The Bureau of General Services – Queer Division invites you to an intimate evening of readings by Xeňa Stanislavovna Semjonová, Kevin Simmonds, and Joseph Whitt.

Xeňa Stanislavovna Semjonová is a poet, artist, and a translator living in New York City. Originally from Slovakia, she has performed in venues such as Dixon Place, Bowery Poetry Club, The Poetry Project, RADAR, SPECTRUM NYC, Strange Maine, Happy Endings, GRRRLS on FILM, Nicholas Robinson Gallery, and others. She was selected as a 2013 Poets House Fellow, and was also the recipient of the 2013 QAM Fellowship. She is currently working on her first full-length novel entitled SHE, and is curator of the WHAT NOW audio anthology supported by the Jerome Foundation and the Raymond Federman Foundation of Experimental Fiction.

Kevin Simmonds is a writer and musician originally from New Orleans. His books include the full-length collections bend to it and Mad for Meat (both from Salmon Poetry), and the edited works Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality (Sibling Rivalry Press) and Ota Benga Under my Mother’s Roof (University of South Carolina). He has composed numerous musical works for voice and chamber ensemble, as well as for stage productions such as Emmett Till, a river and the Emmy Award-winning documentary HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica. A recipient of fellowships and commissions from Cave Canem, Creative Work Fund, Fulbright, the Pulitzer Center, San Francisco Arts Commission and the Edward Stanley Award from Prairie Schooner, he divides his time between Japan and San Francisco.

Originally from Alabama, Joseph Whitt is an artist, writer and independent curator living and working in New York City. His work has been presented at MOMA PS1, PPOW Gallery, Eyedrum, Deitch Projects, CRG Gallery, Envoy Enterprises, and Interstate Projects, and has been reviewed in The New York Times, Flash Art, and Sculpture. His writings have appeared in Art Papers, ArtUS, Useless Magazine and K48. He has released two chapbooks of poetry – 09.29.12 and Defriendings (both from T.M.I. Ltd.) – and is currently working on a third.

Publications by the authors will be available for purchase.

This event is free and open to the public.