June is LGBT Pride History month and Words without Borders, the magazine for international literature in translation, is celebrating with its first annual Queer Issue. We will be celebrating this special occasion with special guests, and WWB fans, Bebe Zahara Benet, winner of season one of RuPaul's Drag Race, and Rakesh Satyal, acclaimed author of Blue Boy, the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for best debut fiction and a talented jazz singer. Both will read selections from the issue. This will be an intimate performance hosted by Therapy Lounge. Your gift of $20 gets you delicious food and an evening of fun. Your gift is tax deductible and will help us ensure that readers in the English-speaking world can experience the best international LGBT voices. 

Join us on Wednesday, June 16^th, from 6pm-8pm at Therapy on 52^nd Street between 8^th and 9^th Avenues.

This event is brought to you by Words without Borders and the host committee: Brandon Lacy Campos, Rohan Kamicheril, Brayden McCarthy, Heather Guthrie, Natasha Johnson, and Natalie Edwards.

Rakesh Satyal is the author of the novel Blue Boy, a gender-bending comedy about an Indian American boy’s fascination with the Hindu god Krishna.  He is an editor at HarperCollins, where he works with such authors as Armistead Maupin, Paul Rudnick, and Paulo Coelho.  A member of the planning committee for the annual PEN World Voices Festival, he sings a popular cabaret show that has been featured in The New York Observer, Page Six, and DailyCandy, among other places.  He is an adjunct professor in the publishing program at New York University and lives in Brooklyn.

Nea Marshall Kudi is Bebe Zahara Benet. Born in Cameroon and raised in Cameroon and France, Nea started his career in fashion as a male model in Paris. It was there that he first tried his hand at female illusion and Bebe Zahara Benet was born. As Bebe, Nea was the winner of the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and has become a beloved and elegant figure in the world of drag artistry. In addition to Nea’s work as a drag artist, he is also a recording artist, and his first single, “I’m the Shit,” has been met with acclaim. Nea’s most recent project, “Queendom,” a one-woman show, launched in New York City in May 2010 to a sold out, standing room only crowd. Nea is hard at work on a full debut album due out in the coming months.