Julian's Debut: A Reading and An Interview (in person & live-streaming)
2025-03-20 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Brian Alessandro’s new novel, Julian’s Debut—his fifth book and third novel—explores the ethical gray area that comes with writing memoirs. What right do writers have to the private lives of friends, family, lovers, and acquaintances when writing memoirs?
Brian will read from Julian’s Debut and discuss its themes, inspirations, and plot with the award-winning author of 2022’s Greenland, David Santos Donaldson. Copies of Julian’s Debut will also be sold and autographed during the event.
To reserve a copy of Julian’s Debut (Rebel Satori Press, March 18, 2025, paperback, $21.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Julian’s Debut for March 20th event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Julian’s Debut synopsis:
Julian Sorrento is a giver. Throughout much of his life he served his large, dysfunctional family at the expense of his own needs and desires. Drawing from his experiences as his family’s crutch, therapist, and bank, as well as his career as a clinical social worker of homeless youths, Julian writes a New Yorker article titled My Mighty Meekness, about altruism, sacrifice, and how putting others first could be pleasurable and rewarding, which is published to a surprising amount of attention.
Following the article’s publication, Julian’s family comes after him with a righteous fury. They claim he has exaggerated and distorted facts, making himself look like a victim and a hero and them the villains. His agent encourages him to expand the article into a book and portions of the article are also optioned by The Darlington Brothers, independent filmmakers, who hire Julian to adapt the work into a cable series for HBO (now MAX). They are interested exclusively in his anthropologist aunt who inadvertently incited a small civil war in Northeastern India, her husband, who builds bombs for Raytheon, and their son who punishes them both by inviting homeless people to live with them.
As Julian meets with each member of his family to hear their grievances, he also seeks—or sometimes makes up whole cloth—additional damning secrets about them to include in his memoir. Throughout the interminable filial reckoning, Julian leaves his job with social services, and develops the cable series with the assistance of Raul, his ex-fiancé, who makes vague allusions to sabotaging the media empire he works for as a programmer.

“An inventive, wildly entertaining novel, which revolves around the hazards of writing a memoir about one’s family. What a cast of characters Brian Alessandro has brought to life, through sparkling dialogue and vivid, often comical scenes. I enjoyed ‘Julian’s Debut’ immensely!”
– Bill Hayes, author of Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me

“By turns comic, wrenching, appalling, bewildered, shrewd, never nice, and always alive, Julian’s Debut is a powder keg of a book that explodes and explodes.”
—Paul Lisicky, author of Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell

Brian Alessandro has written for Interview Magazine, Newsday, PANK (co-founded by Roxanne Gay), Huffington Post, Galerie (Wes Anderson’s cult film streaming app) Lambda Literary, The Gay & Lesbian Review, Kirkus Reviews, and The Florida Review, and has recently co-adapted Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story into a graphic novel for Top Shelf Productions. Additionally, Brian co-edited Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs, an anthology of essays and interviews about Burroughs for Rebel Satori Press. Brian is also the co-founder and editor in chief of the literary journal, The New Engagement. His first novel, The Unmentionable Mann, was published in 2015 by Cairn Press and his first feature film, Afghan Hound, was produced by Maryea Media in 2011, and is streaming on Plex, Tubi, and Amazon. Julian’s Debut, his fifth book, will be published by Rebel Satori Press in March 2025. Brian also has a feature film and a limited series in development with an Academy Award-winning producer.

David Santos Donaldson was raised in Nassau, Bahamas, and has lived in India, Spain, and the United States. He attended Wesleyan University and the Drama Division of the Juilliard School, and his plays have been commissioned by the Public Theater. He was a finalist for the Urban Stages Emerging Playwright Award and has worked as the Artistic Director for the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts in Nassau, Bahamas. Donaldson is currently a practicing psychotherapist, and divides his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Seville, Spain. Greenland is his first novel.

The Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar: Queer Economies of Care: Community, Desire, and the Politics of Necessity (in person only)
2025-03-26 18:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
About the Seminar
CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies and the Barnard Center for Research on Women are thrilled to announce the Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar in the city, a six-week program exploring the transformative legacy of Amber Hollibaugh—a radical lesbian feminist, scholar, artist, and lifelong activist for queer survival economies.
Facilitated by interdisciplinary artist and educator Gili Rappaport, this seminar invites participants to dive into themes of queer survival, care, and community resilience in the face of economic hardship, criminalization, and marginalization. Participants will engage with foundational texts, recorded dialogues, and contributions from local artists and activists while contributing to a living archive honoring queer histories and futures.
The Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar (2024) relaunches CLAGS’ public education series, Seminars in the City, originally held in July 1998.
The Amber Hollibaugh Seminar is co-sponsored by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (@bgsqd) and Barnard Center for Research on Women.

Why Join?
This seminar is more than a class—it’s a space to build community, a book club to reflect on queer survival strategies, and an homage to Amber’s vision of community care and radical solidarity. Participants will explore the intersections of class, desire, and kinship through a rich syllabus of readings, discussions, and creative work.
Whether you’re an organizer, artist, body worker, visionary, builder, or community member, this seminar offers a unique opportunity to learn, share, and contribute to an archive of queer care and resistance.
Schedule
Dates: March 12 – April 16, 2025
Time: Wednesdays, 6–9 PM
Location: Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (208 West 13th Street, NYC)
Please note: The April 16th meeting will NOT take place at the Bureau. We will post the location for that date as soon as we have that confirmed.
This is an in-person experience. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate remote participants at this time.
What to Expect
Each week focuses on a key theme:

Week 1: Queer Survival Economies — Honoring Amber Hollibaugh’s Legacy
Week 2: Public Space, Gentrification, and Queer Displacement
Week 3: Oral Histories and Resilient Queer Spaces
Week 4: Queer Desire and Class as Radical Resistance
Week 5: Trans and BIPOC Narratives on Survival and Criminalization
Week 6: Community-Based Economies and Mutual Aid

Reading list (excerpts provided free of charge, available through the CLAGS archive)

Amber Hollibaugh, My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
bell hooks, Belonging: A Culture of Place
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M Archive: After the End of the World
José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity
Vivek Shraya, I’m Afraid of Men
Gayle Rubin, Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
Tourmaline, Black Trans Feminism is the Future
Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith (Eds.), Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex
Sylvia Rivera, Queens in Exile, The Forgotten Ones
Dean Spade, Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together
Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Dub: Finding Ceremony

Participation Details

Open to NYC publics, free of charge
We encourage applications from first-time students, people from underrepresented communities, and interests that reflect the city’s diversity of cultures, aesthetics, and creative practices. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible space for all participants. If you need any accommodations to fully participate in the seminar, please note this in the application form.
20 spots available—apply soon!
Participants will have the option to contribute to a collaborative publication and CLAGS archive project

NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
About Amber Hollibaugh
Amber Hollibaugh was a legendary radical/lesbian/feminist/scholar/artist. A lifelong political activist and organizer, she was on the founding board of Queers for Economic Justice and served as QEJ’s Executive Director from 2011-2014. She established Queer Survival Economies (QSE), a project at the Barnard Center for Research on Women addressing the intersections of sexuality, poverty, homelessness, labor, and the criminalization of survival. Hollibaugh was the Founding Director of the Lesbian AIDS Project at GMHC, the first effort of its kind to organize with and for lesbians living with HIV. Amber also served as the Director for Aging Initiatives at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She fought for class and poverty issues to be addressed by an otherwise very bourgeois LGBTQ movement. Amber was a fierce advocate for transnational solidarity and movement building around sexuality, bodily autonomy and pleasure. Her publications included the book My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home, and she directed and co-produced the documentary film The Heart of the Matter. Her works have been translated into several languages, and she worked very closely with activists in China and India.
Image credit: Joaquin Golez @othereros

Radical Love as the World Burns, or Polyamory For Dummies (in person & live streaming)
2025-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
How do we build love and community when our world and communities are being violently pulled apart? Join queer feminist sex activist relationship coach and author of Polyamory for Dummies, Jaime Grant, writer-comedian-nurse Kelli Dunham, and activist chronic illness advocate JD Davids for a conversation that goes beyond relationship logistics and into the radical possibilities of polyamory as a survival strategy.
Too often, polyamory is framed as a lifestyle choice for the privileged—but what if it’s actually a blueprint for collective care? How do we move beyond individualism and scarcity models of love to build networks of support, abundance, and resilience? This conversation will explore the ways polyamory intersects with mutual aid, disability justice, caregiving, and the fight against systemic oppression.
Doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned polyamorous organizer, a burnt-out activist seeking new models of connection, or just someone trying to figure out how to get your polycule to agree on a group chat app, you have something to contribute to this discussion.
Bring your questions, your stories, and your radical love.

