Source: CarolQueen.com
By: Company Press Release
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) — The Center for Sex & Culture, San Francisco’s one-of-a-kind, award-winning sexuality community center and arts space, is pleased to announce two very special events to kick off February. On Friday, February 1, the Center for Sex & Culture Gallery opens Letters to a Porn Star, a show featuring America’s Porn Sweetheart (and Bay Area native) Nina Hartley’s fan mail and fan-created artworks.
The show will grace the gallery walls through March 18; the February First Friday reception will be held from 7-10pm. Featuring a short talk at 8pm with Ingrid Olson, CSC Research Fellow whose curatorial project examining the Csc Nina Hartley Collection inspired this show, the convivial gathering will give interested visitors plenty of time to inspect the intimate and amusing output of a very special porn star’s very special fans.
About Letters to a Porn Star: Nina Hartley Fan Mail: The Center for Sex and Culture gallery is proud to present Letters to a Porn Star: Nina Hartley Fan Mail. These letters, from our archive, address Hartley fans’ diverse concerns and interests — from requests for membership information on Hartley’s fan club, to commentary on her activism against censorship, to questions seeking advice on sexual health. Spanning the amusing, the downright sexy and the touchingly serious, these letters are a fascinating read. The letters are presented along with drawings and gifts from her fans.
Nina Hartley’s first adult entertainment film, Educating Nina, was shot in the Bay Area in 1984. She has featured in over 650 first-run adult films, and has become one of the most enduring and recognizable performers in the industry. She has won the most AVN awards of any star in history and was the first working porn actress to crossover to “real acting” with a part in Boogie Nights. Hartley has created many sexual education videos as director, producer and sex educator. She has been a vocal anti-censorship activist fighting for pornography’s right to exist and is on the board-of-directors at Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.
Please join us for this glimpse in to the impact she has had on people and the fascinating results of her inevitable role as a screen on to which a wide variety of individuals project their sexual thoughts and their often unique understanding of sexuality.
Please note: Two additional special events will be associated with this gallery show. On Sunday, February 24, a group of Bay Area-based porn performers will join us for a panel discussion about their own fan relationships, moderated by Csc founding director Carol Queen, PhD. Participants in this panel are still being booked and will be announced shortly. And Nina Hartley herself is scheduled to join us for a second reception on the First Friday in March — 3.1.13.
The Center for Sex and Culture Gallery is located at 1349 Mission Street in San Francisco. In addition to this opening reception, the gallery is open Mondays from 11am-4 PM and other days by appointment; contact sexandculturegallery@gmail.com.
Calendar Details
What: Gallery opening for Letters to a Porn Star: Nina Hartley Fan Mail
When: Friday, February 1; doors at 7pm, event ends at 10pm
Where: The Center for Sex & Culture (www.sexandculture.org), 1349 Mission Street in San Francisco
How much: No charge; donations are always gratefully accepted
More info: 18 and Over only, please. Relatively easy parking in the neighborhood; several Muni lines stop in the vicinity, and Csc is three blocks from Civic Center Bart.
Csc is a 501(c)(3) educational organization; for more detail, to sign up for twice-monthly mailings, donate, or peruse the events calendar, see www.sexandculture.org.
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On Saturday, February 2, from 3-8pm, Csc is delighted to present its annual benefit, Nude Aid.
Here’s how the Nude Aid erotic art-making and takeaway event works: Admission to Nude Aid is $30. This entitles each guest to experience a spectacular erotic tableau vivant as artists make art, live, with live nude, nearly-nude and fetish-clad models to inspire them. Each guest can choose a piece of art to take home, and may purchase additional tickets (also $30) to trade for additional paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures, collages, or body prints. Handle Valentine’s Day shopping needs by purchasing more art and desirables from Nude Aid’s silent auction! Enjoy beverages and “whores d’oeuvres” too.
Nude Aid is continually the Center for Sex & Culture’s single most successful benefit. Donors, models, artists and special guests from past Nude Aid events have included Leonard Nimoy, Annie Sprinkle, Candye Kane, Charles Gatewood, Nina Hartley, Eric Kroll, Sharon Mitchell, Candida Royalle, Winston Smith, Jonathan Solo, Scarlot Harlot, Ruby Pearl, Madison Young, Gloria Leonard, David Steinberg and many more. Nude Aid’s 2013 full lineup will be announced soon.
Nude Aid was developed by Annie Sprinkle. The Center for Sex & Culture is grateful for her permission to use her concept and the title for its benefit. Nude Aid welcomes artists, donors of auction items, models, or other volunteers wishing to become involved to get in touch by emailing carol@sexandculture.org.
Calendar Details
What: Nude Aid, an erotic art-making and take-away event to benefit the Center for Sex & Culture (www.sexandculture.org)
When: Saturday, February 2, 2013, from 3-8pm
Where: The Center for Sex & Culture (www.sexandculture.org), 1349 Mission Street in San Francisco
How much: $30 — admission entitles guests to take one piece of art. Silent Art Auction items are not eligible for the ticket exchange and can be purchased separately.
More info: 18 and Over only, please. Relatively easy parking in the neighborhood; several Muni lines stop in the vicinity, and Csc is three blocks from Civic Center Bart.
Artists make art (from live models) before your eyes; take a piece of art home (included in price of admission)! Additional tickets to trade for additional pieces of art can be purchased. Refreshments available.
Also, artists and local businesses have donated items for a silent auction.
Csc can accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover for silent art auction purchases, door admission, and donations.
Csc is a 501(c)(3) educational organization; for more detail, to sign up for twice-monthly mailings, donate, or peruse the events calendar, see www.sexandculture.org.
More From/About the Center for Sex & Culture:
The Center for Sex & Culture is a two-time winner of the SF Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay award (Best Emerging Sex Non-profit, 2005, and Best Erotic Resurrection for its Erotic Reading Circle, 2007) and was included in SF Weekly’s 2005 Best of San Francisco listing as Best Place to Watch Pornos (and be Considered Intellectual). Csc hosts educational and cultural events having to do with sexuality for adults of every orientation and gender at its event space at 1349 Mission Street. It also maintains a sexuality library and archive. Csc is a 501(c)(3) educational organization; for more detail, to sign up for twice-monthly e-mailed event updates, make a tax-deductible donation, or to peruse the events calendar, see www.sexandculture.org.
Later events in February include a Pleasure Yoga workshop; edgy literary event Perverts Put Out (this month only, co-presenting with writer Thomas Roche’s annual dystopian romance-fest, My Sucky Valentine); Body Heat Femme Lit West Coast Tour kick-off with special hostess/Mc Shar Rednour; a special Valentine’s Day presence at the California Academy of Science; local literary light Daphne Gottlieb, whose most recent book explores serial killer/sex worker Aileen Wuornos, curates a show of sex work-related stories; queer salsa lessons; and a weekly 12-step meeting for sex workers.
