BGSQD

OLNY's Poly Movie Night: Love Songs
2017-05-31 18:30 - 21:30 (America/New_York)
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 the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
Please join us for Love Songs/Les Chansons d’Amour (2007), directed by Christophe Honoré and starring Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool), Louis Garrel, and Clotilde Hesme.
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: Julie and Ismaël live together. Ismaël’s work colleague Alice sometimes joins them in bed. Julie isn’t sure she’s happy with the situation. Ismaël is sometimes jealous of Julie and Alice’s relationship. And they all sing about it. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In French with English subtitles.

Union Square Slam Presents: OOMPA
2017-05-30 19:30 - 21:30
*Mark your calendars: the last Tuesday of every month will feature a local musical performer.*

Tonight we have the helluv incomparable Oompa coming through. Prepare to unlearn whatever you thought you knew about hip hop and lyricism, cuz Oomp gon’ learn you real quick.

About our Show:
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic (Music + Poetry Are Welcomed Here!)
8:45pm: Oompa
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // Suggested $5-10 donation
About our Feature:

Oompa is a nationally-renowned, boston-born, poet, educator, and lyricist who is forever representing the queer, black, orphaned, hood kids an’ nem. Oompa is the winner of the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam, and a finalist at the 2017 National Poetry Slam. Her work has been featured in Huffington Post, Allston Pudding, Mass Apparel, and KillerBoomBox among others. Oompa’s debut album, Nov. 3, was named one of Dig Boston’s Top 30 Local Albums of 2016, one of Allston Pudding’s Favorite albums of 2016, and her sound has compared to that of Lauryn Hill, J.Cole, and Talib Kweli. Most notably, she is her nephews’ favorite of all time. Currently based in Boston, MA, Oompa is an organizer, mentor, and coach, as well as a member of media brand and collective Hipstory, and co-slam master of The House House Slam.

Twitter: @oompoutloud
Instagram: @oompoutloud
Facebook: Oompa
Tumblr: oompoutloud.tumblr.com
E-mail: oompoutloud@gmail.com/booking.oompa@gmail.com Soundcloud: @oompoutloud

Anti-Fascist Book Club Reads James Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man
2017-05-28 14:00 - 16:00
A reading group for those fighting fascism!
Hopefully our readings will inspire thoughtful and informed activism.

Join us for our second meeting on Sunday, May 28th, from 2 to 4 PM. We will discuss James Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man. (Hint: if you don’t have time to read the whole thing just read the title piece!)

In our first meeting in April we discussed the first 100 pages of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.

James Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man is available at the Bureau—please support the Bureau by purchasing your copy from us. Thank you!

Questions? Ideas for future readings?
Write to Grey Vild: greyvild@gmail.com

Queer, There, and Everywhere: Book Launch & Reading
2017-05-25 19:00 - 21:00
Start celebrating Pride early this year! Join activist Sarah Prager to hear incredible stories from her new queer history book, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World, out on May 23 from HarperCollins. After a reading, Sarah will answer your questions and sign copies of the book. Copies will be available for sale.
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds. Free for ages 18 and under!
“Queer, There, and Everywhere is so conversational, fast paced, and infused with pop culture sensibilities that it tricks you into forgetting it’s a series of (incredibly timely) biographies. An absolute must-read for people interested in their queer forebears, or for anyone who doesn’t already know the majesty of Elagabalus, Empress of Rome.”
—Meredith Russo, author of Stonewall Award-winner If I Was Your Girl
“Accessible, irreverent, and meticulously researched, at times heartbreaking and just as often wildly funny, this stunningly diverse survey of queer histories is a nourishing and inspiring addition to our arsenal of queer possibilities. Should be required reading for all of us, queer or not.”
—Sarah McCarry, author of the LAMBDA Award-nominated About a Girl
“Sarah Prager does the impossible: she takes several millennia of complicated history and makes it accessible and fun. Prager tells us twenty-three fascinating stories, some of them new twists on familiar ones (like Abraham Lincoln) as well as ones about figures that history has nearly forgotten, mixing light-hearted humor with impeccable scholarship so that the reader keeps turning the page to see ‘what’s next.’ In short, Prager combines fun and facts to present an unforgettable overview of two thousand years of queer history.”
–Kevin Jennings, Founder of GLSEN, and Former Assistant Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Education, and author of Becoming Visible: A Reader in Gay and Lesbian History for High School & College Students

Sarah Prager began her life as an activist when she came out at the age of 14. Since then, queer history has been her passion. In 2013 she launched the free mobile app Quist, which provides daily queer history stories to thousands of people around the world. Last year she became a mom and lives with her wife and daughter in Connecticut. This week her second baby was born – Her first book – Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World.

Queer Travelers’ Tales with Andrew Evans and Alden Jones
2017-05-24 19:00 - 21:00
Join queer travel writers Andrew Evans and Alden Jones as they discuss their books The Black Penguin and The Blind Masseuse. Andrew Evans has completed more than thirty assignments for National Geographic, reporting from all seven continents, and Alden Jones has lived, worked, and traveled in more than forty countries. Reception, reading, discussion, Q&A session.

Reception 7 pm, presentation 7:30

Andrew Evans lives in Washington, DC. and has completed more than thirty assignments for National Geographic, reporting from all seven continents. He has received two Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers, two Folio Awards, and two awards from the National Travel Journalism Association. He gained a worldwide following when he made a 12,000mile journey by bus, from National Geographic headquarters in Washington all the way to Antarctica.

Alden Jones lives in Boston and has traveled, worked, and lived in more than forty countries, including as a WorldTeach volunteer in Costa Rica, a program director in Cuba, and a professor with Semester at Sea. Her book The Blind Masseuse is now in paperback. It was a finalist for the best travel book award of the North American Travel Journalists Association, winner of the Bisexual Book Award for memoir, and was one of eight finalists for a PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.

