February 27, 2005 01:51am
Sex Worker's Art Show Tour
Source: Adult Industry News
by: Joanne Cachapero
Raunchy, hilarious and thought-provoking, the 2005 Sex Worker's Art Show tour is coming to a town near you. This avant garde experiment in gonzo cabaret-style performance art gives the audience a rare view of the sex industry from behind the glass window of a private booth or, in some cases, from underneath a paying customer.
The show was conceived 8 years ago by Sex Worker activist Annie Oakley, who also performs in the show. All of the featured artists are either former of current sex industry workers.
Outraged and saddened by America's attitudes towards Sex Workers, Oakley created an opportunity for performers to display their creative talents, while encouraging sex-positive attitudes and challenging the audience to reconsider their views of the Sex Worker's role in society.
"I really want to get rid of stereotypes and give people a fuller picture of who sex industry workers are," said Oakley. "We shouldn't be shoved to the side any more than a plumber, a doctor or a lawyer. It's a profession, the oldest profession. It's an industry that makes billions of dollars and we're intelligent people capable of making our own choices who got into the industry for a whole range of reasons."
In fact, the performances are emotionally-charged, political and funny as hell. Chelsea Starr has a pixie-like face, petite figure and likes to wear frilly panties. She reads humorous stories of her experiences in a San Francisco peep show with meter-feeding booth boys that liked her best with her hair up in pigtails and wanted her to call them "daddy."
Nomy Lamm, who bills herself as a "badass, fat-ass Jew dyke amputee" had the audience rolling with her description of a phone sex call where she tells the customer she's a pony-tailed blonde, 5'3" tall, 115 lbs. And a 34C in a white tank top with cherries on it and matching panties. "That sounds really hot," her customer replies. Her stories remind the audience that in adult entertainment, performers create characters to fulfill the audience's fantasies and fetishes. Lamm also wowed the crowd with a rousing cover of Queen's "Fat-Bottomed Girls" on accordion, klezmer-style.
Tranny Ben McCoy recites gender-bending poetry that's a strange mixture of howling outrage, keen observation and queer sensibility. Comparing getting paid for a rim job to trying to find a legitimate job despite his appearance, his performance asks the question: How many ways can you get fucked and still get paid for it?
In a nostalgic piece of by-gone burlesque, Miss Satanica performs a fan dance that puts the "tease" in striptease. Her sideshow stunts continue when some nights she eats pieces of a broken light bulb for the audience or does a topless dance on a bed of broken glass.
Artist Naima Lowe's multi-media presentation confronts stereotypes of physical appearance with projected images of strap-on sex contrasted against the soundtrack of a dialogue between a prostitute and a John.
Tre Vasquez uses hip-hop as a vehicle to express his frustration at the double-dose of second-class citizenry he faces as a sex industry worker and also as a Mexican, while Isis Rodriguez's protest piece questions the exploitation of industry workers by the "corporate pimp" club owners that employ them to make money.
Acupuncturist/self-defense instructor/former prostitute Ronrica delivers amazing insights in her stand-up routine as the Hindu Goddess of Golden Showers. For more information, go to SexWorkersArtShow.com. The tour will continue through March at the following locations:
Feb 25 Phoenix, AZ Alwun House
Feb 26 Santa Fe, NM Backroads
Feb 28 Austin, TX U of Texas/Sidekicks Club
Mar 1 Beaumont, TX The Art Studio
Mar 2 Houston, TX The Axiom
Mar 3 New Orleans, LA The Zeitgeist Gallery
Mar 5 Huntsville, AL The Flying Monkey
Mar 6 Wilmington, NC The Soapbox
Mar 7 Richmond, VA The Nanci Raygun
Mar 8 Baltimore, MD The Creative Alliance
Mar 9 Princeton, NJ Princeton U/Terrance Hall
Mar 10 Bronxville, NY Sarah Lawrence College
Mar 11 Providence, RI AS220
Mar 12 Boston, MA The Hollywood Club
Mar 13 New York, NY The Knitting Club
Mar 14 Washington DC The Black Cat
Mar 15 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Bard College
Mar 16 Ithaca, NY Ithaca College
Mar 17 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theatre
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