Belly dancer at Sex and Religion Night at In The Flesh Reading Series December 17th

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
SEX AND RELIGION NIGHT
December 17th at 8:00 PM (doors at 7)
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Between Forsyth & Eldridge. Look for the hot pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club."
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://www.inthefleshreadingseries.com

Sex and religion are the theme of the final In The Flesh of 2009. Featuring Mo Beasley (Urban Erotika), joined by singers DeAngela Napier and Jeff Jeudy, Johanna Gohmann (Bust), Gary Morgenstein (Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman), Cristy C. Road (Bad Habits) and Susan Wright (Confessions of a Demon), plus belly dancing by Sherri Eldin. Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2010, Peep Show, Bottoms Up). Free chips, candy, mini peanut butter cups and 200 free cupcakes by Baked by Melissa will be served.



In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the country's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. The series was named Best Reading Series by New York Press in 2009. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Mo Beasley, Susie Bright, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Mike Daisey, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, Zane and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Flavorwire, Gothamist, Jezebel.com, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth.

Performance Poet, Producer, and Writer, Mo Beasley, dubbed The Head Coach of Erotika, leads New York City’s longest running monthly erotic performance series. He also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts/Acting from Howard University. Since 1997, Beasley has also cemented himself on the spoken word scene. The award-winning poet has performed or been featured at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, Joe’s Pub, American Museum of Natural History (with Sonia Sanchez) and The Kennedy Center, among other known stages. Beasley is also a member of the Spoken Word Committee of the NY Chapter of The GRAMMY’s.

When not at the mic, Beasley teaches poetry, as well as Family Life and Sexuality Education classes, to students and adults throughout New York City. His current and past clients include Children’s Aid Society, NYC Board of Education, Planned Parenthood, and Kaiser Permanente, among others. He also lectures regularly at institutions on topics ranging from fatherhood (Beasley became a father at 17 and a grandfather at 36) to new perspectives about human sexuality for the 21st century.

Mo Beasley is also the co-author No Good Nigga Bluez - a collection of “anti-nigga creative writings.” He is also editing UrbanErotika: The Anthology, as well as contributing to an anthology on fatherhood. The relevance of Mo’s work has not escaped the attention of the media. He has been interviewed by Rev. Al Sharpton, hip hop legend Chuck D, and has been quoted, profiled, or featured in New York Newsday, Amsterdam News, rolling out UrbanStyle Weekly, NRG, KISS FM (NYC), XM Satellite Radio, New York 1 News and several other local and national media.



Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and reading series host. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a former sex columnist for The Village Voice. She’s edited numerous anthologies, two of which (Up All Night and Glamour Girls) have been Lambda Literary Award finalists, most recently The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, Best Sex Writing 2009, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, and Spanked. Her writing been published in publications such as Clean Sheets, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Fresh Yarn, Huffington Post, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Tango, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York, and in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. She has hosted In The Flesh since October 2005.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com


photo by Hilary McHone

Sherri Eldin is a frequent performer all over the city with her unique and alternative form of belly dancing. This summer she danced in her first music video with Brooklyn band ZO2, stars of IFC's "Z Rock." In addition to dancing, Sherri is an actress, singer/songwriter, storyteller, and writer.



Johanna Gohmann has written essays, articles, and reviews for Bust, Elle, Red, Publishers Weekly, YourTango.com, Babble.com, Parade.com, the Irish Independent and others. Her article for Bust entitled "The Vagina Dialogues" was selected for Best Sex Writing 2010, and her essay "Design a Vagina" will appear in the Best Women's Travel Writing 2010. A native of Indiana, she lived in New York City for just shy of a decade. She currently resides in Dublin, Ireland. She doesn't always write about vaginas. But she likes to.



Novelist/playwright Gary Morgenstein is the author of four novels. In addition to Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, a romantic triangle about a divorced man who falls in love with a beautiful woman rabbi -- while still not over his ex-wife -- his novels include Jesse’s Girl, a thriller about a widowed father’s search for his adopted teenage son, the political baseball novel Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and the baseball book Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His prophetic play Ponzi Man performed to sell-out crowds at a recent New York Fringe Festival. His other full-length work, You Can’t Grow Tomatoes in the Bronx, is in development.



