Entries are due by 11.59 pm ET on May 25, 2025
This year’s theme is Staying in the Fight! Decriminalize, Destigmatize, Decarcerate. We seek to not only honor the brave sex workers who occupied the church in 1975, but also to recognize the power and dignity of those who continue that fight. We recognize how difficult it is to fight for change while our civil rights and humanity are attacked. We seek to uplift voices speaking truth to power and maintaining space when so many in authority would rather you disappear.
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 or music to the International Whores Day podcast competition by May 24, 20245. 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.
Members of NJRUA will judge the competition. The NJRUA poetry podcast will be recorded/edited by PJ Starr and N’Jaila Rhee and released on SoundCloud on June 1, 2025. 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. Check out our previous podcasts here:
Contribute your poem, words, lyrics, songs, music, etc to newjerseyrua@gmail.com by May 25, 2025, by 11.59 pm Eastern. If you would like to record a reading of your poem for consideration, we can receive the recording via email or any other file transfer service you would like to use. We can also assign someone to read out submissions for the podcast if you prefer to send in text only. If poetry does not interest you, you can send us original music for consideration for the podcast, lend your voice to reading a poem, or donate to our cause. All are welcome. You may contribute anonymously (i.e., we don’t have to read any name on the podcast) or 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/song for our podcast.
Good luck!