To reserve a copy of Polyamory for Dummies (For Dummies, December 24, 2024, paperback, $24.99) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Polyamory for Dummies for March 27 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Dr. Jaime M. Grant is a queer feminist sex activist and relationship coach. Grant is best known for her sex workshop primer, Great Sex: Mapping Your Desire and her groundbreaking report Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Polyamorous since her 20s, Jaime is glad to be focussing on collective love as a revolutionary strategy as we face the political moment.
JD Davids (he/him) is a chronically ill and disabled writer and strategist with decades of work in world-changing social movements, policy advocacy and journalism. Most recently, he founded and co-directed the national Long COVID Justice project. Currently, he is writing and conducting research at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Biography and Memoir program as an “illder”– a term he coined to represent those mentoring each other in confronting chronic illnesses and an ableist society alike – committed to sharing movement history, health information and unique approaches to living with illness. In this time of mass disabling pandemics, he shares stories and strategies through The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic Illness, where he braids his experiences as a longtime HIV and disability justice activist, research advocate, and life as a queer and transgender parent, harm reductionist and sexual liberationist. His recent and upcoming publications include authored or co-authored chapters for The Long COVID Survival Guide, Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements, Unfolding Corpus: Vulnerability and Radicality in Times of Plagues, and Race, Justice, and HIV: Visions for a Society Without Bars.
Kelli Dunham is the nonbinary ex-nun storytelling nurse author trauma-informed comedian so ubiquitous in modern Brooklyn. Kelli is the author of seven hilarious books about not hilarious subjects including a bestselling book on puberty and the forthcoming Almost The Best Medicine: Intentional Humor For Nurses And Others With Impossible Jobs (FoundVoice Publishing 2025). Kelli has appeared on Showtime, BBC4’S Sunday Religion in Culture Program, the Discovery Channel, the Moth Mainstage and the occasional livestock auction.
Kelli’s show Second Helping: Two Dead Lovers Dead Funny was called “a love letter to queer community” by the Bechdel Theater and “drop dead hilarious” by Go Magazine. PGN recently named Kelli one of “48 LGBT Creative People Of Influence” and former NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio once called Kelli “a show off.” To Kelli’s face.
Subscribe to Kelli’s substack for more helpful hilarity!

The New York Rebel Poets of the Beat Generation (in person only)
2025-03-28 17:00 - 19:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
OUTWRIGHT, Ltd. and the Bureau present the third an final program of a series on the Rebel Poets of the 1960s and 1970s. This program will focus on Beat Poets who lived and published in New York during these years.
Poets included in the program are Anne Waldman, Bob Kaufman, Frank O’Hara, and Diane di Prima. We will examine their lives and read from their works.
Books by and about the featured poets will be available for purchase.
Light refreshments will be served.

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

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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Book launch: "Take It Outside" (Incision Press) (in person & live-streaming)
2025-03-29 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Please join us at the Bureau on Saturday, March 29th at 3pm for the North American launch of Take It Outside, an anthology of queer & trans desire edited by Cash Torn and Orlando Silver.
This anthology is the first from the Australia-based international house Incision Press, which is dedicated to publishing words for the queer revolution.
Five of the anthology´s contributing writers will be reading excerpts from Take It Outside : Jordan Asher, Jaymie Wagner, Libro Levi Bridgeman, Ryder West, and Christian Pan. Physical copies of Take It Outside will also be available for purchase and for authors to sign.
To reserve a copy of Take It Outside (Incision Press, 2025, paperback), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Take It Outside for March 29th event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Jordan Asher (she/they) is a queer writer currently living in New Orleans. She writes fiction that explores the cadence of queer identity and emotions. Her writing invites readers to explore the complexities of desire, knowledge, love, and candor. Jordan loves stationary, the color yellow, and her beloved orange cat, Chunk.

Jaymie Wagner is a queer, trans, and polyamorous nonbinary girl who lives in the Twin Cities. A writer of short stories, erotica, and her “Sing For Me” series of werewolf novels, she is here to smooch weird things and somehow keeps making her mom proud.

Libro Levi Bridgeman (NonBiNArYBiRo) (they/them) wrote the sell-out theatre show The Butch Monologues. Short stories include For Ezra, now a stop-motion film. They co-run hotpencil press with Serge Nicholson. They are featured in the documentary Private View.

Ryder West (they/them) is a non-binary trans masc writer of smutty words. Their stories focus on vulnerability in D/s relationships and the sexiness of trans bodies. When not stomping on their partners in their Doc Martens, they can be found halfway up a climbing wall or underneath a blanket and a purring cat.

Christian Pan writes erotic fiction that frequently explores bisexual identity and experience. He is a Creative Director for Incision Press, the editor & organizer of The Best Bi Erotica of the Year, Volume One, and the author of over 19 books and 100 short stories. For more information, please go to linktr.ee/christianpan

On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting, From ACT UP to the World: A book reading and conversation with Benjamin Heim Shepard and Ron Goldberg (in person & live-streaming)
2025-03-30 15:00 - 16:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Conflict and resolution are the lifeblood of social movements. How, and with whom, do we find lasting friendship, support, and joy in a world in need of so much repair?
In On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting veteran organizer and social worker Benjamin Heim Shepard traces a pressing dynamic of social movements: friendship and conflict. Shepard and ACT UP veteran Ron Goldberg, author of of Boy with the Bullhorn: A Memoir and History of ACT UP New York, will hold a reading and conversation about friendship and social movements, conflict and resolution in ACT UP. Shepard’s work builds on oral histories with more than thirty movement organizers—from AIDS, queer, trade union, community, Occupy, and harm reduction-based movements—reflecting on the lessons, meanings, and future directions of movements and collective organizing efforts. The book examines the reasons and ways the interviewees became involved in activism, the friendships they formed, and the conflicts they faced. This includes asking questions such as: where do friendships support or undermine these efforts? How can conflicts be resolved? Is there room to agree to disagree? And where do people find lasting support? Implications and questions about democracy and community practice will be explored.
Goldberg’s work is a coming-of-age memoir of life on the front lines of the AIDS crisis with ACT UP New York. From the moment Ron Goldberg stumbled into his first ACT UP meeting in June 1987, the AIDS activist organization became his life. For the next eight years, he chaired committees, planned protests, led teach-ins, and facilitated their Monday night meetings. He cruised and celebrated at ACT UP parties, attended far too many AIDS memorials, and participated in more than a hundred zaps and demonstrations, becoming the group’s unofficial “Chant Queen,” writing and leading chants for many of their major actions. Boy with the Bullhorn is both a memoir and an immersive history of the original New York chapter of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, from 1987 to 1995, told with great humor, heart, and insight.
Using the author’s own story, “the activist education of a well-intentioned, if somewhat naïve nice gay Jewish theater queen,” Boy with the Bullhorn intertwines Goldberg’s experiences with the larger chronological history of ACT UP.

To reserve a copy of both/either On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting (Common Notions, March 25, 2025, paperback, $22) and/or Boy with the Bullhorn (Fordham University Press, September 3, 2024, paperback, $22.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of [title(s)] for March 30th event.”
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

