on Fire.
Perry Brass joined the Gay Liberation Front in 1969 and co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic. He is the author of 13 books as well as a journalist, playwright, poet, and essayist.
Mark Segal was a participant at Stonewall and one of the founding members of the Gay Liberation Front. He is the author of And Then I Danced, and the publisher of the award-winning newspaper, Philadelphia Gay News.
Dr. Flavia Rando joined the Gay Liberation Front in 1969. She is an art historian and editor, teaches Lesbian, Women’s and Gender Studies, and serves as a curator of the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
Mark Horn joined both the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance in 1970. A lifelong gay activist, he is author of Tarot and the Gates of Light and has taught at both the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Readers’ Studio International Tarot Conference.
John Knoebel participated in GLF men’s living collectives, the Weinstein Hall sit-in, the 1970 Village Riot, GLF’s outreach to the Black Panthers and many other GLF actions. He subsequently pursued a 35-year career as a senior executive with The Advocate and OUT magazines.

Fear and Loathing in London: New Writing from British Gay Authors (virtual event)
2023-10-19 18:00 - 19:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Meet contemporary UK authors Barry Stewart Hunter and William Jackson reading from Republic of North London: 3 Novellas and Satan’s Lamp, respectively. Q&A follows.
This event will take place ONLINE ONLY
Register on Eventbrite to join on Zoom
Click here to register.
Or visit the Bureau’s YouTube channel to watch the livestream (typically starts a few minutes after scheduled time, so please be patient):
YouTube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite. Thank you for your support!
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

Born in Aden, Barry Stewart Hunter grew up in the Middle East and Scotland. A novelist, short story writer and screenwriter, he lives in London.

William Jackson is a British author of gay horror fiction. He cites his influences as Richard Laymon, Dennis Wheatley and Fred Mustard Stewart. His fiction has been described as “Hammer horror for the 21st Century.”

TELL 87: SMUT (in person & live-streaming)
2023-10-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is back! After a bit of a break, we’re thrilled to welcome this fabulous event back to the Bureau!
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
The theme of the 87th TELL is SMUT! Featuring storytellers Diana Lobontiu, Rudy Ramirez, & Renée Imperato

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.

DRAE CAMPBELL’s first performance was at age 5 in a nightclub opening for a punk band. Drae has a BFA in Theater from The University of Arts in Philadelphia. Some Theater credits include: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective), Non-Consensual Relationships with Ghosts (La MaMa), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Oph3lia(HERE). TV includes “New Amsterdam,” “Bull ” and “Dinette ” (web series, directed by Shaina Feinberg). Drae has been hosting and curating TELL for more than 9 years which is now a SILVER Signal Award-winning podcast of the same name. www.draecampbell.com
Diana Lobontiu is a Romanian American playwright, actor, administrator, and educator based in Brooklyn. Diana holds a Playwriting MFA from Brooklyn College, graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Theatre Studies and Psychology. In addition, they are an Adjunct Professor in creative writing and playwriting at Brooklyn College and NJIT, respectively. They are interested in exploring the intersections of masculinity, power, failure, oppression, absurdity, and an ongoing fixture of the human condition: loneliness. Diana was named a 2023-24 MacDowell Fellow, a 2023 Jane Hoppen Resident with Paragraph Workspace for Writers, and received the 2023 Puffin Grant for My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay. Recent writing includes My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay (The Brick Theater 2023, Ars Nova’s ANT Fest 2022), and Rentabutch(Bushwick Starr Reading Series Finalist 2023). Diana has performed their solo show Sfânta: Hell Bent on Heaven, about a teenage wannabe Russian Orthodox saint, at the Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Kalamazoo, Oregon, and Orlando Fringe Festivals.
Rudy Ramirez is a director, writer and teaching artist specializing in the development of new work and new artists. They have directed and developed work for a number of organizations around the country, including the Contemporary American Theater Festival, The Lark, Latino Theater Company, National Queer Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, New York University, Octopus Theatricals, The Playwrights’ Center, Signature Theatre, and the University of Texas at Austin. They are the Associate Artistic Director of The VORTEX in Austin, TX, where they were named Best Director of 2017 in the Austin Chronicle Readers Poll. They have written and performed two autobiographical shows, Promised Land: A Radical Queer Revival and Footnotes for People Who Don’t Speak Spanish. They have an MA in Performance Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Directing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They are currently the Benedetti Resident Artist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts where they will be working on their musical about the life of Emma Goldman, Emma When You Need Her.
Renée Imperato is a Stonewall Era Veteran, a Chairperson of the SAGE Advisory Council, and a member of the People’s Power Assembly.

What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic - Book Launch (IN PERSON)
2023-10-22 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Grieving a friend is hard.
Grieving a friend during a pandemic is even harder.
Join writer, speaker and activist Victoria Noe and writer/performer Charles Sanchez, openly living with HIV, for a conversation about her new book, What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic. We’ll talk about the challenges we faced during COVID as we struggled to nourish our friendships, and adapt to new ways of grieving. Has your appreciation of friendship changed since 2020? What lessons have we learned from HIV long-term survivors in their second pandemic about resilience and loving our friends? And how do we find new ways to cherish those friendships?
Copies of What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “reserve a copy of What Our Friends Left Behind” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Deep into her fourth career, St. Louis native Victoria Noe is a Chicago-based award-winning author, speaker and activist with two degrees in theater. Her Friend Grief series – the result of a promise she made to a dying friend – recognizes the importance of friendships in shaping our lives and illuminates an often disrespected form of grief. Noe’s long-time HIV/AIDS activism then led her to write F*g Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community, the groundbreaking book that honors the women who changed the course of the epidemic. An accomplished public speaker, she has presented to a wide variety of organizations and events, including ACT UP/London, Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Muse and the Marketplace, BookExpo America, and Open Hand/San Francisco, as well as libraries and bookstores around New York state and the Midwest. During COVID, she led workshops for Let’s Reimagine and Global Grief Network, and led writing groups online for Honoring Our Experience. Noe’s newest book, What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic, shares the challenges faced by people who grieved a friend during COVID. Try to keep up with her at victorianoe.com.

Charles Sanchez is very busy being good at a lot of things, especially being gay. A writer openly living with HIV, he is a contributing editor for TheBody.com, and his work has been featured in leading publications like POZ Magazine, HuffPost’s Queer Voices, PositivelyAware.com, Them.us, and more. Charles’ ground-breaking web series, Merce – a musical comedy about a person who is living with HIV and isn’t sick, sad, or dying – garnered him several awards including Best Actor in a Web Series at the Official Latino Short Film Festival. He also created the hilarious HIV public service campaign, “The More You Can Ho.” His lifelong dedication to the arts and activism has been recognized on Healthline.com‘s List of HIV Honors: The Most Influential Voices and POZ Magazine‘s POZ 100. When he’s not busy writing, performing, baking, or generally making the world a better place, Charles can be seen charming audiences and his guests on “At Home With,” his popular Instagram Live talk show featuring prominent members of the HIV and LGBTQ+ community.

