Restore ReDress!
Bring back the best independent plus size store in the world! (With more options and a new storefront!)
I just started crying the second the video started and haven’t stopped yet.
ReDress changed my life, Rachel Kacenjar changed my life and I’m SO excited to see what she does with such an important gamechanging project. The kind of power you give a fat body when you provide that person the opportunity to dress in a way that makes them feel good is invaluable. So many members of my family in this video doing amazing work and I’m just so fucking proud to know you <3
PLEASE HELP ANY WAY YOU CAN!!I donated! Help bring them back! - Haley
Christina & Amelia
(via femmethings)
Christophe Jacrot, Winter in Town (New York City)
(via boneforest)
We reached $110 in less than 24 hours for Ali Forney Center (LGBTQ youth centered destroyed by Sandy) by selling $4 bookmark packages! See how a small contribution helps? Keep the orders coming! They make great gifts…
100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of my bookmarks will be donated to the Ali Forney Center. This is all I have to sell and contribute, the things I have made.
With so many communities and neighbors in need, the decision to pick one recipient was a tough one. When I read that Ali Forney was flooded and shut down, I immediately thought of all my LGBTQ students over the years who have lived in quiet fear or have been kicked out of their families home due to revealing their identity. This shelter had always been incredibly relevant for these reasons, and I am moved to help them reopen their doors as soon as possible.
Read about Ali Forney Center’s devastation here.
Buy bookmarks (they make great gifts!) and contribute with us.
(via rkb)
The Ali Forney Center, the largest and most comprehensive LGBT homeless youth organization in the country, suffered a major lose due to Hurricane Sandy. Their drop-in center, which is a lifeline to kids who live on the streets, was destroyed. Below is a letter from their executive director, Carl Siciliano, detailing the situation and how you can help. (Hint: they really need your money.)
This organization is near and dear to my heart, I’m on the Board of Directors and have produced The Broadway Beauty Pageant for them for many years. Please give what you can to this very important cause.
Dear Friends,
Yesterday we were finally able to inspect our drop-in center in Chelsea, half a block from the Hudson River. Our worst fears were realized; everything was destroyed and the space is uninhabitable. The water level went four feet high, destroying our phones, computers, refrigerator, food and supplies.
This is a terrible tragedy for the homeless LGBT youth we serve there. This space was dedicated to our most vulnerable kids, the thousands stranded on the streets without shelter, and was a place where they received food, showers, clothing, medical care, HIV testing and treatment, and mental health and substance abuse services. Basically a lifeline for LGBT kids whose lives are in danger.
We are currently scrambling for a plan to provide care to these desperate kids while we prepare to ultimately move into a larger space that will better meet our needs. The NYC LGBT Center has very kindly and generously offered to let us temporarily use some of their space, and we hope to determine the viability of that on Monday.
We have been deluged with kind offers from people who wish to volunteer and donate goods. Unfortunately, we will have to provide our services in the time being in much smaller spaces that won’t accommodate volunteers or allow for much storage space. The best way people can reach out to help in this very challenging time is by making monetary donations. Please go to our website at www.aliforneycenter.org/hurricanesandy
It is heartbreaking to see this space come to such a sad end. For the past seven years it has been a place of refuge to thousands of kids reeling from being thrown away by their parents for being LGBT. For many of these kids coming to our drop-in center provided their first encounter with a loving and affirming LGBT community. I thank all of you for your care and support in a most difficult time.
- Carl Siciliano
omg, this is just heartbreaking. please help if you can!!!
(via tgstonebutch)
Free Admission!
“PARIAH”
October 18, 2012, 7-9PM
Kimmel Center for University Life, Room 802
60 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
(via racialicious)
Tori Amos, Flavor
from the forthcoming album Gold Dust
QUEERS HEART ABORTION
Thursday, March 22UC Lounge
87 Ludlow St
NYC 10002Doors open at 6:30 pm
Show begins promptly at 7 pm
Show ends promptly at 9 pm$5-$10 sliding scale (no one turned away)
Performances by:
Drae Campbell
Kelli Dunham
Red Durkin
Melissa Gira Grant
Jessica Halem
Aimee Herman
Busty Kitten
LeRoi Prince
Sinclair Sexsmith
Jami Smith
Ariel Speedwagon100% of proceeds go to directly supporting Chicago Abortion Fund.