Save The Date: Tim "Toaster" Henderson (workshop and feature)
2017-05-23 18:30 - 21:30
NEW YORK CITY, YOU LUCKY DUCKIES!!!
Nationally-acclaimed performance poet Tim “Toaster” Henderson is dropping in to host a writing workshop and feature at Union Square Slam!!
SAVE THE DATE: May 23rd, 2017
6:30pm: Writing Workshop w/ Toaster
7:30pm: sign-up and socialize
8:00pm: Feature and Show
Suggested Donation:
Workshop or Show: $5-$10
Workshop and Show: $10-$20
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:
Toaster, a performance poet, mural artist and musician, Toaster uses a kaleidoscope of artistic vision to create, express and teach. Toaster is an accomplished slam poet as well, competing for the Berkeley, Bay Area Unified and Mental Graffiti slam teams at the National Poetry Slam. Toaster was also crowned grand slam champion in Berkeley (2012) and Chicago (2016), ranking 9th in the world at the 2016 Individual Poetry Slam. He has been featured on many stages across North America including Lexus Versus and Flow, National Public Radio, and in front of the most cutthroat audiences of all – teenagers. Aside from pursuing his own craft, Toaster works in Chicago schools as a teaching artist for Young Chicago Authors, as well as facilitating his own workshops in elementary schools, high schools, universities and other educational settings. You can find Toaster’s work on youtube, in your local dive bar and by following him on social media:
Facebook- Facebook.com/ToasterPoetry
Twitter -hewhotoastsbrEd
Instagram – toastersmodernlife

Martin Duberman Reads from Jews Queers Germans
2017-05-20 19:00 - 20:30
Martin Duberman returns to the Bureau for a reading from his latest novel, Jews Queers Germans.

Jews Queers Germans recreates the intimate milieu around Kaiser Wilhelm II of pre-Weimar Germany, a time period during which queer life flourished —albeit secretly—throughout the major cities of Germany. The story revolves around three men: Prince Philipp von Eulenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s closest friend, who becomes the subject of a notorious 1907 trial for homosexuality; Magnus Hirschfeld, a famed Jewish sexologist who gives testimony at the trial; and Count Harry Kessler, a leading proponent of modernism and the keeper of a famous set of diaries that lay out in intimate detail the major social, artistic, and political events of the day and allude as well to his own homosexuality. Adhering closely to the historical record, Duberman portrays the gay life of a very upper-crust intellectual milieu at a time when old-world mores still mattered, and yet art and the social sciences were spiraling quickly toward the modern.

PRAISE FOR JEWS QUEERS GERMANS:

“Riveting. Stunning. By turns exhilarating and harrowing. At the height of his imaginative and interpretive powers, award-winning author Martin Duberman elaborates the rich, complex promises and perils of German life and politics in advance of World Wars I and II, with ghostly echoes reverberating across the Atlantic to this very day.” —John Howard, author of White Sepulchres and Men Like That

“With a bold, grand vision and an unparalleled grasp of the endless details that make up the arc of history, Martin Duberman elucidates and illuminates how sex, art, hatred, violence, and intrigue shape a national politic. His sprawling canvas here—populated by Kaiser Wilhelm II, Isadora Duncan, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Ernst Röhm among many others—is late nineteenth century to pre–World War II Germany. The implications and resonances of this story are, however, frighteningly contemporary. Sweeping and poetic, minutely observed and realistic, Jews Queers Germans is a brilliant window to the past that shows us the present and possibly the future.” —Michael Bronski, author of A Queer History of the United States and Professor of Practice in Media and Activism at Harvard University

“In the new and daring novel/history Jews Queers Germans, Martin Duberman unleashes his awesome powers to tell a story of friendship, friction, and the flourishing of homosexual relationships during the belle époque. Focusing on Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and his closest friends, Duberman’s creative narrative allows us to eavesdrop on some of what might have been their private conversations while we also witness rising public intolerance toward Jews and queers in Germany. As always, Duberman engages and illuminates the past brilliantly while providing guidance for the present.” —Marcia M. Gallo, author of “No One Helped”: Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban Apathy

Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, CUNY, MARTIN DUBERMAN is the author of some two dozen books, including Paul Robeson; Cures; Black Mountain; the novel Haymarket (a Seven Stories book); Howard Zinn; Stonewall; and Hold Tight Gently. Duberman is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize, the Vernon Rice Drama Desk Award (for his play In White America), three Lambda Literary Awards, a Special Award from The National Academy of Arts and Letters for his “contributions to literature,” the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Historical Association, and the Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award in Non-Fiction. He has also been a Finalist for both the National Book Award (for James Russell Lowell) and the Pulitzer Prize (for The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein). In 2012 Amherst College awarded him an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.

Fierce Hearts: a reading of fierce and heartfelt poetry by Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Joy Ladin, and Lesléa Newman
2017-05-18 19:00 - 21:00
The poets will read both published work and work from soon-to-be released collections. A book signing will follow the reading.

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is the recipient of the 2015 Barnes and Noble Writers For Writers Award, and the founder and curator of Calypso Muse and the Glitter Pomegranate Performance Series. Cheryl earned an MFA in Poetry from Stonecoast: The University of Southern Maine, and an MSW from Fordham University. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, and Convincing the Body. A poetry judge for The New York Foundation for the Arts, and The Astraea Foundation, she has facilitated poetry workshops for Cave Canem, Poets & Writers, Poets House, and The Caribbean Literary and Cultural Center. Her poetry has been commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, and the National Endowment for the Arts for Ronald K. Brown: Evidence, A Dance Company. Her work has been published in Callaloo, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Pluck!, Killings Journal of Arts & Letters, Adrienne, and Prairie Schooner. Her fourth book Arrival, is forthcoming from Northwestern University Press in 2017.

Joy Ladin is the author of seven books of poetry, including Lambda Literary Award finalists Impersonation and Transmigration; her eighth book, Fireworks in the Graveyard, is forthcoming in fall 2018 from Headmistress Press. Her memoir of gender transition, Through the Door of Life, was a 2012 National Jewish Book Award finalist. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship, among other honors. She holds the Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University. Her poems and essays are available at joyladin.com.

