In February 2004 Neighborhood Public Radio held it’s first Indecency broadcast in honor of Janet Jackson’s breast making an unanticipated appearance at the Superbowl.

The second Indecency broadcast took place at Southern Exposure in February this year and was all about those indecent things that are considered decent and the indecency of calling other, decent, things indecent.

Proud sluts and whores opened the day’s broadcast, that is veteran sex workers and activists Tallulah Bankheist of Whore Church and the Scarlet Harlet Carol Leigh.

Together with their first guest Carolyn, they dedicated their two-hour show to the memory of their dear friend Duran Ruiz, activist, artist, veteran sex worker and heroin user, who had recently passed away. When she wasn’t behind bars (which was by all accounts not that often) Duran worked in the Mission. We hear her own words, through recordings and readings, railing against the system that wrongly puts so many women in prison.

In the middle of it all, our hosts remember that they can say whatever they like on this NPR. They giggle, flexing their vocal muscles in a whole new way on air. “Shit”, says one, tentatively defiant. “Nothing happened, we didn’t get struck down….Fuck…Tit…This is tourettes radio!”

Indecent words to some, but Tallulah, Scarlet and their guests ultimately pointed to the more grave indecency that is the criminalization of their trade. Their second guest was Amy who had worked on the streets in the Tenderloin for five years. Amy talked about her experiences and the personal freedom she has gained through selling sex.

Next up was Amanda Brooks, a stripper and independent escort, who has written a book full of practical advice from the mental, emotional and physical perspectives about entering the escort business. The final guest was Lady Shade. We heard her music and we heard her talk about the UN treaty known as CEDAW that holds some promise for women in the sex business.
Tallulah, Scarlet and guests (mp3)
After all of that, a group of Mission-district artists displaced the ladies from the microphone. It was NPR’s regular show, Frank Prattle and joining its host Zefrey were the people who tend the Clarion Mural Project in Clarion Alley. The group talked about the history of the wall-to-wall artwork that runs from the crime-central stretch of the Mission to hipster Valencia, between 17th and 18th. They touched on the need for more legal spaces for public art, police attitudes to them working on the mural and their up-and-coming fundraiser.
Clarion Alley (mp3)
The Political Circus with Barry Finnerty and Kyle Keilman was up next. The two gents took the mic with two hands and shook out the indecencies that lurk in the current political tree, namely, “the Republican agenda that has been going on in this country for the last six years”, the warping of Christian values to exclude tolerance alongside gay marriage and abortion, and more. The conversation ranged from the Abramoff scandal, Iran, massaging of information to the fact that 1% of the US population has more wealth than the bottom 90% combined. “That’s indecent!,” exclaimed our hosts.
The Political Circus (mp3)
“Was this cock in your arse, is that why you’re coming in for treatment?” Only on your friendly neighborhood radio station would you hear those words and know that they were part of a discussion about sex-worker healthcare between Linda Arnejo in discussion with Melissa from St. James Infirmary. St. James is an occupational health and safety clinic that takes a holistic approach to helping sex workers in San Francisco. The clinic is staffed by many people who’ve been in the biz so it’s peer-based care and community. Let’s get away from either titillation or seeing strippers, escorts, hookers etc as victims: sex workers are normal people who are forced onto the wrong side of the law because of the criminalization of their profession, says Melissa.
The St. James Infirmary (mp3)
And last but not least Dee Dee Russell rounded out the day with the Dee-Dee list of what’s indecent: misogyny, the fact that she has never gotten drunk with Gavin Newsom, Kate Moss’s coke problem and ‘junkie girls selling me lipstick’, turning the Tenderloin into ‘Little Saigon’, couples where both parties are good-looking, St. Patrick’s day, Black History Month, the Euro-centric patriarchy and just a few things more, all from the iconoclastic, bohemian, cucumber-wielding (well, she threatens it) Dee Dee Russell in the window of Southern Exposure.
Dee Dee Russell (mp3)

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.