CAF assists low-income people in obtaining safe abortion services by
providing clinic referrals, negotiated discounts and financial
assistance.Every dollar we raise will go directly to cover cash assistance to
those who need second trimester abortions through the award-winning
non-profit Chicago Abortion Fund: http://www.chicagoabortionfund.com/.Second trimester abortions are more expensive than first trimester and
often become necessary solely because it takes longer for those
without access to credit cards or hundreds of dollars in cash to
quickly gather the funds. By the time one has gathered the money for
the first trimester - it’s now second trimester and DOUBLE the price.CAF runs a hotline that people call and literally they pick
up the phone and give out cash grants. As long as they have money,
they answer the phone. Some months they have to stop answering the phone.Join a huge amazing line-up of queer performance stars as we come
together to raise funds for abortion. Because Queers Heart Abortion.
Everyone knows it.P.S. The Executive Director of this awesome organization will be at
the event to tell us more about her work on the front lines of
abortion rights.
Call for Submissions: Sex in NYC
Sex in New York City: Tales of Pleasure and Perversity in the Big Apple
Editor: Ralph Greco, Jr.
Publisher: Sizzler Editions
Deadline: April 1, 2012
Payment: $25, paid on publication; First North American Anthology Rights
We are looking for stories from new and established authors celebrating one of the busiest-and sexiest-cities on earth. Pulsating with a vibrancy unlike any other location how can one think about New York City without thinking of the orgasm-like rise of steam shooting-up through manholes, men and women jostling their bodies oh-so-close in the dirty bowels of subway cars, of the bright lights and the limos whisking couples who knows where for God knows what?
Writers who live in or have been to The Big Apple now get their chance to take a big bite out of it in any way they choose, using the full expanse of this amazing city’s locations, from Times Square, to the The Village, to clear across to one of the vibrant ethnic enclaves of neighboring boroughs like Brooklyn of Queens.
Sex in New York City, like all Sizzler Editions, is open to submissions featuring all sexual and gender orientations. We seek stories with whatever kind of sex seems true to NYC…and you. From tender romances to the hardest kinks: a naughty canoodle in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral to a high-class dom/client meet in an upper east-side apartment; everything is permissible just as long as NYC is the backdrop. And the folks populating your tales should be as vibrant and unique as this city they have come to play in.
Guidelines and submission details at:
erotica-readers.com/ERA/AR/Sex_In_New_York_City.htm
Georgia O’Keeffe - The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y., 1926
Oil on canvas
123.2 x 76.8 cm (48 1/2 x 30 1/4 in.)
Signed, titled, and dated on label on reverse
Gift of Leigh B. Block, 1985.206
© Georgia O’Keeffe Museum American Art
On view in Gallery 271 at the Art Institute of Chicago
Writing Workshop for Survivors of Sexual Abuse in NYC
Moving Our Embodied Stories
Creative resilience workshops for survivors of sexual abuse
Facilitated by
SAMANTHA BARROW
SALIHA BAVA
NEXT WORKSHOP SERIES:
TIME: 4 Saturdays, 1-3 PM
April 22 & 30, May 7th & 14th
PLACE: New York City - email for exact location
FEES: $160 for four sessions.
Partial scholarships available.
“As I healed, it dawned on me that sexual energy was a positive and powerful force in my own recovery.”
Staci Haines
Healing & Celebrating the Erotic Creating Together
We approach this workshop as a creative space to engage that part of ourselves that seeks movement, in writing, in community, in creative embodied play; that which may be blocked or not or desires full attention.
We live the stories we tell. We will explore our embodied stories we have lived and continue to live, and how we choose to live our stories, our bodies, and our possibilities.
We will explore our innate resiliencies as we open space for memories and experiences characterized by pain, abuse, violence or suffering. We seek energy from the sensual powers and imaginative feats that keep our hearts beating alive each day.
How We Do This
The Space
We begin by going through a series of introductions. We talk about how we came to do this work as a survivor, poet, counselor, and educators; then co- create our ground rules and safety nets within the group. Using Narrative Medicine and Relational Thinking, we engage in a series of exercises, including but not limited to meditation, writing, movement and creative play designed to
- create a feeling of safety in our own bodies and among the group
- honor whatever we bring with us in relation to our body memory and desire
- celebrate and explore our erotic imaginations in all their complexities
There will be time to share parts of our writings and explorations but no one will be forced to.
Who We Are
Being and Becoming
SALIHA BAVA, PhD is a couples and family therapist, consultant and a leading thinker in the transformative field of play and performance in trauma therapy and strategic relational thinking. She has over twenty years of experience in human development and in helping people design lives that are meaningful and transformative. She is the Director of Research at the International Trauma Studies Program and has written about relational approaches to trauma and performative practices. She has her PhD from Virginia Tech and is an Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry and Doctoral Advisor at the Taos/Tilburg PhD in Social Sciences. Originally from India, Saliha lives in NYC with her partner and his 5-year-old son.
