Calling all spoken word artists and poets: share your sex-positive experiences at Leeds International Festival 2019, get paid and be part of the awesome Sex Tapes event!

We're looking for Northern spoken word performers and poets who write about sex, love and relationships to perform as part of Sex Tapes, a Leeds International Festival 2019 fringe event.

Sex Tapes is a sex-positive spoken word event designed to showcase the breadth of spoken word performance and highlight positive sex, love and relationship experiences in an era where our sex-negative culture has become louder than ever.

We'll be choosing eight spoken word and poetry performers to come to Leeds and perform as part of Leeds International Festival 2019 on the opening night of the festival, in a purpose-built festival village. And the best part is: you get paid, and we've got some money for expenses too!

We want you to submit your performance - either audio or visual - of a sex-positive spoken word piece to be considered for the event. Our judges are drawn from the worlds of poetry and adult film, and will be judging your work on the quality of the performance, poetry construction and overall sex-positivity. 

Some essential things to know:

• Your spoken word piece(s) must be sex-positive in nature. The definition of sex positivity for this event is: “an attitude towards human sexuality that regards all consensual sexual activities as fundamentally healthy and pleasurable, encouraging sexual pleasure and experimentation”.
• Pieces should be between 4-7 minutes long, or alternatively you can perform multiple pieces up to a total of 7 minutes. 
• Your piece(s) must be based on or talk about a sex-positive experience you have had - and that can be ANYTHING: alone time, group activity, happily married, kinky as all hell, totally vanilla; doesn't matter.
• You must submit a link to an audio or visual file of you performing the work. We do not want to see the pieces written - we want to see them performed!
• You must be available on Thursday 2nd May from 6pm to 11pm for a short rehearsal and the performance.
• You must be based in the North of England.
• You must be 16 or over to submit work to this open call (and we would love you to do so!).

The eight performers chosen for the event will be paid a £100 fee for their performance, and limited funds are available to cover subsistence and travel expenses. 

It is very important for us that Sex Tapes showcases the diversity of people involved with spoken word and poetry. We are especially interested in submissions from individuals who feel underrepresented in poetry, spoken word or sex-positive communities, including people who consider themselves to have a disability, people of colour, people from the LGBTQIA+ communities, and people between 16-20 and over 60.

This event is being held by Leeds International Festival and run by Eleanor Snare - please feel free contact me via CuratorSpace with any questions you might have about applying.

Note: We have been in discussions with SARSVL, an organisation who offer a safe space in Leeds for women and girls who've been affected by sexual violence at any time in their lives, to help ensure this event will be as safe, welcoming and supportive as possible. We acknowledge that the term 'sex positive' has the potential for negative connotations, glamorising sex work without acknowledging its associations with exploitation, trafficking, and sex and gender inequality. We believe there is no right or wrong way to feel about sex, and no right or wrong way to feel after sexual violence, and acknowledge it is everyone's right to express any and all emotions they have about sex. This event specifically is about expressing and celebrating positive emotions and experiences associated with sex.