01 Collective Work (work completed as a core member of organizations).

Veil Machine

(2020 — )

Veil Machine is a sex worker art collective playing with the stickiness of relationality, fantasy, and exchange. Tom has been a core member of Veil Machine since 2020 when it formed.


veilmachine.com

E-VICTION (2020)
        E-Viction is a virtual arthouse / whore gallery event that existed for 12 hours before self-destructing. Log on and be seduced by our virtual peepshow where you’ll have intimate encounters with sex workers and artists making art and sex live on cam. Scroll through performers’ ads, shop art and sex objects at our E-Banned shop, learn about legislation that threatens sex workers and free speech online, join raunchy chat rooms, and protest digital gentrification. But be sure to tune in before it’s all gone at midnight. E-Viction is the only deplatforming you can prepare for in advance.

In the midst of this global health crisis, most sex workers must work, gather, and organize online despite being targets of pervasive surveillance and deplatforming. By engaging on a platform that violates SESTA/FOSTA, visitors and performers alike will engage in a new form of civil disobedience.

E-Viction is produced as part of the 2020 Rapid Response residency at Eyebeam and supported by Kink Out Events.

Red Canary Song

(2019 — )

Red Canary song is a grassroots organization based in NYC advocating for the rights and safety of Asian migrant and non-migrant sex workers and massage parlor workers. It is led and run by Asian migrants, immigrants, and sex workers.

Tom began organizing with Red Canary Song in March of 2019.

redcanarysong.org

8LIVES VIGIL (2022)

        March 16th 2022 marked the one-year anniversary of the tragic Atlanta spa shootings. Red Canary Song, in collaboration with the Asian American Feminist Collective and NYU's Intersectional Feminist Queer Collective and Center for Study of Gender & Sexuality hosted a live memorial vigil - both in-person and digital - for the eight lives lost.

        MJ assisted in the production of the vigil as well as designing a portion of the art memorial altar and funerary ritual to activate the memorial.

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SEX WORKERS’ POP-UP EXHIBITION (2020)
        The Sex Workers’ Pop-Up is an exhibition in New York City that features artwork and performances about sex work from around the world. This pop-up exhibit asks visitors to listen to the voices of sex workers, and reflect on how society defines work. MJ led the concept development and build for Red Canary Song’s installation, Mouth of the Coalmine.

In Mouth of the Coalmine, Red Canary Song is situated temporally and relationally. Initially congregating around the death of Yang Song and the imminent needs of migrant massage parlor workers, the composition of RCS has since shifted towards a wider population of Asian labor organizers. Included in this installation are personal affects from current RCS organizers, ephemera from past protests, photos from past actions, and a reconstruction of an altar from the 2019 vigil of Yang Song, foregrounded against photos of conditions of police surveillance.

Kink Out

(2019 — )

Kink Out is an event series organized by a revolving team of artists, activists, and producers, which celebrates and builds alliances between New York City’s kink/leather and sex work communities. Though Kink Out’s events take many forms, their programs are continually incited by art, conversation, and activism

MJ began organizing with Kink Out Events in 2019 during the production of Red Canary Screams, and became a core member in early 2020.

kinkoutevents.com

INTERNATIONAL WHORES’ DAY DIGITAL RALLY (2020)

        At the start of the pandemic and at the height of protests, Kink Out Events produced a 2 hour digital rally for International Whores Day 2020, featuring speakers from over 15 sex working grassroots organizations in NYC and Philly. This livestreamed event collected over 6,500 views and included translations for ASL, Chinese, and Spanish.

        For this event, MJ oversaw all social elements including live social in addition to managing the build of the official internationalwhoresday.com website, which features resources for sex workers in New york, nationally, and internationally as well as an archive of IWD events.

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MOMA PS1 RESIDENCY (2020)

Over the course of a six-week residency at MoMA PS1, Kink Out brought together members of the kink/leather and sex work communities to imagine ways to create, reclaim, and transform the virtual and physical spaces they occupy, using the VW Dome as a center for discussions, workshops, and organizing.

MJ participated in the production of two events as part of this residency:

1. Leather Lit Day: an open mic storytelling day at MoMA PS1’s library centered around leather and sex work histories. This event also included a letter writing station to incarcerated sex workers.
2. Spaces: Kinkout transforms the VW Dome and other parts of the museum into an interactive and educational arena of kink/leather rituals, performances, presentations, screenings, and installations, including discussions on safe practices, healing, and activism. This event featured over 20 performers and panelists and sold out at 500 person capacity

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RED CANARY SCREAMS (2019)

Red Canary SCREAMS was a fundraiser produced by Kink Out Events and historic gathering of the Asian American underground, featuring drag performances, gogo dancers, kink stations, and a massive raffle to benefit Red Canary Song. This event raised over $25,000 to benefit massage workers in Queens.

MJ oversaw all social elements for this event including live social, in addition to assisting in run of show production.