Chicago Pleasure Salon Tuesday, July 7 at Villains Bar

The first three Pleasure Salons have been a great success! Come out, make new friends and join the sex-positive community for a night of drinking and discussion.

PLEASURE SALON
presented by
SEX+++ and SWOP-Chicago
First Tuesdays, 6-10 PM
Villains Bar & Grill
649 S. Clark Street
http://www.villainschicago.com/

Chicago’s awesome sex-positive meetup continues: On Tuesday, July 7th anytime between 6 and 10 P.M., come out to Villains — buy a sandwich or a drink — and hang out with Chicago’s sex-positive community.

Pleasure Salon, every first Tuesday, is the place to talk about sex, culture and sexual fun! This event is modeled on New York’s Pleasure Salon, “A Gathering of Sex-Positive Activists”. We want to build networks among all kinds of sex-positive people and create an open exchange of ideas about sex. All are welcome.

Pleasure Salon is hosted by Serpent Libertine, The Ultimates and Ken Melvoin-Berg, and co-organized with the awesome Pleasure Salon Committee: Cunning Minx, Aspasia Bonasera, Arvan Reese, Ben, and Robyn. We all want you to attend Pleasure Salon — whether you identify as

+ a sexuality activist,
+ a sex worker,
+ a pornographer,
+ LGBTQ,
+ BDSM,
+ a swinger,
+ a polyamory practitioner,
+ a tantric practitioner,
+ a sex educator,
+ a free speech advocate,
+ a progressive pastor,
+ an AIDS worker,
+ a radical feminist,
+ a student,
+ not at all studious,
+ skeptical about our politics and aims,
+ or just someone who likes talking about sex!

Help us create a more sex-positive world!

PLEASURE SALON
1st Tuesdays, 6-10pm

Villains Bar & Grill
649 S. Clark Street
http://www.villainschicago.com/
NO COVER
Under 21 welcome, but they obviously cannot drink.

SWOP-Chicago Meeting Wednesday, June 24

Please join us for our June open meeting!

This month’s topic- Solidarity and Privilege: Supporting Others While Checking Yourself

Special Guest Speakers- Transfomative Justice Law Project

Meeting Details-

Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois (www.tjlp.org) is
excited to connect with SWOP to talk about doing work with communities
we are not a apart of. By engaging in a dialogue and skillshare
around what it means to check one’s privilege in the organizing work
we do, the conversation will include addressing issues of race,
class, gender, higher education, and ability. As a collective working
with a community we are not a part of, TJLP will spend some time
exposing our own internal process to SWOP, as well as the strategies
we have developed for keeping these conversations at the forefront of
the work we do – especially in our model of legal services and
community organizing support.

Please join us for this to add your thoughts and ideas to this conversation!

Date- Wednesday, June 24

Time- 7:00 pm

Location- Howard Brown Health Clinic (check in with desk and they will give you room location)

Address- 4025 N. Sheridan rd., Chicago, IL

Street parking available at meters or take red line to “Sheridan” stop

“Happy Endings?” Documentary Screening and Discussion- Friday, June 12

SEX WORKERS OUTREACH PROJECT-CHICAGO PRESENTS…
an intriguing exploration of the Asian massage parlor industry in Providence, RI

“HAPPY ENDINGS?”

documentary and post-screening discussion

in support of SWOP-Chicago
presented by Clarisse Thorn
and hosted by the Leather Archives & Museum

Friday, June 12, 7PM
Leather Archives & Museum
6418 N. Greenview (corner of Devon/ Greenview)

Chicago, IL 60626

(773) 761-9200

$5-10 suggested donation

Rhode Island: the only state where prostitution was legal.  It had been over 25 years since five prostitutes sued the state of Rhode Island for selective prosecution and prostitution laws were removed from the books, when documentarians Tara Hurley and Nick Marcoux turned their cameras on the underbelly of “The Renaissance City”.

Watch the drama unfold in Asian massage parlors across Providence as Mayor David Ciccilline pushes to close the prostitution “loophole”.  Follow Heather, a Korean immigrant, over two years as she manages the massage parlor.  Learn about the women who work in the spas.  Hear from the police who arrest them.  Watch the fight for and against the legislation.  The film includes subtitled interviews with Korean women who work in the spas, clients who frequent the spas, police, politicians from 1980 and today, local news footage, local radio call-in shows, and “voiced” reviews from internet escort review boards.  Read more, watch the trailer, and see clips from the film at [ http://happyendingsdoc.com/ ].

