After having my humility tested and my heart inspired by Miss Cameron Mchenry's marvelous formerly-homeless photography show, I set my mind to the task of creating my own community mixer. I do not work with the homeless as she does, nor am I nobly involved with inner city youth. I am, however the Editor of Whore! Magazine. And as such I have a quite marvelous connection to the sex workers and sluts of the city.
And indeed they are part of my great vision for a new society. Whores have always and still continue to strike fear in the hearts of just about everybody. Most people I know give money to the homeless, volunteer occasionally at soup kitchens and can smile at the local adolescent drug dealers. But no one talks to the prostitutes on Capp street. There is something about the whore that is so scary that though they are everywhere, they are so ostracized as to become almost invisible.
But these women, these men embody all that we are, they are the results of a greedy, repressed, violent, hierarchical society. If you want to know who we are all you have to do is talk to them. And so when Melissa Gira, program director of St. James Infirmary, writer, and former sex worker proposed that we throw a film event to honor the great whores of the silver screen I burst out into a grin so wide Texas could have fit into it.
We contracted ATA, that marvelous space that attempts to turn all our technology into art, and booked the last Monday of month until April. Being a bartender, I turned to the man behind Epic Wines and he generously provided us with bottles and bottles of "Foreplay" wine. My roommate, bless him baked fifty vegan cupcakes and Good Vibrations helped us out with some sex toys to give away. We were ready to throw a delightful event of film, cocktails and lively debate.
The first event played itself out to about ten people. And as I am one of those who never throws parties because I can't stand the anxiety of rejection, I spent the first hour in a state of nervous wringing where every bad high school memory flashed before my eyes. But when the first sounds of "Moon River" played and up on a big screen appeared the enigmatic and beautiful Aubrey Hepburn, I sighed. No matter the success or failure of my event, I was suddenly cocooned in my favorite film, and the comforting darkness of a room filled with friends.
And then after, with sparkly tears in my eyes, those assembled launched into a rather witty and delightful conversation about redemption. Ooh joy.
We have had three events now and each one gets better with people getting to re-watch great movies on a large screen, talk to actual whores and talk about what they think. Such smart and lively people there are in this city.
On November 26th we will be showing "Midnight Cowboy", that seedy, wharholian, hustler classic that is guaranteed to break your heart. Kirk Read is our special guest and I have already contracted to hunky boys to pose in the window. Fun, Fun. And all this is to create a space where people are no longer passive, but engaged, no longer wrapped in a bubble but exposed, no longer afraid but informed. May you all come and play with us and perhaps win some smut.
Cinewhore Schedule