Emanuel Xavier Love(ly) Child Book Launch/Interview with Hugh Ryan (in person & live-streaming)
2023-10-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Love(ly) Child is a thought-provoking collection of poetry that delves into themes of identity, love, and self-discovery. Each poem is a journey into the complexities of the human experience navigating sensitive topics with honesty and vulnerability. With a unique blend of personal anecdotes and social commentary, Love(ly) Child offers a captivating exploration of life’s highs and lows, leaving a lasting impact on those who immerse themselves in its pages.
Join poet Emanuel Xavier as he reads from the poetry collection followed by an interview with Hugh Ryan and a book signing.

To reserve a copy of Emanuel Xavier’s Love(ly) Child (Queer Mojo, 2023, paperback, $14.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Without so much as passion and perseverance, a former homeless hustler from the Paris is Burning ball/House community became an LGBTQ+ Icon, as proclaimed by The Equality Forum. Emanuel Xavier has given voice to his unique experiences and tackled politics, sexuality, and religion with poetry books like Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious, Radiance, Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier and his new poetry collection, Love(ly) Child.

Hugh Ryan is an award-winning historian, curator, and author. He wrote The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison and When Brooklyn Was Queer. Support him on Patreon!

James Pauley Jr and Louis Flint Ceci In Conversation (online only)
2023-10-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
James Pauley, Jr. surely keeps you turning the pages in Bumpy Rides and Soft Landings stories of coming out, flying high, and not learning how to play the piano. As someone whose innate filter doesn’t always work, Pauley says it exactly as he sees it. Written in his uniquely humorous, poignant, sarcastic, self-deprecating, honest, and mildly outrageous style, he recounts stories of growing up different, while learning important lessons from even the most unlikely of sources: a chili dog, a nasty queen, a cursing coworker, a Porta-Potty, a stranger’s judgment, a sore butt, a new piano, a tiny scar, a grieving widow, and a hateful bully.
Louis Flint Ceci introduce us to Jake, Joanie, and Randy who must navigate the minefield of their parents’ mistakes while building their own lives in Croy, a small Oklahoma town. Jake’s high school nemesis, Red, returns from Viet Nam harboring secrets that could make him an ally or a more dangerous foe. Joanie discovers a lost piece of town history, but a charismatic pastor immediately sets out to destroy it. Randy’s criminal father tries to reconcile with his wife and son, but risks losing everything in the effort. Past and present collide as old prejudices and new ideas vie for control of Croy’s future. Amid it all, two boys fall in love in a time and place that threatens not just their dreams but their very lives.
Both authors will read short excerpts from their books and discuss.

This event will take place online only.
In order to join the event on Zoom, please register on the event page on Eventbrite:
Click here to register
Also live-streaming at YouTube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau.
You can make a donation when you register on Eventbrite.
Thank you for your support!
All are welcome to join, with or without a donation.

James Pauley, Jr. grew up in Edwardsburg, Michigan, a small farming community located in the southwestern part of the state, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Albion College in 1978. With a double major in German and Spanish, he was fortunate to have studied in both Mexico and Germany during his junior year. This opened his mind to all things foreign and piqued his interest in travel. Pursuing a lifelong dream of seeing the world, he became a flight attendant shortly after graduating from college. He continued to love the job for almost forty-five years. In June 2023, he permanently hung up his wings to focus on writing and spending more time with Rich, his partner of four decades, at their home in Indiana.

Louis Flint Ceci was a high school teacher of English and speech in Benton, Illinois; an assistant professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley; a commercial actor and freelance science journalist in the Denver-Boulder area; and a software engineer for several companies, including Skype, where he helped design and implement a user interface for the blind and visually impaired.
His poetry is published in The Colorado-North Review and Impossible Archetype. His scholarly articles on linguistics and poetics have appeared in College English, Language and Style, and Literature in Performance.
His short stories have appeared in Diseased Pariah News, Jonathan, and Trikone Magazine, and in the anthologies Queer and Catholic, and Gay City Volume 4: At Second Glance. He has twice been a finalist in the Saints+Sinners: New Stories from the Festival short fiction contest, and was inducted into the Saints+Sinners Hall of Fame in 2017.
He is an avid U.S. Masters swimmer and won two gold and three silver medals at the 2020 International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. He won the Gold Medal in the Poetic Justice Poetry Slam at the 2002 Gay Games in Sydney, Australia.
He lives in Nevada City, California.

Hear, Here Reading Series - Halloween Edition
2023-10-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Hear, Here is a reading series where people read funny stories. Laugh until you cry. Cry until you laugh. Drink a pumpkin beer. Then do it all again.
We’re thrilled to present a star-studded Halloween and scary story extravaganza featuring:
Chloe Caldwell
I’ll Tell You in Person, WOMEN, The Red Zone: A Love Story
Josh Gondelman
Desus & Mero, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Chris Owens
Human Parts, The Memoirist
Amy Shearn
New York Times Modern Love, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn

Hosted by Harris Sockel and Jay Ludlow Martin, two verified human beings who are definitely not AI. Come hang out with us, and laugh in the face of fears.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Poly Movie Night: Tove
2023-11-01 18:30 - 21:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
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 in person at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

Please join us for Tove (2020), directed by Zaida Bergroth and starring Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, and Shanti Roney.

Wednesday, November 1 – 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
208 W 13th St, Rm 210
New York, NY 10011

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

Synopsis: In Finland, following WWII, Tove Jansson, the creator of the Moomins, struggled to find balance in her relationships and fulfillment in her artistic life. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In Swedish with English subtitles.

F.O. Matthiessen in Fact and Fiction: A Conversation with Scott Bane and Patrick E. Horrigan (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
F. O. Matthiessen is one of the most famous people you’ve never heard of. A literature and history professor at Harvard from 1929 to 1950, he was also a gay man involved in a 20-year relationship with painter Russell Cheney, and a socialist activist often in association with organized labor. Suffering from depression, Matthiessen took his own life in April 1950 by jumping from a 12th floor window of a Boston hotel. Patrick E. Horrigan’s novel, American Scholar, uses Matthiessen’s scholarship and life as touchstones in his book, while Scott Bane’s double biography, A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney, traces the arc of Matthiessen and Cheney’s relationship from their meeting in 1924 aboard the ocean liner Paris up until their respective deaths. Given the far-reaching influence of Matthiessen’s scholarship, his principled stands for greater socio-economic fairness, and his personal story that upheld love at the center of his life, Matthiessen continues to speak to us nearly 75 years after his death.
To reserve a copy of Scott Bane’s A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney (Bright Leaf, 2022, paperback, $24.95) and/or Patrick E. Horrigan’s American Scholar (Lethe Press, 2023, paperback, $20) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

Scott Bane’s stories have appeared in Into the Void and Christopher Street. The Boston Globe, The Huffington Post and Poets & Writers, among others, have published his journalism. Down East Magazine, The New England Journal of History, and The Gay and Lesbian Review have published his essays. Scott lives in New York City with his husband, David W. Dunlap.

