LETTERS READ: 2025 The Sex Cycle Introduction

LETTERS READ

Hello! Welcome to Letters Read. The ongoing series in which letters and written documents about culturally vital individuals from various times and Louisiana communities are interpreted into spoken word performances. These are free, open to the general public, live sometimes, and other podcasts. This is the ninth consecutive season.

This season is about sex. The physical activity we engage in for pleasure, sport, and procreation. Part of this investigation is gender and words we use to define how and with whom we have sex. For 2025 Letters Read, the word “sex” is a corporal act, and “gender” a political construct.

“Sex”was chosen for being a show-stoppingly blatant topic. In addition to its attention-grabbing quality, thinking about sex can be nuanced. For instance, what kinds of sex are legal and what not? What modes of having sex are socially acceptable? And not? Information for this season is sourced from many institutions including and not exclusive to: the Kinsey Institute website, the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast organization, the Planned Parenthood archive at Newcomb Institute, and the Historic New Orleans Collection. Additional information is based on recorded interviews with medical professionals, everyday individuals and practitioners of sex and sex-related practices, and members of alternative networks for those outside of official institutions.

Listen to this incubator-style, mini-podcast and stay tuned to Letters Read 2025 and the upcoming Sex Cycle of programming.

IMAGE: El Sartorio (also El Satario) (1907 or 1912).