Sex Worker Literati is moving uptown – and by uptown we mean the Bowery – for a lust-drenched 1 year anniversary cavalcade extravaganza.  After packing them in downtown every month for year, Sex Worker Literati sheds its skin and reinvents itself at the great East Village landmark that has come to represent the finest in words: Bowery Poetry Club.  Besides our usual collection of stranger than fiction tales from the seething underbelly of America’s sex trenches, we’re adding ultra-live music and brazen, bawdy burlesque.  It hardly seems a year since the groundbreaking anthology Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys shocked America by rocketing onto the front page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review.  Giving voice to an under represented population that is glorified and reviled, fetishized and stigmatized, worshiped and spat upon, from $5000 a night call girls to $10 crack hos to hard-working rent boys, Sex Worker Literati is the living breathing embodiment of this internationally acclaimed anthology.  In the flesh.  David Henry Sterry and Zoe Hansen will be riding herd over an all-star lineup of the finest ho writer/performers money can buy.  & IT’S ALL STILL FREE!!!

In the exchange of sex for money, a window opens into the human soul.  Take a peak. Cum laugh. Cum cry.  Just cum.

Hosted by Audacia Ray and David Henry Sterry
Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City
Thursday, June 3. Doors at 7 pm, reading from 8-10
Stick around after the reading to dance and party with hos, hookers, and ne’er do wells!
21 and up – FREE

THIS MONTH: Featuring Surprise Guests from RentBoy.com!

15% of the bar goes to benefit HIPS – Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

Our readers this month:

Spending over a decade in New York City has been far from mundane for Randi Newton.
Moving to Manhattan from Omaha, Nebraska- in 1998 to pursue an acting career.  Newton started by working as a live-in nanny, to trading up for a position at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, to managing for a for a prestigious liquor company, being laid off and eventually wandering into a gentlemen’s club where a year long waitressing position, turned into a stripping stint that parlayed into opening surprising media appearances and writing opportunities.  Featured as the cover story, April 2009, of the Sunday New York Post about women stripping in times of an economic crisis, Newton has also appeared internationally to speak about the recession and the gentlemen’s club industry.   In addition she has been featured in Radar Magazine, Penthouse Magazine (fully dressed) and such television programs such as; Inside Edition, The Insider, The TODAY Show, CBS This Morning, Entertainment Tonight.  She’s also appeared as a panelist multiple times on FOX News The Strategy Room, and appeared on The Gayle King Show/Oprah Radio, and went face to face with Bill O’Reilly on the controversial “The O’Reilly Factor”.  Newton has also appeared in such television programs such as various appearances on “Howard TV On Demand”, “The Sopranos”, “Nip/Tuck”, and films, “Mona Lisa Smile”, “Sean Lennon’s Friendly Fire”, and most recently the Darby Crash biopic, “What We Do is Secret”.
In addition, Randi is a columnist for one of the most respected trade publications in the adult nightclub industry, “Exotic Dancer Magazine”.  She attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha, on a scholarship provided from the Miss America Organization, and has more recently studied at The New School in New York City, The Groundlings in Los Angeles, and Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City.  She spends her spare time, reading, writing, playing poker, and enjoys karaoke.  She is currently working on her second memoir and working at Rick’s Cabaret’s flagship location in New York City.  Newton resides between New York and Los Angeles.

Cameryn Moore is a writer, comedian, sex educator, performer, and, oh yeah, a professional phone sex operator. Her one-woman play, Phone Whore, opens in Boston May 15-16, and will tour to 17 other cities in North America this summer and fall (including Brooklyn’s Brick Theatre November 5-6!). In Boston she is the host of f*ckbucket, a monthly talk show/sex-trivia night at the Savant Project, and regularly appears at the Naked Comedy Showcase, the Comedy Studio, and Good Vibrations. Catch more of her in NYC this weekend: June 4 at Ochi’s Lounge with the Back Room, and June 5 at her first NYC Naked Comedy Showcase. For tour dates, visit her at www.camerynmoore.com

Sarah Jenny is a community organizer, activist and visual artist. She is a co-founder and organizer of the NYC chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP-NYC) and Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK). She has previously served on the board of directors of the Desiree Alliance Conference and as the New Media Director of $pread Magazine. Sarah Jenny is currently a masters candidate at New York University with a focus on mobile technology for public health. She is co-organizing the Sex Worker Cabaret at the Slipper Room on June 6^th and hopes you will attend.