What they are saying:
“When I needed a friend, Ben was there for me. This books explains how I knew, instinctively, that I could trust him. We had overlapped in ACT UP, and I had read his work on collective power, but there was something in his affect, heart, and character, that let me know that Ben holds friendship as a place of grappling, listening, opening, and acting together. That he expands connection and relationship by embracing us in our weaknesses and vulnerability, as much as our creative contributions and original thought. Here is the handbook to the way and the why that Ben Shepard befriends so well.” —Sarah Schulman, American playwright and author of Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993
“I have known how brilliant, insightful, and rigorous Ben Shepard now for over two decades, and I relish the blossoming and intersectionality of his work and life; of course this project is necessary and alive–essential to our kinship groups and social structures (right now!). I am in such deep admiration of what is collected and celebrated here—I hope to teach this in my poetry and literature classes and reckon with all the love and conflict it mindfully works to integrate. I can’t underscore enough this voluminous archive of history, documentation, and activism. And there’s so much more I want to say (and stay in) in its important and unveiling (revealing/revelatory?) discussion of friendship.” —Prageeta Sharma, the author of five collections of poetry; her forthcoming poetry collection Onement Won will be published from Wave Books in the fall of 2025. She is the Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College.
“A great read on activist relationships—the reason many of us join movements and too many of us leave. This book offers gossipy tidbits and rich insight. Like many of us, especially at a time like this, Ben wonders, ‘How do we get beyond our silos?’ In answer, he shares the insights of scores of his ‘strange and wonderful’ activist friends, on the conflicts and caregiving within movements.” —Lesley Wood, Professor of Sociology, friend of activists and activist friend, York University
“I found myself thoroughly engaged with Benjamin Shepard’s remarkable book on friendship, which is focused on human connections, and disconnections, that occur in the process of working toward a common goal. I love these stories, and I think this book has much to say about friendship itself and, of course, about the making of a social world.” —Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me.
“I’ve known Benjamin Shepard for decades, watching his writing on movements and collective power, affinity groups which take on drug companies and defend community gardens, battling the WTO and supporting each other. Friendship is a theme of Shepard’s work, but so is the play, and inevitably differences of opinion, the conflict which spins out of efforts to combat institutional injustice, reducing harms, and dovetailing in their own countless directions, spurning still new clashes of ideas and movements. Looking to oral histories, On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting: Oral Histories, Strategies, and Conflicts traces some of this trajectory, looking at the ways movements cope with the very notion of difference. A leap away from the orthodox or party lines, this is Benjamin Heim Shepard’s most ambitious, and compelling work yet.” -Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, American historian and writer
“What happens when personal friendships collide with collective missions? On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting masterfully engages the reader with fascinating oral histories of people who must negotiate the complexities of friendships while dealing with differences arising when public political struggles intersect with private loyalties. Through candid interviews, Ben Shepard introduces us to activists recounting how friendships serve as sources of strength, energy, and solidarity, yet how they can often sow conflict, betrayal, and burnout. This wonderful book brings to life Hannah Arendt’s ‘political meaning of friendship’ idea; it insightfully illustrates these tensions and triumphs and the human connections that could enhance or break collective actions in the name of social justice.” —Peter M. Nardi, author of Gay Men’s Friendships: Invincible Communities, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College
“The furies hover above these stories about friends and their shadows, good selves battling with themselves, rivals and heroes, hubris and true heroism. Homer, our first great storyteller, wrote about Ulysses —his only hero. Shepard has many. Their stories remind us that friendship has changed and so have we. These changes reveal themselves through his singular storytelling.” —Irwin Epstein, Professor Emeritus, CUNY, author of Men as Friends (Koehlerbooks, 2023).
“Ben Shepard knows that understanding the dynamics of radical friendship is the foundation of radical movements. In this book organizers will find many of the necessities that won’t fit neatly on our strategy charts.” —James R. Tracy, editor, A Southern Panther: Conversations with Malik Rahim
“It’s not easy to live up to Aristotelean ethics. When we do, its transformative.” In his previous book, Ben Shepard showed us how essential friendships are to movement building. On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting shows us how critical they are movement survival in Trump Time. Ben’s new book instructs us through the stories of rebel friendships, collectives, and alliances that triumphed, that blew apart, that survived, that fought bitterly, that disintegrated and then regenerated, that were suppressed, that refused to be suppressed—all along carrying forward the vital tasks of resistance and advocacy. The alternately exhilarating and maddening lives we lead as activists and comrades are here in full, along with some hard lessons and much love.—Eric Laursen, author of The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State
“I love this book! The relationships forged through struggle are the foundation of all social movements. They are as complex and beautiful as the organizers interviewed for this book. Activist-scholar Ben Shephard knows this in theory and in practice because he lives it everyday.” — Lynn Lewis, Editor, Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice and founder, The Picture the Homeless Oral History Project
“On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting: Oral Histories, Strategies, and Conflicts is a book about friendship. Friendships are typically birthed in proximity or circumstance (neighbors, classmates, coworkers). They are often time-limited, simply fading away rather than blowing up from a conflict. We all know people we ‘used to be friends with’. There are other books out there about friendship, many inspired by the ‘loneliness epidemic’ that began with COVID isolation. All of them offer the same antidote: make friends, more friends. Find a new hobby, enroll in a class, get involved in your place of worship. This is especially targeted to people who are older, looking for new friends their own age. But here Benjamin Shepard writes a more accurate prescription for people of any age: make friends with people with whom you share a passion that brings meaning to your life. Together you can make a difference in the world. The people in this book had to do one very specific thing before they could make those friends: they had to be vulnerable. They had to share their own stories, their own struggles, their own dreams. That decision was terrifying for some of them, but all found that it was only in opening up that they could find their tribe. Finding your affinity group does not eliminate the potential for conflict, and Ben shows how those conflicts play out in various groups: “What unites us and what divides us?” The shared purpose often, but not always, is enough to keep the friendships intact. It’s only when the conflicts become attacks that friendships and affinity groups fall apart. You may be surprised to learn that the most personal, most vicious attacks came from inside the groups, not outside. When those personal, internal attacks persist – often without confrontation – those groups splinter, often beyond repair. Ben provides cautionary tales, but also solutions from those willing to have hard conversations and nurture friendships. Can activist groups that are not homogeneous survive? Can the personal friendships within – based on respect and a shared sense of purpose – overcome class differences or disagreements about tactics and ideology? How do you avoid the impulse to treat allies like enemies? Is everything black or white? As the late, great Andy Vélez of ACT UP put it, “You don’t have to like everyone. You just have to be willing to do the work.” And the most important work is listening, listening with an open mind and heart. It is also a book about the importance of storytelling. Only with a diversity of voices can the true stories of oppression, healing, and hope be told. Lin-Manuel Miranda was spot-on when he wrote “Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?” The answers in Ben’s book are “Everyone. Everyone. You.” — Victoria Noe, Author of the Friend Grief series F*g Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community and What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic

By day, Benjamin Shepard, PhD, works as Professor of Human Services at City Tech/CUNY. By night, he works to keep NYC from turning into a giant shopping mall.
He is also the author/editor of over a dozen books: White Nights and Ascending Shadows, From ACT UP to the WTO, The Beach Beneath the Streets, Play, Creativity and Social Movements, Queer Political Performance and Protest, Rebel Friendships, Illuminations on Market Street: (a Story about Sex and Estrangement, AIDS and Loss, and Other Preoccupations in San Francisco), Community Projects as Social Activism, Brooklyn Tides: On the Fall and Rise of a Global Borough, Sustainable Urbanism, Travels in a Conflicted World, and On Friendship, Activism, and Fighting.
In 2010, he was named to the Playboy Honor Role as one of twenty professors “who are reinventing the classroom.”

The Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar: Queer Economies of Care: Community, Desire, and the Politics of Necessity (in person only)
2025-04-02 18:00 - 21:00, 2025-04-09 18:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
About the Seminar
CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies and the Barnard Center for Research on Women are thrilled to announce the Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar in the city, a six-week program exploring the transformative legacy of Amber Hollibaugh—a radical lesbian feminist, scholar, artist, and lifelong activist for queer survival economies.
Facilitated by interdisciplinary artist and educator Gili Rappaport, this seminar invites participants to dive into themes of queer survival, care, and community resilience in the face of economic hardship, criminalization, and marginalization. Participants will engage with foundational texts, recorded dialogues, and contributions from local artists and activists while contributing to a living archive honoring queer histories and futures.
The Inaugural Amber Hollibaugh Seminar (2024) relaunches CLAGS’ public education series, Seminars in the City, originally held in July 1998.
The Amber Hollibaugh Seminar is co-sponsored by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (@bgsqd) and Barnard Center for Research on Women.

