Spoken Word/Poetry Competition for International Whores Day 2023
Entries are due by 11.59 pm ET on May 19, 2023
If you are a sex worker/person in the sex trade and have a connection to New Jersey (live here or work here, or come from here, or have good friends here, or similar), then contribute a poem to the International Whores Day podcast competition by May 19, 2023. New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance (NJRUA) will select several of the pieces to read for our International Whores Day podcast (produced in collaboration with Moral High Ground Productions). Contributors maintain the copyright of their art and will provide permission for it to be shared on our podcast. All selected entrants will receive compensation for their participation.
This year’s theme will be “Storming the Sanctuary” in celebration of the original action that inspired International Whores’ Day in 1975. It is also a call to action that our allies need now more than question how safe any of us are. We have to fight for and maintain our safe spaces. Our rights and all civil rights are under attack, Sex workers need collaborators and co-conspirators.
The competition will be judged by members of NJRUA. The NJRUA poetry podcast will be recorded/edited by PJ Starr and N’Jaila Rhee and released on SoundCloud on June 1, 2023. The podcast builds on a tradition begun by Robyn Few, who read a poem created by her friends for International Sex Worker Rights Day in 2010. And our own podcast in 2022 and in 2016
Contribute your poem, words, lyrics, etc to newjerseyrua@gmail.com by May 19, 2023, by 11.59 pm Eastern to be in the running to win a t-shirt and/or have your poem read for inclusion on the podcast for which you will be compensated If you would like to record a reading of your own poem for consideration, we can receive the recording via email or any other file transfer service you would like to use. You may contribute anonymously (i.e. we don’t have to read any name on the podcast) or you may provide us with a name and short bio if you wish. Also please indicate that we have your permission to use your art/poem/words for our podcast.
If poetry is not something that interests you, you can also send us original music for consideration for the podcast, lend your voice to reading a poem, or donate to our cause. All are welcome.
Good luck!