He got us VIP tickets to The Poetry Brothel, a sultry poetry event with a burlesque attitude run by the Poetry Society of New York. It was amazing.
The international event hails from New York City and has a strong presence in LA, Chicago, Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, and a few other cities.
The “bad” news is that it was very crowded. Even from our VIP seats, guests kept walking between us and the main show…..to a corner no less. The good news is that they have already outgrown the current Denver venue, which was an otherwise-perfect fit. The Mockingbird is a swanky, posh, glitzy, and glamorous “immersive art lounge” in the River North arts district of Denver.
The brothel events are sex positive, consent-required, and zero-tolerance (for bigotry of any kind); the events raise money for causes and services that destigmatize the professions within sex work. As the hostess told us, “the only thing we are here to blow is your minds.”
The audience came out in full force. We had never seen such grand costumes or more perfectly-fitting outfits at any event. I’ll dress more in theme for our next one! Several people had been to The Poetry Brothel in LA and had nothing but grand things to say. The whole event was quietly buzzing with sexy anticipation and excitement.
The Mistress of Ceremonies told grand tales of Denver’s origins, including the sex workers, mesdames, and brothels of the day. She is a fabulous story teller and painted a grand picture for us all. She didn’t just set the scene, she wove dramatic stories throughout the whole show. (One of these days, we’ll get to see the tunnels under Denver.)
The cocktail hour was filled with roaming cast members and show kittens. There was also a pole and lyra performer. The two-act show had a few excellent poets and one amazing burlesque number each. Every single performance was wonderful. We also had tokens we could use for a private reading from the poet of our choice. It was an efficient process for the guests and a great way to reward the cast members. (It was a little like buying drink tickets at a festival.)
Apologies for the grainy pics. Flash would have been awful for everyone, so would walking in front of the audience. I should have tried the GoPro (I’m not yet sure how well it handles truly low light).
The only thing we couldn’t figure out is how we didn’t know anyone there. We could think of dozens of people who would have loved it.