BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
This reading brings together five poets from Chicago and the Midwest who currently find themselves in New York. Readers include Cortney Lamar Charleston, H. Melt, Angel Nafis, José Olivarez, and Diamond Sharp.
Cortney Lamar Charleston lives in Jersey City, NJ but originates from South Holland, IL. He is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania’s performance poetry collective, The Excelano Project, and a founder of BLACK PANTONE, an inclusive digital cataloging of black identity. His poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, Eleven Eleven, Folio, The Normal School, Chiron Review, J Journal, Kweli Journal, Winter Tangerine Review, CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art & Action and elsewhere. He has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. Originally from Calumet City, IL, he lives in the Bronx. He is a graduate of Harvard University, the Poet-Linc Manager for Lincoln Center Education, and he is an editor at Painted Bride Quarterly. He has performed and taught at high schools, universities, and book festivals across the country, and his work has been published or is forthcoming inThe BreakBeat Poets, The Acentos Review, Specter Magazine, Side B Magazine, Union Station Magazine, and Luna Luna Magazine among other places. His work has also been featured on Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie basketball blog, Chicago Public Radio, and on Mass Poetry’s PoeTry on the T program. His first book, Home Court, is available at https://homecourtpoems.tumblr.
