Hosted by Audacia Ray
Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City
Doors at 7 pm, reading from 8-10
21 and up – FREE
15% of the bar tab supports Speak Up! Media Training for Sex Workers
Starring: Richard Berkowitz, Erin Markey, Drew Deveaux, and Melissa Ditmore
Richard Berkowitz is the subject of Daryl Wein’s 2009 documentary, SEX POSITIVE, which tells his story: coming out as a gay man in the 1970s amid the sexual abandon of the times, becoming a sex worker in NYC before the dawn of AIDS and how that led him to become involved in the invention of safe sex for AIDS. In May 1983, Berkowitz co-authored “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic,” along with Dr. Joseph Sonnabend and the late Michael Callen. Their 40-page booklet is widely regarded as the invention of safe sex as we know it today even though at the time many gay men considered safe sex an attack on their sexual freedom. Berkowitz majored in journalism at Rutgers University, writing for the school newspaper and using his position as the film editor to promote LGBT and feminist arts and issues. He spent two decades writing to promote safe sex, culminating in his 2003 memoir, Stayin Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex, A Personal History. That book became the inspiration for SEX POSITIVE, which won the Grand Jury prize for Best Documentary at Outfest. http://richardberkowitz.com/
Erin Markey is a Brooklyn-based writer/performer. She recently starred in the NYC Premiere of Tennessee Williams’ Green Eyes at the Hudson Hotel. She is a series regular on LOGO’s Jeffery and Cole Casserole TV show. She often collaborates with theatre company Half Straddle. Her solo musical, Puppy Love: A Stripper’s Tail at PS 122 was nominated for a NYIT Outstanding Solo Performer award. As a performance and cabaret artist, she has appeared at Ars Nova, The Kitchen, and regularly at Our Hit Parade at Joe’s Pub. Her newest work-in-progress, The Dardy Family Home Movies by Stephen Sondheim by Erin Markey will have it’s world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival’s KinoTek live programming series in August of 2011.
Dynamic and androgynous, Drew Deveaux has been bending over and shaking up the porn world since her explosive first shoot for Doing It Ourselves: The Trans Women Porn Project. Through self-creation and self-exploration, Drew’s work explores gender and power, shame and transcendence, play and authenticity. Pushing boundaries and playing with edges, Drew is a master of dirty talk with a Master of Science and is equally in her element with her face gagged in a pillow or behind a lecturn. http://www.drewdeveaux.com
Melissa Ditmore has written and edited three books and numerous reports about sex work. She will tell the story of the prostitutes’ strike in Hawaii from her most recent book , Prostitution and Sex Work.
Essence Revealed is a dual degreed, former lap dance engineer of the upscale gentlemen’s club scene, from NY to Vegas and sweet, sticky places in between.
