THE RED UMBRELLA DIARIES » Red Umbrella Diaries

The 65th episode of Red Umbrella Diaries features Akynos reading a piece inspired by a “Christian” client, Stefan. This piece was read at the Love and Riches event on February 2nd 2012. The self proclaimed e-slut extraordinaire known as The Incredible, Edible, Akynos is a burlesque performer of almost 5 years. the newest member of the popular burlesque troupe Brown Girls Burlesque, she’s performed on stages from Symphony Space to the late great Zipper Factory. She’s a burlesque show producer and former stripper who aspires to strip again only if the money is right. She’s been a proud working girl and will write about her escapades in her graduating piece A Sexual Social History Involving Theory when she graduates from Goddard College this March. She’s scheduled to go on an east coast tour this spring and produce wonderful burlesque ensembles such as Darkie and Thick. You’d have to be pretty lucky to get a date with her but until then visit her on www.akynos.com Click here to listen in your browser Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by  RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

The 64th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast features Wanda Lee Robinson reading an excerpt from her book Stopless. The piece was read at the Both Sides Now event on March 1, 2012. Wanda Lee Robinson is the author of STOPLESS!  Wanda Lee Robinson came of age in Lou Reeds New York in the 1970′s. She describes New York City of that era as a “GRITTY GLAMOUR”  She earned her living as a topless dancer, working in infamous places like; BILLY’S TOPLESS, THE BABYDOLL LOUNGE, and THE ADAM & EVE.  She now earns her living as a massage therapist, delivering a whole-nother kind of healing. Having worked in very high-profile spas in Manhattan, she is busy writing another memoir about her adventures giving massages and body treatments to the creme de la creme. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.    

The 64th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast features Wanda Lee Robinson reading an excerpt from her book Stopless. The piece was read at the Both Sides Now event on March 1, 2012. Wanda Lee Robinson is the author of STOPLESS!  Wanda Lee Robinson came of age in Lou Reeds New York in the 1970′s. She describes New York City of that era as a “GRITTY GLAMOUR”  She earned her living as a topless dancer, working in infamous places like; BILLY’S TOPLESS, THE BABYDOLL LOUNGE, and THE ADAM & EVE.  She now earns her living as a massage therapist, delivering a whole-nother kind of healing. Having worked in very high-profile spas in Manhattan, she is busy writing another memoir about her adventures giving massages and body treatments to the creme de la creme. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.    

  The 63rd episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast features Sam Benjamin reading a piece about smoking weed and  spending time in porn stores, an excerpt from his book American Gangbang: A Love Story. The piece was read at the High & Dry event on December 1, 2011. He is accompanied by some tinny music amplified by his iPhone. Sam Benjamin was a proud member of the adult film industry for five years, following his graduation from Brown University. He directed hundreds of scenes, and met with as many memorable stars. His memoir American Gangbang: A Love Story (Simon and Schuster), hit stores in October 2011. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

  The 63rd episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast features Sam Benjamin reading a piece about smoking weed and  spending time in porn stores, an excerpt from his book American Gangbang: A Love Story. The piece was read at the High & Dry event on December 1, 2011. He is accompanied by some tinny music amplified by his iPhone. Sam Benjamin was a proud member of the adult film industry for five years, following his graduation from Brown University. He directed hundreds of scenes, and met with as many memorable stars. His memoir American Gangbang: A Love Story (Simon and Schuster), hit stores in October 2011. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

The 62nd episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast features a hilarious story about sex and money, told by anna saini at the Love and Riches event on February 2, 2012. anna Saini has lived many lives as a political scientist, radical activist, and multi-media artist. She completed a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto and McMaster University respectively. She works as a community organizer on issues of equality in higher education, drug policy reform, prison abolition, womens abuse issues, police brutality, and labor rights. Her writing appears in Bitch Magazine, make/shift Magazine, various journals and in her self-published anthology Colored Girls. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