Just recently — May 2009 –prostitution is in danger of being criminalized again in Rhode Island. (The state House has approved it and the bill is waiting on a vote in the Senate.)  Come out, watch the documentary, and talk about it afterwards.  What do you think about sex work?  Is the change in Rhode Island law fair or unfair?

Delicious snacks will be served, and discussion will follow!

This is a benefit for the Sex Workers Outreach Project, and we’re requesting a $5-10 donation from attendees.

Thanks to our host the Leather Archives and Museum, preserving the history of alternative sexuality:  [ http://www.leatherarchives.org/ ]

Screening facilitated by Clarisse Thorn, sex-positive activist and curator of the Sex+++ Film Series:  [ http://clarissethorn.wordpress.com/ ]

MEETING LOCATION CHANGED!

Due to handicap accesibility issues, the 5/13 SWOP Chicago meeting WILL be at the Howard Brown Health Center at 4025 N. Sheridan. Someone there will let you know of the meeting room number. Sorry about this last minute change, but please join us for our first meeting at our new location tonight at 6PM.

Questions? Please call our hotline at (312) 252-3880.

SWOP-Chicago Meeting Wednesday May 13, 6-8PMa

SWOP-Chicago will be having on open meeting this upcoming Wednesday May 13 at 6:00 PM.

SWOP has a new meeting space! We will no longer be having meetings at the YWCA downtown. Much thanks are given to our allies at the YWCA who allowed us to use the meeting space there for the past year, but we now have a new meeting space donated to us by Howard Brown Health Center. Please note- THIS IS NOT THE  HEALTH CLINIC ON SHERIDAN. Our meetings will now be on the second Tuesdays of each month at 6PM instead of 7.

Please join us to discuss the future of SWOP-Chicago, what programs we are currently working on and what you would like to see us work on. You participation is key to helping us! Sex workers and allies are invited…you do not have to identify as a sex worker if you are uncomfortable doing so.

Date- Wednesday May 13

Time- 6:00PM- 8:00 PM

Location- 4033 N. Broadway (door north of Arnold’s diner)

Any questions, please email sexworkchicago@gmail.com or call the hotline at (312) 252-3880

Monthly Pleasure Salon Continues Tuesday, May 5 at Villains Bar

The first Pleasure Salon went incredibly well — help make the second one even better! Announcing the second night of Chicago’s new sex-positive meetup: On Tuesday, May 5th between 6 and 10 P.M., come out to Villains — buy a sandwich or a drink — and hang out with Chicago’s sex-positive community. Pleasure Salon, every first Tuesday, is the place to talk about sex, culture and sexual fun!

This event is modeled on New York’s Pleasure Salon, “A Gathering of Sex-Positive Activists”. We want to build networks among all kinds of sex-positive people and create an open exchange of ideas about sex. All are welcome.

Pleasure Salon is hosted by Clarisse Thorn, Serpent Libertine and The Ultimates, and co-organized with the awesome Pleasure Salon Committee: Cunning Minx, Aspasia Bonasera, S.I.R., Arvan Reese, Ben, and Robyn. We all want you to attend Pleasure Salon — whether you identify as

+ a sexuality activist,
+ a sex worker,
+ a pornographer,
+ LGBTQ,
+ BDSM,
+ a swinger,
+ a polyamory practitioner,
+ a tantric practitioner,
+ a sex educator,
+ a free speech advocate,
+ a progressive pastor,
+ an AIDS worker,
+ a radical feminist,
+ a student,
+ not at all studious,
+ skeptical about our politics and aims,
+ or just someone who likes talking about sex!

Help us create a more sex-positive world!

Pleasure Salon

Tuesday, May 5

6:00PM- 10:00PM

Villains Bar and Grill

649 S. Clark St.

Chicago , IL

SWOP-Chicago meeting: April 15, 2009

The next SWOP-Chicago meeting will be Wednesday, April 15, 7-9PM. We will be discussing and accepting input on creating quick-access literature for sex workers in various aspects of the industry, namely information on their legal rights. This is part of our outreach efforts. We will also be announcing upcoming events in the Chicagoland area related to SWOP, the sex industry and other social action events as well as our next meeting date. As always, we want to discuss the best ways we can reach out to other sex workers and communities not involved in SWOP, or those who are in need of support. We hope you can come out and join our growing community. Your help and support is appreciated, even if you just want to attend a single meeting.

