Kick off National Poetry Month at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division as two award-winning queer poets, Lisa Dordal & Emanuel Xavier, share their poems of wisdom, struggle, and transformation.

If you can’t join us in person, watch the live-stream of the event on the Bureau’s YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzrAvfZMDF_ilmUH0CBn5iA

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.

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 or you can donate in advance on Eventbrite.

Purchase books from the Bureau’s online store:

Emanuel Xavier’s Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier (Queer Mojo, 2021, paperback, $12.95)

Also available in Spanish: Poemas Seleccionados de Emanuel Xavier ($12.95)

Lisa Dordal’s Water Lessons (Black Lawrence Press, 2022, paperback, $16.95)

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

Copies of these titles are also available at the Bureau’s physical store and can be purchased at the reading.

Lisa Dordal holds a Master of Divinity and a Master of Fine Arts, both from Vanderbilt University, and teaches in the English Department at Vanderbilt. She is the author of Mosaic of the Dark, which was a finalist for the 2019 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, and Water Lessons (April 2022). She is a Pushcart Prize and Best-of-the-Net nominee and the recipient of an Academy of American Poets University Prize, the Robert Watson Poetry Prize, and the Betty Gabehart Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Narrative, Image, RHINO, The Sun, The New Ohio Review, Best New Poets, Greensboro Review, Ninth Letter, and CALYX. Her website is www.lisadordal.com

Poet and activist, Emanuel Xavier was born in Brooklyn, New York, and became involved in the ball scene as a homeless gay teen. Xavier has received recognition as a spoken word artist from national colleges and universities and was named an LGBTQ Icon by The Equality Forum. He has been presented a New York City Council Citation Award, received International Latino Book Award and Lambda Literary Award nominations and American Library Association Over the Rainbow Books selections for his collections which include: Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious, and Radiance. He is the recipient of a Gay City Impact Award and The Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award. Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier was a Kirkus Review Best Indie Book of 2021. His website is www.emanuelxavier.org