Stephen Boyer will forever be in his early twenties fucking and getting fucked under the alias Dorian or Dorian Slay. Since the years are quickly stumbling away from his point of entry, Stephen has devoted his energies to writing, painting and performance. His work has been published by 2nd Floor Projects (San Francisco); Marjorie Wood Gallery (San Francisco); TRY zine; in the anthologies “Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction from Young American Writers” and “Madder Love: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism”; and a collection of poetry entitled “Ghosts” by Bent Boy Books came out this past January 1st, 2010. He has also shown work at Poet’s Theater, and has been involved in many a friends performance. Currently he is wrapping up a novel, producing a play and has an art show June 5th-6th between 12-7pm as part of the Bushwick Arts Festival with his friend Kevin Sheneberger at 301 Grove St. Brooklyn, New York. And check out his website www.minorprogression.com

‘Dominick‘ is a founding participant of ‘Reading for Filth’, a monthly series founded by the late Dean Johnson. At the inaugural reading, Dominick came out about his 3-year stint as a full-time sex worker. In subsequent appearances, he’s honed his confessional voice, drawing on his sex worker diaries and correspondence to delve into a range of topics- his youth as a kept boy, his evolving persona as dominant guido-for-hire, the digital transformation of the sex industry, ass health- and of course, the johns, in all their splendor. Since retiring from sex work, Dominick walks among civilians in NYC’s real estate industry- where the art of the sell is supreme.

Mariko Passion, Educated Whore and Urban Geisha is a performance artist | activist | educator | whore revolutionary. She sings and rhymes her experiences and reality over beats and produces auto-documentary videos. She educates the community and fights for social justice issues related to sex workers rights in LA, across the U.S and the world. She has performed at the International AIDS conference Global Village stage in Mexico City, a conference that drew 20,000.  She tries to feature or open mic perform somewhere in her hometown of Los Angeles a few times month.  She is a singer, spoken word, visual and performance artist using various mediums to speak on the intense drive and passion of certain born to be hustlers living in a male privileged world.

About HIPS:

HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) was founded in 1993 by a coalition of service providers, advocates, and law enforcement officials as an outreach and referral service. HIPS mission is to assist female, male, and transgender individuals engaging in sex work in Washington, DC in leading healthy lives. Utilizing a harm reduction model, HIPS’ programs strive to address the impact that HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, discrimination, poverty, violence and drug use have on the lives of individuals engaging in sex work. HIPS is a nationally recognized program that meets the needs sex workers and assists them in their efforts to eliminate the transmission of HIV, increase sexual health, and reduce violence and harm associated with sex work and drug use. HIPS programs serve an estimated 2,000  sex workers a year on the streets and in our drop-in center, providing a full spectrum of programs to address basic & immediate needs, long-term goal setting and life skills development.

Important information about changes to Sex Worker Literati!

Changes are coming to Sex Worker Literati – some really exciting ones!
As many of you know, in just under one year that Sex Worker Literati has been running at Happy Ending Lounge, we’ve had some amazing experiences. Since August 2009, we have featured more than 50 sex workers from around the country – and even some international guests – who have read, monologued, performed, and shimmied their ways into our hearts, minds, and naughty bits.  We’ve also built a fundraising component into the evening, donating a percentage of the bar income to sex worker organizations each month. But now, we’ve just grown too big to continue as we have…so we’re making some changes and we know you’ll be as excited about them as we are!

Audacia Ray will be continuing the Happy Ending tradition of a First Thursday night reading & performance series, under a different name: The Red Umbrella Diaries. The series will bring together current & former sex worker performers with the audiences that have come to love these story tellers’ particular takes on their lives, loves, and work. Audacia will continue to raise money for sex worker advocacy groups at each performance and produce videos of the performers. Learn more about Audacia’s upcoming themes, performers, and watch the latest videos at http://RedUmbrellaProject.com.

