Migrant sex workers in Los Angeles are being abducted by ICE–but they are also fighting back. Join activist-scholar Chanelle Gallant, co-author of @notyourrescueprojectbook in conversation with Dr. Kim Soriano at @storiesbooksandcafe to explore how migrant sex workers’ lives and struggles in LA offer us a blueprint for resisting surveillance, criminalization & the “good immigrant” vs “bad immigrant” division. 

Featuring a ritual offering of joy through the performance of @xochii_noche. 

Let migrant sex workers inspire us to transform fear and uncertainty into creativity, power, empathy & noncompliance. For security, we’ll be registering participants. 🔗 in bio. Wheelchair acccesible. 

Chanelle Gallant is a movement theorist and organizer whose scholarship comes directly from decades of organizing with sex workers, migrants, and racial justice movements. She recently uncovered ICE’s abductions in the sex industry and has authored over a dozen book chapters in abolitionist, queer & feminist anthologies, including Pleasure Activism. Chanelle co-founded or supported numerous peer-led organizations that promote the dignity and survival of criminalized sex workers, including harm reduction for street workers, Indigenous & migrant sex worker-led projects. She is currently a visiting Activist Scholar at the Centre for Feminist Research in Toronto. 

Kimberly Soriano (she/they) is of indigenous descent from Guerrero and the Valles Centrales, Oaxaca, and was raised in Central Los Angeles (Tongva land). A postdoctoral fellow in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, she holds a PhD in Feminist Studies from UC Santa Barbara. She holds over 12 years of organizing experience, including campaigns against gang injunctions in Echo Park, popular education projects with the Southern California Library, harm reduction outreach with the @thesidewalkprojectla & mutual aid with @swopla. Her current book project, titled Feminist Fugitivities in Carceral Los Angeles, centers fugitive care webs built by communities navigating carceral geographies. Their public writing can be found at the Los Angeles Press and Metropole.

Xochii de la Noche is a multi-passionate creative hailing from Long Beach and a diamond in the House Of Knyle. Xochii has graced stages in both the US and Latin America and was recently named a Top 50 One to Watch by 21st Century Burlesque. As a proud child of migrants from Mexico and El Salvador, Xochii uses her performances to invoke the spirits of her ancestors for protection, audacity, joy, and abundance for herself and fellow afro-indigenous femmes around the world.

Hosted by Stories Books and Café.
Thank you to our sponsor Sidewalk Project LA