Three snaps up for the Phase 1!

(who remembers what that means, even ... am I just dating myself? :)

So much love to all the folks at D.C.'s Phase 1 ("oldest lesbian bar on the east coast!") for welcoming and treating Body Heat so kindly! We had the fiercest kind of love for & from y'all, esp. given that this was our first show with our Celestina back (no pun intended there, folks...)!

Angela, Kris & all the rest of y'all -- thank you thank you thank you. The Phase opened specially on a Wednesday night, just for our show, and we hope it was more than worth it! V. got to come home into the loving arms of friends & community -- it's just what we need as we're pushing down through into the final two shows!

Much love and many thanks, too, to the folks at the Tritone in Philly! We had an intimate and dear crowd, many of whom stuck around after the show to chat us up and make offers some of us found difficult to refuse... :)

One more hard-driving day and then we're at the Eyedrum in Atlanta tonight -- K. gets to come home! So much love to all the folks at D.C.'s Phase 1 ("oldest lesbian bar on the east coast!") for welcoming and treating Body Heat so kindly! We had the fiercest kind of love for & from y'all, esp. given that this was our first show with our Celestina back (no pun intended there, folks...)!

I got to connect with a good old friend from high school, one of those folks who, without knowing it, made life bearable (and that's no exaggeration), so the fact that he came & stayed & very well may have even enjoyed is a thing I think I have yet to find words for...

Angela, Kris & all the rest of y'all -- thank you thank you thank you. The Phase opened specially on a Wednesday night, just for our show, and we hope it was more than worth it! V. got to come home into the loving arms of friends & community -- it's just what we need as we're pushing down through into the final two shows!

Much love and many thanks, too, to the folks at the Tritone in Philly! We had an intimate and dear crowd, many of whom stuck around after the show to chat us up and make offers some of us found difficult to refuse... :)

One more hard-driving day and then we're at the Eyedrum in Atlanta tonight -- K. gets to come home!

Oh -- the Pi is my new home...

... or could be.

It's 2:30am and we have to be on the road at 7, and still...

What a show -- so so many thanks to Shannon Blowtorch & Tara & Bennie at the Pi Bar. PEOPLE -- when you're in Minneapolis, get you to the Pi Bar. An amazing performance venue/bar/restaurant & music that will not let you get off the floor if the dancing is happening. Thank you Annie for the goodie bag!

Thank you Blowtorch & T. for the quarters & hospitality & tunes!

The Pi & the Twin-Cities Femme Mafia hosted V & I tonight for the third leg of the Body Heat tour -- Kathleen rested her ailing self for one more day and so we brought her CD & her words, as we did with Celestina's -- we miss you both!

We could not have been more welcomed and well-received here -- and next time I come, I'm getting that tater-tot hot dish, I tell you what.

THANK YOUs to our incredible special guests:

Mashinda, who brought Kathleen's opening poem into the room with a deep kind of ferocious energy that I SO hope you keep on rocking!!

Jess, a so-called virgin to the mic, so clear and comfortable up there on the stage, with pieces that tore my heart up in all the good ways...

Jamez, a sister-porn writer who shared his fierce poetry and strong, showering energy (and wonderful hugs!)

and yes, yes, Zakiya, whose fresh poetry nearly brought me to tears. I really want a copy of that one...

Oh. What to do with so much shared energy, community -- with this exchange of words and power and space and love?

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We're off tomorrow, back down 35 to Columbia, for our postponed show -- hooray for the Rag Tag! This was a quick visit/reminder that up north here, winter lasts a long time... :)

We're coming to Minnesota!

Thunderstorms in Columbia, MO this morning -- it's s gorgeous to be in the midwest in the spring!

Today we're off to Minneapolis for our show up there, then tomorrow we head back down to Columbia for a postponed/rescheduled show here! The weather goddess conspired against us on Sunday: snow in Vail meant a slower start than we needed to comfortably make the originally-scheduled performance in Columbia, so we'll be coming back here for an earlier gig on Wednesday.

Please send your good, healing thoughts to Kathleen, who is having to rest and sleep to recover from some sick!! Kathleen says to call this "The Sick C*ck Tour."