Patrick E. Horrigan is the author of the novels Pennsylvania Station and Portraits at an Exhibition; the memoir Widescreen Dreams: Growing Up Gay at the Movies; the play Messages for Gary; and the solo show You Are Confused!, which he co-authored with his husband, Eduardo Leanez. His latest novel, American Scholar, won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for Best LGBTQ+ Fiction.

trans liberation history gathering (in person workshop)
2023-11-04 11:00 - 13:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
In this workshop we will discuss and share stories, materials, and memories with one another to expand the hirstory of trans, Two-Spirit, non-binary, and gender diverse communities and individuals in North America during the 20th century.
This project is based on the belief that our hirstory is key to healing our communities from the scars of transphobia. We heal when we connect with ancestors and learn more about ourselves through them. We heal when we receive testament to our continued existence in this world. We heal when given the opportunity to repair the scars of past conflicts. Finally, we heal when we are able to grow from the wisdom of passing time. Gathering around oral histories and physical materials offers us the opportunity to engage with all these modes of healing.
In this workshop, we will work collectively against our erasure from society’s memory. We will reflect on the progress that has been won over the last fifty years and the many challenges that remain. During the first hour we will share stories of trans* and queer individuals, movements, and moments that hold power for us. After a break we will discuss our shared hirstory, focusing on where we have each found or not found community or conflict.
Trans communities have always taken care of ourselves when others would not. We have formed houses and families, birthed movements, underwritten research, built learning networks, and shaped culture. This workshop continues this legacy by helping us narrate a trans hirstory in which our movements are powerful, autonomous, and coalitional, so that we can continue the work to build a liveable trans present and future.
Space is limited to 20 participants
Register here
Facilitator Bios
Sky Syzygy is a white queer trans femme filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist, a racial and gender justice facilitator, and a data scientist. In 2021, Sky launched gender.network, an archive of flyers, photos, artwork, cartoons, letters, poems, and other media by trans*, Two-spirit, nonbinary, and trans-adjacent activists, organizers, and artists.
Malcolm Shanks is an activist, political educator, and consultant who works to gather people and power among marginalized groups. Malcolm has created and led hundreds of trainings with thousands of students, activists, non-profit workers, and artists. Malcolm is a co-creator of the zine Decolonizing Gender: A Curriculum, an interactive workbook that examines the relationship between transphobia, white supremacy, and European colonialism from a personal-political perspective.

Ungendering Fashion: Queer Style as Visual Activism and Self Love (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-05 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Queer style is systemically rooted in dismantling heteronormative gender binaries created by the patriarchy and systematically employed as a means of social control, both symbolically and literally, to limit freedom of expression. Queer style is a fashion revolution; a tool of our liberation and a means of self-affirmation and self-love.
Through the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, police weaponized “masquerade laws,” old codes that prohibited “costumed dress,” to punish queer and trans people wearing articles of clothing that didn’t correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth, Ryan, the author of “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” wrote in History.com.
Among LGBTQ+ people, these laws were called the “three-article rule”: an individual had to be wearing three articles of clothing of the gender they were assigned at birth or else they’d be arrested. If you were assigned female at birth but caught wearing pants and a shirt, you could be arrested for failing to wear three articles of women’s clothing.
While this rule became part of the queer lexicon, a law citing a specific number of articles didn’t actually exist on the books. According to historians, calling it the “three-article rule” may have originated as a way for queer and trans people to warn each other about the police or served as an “informal rule of thumb,” Ryan wrote.
The so-called three article-rule meant that anyone with gender variance could be punished for wearing clothing that made them feel good; a night out with friends turned political with fashion.
Given that queer and trans identities (use of restrooms, drag performances, gender affirming care) are being used by the far right to mobilize their voters and are both politicians and those who want to see us completely erased are leveraging their political power to dismantle our democracy and rollback rights for all U.S. citizens, I think this angle needs to be taken front and center for all pitches when it is pitched to an outlet that is more hard news or even for potential spots on political shows (I know that Jacob Tobia was on the Daily Show speaking about this very topic). Queer style has emancipatory potential for all members of society right now and is critical to cover and understand as it pertains to policies that matter to many people right now.
Join dapperQ: Ungendering Fashion author Anita Dolce Vita in conversation with book photographer The Street Sensei and one of the 30 book models, Cory Wade, as they explore queer style as visual activism and self-love.

Reserve a copy of dapperQ: Ungendering Fashion (Harper, 2023, hardcover, $35) by writing to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of dapperQ” in the subject line.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Anita Dolce Vita is the owner of dapperQ – one of the world’s most widely read digital queer style magazines and preeminent voices in queer fashion – and the author of dapperQ Style: Ungendering Fashion. She is the executive producer behind some of the world’s largest celebrations of queer style, including the annual New York Fashion Week queer runway show at Brooklyn Museum, the annual Target Youth Pride fashion show for NYC Pride, and queer fashion shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts/Boston. Anita also produced the first queer fashion panel to be featured at South by Southwest and has been a keynote speaker for DEI events for global retails brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, Teen Vogue, and Out Magazine, to name a few.

Kim, aka The Street Sensei, is a photographer and videographer known for their streetstyle work with celebrities and their advertorial work with several high fashion brands and is the official photographer of dapperQ’s debut print book dapperQ Style: Ungendering Fashion published by HarperCollins.

Cory Wade is a multi-medium entertainer and activist, most well known for competing and placing third on cycle 20 of America’s Next Top Model. Cory has used the social platform garnered through their reality TV stint to help facilitate conversations around queer inclusion and LGBTQPIA+ equality across America. He has toured the US to speak at multiple colleges & universities on effective allyship, inclusion, equality and human understanding. Cory is also a fiercely talented musician. Their debut album, “UNIFY” (independently released in 2017) was produced by Alan Glass who has produced iconic records from the likes of Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Jennifer Holiday and more!

Gen X Tropes: Dale Corvino (BONDS & BOUNDARIES) & Michael Bullock, editor, I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Launch event for BONDS & BOUNDARIES, the debut short story collection by Dale Corvino, from Rebel Satori Press. Dale is in conversation with Michael Bullock, co-editor of I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT: THE 1979 DIARIES OF SEAN DELEAR from Semiotext(e). They will discuss the queer Gen X tropes raised by each work, followed by readings of select excerpts and a Q&A. Both titles are available for sale from the Bureau.

