East London Strippers Collective presents... RIP Shoreditch

Sunday 14th August 2016

18.00 Rivington St. Funeral Procession - Free Event

20.00 The Wake - Red Gallery Basement Party - £5 Entry

ELSC are sad to be losing one of the best strip venues in London. The White Horse, an independently run pub open for 38 years, provided a family environment for many of the dancers who worked there. Over the decades it was home to some of the most vibrant and brilliant striptease performers in the world and nurtured the talents of award winning pole dancers. For the last 3 years it provided a location for the East London Strippers Collective to launch their regular flagship life drawing events; it was mainly thanks to working together in The White Horse that members of the collective convened and formed the group.

Not only this, but in the last few years the alternative arts, music and night time culture has lost several significant spaces, with the entire scene continual under threat of redevelopment.

To mark the occasion, ELSC in collaboration with Red Gallery, Shoreditch, are hosting a New Orleans style Jazz Funeral. On Sunday 14^th August, at 6pm, we will be convening on the corner of Shoreditch High St and Rivington St and leading a spectacular funeral procession (including live Jazz, banners, wreaths and hand-built coffin) down the length of Rivington St, ending at Red Gallery, EC2A 3DT where we will then hold a Wake. We will extend our sense of loss and mourning to other individuals and organisations who wish to pay their respects to the many alternative sites, studio warehouses, sound systems, queer spaces, places and moments of cultural significance being eradicated by the relentless corporate land-grabs and persistent gentrification of Shoreditch.

Our ceremony will include a pole burial, live music and singing from members of the collective, a memorial service, and an opportunity for audience members to acknowledge the loss/bury their own special part of Shoreditch. After we have said our goodbyes we will respect that which is gone by celebrating life – with a rave. As always, members of the ELSC will perform gravity-defying, jaw-dropping striptease routines on the pole, with a Dead Rock Stars musical theme.

The Rivington St procession is a free event, open to the public who are welcome to dress in their finest funeral attire and join the cortège from 6pm.

The Wake memorial service and party will be a ticketed event held in the basement of Red Gallery. Entry £5. Doors open at 8pm – strictly over 18s.

N.B. Our funeral event coincides with the closing date of “Objects of Desire” exhibition at Red Gallery, a collaborative project by sex workers and artists shifting the focus of the 'object of desire' through archiving and art, by bringing together a collection of objects related to sex work and displaying them alongside narratives in text, audio and video form. For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1131640483544059/

Who Are East London Strippers Collective?

ELSC are a group of feisty, articulate and fiercely independent women, who also happen to be strippers, challenging stigma and smashing stereotypes with their refreshingly honest and open discourse about their culture, working conditions and feminist beliefs. They have come together as a collective, united in their shared grievances about poor working conditions and exploitative business practises within their industry. They also lament the stigma surrounding their jobs; the lack of wider public understanding about what they do, compounded by negative connotations that come from poor mainstream media representation and “feminist” campaigns that seek to erase their industry and destroy their livelihoods.

To counter all this they have begun self-organising their own pop-up events to raise awareness, invite new audiences to explore their world and see what they do from a new perspective. So far their events have included parties, public talks, costume sales, pole-dance workshops, a film screening, academic symposium and an art exhibition. Members of the collective have taught themselves how to run their own events, to create their own working conditions. They can be creative with their stage performances, test out ideas and explore how they interact with their audience. ELSC wish to generate a culture of respect around their jobs by publicly recognising the value and worth of their creative talent and energy.

For more info about East London Strippers Collective go to:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-stripper-co...

www.ethicalstripper.com

@ethicalstripper