Immunity through Community: Sex Workers Commemorating History and Space

By: Stripperoke Cape Town (Farnel Smart)

Highlighting the resilience of the sex worker community in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing HIV pandemic, this work memorialises sex workers lost to these illnesses and honours those who have withstood them. The work also highlights the ways Covid-19 has affected mobility of sex workers, increased the (already prevalent) stigma of sex workers as "infectious," and how the virus has shut down queer spaces and sites of encounter such as clubs, bathhouses, massage parlours, and strip clubs. Immunity through Community  aims to show how the porosity of bodies reflects that of our spaces. and how stigma around queerness and moralistic views of sex work has put our communities at higher risk of infection and disenfranchisement.