Sex Screening WOW

I have produced many events in my life, but the porn screening at the Parkway Theater last Thursday was clearly the most facinating and groundbreaking of them all.


My friend Marvin and I had no idea who the audience would be for this kind of screening. What we got surprised us.

Men, women, black, latino, asian, white, straight, bisexual, gay transgender, young (at least 21 years old was the requirement) and mature came out to the Parkway Theater last Thursday to find out what the hell we were doing. What was this porn screening about?

Although many of the attendees were black gay men, I kind of sensed that most people, particularly black gay, bisexual and definitely straight men might be ashamed or at least embarassed to walk into a theater (that wasn't an adult theater) to see porn. As one person who arrived said a friend told him "If I want to see porn, I will turn on my computer."

But what we all got, was something so unique that putting it into words is difficult.

The screening was a mixture of an amazing poetry reading by Marvin K. White, a video interview with Tiger Tyson taped in France, a discussion with Men's Health Specialist & Sexologist, Numbia Aziz who specializes in holistic sexual fitness for men over 40 years of age and X rated adult sex scenes between men.

My discussion on stage with Numbia pretty much put the screening in perspective and focused on our need for intimacy and how to take care of ourselves while we are experiencing sex and how to minimize the need that some people have to be abused through sex.

I am still sort of in awe of that screening and I am still kind of surprised that it even happened. What a revelation. WOW!

Thank you to Pitbull Productions for the use of their videos, the Parkway Theater, Michael Lee at the Alameda County Office of AIDS who provided us with condoms and lube, and everyone who attended who made this film screening a success. Please see links above if you would like to contact either of my co-presenters for this event.

Thank you also to Oakland, California for being the kind of city where we can push the limits of what's acceptable in order to create a community more accepting of our sexual diversity.

Joe