BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//GayOut//Event Export//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:242521@gayout.com DTSTAMP:20260911T062012Z DTSTART:20261001T183000Z DTEND:20261001T200000Z SUMMARY:Florida Man: Text\\, Image\\, and Multimedia Approach to Self-Pub lishing and Promoting Autofiction and Memoirs DESCRIPTION:RSVP TO THIS EVENT HERE\\nThe “\\;Florida Man”\\; a rchetype of the mid-twentieth century lives on through the lively subvers ion of rigid gender expectations torn apart by the counterculture—an er a when resistance turned to campy rainbow colors\\, blinding Anita Bryant ’s bullhorn-fueled preaching.\\nJoin author and photojournalist Matthew Bamberg for an evening of queer historical quirks\\, outrageous storytel ling\\, and a National Enquirer-style drama-orama of love-ins\\, drug car tels\\, and the dawn of the occult New Age.\\nA gay Florida Man belts out the “\\;Floridaesque”\\; landscape of 1970s Miami during a bur geoning counterculture that cracked open sultry closet doors to let in fr esh air. Drawing on his popular essays and composite novel Coconut Grove Chronicles\\, Bamberg explores the bizarre\\, vibrant collision of gay\\, Cuban\\, and Jewish cultures in Coconut Grove—a scene that made San Fr ancisco’s Haight-Ashbury look second-rate.\\nWhat to Expect:\\nRetro Pa rty: Journey back to 1972 to experience life as a suburban working boy se lling orgy butter\\, bongs\\, and coke spoons in a head shop facing the b ack patio of The Hamlet\\, one of Coconut Grove’s first gay bars.\\nThe Psychological Closet: Take a deep dive into the internal realities of gr owing up in the closet while navigating the cosmic auroras of an astrolog er mother who charted planets for cartel wives.\\nThe Independent Publish ing Masterclass: Beyond the wild memoir\\, Bamberg—an experienced educa tor—outlines the modern book publishing process\\, sharing how to harne ss platforms like IngramSpark to transform personal history into compelli ng\\, professionally produced autofiction.\\nPart quirky history lesson\\ , part retro multimedia masterclass\\, and part storytelling hour\\, this event connects personal narrative to broader cultural resistance. Come f or the “\\;Florida Man”\\; debauchery\\; stay for the blueprint on how to write and publish your own story.\\nThe Bureau of General Serv ices—Queer Division is Manhattan’s only queer bookstore\\, located on the second floor of the LGBT Center. We’re open Tuesday-Sunday from 1- 7pm and accessible by the 6th Ave 1 2 3 L trains and 8th Ave A C E trains . Our cafe\\, The Bureau Cafe\\, is open Tuesday-Sunday from 9am-7pm.\\nh ttps://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-states/new-york/events/florida-ma n-text-image-and-multimedia-approach-to-self-publishing-and-promoting-aut ofiction-and-memoirs-2026-10-01 LOCATION:Bureau of General Services-Queer Division URL:https://www.gayout.com/usa-canada/united-states/new-york/events/florida-man-text-image-and-multimedia-approach-to-self-publishing-and-promoting-autofiction-and-memoirs-2026-10-01 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR