Gina's April East Coast Tour: NLNI + WriteHereWriteNow + Yale!

Hey folks! I've got three exciting events happening this April in Parts East: I'm moderating the TransFeminism panel at the Civil Liberties & Public Policy Reproductive Justice Conference in Amherst, MA; teaching at Write Here Write Now Queer & Trans Writer's Workshop in Boston; and heading over to New Haven to teach an erotic writing workshop and then perform at Yale. As for San Francisco events: Sex Workers' Writing Workshop happens again on Wednesday, April 15th. (The April 1st workshop is CANCELLED. Sorry, folks -- I'm getting on a ridiculously early plane on April 2nd. But I'll see you the 15th!) If you're local to any of these workshops or readings, please come hang out, or at least say hi! xox, Gina ----- ***CIVIL LIBERTIES AND PUBLIC POLICY REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS CONFERENCE*** Hampshire College Amherst, MA TransFeminism Panel (Gina moderates) Saturday, April 4th, 3:15-4:45 PM More info here: http://clpp.hampshire.edu/home I'll be moderating the TransFeminism Panel. Speakers include Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Gunner Scott, & Joshua Truitt. Come see us! ***WRITE HERE WRITE NOW QUEER & TRANS WRITERS' WORKSHOP*** Boston, MA Wednesday, April 8th, 7pm More info here: http://www.writeherewritenow.org/writeherewritenowongoingwritingworkshops.html Email Toni Amato at toniamato@gmail.com for location & directions. I'll be reading an excerpt from recent work and guest-teaching one prompt at Toni Amato's fantastic queer & trans writers' workshop. Please come, Boston friends! ***YALE!*** New Haven, CT Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies Library (3rd floor) William L. Harkness Hall 100 Wall Street Friday, April 10th Queer Erotic Writing Workshop ("Hot, Not Throbbing: Writing About Sex Without Reaching Into Your Bag of Cliches"): 4pm-6pm Featuring at Yale's Queer Pride Reading: 8pm I'll be teaching my erotic writing workshop ("Hot, Not Throbbing") in the afternoon, and doing a reading in the evening. My workshop description & bio are below. Workshop Description: Hot, Not Throbbing: Writing About Sex Without Reaching Into Your Bag of Cliches Writing about sex can be a joyous and hot thing -- but erotica can very easily turn more laughable or flat than sexy. How do we write sexually-explicit work without overdoing it or boring the reader? In this writing workshop, we'll discuss how to avoid cliches, create believable and sexy characters, and get dirty in that good way. A note: If you want to sound off about how pornography, sex work, sadomasochism, or transsexuality is totally sending us to hell or totally oppressive, this is NOT the workshop for you. No haters, please. BIO: Gina de Vries is a queer femme writer, rabble-rouser, sex worker, pervert, and Paisan. She cut her activist and artist teeth on the riot grrrl and queer arts movements in mid-nineties San Francisco. Her fiction, journalism, memoir, and smut have appeared dozens of places, including: The Revolution Starts at Home; Baby, Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing; Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women; TransForming Community; That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation; Bound to Struggle: Where Kink & Radical Politics Meet; make/shift magazine, and Curve magazine (where she was a columnist from 1997-2004). Currently, Gina curates shows for long-running queer performance series San Francisco in Exile, blogs for national LGBT blog Bilerico, and teaches a writing workshop for sex workers at San Francisco's Center for Sex & Culture (where she also serves on the Advisory Board). She can be cruised online at ginadevries.com. ***SEX WORKERS' WRITING WORKSHOP*** Wednesday, April 15th, 7pm-9pm 7pm-9pm Center for Sex & Culture 1519 Mission Street, San Francisco (cross street 11th -- it's the building with the pink awning) Sliding scale $10-$20 *more if you can, less if you can't, nobody turned away* Workshop facilitated by Gina de Vries This is a writing workshop for people who work or have worked in all areas of the sex industry 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.