To reserve a copy of Dale Corvino’s Bonds & Boundaries (Queer Mojo, 2023, paperback, $16.95) and/or I Could Not Believe It: The 1979 Diaries of Sean DeLear (Semiotext(e), 2023, paperback, $16.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Michael Bullock is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and political organizer. He’s the author of Roman Catholic Jacuzzi (2012) and the editor of Peter Berlin: Artist, Icon, Photosexual (2019). In 2020 he founded the political crowdfunding platform WeeklySenator.org, of which he is the director. Bullock also holds the position of associate publisher for PIN–UP magazine and contributing editor for Apartamento.

A 2021 Lambda Literary Emerging Fellow in nonfiction, Dale Corvino found his confessional voice at the East Village queer underground literary salon “Dean Johnson’s Reading for Filth,” recounting his youth as an object of longing and later interactions with sex work. In 2018, he won the Gertrude Press Fiction contest, judged by Whiting Award recipient Brontez Purnell. Recent nonfiction includes a profile of Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel for the Gay & Lesbian Review, an essay on queer longing in the digital era for Matt Keegan’s 1996, and a chapter on sex worker representation for the 2021 Routledge Handbook of Male Sex Work, Culture, and Society.

Double Take Poetry Reading (in person only)
2023-11-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us for a poetry reading with Paloma Yannakakis, Izzy Casey, and Amy Klein to celebrate the release of Double Take.
Between arrival and disappearance, between the longed-for and the long forgotten, what remains intact across time? Parsing the distance ‘in all directions’ and taking inventory, this collection explores states of exile and recognition. The poems move across quotidian public squares, the memory of lost homelands, and pastoral landscapes.
Copies of Paloma Yannakakis‘s Double Take will be available for purchase.
PLEASE NOTE: THE CENTER WILL NOT OPEN UNTIL 5 PM ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH, IN OBSERVANCE OF VETERANS DAY.
THE BUREAU WILL OPEN AT 5 PM AND WILL REMAIN OPEN FOR THIS EVENT, WHICH WILL BEGIN AT 7 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.

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Paloma Yannakakis’ poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Lana Turner, Washington Square, Afternoon Visitor, and elsewhere, and are forthcoming in various anthologies. She is the author of the chapbook, Double Take. She serves on the editorial board of House Mountain Review and enjoys collaborating with artists in other media.

Izzy Casey’s poems have been published in or Gulf Coast, Black Warrior Review, BOAAT, Bennington Review, the Volta, the Yale Review, the Columbia Review, NY Tyrant, and elsewhere. She received her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was the recipient of a fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.

Amy Klein is a poet, writer, and songwriter. Her poetry has appeared in Prelude, Salt Hill, and the Harvard Advocate, and she is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize. Her essays and journalism have been published in The Believer and the Best Music Writing book series and have been highlighted as essential reading by NPR. She has released three albums of original songs on the punk label Don Giovanni Records and performs regularly with her band AK & the Hallucinations.

Closed for Veterans Day
2023-11-11 | NY
Please note that in observance of Veterans Day, The Center will open from 5 PM to 9 PM on both Friday, November 10th, and Saturday, November 11th.
The Bureau will open at 5 PM on Friday, November 10th, and will remain open for our 7 PM event: Double Take Poetry Reading (in person only).
The Bureau will be closed on Saturday, November 11th.

Reclaiming the Past: LGBT Historical Fiction (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-12 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Authors Stephanie Cowell, Lance Ringel, and Sebastian Dureaux-Russell read from their novels, each set in a different decade of the early 20th century, and all focusing on relationships between gay male protagonists.
Copies of Cowell’s The Boy in the Rain, Ringel’s Flower of Iowa, and Dureaux-Russell’s Burning with a Blue Flame will all be available for purchase at the event. To reserve a copy of any of these books please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “Please reserve book for November 12 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Stephanie Cowell has been an opera singer, balladeer, founder of Strawberry Opera and other arts venues including a Renaissance festival in NYC. She is the author of Nicholas Cooke, The Physician of London, The Players: a novel of the young Shakespeare, Marrying Mozart, Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet and The Boy in the Rain. Her work has been translated into nine languages and made into an opera. Stephanie is the recipient of an American Book Award. She has lived in NYC all her life.

Lance Ringel is a two-time Lammy nominee whose novels and plays bring gay history to life through vividly realized characters and meticulously researched detail. His debut novel, Flower of Iowa, about an American soldier and a British soldier who fall in love on the Western Front in World War 1, received multiple literary accolades, including the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award for War and Military Fiction. Floridian Nights, his second novel, is an intense, multifaceted love story that unfolds against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic of the late 1980s. In consecutive years, each of these novels was named as a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Romance.
Ringel’s plays include In Love with the Arrow Collar Man, about famed illustrator J.C. Leyendecker and his model, muse and lover Charles Beach; and Flash/Frozen, a drama based on true events about two champion male skaters whose lives fatefully intersect around the tragic 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. Figure Skating World Team. Both plays have enjoyed successful runs, to considerable acclaim, in New York.

Sebastian Dureaux-Russell was educated at Duke Ellington School of the Arts and The International Center of Photography. An award-winning photographer and speaker, his images traveled the globe in the 9/11 exhibition “Here is New York: A democracy of photographs.” He has penned for: Where Magazine, In New York, City Guide, Travel Weekly, City Info, and The New York Times. Burning with a Blue Flame is the first novel by Sebastian Dureaux-Russell. Instagram: Sebastian_Photographs.

The Publishing Triangle OUTspoken Reading Series (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-16 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 Christian Baines, Jim Berg, Mary Burns, JP Howard, Michael Klein, Sean Patrick Mulroy, and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. Join us as in-person or remotely 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
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

“Eden’s Garden - A Road of Triumph and Battle”: Intimate Conversations (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The pre-promotion tour has started for the upcoming book release of Eden’s Garden – A Road of Triumph and Battle, which will be available in 2024.
Seven King’s memoir takes a vulnerable look into the experience of a young independent who went through a maze to fulfill an idea that was bestowed upon him. The idea came during one of the toughest moments in his life and came with mockery, tests, and gossip even in his own community. Being a passionate individual and fighter, he overcame all tests that would have set the average person back. However, this idea catapulted him into the seasoned and well-skilled creative director he evolved into.
This book will be a three-part manuscript: an autobiography of the experience of developing the project, an advice column for those transitioning or thinking about it, and a fictional novel. The book is a piece to give the true insight, wisdom, motivation, and creativity of the brand of Eden’s Garden and more understanding to the man behind the vision. Please join Seven for a night of pre-celebration through intimate conversation and the reading of the first 5 pages of the novel and Q&A with the director.
There will be open and honest dialogue with Seven while considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build a project from scratch? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt vs purpose? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much? Why is it important to follow your own gut when reaching for your goals? These will be some of the topics discussed at the promotional book tour stop for Eden’s Garden. Come join us for two hours of reflection, conversation, and celebration for Eden’s Garden – A Road of Triumph and Battle.

