Happy Birthday New York!

Our second oldest chapter, New York City, is turning 5 YEARS OLD!

Congratulations to Nasty Canasta and her incredible cast of lovely naked girls for spending the last half a decade shedding their clothes and shedding light on literature and laughter. You are what Naked Girls Reading is all about. We are so proud of you!

We hope you spend the entire month of October in your birthday suitDaveta140331_203ws…

Join the New York cast on October 15th for “Bookends: A 5th Anniversary Celebration” with Sapphire Jones, Barbara Gordon (the Naked Librarian) and Anja Keister.

FOR TICKETS TO ALL NAKED GIRLS READING NYC SHOWS CLICK HERE

Know Your Naked Girls – Frankie Valentine

Half of our newest production team in Melbourne, Australia is the beautifully literate Frankie Valentine. She and partner Vesper White, launched just a couple of weeks ago at the coveted Garden of Unearthly Delights at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. They’ave already been darlings of the press and have had major celebrity readers like Fiona Patten, a politician in Australia.  They’re off to a terrific start, so we figured we should feature them in our Know Your Naked Girls.  Enjoy.

What are you currently reading?

Frankie03-smI am currently reading Norman Mailer’s The American Dream. Tough Guy’s Don’t Dance is an old favourite of mine and I stumbled across it in a second hand shop the other day.

It is very dark and twisted while still making you smile and laugh out loud, which is what I loved about Tough Guy’s Don’t Dance. It is a hard thing to reconcile the person with the work that he created! I’m not much of a fan of the late Mr Mailer’s views but I do enjoy some of his works.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Hmmm, one favourite, that’s tough. I don’t think I can narrow it down!

Frankie02-smJitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins is one of my all time favourites, I actually have a tattoo of Pan on my arm which was inspired by this book.

I love magical realists, Robbins, Gabriel García Márquez etc. I also spent many, many hours in my room as a late teenager/young adult, sometimes naked, forcing my lover at the time to to listen to me recite passages of Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson whilst drunk on something or other, these authors have a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf.

What is your least favorite book? Why?

I don’t have a least favourite, I will go with the last one I didn’t like.

The last book I really didn’t enjoy was actually a Nick Cave book called The Death Of Bunny Munro. I am a huge Nick Cave fan but i was so repulsed by the protagonist in this story so much so that I just couldn’t enjoy the book.

How long have you been reading naked?

Professionally for a month but I’ve been busted reading naked in my boudoir for at least a decade now!

What is it about reading naked that appeals to you?

Frankie01-smMy partner recently said to me “I think I’ve finally realized your’e a nudist, you’re naked at home, you’re naked at work, your naked in the garden and now you’re producing a show about it.”

I get to combine this with reading and amazing people. It’s appealing on so many levels!!

What are the best/worst things about reading naked in public?

I’m actually really enjoying it, I love it. The best thing is all these amazing women who have put their hands up to drop their robes for us and read naked.

I love my naked girls!! I am yet to have a worst but will keep you posted.

Tell me about your best naked reading experience?

Like I said, I’ve just recently boarded the Naked Girls Reading bandwagon, I decided to do this by jumping head first and doing an entire fringe season of 24 shows.

The experience as a whole has been amazing. A lot of fun, a lot of amazing women, a lot of amazing books and boobs!! We have had actors, writers, film makers, burlesque performers, a dominatrix and even a politician (Fiona Patten, founder of The Australian Sex Party) disrobing and reading for us.

It was and is an honour to share the stage with all of these amazing women.

I’m going to quote the founder of Naked Girls Reading for this one and say “Why not?”

What advice do you have for someone who wants to read naked?

Do it!!

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Know Your Naked Girls – Nasty Canasta

Naked Girls Reading has been around for more than four years and the New York Chapter has been around almost since the beginning.  Coming up this October, the NYC chapter will be celebrating it’s four year anniversary, so we figured we’d introduce you the “Girl With the 44 Double D Brain”, Nasty Canasta, producer and naked girl extraordinaire.

IMG_3848What are you currently reading? Right now I’m re-reading a few of Dawn Powell’s novels – “The Locusts Have No King” and “The Wicked Pavilion.” She’s a little bit Dorothy Parker and a little bit F. Scott Fitzgerald, and her books are a wonderful wry picture of Bohemia-meets-high-society in postwar New York City.

What is your favorite book? Why?  I’ve had to narrow it down to three, since I absolutely cannot pick just one! In no order:

4“Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson – It’s the closest you’ll ever get to seeing inside Thompson’s brain … which is a place I’d love to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

“Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov – The man loved language so intensely and used it so impeccably that I can’t help reading aloud every time I pick it up.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” by Douglas Adams – Simply put, this book has everything that’s important to me: sci-fi, comedy, Britishness and wise-assery.

