Larry Mass & Bill Goldstein in Conversation: On the Future of Wagnerism

Join Larry Mass and Bill Goldstein in conversation on the occasion of the release of Larry Mass's book, On the Future of Wagnerism: Art, Intoxication, Addiction, Codependence and Recovery, the sequel to his memoir, Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite: Being Gay and Jewish in America. Select readings will be followed by an an open discussion on a range of subjects--from art, addiction and AIDS to Larry Kramer, Richard Wagner and the future. The authors will additionally reflect on the recent loss of Mass's life partner, gay activist and writer Arnie Kantrowitz.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Safety protocol:

In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please stay home.

Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.

All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or you can donate in advance on this page.

Purchase Lawrence D. Mass's (Sentinel Voices, 2021, paperback, $29.95) from the Bureau's online store (click on title).

Purchase Bill Goldstein's (Picador USA, 2017, paperback, $17) from the Bureau's online store (click on title).

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

Lawrence D. Mass, M.D., is a co-founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and was the first to write about AIDS in the press. He is the author of Homosexuality and Sexuality: Dialogues of the Sexual Revolution, Volume 1, and Homosexuality as Behavior and Identity: Dialogues of The Sexual Revolution, Volume 2. He is the author/editor of an anthology, We Must Love One Another Or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer, and the author a memoir, Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite: Being Gay and Jewish in America. The sequel to that memoir is the current collection, On the Future of Wagnerism: Art, Intoxication, Addiction, Codependence and Recovery. Mass has written widely on medicine, health and culture for mainstream and specialist publications. A recently retired physician specializing in addiction medicine, Mass resides in New York City.

Bill Goldstein reviews books and interviews authors for NBC's Weekend Today in New York, and was the founding editor of The New York Times books website. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Goldstein received a PhD in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is writing a biography of Larry Kramer, to be published by Crown, and worked on the book as a 2019-2020 fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library. His book, The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature, was published in 2017.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, New York, United States