Two Girls in SoHo, by Bête de Nuit

A couple of weeks ago I was in Soho but I didn’t intend to see a prostitute. I was sitting in Soho Square, a pleasant little park near to Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road. I thought to myself that, if I wanted to, in a couple of minutes I could be in a flat with a naked girl.

I had a particular girl in mind. I won’t say her name. I have seen her several times before and I know that she doesn’t like publicity. We have discussed the issue. She doesn’t have any reports on her on PunterNet.com. Also I read something recently by a prostitute where she wrote that she and others don’t like that kind of publicity.

Read the full post here.

Ode, by Hooker Addict:

But, she had stringent screening requirements. She is, after all, a professional. Part of her requirements for accepting new clients was having references from two other providers. At the time, though I’d done a fair bit of whore-fucking, it was girls whose names I barely knew, much less knew how to get in touch with again to ask for a reference.

So I set out to meet the requirements. I searched the boards for escorts with less stringent requirements. I found that even among the members of the small ‘community’ not everyone was willing to give a referral. Some providers preferred to keep their client list to themselves. So, I fucked a bunch of hookers. Oh well.

I fucked all different shapes and sizes, ages and ethnicities, GFE’s and quickies. Always with an eye on the goal, the right references that would get me in to see the creme de la creme.

Read the full post here.

Memorable Ladies, Part 2 by Chevalier:

Ashley Apple is simply effervescent. Picture a young, energetic, and very friendly puppy. But also mature and grounded in a way that the younger ladies — and puppies — aren’t, always. She always seems incredibly happy and I suspect it rubs off on everyone she’s around. She has one of the most positive outlooks on life of just about anyone I’ve ever known, and I’m not restricting that to the P4P community. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard a negative word from her about anyone. I know this is a service industry and the ladies are purposefully in a positive, upbeat mood when they’re with us. But Ashley’s level of cheerfulness still stands out compared to just about all of the other ladies I’ve known. (In the same vein, she apologizes even for minor things that I shrug off; I think it’s not from a customer relations perspective so much as that she hates to disappoint not just clients but people in general.) Incredible joie de vivre. She always lifts my spirits and leaves a smile on my face, and I’m sure it’s the same with other people she meets.

Read the full post here.

Stories by Sex Workers

For William, by story:

the slow, the strange, the confused, the disabled, the ill, the unstable, the retarded, the insane, the special, the different, they do not stop being human; they don’t have less yearning.

this is why i do this work. the drunkards and horny frat boys are less obvious than william in their need. but it is all the same. our culture has created a void of touch. i normally can’t find the authority to ascribe moral characteristics to sex work, but i am sure in this moment with william that this is healthy. it is full of sweetness and longing and fulfillment of that longing.

Read the rest of the post here.

Quiet Riot Girl Interview with Emily Jones:

My favourite clients are up-front, succinct and polite – almost formal – in their approaches. They tell me the details I require and then it’s quick and easy to schedule a meeting. These ones are the most likely to follow my rather roundabout but important security procedures, too. They also understand that it’s not necessary to describe their physical appearance, or, god forbid, to send pictures of themselves – you wouldn’t ask a potential hairdresser if she minded your face, would you?!

My clients usually also have that stereotypically British trait (no matter their race) of being adorably kind and almost apologetic in their caution not to hurt or offend me.

Read the full post here.

Pieces About Policy, Activism, & Research

State Feminist shaming keeps Swedish politicians quiet about sex-purchase law by Laura Agustín:

Every Swede knows that the famed law against buying sex – sexköpslagen – is a hot potato. Few politicians have commented one way or another on the evaluation of the law announced on 2 July, and only one government official claimed it proves the law is a success. Given that the report has been strongly criticised as empty of evidence and methodology but full of ideology in its very remit, debate has been curiously muted, even for the time of year.

Read the full article here.

