Text and photos by EVG contributor Stacie Joy
Along with a standing room-only crowd, I attended $pread magazine’s book-launch party last night ("$pread: The Best of the Magazine that Illuminated the Sex Industry and Started a Media Revolution," edited by Rachel Aimee Eliyanna Kaiser, and Audacia Ray; Feminist Press) at Dixon Place.
The book is an anthology covering 10 years of the defunct magazine (the first U.S. magazine by and for sex workers and allies), which was birthed in the East Village in 2005.
The magazine was crafted in the early years at the tables of Avenue A’s Café Pick Me Up and edited at Ludlow’s Earth Matters (RIP), and financed by repeated fundraising events at the Slipper Room. It was first for sale at Bluestockings. (I recall seeing brightly colored neon posters and fliers for the magazine all over the neighborhood back in the day.)
The former editors, writers, artists and staffers shared funny, touching and emotional stories about how sex work affected them and their friends, families and coworkers, and read some of the early responses to their work – such as a bowl of torn-up copies of their first issue, snail-mailed back to them with some seriously nasty notes.
It was also opening night of the art show “Spark to a Flame,” featuring art from the magazine.
The art show, curated by Damien Luxe, features artwork by artists Fly Orr, Molly Crabapple, Hawk Kinkaid, Xandra Ibarra/La Chica Boom and Cristy Road, and is still on view at Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie between Rivington and Delancey, until March 20.
“Spark to a Flame” is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
2 comments:
I just noticed something. The article says the magazine was "birthed" in 2005, and they're celebrating 10 years of it, which would be 2015, but it also says the magazine is defunct. Which is it?
Hey Anonymous, we were celebrating the launch of the anthology ten years after the launch of the magazine. But the magazine only published for a little over five years (2011).
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