Lesléa Newman is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, children’s book writer and anthologist whose 70 books include the children’s classic, Heather Has Two Mommies and the poetry collections, Still Life with Buddy, Nobody’s Mother, Signs of Love, and October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard (novel-in-verse) which received a Stonewall Honor from the American Library Association. Ms. Newman’s literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation; the Burning Bush Poetry Prize; and second place runner-up in the Solstice Literary Journal poetry competition. Her poetry has been published in Spoon River Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, Evergreen Chronicles, Lilith Magazine, Kalliope, The Sun, Bark Magazine, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Seventeen Magazine and others. From 2008-2010 she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. Her most recent poetry collection, I Carry My Mother, received the 2016 Golden Crown Literary Society Poetry Award (“Goldie”) and was named a “Must-Read” title by the Massachusetts Center for the Book.

Queer Collage Party
2017-05-14 15:00 - 18:00
It’s time for another Queer Collage Party! We provide the glue sticks and scissors, you provide the pictures and paper/cardboard. Everyone who attends should bring at least one magazine or book or a bunch of pictures that you’ll contribute to the group. Each person can make their own collage(s), or team up with others! You can keep your own collage(s), but don’t expect to walk away with your magazine intact! The spirit here is fun and sharing. Attend for part or all of the afternoon. You are encouraged but not required to bring a little snack to share — chips, tangerines, grapes, hummus, whatever.
Suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

TELL 34: Beginnings
2017-05-13 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.
BEGINNINGS is the theme of the thirty-fourth installment of TELL. Featuring Dorrell Clark, Matthew K. Johnson, and Justine Williams.

$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.

Dorrell Clark was born in New York City (Harlem Hospital) and grew up in Winsor, North Carolina. She received her A.A.S. degree, at Bronx Community College; majoring in Chemistry. Dorrell joined the US Army ranking as Private First Class. After 26 years of employment with NYC’s MTA, she retired in 2011. Without a breather she jumped right into volunteering her services with:{BAAD} Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance, SOUNDVIEW COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM, MISTAH COLES PRODUCTION COMPANY and Susana Cook’s Co. Dorrell understands the rhythm and importance of preparation, hard work, and respect. Applying these values to her endeavors by making an inventory of resources, planning activities and working on her goals daily. Her past experiences has completely supported her development and she is thankful for it.

Matthew K. Johnson is a playwright, poet, storyteller and fiction writer originally from Honolulu, Hawaii. He has been a featured performer at numerous venues around New York City, including the Bowery Poetry Club, the C.O.W. Theater and Dixon Place, and was the creator and host of “Tongue Lashing”, a literary series at The Phoenix in the East Village that ran from 2007 to 2010. He lives in Brooklyn.

Justine is a performer-creator-educator working across disciplines and fields of study. She is founder and current Den Mother to Queer Scouts, a civic performance project that takes up the traditional Boy and Girl Scouts, re-imagining their handbooks, histories and practices through a queer, and creative/critical/activist lens. Her work as a creator-performer has been presented at the Public Theater, Ars Nova, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queens Museum, and her film work has presented at Maryland Film Festival, MOMA’s New Directors/New Films, Rotterdam Film Festival and others. She was a 2016 Queer Arts Mentorship fellow in Performance, and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts with the Queer Scouts. Justine teaches clown, play, games and creation at Yale School of Drama, as well as within traditional and alternative learning spaces around the globe. MFA: CUNY/Brooklyn College in Performance and Interactive Media Arts
www.play-mountain.org

Resist, Rebel, Transgress: Nothing Without Us Screening
2017-05-12 19:00 - 21:00
In conjunction with the Bureau’s current exhibition, The Lesbian Avengers: 25th Anniversary Exhibition:
Friday, May 12 7 p.m. Lesbian Avengers 25 event series, “Resist, Rebel, Transgress.” A screening of the powerful film, Nothing Without Us, by Harriet Hirshorn and Mary Patierno about women fighting AIDS worldwide.
Nothing Without Us is the first and only documentary telling the story of the inspiring women at the forefront of the global AIDS movement. Combining archival footage and interviews with female activists, scientists and scholars in the US and Africa, “Nothing Without Us: The Women who Will End AIDS” reveals how women not only shaped grassroots groups like ACT-UP in the U.S., but have also played essential roles in HIV prevention and the treatment access movement throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The film explores the unaddressed dynamics that keep women around the world at risk of HIV, while introducing the remarkable women who have the answers to ending this 30-year old pandemic.

The Lesbian Avengers: 25th Anniversary Exhibition is on view at the Bureau through June 4, 2017.
We did it, and we’ll do it again! A multimedia activist exhibit celebrating the Lesbian Avengers, formed 25 years ago during another surge of hardcore misogyny, and anti-gay, white Nationalist hate. Includes still photos, flyers, posters, slide shows, and video. Were you there? We welcome your participation. This mobile exhibit won’t take on its final form until late April. In June, it will begin to pop up all over the country. Including a neighborhood near you!

Related upcoming event:
Friday, June 2 7 p.m. Lesbian Avengers 25 event series, “Resist, Rebel, Transgress” in co-operation with Lambda Literary. Includes Lesbian Avengers and writers, Susana Cook, Ana Simo (co-founder), and others.

Get Healthy: improving LGBT health through film
2017-05-11 19:00 - 20:30
The 2015 short film, Vanessa Goes to the Doctor, turned LGBT cultural competence training on its head, changing the way healthcare providers understand and treat their LGBT patients all in 8 entertaining minutes. Please come to a special screening of Vanessa and a fundraising kickoff for the production of three more films for this important and potentially life-saving film series.
Meet the filmmakers who will talk about why they used this approach and learn about what they plan to do in continuing this series.

Reception 7 PM
Screening 7:30 PM

liz margolies, LCSW is the founder and executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network. She produced this video, along with filmsfornonprofits.org, as part of a larger cultural competence training curriculum for health and human services providers, presenting it at hospitals, organizations and conferences across the country. In 2014, liz was chosen as one of the OUT100 for her work.

Undercover Girl: The Lesbian Informant Who Helped the FBI Bring Down the Communist Party
2017-05-10 19:00 - 21:00
Join us for the launch of Undercover Girl: The Lesbian Informant Who Helped the FBI Bring Down the Communist Party, by Lisa E. Davis.

