- ECOSEXUALS UNITE FOR AN ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM & ART EXHIBIT
- SEXECOLOGY: MAKING LOVE WITH THE EARTH, SKY AND SEA: Collages, photographs, wedding costumes/ephemera + an ecosexual walking tour
- COUNTY PARKS AND LAPD ALLOW BIG, GAY, ECOSEXUAL ART-WEDDING IN FARNSWORTH PARK TO GO ON
- LA COUNTY PARKS CANCELS GAY ECO- SEXUAL WEDDING, CITING “UNSAFE CONDITIONS”
- ECOSEXUALS UNITE FOR THE WORLD’S FIRST ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM
- ECOSEXUALS GATHER TOGETHER FOR A PURPLE WEDDING TO THE MOON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For all the information about the Symposium go to SexEcology.org
Contact: Center for Sex & Culture—415-902-2071
Love Art Lab 415-847-1323
Femina Potens Press: Malia Schaefer feminapotenspress@gmail.com
Annie Sprinkle annie@anniesprinkle.org
Elizabeth Stephens: bethstephens@me.com
San Francisco, CA
ECOSEXUALS UNITE FOR AN ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM & ART EXHIBIT
The Ecosex Symposium II-- a public forum where art meets theory meets practice meets activism—will take place June 17-19 at the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco, CA. What’s an ecosexual? Why are skinny-dipping, tree-hugging and mysophila so pleasurable? Where is the e-spot? Can the budding ecosexual movement help save the world? What is this new sexual identity and environmental activist strategy all about? These are some of the questions that will be explored. Femina Potens Gallery is producing the event in collaboration with Center for Sex & Culture.
Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., a feminist-porn-star and artist turned “SexEcologist,” and Elizabeth Stephens, a UCSC art professor and environmental activist are organizing this event. The two women explain, “as a strategy to create a more mutual and sustainable relationship with our abused and exploited planet, we are changing the metaphor from the Earth as mother, to Earth as lover.”
Sprinkle and Stephens kick off the weekend with their “Ecosex Manifesto,” an art exhibit with new collages, wedding ephemera (they married the snow in Ottawa, the moon in Los Angeles and the mountains in West Virginia), and a manifesto. They have also invited a dozen other artists to display their related works.
Ecosexual author of the seminal text, Gaia and the New Politics of Love, Serena Anderlini, Ph.D., from the University of Puerto Rico will present the keynote address. What is Ecosexual Love?:A Guide to the Arts and Joys of Amorous Inclusiveness. Good Vibration’s sexologist, Carol Queen, Ph.D., will explore The Sexology of Ecosexuality. Dr. Robert Lawrence, Ph.D. will cover ecosex fetishes. Also presenting is Madison Young, the award winning queer porn movie director and the Femina Potens Gallery director. She will cover the Greening of the Sex Industry. Artist Tania Hammidi will perform a dance piece about conflict, genocide and olive trees in the Middle East. Other presenters are artists Dylan Bolles & Sasha Hom, Amy Champ, and the legendary porn actress, Sharon Mitchell, Ph.D., who will talk about The Sensual Pleasures of Gardening. The author of the book Ecosex; Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable, Stephanie Iris Weiss will be Skyping in from New York. Erospirit Institute director, Joseph Kramer, Ph.D. will guide the group in some somatic ecosex practices. Amy Marsh shares how toxins ate her sex life, and performance artist Tessa Wills offers an Anal Ecology performance piece. There are twenty five scheduled presenters, and there will also be an open mic forum for attendees to share their work and ideas. Becka Shertzer’s Brazennectar and Mister Cream team up to create and serve a gourmet, “ecosexi-love-a-licious” vegan lunch.
Expected to attend the conference are artists, activists, theoreticians, nature fetishists, environmentalists, ecosex community movers and shakers and people from many other walks of life. These events are sponsored by Femina Potens Gallery in collaboration with the Center for Sex & Culture. Stephens and Sprinkle received a cultural equity grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to help make it all possible.
All the details and advanced tickets are available at SexEcology.org The producers of these events say that their aim is to “make the environmental movement a little more sexy, fun and diverse.” They’d also like to see an “E” added to GLBTQI.
