On Tuesday, March 22 from 7 to 9:30 pm I'm doing a...
On Tuesday, March 22 from 7 to 9:30 pm I'm doing a panel at my alma mater. Excited about this! And I'll be in good company too.
WORK STUDY: SEX WORK, FEMINISM, AND THE NEW SCHOOL STUDENT
Wollman Hall, Eugene Lang College, 65 West 11th Street, New York, NY
This past fall, New York Post headlines decried the "Hooker Teacher!"—a tenured public school teacher who is also a graduate of the New School. Amid the myths and sensationalism is the plain fact that many New School students and professors count sex work among the jobs they have held to pay bills.
Join moderator Jennifer Baumgardner (Lang writing faculty), writers Audaci…a Ray (a Lang graduate) Melissa Petro (the "Hooker Teacher" in question), and Melissa Febos (a Lang graduate and current faculty), Niesha Davis (a current student), and advocacy group leaders, to discuss media, feminism, and why an open conversation about sex work is critical now.
Co-sponsored by Gender Studies, Lang@25, Paradigm Shift, and n+1. Advocacy groups include Sex Workers Project, the PROS Network, SWANK, Red Umbrella Project, and others.
Jennifer Baumgardner is a magazine writer, the author of several books about feminism, including Manifesta: Young, Women, Feminism and the Future and Look Both Ways, and the creator of the I Had an Abortion Project.
Melissa Petro is a writer, researcher and former sex worker. Her work appears on The Huffington Post, Daily Beast, The Rumpus.net and elsewhere. She has been interviewed by Marie Claire, Bust and Mother Jones. She has an MFA from The New School.
Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir, WHIP SMART. Her writing has been published in The Southeast Review, Redivider, Dissent, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, and Bitch Magazine, among many others, and she has been profiled in venues ranging from the cover of the NY Post to NPR's Fresh Air. Recently named one of "Five New Queer Voices to Watch Out For" by Lambda Literary, she is the winner of the Memoirs, Ink half-yearly contest, and a 2010 MacDowell Colony fellow. She teaches at Purchase College, Sarah Lawrence, The New School, and NYU, and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence.
Audacia Ray is a former sex worker and the director of the Red Umbrella Project, which does media trainings and creates storytelling spaces for sex workers. She is the author of Naked on the Internet and was an editor at $pread magazine for three years. Audacia has a BA from Eugene Lang College at the New School and a MA from Columbia University.
Niesha is a 24 year old writer and performer who has lived in San Francisco, New York, and Amsterdam. Her writing has appeared in Time Out Amsterdam Magazine, $pread Magazine, and on Patch.com.