This is not the story of a bad lesbian. This is the story of a bad system and a terrible moment in American history we call “the McCarthy era.” The American Left never recovered. Our focus is Angela Calomiris (1916-95), a Village photographer well paid by the FBI to spy on the New York Photo League and the American Communist Party (1942-49). We know about her because she broke her cover to testify at the first Smith Act trial (1949) of the Party leadership accused of “conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the US gov’t by force and violence.” They went to prison while Angela became a Red Scare celebrity with a (ghost-written) book about her patriotic service, then tried to get a big-time job in photography out of the FBI. She later retreated to Provincetown where she owned several properties–Angel’s Landing was one–and kept her previous career as an informant a deep, dark secret. A selection of vintage photos accompanies this presentation.

Lisa E Davis has lived in Greenwich Village for many years. Her latest book is “Undercover Girl: The Lesbian FBI Informant Who Helped the FBI Bring Down the Communist Party.” Her novel “Under the Mink,” a film noir tale of gay and lesbian entertainers in mob-owned Village nightclubs of the 1940s, was re-issued in 2015, and has been optioned for a TV series/film. With a PhD in Comparative Literature, Davis taught for years in SUNY and CUNY, published numerous essays, and lectured widely on New World and European literary topics. High points in her career include meeting Fidel Castro and almost drowning in the Colorado River.

Dandy Darkly's Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Tales of Sex and Death! A Book Launch
2017-05-06 19:00 - 21:30
NYC’s maestro of the macabre is dragging his tawdry tales of sex and death from the stage and on to the page. Dandy Darkly will be on hand at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division to sell some books, sign some books and do a selected reading of tales from his brand new book, and to kick off his upcoming USA tour.
Dandy Darkly’s Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Tales of Sex and Death! (Volume One) is a collection of short stories from Dandy’s critically acclaimed, queer storytelling shows. The book also features illustrations by Dandy Darkly. The shindig kicks off at 7pm with a reading of Dandy’s favorite tales at 8pm.

Dandy Darkly lives in Brooklyn, New York with his husband and cats. “The Homer of the 21st century” (Washington Square News), Dandy is an emergent queer performance artist and cabaret storyteller. He has performed internationally at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the London Horror Festival and the historic Royal Vauxhall Tavern. The East Village is Dandy’s playground, with annual shows at Under St. Marks, the Queerly Festival and Dixon Place. His critically acclaimed work has been described as “fantastical fairytale horror, equal parts Tennessee Williams, Edgar Allen Poe and Bruce La Bruce” (Time Out) and “a cross between Pam Ayres, Liberace and Tales from the Crypt.” (The Scotsman). This “decidedly wicked storyteller” (New York Times) is “simply one of the most thoughtful, hilarious and harrowing queer talents at work today.” (Scotsgay Magazine).

David Pratt's Wallaçonia, Reading & Signing with guest Don Weise
2017-05-05 19:00 - 21:00
David Pratt reads from his new young adult novel, Wallaçonia. Following the reading, independent editor Don Weise will join Pratt in a discussion of the process of writing and editing queer young adult novels.
Copies of Wallaçonia will be available for purchase at the event.
To reserve a copy of Wallaçonia, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com.

David Pratt is the author of the novels Bob the Book (Lambda Literary Award winner) and Looking After Joey. His short stories are collected in the volume My Movie. He has performed worked for the stage in New York City at HERE, Dixon Place, the Cornelia Street Cafe and in the New York International Fringe Festival. He lives in Michigan.

Don Weise has more than twenty years publishing experience, the majority of which has been devoted to LGBT literature. Don was named by Publishers Weekly as an industry “Change Maker” and listed among Out Magazine’s “100 Most Intriguing Gay Men and Lesbians” of the year. Weise is currently the founder/publisher of the LGBT press Querelle Books.

Transgender Children & Youth, Book Launch & Talk, with Elijah Nealy
2017-05-04 19:00 - 21:00
Join us to celebrate the publication of Transgender Children & Youth: Cultivating Pride and Joy with Families (W. W. Norton, 2017), by Elijah C. Nealy.

Dr. Nealy, a therapist and former deputy executive director of New York City’s LGBT Community Center, and himself a trans man, has written the first-ever comprehensive guide to understanding, supporting, and welcoming trans kids. Covering everything from family life to school and mental health issues, as well as the physical, social, and emotional aspects of transition, this book is full of best practices to support trans kids.

The reception begins at 7, with a talk by Dr. Nealy at 7:30pm, followed by a Q&A. Copies of the book will be available for sale.

Elijah C. Nealy, PhD, M.Div., LCSW has worked extensively with LGBTQ adolescents and adults in both pastoral and social service capacities for the past 25 years. Dr. Nealy taught fulltime at Columbia School of Social Work, currently is assistant professor of social work at the University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, and for 12 years served the LGBT Community Center in New York City, initially as Director of their adolescent and adult mental health programs and then as Deputy Director. His clinical practice has focused on transgender and gender diverse youth and their families. An openly identified transgender man, Dr. Nealy lives in West Hartford with his partner and is the proud father of three amazing young people.

Anti-Fascist Book Club
2017-04-30 15:00 - 17:00
A reading group for those fighting fascism! We will begin with Hannah Arendt and James Baldwin and expand from there. Hopefully our readings will inspire thoughtful and informed activism.

For the first meeting we will be discussing the first 100 pages of Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (available at the Bureau—please support the Bureau by purchasing your copy from us. Thank you!)