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

Malachi King, known as Seven, stands as the visionary force behind The Nile Creatives and Seven King Productions. With a lineage rooted in the legendary hip-hop ensemble Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five—his father’s legacy—Seven effortlessly embraces the entertainment realm. Opting to forge his distinct path to greatness, he emerged as a film director, producer, author, screenwriter, motivational speaker, and a steadfast advocate for the trans community.
Malachi’s educational journey led him to Clark Atlanta University, where he adeptly mastered various hands-on programs within Mass Media, ultimately ascending to the role of Mass Media Department President. Amidst these formative years, he lensed music videos for fellow students, igniting his creative spark and birthing engaging vlogs. This initial foray gradually evolved, culminating in the inception of his own short films and the groundbreaking web series, “Eden’s Garden.” This audacious creation garnered immense traction, amassing over 2 million YouTube views and propelling him into the spotlight—earning recognition as one of Ryan Murphy’s top emerging directors, affording him the coveted opportunity to shadow the prolific creator on set.
Presently, Malachi’s production company thrives, a crucible for diverse visual arts encompassing feature films, web series, dynamic social media content, and evocative documentaries. His unwavering mission revolves around imbuing narratives with visceral impact, transcending mere sight to evoke profound emotional resonance. Rooted in a distinct and contemporary vision, his projects beckon viewers to re engage, repeatedly immersing themselves in narratives that authentically mirror the communities and social causes that resonate deeply within him.
This burgeoning luminary has already etched an indelible mark upon his community, poised for an even more remarkable trajectory. Anticipate a wealth of forthcoming endeavors from Seven King Productions, a revitalized incarnation of his viral sensation, “Eden’s Garden,” poised for an exciting resurgence in the summer of 2022.

TELL 88: Bathrooms (in person & live-streaming)
2023-11-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
The theme of the 88th TELL is Bathrooms. Featuring storytellers Micah Brown, Glace Chase, & Fred Brown, Jr.

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.

DRAE CAMPBELL’s first performance was at age 5 in a nightclub opening for a punk band. Drae has a BFA in Theater from The University of Arts in Philadelphia. Some Theater credits include: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective), Non-Consensual Relationships with Ghosts (La MaMa), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Oph3lia(HERE). TV includes “New Amsterdam,” “Bull ” and “Dinette ” (web series, directed by Shaina Feinberg). Drae has been hosting and curating TELL for more than 9 years which is now a SILVER Signal Award-winning podcast of the same name. www.draecampbell.com

Micah Brown is a transsexual butch queen from New York City. They are a Sociologist, multi-media artist, and tragically self-aware. They tell stories loosely, and would like to remind you to take everything with several grains of salt, and also completely seriously.

Fred Brown, Jr. is a New York Emmy-nominated tv producer and Culture journalist. In his current role at BRIC TV Brooklyn, Fred has produced over 20 documentary packages with social justice and human interest themes.
Fred helped develop and supervise the packaging of over 90 minutes of original documentary content, reflecting the diverse stories and experiences of New York’s vibrant and resiliant LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, Fred’s short doc titled “WERK!: Behind The Ball”, premiered at Times Square AMC Theater during the UrbanWorld Film Festival.
In a career now spanning 30 years, Fred has held professional stints at CNN, C-Span, The Washington Post, The Smithsonian Institute, The National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, PBS and The New York Times Advertising Group.

Glace Chase most recently starred in 3 return seasons of Nora Burn’s play The Village at Dixon Place and is a fixture of NYC & Australia’s queer comedy scene & multi-hyphenate & award-winning “trans-queen” / comedienne / performer / screenwriter / playwright / ho. Glace wrote & starred in Sydney Theatre Company/Queensland Theatre’s hit play Triple X, earning rave reviews & nightly standing Os. Triple X was shortlisted for both the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and Nick Enright Prize. While in Oz, Glace also starred in All My Friends Are Racist and ArtWorks on ABC. She’s attached to numerous tv projects that will probably go nowhere. She’s currently developing her new one-woman Outback Adventure Glace’s Big Things. It opens with group sex & closes riding a wombat, so it’s the #1 must-see of the Off-Off-Off Broadway Slutty Trans Storytelling Comedy genre and is coming to a Living Room near you. Outcalls only. #youtoo

Closed for Thanksgiving, November 23 and 24
2023-11-23 - 2023-11-24 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Bureau will be closed on Thursday, November 23, and Friday, November 24.

Allen Barnett’s The Body and Its Dangers and Other Stories World AIDS Day Celebration (in person only)
2023-12-01 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Library of Homosexual Congress is proud to reissue Allen Barnett’s 1990 collection The Body and Its Dangers and Other Stories. Among the finest short stories in the gay literary cannon in particular, and American fiction in general, Barnett’s record of the then-burgeoning AIDS crisis is unparalleled in its poignant humor amidst compounding loss. Please join an array of writers on World AIDS Day as we celebrate the return of Allen Barnett’s work to print for the first time in decades.
Copies of The Body and Its Dangers and Other Stories (Rebel Satori Press, 2023, paperback, $19.95) will be available for purchase.
To reserve a copy, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of The Body and Its Dangers for Dec. 1 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.

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Christopher Bram is the author of twelve books including the novel that became the movie Gods and Monsters. He teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University.
Gerard Cabrera is the author of short fiction, poems, and the novel, Homo Novus, published by Rattling Good Yarns Press in 2022. His writing has appeared in literary journals such as the Acentos Review, JONATHAN, Kweli, Apricity, Digging Press, and Angel Rust. A naturalized Brooklynite, Gerard hails from the Puerto Rican community of Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Dr. Seuss, basketball, and the first American dictionary. He is a member of the Publishing Triangle Board of Directors.
JP Howard is a poet, educator, literary activist, curator, and community builder. JP is a Learn with Lambda Literary 2023 workshop facilitator and was the Spring 2023 Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*), Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems (Harlequin Creature) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians–We Are the Revolution! JP has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon and her poetry is widely anthologized. JP is a general Poetry Editor for Women’s Studies Quarterly and Editor-At-Large of Mom Egg Review VOX online. http://www.jp-howard.com
Walter Holland is the author of four books of poetry “Reconstruction” (Finishing Line Press, 2022), “Circuit” (Chelsea Station Editions, 2010), “Transatlantic,” (Painted Leaf Press, 2001), “A Journal of the Plague Years: Poems 1979-1992” (Magic City Press, 1992) as well as a novel, “The March” (Chelsea Station Editions, 2011). Some of his recent poetry credits include: “Exquisite Pandemic,” “HIV Here and Now,” “Cutbank Literary Journal,” “About Place Journal,” and “Mollyhouse.” His reviews appear regularly in “Rain Taxi,” both print and online editions. A three-part essay series on queer, Black, millennial poetry is forthcoming online on the “Lambda Literary Review” website. He lives in New York City. For more information visit: www.walterhollandwriter.com.
Ron Caldwell is a writer, editor, and educator who was born in Texas and studied English literature at Rice University. He received a Masters degree in Creative Writing: Poetry from Boston University, where his teachers were George Starbuck, Christopher Ricks, and Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. Ron has taught at Parsons School of Design since 1996, and is currently the coordinator of Integrative Seminar in the First Year program. He lives in Allen Barnett’s apartment.