Why Join?
This seminar is more than a class—it’s a space to build community, a book club to reflect on queer survival strategies, and an homage to Amber’s vision of community care and radical solidarity. Participants will explore the intersections of class, desire, and kinship through a rich syllabus of readings, discussions, and creative work.
Whether you’re an organizer, artist, body worker, visionary, builder, or community member, this seminar offers a unique opportunity to learn, share, and contribute to an archive of queer care and resistance.
Schedule
Dates: March 12 – April 16, 2025
Time: Wednesdays, 6–9 PM
Location: Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (208 West 13th Street, NYC)
Please note: The April 16th meeting will NOT take place at the Bureau. We will post the location for that date as soon as we have that confirmed.
This is an in-person experience. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate remote participants at this time.
What to Expect
Each week focuses on a key theme:

Week 1: Queer Survival Economies — Honoring Amber Hollibaugh’s Legacy
Week 2: Public Space, Gentrification, and Queer Displacement
Week 3: Oral Histories and Resilient Queer Spaces
Week 4: Queer Desire and Class as Radical Resistance
Week 5: Trans and BIPOC Narratives on Survival and Criminalization
Week 6: Community-Based Economies and Mutual Aid

Reading list (excerpts provided free of charge, available through the CLAGS archive)

Amber Hollibaugh, My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
bell hooks, Belonging: A Culture of Place
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M Archive: After the End of the World
José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity
Vivek Shraya, I’m Afraid of Men
Gayle Rubin, Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
Tourmaline, Black Trans Feminism is the Future
Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith (Eds.), Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex
Sylvia Rivera, Queens in Exile, The Forgotten Ones
Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Dub: Finding Ceremony

Participation Details

Open to NYC publics, free of charge
We encourage applications from first-time students, people from underrepresented communities, and interests that reflect the city’s diversity of cultures, aesthetics, and creative practices. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible space for all participants. If you need any accommodations to fully participate in the seminar, please note this in the application form.
20 spots available—apply soon!
Participants will have the option to contribute to a collaborative publication and CLAGS archive project

NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
About Amber Hollibaugh
Amber Hollibaugh was a legendary radical/lesbian/feminist/scholar/artist. A lifelong political activist and organizer, she was on the founding board of Queers for Economic Justice and served as QEJ’s Executive Director from 2011-2014. She established Queer Survival Economies (QSE), a project at the Barnard Center for Research on Women addressing the intersections of sexuality, poverty, homelessness, labor, and the criminalization of survival. Hollibaugh was the Founding Director of the Lesbian AIDS Project at GMHC, the first effort of its kind to organize with and for lesbians living with HIV. Amber also served as the Director for Aging Initiatives at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. She fought for class and poverty issues to be addressed by an otherwise very bourgeois LGBTQ movement. Amber was a fierce advocate for transnational solidarity and movement building around sexuality, bodily autonomy and pleasure. Her publications included the book My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home, and she directed and co-produced the documentary film The Heart of the Matter. Her works have been translated into several languages, and she worked very closely with activists in China and India.
Image credit: Joaquin Golez @othereros

An Evening with Ben Fink: Celebrating the Launch of “Noble Deeds,” Hosted by Joe E. Jeffreys (in person only)
2025-04-04 18:00 - 21:00 | The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 101, New York, 10011, United States
The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division hosts a special evening celebrating the publication of Noble Deeds: Mythic Portraits of the Imperial Court. This NYC launch, hosted by drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys, will spotlight Ben Fink’s groundbreaking book, which vividly captures the pageantry and philanthropy of one of the oldest LGBTQ+ organizations.
Join us at The LGBT Community Center, 208 13th St, RM 101, on Friday, April 4, 2025, from 6 PM to 9 PM.
Ben and Joe E Jeffries will discuss the historical and cultural significance of the Imperial Court System and the creation of NOBLE DEEDS.
Ben will share his inspiration behind the portraits, share stories from the book, and present a slideshow of images that showcase the unique artistic approach of the work.
Noble Deeds by Ben Fink is not just a book but a monumental tribute to the enduring legacy and vibrancy of the Imperial Court, one of the oldest and most influential LGBTQ+ organizations in the world. Over a span of seven years, Ben Fink devoted over 10,000 hours to this project, meticulously capturing the essence of more than 650 iconic figures within the Imperial Court through his lens and art. This expansive hardbound coffee table book, which is a self-published endeavor is a limited edition run with an even more exclusive book box set, presents a collection of these portraits, each one a testament to the individual’s unique contributions and the collective impact of the Court.
Each image in Noble Deeds is a masterful blend of photography and illustrated techniques, brought to life through an eight-color printing process that adds a vibrant painting-like quality to the art. These portraits are not just pictures; they are visual storytelling pieces that create narratives fitting for the personalities portrayed. They build upon the elaborate costumes and personas crafted by the subjects themselves during their year-long reigns as emperors, empresses, dukes, duchesses, princes, princesses, and their nonbinary counterparts.
The book offers readers a deep dive into a beguiling blend of myth and reality that defines the Imperial Court. Through stunning portraits enhanced by evocative imagery, Fink not only captures but also celebrates the spirit of these figures—each portrayal resonating with the dignity, flamboyance, and commitment of its subject. The portraits range from regal depictions to intimate glimpses into the personal moments of these community icons, each framed within the broader narrative of LGBTQ+ history and activism.
Alongside the visual feast, Noble Deeds also presents a meticulously researched history of the Imperial Court, co-written by Ben Fink and a noted historian within the court system, Daniel Barrows. This narrative spans over 5,000 words, detailing the Court’s evolution from its humble beginnings in 1965 to its pivotal role in community service, philanthropy, and activism today. The history component of the book does more than recount facts; it weaves the personal tales of those depicted in the portraits with the larger story of the Court’s impact on society.
This book is a must-have for anyone interested in the intersection of art, history, and LGBTQ+ activism. From its compelling narrative to its breathtaking visuals, Noble Deeds serves as a vital document of the pageantry and philanthropy that have characterized the Imperial Court for over six decades.

To reserve a copy of Noble Deeds ($160), please write to the Bureau at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of Noble Deeds for April 4 event.”
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person in room 101 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

About the Author:
Born in Baltimore in 1963, multidisciplinary artist and photographer Ben Fink found refuge and a deep connection in the expressive power of art from an early age. His distinctive talent gained him access to the Memphis College of Art and later the University of Memphis, where he explored the traditions of painting, graphic design, photography, and art history. Ben relocated to New York City in the late ’90s, attaining success as a photographer for major corporate brands and iconic food personalities. Ben has provided visuals for more than 300 cookbooks, earning attention in high-profile national publications and accolades from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and James Beard Foundation. His works delve into complex social themes and showcase haunting narratives, establishing him as a notable figure in photography circles. His latest book, Noble Deeds, highlights issues of personal identity and social rebellion through painterly portraits.

About the host:
JOE E. JEFFREYS is a multiplatform drag historian and pundit. He has published on the subject in encyclopedia, essay anthologies, journals, and zines, while his drag- happy videos have screened at galleries and museums internationally, including the Tate Modern.

Bywater Books and the Publishing Triangle Present "Brave New Worlds" (in person & live-streaming)
2025-04-05 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Brave New Worlds:
Telling our stories in a time of erasure and censorship.
As queer writers, we have learned that embracing the diversity of our cultural experiences and identity informs the ways we write and the stories we tell. But these are dark days, and we need literature that can lift us up and give us hope. How do the current political and cultural climates impact the types of stories writers need to tell, and what genres we use to tell them? What are the impacts of threats of reprisal and erasure? Is there still a place for Happily Ever After narratives? What do those conventions even look like for our literary community today? Tomorrow?
Join Bywater Books authors Samara Breger, Anna Burke, Cheryl A. Head, and Ann McMan in an important and thoughtful discussion moderated by Carol Rosenfeld.
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Sensations Magazine: First Century of the American Gay Rights Movement, 1924-2024, Research Presentation with Poetry (in person & live-streaming)
2025-04-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Historian, publisher, and poet David Messineo shares highlights from his recent research findings on “The First Century of the American Gay Rights Movement, 1924-2024” – the theme of the 2024 Sensations Magazine – and is joined by poets Alyta Adams, Joel Allegretti, Davidson Garrett, Steve Koenig, and others TBA, sharing their original poems published in the issue.
A Q&A will follow the presentation. No open mic.
Sensations Magazine is an award-winning literary magazine based in New Jersey, publishing independently since 1987. Copies of the 2024 Sensations Magazine are available for purchase at the Bureau for $25–reduced to $20 at the event!
The event is free to attend and open to the public.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books or publications.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Future Queer: an Introduction to José Muñoz (in-person Brooklyn Institute for Social Research course)
2025-04-07 18:30 - 21:30, 2025-04-14 18:30 - 21:30, 2025-04-21 18:30 - 21:30, 2025-04-28 18:30 - 21:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research presents Future Queer: an Introduction to José Muñoz at the Bureau
Instructor: Hannah Leffingwell
“Queerness is not yet here,” José Esteban Muñoz declares. And yet, his work is animated by sympathetic, often exuberant explorations and nuanced analyses of queer performance and queer activism—from the evanescent installations of Felix Gonzales-Torres to the reparative performances of Nao Bustamante. What does it mean, then, to propose that queerness has yet to arrive? What are the dimensions of normativity—political, aesthetic, temporal—that seek to forestall it? And with what tools might queerness be, eventually, realized? Drawing on a wide variety of thinkers, concepts, and discourses, from Ernst Bloch to Lauren Berlant, from “structures of feeling” to “counterpublics,” from psychoanalysis to theories of race, sexuality, and performance, Muñoz takes an interdisciplinary and decidedly optimistic approach to queerness as a horizon of radical potentiality. Whether breaking new ground with his theory of disidentification—an anti-normative orientation for queers and people of color that both embraces and subverts stereotypes—or attending to the potency of gesture in drag and dance, Muñoz helps us envision and construct queer worlds using materials scavenged from the normative trappings of identity. If queerness is not here yet, how, thinking with Muñoz, can we bring it about?
In this course we’ll read from José Muñoz’s classic Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, examining along the way other essays by him and work by the artists he cites, including, among others, Bustamante, Gonzalez-Torres, Amiri Baraka, Frank O’Hara, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. We’ll ask: how does “disidentification” traverse the dual allure of identification with and transgression of dominant cultural meanings? What strategies does aesthetics offer, if what we are seeking is a rearrangement of everyday practices as well as structural and communal change? How might theory itself be re-conceptualized from the perspective of artistic practices? And how might our own engagement—or disidentification—with contemporary discourses bring about queerness in the here and now?
“Future Queer: an Introduction to José Muñoz (In-Person)” is being held in partnership with the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, an all-volunteer queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space hosted by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. For a limited time, the Bureau is selling José Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia at a 20% discount ($22.40 instead of $28)—just mention the course when purchasing in-store!
Course Schedule
Monday, 6:30-9:30pm ET*
April 07 — April 28, 2025
4 weeks
$335.00
Three scholarship spaces are reserved for each course, because we realize that not everyone can afford to pay the full fee. Students who cannot pay the full fee should email us at info@thebrooklyninstitute.com to learn about our scholarship options. We will not ask questions about your financial situation, but we do ask that you use the system in good faith and consider the needs of other students and faculty members.
Register here!
*Please note: the Bureau is not open on Mondays. We will open for this course at 6 PM.
Image: David Wojnarowicz, Science Lesson (detail), 1982-83.