Friday, June 17 - 7:00PM - 9:30PM
ECOSEX MANIFESTO ART EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION & ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM RECEPTION (Everyone is invited. Free.)
All three days of events will be held at the new Center For Sex & Culture, 1349 Mission Street. (Between 9th and 10th)
Saturday, June 18 - 10:30 AM to 10:45 PM
ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM 11 ($35. for the whole symposium.)
Sunday, June 19 - 10:00 PM - 1:30 PM
ECOSEX MANIFESTO ART EXHIBIT
The Ecosex Manifesto Art Exhibit will be open for public viewing for a month through July 24th. Check SexEcology.org for gallery hours.
HIGH QUALITY PRESS PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE FREE AT: http://loveartlab.org/press-gallery.php
RELATED EVENTS
June 16, 8:00 Femina Poten’s ECOSEXUAL QUEER PORN NIGHT—At Artists’ Television Access (ATA), 992 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA
June 19 5:00-7:00 DIRTSTAR PERFORMANCES at the Tenderloin National Forest/Luggage Store, 1000 Market St., San Francisco, CA.
SEXECOLOGY: MAKING LOVE WITH THE EARTH, SKY AND SEA: Collages, photographs, wedding costumes/ephemera + an ecosexual walking tour
Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens: The Love Art Laboratory
Athens, Ohio – November 1, 2010 – Ohio University is delighted to be welcoming artist couple Elizabeth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle as they aim to make the environmental movement a little more sexy, fun and diverse! Two years ago Elizabeth and Annie made wedding vows, along with 400 guest-witnesses, to “love, honor and cherish the Earth.” This propelled them into what they call “the ecosexual movement.” They believe that “if more people experienced the Earth as their lover instead of thinking of her as their mother, it would make for a more mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship.” Stephens and Sprinkle will be at Ohio University doing performances, lectures, and a Purple Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains, from Wednesday November 3-Saturday November 6.
Ecosexuals in Love, an exhibition accompanying the wedding, will be on view in the Trisolini Gallery, November 4-January 27, with an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. (with remarks from the artists at 6:30 p.m.). The exhibition includes the vegan and bio-degradable wedding costumes and ephemera from five of their way-beyond-gay ecology themed weddings; they married the Earth in Zagreb, Croatia, the Sky in Oxford, England, and the Sea at the Venice Biennale. Viewers will be visually transported to those wedding days and perhaps even be inspired to make their own vows to the Earth, Sky and Sea.
Stephens & Sprinkle have invented a new field of research they coined “Sexecology” which explores the places where sexology and ecology intersect, and they are “sexecologists.” This show explores these themes through new collages on topographical maps layered with eco-erotic images, romantic plantings, sensual delights, erotic growths and soiled, wet romps. The artists have also produced a new poster: 25 Ways To Make Love to the Earth.
Join us for some of the events Stephens & Sprinkle offer the OU Community during their visit from November 3-6. Do not miss their fun, unique and inspiring Sexecological Walking Tour where along the way, Beth and Annie will share their post-queer erotic wisdom, and their vision for helping to save our environment from pollution, overheating and destruction.
Wed, November 3
November 3 - Visiting Artist Lecture, Bentley Hall 240, 6 – 7 PM
Love Art Lab Artist Lecture:
Assuming the Ecosexual Position: Adventures of the Love Art Lab
Thu, November 4
Ecosexuals in Love: Our PollenAmorous Relationship with the Earth, Sky and Sea
Artists Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens invented a new field of research they coined “Sexecology” which explores the places where sexology and ecology overlap, and they are “sexecologists.” This show explores these themes through new collages and works layered with eco-erotic images, romantic plantings, sensual delights and erotic growths.
Reception: November 4, 6 – 8 PM
6:30 – 7 PM Gallery talk with Stephens and Sprinkle
Fri, November 5
Noon - 1 PM Brownbag Lunch Talk – Kantner Hall Theatre
Join Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens for an informational presentation and discussion about their work.
