Sex Worker Groups Come Together for IWD Health Fair on June 2

LOS ANGELES—The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Collective is partnering with various organizations to celebrate International Whores Day by hosting “Sex Workers’ Health: From Surviving to Thriving,” a comprehensive health fair at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA from 12 noon to 5 p.m. PT on Friday, June 2.  The event will be presented in collaboration with SWOP LA, The Sidewalk Project, PASS Certified, Kink Out Events, Strippers United, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Tickets to the event are free and may be obtained in person or online here. The event is meant to expand access to racially concordant, trauma, sex work and LGBTQIA2S-plus informed holistic practitioners, medical providers and mental healthcare.  “Over the past year, BIPOC Collective has shifted much of its programming by providing crisis management and direct service referrals to community members with the most pressing needs,” said Sinnamon Love, founder and director of BIPOC Collective. “We stay committed to doing this work through partnerships with organizations like SWOP LA, The Sidewalk Project and PASS. I’m thrilled this year’s IWD event serves as a 'party with a purpose' to get sex workers tested, insured, connected with resources, and vaccinated against MPox just as Pride season begins.” The event will include information sharing, mental health referrals, Medicaid enrollment navigation and mobile health clinics interspersed with wellness activities, including yoga led by Thick Girl Yoga LA, a self-defense class with Vanessa Carlisle of Hooker’s Army, and a sound bath with Erotic Medusa. The afternoon will also feature pole dancing organized by Strippers United and DJ sets from EthicalDrvgs, Star Ah-Mer-Ah-Su, Succubus Tony, Ly Tran and Eva Myra May. "Sex workers are among the most marginalized people in the world, and criminalization leaves them vulnerable to predators," said The Sidewalk Project representative Soma Snakeoil. " We are committed to empowering sex workers with resources, public health access, and education. We believe in support, not salvation." More than 30 vendors will be present at this year’s event, including St. John’s Transgender Health Program, Avril Heals, East LA Women’s Center, Fire & Flow Therapy, Total Testing Solutions, MPower, Trans Migrant Support CA, The Cupcake Girls, Sunday Faire, Templerotica, Pansey Esthetics, SWAID, evan mccrary, Stripper’s Co-op, East L.A. Women’s Center and CAST-LA. The 2023 IWD Health and Resource Fair is supported by donations, grants and sponsorships from Third Wave Fund, Emergent Fund, CAST-LA and The Black Erotica Archive. The BIPOC Collective is a disabled, BIPOC, sex worker-led national human rights organization that provides financial assistance, peer-led education, labor advocacy and expands access to mental health services and medical care to marginalized people in the sex trades. The Geffen Contemporary is located at 152 North Central Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012. For more information, visit bipoc-collective.org.