Desiree Conference-Day 2
My original plan here was to blog about each day of the conference as they happened, but with all the partying, running around, and outright chaos I experienced on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there wasn't a minute of time to do that. In fact, tonight (Wednesday) is the first day in a week I've actually stayed in at night and had a chance to catch my breath. And believe me, people were trying to drag me to come out tonight, too, but I had to finally decline.
Day 2 (Friday) of Desiree started out much smoother than Day 1. The day started at the do-able hour of noon and my Media Team duties were being taken care of so I could sit down, eat some breakfast, and take in the round table discussion on "Capitalism Critical Sexworkers" and "National Sex Worker Leadership". It was a little unclear about why and how these two presentations got lumped together, but the presentations were interesting nonetheless.
Next up were two separate discussions on important, yet often ignored topics surrounding the sex industry. William Takahashi and Leilah Binker gave their presentation on "Adult Entertainer's Guide to Disabled Customers" and the women of Young Women's Empowerment Project (YWEP) spoke about "How to Be an Adult Ally to Youth Who Trade Sex, Money, Gifts, and Survival Needs." Both were highly anticipated presentations, but I had to choose just one, so I checked out Bill's, who's been an active supporter of SWOP-Chicago.
Bill has cerebral palsy and he's been very active in getting the message out that disabled people are sexual people, too, and have the same needs as any of us might have when it comes to sex. Unfortunately, they have several obstacles that are in their way, so he's created a handbook and DVD that help sex workers understand a little better on how to be sensitive to the needs of customers with different types of disabilities. His booklet offers tips such as "Lap Dancing and Sexual Etiquette For Disabled Customers." This is a much ignored topic and one even most sex workers may not ever feel comfortable discussing, so I'm really happy that Bill was able to present here. By the time the conference was over, all the copies of his guide has been taken and Bella from Bella's Hacienda was asking me how she could get a copy of his DVD to bring home with her. Those interested can probably contact Bill on his MySpace page.
During lunch, Amanda Brooks, author of the Internet Escorts Handbook presented on "Safety For Sex Workers Through Personal privacy-Legal and Simple Ways of Working and Living Out Of Harm's Way." Now Amanda is one of the more public faces in the sex worker rights movement, having been on television numerous times and in various media outlets, so it's surprising to see how much she goes out of her way to remain "invisible" to the public. This is a presentation that could have appealed to sex workers and non-sex workers alike, if you're all about maintaining a fake name, alternate mailing addresses, and phone number that can't be traced. Just watching her run down all the things she does on a daily basis to hide her identity made me a little paranoid about what I'm not doing to protect myself and perhaps what I should be. Damn!
As Amanda was still presenting, I had to scramble down the hall to find my SWOP-sister Miss Jasmine giving her talk on "Self-Marketing and Self-Branding-How to Run a Profitable Sex Worker business." Though Jasmine's only been in the business less than a year, she cleans up, money wise, and brings in sometimes $10,000 a month, no shitting you. She knows what she's talking about when it comes to this stuff. So while she didn't have much formally prepared here, she made up for it in engaging the audience with humor, sexiness, and intelligence, three of her best assets. Everyone loved it. Jasmine talked about building a base of regulars by only taking on clients she enjoyed being with, using TER (ick, and no I am not linking to it) to her advantage, and determining rates on what clients are willing to pay. It turned out to be a fun and lively discussion to balance out all the hard-core serious and political topics that were starting to weigh me down a bit.
Lastly, the final presentations of Day 2 were the "Sex Worker Made Media" panel hosted by Spread magazine and "Surviving and Resisting: Prison Activism, Street Work, and Survival Sex." Once again, I had to endure the tough choice of only being able to choose just one to attend, so I sat in on "Sex Worker Made Media" as it's something I've been focused on doing with my RedLightDistrictChicago site. The panel had about sever different people on it, each speaking about the different types of media they do focusing on sex work and while it was fascinating and all...I had to skip out early to do some sex work myself. So I can't comment too much here, but hopefully it encouraged some of the attendees to get out and start creating some of their own media.
Later than night, I hooked up with some of the Desiree crew, including organizer Stacey Swimme, Robyn Few, Bella, Liz from Tuscon, and Audacia Ray for some Mexican Food and Margaritas . Dacia and I then headed back to her hotel room to do an interview swap for our websites (we're totally media-making whores). I was a bit tipsy when I filmed my interviews, so I'm almost afraid to watch the end results now and I just hope Dacia is kind to me on her end. Luckily her interviews are much shorter than my epic-length affairs.
As I headed down to the hotel lobby, Robyn Few and friends were sharing some wine and conversation so I joined in, hoping to find where the next party was being staged. Renegade Evolution had set up camp at her new favorite bar, the L & L, and I was planning to meet them there, but my conference housemates wanted to go home and I felt obliged to drive them there. Camped in front of the hotel were four of Chicago's finest, chattering away at length about Robyn, who had admonished them on the street the night before for harassing the working girls on Belmont. I told them outright they had better not be talking shit about Miss Robyn, as she was one of my heroes who busts her ass to help people, probably much unlike them. But they weren't. Instead these guys were obsessed with how amazing this woman was, this woman who actively worked to help the lives of working prostitutes and other sex workers, who was intelligent, funny, and full of energy. Pretty soon Robyn , her boyfriend, and Ren were out front of the hotel conversing with the cops, who agreed that arresting prostitutes was a waste of time and money and their energy could be focused elsewhere. Whether they were bullshitting us or not, I don't know, but it was a sight to see. Really wish I had my camera was rolling at this time.