Unfortunately, we *won't* be going to Milwaukee -- we hadn't heard that anyone had registered for our workshop there, and had to make the difficult decision to cancel that show! I really hope we can make it back there for the next tour!

Things I want to remember to say:
- there are cardinals in Missouri! I haven't heard them in years, and nearly cried when their strong song pealed through me yesterday at the Uprise Cafe (attached to the Rag Tag Theater, & a wonderful place for a femme on tour to sit outside & write).

- Interstate-quick meetings with fathers can be good for the soul.

- SO SO SO many thanks to: Meliza Benales, who BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN in SF; Lorelei Lee, our amazing SF show opener; and the gorgeous Miss Amelia Paradise, who strip-teased us up to the highest heights at the midpoint of the SF show.

- We miss Celestina! Veronica brought her energy, her piece, to San Diego, & she's coming to Minnesota the same way...

I miss F!, & I miss home, and I'm more excited about this trip than I can say. :)

love love love -
Jen

Body Heat melts the snow

I'm writing to you from Vail, CO, where we were SNOWED IN last night (I-70 closed & highway patrol directing folks off the road at 1am). Fresh! helped finagle us a room in a hotel& spa, so though we're not terribly rested, we're at least clean and good-smelling! :)

We had a small show in San Diego at this wicked cute sex shoppe, The Rubber Rose, and it was beautiful! Now we're pushing through our second long long day of driving, from Colorado to Missouri. We were supposed to stay at my dad's place last night, just outside of Denver, but were thwarted by the weather goddess. The pass is open now though, and so we can get back on the road. Maybe we will be able to see my dad the interstate just for a hug... :)

Incredible scenery yesterday, and the kinds of conversations you can only have in the car.

Tonight's show's in Columbia! And then a day of rest...

Body Heat: queer femme tour kicks off tomorrow, 4/3

I have the great privilege of being a part of the Body Heat: Femme Porn Tour, which kicks off here in San Francisco tomorrow, 4/3, at the Center for Sex and Culture at 7pm.

Femmes, as some of us know, still bear an interesting burden of invisibility -- our right to call ourselves dykes is called into question sometimes even still, because we don't bear the masculine markers of more "visible" dykes (which turns into an interesting paradox), and our sexual agency is still, I think, considered to be determined by our lovers, rather than by we ourselves.

There are LOTS of fierce femme writers & performers who are calling into question these and other misunderstandings around femmeness, and I get to be on tour with three of them -- Vixen Noir (aka Veronica Combs of the incredible Liquid Fire fame), Celestina Pearl (di-va writer, filmmaker & performer!) and kathleen delaney (spoken word artist out of Atlanta & a dear friend from back when I lived on the East Coast!)

More info below -- I'll be blogging about the tour here and at my myspace blog: www.myspace.com/writingourselveswhole

Wish us luck, good driving, and sleep! :)

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~Body Heat: A femme porn tour~

Body Heat is a collective of fierce, sassy, irreverent Femme artists setting
ablaze performance art communities and smashing Femme stereotypes. Porn, Kink,
Smut, Erotica - Body Heat is not reclaiming our sex so much as OWNING it.

We will turn you on.

We will challenge all of your gender, sex, feminist, social, & political boundaries & assumptions.

We will entertain the hell out of you & we will leave you panting, begging, dripping for more.

April 3, 2008 @ The Center for Sex & Culture, San Francisco, CA.
April 4 @ The Rubber Rose, San Diego, CA.
April 6 @ Rag Tag Cinema, Columbia, MO.
April 7 @ Chicago -- Location TBA
April 8 @ Pi Bar, Minneapolis, MN.
April 9 @ A Women's Touch, Milwaukee, WI.
April 10 @ Havana, Columbus, OH.
April 11 @ Mount Holyoke, Northampton, MA.
April 12 @ Truth Serum hosts @ Lily Pad Gallery, Boston, MA
April 13 (2 shows) @ MIKO & Brown University, Providence, RI.
April 14 on Diana Cage's Radio Show SIRIUS in NYC, NY
April 15 @ Tritone, Philly, PA.
April 16 @ Phase 1, Washington, DC
April 17 @ The Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA.
April 19 @ The Jolie Rouge Asheville, NC.

Spread the word and bring your friends! Visit http://www.myspace.com/femmeporntour for more info!