The Queer Book Club is a Book Club for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies who want to read and discuss fiction and non-fiction books that focus on LGBTQIA+ characters and history. Please email queerbookclubnyc@gmail.com to be added to the email list or for any questions.
Red Light Reader is a book club that seeks to create a safe space for sex workers and allies. We seek to facilitate dialogue about sex worker rights, and its intersections with technology, race, migration, labor, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights.
We’ll be joining together to discuss our favorite passages, ideas, and critiques from our past two books: “Playing the Whore” and “Revolting Prostitutes.” We’ll be introducing our third book “Invisible No More.” Join us for a discussion circle and bring your suggestions for other books and writings! There will be snacks!
Julian Gibson Serrette, a native of Trinidad and former professional bodybuilder, has completed his new book “A Beautiful Man”: an emotional and cathartic collection of poems about one man’s search for authenticity. Serrette explores the idea of being perceived as an abomination by society as he sought to find meaning in his existence throughout his transitioning. Join him for spoken word performances from his current book of poetry, as well as some from his upcoming book, “This Thing Called Love.”
This monthly book discussion focuses on reading anarchist and radical left texts, alternating between fiction and non-fiction. These books are chosen by participants in advance.
September’s book: New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Palm Heels for the people! Don’t get that joke? No worries! Come by this FREE workshop to learn some introductory skills that will keep you feeling safe. We’ll be covering the basics: stretching, conditioning, technique, and theory, with the hope that participants will leave with some super useful foundations that will aid them in the day-to-day. Mix that in with some sweat and some movement, and you’ll have an accessible and confidence-boosting good time for all. Whether you are a beginner, or someone with experience, come work it out with us!
Open to all ages! Participants should wear clothing in which they are comfortable stretching and sweating.
POP Gym is a new project, working towards opening a physical space in Brooklyn that offers free self-defense, fitness, and skill share classes 7 days a week. As we continue planning, we invite you to come by any of our events this summer! Our workshops have been described as, “fun”, “holistic” and “empowering”, and for any questions, comments, or inquiries for future workshops for you or your organizations, email us at info@popgym.org
The Anarchx-Feminist Caucus (a.k.a. "AnFem") operates within the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council (MACC). MACC seeks to strengthen and support New York City’s anarchist movement through coordination of existing and emerging projects. AnFem critiques and confronts gendered and sexual violence, capitalism and patriarchy while aiming to dismantle the overlapping systems and institutions that keep oppression in place. We join a long tradition of anarchist feminist collectives that operate in smaller scale affinity groups to build trust within a community that feels safe. We welcome all women, trans, and genderqueer folks to join us and learn more about ongoing work and campaigns, and/or to start new projects. For more information on MACC, visit macc.nyc.
AnFem Statement of Intent:
We are a group committed to amplifying the voices of women of color and transgender, intersex, and other gender non-conforming people of color.
We actively support anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-sexist, and anti-transphobic strategies.
We are sex positive and embrace polyamory as well as queer gender and sexuality.
We align with sex workers and all workers in feminized labor including care and housework,
paid and unpaid.
We confront patriarchy and capitalism, especially in the structures of family, marriage, and private property.
We agree to a vision of a world that is non-hierarchical, unconstrained by gender, intersectional, and focused on attaining autonomy instead of perceived equality.
Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Life in Contemporary Palestine, reveals the Palestinian experience as seen through the lens of authors, books, and literature. Using the form of a political-literary travelogue, he explores what literature means to modern Palestinians and how Palestinians make sense of the conflict between a rich imaginative life and the daily tedium and violence of survival. Join us for a reading and discussion of the book with author Marcello Di Cintio, in conversation with author and activist Molly Crabapple.
Marcello Di Cintio is the author of four books, including Walls: Travels Along the Barricades and Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense – both winners of the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. Di Cintio’s magazine writing has appeared in appeared in publications such as The International New York Times, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic and Afar. He lives in Calgary, Canada.
Join your community for a celebration of Tina Horn’s new kinky queer sex work dystopian sci-fi comic book series SfSx (Safe Sex) from Image Comics: featuring a talkback with one of the best journos on the sex work beat, Melissa Gira Grant, and a special fetish cake-sitting by Lindsay Dye.