ABOUT US: SWOP-Chicago is a human rights organization with the specific aim of outreach and social action efforts on behalf of sex worker rights. The organization is consists of and is led by current and former sex workers, sex worker allies, social rights activists, and sex worker positive feminists, academics and students. Our meetings are open to all sex workers current or former and our allies; however, you do not have to identify as such if you are not comfortable in doing so. We strive to create as safe a space for our open meetings and respect anonymity.

Meeting details:

YWCA

360 N. Michigan Ave., 8th Floor

Chicago, IL

Wednesday April 15, 2009: 7-9 pm

Erotic Dancers Deny Prostitution Charges

Erotic Dancers Deny Prostitution Charges
Reporting: Mike Puccinelli

Two suburban women accused of prostitution are defending themselves. They say they were not selling sex. The studio was raided on Tuesday, and the women were charged. But they tell CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli they committed no crime.

New Dance Expressions: It’s a business where, according to their Youtube ad, “you and a gorgeous instructor come together.”

But Prospect Heights police say what’s on sale here 24/7 isn’t instruction –but sex.

“That’s a lie,” dancer and manager Marisol Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez and her co-worker, Veronica Rodriguez, were both busted Tuesday night for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover Cook County Sheriff’s deputy. The two women are not related and say their business isn’t involved in illegal sex. They say it involves erotic dance in private rooms.

“An erotic dance might be a striptease,” dancer Veronica Rodriguez said. “I mean, none of the girls are required to go naked.”

Both women say they have no criminal records and are being wrongly accused.

Veronica Rodriguez said. “I’m completely mortified. … I feel ruined.”

Police say in a back room Veronica Rodriguez offered sex for $1,200. The officer said he wanted to get another girl in on the action.

Rodriguez denied she tried to broker a deal. “I never said that,” she said.

“We offered an erotic dance,” Marisol Rodriguez said. “We offered to do a dance together. But we did not agree to anything illegal.”

She is a mother of four. She says she’s talking now to prove to her children and others that she was unfairly targeted by publicity-hungry police.

“They’ve ruined my life and they’ve ruined the lives of my children, and they’ve just dragged us through the mud,” Marisol Rodriguez said. “We may never bounce back from this.”

She says after crying for two days, she’s now ready to fight to turn this week’s tribulation into what she says will be vindication in open court.

Both women say they have actually called police when customers offered to pay for sex. Police say they know people who claim they were offered sex for a price at the studio, but not Veronica or Marisol Rodriguez.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

New Monthly “Pleasure Salon” Series Starts Tuesday April 7 at Villains Bar

Introducing ….

PLEASURE SALON
presented by
SEX+++ and SWOP-Chicago

Announcing the very first night of Chicago’s new sex-positive meetup!  On Tuesday, April 7th between 6 and 10 P.M., come out to Villains — buy a sandwich or a drink — and hang out with Chicago’s sex-positive community.  Pleasure Salon, every first Tuesday, will be the place to talk about sex, culture and sexual fun!  This event is modeled on New York’s Pleasure Salon, “A Gathering of Sex-Positive Activists”.  We want to build networks among all kinds of sex-positive people and create an open exchange of ideas about sex.  All are welcome.

Pleasure Salon is hosted by Clarisse Thorn, Serpent Libertine and The Ultimates, and co-organized with the awesome Pleasure Salon Committee: Cunning Minx, Aspasia Bonasera, S.I.R., Arvan Reese, Ben, and Robyn.  We all want you to attend Pleasure Salon — whether you identify as

+ a sexuality activist,
+ a sex worker,
+ a pornographer,
+ LGBTQ,
+ BDSM,
+ a swinger,
+ a polyamory practitioner,
+ a tantric practitioner,
+ a sex educator,
+ a free speech advocate,
+ a progressive pastor,
+ an AIDS worker,
+ a radical feminist,
+ a student,
+ not at all studious,
+ skeptical about our politics and aims,
+ or just someone who likes talking about sex!

Help us create a more sex-positive world!

PLEASURE SALON
1st Tuesdays, 6-10pm
beginning April 7th, 2009

Villains Bar & Grill
649 S. Clark Street
http://www.villainschicago.com/
NO COVER
Under 21 welcome, but they obviously cannot drink.

Chicago SexPo is Coming April 29!

The second ChicagoSexPo is coming Wednesday April 29 to Excalibur nightclub. SWOP-Chicago attended the first SexPo in September and plan to attend the upcoming one.

The SexPo is still looking for vendors! If you have a business you’d like to promote to a sex-positive and sexy crowd, please contact Larry at (847) 305-6900 or email questions@chicagosexpo.com. If you say SWOP-Chicago referred you, you will get a discount on the regular vendor price.