1:30 – 3 PM Sexecological Walking Tour – Emeriti Pond
12:00 Midnight Movie Screening
Annie Sprinkle’s Amazing World of Orgasm—Directed by Annie Sprinkle and Sheila Malone. Produced by Elizabeth Stephens. Soundscape by Sheila Malone. TRT 63 minutes.
Annie Sprinkle introduces viewers to twenty-six “orgasm experts” who have, over the years, taught her some key piece of knowledge about orgasm—and now she wants them to share that knowledge with you. After you see this colorful, educational, thought provoking, sometimes sexy, film, you will likely see your own orgasms in a new light. Featuring Dr. Carol Queen, Carolee Schneeman, Joseph Kramer Ph.D, Dr. Robert Lawrence, Betty Dodson Ph.D, Fakir Musafar, Cleo DeBois, Dr. Ray Stubbs, Jwala, Kembra Pfahler, Barbara Carrellas, and others. Midnight, Tickets: $4
Sat, November 6 at Galbreath Chapel
Purple Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains
2:30–3 PM Gathering of guests, 3 – 5 PM Wedding Ceremony, 5 – 6:30 PM Reception.
Homily: Mountain Keeper, Larry Gibson, Eco Chaplain, Sarah Vekasi Phillips, Vows facilitated by Joseph Kramer, and performances and art works by dozens of collaborators.
“Because N.A.S.A. has bombed the Moon prospecting for water…(really!) and because we are poisoning all of our water here on Earth at an alarming rate…and because Appalachian Mountains and the ecosystems they support are being destroyed by mountain top removal coal mining… we will have a wedding in order to inspire more love for our environment, as well as love for each other.” – Sprinkle & Stephens
Attire: PURPLE, theme(s) of the wedding: Water, Moon, Mountains, 6th chakra (third eye), and the romantic, ecosensual love of nature.
More information at www.loveartlab.org
January 14 through May 2011
Exhibition: Wedding to the Mountains
A unique display of wedding ephemera from Purple Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains.
Presented by Kennedy Museum of Art
For more about the artists and for press photos go to www.loveartlab.org. Press photos are available for promotional use and for download on the site, go to PRESS, then to PRESS PHOTOS.) The artists are available for press interviews.
Write to bethandannie@loveartlab.org
This exhibit is supported by grants from The Friends of the Kennedy Museum of Art, Arts for Ohio, Ohio Arts Council, and The School of Art. We have also received support from The Ohio University Woman’s Center, Woman’s Studies, The Office of Sustainability, the School of Art Visiting Artist’s Committee, and the OU GLBT Center.
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BIOS
Love Art Laboratory—“We, Elizabeth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, are an artist couple committed to doing projects that explore, generate, and celebrate love. The Love Art Lab grew out of our response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and our prevailing culture of greed causing the destruction of our planet. We utilize performance art, visual art, installation, and interventions. Incorporating the seven-year, seven-chakra structure created by artist Linda M. Montano, our projects explore different themes and colors. Each year we orchestrate one or more big interactive performance art weddings in collaboration with various international communities, and everyone is invited. We have had nine amazing weddings in the past five years. To learn more about our art experiments, visit www.loveartlab.org.
