BGSQD

TELL 49: Permission
2018-12-15 19:00 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | Online event, New York, NY, United States
TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.

TELL ends the year with a night of storytellers curated by Mariel Reyes @marielwashere

Featuring stories by Chrissy Etienne, Katie Fricas, Winter Laike, and a story and video excerpt by Arisleyda Dilone.

This is the 49th installment of TELL. The night’s theme is PERMISSION.
$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.

Katie Fricas is a cartoonist from New York City. She makes non-fiction essay comics about art, politics, and hidden histories in a wiggly, slap-happy style for various publications and websites. She got her start illustrating for $pread Magazine (RIP) and self-publishing a comic about her life called Blabbermouth. Her work pops up in various anthologies, including the 2018 Ignatz award-winning book, Comics for Choice, and her comics have also appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker, and PEN America. Her series, Checked Out, about almost a decade spent working at NYC’s oldest library, appears regularly on the website Spiralbound. When she isn’t scuttling all over the city, she can be found at home scanning the funnie pages.

Winter Laike is a Brooklyn-based musician and storyteller whose musical works include a collection of songs based on Craigslist missed connections, a rock opera inspired by a series of dreams, and songs about life’s everyday struggles. He has appeared on the stage at venues such as The Knitting Factory, The Bowery, Music Hall of Williamsburg, the Duplex, and the Tank. When he’s not writing music, Winter enjoys making the internet accessible, riding his bike, making not-your-mother’s Rice Krispie treats, playing with puppies, and gorging on pizza, donuts, and ice cream.
Winter’s next performance will be Monday, December 17 at The Tank, where he will be performing musical works in various stages of development, including some of the aforementioned projects. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/498900230587403

Arisleyda Dilone (b. 1982/Santiago, Dominican Republic). Arisleyda is a filmmaker, writer, actor, multilingual translator and model. Her practice is rooted in revealing the deeply personal through all the mediums necessary. In 2015 she completed the short film: Mami y Yo y Mi Gallito /Mom and Me and My Little Rooster. As a writer, she was a contributing author in Period: Twelve Voices Tell the Bloody Truth a book of essays. She is currently working on a feature length documentary titled: This Body, Too.

Arisleyda is a member of Diverse Filmmakers Alliance, Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and Ay Ombe Theater.

Chrissy Etienne is a queer Haitian poet and storyteller by way of birth right.
They’d like to know what going home feels like.

Global Gay
2018-12-18 19:00 - 21:00
Directed by Salvino Raco, Global Gay is a performance piece and reading based on Frédéric Martel‘s book, Global Gay: How Gay Culture Is Changing the World, now available in English translation, which describes how lgbtq culture has changed societies everywhere, especially in the post-Stonewall Era. Martel’s book also examines the challenges to lgbtq folk in cultures that are hostile to alternative forms of sexual and gender expression. Directed by Salvino Raco, the full production will be presented at LaMaMa ETC in June 2019 as part of the Stonewall50 commemorations.

Salvino Raco, Italian director based in Paris, has conceived and mounted many productions in the “theater of engagement” sphere. His works focus on human rights issues and protest against oppressive political and cultural structures, in the Brechtian tradition. An abridged version of “Global Gay” was presented to much acclaim at the Milan Triennale in 2016.

Craig Anthony Bannister, associate producer, is artistic/program director for Spectrum Arts Production. As part of his work with Salvino Raco, he is initiating a series of intergenerational workshops designed to interpret the “Global Gay” to a wide audience, ranging from Stonewall veterans of 1969 to today’s young people struggling with lgbtq and gender-fluid issues.

Edward Moran, producer/translator/narrator, has assisted Salvino Raco in translating his scripts and production notes from French to English, and has also assisted him in introducing Raco’s work to American theaters. A resident of New York City since June 1969, he was a witness to the Stonewall rebellion and its aftermath.

CARPE ANNUM: Readings by Jeppesen, Kitto, Benderson
2019-01-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
What better way to start off another year on our exhilarating ride toward redemption/oblivion, than a reading by three of the sharpest minds around? In a rare NYC appearance, writer and critic TRAVIS JEPPESEN will read from his work. On the same bill: the great essayist SVETLANA KITTO and the legendary BRUCE BENDERSON. Hosted by JASON NAPOLI BROOKS

Drinks will be served for a donation. Admission is $10 suggested donation to benefit the Bureau (no one will be turned away for lack of funds).

