Happy birthday to the multifaceted blogger, video blogger, movie director and Twitterer. *Lifts glass* Here’s to many more!

Happy birthday to the incredibly talented, smart and sexy blogger, video blogger, movie director, and Twitterer (and one of my earliest heroes). Here’s to many more!

Congratulations to Audacia Ray, who is the editor of the Village Voice’s new sexuality blog, The Naked City!

You also can subscribe to the feed.

I’ve made a big, weird decision that I’m still getting used to, but the cogs are in motion and it is happening. Effective with the spring issue and the start of $pread’s fourth year in print, I’ve decided that I will no longer be the executive editor of the magazine, nor will I be directly involved in the writing, editing and production of the magazine.

It’s taken me several months to let go, to really make the clear decision that my time at $pread has come to a close. But it has, and it’s time for me to move on.

Amber has written recently about activism and burn out and feeling like great things can’t be accomplished. This is kinda-sorta-notreally what I’m going through. I firmly and solidly believe that great things can be accomplished – and I believe that $pread can accomplish great things, and so can I. I am, however, feeling burnt out from three years of being an executive editor. Oh, I forgot one very important word: VOLUNTEER. Yes, it’s true – $pread is run entirely by a staff of devoted, passionate volunteers. And that takes a lot out of a person, especially after three years – three years in which I’ve started to make it as a writer and an editor in my own (paid) right.

In the future -which is to say, like, tomorrow- I will continue to work on sex work issues. I’m definitely not abandoning that part of my work, it just has to take different forms. Instead of working very specifically and separately within the sex worker communities on these issues, I want to fold them into the grander work I’m doing – like what I did with my book, writing about sexuality and sex work issues side-by-side. I have some stuff brewing that I don’t want to write about publicly and get it all jinxed, but we’ll see how everything develops over the next few months.

In the meantime, I’ll also be figuring out other ways of supporting $pread and the folks involved with the magazine, through other kinds of advocacy and hell-raising. We’ll see how it all pans out, and I’ll certainly be writing about it all as I figure it out.

And folks, this also means that $pread is looking for new contributors and people to work on editorial projects. We (they? – wow, that’s going to take some getting used to) aren’t ready to hire a full-on editor, but there is that need and opportunity once you prove your salt. Here’s the call, feel free to pass it on to anyone who might be interested:

$pread Magazine – an award-winning independent publication by and for people in the sex industry, is seeking past and current porn actors, phone sex operators, escorts, prostitutes, streetworkers, dommes, webcam workers, strippers / dancers, massage parlor workers, etc to submit work to our magazine.

We accept submissions from female, male and trans people who have done sex work in the past, as well as those who are currently still in the industry. We maintain an extremely inclusive editorial policy, as our
broadest aim is to be an informative and shameless voice of people who’ve worked in the sex industry.

STAFF-TRACK POSITIONS
We are currently looking for qualified people to become columnists / section editors, and prefer to work with people on a single writing piece first, before consideration for a longer-term assignment.

WRITING
We are seeking writers [editorial experience a bonus] to submit creative writing, pitch articles and write reviews and contribute to our various sections.

SECTIONS: We are always looking for writing for include:
Cunning Linguist – definitions of industry terminology
Scene Report – short articles about what a specific industry is like in a region [eg, dancing in Atlanta]
News – articles on news items relating to the sex industry
Creative Nonfiction, Fiction and Poetry – memoir and stories from the perspectives and experiences of people in the sex industry
Reviews – of recent books, movies, performances, websites, media etc. related to the sex industry
-We also are always looking for panelists to review products or argue
a position in some of our regular columns.

-STYLE: As well, we are looking for sexworkers who design clothes to submit information for consideration for review in our style section, and people to submit photographs of themselves in work and non-work clothes for a personal

-ARTICLES: We also welcome pitches for longer articles or interviews with people who work in or around the sex industry.

-ART: We welcome submissions of illustrations and photographs for individual usage and photo essays.

We do not offer payment for articles or art at this time, but you will receive a publishing credit and a copy of the magazine in which your work appears.

Find out more about us at www.spreadmagazine.org. Email us at contribute[at]spreadmagazine[dot]org if you’re interested in working with us – we look forward to hearing from you.

Demimonde: The Art of Molly Crabapple
Curated by Audacia Ray
Showing: Feb 8 – April 4, 2008

Opening Friday, Feb. 8th, 7-10 PM, Arena Studios, 407 Broome St. Suite 7D, NYC

In the 19th century, the term “Demimonde” referred to the world of the theatre, of bohemia and of high-end sex-work: where style was traded for money and class transgression was possible- though often at great personal cost. As the American safety net falls apart, we’re once again turning to the Demimonde for consolation.

Molly Crabapple’s “Demimonde” explores this half-world of sex, ambition and artifice. It also marks the debut of her new series of flarge scale works.