The 61st episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast features a recording of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers event that was held in New York City six months ago. The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers was first organized nearly a decade ago by sex workers in San Francisco to memorialize the people murdered by serial killer Gary Ridgway. Ridgway captured the attitude that cultivates violence towards sex workers: “I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.” At the event, we create a space that challenges this assumption by demonstrating that we have a caring community. This episode was recorded at Trinity Lutheran Church on December 17, 2011, and an event co-organized by the Red Umbrella Project and the Sex Workers Outreach Project. The program was as follows: Words of Welcome:  Audacia Ray, Rev. Heidi Neumark Word of Comfort (in unison), written by Anonymous We gather now, standing here, those of us with breath, With life and body, joy and tears, to name this sorrow: death. We hold our sisters -brothers dear, and on our tongues and hearts Lay heavy names of those passed on, whose spirits now depart.   We seek out comfort, shed our tears, and speak of buried pain, We rage for justice, voices raised, proclaiming yet again That we are many, proud and strong, and will not live in fear For each of us must lay a claim to what we’re building here.   Today we mourn for those we’ve lost, both knowing and unknown, We honor them and look around to find we’re not alone. Though death has come and touched us all, it’s not our legacy We’ll face the future, heal our souls, and honor memory.   Reflections Cayenne Doroshow, Daisy McCloud, A. Lee, Audacia Ray Reading of the Names, Candle Lighting                        Reading (in unison), “A Dirge without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind: Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.   Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you. Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust. A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew, A formula, a phrase remains, — but the best is lost.   The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve. More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.   Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.                                 Benediction: Bowie Snodgrass Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

In the 60th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast, a pair of harm reduction workers spin a story – part personal and part political – about the changing landscape of sex work and drugs, and how public health policy interacts with these two cultural taboos. This piece was read by L. Synn Stern (she starts off the piece) and Nikki Krempasky at the High and Dry event on December 1, 2011. Nicole (Nikki) Krempasky is a small town Ohio turnip turned Brooklyn-based activist and Nurse Practitioner in Women’s Health.  After a colorful upbringing and too long in the midwest, she relocated to NYC to find more of the stuff that her dreams were made on and that her life is. She now works as a healthcare provider in harm reduction and reproductive health settings.  She is an active member of SWOP-NYC (Sex Workers Outreach Project), PROS (Providers and Resources Offering Services to sex workers) Network, National Abortion Federation, Clinicians for Choice, and co-hosts a feminist and pro-choice radio program called Voices and Choices. L. Synn Stern has worked with New York City’s syringe exchange programs since their pre-legal days in the 1980s.  She owes her start as a health care professional to the AIDS crisis which made street youth like her desirable for particularly those skills which one previously hid from an employer: how to inject, how to sneak condoms on, how to sell sex to strangers (and get out of their cars paid and alive).  She is the author of Tricks of the Trade, a much translated and widely used collection of health and safety tips for street sex workers and the agencies that serve them.  She has earned both a Masters in Public Health from Hunter College and an Aphrodite Award from Annie Sprinkle.  She currently works as a Registered Nurse and Health Services Coordinator at Washington Heights CORNER Project, a NYC-based syringe exchange program. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

In the 60th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast, a pair of harm reduction workers spin a story – part personal and part political – about the changing landscape of sex work and drugs, and how public health policy interacts with these two cultural taboos. This piece was read by L. Synn Stern (she starts off the piece) and Nikki Krempasky at the High and Dry event on December 1, 2011. Nicole (Nikki) Krempasky is a small town Ohio turnip turned Brooklyn-based activist and Nurse Practitioner in Women’s Health.  After a colorful upbringing and too long in the midwest, she relocated to NYC to find more of the stuff that her dreams were made on and that her life is. She now works as a healthcare provider in harm reduction and reproductive health settings.  She is an active member of SWOP-NYC (Sex Workers Outreach Project), PROS (Providers and Resources Offering Services to sex workers) Network, National Abortion Federation, Clinicians for Choice, and co-hosts a feminist and pro-choice radio program called Voices and Choices. L. Synn Stern has worked with New York City’s syringe exchange programs since their pre-legal days in the 1980s.  She owes her start as a health care professional to the AIDS crisis which made street youth like her desirable for particularly those skills which one previously hid from an employer: how to inject, how to sneak condoms on, how to sell sex to strangers (and get out of their cars paid and alive).  She is the author of Tricks of the Trade, a much translated and widely used collection of health and safety tips for street sex workers and the agencies that serve them.  She has earned both a Masters in Public Health from Hunter College and an Aphrodite Award from Annie Sprinkle.  She currently works as a Registered Nurse and Health Services Coordinator at Washington Heights CORNER Project, a NYC-based syringe exchange program. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