DeAngela Napier began singing jazz and standards in Manhattan cabaret clubs when she moved to New York in the late 80s. Jeff Jeudy has been infused with music since he was a child and taught himself guitar riffs from KISS albums. Together this acoustic based duo formed a band and performed in and around New York city from 2002 - 2006. They built a following of diverse music lovers that identify with their songs of Life, Love, Loss, and Redemption. Although no longer a band, they occasionally perform and write together. DeAngela Napier is now a photographer who can be reached through her website at www.dnapierphoto.com and Jeff Jeudy is a member of the band I Love Monsters and is a Graphic Designer who can be reached at www.jeffjeudy.com





Cristy C. Road is a 26-year-old Cuban-American illustrator and writer. Blending social principles, sexual deviance, mental inadequacies, and social justice- she thrives to testify the beauty of the imperfect. Her career began in 1996, when publishing Green’Zine- a fanzine entirely devoted to Green Day. Eventually she began including blurbs on other punk rock bands, gender identity, masturbation, sexuality, aimless travel, and anarchist organizing. Green’Zine ran for ten years. Today, Road has published two illustrated novels, Indestructible and Bad Habits; and a postcard collection, Distance Makes the Heart Grow Sick. Aside from publishing, Road has been contributing art to punk rock, literature, radical organizing, and much more for the last ten years. Road currently is working on paintings, short stories, and her punk rock band The Homewreckers. She lives in Brooklyn with a short attention span and a killer gas problem.
www.croadcore.org



Susan Wright is an activist and author. Her latest novel is an urban fantasy called Confessions of a Demon that will be published in December 2009. Other novels include the Slave Trade sf trilogy, and the fantasy duology To Serve and Submit and A Pound of Flesh, as well as 9 Star Trek novels. Susan is the spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and has lectured extensively on sexual freedom around the country. She received her masters from New York University, and lives in New York City with her husband Kelly Beaton.
www.susanwright.info



You will hear from the following books:


Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman: Sex and Romance in God's House by Gary Morgenstein


Confessions of a Demon by Susan Wright

Erica Kennedy reads from Feminista at In The Flesh

Erica Kennedy reading from her novel Feminista November's 4-year anniversary of In The Flesh Reading Series. See her blog for more information.


Feminista

How we decided who would win the free 24-karat gold vibrator from JimmyJane

So...we gave away the 24-karat gold JimmyJane Little Gold vibrator at the end of the night. I asked everyone to write down why they wanted to win. You have to watch to see some of the wacky entries!

Photos from our AMAZING 4-year anniversary

The 4-year anniversary was everything I could have hoped it would be. I will be posting more videos this week, including how we decided who would win the JimmyJane 24-karat gold vibrator. THANK YOU to everyone who attended, helped, fed us and read. You all rock. It was a two hour plus night of smut, laugher and sex toys. And cupcakes.

All photos are by Anya Garrett. More in this Flickr set.


Me giving away the 2010 NYC Sex Blogger Calendar (featuring me, Desiree, Tess Danesi, Abiola Abrams and others).


Closeup of the back of the sex blogger calendar


Lily Burana kicked off the reading by reading from her memoir I Love a Man in Uniform about taking her husband to strip club.


Erica Kennedy read from her novel Feminista.


Jennifer Peters told us that her story "People in Glass Hotels" from Peep Show: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists was inspired by the Standard Hotel.




As you can watch, Abiola Abrams wowed us by reading off her phone so brilliantly I think we all could've listened to it again. And again. Yay whores!


Desiree read about sex on a plane in "A Brief Respite" from The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories


Tess Danesi gets close to a "Purple Balloon" as she reads from Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories


Rosalind Christine Lloyd read about a sorority sister spanking from Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories


Petite model Isobella Jade regaled us with a tale of posing almost nude

Harley from New York custom cake/cupcake/dessert company Treat made the most amazing (and delicious!) chocolate mint cupcakes with the Molly Crabapple In The Flesh logo on them! Stunning. And glittery!




Chocolate banana cupcakes from Treat

And all 300 (!!) Baked by Melissa cupcakes got devoured. I'm not surprised!



Needless to say, I was a very, very happy host.

