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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221001T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221001T210000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220912T193457Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220912T194244Z
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SUMMARY:Official Book Launch for The Certain Body  (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for the official book launch for Julia Guez’s THE CERTAIN BODY (out this fall from Four Way Books). We hope to see you in-person or online that night; the event will be live-streamed. Very special guests include Francisco Márquez\, t’ai freedom ford\, Jenny Johnson and Mark Bibbins. You can buy books directly from the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division. Reception at seven. Reading at 7:30. Book signing at 8:30. \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCopies of The Certain Body and other books by our readers will be available for purchase at the event. \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nMark Bibbins is the author of four poetry collections\, most recently 13th Balloon (Copper Canyon Press\, 2020)\, recipient of the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award. His first book\, Sky Lounge (Graywolf Press\, 2003)\, received a Lambda Literary Award. He teaches in the graduate writing programs at The New School and Columbia University\, and in NYU’s Writers in Florence program. \n  \nt’ai freedom ford is the author of two poetry collections\, how to get over from Red Hen Press and more black from Augury Books\, winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. t’ai lives and loves in Brooklyn where she is an editor at No\, Dear Magazine. \n  \nJulia Guez is a writer and translator based in the city of New York. The Certain Body is her second collection of poetry\, written while she was recovering from COVID in the spring of 2020. \nFor her poetry\, fiction and translations\, Guez has been awarded the Discovery/Boston Review Prize\, a Fulbright Fellowship and The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize in Translation as well as a translation fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. \nFor the last decade\, Guez has worked with Teach For America\, New York; she’s currently the senior managing director of design and implementation there. She teaches creative writing at NYU and Rutgers. \nYou can find more of her work online at www.juliaguez.net and if you are so inclined\, can buy all of her books here at the Bureau. She would be happy to sign them for you(!) \n  \nJenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books\, 2017).  Her honors include a Whiting Award\, a Hodder Fellowship\, and a NEA Fellowship. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times\, New England Review\, Waxwing\, and elsewhere. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University\, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop. She lives in Pittsburgh. \n  \nFrancisco Márquez is a poet from Maracaibo\, Venezuela\, born in Miami\, Florida. A graduate of the MFA program at NYU\, his work appears in The Brooklyn Rail\, The Yale Review\, and The Best American Poetry anthology\, among other publications. He has received support from the Tin House Writer’s Workshop\, The Poetry Project\, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown\, where he was a 2019-2020 Poetry Fellow. He is Assistant Web Editor at Poets & Writers and lives in Brooklyn\, New York. \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/official-book-launch-for-the-certain-body/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221013T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221013T203000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220913T144235Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220914T160254Z
UID:11809-1665687600-1665693000@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:First Consonants: John Whittier Treat with Sarah Van Arsdale & Stephen Greco (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Come celebrate the launch of John Whittier Treat’s novel First Consonants.  \nBrian is an unremarkable child\, until he isn’t. As other children start to babble\, adding to their vocabularies day by day\, Brian grows quieter with age\, stumbling over the words he needs to lead a normal life: He is a stutterer. This speech disorder defines his formative years\, filled with prejudice and bullying\, as he creates his own scales of right and wrong\, both justified and unjustified. He uses his fists whenever words fail him. As he increasingly fills with rage after life-changing abuse at the hands of a priest who takes advantage of his vulnerability\, he resorts to ever greater acts of violence\, risking everything he has worked hard for in life. Brian’s one hope for his redemption? Alaska. An elderly Brian moves to the Alaskan outback\, and here he attempts to redeem himself and the world.  \n“A compelling\, at times relentless novel that gives the term antihero a brand-new spin.” —Felice Picano\, author of Like People in History\, The Book of Lies\, and Onyx  \n“A flame of rage burns at the core of Brian Moriarty\, ignited by a traumatic birth and fueled by a lifetime of debasement and abuse because Brian stutters. Treat’s First Consonants is incendiary\, placing the reader in the furious heart of Brian’s world. As we may decry his actions\, we cannot help but want a balm for him\, a cool soothing of his implacable ire\, lest it consume and reduce him to ash.” —Terry Wolverton\, the author of Stealing Angel  \n“First Consonants touches on the origins of violence\, of love\, and what it means to find one’s way through the maze that is the world. Here is a story that is engrossing\, vulnerable and wise in a way that few books are these days.” —Jim Krusoe\, author of The Sleep Garden  \n“Written in ludic\, kinetic prose\, at turns beautiful and harrowing\, it has an expansiveness and ethical import that is rare.” —Alistair McCartney\, author of The Disintegrations \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n  \nFirst Consonants will also be available for purchase at the event. \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \nJohn Whittier Treat has lived in the Pacific Northwest\, including Alaska\, for forty years. His fiction has won the Christopher Hewitt Prize\, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His novel The Rise and Fall of the Yellow House\, was a finalist for the 2016 Lambda Prize for Best Gay Fiction. A novella\, Maid Service\, was published in 2020 and his second novel\, First Consonants\, is forthcoming from Jaded Ibis Press in 2022. His opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times and the Huffington Post. Treat is currently at work on his third novel\, set among survivalists in rural eastern Washington State\, entitled The Sixth City of Refuge. johnwhittiertreat.com  \n  \nSarah Van Arsdale’s sixth book\, Taken\, a poetry collection\, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. She is the author of four books of fiction including Toward Amnesia (Riverhead\, 1995) and Blue (winner of the 2002 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel) and a single book-length poem\, titled The Catamount (Nomadic Press\, 2017)\, illustrated with her watercolors. She serves with the Ferro-Grumley Award in LGBTQ Fiction\, teaches creative writing in the Antioch/LA Low-residency MFA Program\, and works as a private manuscript consultant. sarahvanarsdale.com \n  \nStephen Greco is Editorial Director of InsideRisk and Editor-at-Large of the magazine Upstate Diary. He has contributed to and/or served as editor for Air Mail\, Elle Décor\, Interview\, MTV online\, New York\, The New York Times\, Opera News\, Stagebill\, Trace\, and The Village Voice\, among others. Greco is author of the novel Now and Yesterday (Kensington\, 2014). His most recent novel\, Such Good Friends\, based on the friendship of Truman Capote and Lee Radziwill\, will be published by Kensington in May\, 2023. For the stage\, Greco has written Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood\, an orchestral-theatrical work from Giants Are Small\, the partnership of Edouard Getaz and Doug Fitch\, that premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2017. With Fitch\, Greco has written the multi-media works How Did We…? (2014; University of Buffalo Center for the Arts) and Punkitititi/Breakfast Included (2020; Salzburg Marionette Theater\, Salzburg Mozarteum). Greco wrote the libretto for the Victoria Bond opera How Gulliver Returned Home in a Manner that was Very Not Direct\, and is working on musical theater projects with composers Scott Wheeler and Douglas Cuomo.  \nGreco lives in Brooklyn\, New York. \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/first-consonants-john-whittier-treat-with-sarah-van-arsdale-stephen-greco/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221014T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221014T210000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220914T163459Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220916T172758Z
UID:11817-1665774000-1665781200@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:Finnegan Presents: Queer Underground Poetry (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Legendary New York City poet Finnegan and prolific street photographer Efrain Gonzalez present an evening of poetry and photography hosted by Johnny Art. Soak yourself in electric verse\, ripped straight from the womb of your worst nightmares (or your darkest fantasies!) and coughed up on your mother’s dining room table. Enjoy an evening of radical queer poetry and candid behind-the-scenes photography from the heyday of Finnegan’s poetry troupe\, Dark Star Crew. The evening will include interviews with Finnegan and Efrain talking about their adventures with Dark Star at CBGBs\, the Knitting Factory and other infamous NYC venues.  \n  \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nBooks of poetry by Finnegan will be available for purchase at the event. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \nFinnegan has been performing his poetry in New York City and beyond for more than thirty years. He has performed at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe\, the Knitting Factory\, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and CBGB’s and has been featured in the Village Voice\, New York Times\, Seven Days magazine and Vanity Fair.  \n  \nNew York City photographer Efrain John Gonzalez says he’s “not a professional photographer\, just OCD.” He describes his work as telling “a story of people finding the path to their souls\, finding their bliss with piercings\, branding\, cuttings\, tattoos\, latex\, implants\, leather\, and a whole lot of radical sex and sexuality.”  \n  \nJohn “JohnnyArt” Pavlou is a visual artist and songwriter based in Yonkers\, New York. His sculptures have been in numerous shows and he has created several sculptural installations. He has also created a Youtube series in which he uploaded a spoken word piece every day for a year. \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/finnegan-presents-queer-underground-poetry/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221016T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221016T170000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220914T173829Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220914T175443Z
UID:11826-1665932400-1665939600@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments & Queer Forgetting (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Who determines what is remembered and commemorated\, and why? How can we commemorate something that is both in the past and a daily reality? In Take ‘Em Down\, Simon(e) van Saarloos is inspired by the historically invisibilized lives of LGBT people and queers. They demonstrate the power of forgetting and wonder if and how it’s possible to live without a past. At the same time\, Van Saarloos criticizes the way that a ‘white memory’—including their own—treats some stories as self-evident while other histories are erased. An afternoon of conversation\, performance and an abundance of presence. hosted by Simon(e) van Saarloos and the Bureau with Megan Fernandes\, Waqia Abdul-Kareem\, and a video contribution by Claudia Rankine.  \n“I love the expansive nature of ways of thinking about commemoration in Take ’Em Down; the role of physicaland imaginative space. I also love that the essayistic form is informed by the process of adaptability\, informed by Simon(e) van Saarloos’ childhood history\, and that van Saarloos reflects the ability as a writer to know the limits of their own imagination. The notion of stumbling stones implies being tripped up and so becomes both commemorative and process-defining. There is so much to say and love about this book!” — Claudia Rankine\, author of Citizen: An American Lyric  \n“The scholarship that excites me the most is not only well- reasoned and accessible\, but also synthesizes ideas that take multiple positionalities into account\, and takes the courage to be outspoken and revolutionary. In Take ’Em Down\, Simon(e) van Saarloos does all those things\, incisively. It partakes of the act of radical allyship amongst the marginalized. A lovely book.” —Nalo Hopkinson\, author\, The Salt Roads  \n“Amidst a global pandemic that has fundamentally changed our world\, along with Black Lives Matter\, Me Too\, Topple Monuments Movements and ongoing struggles for LGBTQIA liberation\, Simon(e) van Saarloos’ Take ‘Em Down asks us to reenvision monuments and acts of commemoration. They also champion forms of Queer forgetting as acts of resistance. They call upon the work of some of the greatest thinkers\, scholars and writers Arendt\, Orwell\, Halberstam\, Rankine\, Moten\, Hartman and more to raise critical issues around memory\, mourning and social justice. In this text Saarloos joins their ranks in creating important new visions and challenges for our world. It’s a text demanding to be contemplated and shared widely.” – Pamela Sneed\, author of Funeral Diva\, City Lights\, 2020  \nTake ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting includes a foreword by Pamela Sneed and is published by Publication Studio.  \nCopies of Take ‘Em Down will soon be available on the Bureau’s online store\, and will be available for purchase at the event. \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \n Waqia Abdul-Kareem is a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist and interdisciplinary scholar. They hold an MFA in Performance and Performance Studies from Pratt Institute and are pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies at New York University. Their academic research considers the historical-ecological entanglement between blackness and the more-than-human in the South Carolina Lowcountry region. Relatedly\, their art practice employs archival research\, sound/music\, video\, performance\, and storytelling. They have exhibited work at the Hirshhorn Museum\, Abrons Art Center\, Movement Research\, Dixon Place\, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Before their academic studies\, they worked as an art educator at the Museum of Modern Art.  \n  \nMegan Fernandes is a writer living in New York City. Fernandes has published in The New Yorker\, The American Poetry Review\, Ploughshares\, Boston Review\, Rattle\, PANK\, The Common\, Guernica\, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency\, among others. Her most recent book of poetry\, Good Boys\, was a finalist for the Saturnalia Poetry Prize\, the Kundiman Poetry Prize\, and was published with Tin House Books in 2020. Fernandes is an Associate Professor of English and the Writer-in-Residence at Lafayette College where she teaches courses on poetry\, environmental writing\, and critical theory. She is a Yaddo fellow and holds a PhD in English from the University of California\, Santa Barbara\, and an MFA in poetry from Boston University. In 2021\, she was a book reviewer for the Poetry Foundation. Her forthcoming poetry collection\, I Do Everything I’m Told\, will also be published by Tin House Books in summer 2023.  \n  \nSimon(e) van Saarloos is the author of four books in Dutch\, including a novel and an ethnographic court report about the “discrimination trial” of Geert Wilders. Two of their books were translated into English: Playing Monogamy (Publication Studio\, 2019) and most recently Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (Publication Studio\, 2022). They are currently working on Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (Emily Carr University Press) and a theatre play about abortion for Ulrike Quade Company\, premiering April 2023. Van Saarloos also work as an artist and curator. Their most recent projects include Cruising Gezi Park (with Kübra Uzun)\, the spread of a mo(nu)ment\, and Through the Window an ongoing queer solidarity project between Turkey and the Netherlands\, aimed to circulate funds among queer artists.They have participated in artist residencies such as the KAVLI Institute for Nanosciences\, Deltaworkers New Orleans and Be Mobile Create Together at IKSV in Istanbul. Together with Vincent van Velsen\, Van Saarloos curated the ABUNDANCE exhibition\, (“We must bring about the end of the world as we know it” – Denise Ferreira da Silva) at Het HEM\, Amsterdam in 2022. Upcoming projects include their role as a curator for International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) and Studium Generale Rietveld Academy. They currently pursue a PhD in Rhetoric at the University of California\, Berkeley. Author photo: Isabelle Janssen \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/take-em-down-scattered-monuments-queer-forgetting/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221020T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221020T200000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220925T160346Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220925T162711Z
UID:11861-1666292400-1666296000@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:Violet Hour (virtual event)
DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening of short readings by 2SLGBTQ writers from Canada. This special online edition will feature writers Christopher DiRaddo (The Family Way)\, Suzette Mayr (The Sleeping Car Porter)\, Matthew James Weigel (Whitemud Walking) and Jane Walsh (The Inconvenient Heiress). \nTo participate in the event on Zoom please register on the Eventbrite page. \nAFTER you’ve registered\, please return to the Eventbrite page at the time of the event and click on “Access link” under “When and Where/location.” \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $5 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to join\, with or without donation. You can make a donation when you register on the Eventbrite page\, or make a tax-deductible donation on the Bureau’s Fractured Atlas page. Thank you for your support! \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nChristopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Family Way and The Geography of Pluto. In 2014\, he created the Violet Hour reading series and book club\, which has to date provided a platform for more than 200 LGBTQ writers. He is past president of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. https://christopherdiraddo.com/  \n  \nSuzette Mayr is the author of six novels\, including her most recent\, The Sleeping Car Porter\, published in 2022. Her novels have won the ReLit Award and the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize\, and have twice been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her fiction has also been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean region\, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards\, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. https://www.suzettemayr.com/  \n  \nMatthew James Weigel is a Dene and Métis poet and artist born and raised in Edmonton. Currently pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Alberta\, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences. He is the designer for Moon Jelly House press and his words and art have been published by people like Arc Poetry Magazine\, Book*Hug\, The Polyglot\, and The Mamawi Project. Matthew is a Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize finalist\, National Magazine Award finalist\, Nelson Ball Prize finalist\, Cécile E. Mactaggart award winner\, and winner of both the 2020 Vallum Chapbook Award and 2021 bpNichol Chapbook Award for his chapbook “It Was Treaty / It Was Me.” His debut full-length collection “Whitemud Walking” recently won the Alcuin Society Award for book design and is available now from Coach House Books. https://www.matthewjamesweigel.com/  \n  \nJane Walsh is a queer historical romance novelist who loves everything Regency. She is delighted to have the opportunity to put her studies in history and costume design to good use by writing love stories. She owes a great debt of gratitude to the local coffee shop for fueling her novel writing endeavors. Jane’s happily ever after is centered on her wife and their cat and their cozy home together in Canada. https://www.janewalshwrites.com/