Writing About, With, and Through AIDS (in person & live-streaming)
2023-12-02 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
As part of this year’s World AIDS Day programming, explore the continuing literary legacies of the AIDS crisis with us through readings of their own works and the poems of the late Haitian-born poet, Assotto Saint, whose Sacred Spells: Collected Works was recently published in August 2023, and the late working-class Italian-Polish-American poet, Walta Borawski, whose Invisible History: The Collected Poems of Walta Borawski won the Publishing Triangle 2023 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry.
How is rage, loss, grief, humor, love, and survival expressed? How does race, class, language, religion, and national origin play out in these works? How do we preserve the collective knowledge and experiences of our diverse communities? How do we define “survival” today?
Featuring Gerard Cabrera, Philip Clark, Reginald Harris, Charles Rice-González, and Steven Riel.
Co-Sponsored by The Publishing Triangle OUTSpoken Series

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 $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Gerard Cabrera is from Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the first American dictionary, Dr. Seuss, and basketball. His debut novel, Homo Novus, was published in October 2022, by Rattling Good Yarns Press, and was supported by the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and a Bread Loaf Bakeless Foundation fellowship at The Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Other writing has appeared in Gay Community News, Acentos Review, Angel Rust, Apricity, JONATHAN, Kweli, and Digging Press. An attorney, he lives and works in New York City. Visit him at www.gerardcabrera.com.

Philip Clark is the co-editor of Invisible History: The Collected Poems of Walta Borawski (Rebel Satori, 2022), winner of the 2023 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. His previous books are Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS and In the Empire of the Air: The Poems of Donald Britton. The recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, he is completing a biography of H. Lynn Womack, a pioneering gay publisher from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. He lives near Washington, D.C.

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, and raised in Baltimore, poet and librarian Reginald Harris was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for his first book, 10 Tongues, and won the 2012 Cave Canem /Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for Autogeography. A member of the National Book Critics Circle and recipient of Individual Artist Awards for poetry and fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, his work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and online including Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Lambda Literary Review, Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Literature of the United States, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and The Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on HIV/AIDS. He and his partner live in Brooklyn.

Charles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bronx, is a writer, LGBTQ activist, co-founder of BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance and an Assistant Professor at Hostos Community College. His novel, Chulito, received recognition from the American Library Association and the National Book Critics Circle, he co-edited From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction, and his play I Just Love Andy Gibb was published in Blacktino Queer Performance: A Critical Anthology. His writing’s been published in nearly a dozen anthologies including Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing (University of Wisconsin Press 2011), Love, Christopher Street (Vantage Point 2012), QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (Syracuse University 2016), and his article on Culturally Relevant Pedgogy will appear in Teaching Black (University of Michigan Press 2020). His honors include the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award in 2014, an award from the New York City Council in 2016, the Men(cion) Award from 100 Hispanic Women in 2017 and a Gay City News Impact Award in 2017 for his activism and contributions to advancing the lives of LGBTQ people, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship in 2018. He’s the chair of the board for The Bronx Council on the Arts and The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, and is on the advisory board of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop.

Steven Riel is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Edgemere and Fellow Odd Fellow. His chapbook Postcard from P-town was published as runner-up for the inaugural Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. His poems have appeared in The Minnesota Review and International Poetry Review. He edits the Franco-American journal Résonance. Recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, Riel was also named the 2005 Robert Fraser Distinguished Visiting Poet at Bucks County (PA) Community College.

Banned Books OUT LOUD Louffa Press 13th Anniversary Louffapalooza (in person & live-streaming)
2023-12-03 15:00 - 17:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
This event is a 13th anniversary celebration for Louffa Press and open forum on the epidemic of book-banning, and is hosted by Louffa Press on Sunday, December 3, at 3pm at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
Participants* include:
BEATRIZ ALBUQUERQUE, ROBERT ANTHONY GIBBONS, JEE LEONG KOH, MATTHEW LANSBURGH, PACO MARQUEZ, CLAUDIA SEREA, TRIPHOBIA
Curated by DAVID MOSCOVICH
After the readings, we will have a dialogue with the audience centered on the current trend of book-banning, particularly the banning of books by LGBTQ or POC authors; the reason is that 41% of content being banned or challenged is LGBTQ, and 40% of the books have protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color.
We need these your voice to help stop this.
(The source on these statistics and be found at the following link from PEN America: https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/)
*Author books will be available at the event.
This event is made possible in part through funding by Poets & Writers.
LOUFFA PRESS was founded in 2010. Based in Morningside/Harlem, New York City, LOUFFA PRESS is a micropress that focuses on printing limited edition chapbooks using letterpress technology.
THE MISSION behind Louffa Press is to foster a venue for limited edition, collectible, handmade chapbooks and art books by a wide array of authors and artists whose voices must be heard; to introduce new and innovative flash fiction, short stories, poetry, and those forms less easily classified; to put forth into the world precious artifacts that embody in their physical form a meticulously tailored and individualist aesthetic. www.louffapress.net

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
Suggested donation to benefit the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

Beatriz Albuquerque has received numerous awards including the Breakthrough Award for the 17th Biennial Cerveira; Myers Art Prize Award from Columbia University, New York; and the Ambient Performance Series Award, PAC / edge Performance Festival, Chicago. Her written work has been published in Performatus, ArtCapital Magazine, Cerveira Nova Journal, Studies in Digital Heritage Journal, among others. She has been anthologized in several books, such as Internet y Performance, Negociaciones entre Cuerpo, Virtualidad y Telepresencia (2011), Ediciones Al Margen, NIAM Publications; The Growth of Art Anthology (2015) Columbia University Press; Art School Critique 2.0 (2017) Columbia University Press; Performances no Contemporaneo (2019), FLUP Press; O Lado oculto da investigação (2023) ESE Press and RoadWork, which is forthcoming from Columbia University Press. She is the author of four books of research and non-fiction: Art + Internet + Performance = beginning of the 90s, Video Games + Glitch = Learning: Video Games Vs. Teachers, Super Mario World + Glitch = Adult Learning and Game Glitch + Learning = Aesthetics. Design. Preservation. (www.beatrizalbuquerque.com)

