Profile of Center for Sex and Culture
Carol Lloyd profiles the Center for Sex and Culture, founded eight years ago in San Francisco by Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence.
It sounds so quintessentially San Francisco: a library, archive, workshop space and community center about sex where busy little interns scurry around getting credit toward their doctorates, visiting scholars probe historical detritus about the dildo and curious laypeople read up on how to have a full-body orgasm. Then, at night, the place transforms into a venue for "social events" -- parties with a purpose, sex-positive performances, lectures and workshops.
And who better to head the many-limbed venture than the city's most salacious multitasker, Carol Queen? A sex educator, author, former callgirl, party thrower, performer and possessor of a Ph.D. in human sexuality, she has been a fixture of San Francisco's sex-positive movement for decades. With her cat-eye spectacles, matter-of-fact demeanor and vintage fashion, Queen resembles a librarian -- but one who has long since let her hair down.
Much of the article follows Queen and Lawrence's ongoing search for a permanent location. The Center's library and archives are presently stashed away in storage lockers, and events take place at rented locations around the city. (Link snagged from Flutterby.)
