Tiger Salmon (Host) (she/they) is a queer artist and writer from Naarm. She debuted as a writer and publisher in 1988 when she her partner Jasper Laybutt launched Australia's first lesbian sex-positive zine, Wicked Women. In the late 1980s, when the pursuit of pleasure was a powerful political protest, Tiger and her partner Jasper launched Wicked Women.
The zine evolved into a magazine that sparked a revolution in lesbian circles of inner-city Sydney and Melbourne with partied and events including the infamous Ms Wicked competition.
Frankie Van Kan (storyteller) is an interdisciplinary queer artist working with live performance, costume, the written word and dance. Writer, sex worker and parent living in Naarm, she is devoted to spreading the gospel of pleasure through her work both onstage and off. Her practice explores the liberation of the female body, sexuality, and queerness.
Jinghua Qian (storyteller) (pronouns: ey/eir/em) is a writer who works across prose, verse, audio and television, often returning to the same concerns around art, queerness, history, diaspora and desire. Ey lives in Melbourne's west, on the land of the Kulin nations, and also on the internet.
Joel Bray (storyteller) is a proud Wiradjuri man and artist living in Naarm whose practice springs from his cultural heritage. His works are intimate encounters in unorthodox spaces, in which audience members are invited in as co-storytellers to explore the experiences of fair-skinned Aboriginal people, and the experiences of contemporary gay men in an increasingly digital and isolated world. His body becomes the intersection site of those songlines- Indigenous heritage, skin colour, and queer sexuality.
Mayhem As Nana Madge (storyteller) is quite simply, a lovely old lady! She is a lifetime member of the Glen Innes Lawn Bowls Association and proudly wears her bowling whites at any important social occasion.
For Wicked Words, Nanna will share an old story of her sexual transformation, on a dark and steamy night decades ago at the Victoria Park Bowling Club, in Sydney.
Hini Hanara (storyteller) is a social worker, funeral celebrant, and death educator. Once a good Mormon girl, Hini now gets off on truth, ripe, heavy-laden, groaning truth. What relief have they found from their sweaty shame?
Hugo Grrl (storyteller) is a darg kin, a doofus and an award-winning cabaret producer from Aotearoa New Zealand, creating joyful queer theatre that's bound to leave you with a smile on your face and a bit of glitter in your hair.
Gay Dad (DJ) is a delicious house music daddy with wine-mum energy. With their silly little moustache and obsession with deep cuts, nostalgic bangers, and filthy basslines, they've graced the decks of Mardi Gras, Sydney World Pride, Gaytimes, Laneway Festival, Unicorns, POOF DOOF, HONCHO DISKO and more. Dedicated to creating fruity, bustling queer dance floors, you can guarantee they've got the best bangers up their sleeve (aka on their dykey carabiner full of USBs).
Archer Magazine is a UN-award-winning print publication about sexuality, gender and identity. It is published twice-yearly in Melbourne, Australia, with open-access stories online every week, focusing on lesser-heard voices and the uniqueness of intersectional queer experiences.
Wicked Women (1988–96) was a delectable zine first published by Jasper and Tiger thirty years ago when they decided Australian dykes deserved raunchy representation. Their infamous Ms Wicked competition sparked a revolution for lesbian feminists. The nineties were a wild time to be queer!
Wicked Words is a storytelling event that continues the legacy of Wicked Women by celebrating dyke and trans sexuality in all its guises. Come along to hear trailblazers tell tales about our raucous queer heritage then gird your loins for some contemporary erotica.