Robert Anthony Gibbons has been nominated for a Pushcart for his poem, “a self taught genius” by Great Weather for Media. Robert has been published in hundreds of literary magazines and in several notable anthologies. Recent publication credits includes Killens Review, Tribes, Involuntary Magazine,Peregrine, Expound, Promethean, Turtle Island Quarterly, Killer Whale, and Suisun Valley Review, Voices of Lefferts and the Bronx Memoir Project: Vol. 2 published by the Bronx Council of the Arts. Robert’s first collection, Close to the Tree was published by Three Rooms Press, 2012, and his chapbook, Flight, published by Poets Wear Prada in 2019. His latest is a collaboration between Brooklyn-based artist Amy Williams, titled, Some Little Words (2022). It is a collection of erasure and ekphrastic poems in tribute to Zora Neale Hurston.

Jee Leong Koh is the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the year by the Financial Times in the UK and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. His hybrid work of fiction Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an insignificant Japanese poet won the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction. His latest book is Inspector Inspector from Carcanet.

Matthew Lansburgh’s collection of linked stories, Outside Is the Ocean, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. His fiction has appeared (or is forthcoming) in journals such as One Story, Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review, and has been shortlisted in the Best American Short Stories series. He lives in Manhattan and has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Yaddo, and MacDowell.

Paco Márquez is a poet based out of Manhattan, author of the chapbook Portraits in G Minor (Folded Word Press, 2017). His poetry has appeared in Fence, The Literary Review, Apogee, Philosophy and Global Affairs and Huizache, among others. As Spanish Editor, he assisted in translating Pablo Neruda’s initial book, Crepuscualrio, for the first time into English as Book of Twilight with William O’Daly (Copper Canyon Press, 2017). Originally from León, México, Paco immigrated with his family to Sacramento, California at age 13. He studied philosophy and literature at UC Berkeley and, after working for over a decade in varied fields, acquired an MFA in creative writing at NYU. His work has been supported by The Center for Book Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and New York University. Paco has served as poetry editor at Washington Square and OccuPoetry, and currently at 128 Lit. www.pacomarquez.net

Claudia Serea is a Romanian-American poet, translator, and editor with work published in Consequence, The Southern Review, Field, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Oxford Poetry, among others, as well as featured on The Writer’s Almanac. She is the author of seven poetry collections, most recently In Those Years, No One Slept (Broadstone Books, 2023). Serea won a Pushcart Prize, the Joanne Scott Kennedy Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of Virginia, and the New Letters Readers Award for her poems. She is a founding editor of National Translation Month, serves on the board of The Red Wheelbarrow Poets, and co-hosts their monthly readings.

Esther Marveta Neff is the founder of PPL. They are a performance-maker, organizer, librettist, and theorist. Publications include operating manual Embarrassed of the (W)Hole (Ugly Duckling Press, 2023) Institution is a Verb (Edited, The Operating System, 2022), Any Size Mirror is a Dictator (BAC/BIPAF, 2015) and many zines. Book chapters have been included in the Routledge Companion to Performance Philosophy (with Yelena Gluzman), The Palgrave Macmillan Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminist Performance Art, In the Wake (LiveArt UK), and various of forms of writing have appeared in PAJ, Paradigm, CAESURA, Ice-Hole, AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, CONTENT, and elsewhere. Neff is currently an adjunct at Hunter College and a member of the group Triphobia with 3dward g sharp and Noah Ortega. https://estherneff.wordpress.com/

David Moscovich is publisher of Louffa Press and author of You Are Make Very Important Bathtime (JEF Books, 2013) and LIFE+70[Redacted], a print version of the single most expensive literary e-book ever to be hacked (Lit Fest Press, 2016.) His novels Blink If You Love Me (2019) and his newest, Manhattan Other (2023), are available from Adelaide Books. www.louffapress.net

Second Tuesday presents: Queer Footprints A Guide to Uncovering London’s Fierce History (online only)
2023-12-12 19:00 - 21:00 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
The Center in partnership with the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division welcomes Dan Glass to discuss his recently published work Queer Footprints: A Guide to Uncovering London’s Fierce History.
This event will take place online only! To join the event on Zoom, please click on the following link at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82380673724?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 823 8067 3724
Passcode: [REDACTED]

OR WATCH THE LIVESTREAM ON THE BUREAU’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
YOUTUBE.COM/@BGSQD.COM

ABOUT THE BOOK
This groundbreaking guide will take you through the city streets to uncover the scandalous, hilarious, and empowering events of London’s queerstory. Follow in the footprints of veteran activists, such as those who marched in London’s first Pride parade in 1972 or witnessed the 1999 bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho.
Accompanied by a chorus of voices of both iconic and unsung legends of the movement, readers can walk through parts of East, West, South, and North London, dipping into beautifully illustrated maps and extraordinary tales of LGBTQIA+ solidarity, protest, and pride. The shadows of gentrification, policing, homophobia and racism are time and again resisted.
From the Brixton Fairies to Notting Hill Carnival to world-changing protests in Trafalgar Square, Rebel Dykes to drag queen communes, Queer Footprints celebrates the hidden histories of struggle and joy. Including an accessibility guide and a list of these gems for your pleasure – queer spaces, clubs, networks and resources galore.

ABOUT DAN GLASS
​​Dan Glass is an AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) healthcare and human rights activist, performer, presenter, and writer. Dan has been recognized as ‘Activist of the Year’ with the Sexual Freedom Awards and was announced a ‘BBC Greater Londoner’ for founding Queer Tours of London – A Mince Through Time. His book United Queerdom: From the Legends of the Gay Liberation Front to the Queers of Tomorrow was Observer book of the week. Dan recently founded self-defense empowerment program Bender Defenders and Queer Night Pride to confront rising hate crime. Follow him @danglassmincer.

