Ultimately, only three words in this story really matter. They succinctly describe the performance it’s about and they should quickly discern those who would be interested from those who would be shocked: Naked Girls Reading.
Actually, many a potential audience member or offended citizen could stop after two, but all three are important to Miss Rose, the burlesque performer and producer who’s behind the evening of books sans cover.
“The female form is beautiful and appreciated by all,” she says. “More people should read. What better way to encourage an appreciation of the written word than by reciting it in the buff?”
Naked Girls Reading was started in Chicago in 2009, and chapters quickly sprang up in more than a dozen other cities. Miss Rose discovered the events and thought “it seemed like the perfect balance of brains and beauty.”
Philly’s inaugural edition will be “Pretty in Pulp,” a selection of pulp fiction read by the unclad likes of Kiki Berlin, Miss Mary Wanna, Ruby Solitaire and the New York chapter’s Nastie Canasta. “There’s nothing quite as titillating as a detective approached in the night by a sultry stranger, only to be led into a deadly trap which he escapes by the skin of his teeth in a flurry of fisticuffs and passion,” says Miss Rose, who’s been known to wield a trench coat and magnifying glass in her own act. “Show me the man or woman who doesn’t want to hear that tale read by a naked woman and I’ll show you a person I never want to meet!”
If you go
Naked Girls Reading
Sunday, 9 p.m.
PhilaMOCA
531 N. 12th St.
$10, 18+