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/violet-hour/
LOCATION:Online event\, New York\, NY\, United States
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bureau of General Services%E2%80%94Queer Division":MAILTO:contact@bgsqd.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221022T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221022T213000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220920T152327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221003T191407Z
UID:11834-1666463400-1666474200@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:ARMY OF LOVERS release. K.M. Soehnlein in Conversation with Maria Maggenti (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Join Lambda Literary Award-winning novelist K.M. Soehnlein\, in conversation with filmmaker Maria Maggenti\, for the New York launch of his new novel\, ARMY OF LOVERS\, which follows a young gay man swept up in the excitement\, fury\, and poignancy of the AIDS activist group ACT UP. ​  \nArriving in New York City full of idealism\, Paul discovers the queer community gathering strength in the face of government inaction and social stigma. As he protests\, parties\, and makes a new home\, he finds himself pulling away from his HIV-negative boyfriend to pursue an intense bond with a passionate\, HIV-positive artist. Paul’s awakening parallels ACT UP’s rise\, successes\, and controversies. And then everything shifts again\, as his family is thrust into their own life-and-death struggle that tests him even further.  \nBorn out of the author’s activism inside the vibrant queer community of the ’80s and ’90s\, ARMY OF LOVERS blends history and fiction into an exploration of memory\, community\, love\, and justice.  \nSoehnlein and Maggenti were roommates in the East Village while members of ACT UP and Queer Nation. Join them for a public conversation about art\, friendship and activism.  \nPresented by The LGBT Community Center and the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. \nThis event will take place in person at The LGBT Community Center\, 208 West 13th Street\, NY\, NY 10011. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nCopies of Army of Lovers (Bywater Books\, 2022\, paperback $20.95) will soon be available on our online store and at our physical store. Copies will also be available at the event. To reserve a copy\, please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \nK.M. Soehnlein is the author of the novels THE WORLD OF NORMAL BOYS\, YOU CAN SAY YOU KNEW ME WHEN\, and ROBIN AND RUBY\, along with essays and journalism in numerous publications. He is the recipient of the Lambda Literary Award\, Henfield Prize\, and SFFILM Rainin Grant in Screenwriting. Raised in New Jersey\, he lived in New York City in the late ’80s and early ’90s\, participating in direct action with ACT UP and cofounding Queer Nation. These years were the inspiration for ARMY OF LOVERS\, released by Amble Press in Oct. ’22.  \nMaria Maggenti is an activist\, screenwriter (BEFORE I FALL) and director of the beloved indie films THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURE OF TWO GIRLS IN LOVE and PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS.  \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/army-of-lovers-release-k-m-soehnlein-in-conversation-with-maria-maggenti/
LOCATION:The LGBT Community Center\, 208 West 13th Street\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
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ORGANIZER;CN="Bureau of General Services%E2%80%94Queer Division":MAILTO:contact@bgsqd.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221023T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221023T170000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20221012T150125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221012T155915Z