To purchase Dan Glass’s Queer Footprints: A Guide to Uncovering London’s Fierce History (Pluto Press, 2023, paperback, $19.95) from the Bureau, please write to us contact@bgsqd.com with your address and phone number and preferred payment method. We can take payment via Venmo, PayPal, or credit card over the phone.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Office Hours Fall 2023 Showcase Reading (hybrid in-person AND online event)
2023-12-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us Friday, December 15th, 2023 at 7:00 PM EST for the Office Hours Fall 2023 Showcase Reading, a hybrid event (both in person readers & virtual). In person readers will gather at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and virtual readers will appear on a screen. Fellows will give a brief reading in celebration of another strong semester of poetry making, community building, and surviving in difficult creative times.
Readers:
Dina Abdulhadi
Abba Belgrave
Ryan Dzelzkalns
J. Freeborn
Ashley Harris
Emily Hockaday
Carrie Hohmann
Holly Mitchell
Sarah M. Sala
Shakeema Smalls
Noel Sikorski
Ryan Dzelzkalns
To join the event on Zoom please click on the following link at 7 PM EST on Friday, December 15, 2023:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84592169421?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 845 9216 9421
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Or you can watch the livestream on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

If attending in person, no registration is necessary. Seating is first come first served. Any donations will go to Palestine Legal.
Office Hours Poetry Workshop is a community-based writing workshop for poets who show a demonstrated commitment to writing. The workshop fellowship culminates in a public reading each fall and spring to showcase sizzling new work. We welcome all poets, especially people of color, LGBTQ+, and those who are womxn-identified.

TELL 89: Eating It (in person & live-streaming)
2023-12-16 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.
The theme of the 89th TELL is Eating It. Featuring storytellers Ashil Lee, Phoebe Brooks, Mindy Raf, and Buzz Slutzky.

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

We ask all attendees to please wear a mask at this event. We will provide masks for those who need them. Thank you!

Suggested donation to benefit the storytellers and the Bureau: $10.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

DRAE CAMPBELL’s first performance was at age 5 in a nightclub opening for a punk band. Drae has a BFA in Theater from The University of Arts in Philadelphia. Some Theater credits include: The Nosebleed (Lincoln Center Theater), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective), Non-Consensual Relationships with Ghosts (La MaMa), My Old Man (Dixon Place), Oph3lia(HERE). TV includes “New Amsterdam,” “Bull ” and “Dinette ” (web series, directed by Shaina Feinberg). Drae has been hosting and curating TELL for more than 9 years which is now a SILVER Signal Award-winning podcast of the same name. www.draecampbell.com

Ashil Lee (they/he/she) NYC-based actor, playwright, and sex educator. Korean-American, trans nonbinary, child of immigrants, and bestie to blind dog Hux. 2023 Lucille Lortel nominee (Outstanding Ensemble: The Nosebleed) Selected acting credits: The Nosebleed (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, Woolly Mammoth), world premiere of Gina Femia’s The Virtuous Fall… in rep with Measure for Measure (Spicy Witch Productions), Juliet+Romeo (Pocket Universe), theatrical premiere of Dogville (dir.Robert O’Hara). Playwriting credits: Clubbed Thumb’s 2023-2024 Early Career Writer’s Group. Finalist: Playwright’s Realm Fellowship (23-24). Semi-finalist: Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship (23-24). Echoes Emerging Writer’s Group 2022-2023 (Primary Stages) and Pataphysics 2020, led by Clare Barron. NYU: Tisch. BFA in Acting, Minor in Youth Mental Health. In their spare time, Ashil squeezes in courses toward their Master’s in Mental Health and Wellness (NYU Steinhardt: 20eventually), with intentions of incorporating mental health consciousness into the theatre industry. www.ashillee.com

Phoebe Brooks is a theatre creature interested in establishing a Theatre of Joy for artists and audiences alike! Recent work includes Charles Ludlam’s Der Ring Gott Farblonjet, LOVE (Among Dreamers) by Greg Nanni and Jyoti’s Bridge by Kanika Vaish. Upcoming Projects: The Fantastical Fellowship: Final Quest for the Crisis Crystal XXVII (Frigid Fest), The Amazing Doctor She Medicine Show (Edinburgh Fringe). Phoebe is also a performer, a dramaturg-about-town, the recipient of a brand new MFA from Columbia University and the Programming Director for Spicy Witch Productions. Check out her interactive Chekhov adventure, Dyadya Vanya: Files From A Dacha With 26 Rooms, featuring Ashil Lee and available online at www.phoebebrooks.com.

Mindy Raf is a comedian, actress, writer and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. Mindy has contributed to MTV’s GIRL CODE, COLLEGEHUMOR, TNT, VH1, The Daily Comedy Network, and is a published author with Penguin Random House. Her critically acclaimed solo comedy show NOT THE ONE: a love story was named an “LGBT Best Bet” by Time OutNew York, “hilariously quirky” by Theatre Is Easy, “Barrier Breaking” by The Edinburgh Reporter, and “cheeky and infectious” by Ed Fest Magazine. Not The One has played to a sold out run Off Broadway at 59E59, garnered 4 star reviews the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has sold out Brooklyn’s Cloud City as well as its guest production residency at NYC’s Theaterlab.

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

Closed on December 24
2023-12-24 | NY
The Bureau will be closed on
December 24 and 31.
Happy holigays!

Closed on December 31
2023-12-31 | NY

Touching the Art: MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE IN CONVERSATION WITH MCKENZIE WARK (in person & live-streaming)
2024-01-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
A mixture of memoir, biography, criticism, and social history, Touching the Art is queer icon and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore‘s interrogation of the possibilities of artistic striving, the limits of the middle-class mindset, the legacy of familial abandonment, and what art can and cannot do. For this event, she will be joined in conversation by McKenzie Wark.
Taking the form of a self-directed research project, Sycamore recounts the legacy of her fraught relationship with her late grandmother, an abstract artist from Baltimore who encouraged Mattilda as a young artist, then disparaged Mattilda’s work as “vulgar” and a “waste of talent” once it became unapologetically queer.
As she sorts through her grandmother Gladys’s paintings and handmade paperworks, Sycamore examines the creative impulse itself. In fragments evoking the movements of memory, she searches for Gladys’s place within the trajectories of midcentury modernism and Abstract Expressionism, Jewish assimilation and white flight, intergenerational trauma and class striving.
Sycamore writes, “Art is never just art, it is a history of feeling, a gap between sensations, a safety valve, an escape hatch, a sudden shift in the body, a clipboard full of flowers, a welcome mat flipped over and back, over and back, welcome.”
Refusing easy answers in search of an embodied truth, Sycamore upends propriety to touch the art and feel everything that comes through.

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
Please wear a mask to this event!
We will also have masks available at the Bureau.
Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.
All are welcome to attend, with or without 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

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the award-winning author of The Freezer Door, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, one of Oprah Magazine’s Best LGBTQ Books of 2020, and a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Winner of a Lambda Literary Award and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book, she’s the author of three novels and three nonfiction titles, and the editor of six nonfiction anthologies, most recently Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis. Sycamore lives in Seattle, and her new book is Touching the Art, out now from Soft Skull Press.

McKenzie Wark is the author, among other things, of Love and Money, Sex and Death (Verso), Raving (Duke) and Reverse Cowgirl (Semiotexte).
