COLLECTIVE
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Hot Bits is an annual immersive film and event series that utilizes pornography, curation, and placemaking as social practice to transform spaces into momentary universes and alternate dimensions of queer liberation for trans, BIPOC, kinky, sex-positive queer people and sex workers. We curate erotic film, performance, visual art, vending, workshops and after parties.
We were started in Philadelphia and are organized by a collective with members based in Philly, Baltimore, and Boston.
Our goal is to celebrate and elevate alternative representations of sex and pleasure. We believe that erotic art, made by and for queer and marginalized people, uncovers the self-determination necessary for fully liberated connection and collective healing: bodily, creatively, and culturally.
Our project is organized by and centers the work and sexual healing of QTBIPoC, sex workers, survivors of assault, trans and cis women/femmes, fat folks, disabled folks, freaks, aliens and witches. We curate a range of works from soft to hardcore and encourage first-time filmmakers and DIY projects.
ORGANIZERS
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ARAZEL NEWMAN is an otherwordly handsome Gender Queer Faerie and Fetish Muse incarnated in the Chestnut Hill forests of Philadelphia. Cosmic roots and occult influences can be seen in Their many dimensions of Artistic Expression which include co-producing Philly's only Queer POC Burlesque troupe Raspberry Royale; Acting, Modeling, Painting and other Visual and Performance arts. They encourage reconnection to the authentic self through the exploration, validation and reintegration of the arts, the erotic and the taboo. They also really enjoy eating, fucking and making out with platonic friends.
Genevieve Diaz y Rodriguez was born in Hialeah, FL while being raised in both Hialeah and San Antonio, TX and now currently lives in Boston. She comes from Cuban, indigenous fierce ancestors. G loves eating and cooking with friends and fam, throwing down on the grill and being a butch Tia. She is a film maker, designer, and cultural organizer while working as a union carpenter. She works mostly with her friends and fam as a collective member in Unbound Bodies, a QTBIPoC multi-disciplinary creative space making and taking effort that centers and creates work for and by QTBIPoC folks, especially seeing this creative effort as a form of healing.
ICON EBONY FIERCE is a Philadelphia based performance artist and activist that has one mission: to change people's perception of artistic expression one subculture at a time. Icon has a background in theatre, dance, and spoken word performance. Icon also specializes in burlesque, performance art, and drag. Their content includes sex, body positivity, political/social issues, gender equality, etc. Icon is also involved in producing events for Phreak N Queer and co-producing Raspberry Royale and Retrograde Production events.
SNAX (she/they) is a Chinese-American/white multimedia digital artist, curator, hustler, and sex magik worker from New Mexico and based in Philadelphia. Using digital collage, photography, and moving images, her work generates portals toward a vibrant contemporary fantasy free of binaries, shame, and oppression. She is a recipient of the Leeway Transformation Award, and is a co-founder of Hot Bits.
Bashezo was born and raised in South Philadelphia, PA and currently lives in Boston, MA. Zhe is a transdisciplinary installation and performance creative that blends race and queer theory with African diaspora spiritual traditions and aesthetics. Common materials in their work include metals, soil, textiles, audio/video elements, clay, and wood. These materials are then aggregated in order to create alternative ephemeral 3rd spaces that centralize Black and POC queer and trans bodies and experiences. The core of the work centers on explorations into/around Blackness, race, gender, sexuality, homo/transphobia, micro-aggressions, and more recently queer desire.
Heart Byrne is a filmmaker, editor and erotic experience curator. Her work explores, place, identity, and the body through personal narrative and fantasy. Raised in New York City by parents who ran a contemporary dance company, her dance background informs her curiosity about the body and performance. She is one of the co-founders of Hot Bits.
JD Stokely (they/he) is a trickster-in-training hailing from Philly by way of Boston. They create and curate performances, lectures, and space around queerness, nostalgia, the Black body, and home. Stokely has been working through a series of performance rituals called MOUTH/PIECE that explore the Black feminine mouth as a site of trauma, heartbreak, rage, and resilience. Stokely is a co-founder of Unbound Bodies Collective, a multidisciplinary arts lab for QTBIPOC artists in Boston and beyond that explores the healing possibilities of celebrating community, intimacy, and joy in public.
TopShelf is a city-dwelling, cuntry-romanticizing kinky queer femme boss. Organizer, activist, facilitator, occasional artist, full time Capricorn, and trained dungeon monitor… for 4 years she co-threw Glitter Thighs (Best Dance Party 2013 CityPaper). She currently facilitates workshops and classes on unlearning and dismantling white supremacy and has peddled sex toys in the woods to 8,000 dykes.