UID:11830-1666537200-1666544400@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:Emptying the Pews: Life after Conservative Christianity (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Join Lauren O’Neal and Chrissy Stroop (coeditors of Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church) for a panel discussion about making art and living life after leaving conservative Christianity\, featuring Carmen Maria Machado (In the Dream House)\, Daniel Lavery (Something That May Shock and Discredit You)\, and Maud Newton (Ancestor Trouble).\n\n\n\n  \nAbout Empty the Pews : \nFollowing the 2016 election of President Trump\, Stroop coined the hashtag #EmptyThePews on Twitter as a call to take a moral stance against the kind of fundamentalist\, authoritarian\, or otherwise conservative churches that helped bring about the current political situation and all its cruelty\, division\, and hate. The hashtag continues to circulate with the eye-opening and often heartbreaking stories of those who found the resolve to leave evangelical\, Mormon\, Catholic\, and other religious communities. Empty the Pews continues this campaign by sharing the unflinchingly honest stories of those who escaped hardline religious ideology—and how it failed to crush their spirits. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nContributions include essays from a diverse group of established and up-and-coming writers\, including Garrard Conley\, Lyz Lenz\, Juliana Delgado Lopera\, Carmen Maria Machado\, Isaac Marion\, Maud Newton\, Julia Scheeres\, Linda Tirado\, and more\, as well as a foreword by Frank Schaeffer\, the former Christian Right leader turned trenchant critic. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nA provocative anthology of undeniable importance and power\, Empty the Pews reflects upon the disoriented worldview of harmful\, narrow-minded religious ideologies and also offers a clear call to action: to those who refuse to be complicit in the bigotry and abuse present in so many churches\, now is the time to empty the pews. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n  \nCopies of Empty the Pews are also available at our physical store and will be available for purchase at the event. \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \nDaniel Lavery is the author of Texts From Jane Eyre and Something That May Shock and Discredit You\, the co-founder of The Toast\, and the former Dear Prudence at Slate.  \n  \nCarmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize\, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction\, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize\, among others. Her essays\, fiction\, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker\, The New York Times\, Granta\, Vogue\, This American Life\, The Believer\, Guernica\, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation\, Yaddo\, Hedgebrook\, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.  \n  \nMaud Newton is a writer and critic. Her first book\, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation (Random House\, March 2022)\, has been called “a literary feat” by the New York Times Book Review and a “brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation” by the Boston Globe. Excerpts from the book have appeared in Esquire\, Time\, and the Wall Street Journal. She has written for The New York Times Magazine\, Harper’s\, Oxford American\, Harper’s Bazaar\, and more. Maud grew up in Miami\, lives in New York City\, and has degrees in English and law.  \n  \nLauren O’Neal is a writer and editor in New York City. She is the coeditor\, with Chrissy Stroop\, of the essay anthology Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church\, and the cohost of the podcast Sunday School Dropouts. Her writing has appeared in Slate\, Nylon\, and a bunch of websites that don’t exist anymore. \n  \nThe coeditor (with Lauren O’Neal) of Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church\, an anthology of personal essays by former conservative Christians\, Chrissy Stroop was raised evangelical and subjected to intense indoctrination in Christian schools. Now a vocal critic of the Christian Right and an atheist\, Stroop is a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches and a columnist for openDemocracy. She holds a PhD in modern Russian history from Stanford University\, and her work has also appeared in Foreign Policy\, The Boston Globe\, Playboy\, DAME Magazine\, Alternet\, The Conversationalist\, and other outlets\, including peer-reviewed academic journals. An advocate for pluralist coexistence as an essential component of healthy democratic society\, Stroop is proud of her record of working with both religious and secular organizations in pursuit of the common good. Stroop came out as a transgender woman in 2019 and currently resides in Portland\, Oregon. \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/empty-the-pews/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bgsqd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/October-23-Empty-the-Pews-cropped.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Bureau of General Services%E2%80%94Queer Division":MAILTO:contact@bgsqd.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221028T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221028T203000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220921T145846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220921T145846Z