Griffin Hansbury in Conversation with Eileen Myles (in person & live-streaming)
2025-04-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Celebrating the paperback launch of his Stonewall Award-winning novel Some Strange Music Draws Me In, Griffin Hansbury will read and talk with acclaimed author Eileen Myles. Topics may include: trans life across generations, growing up working class, Boston accents, queer pessimism, the 1980s, Patti Smith, escaping the suburbs, queer survival in MAGA families.
To reserve a copy of Some Strange Music Draws Me In (W. W. Norton and Company, April 15, 2025, paperback, $18.99) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Some Strange Music for April 10 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

About Some Strange Music Draws Me In:
This provocative novel tells an emotionally gripping story about friendship, family, and transgender awakening in a working-class American town. It’s the summer of 1984 in Swaffham, Massachusetts, when Mel (short for Melanie) meets Sylvia, a tough-as-nails trans woman whose shameless swagger inspires Mel’s dawning self-awareness. But Sylvia’s presence sparks fury among her neighbors and throws Mel into conflict with her mother and best friend. Decades later in Trump’s America, Max (formerly Mel) is on probation from his teaching job for, ironically, defying speech codes around trans identity. Back in Swaffham, he must navigate life as part of a fractured family and face his own role in the disasters of the past.
Praise for Some Strange Music Draws Me In:
“One of the best works of literary fiction I’ve read not just this year but in the last several.” – Drew Broussard, Lit Hub
“At once an analysis of gender, sex, and, yes, class, it’s also populated with characters so real you’ll wish you could hang out with them and keep them safe.” – Rufus Hickock, BUST Magazine
“This gorgeous, propulsive novel is filled with beauty and danger, youth and wisdom and the life-saving lifelines of counterculture. With writing so tense and honest and real, I recognized this place and these people deeply, and felt them all in my heart long after the book was finished.” – Michelle Tea, author of Knocking Myself Up
“I loved this devastating marvel of a book.” – Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
“From the first brilliant sentence I knew I was going to love this book, and I did. Griffin’s writing is poetic and searching and I felt like I had lived these characters’ lives even though we’re worlds apart.” – Ariel Schrag, author of Adam
“This funny, defiant, and passionate novel will make you want to play Patti Smith’s Horses at full volume as a soundtrack while you’re still reading. Some Strange Music Draws Me In is the coming-of-age, reckoning-with-gender story we have all needed for decades, the kind that can change and save your life.” – James Hannaham, author of Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
https://griffinhansburywriter.com/some-strange-music-draws-me-in/

Griffin Hansbury (he/him) is the author of Vanishing New York and Feral City (as Jeremiah Moss). A Pushcart Prize and Stonewall Book Award winner, his writing has appeared in several publications, including n+1, the New York Times, the New Yorker and Paris Review. He works as a psychoanalyst in Manhattan.

Eileen Myles (they/them) is a poet, novelist, and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has made them one of the most recognized writers of their generation. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 2022. a “Working Life”, their newest collection of poems, is out now. They live in New York and in Marfa, Texas.

lesbian book club: April edition (in person only)
2025-04-12 11:00 - 12:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
We’ll be reading fiction and non-fiction — classic, contemporary, revealing and visionary. As a group we will decide what to read each month, focusing on lesbian authors and/or related topics. Co-founded by lesbian book lovers Judi Komaki and Piper Olsen.

For our April 12th meeting, we’ll read Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend by Jackie Kay (Vintage, 2021, paperback, $16.95). Purchase a copy from the Bureau before April 12th and receive a 15% discount ($14.41 instead of $16.95). Just mention the lesbian book club when making your purchase.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required.

Queerbook Picture Day (in person only)
2025-04-12 15:00 - 18:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
This is the last picture day event for the first year of Queerbook project. Everyone from the LGBTQIA+ community is welcome to have their portrait taken to be included in the project.
Queerbook is a cyanotype print portrait series created by Daniel Cavanaugh. Reminiscent of school portraits, somewhere between documentation and representation, the series is attempts to offer the LGBTQIA+ community an opportunity to present as themselves and honor each other. The series began during Pride weekend of 2024 during a free picture day provided by the artist at Colorway Studios in Brooklyn. So far throughout the year, over 120+ people have sat for the Queerbook portrait series, the Class of 2024-2025.
Please join us at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division for this picture day on April 12, 2025 from 3 to 6pm and sit for your portrait. All are welcome, as time permits.
A selection of the series is currently on display at the Bureau as part of a group exhibition entitled, What Are You Looking At?

2025 Publishing Triangle Awards Finalists Reading (in person & live-streaming)
2025-04-16 18:30 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
The Publishing Triangle presents its Awards Finalists Reading on Wednesday, April 16, the day before the 2025 Publishing Triangle awards ceremony. Join host Rob Byrnes as he welcomes RK Fauth, Joshua Garcia, Omotara James, Ruben Reyes Jr., and Margot Douaihy as they read from some of the best LGBTQ+ fiction and poetry published in 2024.

***
Specific books and awards:
Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry
Song of My Softening, by Omotara James (Alice James Books)
A Dream in Which I Am Playing with Bees, by RK Fauth (Texas Tech University Press)
Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ+ Fiction
There is a Rio Grande in Heaven, by Ruben Reyes Jr. (Mariner Books)
Thom Gunn for Gay Poetry
Pentimento, by Joshua Garcia (Black Lawrence Press)

Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing
Blessed Water, by Margot Douaihy (Zando/Gillian Flynn Books)

To reserve a copy of any of these books, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a book/books for April 16th event” in the subject line. And let us know the title(s) of the book(s) in the body of the email.

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

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Crossings: Creative Ecologies of Cruising, by João Florêncio & Liz Rosenfeld—Book Launch (in person only)
2025-04-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us to celebrate the publication of João Florêncio & Liz Rosenfeld’s new book Crossings: Creative Ecologies of Cruising. A creative dialogue between a queer artist and a queer academic reminiscing about and thinking with their cruising experiences, Crossings takes queer sex practices and cultures seriously as ways of knowing and world-making. The result is an erotic hybrid form hovering between scholarship and avant-garde experimentation, between critical manifesto and sex memoir. Here, the voices of each author, merged together in one, invite the reader to inhabit the erotic spacetime between self and other, the familiar and the strange, desire and pleasure, climax and release. That is, the spaces and temporalities of cruising itself.

