Want the inside scoop on the recent April Flores Love Toy Art Shows that Eden put on? Of course you do. As some people may know, this whole thing was born of a simple conversation back in July…when I met April and Carlos at ANE out in LA. I mentioned the art show that they did in May, then they were talking about how much they love the east coast, and how Carlos is from Baltimore…and *lightbulb* – I was like “heyyyyyy, wait a minute.”

So, fast forward to September – I’m meeting with the boss (Fred, Eden’s owner and President) and I propose the show, having talked to Carlos and April a few times on the phone and through email. The boss greenlights it – but we only have a month to pull it off. This means a crazy amount of hustling! We set the budget and brainstormed. After a flurry of getting 8 artists (4 from NY and 4 from Philly) then making calls to venues, we secured the Museum of Sex in NYC and the Painted Bride art center in Philly. Once the venues were set, the 12 pieces from LA and SF were shipped to us. BIG thanks to Miranda at MoSex and Brandon at Painted Bride. You were both amazing! Both of these people attended the events and were hands-on all night. Then it was onto things like getting liability insurance, liquor permits, catering for MoSex (thank you to Rabiah at Indiana catering!), a bartender for Painted Bride (Emily!), sound guys for both events, the Philly bands and on and on.

Running around like chickens with heads cut off? A little! But I had a lotta help. There was the always helpful Desiree Duffie at Topco, who made it possible for us to get the 8 more plaster pussies made that would later be adorned by Philly and NYC artists. Thank you Des for getting those out to us – and on top of that, sending us the awesome Topco toys for filling 2 raffle baskets! Nice! Then there was Carlos and April, checking in daily, making sure we got the existing pieces, and helping reach out to artists. Of course, there are major thanks to the artists in NY and Philadelphia, who turned their pieces around in just over 2 weeks! Thank you Eli Livingston, George Pitts, Molly Crabapple, Erika Keck, Mo Moussa, Eric Eaton, JoKa and Joy Lessposh – you are all incredibly talented and so very appreciated!

We reached out to ASC NYC, Sex Work Awareness, and the William Way Community Center to add a new level to the events – by raising money for worthy organizations. We decided to do benefit raffles at each show. Thank you to Anne West-Church and Brooke at ASC, Audacia Ray, Eliyanna Kaiser and Melissa Ditmore of SWA and Josh Kruger of the WWCC! We also got a beautifully put together toy basket from Tantus Inc, thanks to Metis Black and Michelle Burr – it was so kind of you!

Our designers and programmers kicked ass at putting together a great Event Page, then designing post card size fliers and event banners – thank you to Rufina and her team for the beautiful work, as well as Drew for getting the printing done for the fliers and the banners! A special thanks to Mo Moussa for kicking ass on the flier art, and Gary for the layout for the larger print fliers! Ilya (Eden’s photographer) and Gary made a run to MoSex to ensure the lighting and sound would be ok – thanks to them both for all their prep work, Ilya was both video and photography in NY and Gary was the sound guy for NY. You guys rock! Thanks to our Shipping Manager, Hector and his brother and mom for running on a huge beer and liquor run with me the week before the shows, at 9am in the rain! Crazy! Not to mention Hector and Ilya being the van drivers and stuff-loaders and set up helpers – you guys were crucial to making it all work out! Thanks to everyone who ran the story and events listings. Thanks to Ilya for incredible photography and Gina Rizzo for video work in Philly, thanks to Bitchslicer and Clamfight for tearing the fucking roof off and to Kermit Hell Lyman III (aka Kit) for running sound in Philly! The music was heavy as hell and totally awesome.

Guess what else happened? We flew in Carrie Ann and her fiancé Taylor. Then Laurel was able to come too, so she flew in – and they all stayed at my house! What a whirlwind 4 days – just jam-packed. Despite the hectic errands of getting the show together and me being pulled in a million directions, they were total troopers and helped with everything from loading to set up to door admission to raffle ticket selling and more – thank you so much Carrie Ann, Taylor and Laurel! Three cheers for Team Awesome! Thanks to Ruslan, Yuriy and Drew for being hands on at the shows – for helping procure hundreds of pounds of ice and handling all those pussies! A special thanks too, to my patient and supportive husband, Gary, for being cool with me running around like a maniac, helping with all the prep, and hosting our midwestern coworkers.

This has turned into a Thank you post – because I am really thankful – I guess I thought I would recount all the trips to Party City and AC Moore and the venues and spray painting baskets and doing pussy triage and such, but really, when I reflect, I mostly remember how awesome the people were. We did so much in such a short period of time – and it all began with Topco, April and Carlos’ vision for the toy and piece, and with Fred for believing in these art shows – thanks so much!

The NY show was a big hit, the art was fabulous and absolutely captivating – 20 pieces (wow!!!), the films screened to many an interested eye, and we raised a good bit of money for ASC NYC and SWA. Everyone had an excellent time, April and Carlos were so gracious and attentive, all 4 NY artists were there and 1 Philly artist came up too, the caterers were so on top of everything, Eden staff kicked ass, and we even got to meet some of our reviewers in person. We heard great speeches from some of the artists, April talked about being cast for the mold of her pussy and Carlos gave his take on it too – it was hilariously awesome!

Philly was an art party, for sure. The art was beautifully laid out, and the space was perfect. We braved torrential rain and still looked good. April and Carlos even had family come out. Bitchslicer and Clamfight were awesome, the films were great (and even played behind the bands), the bar was flowing thanks to Emily, the Philly artists were all there and Eli even came down from NY. We raffled and raised money for the William Way Community Center. April and Carlos told more tales of movie making, pussy molding and life as art, then brought up the artists for thanks and to talk about their pieces. It was so inspiring to see all of these people who were once strangers becoming friends – everyone talked and laughed late into the night.

I hope the show travels and grows – I would love nothing more than to see it become an international show with hundreds of versions of April’s beautiful pussy! Imagine that… one day, a wall at a world-class museum being dedicated to the fusion of sexuality and art! What an experience. Long live the pussy and thank you all!