May & Early June Events
We host events nearly every night and you will not be turned away from an event at Bluestockings for lack of money.
Monday, May 20th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Penny Lewis “Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks”
In the popular imagination, opposition to the Vietnam War was driven largely by college students and elite intellectuals, while supposedly reactionary blue-collar workers largely supported the war effort. In “Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks: The Vietnam Antiwar Movement as Myth and Memory,” Penny Lewis challenges this collective memory of class polarization. Through close readings of archival documents, popular culture, and media accounts at the time, she offers a more accurate “counter-memory” of a diverse, cross-class opposition to the war in Southeast Asia that included the labor movement, working-class students, soldiers and veterans, and Black Power, civil rights, and Chicano activists. Lewis is Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at the Joseph P. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, City University of New York.
Tuesday, May 21st @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Penelope Boyer “My Great High-Roofed House: Homer’s Penelope”
“My Great High-Roofed House: Homer’s Penelope – Paradigm, Periphrasis, Periphron, Phenomenology, Poesis, Poludeukés and Praxis” excavates Homeric Odyssean women as late traces of archaic matriarchies in ancient Greece, matrons of a pre-historic textile machine industry, homosocial separatists setting the stage for Sappho’s thaisos a century later. The book puts Penelope into this re-perceived realm, recognizing her Spartan homosexual upbringing, her becoming a bisexual bride, her immersion into a homosocial setting during her husband’s 20-year absence; and diagnoses the bipolar disorder behind her weaving and unweaving. Boyer is based in San Antonio, where she “queerates” LGBTQ exhibitions in cultural spaces and works with Land Heritage Institute, a “land museum” under development on 1200 acres of open space along the Medina River. She recently received a Ph.D. from EGS in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
Wednesday, May 22nd @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Kerry Coast “The Colonial Present”
Indigenous peoples struggle for self-determination in British Columbia, Canada — or, rather, in spite of those governments. But who really denies their rights? The average voter? “The Colonial Present: The Rule of Ignorance and the Role of Law in British Columbia” is a new book that considers how media, academia and politicians dismiss and deny the indigenous of BC, most of whom have no treaties with Canada. Journalist Kerry Coast, who has has lived in the lands of the Squamish, Líl’wat, St’át’imc, Secwepemc and Sto:lo and has attended the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues several years running, documents the continuing government policy that demands surrender and assimilation — and the non-native public’s satisfaction.
Thursday, May 23rd @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Marci Blackman “Tradition”
with Silas Howard and T.L. Cowan
Join Marci Blackman for the release of her new novel, “Tradition,” following the story of Gus Weesfree, who witnessed a brutal crime in his hometown of Tradition, Ohio, at the age of 21 and fled, leaving behind the thriving African American community that existed there before and during World War II. Now an old man, he is compelled to confront his past only to find most of his memories buried by urban sprawl. Marci Blackman is an original member of the touring spoken word troupe, Sister Spit, and she co-edited the ground-breaking anthology, “Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco. Her first novel, “Po Man’s Child,” received the American Library Association’s Stonewall award for Best LGBT Fiction and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Fiction. Blackman will be joined by filmmaker and Tribe8 member Silas Howard and wanderer, writer, performer and video-maker T.L. Cowan.
CANCELED: Friday, May 24th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Kaya Oakes “Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church”
This event has been canceled by the event organizers.
Saturday, May 25th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Zay D. Green “Christianity and Black Oppression”
It is a widely held view that the black church played a positive role in the “liberation” of blacks. What is seldom critiqued is the fact that in spite of four hundred years of investment in Christianity, the tool that would transform blacks, blacks continue to be perceived as morally and mentally inferior. In exploring these topics, “Christianity and Black Oppression: Duppy Know Who Fe Frighten” contains a comparison with the Dalits (Untouchables) of India that also shows how religion plays a fundamental role in fostering race and class oppression. Zay D. Green grew up in Jamaica, pursued a Bachelor’s Degree and a Diploma in Education at the University of the West Indies, and holds a MA in Psychology from Long Island University and an MLS from Rutgers University. After having worked as a librarian for many years, Green is currently a high school mathematics teacher.
Sunday, May 26th @ 2:30PM – Free
Practical Anarchy Reading Group: “Queering Anarchism”
NYC-based collective Practical Anarchy invites folks of all backgrounds and identities to a monthly reading group exploring what anarchism means in our current context. Together, we discuss historical and contemporary texts, self-organization and mutual aid, in order to work toward a society free of all forms of social domination. This month we’ll be discussing “Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire” edited by Deric Shannon, J. Rogue, C.B. Daring and Abbey Volcano.