In the 59th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast, former rentboy Dominick tells a story about different perspectives on working, partly inspired by the Joni Mitchell song “Both Sides Now.” This piece was read at the Both Sides Now event on March 1, 2012 – a performance that Dominick guest curated and hosted. Dominick’s advice was featured in the May 30, 2012 installment of Dan Savage’s column Savage Love. Dominick found his confessional voice as a regular at Dean Johnson’s ‘Reading for Filth’ series. He’s since participated in ‘Sex Worker Literati’ in addition to Red Umbrella Diaries. Dominick draws on his own diaries kept during his three year stint as an escort, delving into such topics as his lost sugar daddy, the evolution of his dominant guido persona, the digital transformation of the sex industry, eighties music, ass health- and of course, the clients, in all their splendor. After climbing the ladder in NYC’s real estate industry (where the art of the sell is supreme), Dominick currently blogs for rentboy.com, offering advice to johns and escorts alike. He recently appeared as a guest on Dan Savage’s podcast (#267) and is participating with HOOK Online in Rent U. 2012, a series of workshops on such topics as client management and adapting workplace skills. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

In the 58th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast, former domme-of-all-trades L.D. Sorrow lays out a list of incidents and interactions that are her moments of zen, from bonding with a classmate who is also a domme to dealing with a man who has a sweater fetish. This piece was performed at the Recipe for Disaster event on August 4, 2011. L.D. Sorrow was born on the same day as Dolly Parton and Edgar Allan Poe, and enjoys reading, writing, and driving very fast. She has recently graduated school and become Dr. Queer, Medicine Woman. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by David Beasley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

In the 57th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast, latex fashion design and sex worker Klawdya Rothschild tells a story about how she learned to dress for work and how her business as a latex designer developed. This story was told at the Catwalk event on September 1, 2011. Klawdya Rothschild is a curator, artist, advocate, and occultist. Klawdya has degrees in fashion, fiber/textile arts and museum studies, and has been seen curating the Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival, judging Miss Rubber World, and serving on the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF). The former House Dominatrix for BOUND, Klawdya has participated in the Sex + Community for over a decade as a model, performer, sex worker, sacred whore, and presenter. Klawdya currently offers custom latex and repair to New York’s rubber and vegetarian leather enthusiasts with her exclusive label KLAWTEX for Purple Passion. Click here to listen in your browser. Podcast editing by Josh Ryley. Podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Live events are produced by the Red Umbrella Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.  

After a long hiatus, we’re back with new episodes of the Red Umbrella Diaries! This week’s episode introduces Josh Ryley, who in addition to being a funny and insightful storyteller, is the new editor of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast. Fire up your feeds, because we’ve got new, weekly episodes again! In the 56th episode of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast, rentboy Josh Ryley tells a very funny story about a trip to Paris with a client, and what happened when he had a big appetite and lots of enthusiasm for culinary adventures. This piece was performed at the Recipe for Disaster event on August 4, 2011. Josh Ryley is an escort in NYC who is always up for new adventures. He is an artist at heart and an active sleep eater. When he is not in the kitchen or thinking deep thoughts in the park his other interests include porn, talking about sex, writing about sex, making artwork about sex- oh and having sex. He has performed at Red Umbrella Diaries several times and hosted the “Like a Virgin” night at Red Umbrella Diaries in May 2012. He is working on compiling his various stories of work in the service industry into a discernible document to peddle around, and is the new editor of the Red Umbrella Diaries podcast. Click here to listen in your browser. Live events and podcast are produced by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded and edited by David Beasley, with podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Sheila McClear is a features reporter at the New York Post. Her writing has also appeared on Gawker.com, the Daily Beast, the New York Observer, and the New York Press. She is the author of the book The Last of the Live Nude Girls (Soft Skull Press, August 2011) She lives in Brooklyn. She read this piece from her book at the Recipe for Disaster event on August 4, 2011. Click here to listen in your browser. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded and edited by David Beasley, with podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 54 features Sophia Dazzle’s story of drugs, young love (or lust), and gross bosses. Sophia Dazzle started working in the sex industry as a teenager, and has since become an avid sex worker activist, academic and performer. Though a born-and-bred New Yorker, she considers herself tri-cosmopolitan, splitting her time between three continents (North America, Europe and Asia). She read this piece at the Recipe for Disaster event on August 4, 2011. Click here to listen in your browser. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded and edited by David Beasley, with podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.