A Look at New York’s Poetry Brothel

By Alexandra Villarreal | 09/28/14 - NY Observer

The Poetry Brothel transforms the Back Room into a poetic paradise for a night. (Photo: Rachael Saltzman)

Tucked inside an alleyway, down one set of steps and up another, a salon exudes the easy sex appeal that could only manifest in a Prohibition speakeasy. Madonna with the Long Neck sits on a nail. Lipstick red covers the wall and floor. A sparkling chandelier lights up the night.

The Madame and her drunken bouncer introduce the evening’s entertainment, who reluctantly slip onto the stage. It’s a 20^th-century Vaudeville. As burlesque performers swing their hips and lift their legs to uproarious applause, whores and their patrons sneak behind a bookcase for time in the shadows.

It’s not shocking that this scene is real. Perhaps what’s more surprising is that it’s legal. The Poetry Brothel is the brainchild of Stephanie Berger, who was struck with the idea while writing her thesis on New Orleans sex workers at the New School.

“Poetry and prostitution are two of the oldest professions in the world and, in my opinion, were always destined to be bedfellows,” she told the Observer. “Both poetry and sex feed the human need for intimacy, fantasy, desire, violence, and freedom.”

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/09/a-look-at-new-yorks-poetry-brothel/#ixzz3F0b2H9Fn
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