Xtascene joined the Festival in 2009 as film curator. Xtascene is an SF Bay Area native; although currently rolling in the city of San Francisco, she misses Oakland and the East Bay desperately and is moving back as soon as she puts her chihuahua through college. Xtascene writes like she is giving birth - painfully, over the course of hours or sometimes days. Xtascene is an afropunk, a cis that doesn't believe in the gender binary, an ally looking for allies. Xtascene constantly burns with equal parts fear and wonder, and her narcissism is exceeded only by her compassion.

Laure McElroy-Images, Poems and Passions from Carol Leigh on Vimeo.

In August 2018 Laure McElroy, long time curator and co-producer and the San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival, passed away. Producers Erica, Carol and Laure were more than colleagues. We were like a small family. It's been hard to talk or write about this. The Sex Worker Festival is happening again in 2019, and  talking about Laure now is just as difficult. I miss her especially when I think of all the memories and years we did all this together.

Laure was very loving, brainy, political... just everything. Everyone who know her loved her especially...I think it was her warmth. She was so affectionate.

This montage includes some great, cute pictures of Laure that capture her hipness, brazenness and sense of humor. Also, Laure always made people feel a little more grounded, safer, loved, on the earth.

The poems are from her work with poormagazine.org, which was really her home. She was in an ensemble called welfareQUEENS which included songs, poems, and other performance. The last piece is an informal promo she did for her favorite new project before she died, a radio station, KEXU 96.1.