Page 56 - AVN June 2015

old films in a temperature controlled room
… Porn is a record of our society—where
it’s at, where it came from. And that’s a
historical record. And I think those old
films really need to be preserved.”
Candida Royalle describes her vision of
New York’s future:
“New York is a place where people are
supported and encouraged to do their
own thing and do it in their way and their
style, and I like that about New York. It’s
still that way and my hunch is that one
day probably the industry is going to come
back here because there’s such a glut of
product in the adult industry. Eventually
people are going to get bored and start
looking for something new and different,
and I think New York is the place to do
something new and different!
FEATURE
Tastemakers Among those keeping the erotic heritage
of the city alive are Sarah Forbes of the Museum of Sex
(top) and Lisa Vandever of CineKink (bottom, seen on the
festival red carpet with Michael Lee Nirenberg, producer
of Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story).
56 | AVN.com | 6.15
I liked that I was one of the few production companies
that stayed in New York. I think it really helped set me
apart from the mainstream of adult porn.
—Candida Royalle
“I think that women’s voices are going to become more powerful,” says Royalle. “I think we’re going to see more
female-run studios … I think we’re going to see a return to adult movies and more sexually explicit art in New York. I
think the die-hard renegades from the [1970s and ’80s] adult industry liked being part of something kind of fringe and
skeevy. And I personally don’t think it has to be that way. I think it can be different and daring and it doesn’t have to be
sleazy. It could be still really beautiful and interesting.”
Photographer Barbara Nitke envisions a world where people are not judged “and where it’s just not a big deal what
you’re into sexually. That’s the world I’d like to live in, just of respect. And also I like the way a lot of the really young
people in their twenties these days are very fluid in their sexuality. Maybe they’re bi or maybe they’re gay. Or maybe
they’re a top and tomorrow they’ll be a bottom, and next week they’ll be a girl and yesterday they were a boy—I love that.
I hope that’s the future of the world, where people can just be judgment-free and fluid.”
Asked if New York can be that kind of place, Nitke asserts, “If anywhere, it can happen in New York. There is hope for
this town, because I think New York is still the melting pot where people come. It’s a lot harder to come here now, though.
But where else would people go? So my dream of New York would be that sexual acceptance, but I’d have to add I’d like
for it to return to being a place where people actually can come. That there could be some way you could actually come
here and get a job and find a way to live here that isn’t overwhelmingly difficult.”
MakeLoveNotPorn founder Cindy Gallop says of her future, “I want to start an incubator accelerator venture fund for
radically innovative sex and porn start-ups. I would like to be the Y-combinator of sex, the Y-combinator being the best-
known Silicon Valley accelerator, because many of my friends in the porn industry have brilliant ideas. They absolutely
want to invent the future of porn. They’re cranking their own content. They’re doing really interesting things. But there is
nobody in that sex world that can mentor, coach, advise and finance in the way that there are spaces, accelerator funds and
feed funds in tech. … A tiny injection of cash into radically innovated sex and porn start-ups will produce the terms way
beyond what Silicon Valley can even dream of. And so it would be wonderful if that was based in New York!
“Let me answer this very specifically,” says Gallop when I ask about her ideal vision of New York’s future, “because
when you ask me that question my answer is: this is the New York that I intend to and want to be a part of creating. My
favorite quote of all time is [from] Alan Kay: ‘The best way to predict the future is to invent it.’ I’m all about inventing
the future. Too many people think the future is something that happens without them, they roll in its wake. I’m all about
deciding what you want the future to be and making it happen. So I want to see New York be as thriving a tech center
to rival Silicon Valley. Because my background is advertising, I want to see Madison Avenue reinvented as a force for the
future, not an outmoded one that it’s definitely fading into. And I would love to see New York be the new center of the
adult industry in a very enlightened way, where the most innovative, disruptive and creative adult ventures and the future
of porn is coming out of. I would love to see local government understand that the answer to everything wrong about porn
is not to shut down but to open up, and to actually welcome innovation the same way it currently does the movie industry.
Welcome the adult creative industry in a way that is designed to open up a much healthier, open adult industry. And
thereby, by the way, bring a whole bunch more revenue into New York.”
Veronica Vera speaks passionately about celebrating the work of transsexual performers, and she is equally passionate
about their contributions when discussing her work. She helps men and women connect with their inner gender icons
every day at Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls—in appearance, attitude make-up, voice and
style.
In describing visions for New York’s future, she says, “I’d like to see people dressed much more imaginatively, much
more colorfully. My vision would be kind of like the return of the hippies! Something where everything is flowing and free
and reflects fun and color, and people can have hair as long as they want or as short as they want.”
Vera adds, ”I was once asked to contribute to an anthology that was called How To Make America A Better Place. And
my contribution was just that everyone would be encouraged to wear lipstick. Then the world would be full of kisses! So
maybe that’s it. Just everyone in New York going around with bright red lips. I like that.”
Veronica Hart’s life has been centered on the West Coast for many years now. Always active in the adult industry, she
most recently produces for directors such as Dana Vespoli and James Avalon. Having experienced the adult film world on
both coasts, Hart can put past and present in perspective.
“Remember, the only thing that’s constant in our world is that everything changes,” Hart says. “I have a problem with
people always going: things were so much better [in the past], and it’s the same way about the porn business. Things
weren’t so much better, They were different! And we were younger … It’s not better or worse; it just changes. People are
still cool. My best friends are still in the business, or have been in the business, or I met through the business.”
“It sounds like the only constant is change and friendship,” I suggest.
“Yes,” Hart emphatically agrees. “Friendships are the constant. Thank God. Thank God for our friends. You know what
this is all about? Learning and loving and helping each other out. And we can do that, whether we’re young or old. We can
do it in old New York, new New York—we can do it anywhere. We can be decent human beings.”
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