Questions? Write to Grey Vild: greyvild@gmail.com

EOAGH Spring 2017 Launch!
2017-04-29 19:00 - 21:00
EOAGH Spring 2017 Launch!
Featuring: Abigail Child, Kenyatta JP Garcia, Phoenix Nastasha Russell, Kerry Downey, Jay Lucero, Pazia Miller, and Isabelle Shallcross.
Hosted by Trace Peterson at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
Saturday, April 29 at 7-9 PM,
Abigail Child is a media artist and writer who pushes the envelope of sound-image-text relations with humor, liveliness and complex “plangent, friable, nacreous, lambent, sinewy…and syncopated” montage. An award-winning filmmaker, Child is the author of six books of poetry, among them, A Motive for Mayhem, Scatter Matrix and her most recent MOUTH TO MOUTH, as well as a book of criticism, THIS IS CALLED MOVING: A Critical Poetics of Film (2005) from University of Alabama Press.
Kenyatta JP Garcia is the author of Slow Living (West Vine Press) and This Sentimental Education. They were raised in Brooklyn but currently live in Albany, NY. They spend their nights being paid to put boxes on shelves while their days are dedicated to dreaming.
Phoenix Nastasha Russell is an accomplished poet. Several of her poems have been published in art books like “Rivers of Emotion” and on websites like Poetry.com. She has performed her art work of words in all sorts of venues and has gotten the highest of acclaims. Nastasha’s art oft times incites gut wrenching laughter and at other times intense contemplation as she fires of verse after verse of spellbinding lexis. When she orates her art you can tell that she is truly in her element. Nastasha will entice you and delight you, just like her namesake she’s like a Phoenix taking flight on wings of searing light….her words will never disappoint cause you’ll know and feel just where she’s coming from.
Kerry Downey (born Fort Lauderdale, 1979) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and teacher. Downey’s work explores how we interact with each other physically, psychologically, and socio-politically. Encompassing video, works on paper, writing, and performance, their work reimagines the possibilities and limitations of language, gender and intimacy. Their work has recently been exhibited at the Queens Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, the Drawing Center, and Taylor Macklin. In 2015, Downey was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. They hold a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Hunter College.
Jay Lucero aka Silverfemme is a senior at Hunter College. They were awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Award from Queensborough Community College. Jay is a poet, actor, and activist born and raised in NYC. They are a magical brown oddity that embodies no and all genders. Instagram: @silverfemme.
Pazia Miller is a queer poet and public school teacher living in Brooklyn. She is currently working on two different poetry collections, one of which is a long form confessional poem in blank verse. Her poetry lives in small corners of the internet and can be found on The Bridge.
Isabelle Shallcross (she/her) writes poems about the South, nature, and being a sad and problematic person under capitalism. Her favorite writers include Chris Kraus, Ross Gay, and Mira Gonzalez. She has received a scholarship to study poetry at the Bread Loaf School of English and is originally from Alabama.

Vexilloids: a Protest Flag Workshop with LACTIC Incorporated, with support from Queer Threads
2017-04-27 18:00 - 21:00
Join Randi Shandroski and Ickarus of LACTIC Incorporated at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division on Thursday, April 27th from 6 ‘til 9PM for a workshop presenting the history of vexilloids which will conclude with the participants’ creation of their own.

Presented in collaboration with John Chaich, curator of the Queer Threads book and exhibition, in light of current events, LGBTQ Pride Month, and the March on Washington in June.

Textiles and materials will be provided although participants are strongly encouraged to bring some of their own fabrics. No prior sewing experience needed although highly recommended.

PLEASE NOTE:
This event is limited to 15 participants. Please RSVP via ickarus@lacticincorporated.com.

The Publishing Triangle Finalists Reading
2017-04-26 19:00 - 21:00
Join eight of the best LGBT writers of 2016 on Wednesday, April 26, at 7 PM, at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division as they read from their work, all of which are finalists for the prestigious Publishing Triangle and Ferro-Grumley awards to be announced on Thursday, April 27, at the Publishing Triangle Awards Ceremony & Reception, at The Auditorium of the New School, 66 West 12th street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues).

Featuring:
Kathy Anderson: Bull and Other Stories (Autumn House Press), Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
Lucy Jane Bledsoe: A Thin Bright Line (University of Wisconsin Press), Finalist for The Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction
Elizabeth M. Edman: Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity (Beacon Press), Finalist for the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction
Matthew Griffin: Hide (Bloomsbury USA), Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
Alan Lessik: The Troubleseeker (Chelsea Station Editions), Finalist for The Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction
Paul Lisicky, The Narrow Door (Graywolf Press); finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction
Joe Okonkwo: Jazz Moon (Kensington), Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
Will Schwalbe: Books for Living (Alfred A. Knopf), Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction

Kathy Anderson is the author of Bull and Other Stories (Autumn House Press, 2016), winner of the 2015 Autumn House Press Fiction Prize. In addition to being a finalist for the 2016 Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, Bull and Other Stories was a finalist for the 2016 Lambda Literary Awards and the 2016 Foreword INDIES Awards and was longlisted for The Story Prize, 2016. She is also a playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild. She lives with her wife in Philadelphia, PA.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe‘s new novel, A Thin Bright Line, was just released. She’s the author of a collection of short stories, a collection of narrative nonfiction, and four novels, including The Big Bang Symphony. Her recent short story, “The We of Me,” published in The Rumpus, was chosen by Ploughshares Magazine as the best story published in lit mags that week.
Her fiction has won a Yaddo Fellowship, the 2013 Saturday Evening Post Fiction Award, the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize, the Sherwood Anderson Prize for Fiction, a Pushcart nomination, a California Arts Council Fellowship, an American Library Association Stonewall Award, and two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships. Her stories have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Chinese.
Lucy loves teaching workshops, cooking, traveling anywhere, basketball, doing anything outside, and telling stories. She’s traveled to Antarctica three times, as a two-time recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Artists & Writers in Antarctica Fellowship and once as a guest on the Russian ship, the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. She is one of a tiny handful of people who have stayed at all three American stations in Antarctica. She has also stayed in a number of field camps, both on the coast and in the Transantarctic mountains, where scientists are studying penguins, climate change, and the Big Bang.

Photograph by Keryn Lowry

Liz Edman is an Episcopal priest and political strategist. She is the author of Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity (Beacon Press, 2016). Liz has lived and worked on the front lines of the most salient contemporary issues where religion meets sexuality, serving as an inner city hospital chaplain to people with HIV/AIDS from 1989 to 1995 and helping craft political and communications strategies for marriage equality efforts. In 2017, she partnered with Parity to create Glitter+Ash Wednesday, a project to increase the visibility of progressive, queer-positive Christians and to explore Christian liturgical tradition through a queer lens. She lives in New York.

