Book Launch of Sex on Stage: Performing the Body Politic

Come down to The Scarlett Letters bookshop for the launch of Sex on Stage: Performing the Body Politic. There will be readings and performances from contributors - a full list is below!

Sex on Stage uncovers how gender and sexuality collide on stage in dynamic, dramatic, and thought-provoking ways. By taking a broad view of sex and the stage, this book tracks influences across the underground, marginalised, and the mainstream, from 'high' contemporary live art, to the 'low' of entertainment.

Doors will open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start.

EDITORS:

Lynn Sally is a scholar and performing artist. Her second book, Neo-Burlesque: Striptease as Transformation, was published by Rutgers University Press (2022). She produces and performs as Dr. Lucky, the World’s Premiere Ph(Double)D. www.lynnsally.com

Alison J Carr is an artist, mentor, and scholar. She works visually and creates performances, examining bodies on display and the contexts they perform in. Routledge published her book, Viewing Pleasure and Being A Showgirl: How Do I Look?, in 2018, and her novella The Night, was published in 2023

CONTRIBUTORS:

Dr. Carolina Are is the pole dancing academic, performer and activist behind the @bloggeronpole accounts and blog. Her academic work, focusing on social media platforms' content moderation of nudity, sex and sex work, is inspired by the censorship she experienced on her account. On the pole, she specialises in high-energy performances. Off the pole, she's a pain in the ass for social media platforms.

Image credit: @annabelleyb

Sarah Ainslie is a freelance photographer whose work is inspired by living and working in London’s East End. Documenting the working lives of women in the area, Shoreditch at night, Strip Pubs in the East End, Smithfield Market, Brick Lane and Arsenal Football supporters. She also facilitates community projects.

Stacey Clare is a stripper, writer, activist, theatre-maker and co-founding member of the East London Strippers Collective (ELSC). Author of The Ethical Stripper 2022 and co-creator of Edinburgh Fringe show Ask A Stripper, Stacey continues to draw from her experience working in the sex industry to write and perform in Scotland. 

Julie Cook lives and works in Ynysybwl, South Wales. Her work is photography based with an emphasis on artists’ books. Her research engages with issues of voyeurism in public and private space. Much of the work is collaborative in the making and often in its outcomes. She contributed to Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945 (2022).

Alexander Millington is Creative Director of award-winning theatre company, Split Infinitive Theatre and has performed his work across the UK. He is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD thesis at De Montfort University exploring physical acts of intimacy and sexual behaviour in contemporary British theatre. Alexander’s published scripts include A Caravan Named Desire, I Heart Michael Ball and Other Plays and Three Way, and is also featured in Kate Mulley’s Dramaturgy of Sex on Stage in Contemporary Theatre. Alexander has presented papers internationally and his essays have featured in the journals Taboo in Language, Media and Audiovisual Translation and Word Matters.

Lara Clifton After leaving a job as a runner to become an exotic dancer, Lara met Tamara Tyrer in Miss Lara Clifton’s Academy of Burlesque. Together they created the Whoopee Club which successfully rocked London until 2009. She is now full-time impressaria of Screaming Alley, a radical cabaret production company in Ramsgate, UK.

Tamara Tyrer Dr Tamara Tyrer is an artist specialising in moving image, dance and performance. Tyrer has exhibited at amongst others, The National Gallery (London), The Courtauld Institute of Art (London), The Lethaby Gallery (London), Fisura Experimental Film Festival (Mexico City), The Rochelle School (London) and Galerie des Beaux Arts (Nantes, France). Tyrer’s live shows have taken place at The Porchester Baths (London), The V&A (London), The Blackpool Tower Ballroom, The Blackpool Winter Gardens, The Blackpool Grand Theatre, The ICA (London), Fierce Performing Art Festival (Birmingham), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Great Eastern Hotel (London) and The Hackney Empire (London). Tyrer is an Associate Lecturer at Central St Martins, UAL, London.