Join playwright, Lydia Stryk, in celebrating the launch of her first novel, THE TEACHERS’ ROOM, with a presentation by the author and a discussion of its themes with legendary activist/scholar Karla Jay and the historian of gender, sexuality and education, Rachel Rosenberg.

It is 1963, one of the most turbulent years in American history. The escalating tensions and conflicts in society at large are playing out in classrooms, principals’ offices, and school boards across the country, along with the first stirrings of social transformation, though the past still holds its suffocating grip. And behind the closed door of the teachers’ room in one small Midwest town, two teachers set eyes on each other and find it hard to look away.

“The Teachers’ Room is a remarkable novel. The presentation of the setting is beautifully evocative, truly recreating an era. And the historical background—1963 in the Midwest, teachers who had to be closeted or risk everything—was such an important and pivotal time in American social history. But The Teachers’ Room is never dry history. The plot will make the reader keep turning the pages. Most of all, The Teachers’ Room is a wonderful read—engaging, vivid in its depictions, deeply interesting in its characterizations, and very moving.” —Lillian Faderman, renowned scholar of lesbian and LGBT history and literature

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel

Safety protocol

In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please stay home.

Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.

Purchase The Teachers’ Room (Bywater Books, 2022, paperback, $17.95) from the Bureau’s online store (click on the title).

The Teachers’ Room is also available for purchase at the Bureau’s physical store.

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.

All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register.

Award-winning playwright Lydia Stryk was born and raised in DeKalb, Illinois, birthplace of barbed wire and flying ears of corn. After high school, she trained at the Drama Centre in London and pursued an acting career in New York for exactly one year before returning to school to study History and Education. While completing a Master’s degree in Journalism, she wrote a first play, and went on to complete a Ph.D. in Theatre. Her dissertation, “Acting Hysteria: An Analysis of the Actress and Her Part”, was her attempt to understand why acting the woman’s role onstage felt pathological. She has taught in the New York City public school system and in colleges, and her plays have been produced across the country and beyond. She also writes essays, including her latest, “A Playwright Crosses the Border into Fiction”. The Teachers’ Room is her first novel.

Karla Jay, PhD is Distinguished Professor Emerita of English, Women’s & Gender Studies, and Queer Studies at Pace University in New York City. She has written, edited, and translated ten award-winning books, the most recent of which is Tales of the Lavender Menace: a Memoir of Liberation. The first woman chair of the Gay Liberation Front and a co-founder of Radicalesbians (the Lavender Menace action), she has been a Grand Marshal of New York’s Pride March twice.

Rachel Rosenberg is a scholar of US gender and sexuality history and history of education. Her work focuses on the policing, experiences, and activism of women teachers in the 20th century. She is a former sixth grade teacher and is currently a PhD candidate in history at Yale University.