Episode 77: Andre Shakti, Sexual Superhero
In this episode, I speak with Andre Shakti, an absolute badass and sexual inspiration. Here is Andre’s bio as described on her site, IAmPoly.net…
Andre Shakti is a journalist, educator, performer, activist, and professional slut. She is devoted to normalizing alternative desires, de-stigmatizing sex workers and their clients, and not taking herself too seriously. Andre wrestles mediocre white men into submission and is the weekly sex columnist for Slixa.com. In addition to her Ask Andre column, she writes about sex work, queerness and non-monogamy for Cosmopolitan, Rewire, Thrillist, MEL, Vice, Autostraddle, and more. She can frequently be found marathoning Law & Order: SVU under a chaotic pile of partners and pitbulls, and yes, she knows how problematic that show is.
Andre graduated cum laude from Towson University in Maryland with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and LGBT Studies in 2010. She worked in HIV risk assessment, harm reduction education, and community activism in Baltimore from 2008-2011, studied at San Francisco State University’s National Sexuality Resource Center (NSRC) in 2010, and graduated from San Francisco Sex Information (SFSI)’s Sex Educator Training in Fall 2013. She’s held educator and sales associate positions at sex-positive adult boutiques Sugar (Baltimore, MD) and Feelmore510 (Oakland, CA), and is one of the founding crew members of Atlanta’s Sex Down South Conference in Atlanta, GA.
Whew! I met Andre at the Sex Down South Conference this past September and I was blown away by her presence after having the privilege of attending two of her workshops. I was even more blown away when she said ‘yes’ to an interview and so here we are!
Our conversation covers both her personal and professional lives; her background, upbringing, areas of expertise, sexual preferences and experiences, SESTA-FOSTA, family acceptance, relationships, and on and on.
***Speaking of SESTA-FOSTA, here is the article Andre refers to: https://www.businessinsider.com/fosta-sesta-anti-sex-trafficking-law-has-been-failure-opinion-2019-7
I am so grateful to Andre for being so open and available for this interview [thank you again!]. If you’d like to know more about this dynamo, she is all over the internet! Here are some easy ways to follow her:
Personal site: https://www.iampoly.net
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IAmPolyamorous
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndreShakti
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andre.shakti/
And here are some links to a few examples of her professional work:
As author: https://www.them.us/story/sesta-fosta-backpage-sex-workers
As performer: https://crashpadseries.com/queer-porn/character/andre-shakti/