About a month ago I saw Kirk Read's "So this is the thing" performance in San Francisco. The day after coming back from shooting for sex educator and activist Tristan Taormino.
I had an amazing time at Tristan's shoot. She is directing videos for Vivid's educational line and I was featured in her Guide to Sensual Bondage. Sensual is the key word, it was challenging and fun at the same time to hold back from playing as rough as I would have liked. But there was something naughty in all it's innocence. Revisiting a time when I first started bdsm and would put on furry leather cuffs and a hand on the ass was all I needed, not the touch of a 2x4 :)
It was so amazing being in LA but still being surrounded by intelligent queer sex positive community that was nuturing and educating the public's sexual interest with hot sexual performances and under the guidance of excellent bondage rigger Midori.
We were guiding couples through taking those first steps in to the sometimes intimidating world of bdsm. And at the same time Tristan was countering the LA porn normative by portraying honest sexual connection, talking with the talent about who they would like to work with, making sure everyone was comfortable, hydrated, and that dietary needs were taken care of. These may seem like simple things but to have an environment created where the performers basic needs are taken care of and that their desires are heard, well this is empowering. And this is an act of revolutionary porn.
The next evening my partner and I joined fellow writer and bondage model Lorelei Lee and her partner for dinner and theater where we enjoyed Kirk Read's "This is the Thing". This is the Thing is Kirk Read's multi media performance which explores his apocalyptic fantasies and sex work. Kirk's performances are always innovative, compelling and keep me captivated from the moment he walks onto stage to the moment he exits. His gentleness and honesty and ability to love and open his self up to the audience with in his stories is truly beautiful. He delves into his history as an evangelist and goes into a story regarding a protest outside of the Sex Workers Art Show. Crowds of press and mobs surrounding the venue in which they were about to perform. Evangelists were singing and lighting candles and Kirk decides to join them in song. It was really touching and beautiful. I recall at a previous SWAS hearing a piece Kirk performed about the last night that a historical gay sex club in SF was open. The end of something beautiful. He is able to capture the magic of the evening along with the depth,history and lineage behind sex culture. He captures this sense of compassion with his work with in the sex world that reminds me of Annie Sprinkle. He can be talking about something so dirty and raunchy and hot but at the same time there is something magical, historical, groundbreaking and compassionate in his words. Something wholesome and gentle and disturbed and innocent and brilliant. Yes. I am a fan and Kirk Read is most certainly one of today's great sexual revolutionaries which is evident in the name of his non-profit organization Army of Lovers.