I can't explain how exciting the energy was right then...something we don't usually experience in Chicago, but I never wanted it to end. All these out whore talking to the cops, changin' their minds, giving power to those of us who normally feel timid about our work. All the hard work I had put into the planning of this conference and it was little moments like this that made it so worthwhile.
Day 2 (Friday) of Desiree started out much smoother than Day 1. The day started at the do-able hour of noon and my Media Team duties were being taken care of so I could sit down, eat some breakfast, and take in the round table discussion on "Capitalism Critical Sexworkers" and "National Sex Worker Leadership". It was a little unclear about why and how these two presentations got lumped together, but the presentations were interesting nonetheless.
Next up were two separate discussions on important, yet often ignored topics surrounding the sex industry. William Takahashi and Leilah Binker gave their presentation on "Adult Entertainer's Guide to Disabled Customers" and the women of Young Women's Empowerment Project (YWEP) spoke about "How to Be an Adult Ally to Youth Who Trade Sex, Money, Gifts, and Survival Needs." Both were highly anticipated presentations, but I had to choose just one, so I checked out Bill's, who's been an active supporter of SWOP-Chicago.
Bill has cerebral palsy and he's been very active in getting the message out that disabled people are sexual people, too, and have the same needs as any of us might have when it comes to sex. Unfortunately, they have several obstacles that are in their way, so he's created a handbook and DVD that help sex workers understand a little better on how to be sensitive to the needs of customers with different types of disabilities. His booklet offers tips such as "Lap Dancing and Sexual Etiquette For Disabled Customers." This is a much ignored topic and one even most sex workers may not ever feel comfortable discussing, so I'm really happy that Bill was able to present here. By the time the conference was over, all the copies of his guide has been taken and Bella from Bella's Hacienda was asking me how she could get a copy of his DVD to bring home with her. Those interested can probably contact Bill on his MySpace page.
During lunch, Amanda Brooks, author of the Internet Escorts Handbook presented on "Safety For Sex Workers Through Personal privacy-Legal and Simple Ways of Working and Living Out Of Harm's Way." Now Amanda is one of the more public faces in the sex worker rights movement, having been on television numerous times and in various media outlets, so it's surprising to see how much she goes out of her way to remain "invisible" to the public. This is a presentation that could have appealed to sex workers and non-sex workers alike, if you're all about maintaining a fake name, alternate mailing addresses, and phone number that can't be traced. Just watching her run down all the things she does on a daily basis to hide her identity made me a little paranoid about what I'm not doing to protect myself and perhaps what I should be. Damn!
As Amanda was still presenting, I had to scramble down the hall to find my SWOP-sister Miss Jasmine giving her talk on "Self-Marketing and Self-Branding-How to Run a Profitable Sex Worker business." Though Jasmine's only been in the business less than a year, she cleans up, money wise, and brings in sometimes $10,000 a month, no shitting you. She knows what she's talking about when it comes to this stuff. So while she didn't have much formally prepared here, she made up for it in engaging the audience with humor, sexiness, and intelligence, three of her best assets. Everyone loved it. Jasmine talked about building a base of regulars by only taking on clients she enjoyed being with, using TER (ick, and no I am not linking to it) to her advantage, and determining rates on what clients are willing to pay. It turned out to be a fun and lively discussion to balance out all the hard-core serious and political topics that were starting to weigh me down a bit.
Lastly, the final presentations of Day 2 were the "Sex Worker Made Media" panel hosted by Spread magazine and "Surviving and Resisting: Prison Activism, Street Work, and Survival Sex." Once again, I had to endure the tough choice of only being able to choose just one to attend, so I sat in on "Sex Worker Made Media" as it's something I've been focused on doing with my RedLightDistrictChicago site. The panel had about sever different people on it, each speaking about the different types of media they do focusing on sex work and while it was fascinating and all...I had to skip out early to do some sex work myself. So I can't comment too much here, but hopefully it encouraged some of the attendees to get out and start creating some of their own media.
Later than night, I hooked up with some of the Desiree crew, including organizer Stacey Swimme, Robyn Few, Bella, Liz from Tuscon, and Audacia Ray for some Mexican Food and Margaritas . Dacia and I then headed back to her hotel room to do an interview swap for our websites (we're totally media-making whores). I was a bit tipsy when I filmed my interviews, so I'm almost afraid to watch the end results now and I just hope Dacia is kind to me on her end. Luckily her interviews are much shorter than my epic-length affairs.
As I headed down to the hotel lobby, Robyn Few and friends were sharing some wine and conversation so I joined in, hoping to find where the next party was being staged. Renegade Evolution had set up camp at her new favorite bar, the L & L, and I was planning to meet them there, but my conference housemates wanted to go home and I felt obliged to drive them there. Camped in front of the hotel were four of Chicago's finest, chattering away at length about Robyn, who had admonished them on the street the night before for harassing the working girls on Belmont. I told them outright they had better not be talking shit about Miss Robyn, as she was one of my heroes who busts her ass to help people, probably much unlike them. But they weren't. Instead these guys were obsessed with how amazing this woman was, this woman who actively worked to help the lives of working prostitutes and other sex workers, who was intelligent, funny, and full of energy. Pretty soon Robyn , her boyfriend, and Ren were out front of the hotel conversing with the cops, who agreed that arresting prostitutes was a waste of time and money and their energy could be focused elsewhere. Whether they were bullshitting us or not, I don't know, but it was a sight to see. Really wish I had my camera was rolling at this time.
I can't explain how exciting the energy was right then...something we don't usually experience in Chicago, but I never wanted it to end. All these out whore talking to the cops, changin' their minds, giving power to those of us who normally feel timid about our work. All the hard work I had put into the planning of this conference and it was little moments like this that made it so worthwhile.
posted by Serpentlibertine at
9:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home