The Punany Poets

What is Punany?

The Punany Poets brand is a registered service mark of Jessica Holter. Created in 1995 after the death of Eric "Eazy E" Wright of AIDS, The Punany Poets brand was created to serve as a title through which sexual issues of the African American community (women in particular) could come to the forefront of public health discussions. Since the year 2000, The Punany Poets theater company has produced Literary, Television/Video, Audio/Radio entertainment as well as Public Service Announcements and Advertising Campaigns.

In the year 2000, The Punany Poets brand was introduced to the world on HBO's Real Sex Documentary in a stirring demonstration of Black Erotica that has sparked legions of voices in homes and on poetry stages across the country. Since 2001 The Punany Poets have toured in live theater and club productions patterned after the HBO segment but with elements of theatrics, comedy and drama added. Touring has further enhanced the popularity of the brand, and has caused a flood of requests from major metropolitan cities to small towns.

Demographics of Punany clients include mature, working class, college educated singles, groups and couples who seek relationship enhancement and provocative entertainment. The primary markets for Punany shows are in New York, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Washington, DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida and the Caribbean Islands. The Production is based in Oakland, CA with offices in North Carolina & Atlanta.

The Methodology

To call The Punany Poets "Cutting Edge" is a gross understatement. “Compared by Scholars to Theater of The Oppressed” The Punany Poets use a raw and unapologetic form of urban based missionary art, to hammer home their fervent ideas about sex, poverty, and AIDS… Holter's own passionate response when questioned about her methodology is proof of the project’s bold and unique nature.

"When the project began in 1995, only 10% of AIDS cases were among heterosexual people... today we are 90%. Our silence and radical religious theories about sexuality is killing the African American at a faster rate than gunfire, crack and pork, yet we seem obsessed with the belief that if we hide behind puritanical faith, while still engaging in worldly behavior, God will spare us."

Holter contends that only the truth will set us free from the reality that has become a nightmare. By encouraging conversation between African American men and women whose relationship has been crippled by the conditions of slavery, within and outside of Africa, we can begin to find a new path to sexual understanding," she says.

"We must begin to deal with the T.R.U.T.H. But brothers and sisters, The Real Unadulterated Truth Hurts. Somewhere out there, there is a 40 year-old women still scratching from some careless affair she had at 16, and her husband doesn't even know she has Herpes. Somewhere in the naked church there is a pastor on probation for solicitation and a deacon with the receipt for his bail. Somewhere in the night there is a young boy who will be in a youth prison tomorrow, having his first orgasm at the end of a penis, and he will never really want a woman, but will probably marry anyway. And he may never understand that the stimulation of the prostate gland can lead a man to Sodom but it will never dawn upon him to show his wife the way. Somewhere out there, while we argue and get embarrassed about the capitalization of the "Down Low" there is a brother going deeper under cover and looking for a supportive bleeding heart, just like yours."

"These are some of topics of conversations created in The Punany Poets' Books, DVD's, Visual Art, Advertising and Live Performances to serve the purpose of untelling the lies that destroy us, body and soul.

But if you know Punany from HBO or Playboy TV , you know that the bitter is served with the very sweet, so that it all goes down real easy. Punany products and performances include sensual images, and tales that provoke a stirring in the soul (and other human parts). A live Punany Experience has been known to change lives; creating writers, artisans, lovers and laureates."

For Tickets to have your very own Punany Experience visit www.PunanyTickets.com.

The Punany Poets are pioneers of erotic entertainment, creating lush literary works, Theatricl productions, Music, DVD's and Visual Art that encourage sexual communication between couples and empowerment for the individual. The Punany Poets’ founder Jessica Holter, whose urban classic Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms was featured on HBO’s Real Sex, has adapted the Poets’ compositions into groundbreaking literary works, theater shows and videos that rouse the senses and inspire the imagination.

Vivid, compelling poems and prose pieces deal with every facet of modern love and lust, and blend tantalizing sensual imagery with an underlying message of AIDS awareness. Never preachy, always original, and guaranteed to stimulate the individual and the couple, Punany’s experiences are unique among erotic endeavors — they are riveting, multi-dimensional erotic excursions with heart, soul, and message.