Anyway, one of the questions I get asked a lot is how I think clients can help working girls. In the light of criticism around the often-recommended Swedish Model, the consistent shutting down of propositions in the Bay Area to decriminalize sex work, and the increasingly alarming laws being considered about the criminalization of clients in the UK, I figured now was probably a good time to offer up some suggestions on how to help people in prostitution by being a decent client.

Learn more and download the preliminary report here.

Six years ago, in the late summer of 2004, I was forwarded a call for submissions for a sex worker magazine in the works. I pitched a piece, and it didn’t really go anywhere. I kept writing my personal blog, working out my shit around doing sex work, my attempts at non-monogamy, and tried to find my voice and my community. But then I kept hearing more about the magazine, called $pread. And I kept bugging the editors. I wanted to help. But more than that, I wanted to meet and know other sex workers. I wanted to be known and understood by them. In the early winter, I responded to a panicked ask – they needed some content to finish up the magazine before it went to print. ASAP. I delivered several news pieces and then jumped into the process of making a magazine. Which none of us knew how to do.

Here I am, working the door (a job that I did at lots of $pread parties) at our launch on March 17, 2005, sporting a t-shirt with the first version of the $pread logo.

After the debut of the first issue, I became the News and Shorts Editor. And then, one issue later, I became an Executive Editor (one of two). In January 2008, I made the decision to leave $pread after more than three years of intense volunteering with the project.

It isn’t an understatement to say that $pread, and the people involved with it, transformed my life.

$pread helped me claim my voice as a sex worker, and fight to make space for other sex workers to do the same. Working on $pread made me believe that storytelling is the building block of movement building, and that both making our own media and challenging discourse about sex workers in mainstream media are crucial elements of the struggle for sex workers’ rights. $pread led directly to the creation of Sex Work Awareness and was the inspiration for the Speak Up! media training (which started as a session at the 2006 Desiree Alliance conference called “Journalism for Sex Workers”). And $pread has certainly been in my mind as I’ve developed the Red Umbrella Diaries.

It’s very sad to see it end, but it will have a graceful exit. And, perhaps more importantly, we are planning ways for the magazine to remain accessible as a resource well into the future.

Here’s the official $pread statement:

Hello $pread fans. We regret to inform you that, while we expect to publish 5.4, the Crime and Punishment Issue and 6.1, the Race Issue (guest-edited by a fabulous collective of sex workers of color) by January, $pread will close its glittery doors soon after the dawn of the New Year.

Once the remaining two issues have been posted, we will fulfill subscriptions for those of you who are owed them with the option of back issues, or, if you’re feeling generous, a waiver to help us with closing costs. We apologize for those of you who have only recently come to know us, and to all our longtime supporters. After all these years, five all-volunteer years to be exact, we have come to the conclusion that an all-volunteer magazine is simply unsustainable in the current publishing climate. Short of a donation of $30,000, we will be unable to sustain the magazine past January.

For those of you with a hankering for $pread merchandise and back issues, make sure to go to the $pread Shop (www.spreadmagazine.org/shop) in the next few months. For those of you who do not currently have a subscription, please purchase the next two issues individually. Once we print the next two issues, we will donate the materials to our outreach partners as well as lay the foundation for a physical archive, complete with all the $pread memories of yore, blemishes and all.

We hope that you will look forward to a $pread retrospective in book form, featuring highlights of our five years of publishing. We will also package a ‘$pread Scrapbook’ for sex worker advocates looking for tips and tricks on publishing a magazine by and for people working in the sex industry. We are producing these materials in the hopes that our model will help motivate the continued movement for social justice among our many and varied communities, in the same way Danzine inspired our own publication. We also close our doors in the comfort of knowing that right now, around the world, sex worker-run and sex worker-supportive media such as ConStellation (www.chezstella.org) in Montreal, Flower in Beijing, and Red Light District Chicago (www.redlightdistrictchicago.com) are holding forth on the issues that matter to our communities.