Elizabeth M. Stephens is interdisciplinary artist, activist and educator who has explored themes of sexuality, gender, queerness, and feminism through art for over 20 years. Her current passion is Sexecology: the art of exploring the Earth as a lover. This work is designed to create the desire in others to love, cherish and honor the earth as they would their own lover, instead of expecting the earth to take care of them as one might expect from one’s mother. SexEcology combines Stephens’ interest in sexuality and ecology in order to help stop environmental degradation and bring about environmental healing and pleasure. Some of her other works include the sculptural installation, The Academic/Porn Star Bronzed Panty Collection; the road trip performance piece Wish You Were Here; the video installation, Kiss, as well as her ongoing collaboration with Annie Sprinkle in the Love Art Laboratory. She has exhibited and performed in museums, galleries and festivals around the world. For more information about Elizabeth's other work see http://www.elizabethstephens.org/
Annie M. Sprinkle is an internationally known multi-media artist whose work is often studied in History of Performance Art classes, gender studies and film studies at major Universities/Colleges. Sprinkle has continuously toured one-woman theater performances about her life since 1989, such as Post Porn Modernist and Annie Sprinkle’s Herstory of Porn. Ms. Sprinkle’s art projects have long championed sex education and equal rights. She has pioneered numerous new genres of sexually oriented media. She became the first sex film star to successfully bridge into the world of art, and to earn a Ph.D., which she was awarded from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Sprinkle’s book, Post Porn Modernist broke new ground in art books that include sexually explicit imagery. Her book, Hard Core From the Heart; The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award (2002). For more information about Annie Sprinkle, go to her other web site, www.anniesprinkle.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2010
LA COUNTY PARKS AND LAPD ALLOW BIG, GAY, ECOSEXUAL ART-WEDDING IN FARNSWORTH PARK TO GO ON
Brides to be, Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens were stunned when the Deputy Director of the LA County Parks and Rec Department called them on a Friday afternoon to inform them that their Farnsworth Amphitheater rental contract (in Atladena, CA) had been cancelled. This call came just two weeks before their big full moon wedding was to take place there. The brides flashed back to a rainy day at the San Francisco City Hall in 2004 when their original legal wedding was cancelled by a court order banning gay marriage. They were distraught.
The Altadena Blog had posted an announcement about the bride’s “ecosexual” themed wedding. Someone read about it and tried to stop it from happening. They complained to the Parks Department. For some reason, the Parks Department and the Sheriff decided that they didn’t want this ecosexual wedding in Altadena. The Parks Department contacted Sprinkle and told her the wedding was cancelled due to “public safety” concerns. The alleged reason was that since there had been a few postings on a few websites about the wedding, it was likely that thousands of people would attend, and that there was simply insufficient parking. The Parks Department and the Sheriff claimed there were only 65 parking spaces available, and thus the wedding couldn’t take place in Altadena. This reason was clearly a pretext, since the contract the Parks Department had already signed with Sprinkle authorized 500 participants, so obviously there were enough parking spaces for 500 (and not just 65 spaces). Quick Internet research showed many other events and concerts at the Park involving hundreds of attendees that were advertised widely, both over the Internet and in print publications, and that the Park’s MySpace page says it has a capacity of 1,300. The brides were troubled because they sensed that something else was going on. They felt that they were being discriminated against because this was a wedding of two women, and also because of discrimination against the environmental themes of the wedding.
Their wedding officiant, the New York based preacher-performer Reverend Billy, and his director and wife Savitri D., were outraged at this sudden venue cancellation. Reverend Billy said, “It is bad enough that same sex marriage is illegal in California but now even the performance of a same sex marriage is called un-safe. Reverend Billy and Savitri presented this case to a well-known constitutional lawer, Terry Gross of San Francisco-based Gross Belsky Alonso LLP, who is a fierce advocate for First Amendment Rights and also Burning Man’s general counsel. Gross then forced the LA Parks and Rec Department to withdraw its cancellation, by demonstrating to the Parks and Recreation Department that the cancellation violated state and federal constitutions and laws -- just in time for the upcoming nuptials to proceed as planned.
Sprinkle and Stephens explain, “We are lovers, not fighters, but we had no choice except to fight this. We tried to find other venues but nothing appropriate was available on such short notice. Family and friends are flying in from all over the US, and overseas, there was no way we could change the date. We’re very happy to have Farnsworth Park Amphitheater back. It’s beautiful and we love the mountain setting. Now that there is peace in the land we can finally start to write our vows and spread the love. And if you are coming to the wedding, please car pool. Its better for the environment.”
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Press Release, October 12, 2010
Contact Lindsay Kelly
720-260-4507
Email: interruptions.coordinator@gmail.com
Savitri Durkee
347-693-8857
Email: savitridnyc@gmail.com
LA COUNTY PARKS CANCELS GAY ECO- SEXUAL WEDDING, CITING “UNSAFE CONDITIONS”
On Friday Oct 8th, well known performance artist Annie Sprinkle received a call from LA County Parks & Recreation Deputy Director, Kathleen Ritner, informing her that her rental contract for her wedding at the Farnsworth Amphitheatre in Altadena had been canceled due to “unsafe conditions” created by the public announcement of the wedding inviting people to witness their “eco-sexual” wedding , in which Ms Sprinkle would make vows with her long time romantic and performing partner Beth Stephens under the auspices of the full moon.
