DIY Resistance: Sex Workers + Organizers Talk Artmaking and Mutual Aid for International Whores’ Day
Join a live conversation and Q&A around artmaking as resistance, mutual aid, and “whorestories” of zine-making with Red Schulte, curator of the International Whores’ Day Zine and co-organizer of the International Whores Day NYC 2020 Digital Rally, and zine contributors JB Brager, Mistress Velvet, Ariel Wolf, and Empress Wu.
Commemorating the 45th International Whores Day (IWD), an event that began in Lyon, France in 1975, the International Whores’ Day Zine contains information and art from over 15 sex worker rights activist artists, conveying sex workers’ struggles against racist, anti-immigrant, classist, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic conditions. The International Whores’ Day Zine honors the resilience of New York City’s sex working communities who continuously care for and provide mutual aid to one another, and celebrates contemporary sex worker artmaking and resistance in the face of state violence.
Download the free International Whores’ Day Zine, presented alongside a live digital rally on June 2nd from 12 to 2 p.m. EDT.
The International Whores’ Day Zine is compiled and edited by Red Schulte and Jett George, with support from MoMA PS1. Contributors include AP, Jett George, Blunt, JB Brager, Emily Coombes, Daniella, Melissa Gira Grant, Paul Glover, Emily Iris, Lorelei Lee, Niko, Leila Raven, Audrey Ryan, Red Schulte, Caty Simon, squiggles.and.sluts, Jacq the Stripper, Mistress Velvet, Alisha Walker, and Ariel Wolf.
From the International Whores’ Day Zine contributors: “This zine is a creative call to action, a recommitment to hope and collective strength in ongoing uncertain times. For those of us contributing, we’ve known and called out existing pandemics running rampant, destroying lives: capitalism, racism, the prison industrial complex, whorephobia, transphobia, the U.S. war machine, and environmental attacks, and now we’re drawing upon our existing mutual aid networks to once again build community care and safety. We share whorestory and art to ready our hearts for our continued struggle.”
Questions? Please submit your questions via direct message on social media to MoMA PS1 (@momaps1) or IWD NYC (@iwdnyc). Keep the conversation going online using the hashtag #IWDzine.
Support the IWD NYC 2020 organizers, speakers, and zine contributors by making a contribution.
Organized in collaboration with the IWD NYC 2020 Coalition and Kink Out.
About the Speakers
Red Schulte (they/them) is a queer, non-binary femme educator, community organizer, and zinester. They are a collective member of and the zine coordinator for Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe and Activist Center. They are also a member of the Support Ho(s)e collective, Survived & Punished NY, and Hacking//Hustling, and help coordinate the Justice for Alisha Walker Defense Campaign. Red’s zine-making centers collage-as-therapy, sex worker-led resistance, currently incarcerated comrades’ stories, and (decriminalizing) survival.
Mistress Velvet (they/them) is Chicago’s premier African dominatrix. They are a Marxist-Leninist worker, a sex and pleasure educator, and specialize in BDSM therapy. Velvet contributed a powerful collage piece to the International Whores’ Day Zine.
JB Brager (they/them) is a cartoonist living in Brooklyn NY, Lenapehoking. They can be found online at jbbrager.com and on social media @jbbrager. For the International Whores’ Day Zine, JB created an original narrative comic, telling part of the story of the first International Whores’ Day in Lyon, France in 1975.
Empress Wu (she/her) is a NYC-based dominatrix and cultural activist, organizing events and exhibitions with Kink Out and Red Canary Song, among others. A zinester as well, she was part of the production and digital design team for the IWD NYC Digital Rally and resource site.
Ariel Wolf (she/her) is an artist, writer, researcher, and former sex worker. She has a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and her research about sex work has been published in the Journal of Sexuality & Relationship Therapy and the Anti-Trafficking Review. She contributed an original drawing to the International Whores’ Day Zine.
About IWD NYC 2020 Coalition
The IWD NYC 2020 Coalition is comprised of New York City-based sex worker rights organizers who have come together with Kink Out to collaborate on the IWD NYC Digital Rally, the IWD website, and the International Whores’ Day Zine. We are led by sex workers and supported by allies. Sex worker rights activism relies on art and storytelling to spread public awareness of our issues and urgencies. Follow @iwdnyc.
About Kink Out
Kink Out produces empowering events that bring people of intersectional identities with lived experience in BDSM and sex work together to share art, activism, work, and conversation. Follow @kinkoutevents.