Tina Horn (she/her) hosts and produces the kinky sexuality podcast Why Are People Into That?!. She is a Rolling Stone reporter, the author of two nonfiction books, and the writer/creator of the scifi comic book series SFSX. Tina has lectured on sex work politics and queer BDSM cultures all over North America. @Tinahornsass / TinaHorn.net
Melissa Gira Grant (she/her) is the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Verso). She has been a contributing writer at the Village Voice and Pacific Standard, and her work has also appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, BuzzFeed News, the New York Review of Books, and the Nation, among others. Her essays are collected in Best Sex Writing, The Feminist Utopia Project, and Where Freedom Starts: Sex Power Violence #MeToo. She lives in New York.@melissagira
Join Sharyn Hahn to start your day with a morning yoga practice of Sun Salutations and a Vinyasa flow! You will experience luxurious stretching warm-ups, empowering standing poses, and energizing breath work as we align the movements with the inhales and exhales. You will feel more awake, strong, balanced, and positive as a result of this time spent on the mat. Sun Salutations and warrior poses stimulate the seratonin in your brain (the “happy hormone) and improve self-esteem! You will be ready for anything that meets you as your day unfolds.
We will listen to music and set an intention for the week at the start of each class.
$5 donation requested. Bring a yoga mat if you have one. There are some props at the store for up to 5 people. You may bring your own coffee or tea.
PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE FOR EACH WEEKLY CLASS BY EMAILING SHARYN no later than 9 PM the night before at suryyama2018@gmail.com. Add Sun Salutations in the subject line.
FOLLOW HER on Instagram for quotes, yoga prompts and information, and uplifting pictures and comments:
suryyama_yoga (there is an underscore in the address)
FACEBOOK PAGE: Sharyn Hahn’s Fitness, Yoga, and Mindfulness for All
This event is a celebration of the launch of No New Jails’ second zine. We will be hosting lettering writing to correspond and send the new zine to our folks inside. Folks with incarcerated loved ones are more than welcome to join us and write to anyone, regardless of their or your affiliation with NNJ.
No New Jails NYC is a multiracial, intergenerational network of residents, community members, and activists fighting Mayor Bill de Blasio’s jail expansion plan. We are calling for the immediate closure of Rikers without building new jails. Instead of spending billions on more jails, we are calling for massive investment to address the needs of communities targeted by criminalization. Ultimately, we are organizing towards a safer NYC free of confinement and surveillance and filled with opportunities for all people to thrive.
Vegan. Ethical. Delicious. Come sample some confections and learn how to make them with the country’s premier (and feminist/punk rock/bad-ass) vegan chocolatier Lagusta Yearwood. Lagusta will have some of her favorite and bestselling sweets (from the book!) available for sampling, and will discuss her story as a vegan entrepreneur and activist. She will be available to sign copies as well.
Lagusta’s business model is built on sourcing local ingredients and using ethical, Fair Trade chocolate. The book comes with a primer on choosing best ingredients–and what exactly that means when it comes to sugar and chocolate.
Lagusta Yearwood is a restless rabble-rousing chef-turned-chocolatier. She trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and is the founder of Lagusta’s Luscious, the first vegan chocolate shop in the world. In addition to their flagship production space in New Paltz, NY, Lagusta’s Luscious operates a café, Commissary, and a retail sweets shop, Confectionery! in the East Village in NYC, which is a collaboration with her best friend’s vegan macaron business, Sweet Maresa’s.
Building a community of tech activists at Bluestockings. Our workshops include building tech tools for grassroots movements (open to beginners and non-coders), and creating non-Capitalist arts projects and DIY tech. Discussing and organizing around algorithmic fairness, predictive policing, surveillance, and oppressive technologies. Getting grassroots organizations heard in City Council conversations about open data policies and automated decision systems (ADS).
Radical YA Bookclub is a group for teens and adults who want to explore and discuss radical,
intersectional, queer, and feminist lit. Come read books they don’t teach in school, discuss new ideas and meet other people interested in exploring radical literature. Selections will be voted on by club members and can include books not traditionally considered YA. Snacks will be provided.
For more information or for accessibility questions contact matilda@bluestockings.com
Radical YA Bookclub is a group for teens and adults who want to explore and discuss radical,
intersectional, queer, and feminist lit. Come read books they don’t teach in school, discuss new ideas and meet other people interested in exploring radical literature. Selections will be voted on by club members and can include books not traditionally considered YA. Snacks will be provided.
For more information or for accessibility questions contact matilda@bluestockings.com
Get On the Stage is an open mic based around uplifting and centering the voices of Queer/Trans People of Color, Trans, Two Spirit, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, Intersex and anyone who falls between these labels. Speakers can bring poems, prose, music, stand-up and spoken word of any kind.
Cis white queer folks are prohibited from participating but are encouraged to attend to support and help boost the voices of marginalized speakers.