In 2004, Sprinkle and Stephens had an appointment at San Francisco City Hall to get legally married, but the day before they were to get married, the weddings were stopped by court order. It was then that Ms. Sprinkle and Ms. Stephens decided to have a series of art weddings in which they would commit themselves, including a legal wedding in Canada.
The Los Angeles marriage was to take place Oct 23 at the Farnsworth Amphitheatre, in Altadena, where weddings are often held throughout the year. While drafting their contract Sprinkle and Stephens told the rental office they were expecting around 400 people at the wedding, at least 100 of them performers and artists helping them create the wedding. They hired the recommended number of security guards and proceeded to mail 120 hand made invitations, and also posted the wedding announcement on various social sites and alerted interested media. After commentary about the wedding appeared on the popular local “Altadena Blog,” Sprinkle received a call from Ritner, who cited security concerns by unnamed Los Angeles county law enforcement personnel.
On the advice of the law enforcement agencies of the County of Los Angeles, we are canceling your Facility Reservation Contract, #18716, for the Farnsworth Park Amphitheatre on October 23, 2010. It was discovered that your event is being advertised over the internet and is indicating that the public at large is invited to the free event. This has created an unsafe condition.
Since many free events are held at Farnsworth and advertised widely, both over the Internet and through print publications, including teen music nights, concerts, and charity events, since the venue has a capacity well in excess of that expected by the wedding organizers, and since the cancellation occurred abruptly without an opportunity to hire additional security to deal with additional individuals that the LA police believed might attend, Sprinkle, Stephens and their wedding co-creators believe that the cancellation is in direct response to the gender of the brides, and the environmental activist themes of their vows. The wedding is to be officiated by Reverend Billy, a NYC based preacher-performer who said, “It is bad enough that same sex marriage is illegal in California but now even the performance of a same sex marriage is called un-safe. ”
Sprinkle & Stephens have no plans to cancel the wedding. They have requested that the County of Los Angeles rescind its cancellation, and allow Sprinkle and Stephens to use the Farnsworth venue for the commitment ceremony, and are hopeful that the County will see the error it has made. Anyone who is incensed by the discriminatory decision of the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department can call (213) 738-2961 or send a letter of protest to:
Russ Guiney, Director
Parks and Recreation Dept, LA County
433 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles CA 90020
In the event that Los Angeles County does not change its position, Sprinkle and Stephens are currently seeking an alternative venue. Dozens of performers and artists have created work specifically for the wedding, and many of them are coming from a great distance, along with family and guests. The self-identified eco-sexual couple say, “Nothing can stop us from celebrating our love for each other, and for our Earth.”
Sprinkle and Stephens are considering filing suit against LA County and are represented by Terry Gross, a well known First Amendment lawyer with the San Francisco-based law firm Gross Belsky Alonso LLP. According to Gross, “A wedding is a time to announce the commitment of two people openly to the community. They shouldn’t have to do it quietly without announcement just because they are two women. We are certain that the County would not cancel the same event were it between a man and a woman.”
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Press Release, October 8, 2010
Contact: Annie Sprinkle, annie@anniesprinkle.org
Love Art Laboratory, San Francisco, Ca.
bethandannie@loveartlab.org
http://www.loveartlab.org/
ECOSEXUALS UNITE FOR THE WORLD’S FIRST ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM
LOS ANGELES, CA.—What’s an ecosexual? Why are skinny-dipping, mysophilia and arboreal frottage so pleasurable? Where is the e-spot? Can the budding ecosexual movement help save the world? These are some of the questions that will be discussed at an Ecosex Symposium; a public forum where art meets theory meets sex education meets practice. The organizers of this first of its kind event are Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., a feminist-porn-star and artist, turned “sexecologist,” and Elizabeth Stephens, a UCSC art professor and environmental activist. The two women explain, “As a strategy to create a more mutual and sustainable relationship with our abused and exploited planet, we are switching the metaphor from the Earth as mother, to Earth as lover.” The Symposium will be on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 24th, at the cutting-edge art hotbed, Highways Performance Space, in Santa Monica. A diverse panel of artists, academics, sex educators, and environmental activists will take turns presenting, performing, showing and telling.
