Mid July Events Calendar

We host events nearly every night and you will not be turned away from an event at Bluestockings for lack of money.

Thursday, July 15th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Performance: Leah B. “— And Her Brain”
Gender EDGE philosophy. Punk inspiration. Arty expressions (free verse poetry, fragmented music, photographic snapshots). Join Leah B. for a performance and anecdotal discussion of her home-spun booklet “— And Her Brain,” about her experiences as a young trans woman.

Saturday, July 17th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Cárdenas & Fornssler “Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs”
In their new book “Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs,” Micha Cárdenas and Barbara Fornssler explore the ramifications of using desire as the basis for contemporary political movements rooted in a struggle for autonomy, from the perspective of a transgender person about to begin hormone replacement therapy. Trans Desire proposes that radical queer porn is an example of world building that effectively resists biopower without making demands for rights and legislative reforms.

Sunday, July 18th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Zelda Lockhart “Fifth Born II”
Writing about AIDS, the eradication of shame, and witnessing, award winning author Zelda Lockhart reads and discusses her new novel “Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle”.

Tuesday, July 20th @ 7PM - Free
Mini-Festival: T Cooper “The Beaufort Diaries”
T Cooper shows off his new book “The Beaufort Diaries”. Polar Bear plushie-wearing Geo Wyeth (of Jive Grave) plays some songs. The Shondes make music too!

Wednesday, July 21st @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Monica Nolan “Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher”
Join Monica Nolan for a reading of “Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher” and for a discussion of lesbian pulp fiction. Yes, Bobby Blanchard leaves no sapphic cliché unmolested.

Thursday, July 22nd @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Discussion: Boykin, Dunlea, Wohl “Cheap Calories, Expensive Nutrition”
U.S. agricultural policies are rife with conflicting priorities, and the current federal farm bill promotes gross calorie production over any nuances in nutritional value. Join Derrick Boykin from Bread for the World, Mark Dunlea of Hunger Action Network of New York State, and Doreen Wohl of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger for a discussion about the food on your plate, agricultural support systems, and the livelihood of small farmers.

Sunday, July 25th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Presentation: Daniel Drennan “Creative Resistance In Lebanon”
Formed in 2009, artists collective Jamaa al-Yad (Raised Fist) has been working with Bedouin farmers, migrant workers, and folks in Palestine refugee camps. Welcome co-founder Daniel Drennan and see his presentation of the creative works emerging from these collaborations.

Monday, July 26th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Lyle “Scam” & Miller “Ghost Pine”
Come cheer the release of two books: Eric Lyle’s “Scam Zine: The First Four Years” and Jeff Miller’s “Ghost Pine: All Stories True.” Lyle’s collection includes the long unavailable first four issues of Scam and serves up bold tales from a frolicking 90’s subculture. Miller’s collection includes the best of Ghost Pine, one of the most engaged and long running punk zines. Join them and local zinesters Eleanor Whitney (”Indulgence”) and Colin Atrophy (”Slice Harvester”) for some words and some fun.

Tuesday, July 27th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Women’s / Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike
Featuring Allegra Mira & Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
Allegra Mira’s poems are lonesome, erotically-charged, fleeting-yet-frozen moments on kitchen floors, in parking garages, about frayed front porches. Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s poems and spoke word hits the nexus of genders, cultures, politics, generations. 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.

Wednesday, July 28th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Launch Contributors “Assembly Journal”
It is ready. It is launching. It is “Assembly Journal Volume #1″. Based in Brooklyn, “Assembly Journal” delivers an interplay between essays, interviews, fictions, and design arts. Come out for a reading and discussion by editors and launch contributors, including: Kashmir Hill, Philip Irwin and M. A. Wallace.

Sunday, August 1st @ 2:30PM - Free
Feminist Book Club: The Voltairine de Cleyre Reader
The Feminist Book Club reads and discusses feminism. We make no claim about what feminism is or whom it serves, and are not a forum for any particular feminist platform. Rather, we rely on feminism(s). We read theoretical texts, literature and primary works. We welcome all genders, political persuasions, and levels of familiarity. This month’s book (available at Bluestockings) is “The Voltairine de Cleyre Reader.”

Sunday, August 1st @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Scott & MacKay “Punk Rock Saved My Ass”
PRSMA (which is an acronym, which is punk!) is an anthology (which is multiplexed voices, which is punk!). Join editors Terena Scott and Jane MacKay and contributors Jennifer Blowdryer, Anne Hanavan, and Zoe Hansen for some transformative positive punk rock tales. Blowdryer has been a punk crooner and performer, and is the author of many books including “Good Advice for Young Trendy People of all Ages”. Hanavan has been a stripper and a junkie, and now creates experimental sexually explicit videos in service to confrontation and absolution. Hansen worked as a hooker-booker, and is now the co-host of the “Sex Workers Literati” reading series. Each is punk awesome.

