- Siobhan Brooks
Siobhan Brooks (born 1972) is an
African American lesbian feminist sociologist known for her work with African American women in thesex worker industry and feminists issues affecting the women. She is a sociologist and holds aB.A. inwomen's studies fromSan Francisco State University , and agraduate degree in sociology fromNew School University inNew York .Childhood
She was born in the Sunnydale Housing Projects in San Francisco. Her mother, who is deceased, was mentally ill, and Brooks did not start school until age 8.
The Lusty Lady Incident
While a student at SFSU, she worked at the
Lusty Lady peep-show to support herself through college, and noticed that the club hired very few black women, and that they were restricted from working in the "private booth" section of the theater, where dancers have the opportunity to make more money. After raising her concerns to the club's manager, Brooks was reprimanded and even told that "black women make the club lose money." Brooks worked with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 790, to file aracial discrimination complaint with theEqual Employment Opportunity Commission . Her efforts proved successful: the club hired more black women than ever before in its fourteen-year history.The story of the unionizing efforts at the
Lusty Lady are chronicled in "Live Nude Girls UNITE!", a documentary byJulia Query . Brooks is featured in the film.Work on sex workers
Brooks has gone on to interview sex workers across the country and has published several articles as a result. Her work has appeared in the anthology "Whores and Other Feminists" (ed. Jill Nagle Routledge,1998), Z Magazine, "Feminism and Anti-Racism" (eds. France Winddance Twine and Kathleen Blee, 2000), "
Revolutionary Voices " (ed. Amy Sonnie), and she interviewedAngela Y. Davis about her views on race,gender , and the sex industry in the post-Civil Rights era for the University of California Hastings Law Journal (Winter, 1999). She also appeared on the cover of "Colorlines Magazine" in the winter 2004 issue, "Sex, Race, Gender."Brooks helped organize the country's first and only workplace union of sex workers at TheLusty Lady , a well-known peep show in San Francisco's North Beach district.Academic Interest
While she is known as a sex worker activist, her academic interest and activism expands to gender and institutions, women of color and mental illness,
queer race identities, women in the media, race and class. In October 2005 Brooks co-organized a conference onHip hop music 's global impact atLehman College , where she is an adjunct professor in the department of sociology. [ [http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/lehman/enews/2005_10_11/feat_hiphop.html Lehman E-News: Past Features: Oct. 21 Conference Explores Hip-Hop's Global Impact ] ]References
External links
* [http://www.blacklavender.com/speakers/siobhanbrooks/ Siobhan Brooks]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.