Ecosex relationship coach, and author of Polyamory in the 20th Century, Debora Taj Anapol, Ph.D. will give an overview of what ecosex is all about-- clinically, spiritually and socio-politically. Eocsexual theorist and author of seminal text, Gaia and the New Politics of Love, Serena Anderlini, Ph.D. is flying in from University of Puerto Rico to present her views about “how the Earth stores and runs the energy of love.” Good Vibration’s resident sexologist, Carol Queen, Ph.D., will be discussing ecorotic issues in the sex toy industry. Kamala Devi and the Tantra Theater will act out the audience’s ecosex fantasies. Dr. Robert Lawrence, Ph.D., will cover ecosex fetishes. The panels will be moderated by TV and film actor, Veronica Hart, who will also offer an animal rights perspective. Award winning porn stars Jiz Lee and April Flores, and porn director Carlos Batts will discuss green porn and present a waterfall scene from their film, Dangerous Curves. Tania Hammidi will do a dance piece about conflict, genocide and olive trees. Comedic relief will come from EcoElf. The editor of the highbrow art magazine, Ms. Use, will attend from Israel to show off her ecosex themed issue. Other artists collaborating are C. Finley, Spyce Spycey, Luna Bella, Joegh Bullock, Lady Monster, Cindy Baker, Megan Morman, HB3, Dylan Bowls, Jayme Waxman and others.
The Symposium is also a “honeymoon” for organizers, Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. The day before the symposium, they will have an ecosexual Purple Wedding to the Moon. http://loveartlab.org/ Their aim, they say is “to inspire others to make the environmental movement a little more sexy, fun and diverse.”
Event sponsors are Good Vibrations, the Center For Sex and Culture, Femina Potens Gallery, Luna Pads, Monterey Bay’s kinky B+B Ahintofleather.com, 3 Way Kiss, Bondassage.com and Aki’s Cup Cakes. The organizers are looking for a few more eco-minded sponsors. They also invite individuals to get involved by contributing as backers through the Kickstarter fundraising platform. In exchange, backers get their names in the program, moon-shaped tit prints, and Beth Stephens’ sculptures of Annie Sprinkle’s bronzed panties!http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/152588950/purple-wedding-to-the-moon-and-ecosex-honeymoon-sy
Ecosex Symposium Honeymoon
October 24th.
3:00-6:00
Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th Street,
Santa Monica, Ca., 90404
http://www.highwaysperformance.org/
Everyone over 18 is invited to attend.
Please wear purple.
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Press Release, October 5, 2010
Contact: Annie Sprinkle Ph.D, annie@anniesprinkle.org
Love Art Laboratory, San Francisco, Ca.
bethandannie@loveartlab.org http://www.loveartlab.org/
ECOSEXUALS GATHER TOGETHER FOR A PURPLE WEDDING TO THE MOON & AN ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM HONEYMOON
LOS ANGELES, CA.-- Hundreds of “ecosexual” artists, academics, famous sex workers, and environmental activists are heading to Los Angeles for a Purple Wedding to the Moon, the brainchild of artist-brides, Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens. This will be their sixth large-scale, ecology inspired wedding. “The environment has always been our creative partner, as in ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust,’ says Elizabeth Stephens, an art professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz, whose personal roots lie in West Virginia where mountaintop removal mining runs rampant. “In a twist on the traditional marriage vows, each of our eco-themed weddings is an invitation for people to ‘promise to love, honor, and cherish the Earth, Sky, Sea and Moon until death brings us closer together forever’.” Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., a porn star turned eco-sexologist emphasizes the fecundity of the earth; she links fertility and imagination. “We aim to make the environmental movement a little more sexy, fun and diverse through art.”
Purple Wedding to the Moon's Venue is To Be Announced, but will be held in Los Angeles, on October 23rd, the night of the full moon.