Starting this September, David Henry Sterry will be taking Sex Worker Literati uptown to Bowery Poetry Club at 308 Bowery! It will be a great chance for socializing with and listening to amazing performers, and hang out with other sexy people enjoying the usual fun and flirtatiousness that you’ve come to expect & love! Tentatively scheduled for the first Thursday nights, there are still details to be finalized, but not to worry – just check out http://hoshookercallgirlsrentboys.com for more information about Sex Worker Literati!

Hosted by Audacia Ray and David Henry Sterry
Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City
Thursday, May 6. Doors open at 7 pm, reading from 8-10
Stick around after the reading to dance and party with hos, hookers, and ne’er do wells!
21 and up – FREE

15% of the bar goes to support Adult Industry Medical Health Foundation

Our readers this month:

Candida Royalle began her long and colorful career in sex work as a porn star before pioneering the genre of female-centric erotic films through her company, Femme Productions in 1984. Continuing to innovate in the area of women’s sexual pleasure she partnered with a Dutch industrial designer to create the groundbreaking Natural Contours line of sleek stylish vibrators. Looking to share all she’s learned through out her illustrious life and career she penned “How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do” (Simon & Schuster). She’s a founding board-member of Feminists for Free Expression (FFE) .

Guy Gonzales. Peepstar. Hustler. Notorious Nude Club Manager. Outlaw Artist and Writer. Warrior. From peddling firecrackers to live sex shows, legendary hardcore hustler Guy Gonzales was born in Manhattan of Asian-American ancestry. Despite the façade of a decent upbringing, he became enticed by the filthy streets. Flesh emporiums fueled his incentive; in 1982 Guy gravitated to Times Square, a reputed red-light district, and began as a cashier/mop-man in the adult peep shows. While swabbing pools of disgrace, he dated a Private Booth showgirl; subsequently they became a Love-Team, performing live sex acts on stage. On a mattress stained with bodily fluids, he penetrated even deeper into the inner sanctum of smut. Guy’s artwork, articles, and photo essays have been featured in Screw, Hustler, Swank, Vibe, the Village Voice, and Penthouse Forum. Featured in TimeOutNY as the leader of the Mortuary Squad, an elite task force that documents the underbelly; and the 40th Anniversary Issue of New York Magazine. A+E ‘Biography’ entitled ‘Times Square’ chronicled his unusual experiences, with interviews and illustrations. Exhibitions include  â€˜Erotopath’ and ‘Viewer Discretion Advised’. In 2006 he exhibited at the Ayala Museum, Makati, the Philippines, with former President Fidel Ramos in attendance. A noir New Yorker, Guy continues to evoke the broken mirror ball on the fringe of a forgotten Times Square, as his autobiographical account PEEPMAN/DEUCE42 nears completion.

Jillian Lauren is the author of the memoir Some Girls: My Life in a Harem. She has an MFA from Antioch University and her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Flaunt Magazine, Pindeldyboz Magazine and Opium Magazine, among others. Her novel, Pretty, is scheduled to be released from Plume in January 2011. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. Her blog is regularly updated with notes about her life, her family, and her writing.

Aimee DeLong is a writer and performer, living in New York.  Her work has been published in such places as Cherry Bleeds, 3AM, Everyday Genius, Lit Chaos and Yellow Mama.  Aimee has giving readings for The Cherry Bleeds Literary Happy Hour and Lit Crawl in San Francisco.  She’s also the winner of the 2008 Famas Poetry Prize.  Recently, she appeared in the off-Broadway play, Go Go Killers.  If this is not a long enough list of vague accolades please visit her website at www.aimeedelong.com.

About Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation:

“A non-profit corporation created to care for the physical and emotional needs of sex workers and the people who work in the Adult Entertainment Industry. Through our HIV and STD testing and treatment, our counseling, and support-group programs, we are happy to be serving the sex worker community. Our goal is to provide health care for the body, mind, emotion, and spirit, as well as to take a leadership position in promoting safe and responsible sexual behavior, not only for the adult entertainment industry, but for everyone.”