Matthew Griffin is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has taught writing at the University of Iowa and University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and he worked for several years as Assistant to the Director of Highlander Research and Education Center, a renowned hub of grassroots organizing for social justice throughout the South and Appalachia. His first novel Hide was the winner of the 2017 Crook’s Corner Book Prize, a Stonewall Honor Book, and longlisted for the PEN/Bingham Prize for debut fiction. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Granta, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. He was born and raised in North Carolina and now lives with his husband and too many pets in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches at Tulane University.

Alan Lessik is a novelist and writer, zen practitioner, amateur figure skater, and LGBT activist, non-profit leader and world traveler. His debut novel, The Troubleseeker, was published by Chelsea Station Editions in 2016. He has had non-fiction articles and commentaries published in the Advocate, San Francisco Bay Guardian, andFrontiers as well as recorded as part of KQED Radio Perspectives. He was the co-founder of Out & Equal, the Deputy Director of the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF and Treasurer of the Federation of Gay Games. Currently he is the Executive Director of Civicorps. Alan lives in San Francisco.

Photo by Star Black

Paul Lisicky is the author of five books: The Narrow Door (a New York Times Editors’ Choice), Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Conjunctions, Fence, The New York Times, The Offing, Ploughshares, Tin House, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, among others. He is an associate professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden and lives in Brooklyn.

Joe Okonkwo is a Pushcart Prize nominee who has had stories published in a variety of print and online venues including Promethean, Penumbra Literary Magazine, Chelsea Station, Shotgun Honey, and Best Gay Stories 2015. In addition to his writing career, he has worked in theater as an actor, stage manager, director, playwright and youth theatre instructor. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from City College of New York. Jazz Moon is his debut novel.

Will Schwalbe has worked in publishing (now with Macmillan); digital media, as the founder and CEO of Cookstr.com; and as a journalist, writing for various publications, including The New York Times and the South China Morning Post. He is the author of the New York Times best seller The End of Your Life Book Club and coauthor, with David Shipley, of Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better. His most recent book, Books for Living, is a memoir about the books that found him when he needed them most.

Union Square Slam Presents: Kate & Izzi!
2017-04-25 19:30 - 21:30
*Mark your calendars: the last Tuesday of every month will feature a local musical performer.*
Tonight, we are beyond excited to bring you the entrancing sounds of this sister duet!
About our Show:
7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic (Music + Poetry Are Welcomed Here!)
8:45pm: KATE & IZZI
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // Suggested $5-10 donation
About our Feature:
Kate & Izzi are sisters making music. We grew up in DC, went to school in New York, lived in Berlin and taught music in a refugee camp. Now we’re creating original music in our basement. Kate & Izzi will be releasing our first EP this summer.

Resist, Rebel, Transgress: Sarah Schulman & Carmen Machado
2017-04-21 19:00 - 21:00
In conjunction with the Bureau’s current exhibition, The Lesbian Avengers: 25th Anniversary Exhibition:
“Resist, Rebel, Transgress” in co-operation with Lambda Literary. Reading from their work: Avenger co-founder and writer Sarah Schulman, and writer Carmen Machado.
Suggested donation of $5 to $10 to benefit both the traveling exhibition The Lesbian Avengers: 25th Anniversary Exhibition and the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year, and Best Women’s Erotica. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sarah Schulman is the author of 18 books, most recently the novel THE COSMOPOLITANS, selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the top 20 American novels of 2016, and CONFLICT IS NOT ABUSE, which bell hooks called “awesome brilliant.” Sarah is on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace, faculty advisor to Students for Justice in Palestine, and on the advisory board of Claudia Rankine’s Racial Imaginary Institute. She is currently writing the book to a musical based on the songs of Joan Armatrading.

The Lesbian Avengers: 25th Anniversary Exhibition is on view at the Bureau through June 4, 2017.
We did it, and we’ll do it again! A multimedia activist exhibit celebrating the Lesbian Avengers, formed 25 years ago during another surge of hardcore misogyny, and anti-gay, white Nationalist hate. Includes still photos, flyers, posters, slide shows, and video. Were you there? We welcome your participation. This mobile exhibit won’t take on its final form until late April. In June, it will begin to pop up all over the country. Including a neighborhood near you!

Related upcoming events:

Friday, May 12 7 p.m. Lesbian Avengers 25 event series, “Resist, Rebel, Transgress.” A screening of the powerful film, Nothing Without Us, by Harriet Hirshorn and Mary Patierno about women fighting AIDS worldwide.
Nothing Without Us is the first and only documentary telling the story of the inspiring women at the forefront of the global AIDS movement. Combining archival footage and interviews with female activists, scientists and scholars in the US and Africa, Nothing Without Us: The Women who Will End AIDS reveals how women not only shaped grassroots groups like ACT-UP in the U.S., but have also played essential roles in HIV prevention and the treatment access movement throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The film explores the unaddressed dynamics that keep women around the world at risk of HIV, while introducing the remarkable women who have the answers to ending this 30-year old pandemic.

Friday, June 2 7 p.m. Lesbian Avengers 25 event series, “Resist, Rebel, Transgress” in co-operation with Lambda Literary. Includes Lesbian Avengers and writers, Susana Cook, Ana Simo (co-founder), and others.

Open Love New York Poly Movie Night: Carrington
2017-04-20 18:30 - 21:30
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 meeting at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division which is located on the second floor of The LGBT Center, Room 210.
Please join us for Carrington (1995), directed by Christopher Hampton and starring Emma Thompson (Harry Potter) and Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones).
We’ll meet at 6:30 pm at the Bureau 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: “Who on earth is that ravishing boy?” asks writer Lytton Strachey when he first sees Carrington. Despite his initial disappointment that Carrington is not a boy, he becomes very fond of her while she falls in love with him. The film is based on the lives of the early twentieth-century painter Dora Carrington and gay Bloomsbury writer Lytton Strachey. Running time: 2 hours.

Union Square Slam presents Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib and Team Selection Finals!
2017-04-18 18:30 - 21:30
!! TIME !! FOR !! TEAM !! SELECTION !! FINALS !!

featuring
HANIF WILLIS-ABDURRAQIB

ARE YOU READY FOR POEMS?!

