DIY Resistance
Sex Workers + Organizers Talk Artmaking and Mutual Aid for International Whores' Day
- Livestream
- Panel
This live conversation and Q&A around artmaking as resistance, mutual aid, and “whorestories” of zine-making took place on June 3 in conjunction with International Whores Day NYC 2020 Digital Rally.
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.
This live conversation and Q&A around artmaking as resistance, mutual aid, and “whorestories” of zine-making took place on June 3 in conjunction with International Whores Day NYC 2020 Digital Rally.
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, as we're witnessing in real time through the work of protesters around the United States actively confronting state violence against Black people. Download the zine below.
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.
International Whores Day Zine
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.
