News Release

San Francisco – The San Francisco Public Library is pleased to present a series of engaging GLBT related events in March hosted by its James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center. The Center is a gateway to collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area. This month, the Center welcomes Lambda Literary Awards finalists, editor Mattilda (a.k.a Matt Bernstein Sycamore) and author/filmmaker Jim Tushinski.

“The Library is thrilled to have such a stellar line-up of programs representing the diversity of the local queer literary community,” said Jim Van Buskirk, Manager of the Hormel Center. March starts off with an exciting Bay Area exclusive when more than ten Lambda Literary Awards finalists read from their nominated works. Patrick Califia (The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name : Essays on Queer Desire and Sexuality), Lucy Jane Bledsoe (This Wild Silence) and Michelle Tea (The Beautiful) are just three of the nominees attending the March 2, 2004 reading event and reception in the Main Library’s Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. The non-profit Lambda Literary Foundation organizes the Awards and is the only national organization dedicated to the recognition and promotion of gay and lesbian literature.

Thursday, March 4, 2004 brings Ian Philips, Jessy Luanni Wolf, Daphne Gottlieb, Charna Cassell, Veronica Monet and Jim Van Buskirk to read from the new anthology Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving, which includes 26 true stories of growing up queer in families that magnify the horrors of the outside world instead of offering protection. The book’s editor Mattilda (a.k.a Matt Bernstein Sycamore) will moderate the event from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room on the Lower Level of the Main Library.

Writer/filmmaker Jim Tushinski comes to the Library on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 in celebration of his debut novel, Van Allen's Ecstasy, just out from Haworth Press. Novelist Jean Thompson has already called Van Allen's Ecstasy “a passionate novel about the passion of creativity...by turns wry, spooky, and aching.” In addition, Tushinski will screen a special sneak preview excerpt from his forthcoming feature-length documentary, “That Man: Peter Berlin,” which profiles the internationally famous photographer/filmmaker/adult entertainer. The event will he held in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Public Library.

The Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library welcomes Strange De Jim on Wednesday, March, 24, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. for a lecture and slide show on San Francisco's Castro District. The Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library is located at 3555 16th Street (near Market).

All programs at the Library are free and open to the public. For more information about these events, please visit our Events page or call 415-557-4277. Funding for some of the programs is provided by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.