About the Artist: Molly Crabapple is an award-winning artist, author, and the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, a chain of burlesque drawing classes with 50 branches around the world. She’s best known for her sexy, sarcastic Victoriana. She works in pen, ink and watercolour, and lives in Brooklyn.

Audacia has a 2007 wrap-up piece up at Eden Fantasys, entitled Ten Hot Sexuality (And Gender) Issues of 2007. The Sex Carnival gets a mention!

Here are the ten topics:
Pole Dancing: For Fun, Exercise and Empowerment
Porn Goes Public: The Rise of Porn Film Festivals
Print vs. Online Erotica
Teen Sexuality: A Laughing Matter?
Social Media and Sex
Sex-Positive: Revolution or Meaningless Label?
Transgender Politics and the Law
Sex Worker Activism: Speaking Up for Themselves
Alt Porn: Transgressive or Mainstream?
Sex Toys Go Green: Questioning the Materials Used to Make Sex Toys

Click here to read the whole piece

Audacia Ray’s column for Hot Movies for Her appears the first Monday of every month.

The idea of pornographers with ethics and strong political convictions seems ridiculous to many people. After all, isn’t porn just about overly-tanned hedonism, driven by the desire to make a mint while surrounded by swarms of hot chicks who wouldn’t otherwise give you (assuming the portly, fiftyish male “you”) the time of day? Not so fast, assumption-maker.

[snip]

Amateur and independent porn began getting buzz with the advent of the home video camera and the newly glorious ability it bestowed on the average electronics geek to film his or her pasty white ass bobbing up and down in a poorly lit guest bedroom in New Jersey (not to stereotype or anything). But it really took off in the early 2000s as the Internet began to emerge as the go-to place for sex businesses, especially homemade ones. More specifically, young, technologically inclined idealists began to turn to the Internet to create their visions of sex-positive culture online.

When the oft-cited Suicide Girls was launched in 2001, it positioned itself as a site of female-empowerment via Internet nudity. In subsequent years, this turned out to be a bit more complicated and maybe not really the way things were running behind the scenes. Still, there are independent pornographers whose hope for the empowering mojo of independent porn springs eternal. The Sharing is Sexy (SiS) collective is one such group – their freshly hatched and totally free website launched just last week. Unlike Furry Girl, the SiS folks have no intention of making a living from their work on the site. In fact, as collective member lotu5 puts it, “SiS came out of anti-capitalist activism. …all our content is free, we try to spend as little as possible, dumpster what we can, leech resources from universities and jobs and make everything free.” At the same time, lotu5 says that, “One of our primary goals is to not discredit sex workers and ‘for pay’ porn sites.”

Click here to read the full article.

It’s an Audacia news Monday! Whatever that is. Seriously though, I have two exciting announcements for today, which I’m going to deliver in the slightly impersonal but very professional form of The Press Release. Check out my new shiznit, kids!

Sex-centric Video Blog LiveGirlReview.com Launches

NEW YORK, Dec. 10 – New York-based Waking Vixen Productions is proud to announce its latest web venture, Live Girl Review (http://livegirlreview.com), an all-review video blog featuring Audacia Ray as the host. The site will post reviews of porn, websites, sex toys, books, movies, and art three days a week, with a cheeky “Inside Dacia’s Dirty Mind” column on the alternate days.

Host Audacia Ray is a former Fleshbot contributor, author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration, and the the director and producer of bisexual adult feature The Bi Apple, which won for “Hottest Bi Sex Scene” at the Feminist Porn Awards hosted by Good For Her in Toronto this past June.

About the new site, Audacia says, “Live Girl Review is the place where I’ll talk about everything sex-related that comes across my desk. After six years in this business, there’s a lot of it, and I know what I do and don’t like – so the videos will be a look into my personal tastes, and I’ll only pick stuff that I think has potential to be really hot and cool.”

Folks with material they’d like to have reviewed on the site can contact Audacia at dacia[at]livegirlreview[dot]com.
***

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 10 – HotMoviesForHer.com, the by women, for women sister site of adult video-on-demand giant HotMovies.com announced today that sex writer/blogger extraordinaire Audacia Ray will be contributing a monthly column to the site.

“Audacia is a great writer and will be a great addition to HotmoviesForHer.com. Her views on sexuality and the adult industry are filled with intelligence and a touch of humor that is thought provoking and entertaining at the same time,” commented Monica Jean of HotMoviesForHer.com. “I’m thrilled to have another strong female voice filled with experience and knowledge on the site.”

Audacia Ray is an executive editor of $pread Magazine, a contributor to the porn blog Fleshbot and a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration, a look into the interface of female sexuality and the Internet, as well as writer/director/producer of Adam & Eve Pictures award-winning bisexual feature adult film “The Bi Apple.” Ray also recently launched her latest web project, www.livegirlreview.com, a video blog dedicated to reviewing sex media and culture.

