LGBTQ Archives — bd-studios.com

Anastasia Walker on selfies, seasons, and swimming in the ocean 🤳🍃🌊

I was eager to talk with the gracious and witty Anastasia Walker, trans writer and photographer, to learn more about her transition and the inspiration behind her new book, The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is.

SK: Let’s start with the essay that concludes your book because reading it brought everything together for me. You express a longstanding distrust of cameras, yet you thrive in the medium of photography. How does your reappropriation of the medium help shift viewers’ perspectives?

AW: The selfie that essay starts with is a good place to begin. I took it when I was still finding myself and getting comfortable being out. Selfies, as part of the genre of portrait photography, and paintings before that, are informed by cis-normative conventions. A “good” selfie shows you looking and acting in ways that are typical for cis members of your gender. For women, it means meeting standards of beauty set by the movie and fashion industries. Becoming aware of these expectations, I was confronted with questions. Should I try to summon the smile that my friend in the essay chastised me about? Did performing all those expectations feel authentic? In that moment, it didn’t. And I liked that selfie because I was appropriating the genre to express my truth.

Photo of the poetry book The Girl Who Wasn't and Is by Anastasia Walker — The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is by Anastasia Walker

Dudgrick Bevins on teaching, trauma, and telling stories 🧑‍🏫😨🖋️

In the sweaty New York City July heat, I sat down with my friend and colleague, Dudgrick Bevins. We talked about his new poetry volume, Vigil, exploring a new generation’s relationship with school shootings and the unheard voices breathing desperately into a chorus of narrative poetry. Bevins is not only a prolific interdisciplinary artist and poet but a fellow educator. Here he reflects on what it means to navigate the role of teacher when talking to students about gun violence while still processing the chaotic internal emotions that each individual experiences in the aftermath of traumatic school shootings.

Michael Harren on animals, grief, and his multimedia marvels 🐓😭🎹

Both of our bellies full of watermelon, I sat down with Michael Harren to talk about The Animal Book, the book that archives The Animal Show, which in turn archives Michael’s multimedia artistic stylings, animal activism, and the culmination of the two: his vibrant, evoking artivism. I was eager to hear about the melding of such diverse methods, but also what lies behind them—the man, the emotion, the existential uncertainty. Michael shared his grief and joys with me in a humorous, self-effacing way.

Cover of The Animal Book by Michael Harren. The cover features a photo of a chicken perched on a person's arm in front of a wire fence. The title and author's name are written in white text at the bottom right corner. — *The Animal Book* by Michael Harren

This weekend we celebrate Pride here in New York. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how vital Pride is because I live just steps away from Stonewall, the epicenter of where the gay rights movement began. It’s not because I’m unaware of the persecution against LGBTQ+ folks—I’ve lived through my share of hardships because of my sexual identity. But amid the comings and goings of everyday life, it’s sometimes too easy to become comfortable.

Dudgrick Bevins on fear, family, and finding his spirit animal 😱👨‍👩‍👦🦌

I sat down with Dudgrick Bevins to discuss his debut full-length poetry collection, Route 4, Box 358. Struck by the way he explored his relationship with home, family and—ultimately—himself, I wanted to understand the stories behind the stories and what motivated Bevins to reveal the stories he did.

Dudgrick Bevins, bd Artists, bd Publication, book — *Route 4, Box 358* by Dudgrick Bevins

Poetry as protest and expression of pride 🌈

During the 2016 US Presidential Elections, I began to write more and more poems in reaction to current events. Before long I realized I had enough poems to make up a chapbook-length collection, and that’s what I thought it would be. But as time went on, I continued to write. I ended up with a collection of 40 poems, which I call exam(i)nation.

People often say politics aren’t personal. But that’s actually not true. What goes on in the political sphere affects me very directly as a queer person, just as it does for women, people of color, immigrants, and all the other groups of people under attack by conservative politics. It can’t be anything but personal when our lives are at stake.

exam(i)nation is both a protest and expression of pride. I hope you will be curious to learn about my experiences.

Announcing Here Nor There by Sam Rosenthal

bd-studios.com is pleased to announce our latest book, Here Nor There by Sam Rosenthal. Here Nor There presents the artists’ recent body of work of the same name which explores the confluence of conceptual photography, Internet technology, and queer identity. The book will be available at a book launch event at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division on 21 September at 7 PM. Rosenthal will also present a talk about his work followed by a brief Q&A session. Copies of the book will be available at the event or you can order online.

💋💋💋 New zine Kissing Hedwig out now 💋💋💋

If you’re on the bd email list, you already know we sent out an announcement a couple of weeks ago about my new zine Kissing Hedwig (if you’re not on the list, do sign up!). I debuted this new work at the 8th Annual Rainbow Book Fair in New York City. This is the second year bd-studios.com tabled along with our sister publisher New Lit Salon Press. We had a full table of artist publications and literary fiction available for purchase.

Kissing Hedwig is really special to me. The essay is a unique blend of memoir and Hedwig and the Angry Inch fanzine. The Hedwig show played an important part in my life as a young, queer artist coming of age in New York City in the late ’90’s. This zine is the first time I’ve publicly told part of my coming out story. There’s more to tell—and one day I will. But, for now, I hope you’ll enjoy Kissing Hedwig. The zine is lovingly made, hand bound, and custom stamped. It’s made with lots of love and I can’t imagine a more perfect expression of the story it tells inside. Contact us if you’d like to buy a copy!

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