Annie Sprinkle, Other Ecosexuals, Gather for Purple Wedding to the Moon

LOS ANGELES—Hundreds of ecosexual artists, academics, famous sex workers, and environmental activists are heading to Los Angeles for a Purple Wedding to the Moon, the brainchild of artist-brides Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens.

The event marks the sixth large-scale, ecology-inspired wedding.

“The environment has always been our creative partner, as in ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust,’” said Elizabeth Stephens, an art professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, whose personal roots lie in West Virginia, where mountaintop removal mining runs rampant. “In a twist on the traditional marriage vows, each of our eco-themed weddings is an invitation for people to ‘promise to love, honor, and cherish the Earth, Sky, Sea and Moon until death brings us closer together forever.’”

Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., a porn star turned eco-sexologist, emphasizes the fecundity of the earth; she links fertility and imagination.

“We aim to make the environmental movement a little more sexy, fun and diverse through art,” she said.

Purple Wedding to the Moon will be held at Farnsworth Park’s outdoor amphitheater in Altadena, Los Angeles, on Oct. 23, the night of the full moon.

Four hundred guests are expected to attend and more than 100 artists will collaborate on the creation of the wedding. The unorthodox union will be officiated by the popular performance artist Reverend Billy, accompanied by the Church of Life After Shopping Choir, the subjects of a documentary film produced by Morgan Sperlock, What Would Jesus Buy?

Reverend Billy’s sermons and activism about the “shopocolypse,” over-consumption, and corporate greed have gotten him arrested dozens of times.

Stephens, Sprinkle and Reverend Billy got upset when they learned that NASA had bombed the moon prospecting for water. They wondered, “Why can’t we just take better care of the water here on Earth?”

“We wanted to do something,” Stephens said. “So we are marrying the Moon, but it’s really also about loving the Earth.”

Last year Sprinkle and Stephens married the Sea in Italy at the Venice Biennale. They have also married the Earth in Croatia and the Sky in England. The wedding participants now number in the thousands.

Reverend Billy is taking his new Earth-allujah! show on the road, premiering Oct. 21 at the Disney Theater.  

For the honeymoon, the movers and shakers of this budding ecosexuality movement will hold the world’s first Ecosex Symposium at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, the day after the wedding.

“We’ll switch the metaphor from ‘Earth as mother’ to ‘Earth as lover’ to garner a more reciprocal relationship with our beautiful planet. We’ll explore what ecosexuality is about from many perspectives, with panels, performances and moon pies. All adults are welcome,” Sprinkle said.

Cindy Baker and Megan Morman, two artists coming from Canada, created and will unfurl the world’s first ecosexual pride flag.

The artist-brides are looking for a few more sponsors and collaborators. On board are California Institute of the Arts, GT’s Kombucha, Center for Sex and Culture, Good Vibrations, ONE Amazon Acai, and Luna Pads. They also invite individuals to contribute as backers through the Kickstarter fundraising platform. In exchange, backers get their names in the wedding program, moon-shaped tit prints, and Stephens’ sculptures of Sprinkle’s bronzed panties!

“Unfortunately, our marriage to the Moon will not be legal,” Stephens said. “Nonetheless, it is a most sacred union.”

The couple requests that everyone wear purple. The wedding is free and open to the public.

Some of the many performers and artists participating (in random order) are blues diva Candye Kane; professor and art-activist Larry Bogad, Ph.D.; ecosexual opera singer Emma McNairy; flower boy/girl Adam Harms; fire hula-hooper Sarah Starlight & Co; burlesque sensation and fire tassel queen Lady Monster; songwriter Xandra Coe; crazy disgruntled heiress Naomi Pitcarin; Balkan sevda singer Nada Miljkovic; performance artist Lian Amaris; filmmaker Cheryl Dunye; Jordanian food artist Diala Khasawnih; experimental musician no.e sunflowrfish; tattoo artists The Book Club; music composer HB3; sex worker activist Mariko Passion; Good Times magazine editor Greg Archer; cake artist and puppeteer Pratbha & Tony’s Circus; ritualist Alan Tofelson; sexpert Jayme Waxman, flag artists Cindy & KC Baker; drag queen Miss Prick; and many others. The event will be directed by Bonnie Cullum.

Some of the Ecosex Symposium presenters and artists include ecosexual relationship coach and author Debora Taj Anapol, Ph.D.; humanities professor and author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love Serena Anderlini, Ph.D.; Good Vibration’s eco-sexologist Carol Queen, Ph.D.; Hawaiian gender-queer porn star Jiz Lee; performance artist Tania Hamidi; comedian EcoElf; Blisscoach University’s Kamala Devi & Tantra Theater Group; ecosexologist Robert Lawrence, Ph.D.; Israeli ecosexual art magazine editor Ms. Use; artist C. Finley; ecosex radio host Spyce Spycey, and others to be announced. The symposium will be moderated by adult film director and star Veronica Hart.

For more details, visit LoveArtLab.org.