$pread was motivated by the motto “Illuminating the Sex Industry.” We submit these five years of blood, sweat, and tears to you as a testament to this founding sentiment. May the struggle to end the stigma, discrimination, and violence perpetrated against our communities end in justice, and may the flashy strobe light of sex worker rights never go out, but illuminate the sex industry for the world to see.

Episode 7

features a story by Busty Kitten, “Ode to My Fellow Dancers.” The story was recorded during the Coworkers and Co-conspirators live event on July 1, 2010.

Busty Kitten is a theatrical know-it-all, muse and artiste, and feminist barstool philosopher. She co-produces and co-hosts The Giddy Multitude Vaudeville Co, a monthly cabaret of circus, music, dance, comedy, and burlesque. www.giddymultitude.com. Her work explores issues of sex and sexuality, body image, and constructed identies of femininity. She holds a BA from UC Santa Cruz and will be pursuing an MA in Applied Theatre at CUNY in the fall. She can be seen burlesque dancing at the usual venues around NYC and proudly earning her sweat equity at WOW Cafe Theatre.

Episode 6

features the story “Helmut the Maid,” told by Alex Kinney. The story was recorded during a live event on December 3, 2009.

Alex Kinney is an old whore who has prostituted himself in the Ivy League, America’s regional theaters, the Golden Hills of Hollywood, one cold Christmas in Dublin, and more lengthily, the South of the Slot in San Francisco. Alex is also a director, actor and playwright whose most recent play, Holy Hell, was developed at The Actors’ Studio.

Episode 5

features the story “A Father’s Pain,” told by Mistress Astrid. The story was recorded during the Love and Pain live event on February 4, 2010.

Episode 4

features a story by Guy Gonzales, “My Illustrious Career in Times Square Peeps.” The story was recorded during the Embarrassing Things I’ve Done for Money live event on May 6, 2010.

Guy Gonzales. Peepstar. Hustler. Notorious Nude Club Manager. Outlaw Artist and Writer. Warrior. From peddling firecrackers to live sex shows, legendary hardcore hustler Guy Gonzales was born in Manhattan of Asian-American ancestry. Despite the façade of a decent upbringing, he became enticed by the filthy streets. Flesh emporiums fueled his incentive; in 1982 Guy gravitated to Times Square, a reputed red-light district, and began as a cashier/mop-man in the adult peep shows. While swabbing pools of disgrace, he dated a Private Booth showgirl; subsequently they became a Love-Team, performing live sex acts on stage. On a mattress stained with bodily fluids, he penetrated even deeper into the inner sanctum of smut. Guy’s artwork, articles, and photo essays have been featured in Screw, Hustler, Swank, Vibe, the Village Voice, and Penthouse Forum. Featured in TimeOutNY as the leader of the Mortuary Squad, an elite task force that documents the underbelly; and the 40th Anniversary Issue of New York Magazine. A+E ‘Biography’ entitled ‘Times Square’ chronicled his unusual experiences, with interviews and illustrations. Exhibitions include ‘Erotopath’ and ‘Viewer Discretion Advised’. In 2006 he exhibited at the Ayala Museum, Makati, the Philippines, with former President Fidel Ramos in attendance. A noir New Yorker, Guy continues to evoke the broken mirror ball on the fringe of a forgotten Times Square, as his autobiographical account PEEPMAN/DEUCE42 nears completion.

Hosted by Audacia Ray
Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City
Thursday, September 2. Doors at 7 pm, reading from 8-10
21 and up – FREE

Starring:

Caveh Zahedi received a B.A. in Philosophy at Yale University and an M.F.A. in Film Production at the UCLA School of Film and Television. His feature-length films include A Little Stiff (1991), I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994), In The Bathtub of the World (2001), and I Am A Sex Addict (2005). http://cavehzahedi.com/