6:30pm: Writing Workshop by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
7:45pm: Slam, First Round
8:30pm: Feature: Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
9:00pm: Slam, Second Round

Writing Workshop, by donation/pass-the-bag
Feature/Slam: suggested $7-$10, collected at door

* * * We’ll also be selling limited edition copies of Union Square Slam’s Inaugural Year Team Slam Chapbook — all proceeds go to getting the team to Nationals this year ♥ * * *
Bureau of General Services – Queer Division
(inside the LGBT Center)

208 W 13th St., #210 (btw 7th and 8th Ave)
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
About our Feature:

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His first collection of poems, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, was released by Button Poetry in 2016. His first collection of essays, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, is forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio in winter 2017.

TELL 33: Betrayal
2017-04-15 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.
BETRAYAL is the theme of the thirty-third installment of TELL. Featuring Erica Caldwell, Amalia Q, Persephone Sarah Jane Smith, and Pamela Sneed.

$10 suggested donation – 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.

Erica Cardwell is a writer and radical educator. Her essays and reviews have appeared in Hyperallergic, Sinister Wisdom, the Lightwork Annual, The Feminist Wire, Bitch Media, and EMERGE: An Anthology of the 2105 Lambda Literary Fellows. Erica hopes to complete a draft of her first book, Stone Fruit- a collection of personal essays by December.

Amalia Q is a latinx queer unicorn from LA. As the daughter of immigrant parents, the pull to overachieve and give back was immense; therefore, as of late, Amalia had been trying to practice self-care by slowing down and hanging out with tiny humans (aka kids). Amalia holds masters degrees from all the schools and knows a whole lot about microaggressions, substance use, and mental health. You can find Amalia on a dance floor near you!

Persephone Sarah Jane Smith (They/Them/Theirs)
A singer songwriter and poet that lives in Bushwick with far too many hobbies to list. Thier Latest endeavor is running for City Council in their District. Greatest skill though is telling Humorous stories from their tragic life.

Pamela Sneed is a New York based poet, writer and actress. 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. In 2015, she appeared in Art Forum, Black Book and The Huffington Post. She hosted Queer Art Film at the IFC in New York City. She is author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery, published by Henry Holt in April 1998, KONG & other works, published by Vintage Entity Press (2009) and a chapbook Lincoln (2014). In 2015, she published the Chaplet Gift with Belladonna. She has performed for sold out houses at Lincoln Center, P.S. 122, Ex-Teresa in Mexico City, The ICA London, The CCA in Glasgow Scotland, The Green Room in Manchester England, BAM Cafe, Joes Pub, The Public Theater, Central Park Summer Stage, Bronx Summer Stage and recently Columbia University’s Tribute to James Baldwin, The Whitney Museum and BRIC. She appears in Nikki Giovanni’s, The One Hundred Best African American Poems. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence as a guest faculty member and is an online Professor at Chicago’s School of the Art Institute teaching Human Rights and Writing Art. She was a mentor/consultant for the poet-Linc program at Lincoln Center and directed a final show at Lincoln Center Atrium in 2016. She has recently presented at a symposium at NYU on Humor, Politics and the AIDs crisis. In summer 2016, she has received a residency at Denniston Hill and is an SAIC visiting artist in the MFA low residency program. She is completing a collection of short stories “Anna Mae/For Black Women Survivors,” and has a forthcoming chapbook Sweet Dreams with Belladonna2017.

Author Readings and Discussion with Stefani Deoul & Ann Aptaker
2017-04-13 19:00 - 21:00
Join us as Stefani Deoul reads from and discusses her crazyfunkycool new YA novel, On a LARP, which features the fresh and feisty bit-bending teen heroine, Sid Rubin. As an added attraction, Lammy-winning historical criminal fiction writer, Ann Aptaker will take the stage to talk about and share a reading from Genuine Gold, Book Three of the popular Cantor Gold Crime Series.
Please support the authors and the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division and purchase copies of On a LARP, Criminal Gold, Tarnished Gold, and Genuine Gold at the Bureau!
We look forward to seeing you there!

STEFANI DEOUL is the author of the award-winning novel The Carousel and the newly released YA novel On a LARP. She has written for numerous publications, including Curve Magazine, Outdoor Delaware and Letters from CAMP Rehoboth, penned short stories, and written both film and television treatments. As a television producer her resume includes TV series such as Haven for the SyFy Network, The Dead Zone, Brave New Girl, Dresden Files and Missing.

Lambda Literary Award winner and native New Yorker ANN APTAKER has earned a reputation as a respected, if cheeky, exhibition designer and curator of art during her career in museums and galleries. Taking the approach that what art authorities find uncomfortable the public would likely enjoy, exhibitions Ann has curated have garnered favorable reviews in the New York Times, Art in America, American Art Review, and other publications.

Great Weather for Union Square Slam
2017-04-11 18:30 - 21:30
Great weather for media has a brand new anthology called “The Careless Embrace of the Boneshaker.” We are excited to bring you some of the poets from this anthology to our stage.

Here are the poets:

Taylor Steele
Liv Mammone
Craig Kite
Brendan James Gillett

Founded in January 2012 by former Uphook Press editors Jane Ormerod, Thomas Fucaloro, and Brant Lyon, great weather for MEDIA focuses on the unpredictable, the fearless, the bright, the dark, and the innovative…

They are based in New York City and showcase both national and international writers. As well as publishing the highest quality poetry and prose, they organize numerous readings, performances, and book releases in New York City and across the country. Find them every Sunday on the Lower East Side at the Parkside Lounge, 317 East Houston St, for their reading series, great weather presents Spoken Word Sundays. Featured readers and a poetry open mic, 4:00 – 6:00 pm. They’d love to see you! This is a terrific New York City poetry open mic.

6:30pm Writing Workshop w/ IS Jones
7:30pm Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm Open Mic
All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Suggested Donation: $5-$10

2017 NYC Queer Comic Fair
2017-04-08 13:00 - 19:00
WabiSabiZinez and Carmine Street Comics are proud to present the first (hopefully) annual New York City fair geared entirely towards queer sequential art (comics, graphic novels, illustrated stories, photo-comics, or any other interesting take on the medium of still-visual narrative storytelling).