What is your least favorite book? Why? Having grown up in the Massachusetts public school system, I had New England literature thrown at me like the sack of bricks it is; and to this day I simply cannot appreciate the desperate Puritan unhappiness of books like “Johnny Tremain” and “The Scarlet Letter.”

How long have you been reading naked? About 3 and a half years now!
What is it about reading naked that appeals to you? I love reading, I love performing, and I frequently forget to put pants on unless forcibly reminded to do so; reading naked is the perfect fusion of all these things.
What are the best/worst things about reading naked in public? The worst thing is constantly explaining to people who have never been what an amazing experience it is for readers and audiences alike; fortunately, the best thing is sharing such an incredible event – and the fact that, as soon as people *do* experience it themselves, they understand, too.
Tell me about your best naked reading experience? I hear time and again after our events that we’ve inspired audience members to read, to write, to be naked – and to combine all three. Every time I hear this, I’m so incredibly proud and delighted to be a Naked Girl.

Why Naked Girls Reading? It’s a loving, supportive, unique and beautiful. What is more fabulous than women and books?

What advice do you have for someone who wants to read naked? Do it! If you have even the slightest inclination, then jump in and try it. I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be instantly hooked!

In Like a Lion…(DALLAS, AUSTIN, D.C., CHICAGO, NEW YORK, NEW ORLEANS)

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In case you missed the magic in Dallas last night at “Naked G33k Girls Reading” at All-Con, here are some upcoming Naked Girls Reading salons you won’t want to miss! 

TONIGHT!! AUSTIN: “Dirty Deeds” 3/9  –  Dirty Deeds, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dirty Little Secrets. Naked Girls reading is digging up the dirt on whole lot of different subjects to share with you. RSVP HERE

D.C. : “Urban Legends” 3/15  –  Come join us as we bid a spooky farewell to our official Naked Horror expert, Roma Mafia, with a performance of scary tales and legends. DC’s Naked Girls return from a brief hiatus to bring our brand of sexiness to some legends old and new. Urban Legends will showcase tales of icy bath tubs, skin walkers and thin men! RSVP HERE, TICKETS HERE

CHICAGO: “Come Into My Parlour” (Fourth Anniversary Show!)  3/15  –  Revisiting the theme from the first-ever Naked Girls Reading(“Courtesans”), the ladies of our flagship chapter will be joined by chapter producers from around the globe for an evening of sumptuous stories and – of course – birthday cake! TICKETS HERE

NEW YORK: “New York Stories”  3/20  –  There are a million stories in the naked city – and Naked Girls Reading wants to share them with you! New York’s “Best Story Hour” (The Village Voice Best of NY) presents tales of the Big Apple at Naked Girls Reading NEW YORK STORIES: the hit nude literary salon celebrates The Capital Of The World with stories of the streets, legends of the Empire City, and the poetry, prose and history of downtown, uptown, and everything in between. RSVP HERE

NEW ORLEANS “Desire: A Tribute to Tennessee Williams”  3/20  –  The steamy words of Tennessee Williams have never looked so good.  Join the Naked Girls of New Orleans for a one-of-a-kind event that will leave you sweating like a cool mint julep left on the porch on a hot summer’s day. TICKETS HERE

Save the dates, make it a road trip, and spice up your weekends in March!  You can thank us later.

Naked Girls Rock in Madison and Chicago – San Francisco Opens NGRSF – Seattle NGR Reads at Seattle Erotic Arts Festival

Get ready to rock in Madison (May 21) and Chicago (May 2) as Naked Girls Reading tackles the rock-n-roll lifestyle and all it’s debauchery.  And if you go to the Chicago event, you can challenge your favorite Naked Girl to a round of Naked Guitar Hero (see the video here)!

San Francisco will be the next city to open a Naked Girls Reading franchise on May 15th with a reading of The Wild Party at the Center for Sex and Culture.  Don’t miss Carol Queen, Dottie Lux, Isis Starr, Kimberlee Cline, Lady Monster and Ruby Vixen as they inaugurate the Bay Area with some nekkid readin’.  Sponsored by Last Gasp Books, Good Vibrations and the Center for Sex and Culture.

And as if THAT’s not all – the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival has asked Naked Girls Reading to do a two-night feature, April 30th and May 1st.  If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, make your way to those events and show your support for erotic art and beautifully unclad ladies who read.

In other news – NGR Boston goes down the rabbit hole on April 23rd and NGR New York heads to the movies on May 7th.

Stay tune for an announcement of our first ever Naked Girls Reading Literary Prize contest…