Daniel Lukes is a British-born, Italian-raised, New York-based writer, educator and gender terrorist whose work has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, Decibel, Flux, Alternative Press, Terrorizer, Kerrang!, Forked Tongue and Il Manifesto. He is working on a novel tentatively-titled Year of the Whore, as well as finishing a PhD in Comparative Literature at NYU, where in 2008/9 he co-organized “Man Enough: An Interdisciplinary New York University Graduate Student Colloquium on Masculinity,” which featured Genesis P-Orridge, Allanah Starr, Gerry Visco, and Christopher Vitale among others. He will be presenting the paper “Global Sex Tourism and Abject Masculinity in William T. Vollmann and Michel Houellebecq” at the panel “Untold Narratives from the Global Sex Trade,” at the 2011 Modern Language Association Convention in Los Angeles.

Emma Lee is a writer and editor who has contributed to BUST, Elle, Marie Claire, Maxim, Radar, and other fine publications. She used to write a dirty blog that was featured in Rolling Stone, Playboy and TimeOutNY. This will be her public debut as a former sex worker, although she has been openly slutty for years.

Puma Perl’s poetry and fiction have been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, published in 2008, was awarded the Erbacce Press 2009 Poetry Award in a field of over 1400 applicants; a full length collection, knuckle tattoos, was published in early 2010. She performs her work in many venues, in and out of New York City. She lives and writes on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison. She believes in the transformative and healing power of the arts.

Big Mike is the author of 2 books, 81 Pounds and Sibling Rivalry and appears in the anthology One Millimeter, all published by Pretty Pollution Press. Big Mike is known for his performance art and was awarded Best Neptune in the 2004 Mermaid Parade in Coney Island.

The above video and supplementary documents are designed to spark discussion and create inspiration for looking at the ways that peer-led groups providing support and services to sex workers in their communities can collaborate with harm reduction agencies. The materials were developed by a group of sex workers and allies during the Speak Up! media training, the second annual workshop by Sex Work Awareness.

We were motivated to produce this project because we know that the sex work and harm reduction communities overlap in many ways, and we see a lot of value in making an effort to work together. Some of the producers of this project also work in harm reduction or have received harm reduction services. Beyond being allied communities, we acknowledge that many sex workers are also injection drug users, including users of controlled substances and transgender women and men who inject hormones.

Throughout the United States, both sex workers and intravenous drug users are targeted with similarly discriminatory laws that create harm in our communities instead of giving us better opportunities to reduce risks and lead more healthful lives. For example, in many states, police can use possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution, similarly possession of syringes are used as evidence of illegal drug possession. Because of these types of commonalities, we have created a short public service announcement video and a packet of materials that we hope will further dialogue among our communities.

Materials
Download the six page PDF (currently available in English only) of materials HERE.

Click the links below to download the individual elements included in the six page document:

• Statement by the International Sex Worker Harm Reduction Caucus: Sex Workers Are Key Players in Promoting Human Rights and Harm Reduction
• Collaboration Story: SWOP Chicago and Chicago Recovery Alliance
• Personal Story: How Harm Reduction Services Supported A Sex Worker
• Transcript: Nothing About Us Without Us: Public Service Announcement Video

Production Process
The video was produced by Sex Work Awareness’ class of 2010 Speak Up! Media Training for the Empowered Sex Worker. During the training, which develops the communication and media skills of sex workers and former sex workers who wish to become or are already spokespeople in their communities, the group of nine created a strategy for the communications output of the project, collaboratively wrote the script to the video, and some members of the group appeared on camera. The written materials were gathered with the guidance and support of the group and our colleagues.

About the Title
The phrase “nothing about us without us” was first used by disability rights activists in South Africa in 1993. We use the phrase in solidarity with groups that fight for non-discriminatory inclusion in society, via inclusive processes. For more on the disability rights movement and the origins of the phrase, check out James I. Charlton’s book Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment.

Use and Permissions
We hope that you will find these materials useful. This guide is released with a Creative Commons Share Alike license, so you may adapt these materials for your own projects or publications, but you may not sell them. Also, if you do use the materials, remember to indicate that they were developed by Sex Work Awareness or that you have adapted our materials. Lastly, we’d love to hear what you do; please let us know how you use this guide by emailing info@sexworkawarness.org.