“Finally, a book about cruising that is actually about friendship—sex and sensibility, desire as gateway to more connection, more critical engagement, more dreaming. Yes, Crossings rescues cruising from the drudgery of hyper-individualist masculinist posturing, invoking the sweet caress of ruined bodies against policing in all its forms. Guidebook, ode, invocation, and creative intervention, it’s all here in this tender faggotry.”
—Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Touching the Art

The event will feature introductory words by Shaka McGlotten and Grace Lavery, followed by a performance reading of book excerpts by the authors, and a book signing.

To reserve a copy of CROSSINGS (Rutgers University Press, April 15, 2025, paperback, $22.95), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve CROSSINGS for April 18th” in the subject line.

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

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

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

JOÃO FLORÊNCIO is professor of gender studies and chair of the sex media and sex cultures research area at Linköping University, Sweden. He is the author of Bareback Porn, Porous Masculinities, Queer Futures: The Ethics of Becoming-Pig.
LIZ ROSENFELD is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and educator. Born in New York City, they are based in Berlin.
GRACE LAVERY is a writer and academic. She is the author of several books, including Pleasure and Efficacy: Of Pen Names, Cover Versions, and Other Trans Techniques.
Shaka McGlotten is the author of Dragging: Or, in the Drag of a Queer Life and Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect, and Queer Sociality. They teach media studies and anthropology at Purchase College-SUNY, where they also serve as Chair of the Gender Studies program.

Q&A and Book Signing: The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide for Lonely Planet by Alicia Valenski (in person only)
2025-04-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for an exciting evening at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division as we celebrate Lonely Planet’s The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide: Interviews, Itineraries, & Inspiration from Insiders in 50 Proud Places Around the Globe written by queer, neurodivergent travel author Alicia Valenski. Alicia will be joined in conversation by Ed Salvato, an LGBTQ+ tourism industry author and educator interviewed about his expertise in the book’s introduction and conclusion.

The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide centers around people, not just places, with LGBTQ+ locals in each place offering personal portraits, in their own words, of what makes their destination sparkle.
Queer community members from different backgrounds and walks of life offer honest, helpful insights for LGBTQ+ travelers planning to visit their city, along with inspiration for armchair travelers around the world.
The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide includes:

50+ LGBTQ+ travel destinations around the world where the queer community can thrive outside of just Pride parades in the USA, Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, Canada, Australia, and more
Insider recommendations and travel tips from LGBTQ+ locals and tastemakers highlighting queer-owned businesses and queer-friendly experiences and excursions throughout
Stunning photography and beautifully illustrated maps for each destination, featuring color-coded points of interest
Intimate interviews that bring the reader into LGBTQ+ communities in a personal way with honest, helpful insights for queer travelers planning to visit their city, along with inspiration for armchair travelers around the world

Packed with practical information on what to see and do, and sprinkled with dozens of insider travel tips and inspiration, The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide is for readers who don’t let their gender expression or sexual orientation hold them back from seeing all the beauty in the world.

To reserve a copy of The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide (Lonely Planet, March 18, 2025, hardcover, $30), write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide for April 23rd event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

The Q&A will run from 7:30-8:15 p.m. Guests are welcome to arrive from 7 p.m., and there will be time after the chat for a book signing from 8:15-9 p.m.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

About the speakers:
Alicia Valenski (she/her) is an American travel writer and the author of The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide with Lonely Planet. With a journalism degree from Penn State, Alicia cut her teeth as a writer and editor at the Charlotte Observer before rising to the lofty heights of senior editor at theSkimm. Now, she’s navigating life in the Netherlands with her partner, their dog, and a GPS that’s forever confused by the country’s endless bike paths. You can find her on Substack at aliciavalenski.substack.com or on social media at @aliciavalenski.

Ed Salvato is a leading LGBTQ travel expert whose work for over 25 years has centered on the safety, concerns, and evolving needs of LGBTQ travelers. As former editor-in-chief of OUT Traveler and ManAboutWorld, and editor of the groundbreaking Out & About gay travel newsletter, Ed has long provided vital information and insights for queer travelers navigating a complex world. He co-authored The Handbook of LGBT Tourism & Hospitality, and has advised destinations, hotels, travel advisors and travel brands on creating truly inclusive and welcoming experiences. He served for six years on the board of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA), including five years as Treasurer.

Ed speaks globally on LGBTQ travel safety and inclusion and is a professor of tourism and hospitality at New York University’s Tisch Center of Hospitality, where, in addition to his regular course load, he created the first course dedicated to inclusion and belonging in tourism. He is proud that his contributions have been included in the LGBTQ+ Travel Guide and grateful to be included in this important conversation.

Warhol Superstar, Jackie Curtis Undressed: Joey Preston in Conversation (in person only)
2025-04-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
This event celebrates the release of Jackie Curtis Undressed, a memoir by Joey Preston, Jackie Curtis’s cousin and executor. In his new book, Preston shares a collection of stories and memories that paint an intimate portrait of his famous cousin—the legendary downtown performance artist and Warhol superstar, Jackie Curtis.
In conversation with researcher Jenny Mohan, Preston will reflect on his first-hand experiences of Jackie’s meteoric rise in the downtown art scene, alongside a generation of other iconic talents. The memoir also delves into the lives of their unconventional family, particularly their renowned grandmother, Slugger Ann, whose East Village bar was a cornerstone in both cousins’ lives.
The event will feature select materials from the Jackie Curtis Papers, part of The Center Archive, offering a unique glimpse into Jackie’s world.

To reserve a copy of Jackie Curtis Undressed (paperback, $16.95), write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Jackie Curtis Undressed for April 25th event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Joey Preston is a lifetime native New Yorker as well as Executor to the Estate of his First Cousin and Godfather, Warhol Star, Jackie Curtis. After decades of supporting Jackie’s work and memory, Joey has emerged as a two-time author who reflects on his interpersonal and professional experiences as witnessed through his eyes and feelings of a close family member.
Joey has always spent his life in the support of Jackie, not only during their family and professional lives together, but also in the public sharing of Jackie’s memory through stage managing, directing, producing for stage and film, speaking engagements, as well as Associate Producer of the major film documentary, “Superstar In A Housedress – The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis”.
As keeper of the legal flame, Joey continues to represent Jackie’s literary plays and poetry after four decades since Jackie’s death. Jackie’s archival files are now permanently available for review at the LGBT Center in New York City for posterity and future generations to enjoy.

Two Books in One Year (in person & live-streaming)
2025-04-26 15:00 - 16:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Launching a debut novel (Rabbis of the Garden State) and a debut book of poetry (It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You), both from Dan Meltz, who will be in conversation with Rob Byrnes.
To reserve a copy of Rabbis of the Garden State (Rattling Good Yarns Press, May 6, 2025, paperback, $18.95) and/or It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You (Trail to Table, February 14, 2025, paperback, $20), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book for April 26 event” in the subject line and let us know which book in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Dan Meltz was raised in the low-rent reaches of Jersey, 16 minutes from Times Square, and has lived in Manhattan for fifty years. He’s a retired technical writer and teacher of Deaf young people, with a B.A. from Columbia (no honors). Both his first book of poems, “It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You,” from Trail to Table, and his first novel, “Rabbis of the Garden State,” from Rattling Good Yarns, have been published in 2025.

Rob Byrnes is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of six novels and several short stories and essays. He has been a member of The Publishing Triangle Steering Committee for more than a decade, and currently serves as Treasurer. He has been inducted into the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame and has been recognized with a Gay City News Impact Award and inclusion on City & State NY’s annual “Gay Power 100” list.