Travis Jeppesen is the author of the novels Victims, Wolf at the Door, and The Suiciders, as well as two volumes of poetry and a collection of art criticism, Disorientations: Art on the Margins of the “Contemporary”. In 2018, his book See You in Pyongyang, about his time living and studying in North Korea, was published. His essays and criticism have appeared in Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, Artforum, Afterall, Art in America, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art, Bookforum, Spike, Frieze, and Mousse, among other publications. Jeppesen is based in Berlin and Shanghai, where he teaches at the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industry at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His new collection of essays, Bad Writing, is forthcoming from Sternberg Press.

Svetlana Kitto is a writer and oral historian in New York City. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Guernica, Interview Magazine, and BOMB, among other publications. She co/curates the reading and performance series Adult Contemporary, which is presented quarterly with Hauser & Wirth.

Bruce Benderson is a novelist, essayist, journalist and translator, widely published in France. Benderson’s erotic memoir Autobiographie érotique, about a nine-month sojourn in Romania, won the prestigious French literary prize, the Prix de Flore.His book-length essay, Toward the New Degeneracy, looks at New York’s Times Square, where rich and poor once mixed in a lively atmosphere of drugs, sex, and commerce. Benderson argues that this kind of mingling of classes has been the source of many modern avant-garde movements, and he laments the disappearance of that particular milieu. His novel User (1994) is a lyrical descent into the world of junkies and male hustlers. He is also the author of James Bidgood (Taschen, 1999), about the maker of the cult film Pink Narcissus.

Jason Napoli Brooks’ fiction and non-fiction have appeared in various publications, such as Ninth Letter, Asymptote, Bomb Blog, Colors, and the gay fiction anthology Satanica. His first novel, Shelter, was the recipient of The Chapbook Award for Best Fiction of 2006. From 2014-2017 Brooks published the psychedelic mystery series Cock of the Walk in zine format. It reached a wide audience and is now being translated intoSpanish. Brooks wrote the script for the multimedia theater work, Soundstage, starring actor Rebecca Hall and created/directed by Rob Roth, which premiered in New York City at Here Arts Center in September 2018. Brooks is the founder, curator, and emcee of the long-running Enclave Reading Series, which takes place at Club Cumming, actor Alan Cummings’ nightclub in the East Village.

Social Sculpture for Individual Goals
2019-01-05 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-01-19 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-02-02 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-02-16 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-03-02 11:00 - 13:00, 2019-03-16 11:00 - 13:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Social Sculpture for Individual Goals is an opportunity to check in with others about your personal goals.

The way it works is very simple: A group of individuals gathers together, and, depending on how many individuals are present, together we decide on a specific amount of time that each person will be allotted to speak to the group about their personal goals. We ask for one person to volunteer as a timekeeper, and that person keeps track of time, letting the person who is speaking know when they have one minute remaining, and when their time is up.

As each one of us takes our turn to speak, the group listens quietly and gives us an opportunity to speak from the heart about our personal goals. This process of personal goal-related sharing can go in many different directions, and each person who speaks is welcome to use this time in whatever way feels most helpful to them. This process provides an opportunity for the speaker to sort out their thoughts, to gain clarity around personal goals, to share setbacks and successes, and to be accountable to others. As we listen to others, it is an opportunity for us to practice deep listening and to receive inspiration from others.

While this is not an overly rule-bound process, we do ask that attendees keep the following guidelines in mind:

– When it is someone else’s turn to speak, others in the group do not interrupt or query that person. We allow the person who is speaking to have ‘the stage’ to themself during their turn.

– During your own turn, keep the focus on yourself, and do not give feedback to others who have already spoken (note: it is okay to reference something someone else said, for example, something that inspired you–as long as you are mentioning it in relation to your own goals and your own process).

– Nobody is required to share. It is okay to attend and just listen to others, without sharing anything yourself. Also, it is okay if someone wants to speak for less than their allotted time.

– Please keep in mind that this is an open community forum; therefore, information that attendees choose to share is not considered confidential or anonymous.

This project is a collaboration between the Bureau and Ben G. Adams, a psychologist and artist whose work focuses on approaching tropes of personal and social transformation as art forms. The term ‘social sculpture’ was originally developed by 20th century conceptual artist Joseph Beuys in reference to the idea that all human beings are artists, and that all aspects of life can be approached as art forms. Ben’s previous work includes an art book and dieting system titled The Creative Process Diet, mixed media works in printmaking and sculpture, and another (currently ongoing) iteration of Social Sculpture for Individual Goals developed in collaboration with the Religious Society of Friends of Truth (a.k.a. ‘Quakers’) beginning in January 2017.

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

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Tom of Finland
2019-01-09 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 at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

On Wednesday, January 9th, please join us for Tom of Finland (2017), directed by Dome Karukoski and starring Pekka Strang.

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

Synopsis: Based on the life of Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, the film contrasts his closeted life as a post-WWII advertising executive in Helsinki with the joyful eroticism of his (now iconic) illustrations of hyper-masculinized gay men in uniforms and fetish gear. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In Finnish with English subtitles.

Community, Perversity and the Queer Left
2019-01-17 18:30 - 20:30 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Community, Perversity and the Queer Left: A political conversation about community, politics, sex and history. Verso Books’ recent re-publication of Jeffrey Escoffier’s American Homo and three other pioneering works by radical queer left thinkers published in the early 1980s is the occasion of a discussion facilitated by Christopher Mitchell, a professor of Gender Studies at Hunter College, with Jeffrey Escoffier, author of American Homo: Community and Perversity, on the relevance of the queer left today.

Copies of American Homo: Community and Perversity (along with the other three titles from set 17 of Verso’s Radical Thinkers series) will be available to purchase at the Bureau. To reserve a copy please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com. Please support the Bureau by buying books from us. Thank you!

Jeffrey Escoffier is on the faculty of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. His book, American Homo: Community and Perversity, was recently re-issued by Verso Books in its Radical Thinkers series. He the author of Bigger Than Life: Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore and the editor of Sexual Revolution, an anthology of the most influential writing on sex from the 1960s and 70s. He is the former executive editor of Socialist Review. He was one of the founders and the Publisher of the pioneering LGBTQ journal OUT/LOOK from 1989 to 1992.

Christopher Mitchell is a historian of queer life in NYC and a professor of gender studies at Hunter College, CUNY.

Opening reception for Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) ...
2019-01-18 18:00 - 21:00 | Online event, New York, NY, United States
Please join us at the opening reception for Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) … on Friday, January 18, 2019, 6-9 PM

Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) …
January 18 – March 17, 2019
Download a PDF of the press release.
New York, New York –The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is proud to present Tobias Wong, “Untitled” (Golden) …, an exhibition of the late artist/designer’s work that played with the definition of what constituted art or design. The exhibition will present a selection of his work alongside objects from his personal collection that served as muses for his artistic design work. This includes a wide variety of table lamps as well as ephemera that he collected.
In a press release issued at the time of Wong’s death in 2010, architecture and design curator, friend, and colleague Aric Chen wrote: “Through his work, Wong helped bring forth much of what is now taken for granted in contemporary culture. Influenced by Dada and, especially, Fluxus, he questioned authorship through appropriation; held a mirror to our desires and absurdities; upended the hierarchy between design and art, and the precious and the banal; and helped redefine collaboration and curation as creative practices. Working within what he termed a “paraconceptual” framework, Wong prompted a reevaluation of everything we thought we knew about design: its production, its psychological resonance, its aesthetic criteria, its means of distribution, its attachment to provenance, its contextualization and its manner of presentation. Wong was a keen observer, an original mind, a brilliant prankster, and an unerring friend.
“Wong’s work was widely exhibited, including at the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. His many projects included those for Colette, Comme des Garcons, Prada/OMA, Cappellini and Swarovski Crystal Palace. In addition to the objects he created, re-created, repurposed, rarefied and otherwise manipulated, Wong’s work included events and happenings that included, among many others, a pop-up tattoo parlor at Art Basel Miami Beach/Design Miami and the Wrong Store, a “store” in New York that was in fact never open. (As with much of Wong’s work, both were collaborations.) Wong was named Young Designer of the Year by Wallpaper* magazine (2004) as well as the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2006). In 2008 and 2009, he served as founding co-creative director of 100% Design Shanghai, affiliated with the 100% Design fairs in London and Tokyo.
“Born and raised in Vancouver, Wong studied in Toronto before moving to New York in 1997 to attend the Cooper Union, from which he graduated with a major in sculpture.”

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

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

TELL 50: BELIEVING
2019-01-19 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.

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

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

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OLNY Poly Movie Night: Three/Drei
2019-02-06 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 at our regular venue, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photograph by Grace Chu

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

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

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

Photograph by James A. Ridley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRAISE FOR MY BUTCH CAREER

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photograph by Grace Chu

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Check her out online! www.draecampbell.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TICKETS

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

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

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

JOIN NOW — ATTEND FREE!

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