Gina

This is a writing workshop for current and former sex workers to share their writing and get honest, non-judgmental feedback. Workshop participants are not obligated to write exclusively about sex work, but writing about work in the sex industry (as well as writing about other topics) will be welcomed. This is a place where people can write and share about their sex work experiences without having to censor themselves or explain every detail. Beginning writers are encouraged to attend along with more seasoned wordsmiths.

Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop is all-genders. We define the term “sex worker” broadly, as people who have exchanged erotic labor for money/food/shelter, including but not limited to:

+Street and Survival Sex Workers
+Escorts and Personal Companions
+Sensual Massage and Sensual Body Work Providers
+BDSM workers; pro-dommes, subs, and switches
+Adult Film Actors; Porn Models and Performers; Nude Models; Cam Girls and Boys
+Exotic Dancers; Strippers; and Peep Show Workers
+Phone Sex Operators
+And many other Sex Workers and Adult Entertainers!
(If we’re forgetting your area of the industry in this definition, tell us!)

**Email questions, volunteer inquiries, etc, to queershoulder@gmail.com.
**If wheelchair access is needed, please contact mail@sexandculture.org in advance of workshop.
**While we can’t guarantee a scent-free space, we ask that all attendees please refrain from wearing scented products to ensure that workshop members with chemical sensitivities can attend.
**We ask that our non-sex worker friends, lovers, partners, allies, and clients respect that this space is FOR SEX WORKERS ONLY.

INSTRUCTOR BIO:
Gina de Vries is a genderqueer femme, a queer Paisan pervert, and a writer, performer, and activist with a long history doing political organizing in and with queer, trans and gender-variant, and sex worker communities. She co-edited the queer youth anthology [Becoming] with Diane Anderson-Minshall in 2004, and her publications include Coming & Crying: true stories about sex from the other side of the bed, Take Me There: Trans & Genderqueer Erotica, Bound to Struggle: Where Kink and Radical Politics Meet, The Revolution Starts at Home, $pread, Curve, make/shift, and On Our Backs. Gina is the founder and co-curator (with Elena Rose and Julia Serano) of “Girl Talk: a trans & cis woman dialogue,” a spoken-word show fostering and promoting dialogue about relationships of all kinds between cis and trans women. She has performed, taught, and lectured everywhere from chapels to leatherbar backrooms, and recent university appearances include Harvard University and Yale University. Gina regularly presents on issues ranging from sex work to intersex activism for the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program and the Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps, and works a day job fundraising for St. James Infirmary, the nation’s only clinic run by and for current & former sex workers. She is the founder and facilitator of Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop, a writing class for current & former sex workers at San Francisco’s Center for Sex & Culture (where she also serves on the Advisory Board). A graduate of Hampshire College, Gina is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing at San Francisco State University, where she is working on a memoir and a book of short stories. Find out more at ginadevries.com, and keep track of her on the daily at queershoulder.tumblr.com.