It’s official! I’m doing a couple different Butch Brunch dates in New York City in the two months leading up to the Butch Voices regional conference on September 25th. Want to join me? Here’s the details.
The first Butch Brunch is coming up on Saturday, August 14th, and you can RSVP on Facebook.
I organized about half a dozen some butch brunches in the past few years, mostly in Brooklyn, mostly just for friends, but we often had fantastic interesting conversations about butch identity and where we came from, and really good turnouts. I’m looking forward to chatting with folks informally, not in the context of planning the Butch Voices conference but instead just socializing, hanging out, theorizing, getting to know each other.
Who can come? Anybody! It’s intended to be a space for butch-identified folks of various identities: butches, studs, ags, anyone masculine-of-center. If folks who are not butch identified would like to attend, that’s fine too, but do realize that we’ll be talking personally about our own identities as we get to know each other. It is not necessary to be butch-identified to attend this brunch, but it is encouraged.
Butch Brunch is co-sponsored by Butch Voices NYC and Sugarbutch, so we are adapting Butch Voices opinions about what butch means. From ButchVoices.com: “We are woman-identified Butches. We are trans-masculine Studs. We are faggot-identified Aggressives. We are noun Butches, adjective Studs and pronoun-shunning Aggressives. We are she, he, hy, ze, zie and hir. We are you, and we are me. The point is, we don’t decide who is Butch, Stud or Aggressive. You get to decide for yourself.”
We don’t have a venue yet—I’d like to keep it pretty centralized in New York City, so any of us coming from any borough can easily get to it. Perhaps somewhere near Union Square? Problem is, brunch places are packed on the weekends.
Anybody have suggestions? I’ll be glad to check them out. But we need to get going! Who’s in?
We’ve got a venue! We’re going to try out Cafe Orlin at 41 St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. It’s a pretty big place and they’ve got a $6 plate of eggs & potatoes & toast, and it doesn’t get cheaper than that in Manhattan. The only catch is that I can’t quite tell by their website if they serve alcohol, but I know I’ve had a glass of wine there at other times.
Please RSVP on Facebook or email me to let me know you’re coming so we can get a head count. They don’t take reservations on the weekends, so I plan on being there early to try to get our name on the waiting list for a big table. I expect about ten people so far.
Essex on the LES is pretty perfectly priced and takes reservations for large parties in an awesome upstairs area. Plus each brunch comes with free cocktails!
Will check it out, thank you!!
How do you folks feel about coming to Brooklyn?
I like Scottadito on Union between 6th & 7th; they have a $15 brunch which includes unlimited mimosas, and here's the menu. Cheap & they have plenty of room for us AND a garden and good good food.
Very in, although probably not 'til September. My partner and I went to Max Brenner's on Union Square for brunch a couple of weekends ago and it was only half-full. It's a pretty big space and doesn't really generate a brunch crowd. They didn't even have the upstairs open. Maybe that would work?
I'm guessing Australia is just that little bit out of the way….. damn.