Four hundred guests are expected to attend and over one hundred artists will collaborate on the creation of the wedding. The unorthodox union will be officiated by the popular performance artist Reverend Billy, accompanied by the Church of Life After Shopping Choir-- the subjects of the documentary film, What Would Jesus Buy? produced by Morgan Sperlock. Reverend Billy’s sermons and activism about the “Shopocolypse,” over-consumption, and corporate greed have gotten him arrested dozens of times.
Stephens, Sprinkle and Reverend Billy got upset when they learned that N.A.S.A. had bombed the moon prospecting for water. They wondered “why can’t we just take better care of the water here on Earth?” “We wanted to do something,” cried Stephens. “So we are marrying the Moon, but it’s really also about loving the Earth.” Last year Sprinkle and Stephens married the Sea in Italy at the Venice Biennale. They have also married the Earth in Croatia and the Sky in England. The wedding participants now number in the thousands. Reverend Billy is taking his new Earth-allujah! show on the road, premiering Oct. 21 at the Disney Theater.http://www.revbilly.com/events/cali-tour
For the honeymoon, the movers and shakers of this budding ecosexuality movement will hold the world’s first Ecosex Symposium at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, the day after the wedding. “We’ll switch the metaphor from ‘Earth as mother,’ to ‘Earth as lover,’ to garner a more reciprocal relationship with our beautiful planet. We’ll explore what ecosexuality is about from many perspectives: with panels, performances and moon pies. “All adults are welcome.” Stephens and Sprinkle say enthusiastically. Cindy Baker and Megan Morman, two artists coming from Canada created and will unfurl the world’s first ecosexual pride flag.
The artist-brides are looking for a few more sponsors and collaborators. On board are California Institute of the Arts, GT’s Kombucha, Center for Sex and Culture, Good Vibrations, ONE Amazon Acai and Luna Pads. They also invite individuals to contribute as backers through the Kickstarter fundraising platform. In exchange, backers get their names in the wedding program, moon-shaped tit prints, and Beth Stephens’ sculptures of Annie Sprinkle’s bronzed panties! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/152588950/purple-wedding-to-the-moon-and-ecosex-honeymoon-sy
“Unfortunately our marriage to the Moon will not be legal.” the brides lament. “Nonetheless it is a most sacred union.” They request that everyone please wear purple. The wedding is free and open to the public, “its a big, juicy, pollen-amourous labor of love.”
Some of the many performers and artists participating (in random order) are professor/art-activist Larry Bogad, ecosexual opera singer Emma McNairy, flower girl Lucky (Adam Harms), songstress Kim Mears, fire hula hooper Sarah Starlight & Company, burlesque sensation and fire tassle queen Lady Monster, songwriter Xandra Coe, disgruntled heiress Naomi Pitcarin, Balkan singer Nada Miljkovic, author Greg Archer, performance artist Lian Amaris, film maker Cheryl Dunye, Middle East food artist Diala Khasawnih, experimental musican no.e sunflowrfish, tattoo performance The Granny Smiths, DJ Club Joy. Music by HB3 Solo Picolo, sex worker activist Mariko Passion, cake and puppet artist Pratbha, ritualist Alan Tofelson, Dylan Bolles, Hate Bear, sexpert Jayme Waxman, flag artists Cindy & KC Baker, and many others. Directed by Bonnie Cullum,
Some of the Ecosex Symposium presenters and artists: Ecosexual Relationship Coach and Author, Debora Anapol Ph.D.; humanities professor and author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, Serena Anderlini; Good Vibration’s eco-sexologist, Dr. Carol Queen, Ph.D.; Hawaiian gender queer porn star, Jiz Lee; performance artist Tania Hamidi, ecosex comedian EcoElf, Bliss University’s Kamala Devi with the Tantra Theater Group, C. Finley, Spyce, and others to be announced. Moderated by adult film director/star, Veronica Hart.
Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens’ Purple Wedding to the Moon
Officiated by Reverend Billy with the Church of Life After Shopping Choir
Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010
Venue To Be Announced, Los Angeles (Altadena), CA
Ecosex Symposium Honeymoon
October 24th. 3:00-6:00 Panels, performances, moon pies.
Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, Ca.
http://www.highwaysperformance.org/
Adults only.
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