Oh, have I got a story for you.
I recently decided to start stepping out of my comfort zone and attempting to visit a new show, venue, or event every week. This little challenge stemmed from a friend mentioning that I always go back to the venue's I know, and am comfortable with. So on Friday night, my friend and I ventured into the city, with a new venue to visit and explore.
The Center for Sex and Culture.
www.sexandculture.org
The Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco is located on mission St, in a tiny little building amongst the many industrial sized monsters that surround it. The first thing I noticed was the hot pink sign standing outside the building introducing the events that were going on that evening. After walking inside, we were greeted by a large dark staircase that led us into a short hallway with two doors: one to the left, and the other to the right.
In the middle of the hallway we saw a little chair with a sign pointing to the right (having arrived 20 minutes early, we surely took the directions of the sign) leading us to a small room filled with props, posters, events, a little wine bar, and some dramatically flamboyant guests.
We were about to embark on our first journey. We were led down a long hallway filled with tables, fake candles, and feathers. The event, Erotic Fiction, was about to begin. When the show finally began, an old man came out and started to rehearse the story of his life. He was a gay veteran in WWII, and had to hide his true identity as a drag queen. After watching people sing, dance, take off their clothes, interact with the audience, and have sex on stage, my friend and I decided to leave. We figured intermission would be the best opportunity to do so. We grabbed our belongings and made a speedy exit.
In the hallway, as we were getting out coats on, a man asked us if we knew about the guy performing in the other room. I asked him what the guy's name was and he replied "Frank Moore". Fuck my life--We had made a wrong turn and should have entered the door on the LEFT when we first got into the venue. We had watched the wrong show and were determined to get at least a glimpse of what we had originally gone to see.
We slowly crept to the other side of the hallway noticing that there wasn't much sound coming from the closed door. I latched onto the handle and pushed, and there, right before our eyes, was a room full of naked people all intertwined with each other.
Erotic Fiction was in fact led by a master of sensuality, Frank Moore, who also happened to be a paraplegic, having no control over his muscles movements. Shocked at first, and a little apprehensive to stay, my friend and I uncomfortably sat on the sidelines observing.
The first thing we noticed was that the Frank Moore was sitting in a wheelchair, naked, with two different colored socks and shoes jolting his hand, arms, legs and feet in all directions. The entire event was being filmed- There were cameras everywhere. On the side of the room, there was a DJ mixing different trance segments. Frank Moore had a translator who would look at the patterns his mouth made to spell out words letter by letter, for his participants.
After watching for a bit, Frank had his translator ask us if we were interested in participating in the next activity, "gestures", where we would be partnered together with a complete stranger, and have to do anywhere from "lovingly gaze at each other" to "knowingly massaging each others genitals". The whole concept of becoming so close to a complete stranger was very unique and uncomfortable for me, so I decided to continue to observe. However, my friend was willing to step out of her comfort zone and participate.
As 'gestures' were being read aloud by the translator, Frank asked me to participate, once again, by reading some of his poetry while every one role played. I was given a mic, and a binder full of incredibly thoughtful poems to rehearse.
After a while of gestures, Frank asked how people felt about the event, and everyone around the room got a chance to add their two sense. My friend and I had had just enough alternative events for the night and decided it was time to hit the bars and clubs.
In the end we saw the event as being a funny story we could tell people in the future. As tacky and outrageous as it may sound to the reader, this is the way that some people connect to society and connect to their own sexuality--something very important for our overall well-being.