The fair is free and open to the public, thanks to our hosts, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, located on the second floor of The LGBT Center NYC, 208 W 13th St., room 210.

Vendors include:

WabiSabiZines: WabiSabiZineZ.Storenvy.Com / @Wabi_Sabi_Zinez
Carmine Street Comics: carminestreetcomics.com / @CarmineStComics
Bearpad: bearpadshop.storenvy.com / @bearpadshop
Tim Bauer: cargocollective.com/tbauerillustration
Doable Guys: doableguys.tumblr.com/
Easy: easythecomic.com
Greg Fox / Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast: Kylecomics.com
Mikey Hope / Preternatch: preternatch.deviantart.com/gallery/
Comics by Patrick J Reilly: comicsbypatrick.com/
Lucky Sanford: luckysanford.com
Sci-Fi Explosion: twitter.com/scifiexplosion
Susse Sønderby: unteleported-tomatoes.net / @sussesonderby
Ship Jumper: ShipJumperComic.com
SquareBears: Instagram.com/squarebears
Stevie Wilson: swinku.tumblr.com
Woolybearz: woolybearz.tumblr.com / @woolybear
Bill Zanowitz: crimefighterinquiry.com / comicbookbears.com

A Discussion of Umberto Saba's 'Ernesto' with Peter Cameron, Benjamin Taylor, Jaime Manrique, and Stefano Albertini
2017-04-06 19:00 - 21:00
Please join NYRB Classics in celebrating the publication of Umberto Saba’s Ernesto, a classic of gay Italian literature available in a new translation by Estelle Gilson. Peter Cameron, Benjamin Taylor, Jaime Manrique, and Stefano Albertini will discuss Saba’s life and work.

Peter Cameron is the author of six novels, including ‘Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You,’ and two collections of short stories. He lives in New York City and Vermont, where he runs Shrinking Violet Press, which publishes limited editions of finely-crafted books. He has written afterwords to many books, including New York Review of Books’ ‘The Outward Room’ by Millen Brand and ‘Totempole’ by Sanford Friedman.

Benjamin Taylor‘s family memoir, ‘The Hue and Cry at Our House,’ will be published in May of 2017 by Penguin Books. He is also the author of ‘Proust: The Search,’ named a Best Book of 2016 by Thomas Mallon in The New York Times Book Review; ‘Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay,’ named a Best Book of 2012 by Judith Thurman in The New Yorker; and of two novels, ‘Tales Out of School,’ winner of the Harold Ribalow Prize, and ‘The Book of Getting Even,’ winner of a Barnes and Noble Discover Prize. He edited ‘Saul Bellow: Letters,’ named a Best Book of 2010 by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times and Jonathan Yardley at The Washington Post, and Bellow’s ‘There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction.’ A faculty member in the New School’s Graduate School of Writing, Taylor also teaches in the Graduate Writing Division of the School of the Arts at Columbia University. A past fellow and current trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, he is also president of the Edward F. Albee Foundation. ‘Debriefing,’ his edition of the short fiction of Susan Sontag, is due from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in November of 2017.

Jaime Manrique was born in Colombia. He is a bilingual novelist, essayist, translator, and poet. His novels include ‘Latin Moon in Manhattan,’ ‘Our Lives Are the Rivers,’ and ‘Cervantes Street.’ He has been the recipient of a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a winner of Colombia’s National Poetry Award, and the International Latino Book Award. Mr. Manrique’s work has been translated to twelve languages. He is currently a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures at the City College of New York. He has just completed a new novel, ‘Like This Afternoon Forever.’

Union Square Slam presents Timothy DuWhite and our Capturing Fire Qualifier
2017-04-04 18:30 - 21:30
Come on out for our Very Here, Very Queer CAPTURING FIRE QUALIFIER, featuring Capturing Fire’s 2015 Champion and all-around No BullPoop No Fux Giving Poet/Prophet/Pidgeon Whisperer Timothy DuWhite!!

6:30pm Free Writing Workshop with I.S. Jones
7:30pm Sign-Ups and Socialize
8:00pm Slam and Feature
$5 // All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible

COMPETING POETS: must be self-identified queer to compete! must have three 3 minute poems! must consider registering for Capturing Fire and competing anyway, regardless of who wins this qualifier!
About our Feature:

Timothy DuWhite is the current Program Manager at New York Writers Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to providing writing workshops to under-served communities. Prior to his time at NYWC, Timothy worked as the Program Coordinator at Urban Word NYC, a champion in youth literacy, and as the Online Communications Specialist at Believe Out Loud, an online network invested in bridging the gap between the faith and LGBTQ communities. He received his BA in English/Creative Writing from Montclair State University, where he developed his love for spoken word poetry and performance. Timothy’s work has been featured at venues/sites such as the United Nations/UNICEF, Apollo Theater, Nuyorican Poet’s cafe, The Rumpus, Bowery Poetry Club, La Mama Theater and many more. In 2015, Timothy developed a writing workshop entitled “HIV & the State: Coalition Building beyond the Condom,” in which he communally debunks popular narratives surrounding HIV as it relates to black people. Timothy’s political work and analysis has granted him appearances/keynote speeches at institutions such as San Diego State University, Columbia University, Oregon State University, Columbia College Chicago, and many more. When he isn’t off trying to save the world, Tim can be found working on his next play, and listening to 90’s R&B.
About Capturing Fire:

Capturing Fire is a DC-based international spoken word and poetry festival where queer-identified writers gather for 3 days of individual poetry slam competition, alongside panels, workshops and performances during the day. The Poetry Slam focus of Capturing Fire will be June 9 and 10 with a series of Queer Arts Events starting Sunday June 4 at The Sparkle Open Mic at Busboys & Poets. We will be holding Capturing Fire during Capital Pride Weekend which culminates with the LGBT March on Sunday June 11, 2017 at 10am. For more information, please refer to https://capfireslam.org/