Monday, August 2nd @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Presentation: Daniel Tucker “Document Your Social Movements”
Perhaps we can overcome the observer-expectancy effect and properly document contemporary social movements. Daniel Tucker offers examples of large-scale artistic documentary projects undertaken to understand such movements, including: AREA Chicago (a publication and event series), Town Hall Meetings (a group interview system), and Farm Together Now (thematic interviews with activist-farmers). Join Tucker for a presentation on the approaches he has taken and on the lessons he has learned. Visit miscprojects.com for more.

Tuesday, August 3rd @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Presentation: Joel Olson “Racial Order and Arizona SB 1070″
The State Senate in Arizona (that’s 17 voting members) decided to solve the ‘immigration problem’ by passing SB 1070. Worse, it seems that a great many Americans are supportive of the solution. Join Joel Olson of the Repeal Coalition for a discussion about struggles over white identity, about contemporary populist actions by state powers to impose of racial order, and about obviating both nativist and reformist views through international grassroots movements. Olson is the author of “The Abolition of White Democracy” and teaches political theory at Northern Arizona University.

Wednesday, August 4th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Screening: Global Goods Partners “Child Brides: Stolen Lives” (2007, 60 minutes)
The documentary “Child Brides: Stolen Lives” looks at early child marriage around the world and the economic incentives for it. Come out for a screening and meet the folks from the non-profit organization Global Goods Partners who are actively developing artisan economies to help alleviate the poverty that produced the forced marriage of young girls. Director Amy Bucher will NOT be in attendance.

Thursday, August 5th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Screening: Aaron Lehmann “Abode of the Serpent” (2010, 50 minutes)
The Indian region populated by Dangi people (also known as ‘the tribal children of Guarat’) is undergoing rapid westernization as a result of an economic boon, tourism, and technological modernization. Come out for a screening of the documentary “Abode of the Serpent” and discuss the transformation of Dang with director Aaron Lehmann.

Friday, August 6th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Chris Bobel “New Blood”
With an ethnographic lens, the book “New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation” illuminates roles of menstrual activism in advocacy movements (such as: feminist healthcare, environmental conversation, consumer rights) and it examines via menstruation the body politics between second and third wave feminism(s). Join Bobel for a reading and discussion of her book filled with personal narratives, playful visuals, and a clear accounting of today’s vibrant on-the ground feminism.

Saturday, August 7th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Jennifer Silverman “My Baby Rides the Short Bus”
With Shannon Des Roches Rosa, Jennifer Byde Myers, Sharis Ingram
Come out and hear contributors read from “My Baby Rides the Short Bus: The Unabashedly Human Experience of Raising Kids with Disabilities,” the groundbreaking anthology written by counter-cultural parents of kids with special needs. This collection provides a dose of laughter and authentic insights into the experience of folks often ridiculed into invisibility.

Sunday, August 8th @ 12:30PM - Free
Radical Educators Meetup
Join a group of educators engaged in inquiry of critical texts for a meetup and collaborative discussion of pedagogical values and practices. Please bring an article or an excerpt to contribute. Please contact stina@riseup.net for more information.

Monday, August 9th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Arthur Nersesian “Mesopotamia”
Things have not been going well for journalist Sandy Bloomgarten . . . but, when a tabloid offers her a freelance assignment just a stone’s throw from her childhood home in Mesopotamia, Tennessee, she takes it. However, she finds a different story: the killing Elvis impersonators performing at the annual Sing-the-King festival. Enjoy a reading from “Mesopotamia” by Nersesian, and consider reading his other novels too, including “The Fuck-Up,” “The Sacrificial Circumcision of the Bronx,” and “Manhattan Loverboy.”

Thursday, August 12th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Pegi Deitz Shea “Abe in Arms”
In the adult novel “Abe in Arms,” author Pegi Deitz Shea provides a satisfying portrait of an adopted young man whom is succeeding in his American adolescence while enduring horrific flashbacks from his former life in war-torn Africa. It is an action-filled book with a surprising, believable, and gratifying conclusion. Join her for a reading from the book and a discussion of effects of child soldiering. Pegi Deitz Shea has brought the worlds of refugees, immigrants, and child laborers to readers of all ages through her books, including “The Whispering Cloth,” and “Tangled Threads.”

Friday, August 13th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Amy Hatkoff “The Inner World of Farm Animals”
Farm animals ain’t just crops. They are social, emotional, and intelligent creatures. And much like humans, they suffer physical pain and mental anguish. Join author Amy Hatkoff for a reading and discussion of “The Inner World of Farm Animals,” which outlines the research on the intellectual and emotional abilities of farm animals, and also provides touching stories and soulful photographs.