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Queerest. Library. Ever.  May 2021

James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center 
Hello dear readers!
It's been over a year since our last newsletter. And what a year it's been! We are pleased to announce that we are back with a lineup of virtual programs for LGBTQIA Pride Month. To see updates on the library's current, limited, in-person services, visit this link: https://sfpl.org/sfpl-to-go/browse-bounce.
 

From the Shades of LGBTQI photo collection - "A woman sitting at her typewriter."  Date: between 1983 and 1985.  Photo Id# SFP78-005-425. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Programs and Events
Brontez Purnell in conversation with Alvin Orloff
Tuesday, June 1st, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Virtual event hosted on Zoom; register at this link: https://bit.ly/BrontezPurnell06-01-21
 
Brontez Purnell and Alvin Orloff discuss 100 Boyfriends, our On The Same Page selection for June 2021. Transgressive, foulmouthed and brutally funny, 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. Publisher’s Weekly writes, “Purnell brilliantly immerses the reader in Black, queer desire with humor, self-awareness and just the right amount of vulgarity.”   
 
Show Us Your Spines QTBIPOC Artists Showcase presented by RADAR Productions
Thursday, June 3rd, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Virtual event hosted on Twitch; register at this link: www.bit.ly/suys-63
 
SHOW US YOUR SPINES is a month-long writer residency + reading in collaboration with the SF Public Library’s Hormel Center. Despite the pandemic, RADAR is determined to make space for creatives, so the residency lives on in the virtual world with the assistance of our Program Manager and SUYS co-conspirator, Mason J.
Featuring…
  • Nefertiti Asanti
  • Ashton Young
  • Sydney Latimer aka Divinewords
  • Jon Wai-Keung Lowe
 
Queer Mystery Panel
Tuesday, June 15th, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Virtual event on Zoom; register at this link: https://bit.ly/MysteryPanel06-15-21
 
Five acclaimed queer mystery writers, Michael Nava (moderator), Cheryl A. Head, Greg Herren, Dharma Kelleher, and P.J. Verson discuss the mystery genre and its special attraction to queer writers who, in the last few decades, have written some of the genre's most provocative work.

Sarah Schulman in conversation with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Thursday, June 17th, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Virtual event hosted on Zoom; register at this link: https://bit.ly/SarahSchulman06-17-21
 
Writer, historian and activist, Sarah Schulman, discusses her new book, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993. Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members, Let the Record Show is the most comprehensive political history ever assembled of ACT UP and American AIDS activism. In just six years, ACT UP New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities and backgrounds, changed the world.
 
Tom Ammiano in conversation with Tim Redmond
Tuesday, June 22nd, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Virtual event hosted on Zoom; register at this link: https://bit.ly/TomAmmiano06-22-21
 
Tom Ammiano discusses his recently published autobiography, Kiss My Gay Ass: My Trip Down the Yellow Brick Road Through Activism, Stand-up, and Politics. The book follows Tom from his arrival in San Francisco on a Greyhound bus, through the flopsweat trials of professional comedy and deep into the halls of power at City Hall and the State Capitol. Tom Ammiano's story could only happen in one place: San Francisco. 
 
And even more LGBTQIA programs for the month of June!
  • A.B.O. Comix, Voices of LGBTQ Prisioners – June 7th, 7 p.m. Register here: http://bit.ly/Summer6-7-21
  • San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s Takes on Romeo and Juliet – June 13, 2 p.m. Register here: bit.ly/2OH4i28
  • Protect and Serve: The Military and the Bay Area's LGTBTQ+ Community – June 25, 11 a.m. Register here: https://sfpl-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zOutO1cUTBC_tkTFK1YlIg
  • Book club: Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends – June 28, 7 p.m. Register here: http://bit.ly/OTSPBkClb6-28-21
 
Books & more
For your reading pleasure, please find the following Staff Picks. You can also explore the Hormel Center collections at this link: https://sfpl.org/lgbtqia.
 
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
by Angela Chen

Ace delves into the lives of those who identify using the little-known sexual orientation of asexuality and shows what all of us can learn--about desire, identity, culture, and relationships--when we use an asexual lens to see the world.  -Provided by the publisher
Jonny Appleseed
by Joshua Whitehead
 
A tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and proud NDN glitter princess who must reckon with his past when he returns home to his reserve. The audiobook version, read by author, is particularly heartbreaking and beautiful. Recently selected as the winner of CBCBooks Canada Reads, sort of like One City One Book, but for all of Canada. 
  
Funeral Diva
by Pamela Sneed
 
In this collection of personal essays and poetry, acclaimed poet and performer Pamela Sneed details her coming of age in New York City during the late 1980s. Funeral Diva captures the impact of AIDS on black queer life, and highlights the enduring bonds between the living, the dying, and the dead.
-Provided by the publisher
Opening banner images: Collection on Sylvester (GLC101), Nancy Tucker T-Shirt Collection (GLC 25), and Molly McKay and Davina Kotulski Marriage Scrapbooks (GLC 96),  James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center.

100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, California 94102
(415)557-4537 | sfpl.org/lgbtqia
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