UID:11847-1666983600-1666989000@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:John D’Emilio will discuss and read from his recently published memoir\, Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood. It describes how a boy raised in the Bronx in the 1950s in a politically and religiously conservative Italian family had his life reshaped in the sixties as he came to explore the hidden gay world of Manhattan; became an antiwar activist and conscientious objector while a student at Columbia; and made the decision to research and write U.S. history as a tool for social change. \nCopies of Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties will soon be available on the Bureau’s online store\, and will be available for purchase at the event. \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \nA pioneer in the field of LGBTQ studies and the history of sexuality\, John D’Emilio has written or edited almost a dozen books\, including Sexual Politics\, Sexual Communities: the Making of a Homosexual Minority; Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America; and Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/memories-of-a-gay-catholic-boyhood-coming-of-age-in-the-sixties/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bgsqd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/October-22-John-DEmilio-flyer-cropped.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Bureau of General Services%E2%80%94Queer Division":MAILTO:contact@bgsqd.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221029T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221029T210000
DTSTAMP:20260426T100101
CREATED:20220921T153912Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221029T182153Z
UID:11850-1667070000-1667077200@www.bgsqd.com
SUMMARY:HOMO NOVUS BOOK LAUNCH (in person event & live-streaming)
DESCRIPTION:Join debut novelist Gerard Cabrera and author-musician-journalist Huascar Robles for the book launch of Homo Novus. It’s Holy Week 1987\, and Fr. Linus Fitzgerald has just learned he has AIDS. Orlando Rosario\, the Puerto Rican boy he seduced at fourteen\, is now a man sitting by his bed\, and studying for the priesthood. In alternating chapters\, Linus and Orlando reflect on their desires and dreams\, secrets and sins\, hopes and faith\, and the paths that brought them together. As the narrative progresses\, each character reflects on their lives and how their histories have become inextricably bound together by their shared desires\, secrets\, sins\, and faith. By the end of the story\, the reader comes away with disturbing and powerful history of transgression and hope for redemption. \nCopies of Homo Novus will be available for purchase at the event. \nThank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us! \n  \nThis 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. \nRegistration is not required. Seating is first come\, first served. \nAlso live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel \n  \nSuggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work. \nAll are welcome to attend\, with or without donation. \nWe will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event\, but we can also take credit card donations at the register. \n  \nSafety protocol \nIn an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19: \nIf you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event\, we ask you to please stay home. \nPlease note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center\, where the Bureau is located. \n  \nGerard Cabrera is a Massarican who moved to New York City from Boston in 1989 with no job\, no apartment\, and no money! It can be done! Over the years he has written for\, and served on\, the board of directors of Gay Community News\, has performed in drag as a member of the United Fruit Company\, helped manage one of the first safe sex programs for people with mental disabilities\, earned his Master’s degree in public health\, competed in the 1994 Gay Games\, and earned a law degree. Gerard has stocked shelves\, washed dishes\, worked in a plastic container factory and on an Old Spice assembly line. He has also represented people in housing court\, family court\, and probate court. Currently he works in the New York City Family Court. He is a past attendee of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference\, The Writers Studio\, and was a Bread Loaf Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis\, France. His fiction has appeared in various print and online journals. His novel\, Homo Novus\, has been called “stellar\,” “emotionally bold and always arresting\,” and treats his subject “with rare sensitivity\, empathy\, and intelligence.”  \n  \nHuascar Robles is a Puerto Rican author-journalist-photographer-musician who writes about economic\, social justice and LGBTQ+ issues in Puerto Rico\, the Caribbean and the U.S. His novel Demonios was recently published by Secta de los perros in San Juan\, Puerto Rico. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.bgsqd.com/event/homo-novus-book-launch/
LOCATION:Bureau of General Services–Queer Division\, 208 West 13th Street\, Room 210\, New York\, NY\, 10011\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bgsqd.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/October-29-Homo-Novus-Gerard-Cabrera-cropped.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Bureau of General Services%E2%80%94Queer Division":MAILTO:contact@bgsqd.com
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