BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
LIVE from the BUREAU! An Open Mic Night
Organized by Andrew Bell
LGBTQ 2015 : Top, Bottom, Versatile; This, That, Whatever is the theme of the March 28th installment of LIVE from the BUREAU!
Curated by Christopher Atamian
with a special performance by Music Bear Tony Banks
Featuring:
Nancy Agabian
Christopher Atamian
Christopher Bram
Alex Ossola
Lousine Shamamian
With Swiss-style chocolates by The Lost Sense and port wine tasting.
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Nancy Agabian is the author of Princess Freak (Beyond Baroque Books, 2000), a mixed genre collection of poems, short prose, and performance texts on young women’s sexuality and rage, and Me as her again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (Aunt Lute Books, 2008) a memoir about the influence of her Armenian family’s history on her coming-of-age. Me as her again was honored as a Lambda Literary Award finalist for LGBT Nonfiction and shortlisted for a William Saroyan International Prize. Her essays have been published in Ararat, The Brooklyn Rail, Women Studies Quarterly (The Feminist Press) and the anthologies Homelands: Women’s Journeys Across Race, Place and Time (Seal Press) andForgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian American Writers (Heyday Books). Collections of her poems appear in the anthologies Birthmark (Open Letter Press) and Deviation (Inknagir). Nancy has also written and performed several one-woman shows, which have been presented internationally — in Geneva, Milan and Yerevan. With Ann Perich, she formed the folk-punk duo Guitar Boy and released a CD, Freaks Like Me. A Fulbright scholar to Armenia for 2006-07, she is currently working on “The Fear of Large and Small Nations” a novel on the influences of nationalism, corruption, and family on personal freedom in post-Soviet Armenia. As a community writing workshop leader, she has worked with multicultural groups in Los Angeles, women writers in Yerevan, and immigrants & first-generation writers in Queens, New York, where she lives. Nancy has an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She teaches creative writing at Queens College, where she was awarded for excellence in teaching in 2012, and in the Writing Program at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. In 2012, she founded Heightening Stories, a series of community-based writing workshops for the personally brave and socially conscious, online and in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Christopher Atamian is a native New Yorker who writes about different topics of interest in the arts and current events. He has produced and directed videos, films and plays internationally including the 2006 OBIE Award winning play Trouble in Paradise and was included in the 2009 Venice Biennale for his video “Sarafian’s Desire.” he has written one novel and translated six books.
Drew Bell is a full-time painter and Bureau volunteer happy to be making his contribution as an event organizer.
Christopher Bram grew up in Kempsville, Virginia (outside Norfolk), where he was a paperboy and an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1974 (B.A. in English). He moved to New York City in 1978.
His nine novels range in subject matter from gay life in the 1970s to the career of a Victorian musical clairvoyant to the frantic world of theater people in contemporary New York. Fellow novelist Philip Gambone wrote of his work, “What is most impressive in Bram’s fiction is the psychological and emotional accuracy with which he portrays his characters. . . His novels are about ordinary gay people trying to be decent and good in a morally compromised world. He focuses on the often conflicting claims of friendship, family, love and desire; the ways good intentions can become confused and thwarted; and the ways we learn to be vulnerable and human.” Bram has written numerous articles and essays (a selection is included in Mapping the Territory). He has also written or co-written several screenplays, including two shorts directed by his partner, Draper Shreeve.
His novel Father of Frankenstein, about film director James Whale, was made into the movie Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, and Brendan Fraser. Bill Condon adapted the screenplay and directed. (Condon won an Academy Award for his adaptation.)
Bram was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001. In May 2003, he received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in Greenwich Village and teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University.
Alexandra (Alex) Ossola is a freelance science journalist based in New York City. She writes about a lot of things, but lately she’s into biology, tech, animals and education. Tweet at her with jokes or story ideas at @alexandraossola. Yeah, she’s holding a frog in that picture.
Lousine Shamamian‘s professional career started in post-production where she’s been working as a television editor for over 9 years. But, way before that, back in the second grade her true love was acting. After being bypassed for the lead role in Pirates of Penzance and getting the role of Ruth, the older half-blind nursemaid, Lousine realized she would never get the coveted lead role. Being a plump little girl, she made note then that the big girls usually didn’t get to be the lead. Almost 30 years later, Lousine has emerged as a comedian and actor, producing and writing her own material. Finally, she’s taken her creative curiosity into her own hands, performing in comedy clubs in NY as well as making bold webisodes for her series, Lousine: Lesbian Matchmaker To The Straights. She also recently had her adult acting debut on MTV’s Inside Joke.