If you're in NYC on August 5th, you won't want to miss this awesome event. The Red Umbrella Diaries is a project started by the amazing Audacia Ray to create spaces for sex workers to tell their stories. As Audacia says on the Red Umbrella website:

The Red Umbrella Project is founded on the belief that storytelling is a building block of movement building and solidarity. People who have spent time in the sex industries know all too well the social and legal stigmas that prevent us from being treated with the dignity and respect we deserve. While researchers, the media, and myriad others fill up page after page with stories about the sex business, the voices of sex workers are consistently denied and erased.Everyone has a story, and the people who are best equipped to tell the stories of people in the sex trade are the people who have personal experiences in the industry.

Here are the details for the next reading (every first Thursday of the month)Date: August 05, 2010 08:00PMVenue: Happy EndingLocation: 302 Broome Street between Eldridge and Forsyth, New York, NY, The United StatesDescription:STARRING Veronica Vera, Lauren Wissot, Chelsea G Summers, Michael Pollack, and E.V. Fleurima, aka Ckiara RoseThe Red Umbrella Diaries is a monthly storytelling series where people who?ve tangled with the sex industry tell personal stories about the complications that arise when you mix sex and money. The tales are sexy, sad, hilarious ? and always revealing.Stories are also recorded and turned into a free podcast, available on iTunes, so people who aren't able to be there can listen.Doors at 7 pm, reading from 8-1021 and up ? FREE15% of the bar tab supports PROS Network (Providers and Resources Offering Services to sex workers)