THE RED UMBRELLA DIARIES » Red Umbrella Diaries

Episode 20 features Desiree Burch, who tells a story about her struggle to understand her power as a dominatrix. The piece was recorded during the Bad Behavior themed live event on November 4, 2010. Desiree Burch is an NYC-based comedian, emcee, writer, and New York Neo-Futurist, best-known for her acclaimed solo show “52 Man Pickup” which has played alt-theater venues in New York and London as well as the Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. One of New York Magazine’s “10 New Comedians that Funny People Find Funny,” Desiree has supplied laughter for MTV, VH1, NBC News, The New York Post, Comedy Central, Huffington Post and more, and can also be seen in the upcoming feature-length documentary “I Heart New York.” She is a Yale graduate and previously hosted/curated the reading and variety series Smut. (“Art that should carry a Parental Advisory Label” – NY Times). http://desireeburch.com 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. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 19 features Christine Macdonald, who reads from her memoir-in-progress. The piece was recorded during the Bad Behavior themed live event on November 4, 2010. Honolulu native Christine Macdonald worked the darker side of paradise as a nude exotic dancer Waikiki. Her articles, The Customer is Always Trite, Embarrassing Stripper Moments and Stripper Scoop: your top five questions answered earned her cover spots as Editor’s Picks on Open Salon; she has also been featured and recognized as a rising author on the popular publishing site Scribd. An avid supporter of equal rights, Macdonald founded Another way to say it Greetings, a greeting card company that caters to her friends in the GLBT community. She plans to launch these cards following completion of her current project. Christine is currently writing a memoir about her experiences as a stripper from 1987 to 1996, and was selected as the October 2010 NAMW Member of the Month.She is a self-proclaimed stripper cliché and recovering narcissist. 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. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 18 features Alithea Howes, who talks about her experience running a Monday night burlesque show, Original Cyn. The piece was recorded during the Healing Touch themed live event on October 7, 2010. Alithea Howes takes her clothes off in bars and teaches people how to be kinky. She has been performing burlesque since 2005 and stunning audiences with her creative twists on the art of burlesque. After becoming a professional dominatrix in 2006 she began teaching classes on the art of kink and has taught for TES, DSF, and GD2 among others. She is also a writer, a storyteller and an artist. Find her on facebook, fetlife (under the name Coraline) or look her up at www.marycyn.com 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. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 17 features Tobi Hill-Meyer, who shares a story about her partner Briar. The piece was recorded during the Healing Touch themed live event on October 7, 2010. Also check out Tobi’s piece My Year as a “Pimp”, in which she writes about her experience working security for her partner, an outcall sex worker. Tobi Hill-Meyer is just about your average multiracial, pansexual, transracially inseminated queerspawn, genderqueer, transdyke, colonized mestiza, pornographer, activist, writer. Having been less than thrilled with both her own experience in mainstream porn and the amount of representation trans women have in queer and feminist porn, she directing and produced Doing it Ourselves: The Trans Women Porn Project, winning the Emerging Filmmaker award from the Feminist Porn Awards in the process. 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. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 16 features Sarah Sloane, who talks about her path to sex education and the sex business, through surviving and thriving after sexual trauma. The piece was recorded during the Healing Touch themed live event on October 7, 2010. Sarah Sloane travels the US & Canada as a sex, relationship, and kink educator, sowing her wild oats (and selling sex toys) along the way. She speaks to thousands of people each year, and gets a total buzz from watching the “aha!” moments that happen to attendees during and after classes. She’s also a grudgingly prolific writer (with regular columns on Fearless Press and on other websites), activist, and sex-positive business coach & consultant. Her current adjectives include queer, butch-ish, curmudgeony, left-wing, and unapologetic introvert. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded edited by David Beasley, with podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 15 features Ducky Doolittle, who shares some insight on resilience, healing, and her path from peep show girl to sex educator. The piece was recorded during the Healing Touch themed live event on October 7, 2010. With more than two decades working in the field of sexuality, Ducky Doolittle graduated from behind the peepshow glass to the front of the class. Today she is a celebrated Sex Educator and the author of “Sex with the Lights On: 200 Illuminating Sex Questions Answered” Ducky is also a certified Sexual Assault & Violence Intervention Counselor. Harvard University has cited her as their “favorite, most informative and hilarious” sex educators ever to grace their campus. MTV said, “Who do you want to talk about sexuality with? Ducky DooLittle. She knows it all!” Ducky is the President of Love U Parties, a healthy-for-the-body sex toy company. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by Audacia Ray, with podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 14 features “A Parent’s Story,” my favorite blog carnival selection from September. This piece came to me from Touching Base New South Wales, an organization in Australia -where sex work is decriminalized- that aims to facilitate the links between people with a disability, their support organizations, and the sex industry. The story is by Angie, mother of Elisabeth, about their family’s struggle to address the sexual needs of their daughter, who has cerebral palsy. The piece was recorded during the Healing Touch themed live event on October 7, 2010. Read the whole blog carnival here. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded and edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 13 features the story “Ode,” written by the blogger Hooker Addict and performed by Red Umbrella Diaries host Audacia Ray. Every month I selected a favorite piece from the monthly blog carnival and read it at the live event. The piece was recorded during the Demand Side themed live event on September 2, 2010. Read the whole blog carnival here. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 12 features performance artist and poet Puma Perl, accompanied by Big Mike. Though he doesn’t speak, Big Mike cut up Puma’s dress as she performed – so listen for the scissor snips. The piece was recorded during the Demand Side themed live event on September 2, 2010. Puma Perl’s poetry and fiction have been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, published in 2008, was awarded the Erbacce Press 2009 Poetry Award in a field of over 1400 applicants; a full length collection, knuckle tattoos, was published in early 2010. She performs her work in many venues, in and out of New York City. She lives and writes on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison. She believes in the transformative and healing power of the arts. Big Mike is the author of 2 books, 81 Pounds and Sibling Rivalry and appears in the anthology One Millimeter, all published by Pretty Pollution Press. Big Mike is known for his performance art and was awarded Best Neptune in the 2004 Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 11 features Emma Lee in her public debut as a sex worker. The piece was recorded during the Demand Side themed live event on September 2, 2010. Emma Lee is a writer and editor who has contributed to BUST, Elle, Marie Claire, Maxim, Radar, and other fine publications. She used to write a dirty blog that was featured in Rolling Stone, Playboy and TimeOutNY. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was recorded and edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 10 features Caveh Zahedi, director of the autobiographical film “I Am A Sex Addict.” The piece was recorded during the Demand Side themed live event on September 2, 2010. Caveh Zahedi received a B.A. in Philosophy at Yale University and an M.F.A. in Film Production at the UCLA School of Film and Television. His feature-length films include A Little Stiff (1991), I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994), In The Bathtub of the World (2001), and I Am A Sex Addict (2005). http://cavehzahedi.com/ Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 9 features my story “The Johns,” which was recently published in the Kickstarter-funded anthology Coming & Crying, a book of true stories about sex edited by Melissa Gira Grant and Meaghan O’Connell. The piece was recorded during the Demand Side themed live event on September 2, 2010. Audacia Ray is a media maker and advocate who is based in New York City. Audacia is the Program Officer for Online Communications and Campaigns at the International Women’s Health Coalition. She consults on information and communications technologies for the Global Network of Sex Work Projects. As a co-founder of advocacy organization Sex Work Awareness, Audacia leads annual media training workshops for sex workers. She is the author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration and has written and edited a variety of blogs about sexuality and culture, including her personal blog Waking Vixen, which launched in 2004. Audacia is a former sex worker who was an executive editor at the Utne Reader award-winning $pread magazine for three years. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 8 features a short excerpt of Ignacio Rivera’s one person show, “Dancer.” The piece was recorded during a live event on September 3, 2009 that featured contributors to $pread magazine. Ignacio Rivera is a Queer, gender fluid, Trans- Entity, Black Boricua performance artist, lecturer/trainer, activist, new filmmaker, sex worker and self-proclaimed sex educator. Ignacio is the founder of Poly Patao Productions. P3 is dedicated to producing sex-positive workshops, performance pieces, films, play parties, panel discussions, social/political groups and educational opportunities that are specially geared toward queer women, transgender, multi-gender, gender-queer, gender non-conforming and gender variant people of color. Ignacio is also one of the founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice, a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by David Beasley, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 7 features a story by Busty Kitten, “Ode to My Fellow Dancers.” The story was recorded during the Coworkers and Co-conspirators live event on July 1, 2010. Busty Kitten is a theatrical know-it-all, muse and artiste, and feminist barstool philosopher. She co-produces and co-hosts The Giddy Multitude Vaudeville Co, a monthly cabaret of circus, music, dance, comedy, and burlesque. www.giddymultitude.com. Her work explores issues of sex and sexuality, body image, and constructed identies of femininity. She holds a BA from UC Santa Cruz and will be pursuing an MA in Applied Theatre at CUNY in the fall. She can be seen burlesque dancing at the usual venues around NYC and proudly earning her sweat equity at WOW Cafe Theatre. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by Audacia Ray, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or on iTunes.

Episode 6 features the story “Helmut the Maid,” told by Alex Kinney. The story was recorded during a live event on December 3, 2009. Alex Kinney is an old whore who has prostituted himself in the Ivy League, America’s regional theaters, the Golden Hills of Hollywood, one cold Christmas in Dublin, and more lengthily, the South of the Slot in San Francisco. Alex is also a director, actor and playwright whose most recent play, Holy Hell, was developed at The Actors’ Studio. Live events and podcast are hosted by Audacia Ray. The audio in this episode was edited by Audacia Ray, podcast bumper music by The Mercy Studio Project. Click here to listen in your browser. Subscribe to the weekly podcast by RSS feed for a new episode every Sunday or search for it on iTunes.