Steven Jesse Bernstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-GMuGH-EQ
In 1979, Steven Jesse Bernstein put out his first chapbook, "Choking On Sixth." At the time Bernstein was dating a sex worker who asked why he didn’t publish his writing, when Bernstein told her he couldn’t afford to, she said, "wait here," went out in the street and earned the money. "Choking On Sixth" is about Bernstein being gang raped in a psychiatric hospital. He became a force in the Seattle music scene, he was an influence on Kurt Cobain, he opened for many punk bands, and he read with Kathy Acker, William Burroughs and Jim Carroll, among others. Sub Pop gave him a record deal, but on October 22, 1991, shortly before his record was released, he stabbed himself in the neck three times.
How many of the things we love and cherish have been realized through sex work? Because it’s a shadow economy it doesn’t get recognized as a significant contribution to culture. But scumbags like Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan built monuments to themselves, memorializing their exploitations in marble, endowing us with museums and concert halls and public spaces emblazoned with their names. I would rather those places be named after prostitutes.