SAMANTHA BARROW, MS is a poet, performer, activist and writer. She recently completed her masters in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, and is studying at the International Trauma Studies Program in NYC to fortify her work writing with and advocating for survivors of sexual assault. She’s been known to ride her motorcycle around the country, sharing her poems in bars, universities, libraries, cafes and sex shops. She has received multiple grants from the Leeway Foundation to tour and to facilitate Sound/Body/Love/Poem; gently erotic poetry workshops for survivors of sexual abuse.
She is the author of GRIT and tender membrane (Plan B Press). Her poetry, prose, reviews and interviews have been widely published, and she writes a quarterly column “Broadening Gender” for Avalon Magazine. She lives in New York City.
Please email us with any questions. We are also happy to talk on the phone.
FAQ
Do you have to be a poet or artist?
No. People with all levels of writing and artistic experience - as well as levels of resistance, fear & nervousness - are welcome.
Can you define “survivor of sexual abuse?”
Language around these issues is always tricky and incomplete. The most important thing is for people to find the terms they are most comfortable identifying with. For the purpose of this workshop, anyone that has experienced sexual assault, abuse, violence or trauma on any level, including the broad range of second hand or gender based or cultural violence, is welcome. Our focus is on counteracting its influence. While it is important to recognize that sexual violence has varying degrees of impact on our lives, we are not interested in comparing pain.
Is this workshop for women only?
This workshop is open to people of all genders unless specified otherwise. Almost all of the people who attend are women.
Never heard of Queer Memoir? Check our our website, including our One Year of Stories, RSVP on facebook, or learn more about Queer Memoir’s founders and hosts, playwright Genne Murphy and ex nun genderqueer comic Kelli Dunham.
rkb:
Yes, I organized this. For those who are telling me they miss In The Flesh. It’s not all erotica but there is some in there. And free!
March 26, FREE, Rainbow Book Fair, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Center (there are a LOT of other events including panels and a Poets Salon too).
Readings
Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel
BOOK SIGNINGS AT BOLD STROKES BOOKS TABLE
………Felice Picano 11:30
………Nell Stark and Trinity Tam 12:30
………Bobbi Marolt 1:00… READING SERIES11:30–12:00 THOMAS GLAVE
12:00 Bobbie Geary, Learning Erotica
12:05 Nell Stark and Trinity Tam, nevermore (Bold Strokes Books)
12:10 Rakesh Satyal, Blue Boy (Kensington Books)
12:15 Andrew Grey
12:20 Rob Stephenson, Passes Through (Uphook Press)12:30–1:00 CHRISTOPHER BRAM
1:00 Charlie Vazquez, Contraband
1:05 Aimee Herman, hell strung and crooked(Uphook Press)
1:10 Michael Schiavi, Celluloid Activist
1:15 Sinclair Sexsmith, Sugarbutch Chronicles
1:20 Jee Leong Koh, Seven Studies for a Self Portrait1:30–1:50 FELICE PICANO
1:50-2:00 break
2:00–2:30 RAY LUCZAK Road Work Ahead (Sibling Rivalry Press)
2:30 Susan Rosenberg, An American Radical
2:35 Cris Beam, I Am J
2:40 John Marcus Powell(Uphook Press)
2:45 Norman Beim
2:50 Lolan Buhain Sevilla, Translating New Brown3:00–3:30 MARTIN DUBERMAN
3:05 Kathleen Warnock, Best Lesbian Erotica 2010
3:10 Robert Gibbons, hell strung and crooked(Uphook Press)
3:15 Tim Brough, Black Gloves White Magic
3:20 Ken Harvey
3:30 TBA
4:00 Vicki L. Eaklor, Queer America: A People’s GLBT History of the United States
4:05 Mathew Hupert, Ism is a Retrovirus
4:10 Peter Carlaftes, A Year on Facebook
4:15 Kat Georges, Hunger Sinner
4:20 Ronnie Norpel, Baseball Karma & The Constitution Blues
clearly I need to visit this place.
simko:D’espresso designed by Nemaworkshop…
When Eugene Kagansky, the owner of D’Espresso on the Lower East Side, decided to open another bar a block away from the , he told his designer, “Let’s do a coffee bar that looks like a library, but would be more interesting.”
So Anurag Nema, the founder of nemaworkshop, a Manhattan design firm, did something interesting: he flipped the coffee shop on its side.
Glazed tiles printed with images of books create the illusion of bookshelves tilted sideways, running along the ceiling, down the rear wall and onto the floor. Another wall is covered in herringbone-patterned oak flooring. And the spherical glass lights jut out horizontally from behind the bar, rather than hanging from the ceiling. (via)
I adore the clever concept and try to swing by this spot whenever I’m in the neighborhood.