“Writing about porn and sexuality for HotMoviesforHer gives me the opportunity to interview interesting people and further develop thoughts I have about the industry. It’s a great forum for open discussion of issues that affect both women watching porn and women making porn,” Ray commented on the new partnership.

Audacia Ray’s column will begin appearing on HotMoviesForHer.com today, Monday, December 10, 2007.

An erotic art exhibit of photographic explorations of body modification and eroticism, featuring photography from BellaVendetta.com. Curated by Audacia Ray.

Audacia is now working full time for the Peeq:

Starting this week, I’m going to be Community Manager for The Peeq, a new smartly sassy sex website that will combine top-notch content by stellar writers that you already know and love, plus social networking of the sexy kind. It’s not a dating site, nor is it a porn site, but a savvy community site for those amongst us whose tastes run to the naughtier side of the tracks. The whole idea is to provide space for playful and fun experiences/experiments with sexuality without insulting anyone’s intelligence. Or libido. Or intelligent libido. Also: it’s free free free.

My job resides somewhere on the continuum between the editorial staff and the PR firm that’s been hired to get attention for the site. I’m going to build up the community, resources and content like blogs, podcasts, and vlogs on the site, and the plan is to do it in a way that of course boosts traffic and usage of the site but that also really serves communities of people who like to play with sexuality online. So, there won’t be any mass emails asking for link exchanges or begging you to create a profile you’ll never use just so I can report to my bosses that I did something. Instead, I’ll be embarking on the task of identifying areas in which we can serve the community (plural communities, really) through the site, and then making it happen.

(More. . . )

Congratulations, Audacia!

Audacia graduated yesterday and now has an MA in American Studies AND Naked on the Internet is out!

You can pre-order it from Amazon.com.

Here are her upcoming appearances:

June 2: C*lick Me netporn conference & European debut of The Bi Apple, at Paradiso in Amsterdam

June 4: SMUT reading, Galapagos Art Space, 8 pm at 70 North 6th street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

June 5: Bluestockings Bookstore, 7 pm at 172 Allen Street, NYC

June 6: McNally Robinson Booksellers Seal Authors Event with Jessica Valenti
and Helen Boyd, 7 pm at 53 Prince St, NYC

June 7: Brookline Booksmith, 7 pm at 279 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA

June 11: Museum of Sex panel discussion with Lux Nightmare, Ellen Friedrichs, Madeline Glass and Marie Lyn Bernard, 7 pm at 233 5th Avenue, NYC

June 12: KGB Bar $pread celebrates Naked on the Internet, time TBA at 85 East 4th, NYC

July 10: Center for Sex and Culture, 7 pm at location TBA, San Francisco

July 11: Modern Times Bookstore, time TBA at 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco

July 14: Writers with Drinks, The Make-Out Room, 7 pm at 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco

I’m going to try to make as many of the NYC appearances as I can.

SOHO. On a rainy Sunday afternoon recently, a dozen young women gathered to transform the tools of their sex work trade into works of art. Over cupcakes and strawberries, they swapped stories as they nailed, glue-gunned, painted, pierced, googly-eyed and gashed variously sized toys. Beads scattered to the floor. “We should get some slave to clean that up,” said one dominatrix, laughing.

Their handiwork will be on display as part of Sex Worker Visions II, an annual art show by sex workers to benefit $pread magazine and the artists.

“Both $pread and Sex Worker Visions celebrate the experiences and cultures of sex workers in hopes that people will be more interested in what sex workers have to say about the industry than in what the mainstream media has to say about us,” said Audacia Ray, $pread executive editor and the show’s curator.

The exhibition aims to highlight 15 skilled photographers, watercolorists and sculptors who — like most artists — must hold day jobs to make ends meet. Even when the work is often by night.

“It’s outsider art,” said Ray, 27. And not necessarily erotic. “Our experiences aren’t always sexy. Quite to the contrary.”

One contribution, “Platforms,” speaks to the perpetual danger faced by sex workers. Created by the Aphrodite Project, this pair of platform shoes has a global-positioning system and 911 panic button embedded in its 3-inch heels. Gallery visitors can try them on and feel what it is like to walk in a sex worker’s shoes, especially haunting in light of the unsolved murders of four Atlantic City prostitutes.

Ray, who’s completing her master’s in American Studies at Columbia University, knows both worlds. “The idea that ‘nice girls don’t’ is part of the stigma of the industry,” she said. “Some of the nicest, smartest folks I’ve met have been sex workers, and many of them are people you would never suspect of being involved in the industry.”

Gazing at her friends’ creations, Ray smiled. She plans on taking the collection to San Francisco’s Center for Sex and Culture this summer. “That’ll be fun for airport security.”

Details:
The show opens tomorrow at Arena Studios, 407 Broome St. , Suite 7A
Opening May 1, 2007 from 6 to 9 pm
Runs through July 28, 2007