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We Are Everywhere Fest wants to celebrate the creative side of sex workers, however they define their careers or artistry. Taking place across three days in August, the festival will host a micro film festival at the Clinton Street Theater on Monday, Aug. 11, a pole dancing competition at Kit Kat Club on Tuesday, Aug. 12, and a group art exhibition at a private studio’s open house on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
Nikki Lev organizes the Kit Kat Club’s weekly Kit-N-Kaboodle all-bodies strip club experience night and is a long-standing emcee and event producer. The normally noncompetitive Kit-N-Kaboodle night has been temporarily turned into a contest with a $1,000 cash prize. Lev began organizing the multidisciplinary art festival—founded this past spring in the political spirit of sex-positive events like Slut Walk—with filmmaker Areem Rose, artist Cloud Stokely, and an anonymous fourth founding teammate. The goal is to celebrate people and work that broad society struggles to admit it needs.
“We didn’t see anything locally getting this niche of arts festival where the art is made by sex workers,” Lev tells WW.
The festival’s name comes from the title of Rose’s documentary We Are Everywhere, which interviews five sex workers about the struggles they faced amid the pandemic’s early days. Stokely’s art studio in industrial Southeast Portland will show nearly a dozen artists’ work as of press time, but Lev said submissions were still coming in. They said festival organizers don’t require participants to qualify their careers (e.g., dancer, model, actor, etc.) or whether they’re actively working or retired. They don’t even need to make work about, well, work.
“One of our movies is by a sex worker, but it’s about a bunny rescue,” Lev says. “Lots of variety will be had.”
SEE IT: We Are Everywhere Fest at Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 971-808-3331, cstpdx.com. 6 pm Monday, Aug. 11. $10. 21+.
Kit-N-Kaboodle at Kit Kat Club, 231 SW Ankeny St., 503-208-3229, kitkatpdx.com. 10 pm Tuesday, Aug. 12. $10. 21+.
Cloud Stokley’s art studio location to be revealed on the festival’s Instagram and Bluesky accounts. 6 pm Wednesday, Aug. 13. Free. No one turned away for lack of funds at all events.