Sunday, May 26th @ 7PM – $5 Suggested
Presentation: “Feeling Nostalgic for Things We Can’t Remember”
with Katie Haegele, Annie Soga, Eryn Loeb & Betsy Housten
Three writers and a fine art photographer will present their work exploring the ideas of nostalgia and shared memory and the joys of secondhand junk. Katie Haegele lives in Philadelphia, where she works as a freelance writer and makes zines. Her first book, “White Elephants,” is about going to yard sales with her mom and the weird old things they find there. Annie Soga is an artist from Portland, Oregon whose photographic work explores the intersection of everyday objects, history, and people, inspired by her upbringing with two flea market-dealer parents. Eryn Loeb’s writing on diverse and nostalgic topics has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Poets & Writers, The Awl, The Rumpus, The Millions, Bitch Magazine, and many other publications. Betsy Housten is a Brooklyn-based massage therapist who writes the annual zine “You Know Better.” She’s also the resident zine curator here at Bluestockings.
Monday, May 27th @7PM – Free
Reading: “Word Canvas: Garden of Poetics”
with DuEwa Frazier, Monica Hand & Metta Sáma
Join us in celebration of the word with three intriguing women poets reading and discussing their new work. DuEwa Frazier is an educator and the author of “Goddess Under the Bridge” and the forthcoming young adult novel “Deanne in the Middle.” Her work has appeared in Tidal Basin Review, Reverie, Kweli Journal and others. Monica Hand is the author of “Me and Nina.” Her poems have appeared in numerous publications including Aunt Chloe, Black Renaissance Noire, and Naugatuck River Review. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in poetry at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Metta Sáma is a professor, activist, painter, collage artist, fiction and essay writer. She is the author of “South of Here,” and “Nocturne Trio” with visual artist Mihret Dawit. She received her PhD in English at SUNY, Binghamton.
Tuesday, May 28th @ 7PM – $5 Suggested
Women’s / Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike
Feature Writers: Geri De Luca & Deborah Hauser
Hosted by Vittoria Repetto – the hardest working guinea butch dyke poet on the Lower East Side – the jam has showcased the famous, the infamous, the unknown for over a decade. Come out and deliver (up to) 8 minutes of your poetry, prose, songs and spoken word. Visit vittoriarepetto.wordpress.com for more. Deborah Hauser’s poetry chapbook “Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders” is a satirical take on the current status of women and the “woman question.” Her poetry seeks to (dis)enchant the reader and dismantle the happily ever after myth. Geri De Luca states that novelists only invent plots they can resolve. They ask the questions they can answer. They ultimately have to trust their own knowledge, experience and curiosity, and keep going deeper into the plots and questions they already have.
Wednesday, May 29th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Molly Weatherfield “Carrie’s Story”
Brilliant, bold and exquisitely kinky, “Carrie’s Story” is an American “Story of O” at the head of the class, with a heroine who is a Ph.D. candidate in comparative lit. If that’s not sexy enough, she has plenty of darker desires, fully imagined and elegantly expressed. Bestselling romance writer Molly Weatherfield will captivate you with this journey into a world of secret sensuality. Weatherfield is also the author of “Safe Word,” the sequel to “Carrie’s Story.” A prolific romance and erotica writer, she has penned many sexy, literate, historical novels.
Thursday, May 30th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Michelle Tea “A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek” & Ali Liebegott “Cha-Ching!”
Michelle Tea & Ali Liebegott join forces to celebrate the release of their newest books! New from City Lights’ Sister Spit imprint, Ali Liebegott’s “Cha-Ching!” is a tender story about being young and broke in America, and the conjoined hearts of love and addiction. Michelle Tea’s first young adult novel, “A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek,” is a modern-day fairytale with an unforgettable heroine. Ali Liebegott is the author of the award-winning books “The Beautifully Worthless” and “The IHOP Papers.” Michelle Tea is the author of four memoirs, a novel, a book of poetry, and is Editor for the City Lights/Sister Spit imprint.
Thursday, May 30th – Store Closing Early
Bluestockings will be closing early on May 30th, at 9PM, for a staff event.
Friday, May 31st @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Lane Heymont “The Freedman and The Pharaoh’s Staff”
Join Lane Heymont to celebrate his literary debut. “The Freedman and The Pharaoh’s Staff” is a thrilling time travel adventure set in post-Civil War Louisiana, following two former slaves battling Hitler, the Ku Klux Klan and Voodoo magic for an ancient Pharaoh’s staff powerful enough to unleash a war to end the world. Heymont’s work addresses the lack of minority characters in the fantasy genre by introducing a diverse palette of characters, all torn between encrusted beliefs, self-hatred and fear on one hand, and the possibility of freedom, redemption, and human dignity on the other. Heymont’s short stories have been published in various literary reviews; his story “The Lost Continent” was recommended for a 2012 Bram Stoker Award.
Saturday, June 1st & Sunday, June 2nd, noon to 6PM – Free
Bluestockings’ Birthday Book Bonanza!
Bluestockings Bookstore is celebrating 14 years of literature, feminism, activism and community with a fun-filled weekend! We’ll be hosting acoustic music, food, and public collaborative art projects culminating in a celebration Sunday night. And, on the sidewalk, you’ll find a veritable book blowout with hundreds — perhaps thousands! — of used books, all on sale for only $2-7. Whether you are searching for tomes to casually grace your coffee table, manuals to fight the power, or handbooks to send to your cool aunt who loves herbalism, you will find it at the Bluestockings Book Bonanza. And you’ll find great company, tunes, and community to boot! Find updated details here. Happy Birthday, Bluestockings!
