Interview with Radio Ava, sexworker radio in London

Screen Shot 2017-03-12 at 23.48.44In February I was interviewed by RadioAva (DIY sexworker radio, a project of x:talk) about The Three-Headed Dog. When I arrived at the pub in mid-afternoon a fight was blowing up in the back room, glass splintering and chairs crashing to the floor. Soon the place was full of cops and two clutches of drunken young white men were being moved out the door while shouting out epithets: Knackers! Travellers! The perfect setting for an interview.

barroombrawl1In this interview I talk about creativity and pleasure, about my own likes and dislikes. The interviewer describes her feelings about the characters, surprising me by saying she found sexworker Marina ‘too perfect’. Here I confess to identifying not only with the detective narrator, Félix, but also with a villain of the story called Sarac. What are they supposed to do? I say, referring to men reared in tribal and national wars who now may turn to people-smuggling. I talk about cultural relativism as a way of understanding lives unlike our own.

I hear my self in this interview. I hear myself saying more than once I wanted to put it out there, referring to a sense of urgency, that stories of migrants who sell sex are so rarely heard that The Three-Headed Dog can exist as an historical document to be discovered by future historians – like this interview, which is located on the wonderfully-named mixcloud.

Screen Shot 2017-03-13 at 00.54.34Listen to it while doing some chore. Note the bar-clinking in the background. On the same show: Pandora Blake and the ECP. Good company. Thank you, all.

Note: there are musical interludes interspersed with segments of me and Carmen talking. They are all migration-inspired and most were provided by me. They aren’t identified on the podcast, so I’ll do a separate piece about them soon.

-Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

One thought on “Interview with Radio Ava, sexworker radio in London

  1. James Tugend

    It’s a shame that the sex business has been barred by such incidents, and that England is now exposed to people previously involved in sex slavery. In America, it is quite diffeent now, with the intern allowing sex workers new opportuntities for safety and empowerment. Many Americans treat voluntary sex work with slavery.
    Together with a psychotherapist and 80 sex workers I have just written a new book on the current reality: SELLING SEX IN THE 21st CENTURY: Subtitled Empowerment? Escorts In Their Own Word. I’d like to send ine to you for your insight, and for inclusion in your recommendations. here do I mail:

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.