Artist:
Willem Weijters from The
RighT Guide
Wednesday,
May 20th at 7:00 PM
Omni Commons
4799 Shattuck
Ave. Oakland
Sponsored
by 
Red Light Legal
An
evening of short movies and discussion for sex workers and allies
who are in the cross hairs of anti-trafficking campaigns.
Our
community includes people who identify as sex workers and as
trafficked persons or survivors. We are students, social workers,
attorneys, journalists, filmmakers, artists, academics as well
as sex workers trying to make sense of this new war against
us.
This
evening we will hear from diverse panelists who are committed
to working together to support sex workers rights and challenge
prostitution abolitionism, end demand strategies and the hypocrisies
of the rescue industry.
Experts
joining the discussion include Alix Lutnck RTI International
researcher, focus on youth and sex trade, (recent
work here), Lania Watkins from Cal-Pep, Kristina Dolgin
of Red Light Legal, Carol Leigh (recent
work), Kristen DiAngelo and Pearl Callahan (of American
Courtesans winners of audience choice Best Feature Film
of the San Francisco 2013 Festival!) as well as other experts.
.
Kristen DiAngelo (American Courtesans) is organizing an international
Twitter event for 'Sex Work IS NOT Trafficking' evening on May
20th from 7pm to 10pm PST (live at Omni Commons, Oakland), tweeting
live quotes from experts in sex worker rights and incorporating
sex worker rights and prostitution abolitionist Twitter hashtags
to address reach both audiences. Follow #sexworkerfest for updates
on in this event.
Guests include representatives from Cal-Pep, Red Light Legal
and more (below). Rather than a panel, speakers will provide
1-2 minute introductions, then will addresse issues along with
the audience during discussion.
Guests:
Lania
Watkins
Lania
is currently employed as a Program Supervisor and HIV test Counselor,
at California Prostitutes and Education Project in Oakland,
CA. Her work includes facilitating Safer Sex House Parties,
Peer Education trainings, court ordered 101 Sexual Health sessions
with sex workers and Street Outreach. Her passion is to educate
people from all from all walks of life about HIV and safer sex.
Kristina Dolgin
Kristina
Dolgin is a long-time sex worker, law school graduate, and founder
of Red Light Legal. She is a former legal intern with TGI Justice
Project and the Homeless Action Center, and an active Board
member of the Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
and Sex Workers Outreach Project. See http://redlightlegal.org/
Alix
Lutnick
Alix
is a Senior Research Scientist, Consultant, Trainer and Adjunct
Faculty with research interests including the sex industry,
trafficking, substance use and criminalization. Read https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/02/18724988.php
Kristen
DiAngelo and Pearl Callahan from American Courtesans
American
Courtesans addresses the stereotyping and social stigma attached
to this profession and what it has cost us. Both speakers have
a wide range of experience that is particularly relevant to
this discussion of abuses within sex work and empowerment solutions.
http://www.americancourtesans.com/
"Raid"
illustration by Willem Weijters from The RighT Guide http://www.rights4change.org/index.php?id=21
Video/visuals:
Becky’s Journey
Sine Plambech
24 min. 2014, Denmark
Beautiful Becky has attempted to travel from Benin, Nigeria
twice, and voluntarily. She braves rape and starvation to cross
closed borders in search of a better life as a sex worker in
Italy. The film is about migration, sex work and human trafficking
seen from the perspective of Becky. Becky tells her story in
her own words, a fascinating alternative take on migration for
the purposes of sex work that is never heard in the mainstream
press.
Being a refugee is Hard
Muchaneta with SWEAT
3 min. 2010, South Africa
This first person short is one of four stories of the lives
of sex workers that came out of a four day workshop held by
Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force in Johannesburg.
Widowed Muchaneta is a refugee of the economy of her home country,
where working as a secretary she still cannot earn enough to
feed her children. She migrates to South Africa in hardship
and learns how to make ends meet.
Unraveling
Anne Elizabeth Moore & Melissa Mendes
2014, US
Images from the illustrated story: “The threads that connect
the sex industry to the garment industry are many... But if
you look closely you can figure out how to unravel them”
Collateral Damage: Sex Workers & The Anti-Trafficking Campaigns
Carol Leigh 8 min. 2015, San Francisco
Anti-trafficking is a sacred cow, but behind this humanitarian
concern is a century-old movement that historically reflects
xenophobia and prostitution abolitionism. Clips from the work-in-progress
Doin’
It for Themselves: The Hunt Sisters
Feminist Whore 10:33 minutes, 2011, US
Extremely informative rant about two sisters, female scions
of the uber-conservative and filthy rich Hunt family. Helen
and Swanee Hunt have conservative Christian values, and more
money than any ten million of us will earn in our little lifetimes…
all of which they use to advance their agenda regarding the
silencing and general disenfranchisement of sex workers. Spoiler
alert!!: The revolution will NEVER be funded through the many
foundations these two own. -LM
Intersectionality
and the Mission of the Sex Worker Fest
The Sex Worker Fest is anti race, class, gender, age, ability,
size and sexual identity oppression. We strive to increase the
involvement of politically underrepresented sex worker communities
such as trans folk, street based workers, workers of color and
workers who transcend the racist, sexist, heterosexist, white-supremacist
norms and standards of mainstream beauty. We push the margins
of the movement into the center, working to shift paradigms
in joint struggle, we cultivate leadership of sex workers that
are marginalized within the sex workers movement. We highlight
the artistic endeavors of workers in all aspects of the sex
industry because whore culture is real, present and on a corner,
in a bar, in a hotel or in a bedroom community near YOU.
The location for this event is ADA accessible. Childcare,
translation and signing services are available upon request.
We also ask you to assist us in making this a scent free environment
(see peggymunson.com/mcs/fragrancefree.html).
Email
sexworkerfest@gmail.com
or call (925) 391-0592 to request these or other options. Also
see Logistics/Accessibility.