Abiola Abrams does all whores proud

Abiola Abrams was the clear knockout of the night last Thursday. This is one of the best readings I've ever seen, not just at In The Flesh. She's a brilliant performer and the piece, from her next book The Goddess Playbook and read off her phone, was amazing. I could watch this over and over again. It's from her



Rachel will perform at the premiere of a new and must-attend reading series run by Abiola called Abiola's Kiss & Tell on December 15th.

Abiola's Kiss & Tell

Storytelling & Performance Reading Series

A Party Like A Book Star-Studded Monthly Soiree

Bestselling Authors, Skanks, Intellectuals

& Everyone In Between

Every 3rd Tuesday at MADAME X

94 West Houston Street between LaGuardia & Thompson

NYC's sexiest and most fun event.

FREE with $5 Kiss & Tell Champagne Cocktails

Drinks & Mingle at 7PM;

Show begins at 7:30PM SHARP.

First look at In The Flesh anniversary photos

The next In The Flesh, and the last one for 2009, is Sex and Religion Night, Thursday, December 17th. Last night was amazing - THANK YOU to everyone who packed the bar, the staff of Happy Ending Lounge, all the readers, Baked by Melissa, Treat, Extreme Restraints, JimmyJane, Diva, Tess, Gloria and everyone else who made it happen. Videos and more photos TK. I think I can safely say a great time was had by all.

The readers:



The amazing In The Flesh logo cupcakes by Treat:

November 19th: gold vibrator, 300 cupcakes, 4-year anniversary blowout bash and reading

This Molly Crabapple-drawn In The Flesh logo will be on a dozen special cupcakes for the early birds!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, SPANKING STORIES, SEX BLOGGER CALENDAR & MORE!
November 19th at 7:30 PM (doors at 7; note early start time)
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Between Forsyth & Eldridge. Look for the hot pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club."
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://www.inthefleshreadingseries.com

We're celebrating 4 years of sexy smut with a party and reading galore! Bringing back memoirists Lily Burana (I Love a Man in Uniform, Strip City) and Isobella Jade (Model Life, Almost 5'4"), Erica Kennedy (Feminista, Bling), Abiola Abrams (BET, author of Dare), Jennifer Peters (Penthouse Forum), Desiree (contributor, The Mile High Club) along with Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories contributors Tess Danesi and Rosalind Christine Lloyd. You will also hear from the organizers of the 2010 NYC Sex Blogger Calendar, which Tess and host Rachel Kramer Bussel (Peep Show, Spanked, Bottoms Up) posed for! Copies of authors' books and the calendar will be for sale. 300 free cupcakes from Baked by Melissa will be served. Prize giveaways include: 24-karat gold vibrator Little Gold ($325 value) from JimmyJane, paddle and slapper from Extreme Restraints, $100 Babeland gift card from Beyond the Birds and the Bees, 2 copies of the 2010 Sex Blogger Calendar (featuring Tess, Rachel, Abiola and others), Abiola Abrams' novel Dare, XXX porn film Afrodite Superstar and hot word game SexySlang.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the country's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. The series was named Best Reading Series by New York Press in 2009. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Mo Beasley, Susie Bright, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Mike Daisey, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, Zane and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Flavorwire, Gothamist, Jezebel.com, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth.

Once upon a fabulous time Abiola Abrams was raised by Guyanese royalty in a gorgeous suburban ghetto of New York City, appropriately called the "Queens County." These are her chronicles: Dare is her first novel, and her writing is featured in the anthologies Dirty Words, Behind the Bedroom Door and A Memory A Monologue A Rant & A Prayer. Abiola's films range from Knives in My Throat, about mental illness, to Afrodite Superstar, about sexuality. She has hosted shows for BET, HBO and NBC and is now also a host-producer of The Planet Abiola Show. Recently audiences enjoyed watching Abiola get her dating game together as "Miss Picky" on VH1's Drew Barrymore-produced hit reality series Tough Love.
www.abiolatv.com



Lily Burana is a punk rock girl turned writer and editor. Since starting her writing life as a columnist and editor at punk and alternative 'zines, she has gone on to write for The Washington Post, GQ, The New York Times, Self, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Details, The Village Voice, The New York Observer, and others. She has been a Contributing Editor at SPIN and New York magazines. Lily married an active-duty Army officer in 2002. Her latest book, I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles (Weinstein Books, 2009) was inspired by the overwhelming response she received to her writing about the domestic side of military affairs--a Slate Diary and a New York Times Op-Ed. Her first non-fiction book, Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America (Miramax Books, 2001) made Best of the Year lists in Entertainment Weekly, Salon, New York Newsday, and Rocky Mountain News.
Lily Burana



Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and reading series host. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a former sex columnist for The Village Voice. She’s edited numerous anthologies, two of which (Up All Night and Glamour Girls) have been Lambda Literary Award finalists, most recently The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, Best Sex Writing 2009, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, and Spanked. Her writing been published in publications such as Clean Sheets, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Fresh Yarn, Huffington Post, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Tango, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York, and in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. She has hosted In The Flesh since October 2005.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com


photo by Hilary McHone

Often based on her own explorations in the world of D/s and BDSM, Tess Danesi explores the darker side of erotica, writing with raw honesty about that shadowy area where pain becomes pleasure and pleasure pain. Tess has been published in several anthologies including Pleasure Bound by Alison Tyler, Do Not Disturb and Bottoms Up by Rachel Kramer Bussel as well as in Time Out New York. CarnalNation.com generously sends her amazing sex toys to review and she can often be found testing them in her high tech masturbation testing facility aka the office ladies room. In between all that and her actual job, for two years running, she’s produced the NYC Sex Blogger Calendar which raises funds for Sex Work Awareness. She blogs about life, death and everything in between at Urban Gypsy (http://nyc-urban-gypsy.blogspot.com).



Desiree is a brainy, sexy, foodie, geeky, writer chick from New York. She lives in Brooklyn with her vampire cat Snarf and has always had an inclination toward the naughty. She never backs down from a Scrabble challenge and once scored seventy six points with the word "clitoris." Her dirty stories have been published in anthologies such as Lust Chronicles and The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories and her musings about sex have appeared in the Huffington Post and The Frisky. She blogs about love, sex, and life at www.baserinstincts.com. For general info on her antics or to find out where to read her stuff, check out www.desireemoodie.com.



Isobella Jade is known as one of the tiniest working models out there. She is also the author of Almost 5’4”, her modeling memoir. In early November her graphic novel Model Life: The Journey of a Pint Size Fashion Warrior debuts. Daily Isobella gives modeling insight and advice on being a shorter-than-average model on her blog, and despite her height she has used what she does have and has modeled for Marshalls, Victoria's Secret, Easy Spirit, Macy’s, Bon Appétit, TLC, Univision, MTV, Women's World, and many, many others. Her story and advocating has been featured in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Allure.com, Page Six, Ad Age, The New York Post, WSJ, Nylon, Mediabistro.
www.isobelladreams.com



Thanks to the aggressive heroine of her second novel, Feminista, Publisher's Weekly as called Erica Kennedy "the pioneer of bitch lit". She is also a screenwriter and blogger who began her writing career by blindly pitching and selling a humor piece on why women love to hate Gwyneth Paltrow to the New York Daily News women's section where she became a frequent contributor. She has written celebrity profiles and style pieces for In Style, Vibe, Paper and UK Elle. She blogs about pop culture and all things FEM at The Feminista Files (thefeministafiles.blogspot.com/).



Rosalind Christine Lloyd is a contemporary fiction and erotica writer (and occasional poet, journalist and music reviewer) whose work has appeared in over fifteen anthologies. She currently has two novels in progress, is working on a compilation of her published short fiction and has one completed screenplay. She lives downtown with her queer version of a nuclear family.
http://rosalindchristinelloyd.blogspot.com



Jennifer Peters is the associate editor of Penthouse Forum and Girls of Penthouse and a contributing editor to Penthouse Magazine. Her work has appeared in several places under numerous names, but her favorite bylines use her real name. Those rare works have appeared in Forum, Penthouse and Rachel Kramer Bussel's Peep Show anthology.



You'll be hearing readings from these books:


Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories


Model Life: The Journey of a Pint-Size Fashion Warrior


I Love a Man in Uniform

Giveaways include (more TK):


24-karat gold Little Gold vibrator courtesy of JimmyJane

From Extreme Restraints:



Strict Leather Black Fraternity Paddle


12" Slapper With Holes

$100 Babeland gift card from Beyond the Birds and the Bees


SexySlang word game


XXX porn film Afrodite Superstar


Abiola Abrams' novel Dare


We're giving away 2 copies of the calendar!