OpenSF 2012 Keynote Speakers
Tristan Taormino
Tristan Taormino® is an award-winning author, columnist, sex educator, speaker, activist, and feminist pornographer. She is the author of seven books including Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, Secrets of Great G-Spot Orgasms and Female Ejaculation, and The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women. She is the editor of 23 anthologies including Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica and was the founding editor of the Lambda Literary Award-winning series Best Lesbian Erotica. She’s written for a multitude of publications from Yale Journal of Law and Feminism to Penthouse. For nine and a half years, she wrote a bi-weekly column in The Village Voice. She runs her own adult film production company, Smart Ass Productions, and is currently an exclusive director for Vivid Entertainment.
Tristan conducted original research and extensive interviews of people in non-monogamous relationships for her book Opening Up, which was published in 2008. She has presented her research, lectured about non-monogamy, and taught workshops on open relationships at colleges and universities, conferences, and other venues all over North America. She also created the website OpeningUp.net, which features books, organizations, and resources on non-monogamy including The Open List, a list of professionals (therapists, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, consultants, relationship and life coaches, doctors, lawyers, etc.) who are experienced and knowledgeable about alternative sexuality and lifestyles, including open relationships, polyamory, and non-monogamy.
You can find out more about Tristan at tristantaormino.com and puckerup.com.
Ignacio Rivera
Ignacio Rivera aka Papí Coxxx identifies as a trans identified, queer, gender-fluid, polyamorous, kinky, Black-Boricua. Ignacio, who prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” is a lecturer, activist, sex worker, sex educator, and performance artist, sharing spoken word, one-person shows, and storytelling internationally. Ignacio’s body of work has focused on gender and sexuality: specifically on queer, trans, kink and sexual liberation issues within a race/class dynamic.
Ignacio is the founder of Poly Patao Productions (P3). For the past decade, Poly Patao Productions has been dedicated to producing sex-positive workshops, performance pieces, play parties, panel discussions, teach-ins, and educational opportunities that are specially geared toward queer women, transgender, multi-gender, genderqueer, gender non-conforming and gender variant folx of color and their white queer and trans allies.
Ignacio is also one of the founding board members of Queers for Economic Justice, a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation.
You can find Ignacio via email or twitter. Ignacio will be co-presenting a keynote with Yoseñio V. Lewis, and will also be presenting two sessions, Trans-Queering Your Sex and Kink, Race, and Class.
Yoseñio V. Lewis
Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino of African Descent (Panamanian) female to male transsexual who has been a social justice activist since he was 13 years old. A health educator, speaker, writer, performer, trainer, facilitator, and spiritual hugger, Yoseñio is a member of the National Advisory Board for the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health. He also serves on the Community Advisory Board for the All Gender Health Online Study, sponsored by the Program in Human Sexuality of the University of Minnesota. Yoseñio is on the faculty for the Sexuality Track of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference. He is also a frequent speaker at the medical schools of the University of California at San Francisco and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.
Yoseñio is also a co-founder of Big Boys’ Ink™ Productions, a theatrical writing and performing company. He is also a co-founder of “The TransAms”, a barbershop quartet composed of transsexual men. Yoseñio has been featured in several documentaries, most recently "Diagnosing Difference," a full-length documentary featuring interviews with 12 diverse scholars, activists and artists who identify on the Trans spectrum (Transgender, Transsexual, Gender Queer, and Gender Variant) about the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) on their lives and communities. Other documentaries include Christopher Lee's "Trappings of Transhood," the television channel A&E's "Transgender Revolution," "The Believers," a documentary about the Transcendence Gospel Choir and "Transforming Healthcare," a short highlighting the issues that Trans people face when accessing healthcare.
Yoseñio believes that there can be no art without activism and no activism without art. He will be co-presenting a keynote with Ignacio Rivera, and will also be presenting Kink, Race, and Class.