2nd Annual Sex Worker Cabaret

Second Annual New York City

Sex Worker Cabaret

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sex workers take the stage at Public Assembly in Brooklyn to tell their diverse stories through performance, video, narrative, puppetry, burlesque, comedy and more. This event starts with a selection of short videos about sex work around the globe, and then features an all-star lineup of eleven performers. Tickets can be purchased for $12 in advance at www.sexworkercabaret.com or at the event for $15 -- and early ticket buyers get a goodie bag from Pleasure Chest!

This Sunday evening cabaret showcases some of the most vibrant creative talent in the sex worker community. Started in homage to Annie Oakley’s Sex Workers Art Show (1997-2009) and San Francisco's Sex Worker Film and Art Festival (2005-now!) and takes place during LGBTQ Pride month, a time to reflect on the importance of community and resistance.

Come listen to tales of self-determination, and bear witness to survival and celebration as sex workers eloquently — and at times raunchily — speak their truths. A diverse array of performances will be presented by A, Aimee Herman, Audacia Ray, Ceyenne Doroshow, Essence Revealed, Inbred Hybrid Collective, The Incredible, Edible, Akynos, Lady Moustaché, Mariko Passion, Venus Flytrap, and Zachary Wager Scholl. The video artists featured in this event are Brown Meshugana, Gina Carducci & Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Laura Murray, Leanne Gillard, Ms Virilia Crush, & Mée Rose, and the Red Umbrella Project. With MCs Sarah Jenny and Damien Luxe, DJ Sirlinda, and raffle prizes from Babeland!

WHEN: Sunday, June 12, 2011

TIME: DOORS @ 7:30PM, VIDEOS @ 8PM SHOW @ 8:30PM

TICKETS: $12 in adv. or $15 at the door (Click here to purchase tickets online.)

WHERE: Public Assembly, 70 N. 6th St., Brooklyn, NY

WEB: For more information, please visit www.sexworkercabaret.com

RSVP: to the fb event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198238920220068

Upcoming Panel Discussion

International Solidarity w/ India's Sex Workers' Rights Movement

*Picture from BBC News

Wednesday, April 13

5-7pm
The Brecht Forum

451 West St. 

(West Side Highway) btwn Bank & Bethune
Free and open to the public!

Dr. Smarajit Jana, one of the founders of the DMSC (Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee) in Calcutta, India, and his colleague, a member of DMSC's organizing committee, are visiting the US in April, and will be speaking at the Brecht Forum on Wednesday, April 13, 5-7pm.

The DMSC is a collective forum of 65,000 sex workers and serves as a model of labor organizing within the sex worker rights community. DMSC has been extremely successful in securing support for their work from the communist-led government of the Indian state of West Bengal, making the organization unique in the kinds of allies it has made in the course of doing its work. However, opportunities for sex workers from the Global South to meet with fellow activists, like-minded scholars and allies in the Global North are few and far between, unlike the opportunities for networking among anti-human-trafficking activists, which abound, due to governmental support for the abolition of prostitution. This exciting event will bring together sex workers' and labor rights activists in New York with activists from India in a rich discussion on what's happening, and what the way forward might be.

This event is sponsored by: the Sex Workers' Outreach Project (SWOP)-NYC, The Brecht Forum, South Asia Solidarity Initiative, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a coalition of sex workers' rights advocates in New York City. 

Introducing the QuORUM FORUM: Hot Pink Mass

Achew Achew Trisha Trisha Trisha all night.  Though someone being very spiteful purposely hit my car saying I parked too close (Whatever!), then me ending up locking my keys in the car out of rage on an extremely windy cold night.... I still made it inside!

If you weren't a part of the 10-day QuORUM FORUM events of 2011, hopefully you will be able to catch one next year.  I had an awesome time, and wished that I had the opportunity to experience all 10 days, but unfortunately I was only able to catch the very last event.  What a great time, I must add.  Damien Luxe was hilarious :)

Okay, so a little bit about the QuORUM FORUM... they are a fairly new organization.  Taken from their site QuORUM FORUM: QuORUM (Queers Organizing for Radical Unity and Mobilization) is a network of radical queers and queer collectives in New York City.  We believe in community building, resource sharing, economic justice, and collective liberation.  Our projects are free, collaborative, consensus based, and fun!  Through these labors of love, we hope to make Quorum Forum a catalyst for developing a network of mutual aid and visibility.  It is a chance to showcase knowledge, skills, and talents for the purpose of creating and supporting sustainable community projects.

Wish there was more than 12 minutes of footage.  The whole night is worth watching.

Special thanks to Damien Luxe for calling AAA for me :) smooches