Episode 3 features a story by Izzy Oneiric, “Pebbles, the Tripping Stripper,” as performed by Melissa Gira Grant. The story was recorded during the Coworkers and Co-conspirators live event on July 1, 2010.

Poet and performance artist Izzy Oneiric‘s writing has appeared under various names in nearly twenty print and online publications such as $pread, Exquisite Corpse, Wheelhouse Magazine, Opium, and Burdock. For several years she was Poetry Editor for other magazine. She has lived and performed all over the country and has been a stripper, fetish model, and gay porn clerk. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies and an MFA in Poetry. She currently lives and teaches in Chicago.

Melissa Gira Grant is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor of the forthcoming anthology Coming And Crying. She and Izzy were once coworkers at a strip club.

Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded and edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project.

Click here to listen in your browser.

Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or search for it on iTunes.

This month’s blog carnival leads up to the August 5th Red Umbrella Diaries live event at Happy Ending, which stars Veronica Vera, Lauren Wissot, Chelsea G. Summers, E.V. Fleurima (aka Ckiara Rose), and Michael Pollack – plus one of the stories in the carnival!

Read stories by Sarah Sloane, Widow Centauri, plus 17 bits of advice for newbies, from seasoned pros like Georgina Spelvin.

Since the opening plenary for the International AIDS Conference (IAC) on Sunday, July 18th, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) has been a vocal and visible presence at the conference. NSWP members have challenged both policy makers and funding agencies to break with the status quo, which perpetuates institutional violence and violation of sex worker’s human rights that lead to a higher rates of HIV infection and death.

On Tuesday, July 20th, NSWP organized sex workers and allies to disrupt a speech by United States Global AIDS Coordinator Dr. Eric Goosby to demand justice for sex workers harmed by PEPFAR’s discriminatory anti-prostitution loyalty oath.

Download the NSWP press release about the protest, a one page English PDF, here.

Here are some reports from NSWP activists who were there:

“On Tuesday, July 20 sex workers’ rights activists marched through the IAC conference centre to protest the PEPFAR Anti Prostitution Pledge at a session at which was to be a presenter. Eric Goosby cancelled his speech to avoid the sex workers and instead held a press conference in the media centre. Sex worker activists followed him there, where we loudly accused him of murdering sex workers and preventing the crucial funding for sex workers. Everyone was upset and challenging him to be responsible and support human rights for all. I sat on the table with my red umbrella and screamed that he was a murderer, and everyone was chanting “SHAME SHAME SHAME!!!!” He tried to escape and fell from his chair, and then he was helped to his feet by security and escorted out. The media stayed in the room and sex workers were venting their issues of concern. For example, in Uganda the only funding is for rehabilitation and there is NO money for condoms. In Kenya there is no funding for necessary sex worker support services, only rehabilitation. All who receive money from USAID’s PEPFAR fund have to sign an anti-prostitution loyalty oath. We left chanting, “sex workers united will never be defeated!!! PEPFAR kills sex workers!!!”

–Cheryl Overs, Paulo Longo Research Institute, Asia and the Pacific Region

Watch a video of the protest, featuring some of the sex workers’ chants and an impassioned speech from Kyomya Macklean, of the Ugandan sex worker group WONETHA.

“Highlights for me: sex worker activist Thierry Schaffauser sat in Goosby’s lap and after we chased him out of the press conference room, sex workers from around the world took over the microphones and held their own press conference while the whole world was watching and declared that we will follow Goosby to every presentation he makes until he answers for the crimes of PEPFAR’s anti-prostitution pledge.”

