Recently Julie Fisher and the Hamilton Theater hosted another night of the B-more Erotica Performance and Art Series. Not only was it a cross pollination of styles and titillation, it was also like the evolution of man himself, in that the performances became more erect as the night went on. Let me explain…

First up was Monica Stevens, she carried her bag and sat down, which for a photographer is problematic because you need to create energy with a mostly static, seated subject, a chair and a lonely microphone. Monica isn’t a stranger to spoken word performance, she’s a member of the Baltimore spoken word troupe Zelda’s Inferno; but Friday night was her first erotica performance, which surprised me because she seemed so natural and conveyed passion… even while seated. “I guess I’m just horny a lot,” she laughed. “I’ve always loved to write sensual, romantic poems.”

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.

Alex Alexander has been championed by B-more Erotic host Julie Fisher and local spoken word phenomenon and recent B-more Erotica performer Mark Sanders. Alex is a vision; she’s beautiful, tall, dressed in an elegant black satin gown. Alex’s performance was a combination of provocative spoken word, interspersed with beautifully sung, jazz and gospel influenced repetition. She could easily be successful as either a singer or a spoken word artist, let alone a combination of the two.

She had with her a beautifully bound volume of original photographs called “Awakenings” that she showed at the end of her set. And like her performance, the photos and their presentations were both beautiful and edgy at the same time.

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.

The Baltimore Love Project is a city wide mural project initiated by the Baltimore muralist Michael Owen. Our mission is to express love by connecting people and communities across Baltimore city with love themed murals. BLP will be painting the same image of four silhouetted hands spelling out the word love on 20 walls across Baltimore.

www.baltimoreloveproject.com

‪Earth Goddess read a traditional version of Little Red Riding hood, and then went into a hilarious deconstruction of the story.‬ She raised a number of valid questions: “If ‘Little Red’ was warned about the woods, why would she dress in red and talk to a wolf? Did she have a thing for the dark side? Apparently the original story was a cautionary tale for young virgins, and the “wolf” was just any horny man. Earth Goddess began her set seated, though by the end of the set she was on her knees, crawling to the audience.

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.

Our final performers were Cosplay Burlesque, a troupe with members from NYC, PA and right here in Baltimore. Troupe creator Valerie Belmont, a long time attendee and organizer on the anime circuit saw that there was a void in the Anime world: “there’s either children’s material or adult material like Hentai, but not much in between.” She approached the Conshare, or head of a convention she was working and suggested a burlesque show and to her surprise he said: “Sure, just write up a proposal,” the result was Cosplay Burlesque.

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.

Cosplay Burlesque member and Baltimore native Rowan Gunn elaborates on their appeal: “The anime crowd is moving into adulthood and they’re moving past the simple ‘oh, we want to go to a rave,’ or sit around and just get drunk, their getting a little bit older a little bit more mature. A lot of the anime conventions are looking for material for this audience because people are paying and the demand is there, we saw it as an opportunity to bring something more adult that wasn’t just porn. The cons love it because it’s not full nudity, but it packs rooms.”

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.

This claim isn’t an idle one, at Otakon this year, a Baltimore anime convention, The Cosplay Burlesque show had two thousand attendees. But it’s not just the older crowd that Cosplay Burlesque appeals to, it’s the fantasy within a fantasy of having your favorite anime character sexualized.  This can lead to other problems particular to the new genre as explained by Victoria Belmont:”Rowan was dressed as a character from a video game that has a herd of adoring female followers, he was half way through the act when his wig came off, after the act some of the female fans came up and mentioned that they wished his wig had stayed on as it ruined the fantasy for them.”

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.

Newest member Murder Nurse explains: “Cosplay reaches out to actual characters, Hentai (or anime porn) is made up characters that nobody knows about. We take characters from Anime that don’t get sexual and make them sexual.”

Photo and story by Philip Laubner.