Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens, and 100 of their friends took over Performance Space New York (the venue formerly known as PS 122) with “EcoSex and the City: Exploring the Earth as Lover,” which sounded in advance like a wacky weekend of West Coast woo. Andy characterized it as “Witchy Ladies Talking About Their Vulvas, and Trees.” Both descriptions are not inaccurate. But in its sneaky way, it was a profound and timely festival of ideas.
I was going to say they aren’t kidding about being environmental activists, but really they are kidding, and that’s the point. Let’s face it, although it’s possibly the most urgent issue of the day, the language that surrounds environmental justice – climate change, sustainability, infrastructure – can be pretty dull and veer toward solemnity, shouting, and shaming. Annie and Beth bring a lively, loving, queer, body-centered, sensual approach to the topic that doesn’t mean they’re any less serious about it.
Playfulness permeates the language they use. To heal the world, Annie said more than once during the festivities, “It takes a brothel!” Annie of course came to fame in the 1970s as a porn star and sex worker and then evolved into a performance artist and sex educator whose cartoony persona allowed her to smuggle cutting-edge queer/feminist sensibility into an increasingly wider world. She and Beth, whom she met in 2002, identify as “eco-sexual,” meaning “The earth is our lover.” They were married to the earth by shamanic performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña, and it’s not a platonic love affair. They get down in the actual dirt, they made a beautiful film called Water Makes Me Wet, they’re working on a new movie called Playing With Fire, and they published a book called Assuming the Ecosexual Position. They model getting very personal and political about saving the planet. But they’re not fundamentalist about it – you can be “eco-romantic” or, if you’re still trying to figure out your entry point to environmental activism, you can be “eco-curious.” Submit to the “eco-sexual gaze”! Find your “e-spot”! Rub up against oaks and call it “Treebadism”!
Friday night Annie and Beth entered like royalty and were greeted as such by friends, fans, and collaborators. Intersectional to the nth degree, the festival opened with veteran life-art practitioner Linda Montano bestowing a ceremonial activation/benediction, followed by a collection of short films laying out the territory.
Annie and Beth started off the next morning with a whirlwind tour of their intertwined lives and art work.
The meat of the program on Saturday were two panels. In the morning, “Strange Kin,” filmmaker Maria Yoon (The Korean Bride) showed excerpts from her new work about marrying the dead (Ghost Wedding). Queer astrologer Michael J. Morris connected the stars to the earth. Scholar Camila Marambio talked about her cancer treatment and generously noted how human researchers and patients have benefited from lab animals who have “a talent for cancer.” Urban Tantra founder Barbara Carrellas showed scenes from her practice of Equine Tantra.
In the afternoon, “Elders & Ancestors,” charismatic Courtney Desiree Morris demonstrated working with egun, which in Santeria is understood to mean the collective spirit of all the ancestors in a person’s lineage.
She also showed a clip from her film Oñí Ocan/The Heart of Sweetness, in which a succession of naked black bodies received a sensual libation of honey (she said they used 50 pounds of the stuff!).
Savitri D. spoke about the value of being connected to a place, while video showed a gigantic tree being cut down limb-by-limb in NYC. Sur Rodney (Sur) and Philip Ward spoke about the sacred task of maintaining the archives of departed artists (Fluxus member Geoff Hendricks and writer-performer Quentin Crisp), constantly having to distinguish sentimental value from historical value.
Trans pioneer Kate Bornstein gave an ecstatically received talk on “Exploring Gender in Four Dimensions.”
And Linda Montano, who confessed to having “panel anxiety,” schooled the audience in the art of asking for help and had the others on the panel read the text that she had written.
I was beside myself with joy at the honor of being in a room with such living legends, getting to meet the likes of Veronica Vera and Beth Stephens (in her Vaginas of Anarchy motorcycle jacket), exchanging books with Annie (she emailed in advance to say she was looking forward to fondling my new book, Daddy Lover God, which heavily features Joseph Kramer, whom she and Beth consider their husband), and hanging out with old friends and colleagues like Kim Irwin and C. Carr.
I’ve had the pleasure of communing with Annie Sprinkle at intervals over the years. I have fond memories to hanging out with her, Keith Hennessy, and AA Bronson at the 25th anniversary of Pride celebration in NYC in 1994.
I took part in the wonderfully silly “Liberty Love Boat” action in 1998 (a colorfully costumed queer invasion of the Statue of Liberty) and got to photograph her in her mermaid outfit with the great lesbian writer Sarah Schulman.
And one of my prize possessions is the Annie Sprinkle Aphrodite Award “for sexual service to the community,” given to participants in Joseph Kramer’s sacred intimate training in 1992.
I love and respect Annie so much for her courage, her honesty, her vivaciousness, her sense of humor, her deep spiritual commitment to nature, and the revolutionary way she gives herself permission to do what she thinks must be done without asking for approval from anyone.
another eye opens 