–Will Rockwell, Global Network of Sex Work Projects, North America Region

“The protesters toured the Center for Media, carrying red umbrellas and placards with slogans. One of the interviewees was the prostitute [Kyomya] Macklean, Uganda: “We want respect, recognition, social inclusion, and dialogue with our political leaders. And we can’t do all this without funding. ”

After a few minutes, everyone was ushered out of the Center for Media, but continued to move through the wide corridors of the Convention Center, moving in the direction of the Global Village. The group celebrated the impact of the action at the booth of the Global Network of Sex Work (NSWP), which promoted the protest.

Sex workers from around the world demand that the U.S. funds to fight AIDS, via USAID’s PEPFAR program, do not discriminate. It is essential to support sex worker organizations in order to strengthen HIV prevention.”

–Flavio Lenz, Davida, Latin America Region

Editor’s note: Flavio’s statement is based on a rough translation using the Google translate tool. Click here for the original version in Portuguese.

Four years ago in 2006, at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, NSWP member Melissa Ditmore and journalist Erin Siegal collected footage and interviews for a short film on PEPFAR and how it harms sex workers – not much has changed. Watch the thirteen minute film, Taking the Pledge, below.

I’m still hashing out some of the details with the podcast feed for iTunes, so if you have any weird problems with it, please do let me know so I can troubleshoot and fix it!

And now, for the upcoming live event!

Organized by Programs for Research and Outreach (PRO) as part of the exhibition “Museum as Hub: In and Out of Context REDUX,” this event shifts between elements of a seminar, performance, screening, lecture, discussion, spoken-word event, conversation, and encounter. Those involved include Ayreen Anastas, Emily Forman, Dara Greenwald, Jesal Kapadia, Rene Gabri, Benj Gerdes, Karen Hakobian, and Harout Simonian, along with their collaborators and guests. The event migrates around issues such as immigration and work, political suppression and political prisoners, homelessness and housing, sex and transgender politics, and issues of political agency, autonomy, and education in contemporary New York.

Specific contributions include the following:

Dara Greenwald explores questions concerning political repression in New York by looking at the activity of militant care as expressed through writing, visiting, and advocating for political prisoners. Through discussions on the links between the repression of today with the repression of the movements of the ’60s and ’70s, Greenwald examines its influence on current feelings of fear surrounding political speech and action.

Karen Hakobian and Harout Simonian attempt to challenge the boundaries of revolution and the revolutionary, both as process and as practice of/on a collective and individual level. What does it mean making revolution for oneself, being that revolution, changing the world inside and outside of oneself, taking that responsibility of the change and the changer? What comes after it? For this they have invited Ignacio Rivera, transgender activist and sex educator; Peppermint, famous drag queen; Audacia Ray, sex worker and activist; and Edgar Rivera, anthropologist at Columbia University.

Jesal Kapadia has together with her students Amin Hussain and Nitasha Dhillon developed a project based on the topic of translation, migration, and immigrant workers’ rights in New York City.

Benj Gerdes’s presentation addresses questions of immigration in light of the Lower East Side’s history and present anti-immigration legislation. Emily Forman attempts to gather together and discuss her work with saving the Starlight Lounge and her collaboration with Picture the Homeless.

Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri invite a series of guests to intervene between each session and involve the public in narrating and thinking through our present.

For the next event, which takes place on August 5, the theme is Well Seasoned: Stories of Pros with Some Experiences Under Their Belts. Here’s a little something to get you started thinking:

Most people in the sex trade remember what it felt like to step into a dungeon, peep booth, dimly lit stage, brothel, client’s hotel room, or car for the first time. But what happens after the shine of being the new girl wears off, after the young hustler can’t pretend he’s never done this before?

Send me a piece that is up to 700 words long, and I’ll pick my favorite to read at the event – and of course then I’ll put the recording in the new Red Umbrella Diaries audio podcast. Your piece can be previously published on your own blog or elsewhere, or you can conceal your identity and email me a piece that you can’t put your name on. The themes can be interpreted all kinds of different ways, I love to see creativity. Send your links or text to stories@redumbrellaproject.com by July 15th.