Strange & Unyielding Spring Launch: Amber Dawn + Anton Solomonik + Dia Felix + Emily Zhou (in person only)
2025-04-27 15:00 - 17:30 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
It’s a freaky, filthy, and likely rage fueled get-together. It’s also a book launch. Little Puss Press and Arsenal Pulp press join forces to bring you: Anton Solomonik, with his debut book Realistic Fiction; and Amber Dawn with her new poetry collection—Buzzkill Clamshell, along with Emily Zhou and Dia Felix to up the literary unruliness.
Readings to be followed by a book signing.
To reserve any of the above titles, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve book(s) for April 27 event,” and please let us know which titles you’d like us to reserve for you in the body of the email.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

What are people saying?
About Realistic Fiction: “My heart overflows at this long-awaited story collection, which blends Sonic the Hedgehog aesthetics with the exacting interior investigations of a trans Thomas Mann, and which answers that question through unforgettable narrators who passionately strive to become less than they are, and who fail.”
—Jeanne Thornton, Lambda Award-winning author of Summer Fun and A/S/L

About a body more tolerable: “a sophomore collection that creeps, howls, floats, shatters. an Indigenous speaker grapples with survival, the foster care system, the body, conceptions of motherhood, and trans girlhood in this heart-wrenching leap that returns what is most precious to us through lush language and keen lyricism.”
–Kinsale Drake, National Poetry Series-winning author of The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket

About Buzzkill Clamshell: “The poems in Buzzkill Clamshell showcase the author’s trademark wit and emotional range as they map the terrain of sexuality, aging, chronic illness, and trauma with gorgeous language that is somehow both shocking and subtle.”
-Kai Cheng Thom, author of Falling Back in Love With Being Human

Participants’ bios:
Anton Solomonik is a writer and illustrator living in Brooklyn. He’s the co-host of the World Transsexual Forum, a discussion panel and open mic series for trans writers and artists. His first book, Realistic Fiction, launches in April 2025 by LittlePuss Press.

Amber Dawn is a writer and creative facilitator living on unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver, BC). She is the author of several books, including two novels (Lambda Literary Award winner Sub Rosa and Sodom Road Exit) and two poetry collections (Where the words end and my body begins and My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems).

Dia Felix is a writer and media producer currently living in the Hudson River Valley.

Emily Zhou‘s first book, Girlfriends, won the 2023 Publishing Triangle’s Leslie Feinberg Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Fiction. She is the “Editrix-At-Large” at LittlePuss Press and a fiction editor at Joyland Magazine. Her shorter writing has appeared in Literary Hub, e-flux journal, Xtra, Club Curran, and a few other places. She lives in New York.

Opening Reception for My Romantic Ideal (in person only)
2025-05-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
My Romantic Ideal
A Queer Photography exhibition curated by Slava Mogutin
May 1 – August 31, 2025
Opening reception: Thursday, May 1, 6-8 PM
Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
Room 210 of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W 13th Street, NYC 10011
Featured Artists
Alejandro Ruiz (US-Mexico) @alexandroruixx
Ben Prince (US) @benprinceusa
Benjamin Fredrickson (US) @benjaminfredrickson2
Brian Kenny (US) @briankennny
Bruce LaBruce (Canada) @brucelabruce
Cameron Lee Phan (Vietnam-US) @cameronleephan
Carter Peabody (US-Mexico) @carter_pbd
Donovan Quiroz (Mexico) @dnvn1
Francis Schichtel (US) @francis_schichtel
Gerardo Vizmanos (Spain-Germany) @gerardovizmanos
Gio Black Peter (Guatemala-US) @gioblackpeter11
Jan Wandrag (South Africa-US) @janwandrag
Łukasz Leja (Poland-US) @lukaszleja
Luke Abby (UK-Germany) @lukeabby
Matt Lambert (US-Germany) @dielamb
Miguel Villalobos (Venezuela-US) @miguelvillalobosnyc
Paul Mpagi Sepuya (US) @pagmi
Quil Lemons (US) @quillemons
Robert Flynt (US) @robertflyntfoto
Ross Collab (US) @rosscollab
Scott Hug (US) @mr._hug
Slava Mogutin (Russia-US) @slavamogutin
Stanley Stellar (US) @stellar.fse
Stuart Sandford (UK-Mexico) @stuartsandford
Tom Bianchi (US) @tombianchi
Tony Solis (Mexico) @tonysolisyosoy
Tyler Matthew Oyer (US) @tmostudio
Victor Jeffreys II (US) @victorjeﬀreysii
Curatorial statement:
My Romantic Ideal is a queer photography exhibition that explores the intersections of intimacy, desire, and identity in the contemporary landscape of escalating culture wars, with state-sponsored, religious and corporate homophobia and censorship on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic.
As queer artists, we occupy spaces where love and lust collide, where fantasy and reality dissolve, and where the body becomes both a site of pleasure and protest. This collection of work from 28 emerging and established photographers—each with their unique vision, background, and experience—offers a kaleidoscopic view into the multifaceted and often contradictory nature of queer romance.
The title of the exhibition reflects the tension between societal expectations of romance and the deeply personal, rebellious, and liberating expressions of love and desire that queer artists present. Romantic ideals have historically been dictated and shaped by heteronormative frameworks, but here, we subvert and redefine them through a queer lens. Each artist challenges, queers, and reclaims the concept of romanticism in their own way, whether through intimate portraiture, raw documentation of lived experiences, or surreal, dreamlike compositions.
As a curator, I aimed to gather a selection of artists whose work resonates with the complexities of queer love, desire, and identity in their many forms. These photographers are not simply documenting a queer reality—they are creating new paradigms of romanticism, fueled by their journeys and passions. Together, their works form a vibrant intergenerational dialogue about the politics of love, the performance of romance, and the transformative power of queer eroticism.
My Romantic Ideal is not just an exhibition of photography, but a declaration of the many ways we, as queer artists, claim and redefine love—on our own terms, with all its contradictions, joys, and struggles.

FORGOTTEN ANGELS - A Matter of Honor Lesbian Nurses during the Vietnam War (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-02 19:00 - 20:30 | Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
An Award Winning New Stage and Film Project by Lesbian Writer, Director, Producer Ann P Meredith
Produced by Swordfish Productions Pictures & Theatricals
Winner 1st Place Open Meadows Foundation Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwright and the Don and Bruce Brown Foundation’s Donna R Burnes Award
SCRIPTED PERFORMANCE – May 2nd, 2025, 7-8:30pm
Cast – Lisa Davis, Anne Marie Cicciu, & Ann Meredith

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

VIETNAM: the most Unpopular & Disliked War in the History of our Country
Shockingly 11,000 U. S. Women Served in this Most Hated War
231,741 Women are 17.3 % of the Military Active-Duty Force
171,000 Women are 21.4% of the National Guard & Reserves
29,000 are Lesbian & 39,900 Women Reported Sexual Assaults

Women in the Military Face Unique Challenges
Retention, Military Sexual Assault, Gender Discrimination, Murder, Under & Unpaid Salaries, Illegal Discharges, Inadequate Healthcare 80% of LGBTQ Sexual Harassment Bias-Hate Crimes

For More Information Contact: Swordfish Productions Pictures & Theatricals +1.917.806.9078
www.annpmeredith.com
annpmeredith7@gmail.com
specialfilm@gmail.com

Immigrating to the Netherlands for Queer and Trans Folks (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-03 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
A workshop for queer and trans Americans who would like information about immigrating to the relatively safe haven of the Netherlands, a country that is consistently ranked at the top of world rule-of-law indices.
Jeremy Bierbach, a queer immigration lawyer qualified at the bar of Amsterdam, and himself an immigrant from the United States, will explain everything about the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty (often called the “DAFT”), a treaty that makes it relatively easy for any US citizen to get a residence permit (a long-term visa) for the Netherlands for the purpose of being an entrepreneur (i.e. as a business owner or freelancer); a US citizen can also be joined by their spouse or partner, even if that person is not a US citizen and even if they are not married or legally partnered.
Immigrating this way also provides a path, after five years’ residence, to long-term resident status (i.e. a “green card” for the EU) and even citizenship. Subjects covered will include the immigration procedure itself, as well as issues relating to recognition of name and gender changes and the health care system. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Jeremy Bierbach (he/him) is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2001, Jeremy emigrated to the Netherlands, where he studied law at the University of Amsterdam and became an attorney specialized in EU civil rights law and Dutch immigration and citizenship law. He lives with his husband in Zaandam, just outside Amsterdam.

Between Worlds, Between Words — poets in conversation with Irena Klepfisz (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-04 15:00 - 17:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Between Worlds, Between Words
The Polish Cultural Institute New York and exquisites queer and trans reading series are excited to announce “Between Worlds, Between Words,” an afternoon of poetry and conversation celebrating the work of Irena Klepfisz taking place on Sunday, May 4th, 3pm, at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Irena Klepsfisz is the author of several poetry collections including her newest publication, Pomiedzy swiatami/Between Worlds: Selected Poems and Essays, translated in English and Polish.
The afternoon at the Bureau will feature cross-generational readings by queer Jewish poets Ariel Goldberg, Clairette Atri Mizrahi, Ayaz O. Muratoglu, and Irena Klepfisz. Following the readings there will be a conversation moderated by danilo machado and Em Marie Kohl of exquisites, touching upon themes of diaspora, identity, and translation. Audience members will be able to participate in a Q&A and enjoy the opportunity to mingle after the event at the Bureau, with refreshments provided by the Polish Cultural Institute New York. This event is free, with suggested donations supporting the Bureau.

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

More about the participants and organizers:
Irena Klepfisz is a lesbian poet, essayist, translator, activist and a practicing secular Jew. She was a co-founder and co-editor of the ground breaking Conditions magazine, co-editor of The Tribe of Dina, and promoter and translator of the works of Yiddish women writers. She taught Jewish Women’s Studies at Barnard College for 22 years and English and Women’s Studies at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women. She has focused much of her activism on reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians. Her recent work Her Birth and Later Years: Poems New and Collected 1971-2021 was the winner of the Audre Lorde Lesbian Poetry Prize from the Publishing Triangle and a finalist for the 2022 Jewish Book Council prize in poetry. In 2024, a bilingual edition of her poetry and prose appeared in Poland titled Pomiedzy swiatami/Between Worlds and published by slowo/obraz terytoria.

Ariel Goldberg is a writer, curator, and educator devoted to trans and queer lineages and lesser-known histories of photography. Goldberg’s books include The Estrangement Principle (Nightboat Books, 2016) and The Photographer (Roof Books, 2015). Their exhibition Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s was on view from 2022-2024 in at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Leslie-Lohman Museum in NYC, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Goldberg was a recipient of the 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Book Grant and a 2024 Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellow at the New York Public Library, to support their book-in-progress on trans and queer image cultures of the late 20th century. A proud member of ACT-UAW 7902, Goldberg has taught at Bard College, The New School, New York University, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and Rutgers University. Goldberg is in the Winter 2025 Apprenticeship Program at the New York Peace Institute and works independently as a Conflict Mediator.

Clairette Atri Mizrahi studied Social Psychology at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University and is currently working on her PhD in Critical Social / Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center (CUNY) in NYC. Her first poetry collection, De la Boca de Mi Madre (self-published), explores the intergenerational saying-without-saying, an alternative way of using language, of Syrian-Jewish women in Mexico. Her theater script Nunca estás y estás has been selected for various staged readings and play development programs including Cimientos (2024) at IATI Theater and DramaLab (2019) at King Juan Carlos I Center.

Ayaz Orme Muratoglu is a poet, critic, and translator working between Istanbul and New York. From 2022-24, he worked as an audio and technical manager at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, and he curated and edited the 2023-24 chapbook series for the feminist poetry press Belladonna*. Ayaz was born on a Tuesday in April.

exquisites is a Brooklyn-based queer and trans poetry series co-founded by Em Marie Kohl and danilo machado. Since 2022, exquisites has hosted over 170 poets at their collectively-curated first Thursday readings held in community spaces throughout Brooklyn. For April-August 2025, exquisites monthly readings will be at Aberdeen Community Garden in Bushwick. Exquisites also hosts workshops and, to date, has published four anthologies. exquisites has received support from the Brooklyn Arts Council (2023, 2024) and Poets & Writers (2023-2025), and is a fiscally-sponsored community project with Fractured Atlas.

Polish Cultural Institute New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission to the United States serving under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. The mission of the Polish Cultural Institute New York is to share Polish heritage, history and art with American audiences, and to promote Poland’s contributions to the success of world culture.

Book Reading: Exiting the Bluegrass Turnpike by Benjamin Rue Silliman (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-08 19:00 - 20:45 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Benjamin Rue Silliman reads from his debut novel Exiting the Bluegrass Turnpike, a story about a kid being outed in high school in Kentucky, and the kindness and love from an unexpected friend. He will be joined in conversation by Maria Pirrone.

“Exiting the Bluegrass Turnpike is a fierce and tender page-turner about a young man’s journey from darkness towards authenticity. Silliman’s heartfelt and perceptive story is needed now more than ever—an urgent reminder of how compassion and kindness can save lives.” – Jonathan Corcoran – Author of No Son of Mine: A Memoir (April 2024)

To reserve a copy of Exiting the Bluegrass Turnpike (Rabbit House Press, March 4, 2025, paperback, $17.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Exiting the Bluegrass Turnpike for May 8 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Benjamin Rue Silliman is the author of Exiting the Bluegrass Turnpike. Born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, and is a graduate of Ole Miss, NYU, Columbia, and North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Benjamin is an accounting professor (and department chair) at St. John’s University. He is married to his husband Frank. This is his debut novel.

Maria M. Pirrone, Esq., CPA, is an associate professor of accountancy at St. John’s University in the Tobin College of Business. Maria has published numerous articles in the field of taxation in theJournal of AccountancyandCPA Journal; she and Benjamin are currently collaborating on an article focusing on the fifty years of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Maria is a triple alumna of St. John’s, including a J.D., and holds a graduate degree in tax law from New York Law School.

Craig Smith and Ben Wise: The Collection (in person & live-streaming)
2025-05-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join authors Craig Smith and Ben Wise for a discussion of their book The Collection (2024). The Collection features matchbooks collected at gay clubs, bars, hotels, and restaurants in the United States between 1971-1982. The matchbooks were collected by Larry Blagg and eventually archived in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection at Cornell University. Smith and Wise discovered Blagg’s collection at Cornell while conducting research into the lyrics, legislation, and literature that stigmatizes marginalized communities in the United States and abroad. They photographed the collection on-site at Cornell in 2023 and this new book was finished in the Summer of 2024. A second, limited edition book entitled American Ace was also created and published by Invisible Hand Press (Tivoli, NY) featuring sixty-two matchbook reproductions made with two-color risograph print technology, including a letterpress cover with hand painted gold tint emblem. Smith and Wise’s presentation will address the contemporary actions at the local, state, and federal level that perpetuate stigma and consider other book projects utilizing archives to explore the cultural epochs that shape community.
The Collection book features sixty-six full color photo-lithography reproductions of the matchbooks in a hardcover with dust jacket. The books were made in an edition of 1000, with Smith and Wise designing the book with Shapco Press in Minneapolis who also handled the printing. Both The Collection and American Ace will be available for purchase at the event.

To reserve a copy of both/either The Collection (Shapco Printing, 2024, hardcover, $75) and/or American Ace (Invisible Hand Press, 2024, paperback, $75), please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve a copy of [title(s)] for May 9th event.”
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

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

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

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD

Dr. Craig Smith is an American media artist whose art and research focuses on the process, aesthetics, and ethics of human‐to‐human interactivity in contemporary art, especially photography, sound, and socially engaged performances. Smith has been awarded grants from numerous organizations including the New York State Council on the Arts as well as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Smith’s published books about art practice and social engagement include Relational Art: A Guided Tour (2024) with Bloomsbury Publishing, LLC, the Training Manual for Relational Art (2009) by CEPA Gallery, as well as On the Subject of the Photographic (2007) by the University of the Arts London.
Smith’s exhibitions of photography, live sound performances, lectures, and other art media have been featured at an international range of museums, galleries, art fairs, athletic facilities, and financial organizations including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., PS1 MOMA Contemporary Art Institute in New York, The Tate Modern in London, The George Eastman House in Rochester, the Cantor Film Center (NYU), the Hudson River Museum, the Mao Live House (Beijing), CAFA (Beijing) and the Burchfield Penney Art Center (Buffalo) as well as galleries and art fairs including CEPA Gallery (Buffalo), Galerie Schuster Photo (Berlin), the Douglas Hyde Gallery (Dublin), RARE Art (New York), SCM Hong Kong, ARTSPACE Sydney, The Kent Gallery and White Columns (New York), Elsewhere Museum, and the Scope Art fairs in London, New York, and Miami.
Smith has held teaching positions at numerous universities and colleges including New York University, Goldsmiths College, and the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London). Smith joined the University of Florida in 2010.

Associate Professor Ben Wise (Ph.D. Rice University, 2008) is a historian of modern America, and specializes in southern history, gender and sexuality, and cultural history. He joined the History Department at the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor after teaching at Harvard University and holding a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
His first book, William Alexander Percy: The Curious Life of a Mississippi Planter and Sexual Freethinker, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2012. In 2009 he was awarded the C. Vann Woodward Prize for the best dissertation in the field of southern history. His research has been supported by grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, and the Regional Humanities Center at Tulane University. His articles have appeared in The Journal of American Studies, Southern Cultures, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, The William Mitchell Law Review, and in the edited volume, Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South Since Reconstruction.
