Leslie Bull
Leslie Bull grew up middle/working class until age fifteen when she left home and became welfare/street/criminal class for the next twenty years. With three babies by age nineteen, she worked menial labor, lived as a homeless junkie ho, and was separated from her children through poverty and the shame of whore stigma. Leslie is a survivor with lots of experience in street culture, whitegirl, police brutality, domestic violence, queer oppression, and prisoner family. With two beloved sons in adult prison, she recently edited and published a chapbook of prisoner writing and art titled, Television and the Land of the Free, and created a Prisoner Family workshop.
An eighth grade dropout (a decision she does not regret) Leslie earned her g.e.d. at age thirty-five and started college. Soon after, writing about her life started to pour out of her, resulting in a growing body of powerful, riveting poetry, essay, and memoir. Today Leslie holds a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies from Portland State University, and is currently enrolled in Antioch University's Master of Fine Arts program where she is preaching the concept of writing for survival, debunking the myth of the sacred pussy, and freaking out about institutionalizing her art.
Called "the Jean Genet of Amerika" by Penny Arcade, Leslie recently performed in a nationwide tour with the Sex Worker's Art Show, co-created a video titled, "on being a junkie ho in sex worker world", and organized Beyond Sex Work: Voices from the Margins a film series and discussion mini-tour. In her video, as in her written work, Leslie addresses and complicates issues of class, race, sexuality, and family. The author of four chapbooks, she calls herself "a compulsive truth teller" in her writing and says, "I'm just an ex junkie ho telling it like it is."
Contact Leslie Bull
Selected Performances
- "Here We Stand." Keynote poet with Chrystos at "Break the Chains: Anti-Prison Conference" University of Oregon, Eugene (August 2003).
- Video Screening, "on being a junkie ho in sex worker world" co-created by Leslie Bull, Penny Arcade, and Ariel Lighteningchild, at Scarlot Harlot's "Sex Worker Film Festival" San Francisco, CA (February 2003).
- "A Whore's Life." Co-featured with Penny Arcade and Ariel Lighteningchild at Tribes, Lower Eastside, NY, NY (February 2003).
- "Sex Worker's Art Show." Capital Theater, Olympia, WA (February 2003).
- "Seattle Spit." Co-featured with Emi Koyama at Wild Rose, Seattle, WA (January 2003).
- "Sex Worker's Art Show Tour." Twenty-six city, nationwide tour, including Lady Fest Los Angeles and The Knitting Factory, NY, NY (November-December 2002).
- "Sluts Against Rape." Hollywood Theater, Portland OR (November 2002).
- "Intercourse: A Sex and Gender Spoken-Word Recipe for Revolution." (Northwest) Hollywood Theater, Portland OR (May 2002).
Selected Presentations and Workshops
- "support prisoners, make your own tattoo gun, & what they won't tell you about hep c" workshop with Stacey Bull at "Break the Chains" conference, Eugene OR, (August 2003).
- "Beyond Sex Work: Voices from the Margins" Film Series and Discussion mini-tour with Ariel Lighteningchild and James Diamond at Portland State University, Evergreen College, and University of Oregon (May 2003).
- "Class Issues and Sex Work" workshop with Emi Koyama and Annie Oakley at the Sex Worker's Art Show Conference, Olympia WA (February 2003).
- "The Whore Revolution: Articulating the Working-Class Sex Worker Feminisms" workshop with Emi Koyama at the "Gender and Sexuality Conference" Evergreen College, Olympia WA (May 2002)
- "Panels on Prostitution" Three event series of panels at Portland State University (February-May 2002).
Selected Publications
- feel me (2002) Confluere Publications
- turtle and gorilla with stacey bull and family (2002) Confluere Publications
- kaleidoscope (2002) Confluere Publications
- jury duty (2002) Confluere Publications
- Television and the Land of the Free by Magnus, Tmac, Big Rob, and Dean, edited and published by leslie bull (coming out soon on Confluere Publications).
- Support Prisoners And Make Your Own Tattoo Gun by Dopey, Big Rob, Boosey, Leslie, and Gin, edited and published by leslie bull.