Sex Worker Literati Launch: The Importance of Storytelling

There was, of course, plenty of documenting of the inaugural Sex Worker Literati on Thursday. You wouldn’t expect anything less from me, right?

The above video is a teaser, with short clips of each of the performers (with the exception of Damien Decker, who didn’t want to be on camera). I’ll be uploading one video a week, on Tuesdays, until the next reading on September 3rd. You can check out the videos as they go up on Blip, or you can subscribe to the feed on iTunes (or you should be able to shortly, when it’s hopefully approved).

More documentation: I created a group pool on Flickr and while we’re waiting for Official Photographer Baby Sinead to add her images, you should check out Gerry Visco’s pix of the evening. Also, there’s a fan page on Facebook, where I’m posting links to pieces about the series and the Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys anthology.

Whew. So that’s where you can find content that will keep you looped in and involved, regardless of whether or not you attend the events.

There were a lot of really amazing things about the debut of Sex Worker Literati, not the least of which was that the place was so packed that people were sitting on the floor. I was really inspired by the mix of performance styles – not just all reading – and I really want to make that a priority in upcoming months.

But the thing that was most striking to me was that I think I forgot a little bit that storytelling is really important. Storytelling is a cornerstone of movement building. It’s social, it’s meaningful, it brings people together on a human level. Doing my more politicized work is important, no doubt. But creating good and interesting culture, culture based around story telling, is really powerful. It’s nice to be creating a space where people can share and benefit from stories – and it is giving me something that was missing from my life, a sense of community in a different way. Like I said, social. And social is good, meeting people and inspiring them is great. The evening also made me reflect on an annoying phrase that gets thrown at sex worker activists: “the happy hooker lobby.”

In the sex work versus trafficking debates, one of the things that happens is that people who focus on trafficking (and specifically on the idea that all people in prostitution are “prostituted” and essentially being raped every day at their jobs) try to derail and discount the perspective of people who identify as sex workers by calling us the “happy hooker lobby.” But here’s the thing: most of the people who use the phrase “sex work” and address the issues in the sex industry from a labor and human rights perspective haven’t had a straight forward “empowering” or uncomplicated experience of the sex work that they’ve done. This much was certainly reflected in the stories told on Thursday night.

I’m really excited to see what this series grows into. And I’m also really proud of the fact that we’ve chosen to use the money that we earn from the bar to donate to various sex worker rights groups. I went home Thursday evening and was able to donate $125 to the St James Infirmary in San Francisco. At the next reading on September 3rd we’ll donate a percentage of the bar to $pread, and the featured readers are all folks who’ve written for the magazine. And I might even read something.

(And yes, I am at home blogging and editing video on a Saturday night)