Godless Perverts

Sex, Atheism, and Other Heresies

Juba Kalamka Reads “Jubilee Showcase (for Aaron Muhammad)”

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Juba Kalamka

Next in the lineup from the February, 2014 Godless Perverts Story Hour is bisexual artist and activist Juba Kalamka, best known for his work with the homohop group, Deep Dickollective. For our show, Juba performed his poem “Jubilee Showcase (For Aaron Muhammed), which is dedicated to the memory of a young man who was a member of the Nation of Islam, along with Juba in the late 1980s. In his introduction, Juba talks about how Aaron killed himself in 1992. “He was a sweet, sweet wonderful young man who died of shame, essentially,” Juba says. “Aaron’s smile is all through this.”

We wish that Aaron’s story was less common than it is, but very honored that Juba decided to read this poem for the first time at Godless Perverts.

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Simon Sheppard Reads “The Tibetan Book of the Fag”

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Due to some personal stuff, I’ve gotten a little behind on posting the remaining videos of the Godless Perverts Story Hour from earlier this month, but I’m back on track now.

Today’s video is the proudly damned-to-hell writer Simon Sheppard reading “The Tibetan Book of the Fag,” a story that brings togehter shackles, leather, whipping, and religion into one big, sweaty mess. It also includes a suggestion for the ideal safeword for atheists, just in case you ever find yourself needing it.

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Godless Perverts Story Hour: Virgie Tovar Reads “Brother David”

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This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series FTBCon2: Godless Perverts Story Hour

Our second reader at the February Godless Perverts Story Hour was Virgie Tovar, reading a wickedly blasphemous piece called “Brother David.” It really has to be heard to believed. Virgie describes herself as “a babely multi-racial femme and uppity apostate,” which really says it all. To see more of her work, check out her website and her anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion, available from Seal Press.

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Godless Perverts Story Hour: Greta Christina, “To Give Itself Pleasure”

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This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series FTBCon2: Godless Perverts Story Hour

On February 1, we had our first Godless Perverts Story Hour of 2014, and it was really a great way to start out the new year.

Greta Christina

There is not even the slightest ambiguity about that. A little over a week later, all three of us are still a little bit exhausted, a little bit glowing, and maybe even a little bit bewildered that we managed to pull it off at all, but there is no doubt that it was a great experience, and we’re all a little more optimistic about what we can do with Godless Perverts.

What was so great about it? Not only did we have an exceptional lineup of readers, but for the first time ever, we broadcast it live over the Internet, as part of the online atheist conference FTBCon2, which was pretty remarkable in itself. I think I can speak for my colleagues in Godless Perverts, Greta Christina and Dave Fitzgerald, when I say that it was a real honor to be part of it.

FTBCon 2 Banner

For those of you who couldn’t join us either in person or virtually, or who just want to relive the glory of that evening, we’re going to be posting video of the performers doing their reading over the next week and a half. That’s seven readers, plus a Q&A at the very end. Thank you so much to everyone who helped us out in this. [Read more…]

Chris Hall

About Chris Hall

A somewhat nerdy pervert who looks (mostly) normal on the outside, Chris Hall is fascinated by the politics, culture, and art of sex. He has written for The Atlantic, Alternet, SF Weekly, Slixa, numerous anthologies, and a dog blog that will go discreetly unnamed here.

Sex Isn’t Always Positive

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I think that Kitty Stryker is one of the smartest and most honest people talking about sexuality these days. The below video shows why.

I’m not in the same position as Kitty; I’m neither a sex worker, nor do I do sex education. Being seen as sexy isn’t part of my job requirement. But I do identify with a lot of what she says. The majority of “sex-positive” culture ((I know that there are a lot of people — including myself — who question the validity of that term, and whether it really means anything any more, but for lack of a better term that’s both colloquial and precise, I’m going to stick with sex-positive for right now.)) doesn’t talk enough about sexual fears and insecurities, and how to cope with them. Or, for that matter, how to accept that, as Kitty says below, being sexually “off” is part of our sexualities, too.

I think that a big part of the problem — although by no means all of it — is how much of the structure of sex positivity is based on feeding commercial ventures.  I have no problem with people feeding themselves, and I wish to hell that Kitty and others like her could go out there and make lots of money off their insights.

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Chris Hall

About Chris Hall

A somewhat nerdy pervert who looks (mostly) normal on the outside, Chris Hall is fascinated by the politics, culture, and art of sex. He has written for The Atlantic, Alternet, SF Weekly, Slixa, numerous anthologies, and a dog blog that will go discreetly unnamed here.

Heina Tells Godless Perverts About Islam’s Heavenly Sex-Bots

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At our April 16 Story Hour in San Francisco, Heina did a great reading called “The Heavenly Sex-Bots” about the sexualized nature of paradise in Islam. In particular, she talked about how very different the rewards (or more realistically, the duties) are for women. For instance, while a man goes to heaven based on his earthly deeds, a wife’s rewards are wholly dependent on her husband calling her to heaven to be by his side (along with his virgins). As Heina says, in part: [Read more…]

Video: Godless Perverts Panel at Center for Sex and Culture

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For anyone who truly nerds out on talk about sex, here’s a treat: video of the first official Godless Perverts event, a panel held at the Center for Sex and Culture on April 6, 2012. The topic was a broad one: “Atheism and Alternative Sexualities,” and featured Miss Maggie Mayhem, Charlie Glickman, and Greta Christina, with moderation and occasional input by Chris Hall. This was originally supposed to be a one-off event, but we found that we have a lot more to say about building secular sexualities. Unfortunately, there isn’t any video of the Godless Perverts Story Hour that we just did, but there will be lots more opportunities in the future.

Thanks very much to Maggie Mayhem and Ned Mayhem for shooting the video, getting it into usable shape, and putting it online for us.

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