Sunday, June 2nd @ 2:30PM – Free
Feminist Book Club: Susan Faludi’s “Backlash”
The Feminist Book Club reads and discusses feminism. We make no claims to any particular feminist platform. We read theoretical texts, literature and primary works. All are welcome inclusive of gender, political persuasion, and familiarity. We meet on the first Sunday each month. For more information, email feministbookclubnyc@gmail.com. This month’s book, available at Bluestockings, is Susan Faludi’s “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.”
Tuesday, June 4th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: Robin Marty & Jessica Mason Pieklo “Crow After Roe”
Since 2010, anti-choice activists have begun an active, aggressive battle to end access to abortion and birth control. Join Robin Marty & Jessica Mason Pieklo, authors of “Crow After Roe: How ‘Separate But Equal’ Has Become the New Standard In Women’s Health And How We Can Change That,” in a discussion about how each law serves as a chance to overturn Roe, and how poor, minority and rural women are caught in the middle. Robin Marty is RH Reality Check’s senior political reporter, focusing primarily on state legislation restricting women’s reproductive rights. Jessica Mason Pieklo is a senior legal analyst at RH Reality Check and the former Assistant Director of the Health Law Institute at Hamline University School of Law.
Wednesday, June 5th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: “Double Fist: An Evening with Jeanne Thornton and Chavisa Woods”
Jeanne Thornton’s debut novel, “The Dream of Doctor Bantam,” features Julie Thatch, a tough-as-nails, chainsmoking, wise-cracking 17-year-old Texan. Her idol, her older sister, jogs headlong into the lights of an approaching car and dies. And Julie falls in love with a girl who both is and isn’t an echo of her older sister, a long-limbed Francophone named Patrice — who is also a devotee of the Institute of Temporal Illusions, a Church of Scientology-like cult. Chavisa Woods’s second full length work of fiction, “The Albino Album” follows a technicolored vision of rural girl’s adolescence — a fiery, unhinged, growling, big-hearted country girl in a dirty black tutu and combat boots who travels along all the bizarre yet familiar byways of human desire from the cornfields of Louisiana and the big brass sound of Mardi Gras to the heights of the Empire State Building. Woods presents a new land of contemporary misfits including fire-dancers, pseudo-Nazis who breed albino animals, Catholic workers, horse thieves, and the archangel Gabrielle. Join Thornton and Woods as they read from their work, and take questions about anything at all in this universe.
Sunday, June 9th @ 12:30PM – Free
Radical Educators Meetup: Ira Katznelson’s “When Affirmative Action Was White”
Join a group of educators engaged in inquiry of critical texts for a meetup and collaborative discussion of pedagogical values and practices. For our June meeting, we will continue reading Chapter 4 through the end of Ira Katznelson’s book “When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America,” available at Bluestockings. Please contact bluestockingsraded@gmail.com for more information.
Monday, June 10th @ 7PM – $5 Suggested
Presentation: Olivia Koski “Making Multimedia Comics with Creatavist”
You’re invited to the 47th Meeting of the New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium. Olivia Koski of the Atavist will showcase a new publishing tool called Creatavist that allows comics artists to add sound and other interactive elements to their work. And she will give us a behind-the-scenes look at Josh Neufeld and Tori Marlan’s “Stowaway,” an incredible true story of exploitation, bravery, and survival. Koski is the Senior Producer of the Atavist, a media and software company enabling the next generation of multimedia storytelling, reaching readers across mobile devices and the Web.
Friday, June 14th @ 5PM – Free
Bluestockings Prisoner Letter Writing Group
“The communication between two humans concerning their hopes, ideas and their plights is what allows them to bond in resistance against a system that affects everyone in many different ways,” says Colorado prisoner Rachel Galindo (in a letter published in Resistance Behind Bars). Join a new Bluestockings-based group committed to communication and resistance by writing to prisoners. We’ll be focusing on folks who tend to receive less attention and mail, including LGBTQI-identified prisoners, women, and youth. Pens, paper, writing guidelines and encouragement will all be provided!.
Friday, June 14th @ 7PM – Free
Reading: George Ciccariello-Maher “We Created Chávez”
Since being elected president in 1998, Hugo Chávez has become the face of contemporary Venezuela and, more broadly, anticapitalist revolution. In “We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution,” George Ciccariello-Maher contends that this focus on Chávez has obscured the inner dynamics and historical development of the country’s Bolivarian Revolution. By examining social movements and revolutionary groups active before and during the Chávez era, Ciccariello-Maher provides a broader, more nuanced account of Chávez’s rise to power and the years of activism that preceded it. Author George Ciccariello-Maher is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Drexel University.
Check out Bluestockings’ Safer Space Policy for guidelines on how help Bluestockings be a supportive environment during events and at all times.