• Toni Haugen is the founder of Queen City Health and Wellness in Buffalo, NY. She is an acupuncturist with expertise in Chinese herbal medicine and a trauma-informed approach. Toni believes no person is inherently broken and all people deserve to live free of pain.

  • A short story about language, time, death, Switzerland, and New York City as told through the work of graphic designer Dan Friedman.

    David Knowles is a graphic designer specializing in the fields of art, culture, and entertainment. He is the publisher of Domain Unlimited, publishing books on nightlife, design, queer culture, and more.

  • Microdosing fictionalized fear as a way of staying aline in the real world and other musings on how the horror film genre is queer coded.

    Jess Wegrzyn works in costume and wardrobe for film and television. She is fascinated by the intention, history, spirit, and wonder found in the details of costume design.

  • Manu Emercheo is a multimedia artist. He serves as the Assistant Director of Technical Operations at The New School. He has a passion for film, multimedia art, and the Muppets.

  • For thousands of years - before the invention of radio, TV, TikTok, and dank memes - reading aloud to one another was the central form of group entertainment. Today, reading has become a solo activity. A private one. A solitary one. And yet, despite its fall from popularity, reading aloud in groups is a ~magical~ experience with meaningful and therapeutic benefits. In this lecture, Mikey will explore the magic of sharing reading, dive into its queer history, and expand on how shared reading can be a powerful tool for building community.

    Mikey Friedman is the Founder of PAGE BREAK, a weekend reading retreat creating space for open conversation and meaningful connection. Mikey is an avid reader who likes bright colors, pickles, and sweating on the dance floor.

  • Art, music, architecture, etc. have all been critiqued from a queer viewpoint, but what about landscape design? Join us for an exploration of landscapes that can be argued are "queer" in their design and aesthetic qualities.

    Sami Sikanis is a landscape architect with a background in environmental science and urban studies and a dedication to creating landscapes that promote equity and well-being.

  • Bronzino and Homoeroticism in the Medici Court

    Sam Waxman is an artist specializing in photography, sculpture, and mixed-media with a background in art history and work spanning art, fashion, beauty, portrait, and commercial.

  • Derek St. Pierre is a costumer serving as Treasurer for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees with a background in theater performance and a passion for labor advocacy and social justice.

  • Adam Nye is an educator and nonprofit leader with expertise in informal learning and community engagement across schools, museums, and cultural spaces. Passionate about building community through shared learning experiences.

  • Alan Mishler is an AI Researcher specializing in causal inference and algorithmic fairness.

  • Play is essential to childhood development, but what happens when it’s suppressed or policed?

    This lecture explores what makes play powerful, the consequences of its suppression, and what it means for queer adults to reclaim play as a source of joy, connection, and self-expression.

    Adam Nye is an educator and nonprofit leader with expertise in informal learning and community engagement across schools, museums, and cultural spaces. He is the founder and host of Living Room Lectures.

  • When you live in a world designed to deny your existence, taking up space with your joy isn't frivolous—it's necessary. From Audre Lorde's articulation of the radical power of the erotic to adrienne maree brown's collection of voices in Pleasure Activism, queers have always cultivated traditions of joyful resistance. This work rejects both the puritanical bullshit that demonizes pleasure and capitalist systems that commodify it. The question is: to what end? Ora's approach bridges the false divide between "hard" activism (organizing, protesting) and "soft" activism (healing, restoration). It creates spaces where pleasure becomes political, ethical, accessible, and generative—not an escape from struggle but essential fuel for sustained resistance.

    Ora Wise is a co-creator of Queer Aperitivo and co-founder of FIG, a grassroots network of food, farm, and hospitality workers engaged in community healing and fighting fascism through food sovereignty and mutual aid.

  • So, what exactly is power? Power is a concept which feels central to so much of queer and contemporary discourse, yet when pressed, many could not define or conceptualize it.

    In this lecture, Beatrice will seek to define not only what we actually mean when we talk about ‘power,' but also how the queer experience can disrupt said definitions. She will go on to explore how these experiences can help queer people to gain a deeper and healthier relationship to power.

    Beatrice Coulter is a Brooklyn-based playwright and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores how systems of power manifest in the individual. She recently graduated from the University of Cambridge, where she specialized in the history of ideas and political thought.

  • Egyptology has tended to present gender as analogous to our own through the stable categories of male and female. This is perhaps most evident in the representation of the body in Egyptian Art. However, upon closer examination these distinctions are not as absolute as one might expect. Ancient Egyptian artists employed numerous methods which suggest that they viewed gender in radically different ways than we do. This lecture will dive into the concept of Ancient Egyptian gender through looking at the representation of the phallus.

    Peter Johnson is a historian and archaeologist specializes in the material culture of Northeast Africa, including Egypt and Nubia. Current project examines the influence of Nubia on a network of global trade and cultural exchange across the Mediterranean in the second half of the first century BCE.

  • Humans evolved through opposite-sex procreation, so why did natural selection keep us queer? In this lecture, Andrew will unpack the evolutionary basis for same-sex attraction. Through the lens of molecular genetics, we will interrogate sex and gender as human constructs, learning about ourselves, our history, and why queerness persists throughout the animal kingdom.

    Andrew Bazley is a graduate research scientist studying how cells regulate molecular diffusion in the endoplasmic reticulum. He earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and liberal arts from the University of Texas, followed by a M.Phil. in cell biology from the NYU School of Medicine. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in biochemistry and molecular biophysics.

Public Events

  • An exploration of how artists across centuries have woven forbidden themes of identity and desire into their work. Sam Waxman will analyze the subject matter, techniques, and societal constraints of Bronzino and other artists from the 15th-16th century Medici era of Florence to reveal how these artists subtly expressed homoerotic themes while creating intentional queer communities in the shadow of an oppressive regime. Drawing parallels to his own creative practice, Sam will also share examples of his photography to offer a contemporary perspective on these enduring themes. Through interactive analysis and discussion, we'll consider the connections between these historical works and today's artistic voices, highlighting how creativity flourishes even under constraint.

    Sam Waxman is a Brooklyn-based photographer, sculptor, and multimedia artist with work spanning fine art, fashion, portrait, and various types of commercial work. His art has been exhibited at galleries in New York City and Provincetown. Sam is currently the Art Director for Nasty Pig Incorporated. He holds a Master of Fine Art in photography, sculpture, and art history and a bachelor’s degree in photography and sculpture.

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  • Ora Wise will guide us through an exploration of the radical politics of pleasure. When you live in a world designed to deny your existence, taking up space with your joy isn’t frivolous — it’s necessary. From Audre Lorde’s articulation of the power of the erotic to adrienne maree brown’s collected voices of Pleasure Activism, queers have always cultivated traditions of joyful resistance and militant joy. This work rejects both the puritanical bullshit that demonizes pleasure and the capitalist systems that commodify it. The question is: to what end? Ora’s approach bridges the false divide between “hard” activism — organizing, protesting — and “soft” activism — beauty, care. Through a process of communal learning and reflection, we’ll consider how pleasure can be political, ethical, accessible, and generative — not an escape from struggle, but essential fuel for sustained resistance.

    Ora Wise is the co-creator of Queer Aperitivo and co-founder of FIG, a grassroots network of food, farm, and hospitality workers engaged in community healing and fighting fascism through food sovereignty and mutual aid.

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