Have you ever read a poem that changed who you are, or fundamentally altered who you were to become? To celebrate Poetry Month, our provocateurs are sharing original pieces inspired by those poems and poets that did just that for us.

A Poetry Month Challenge Show where each provocateur will use the same poem to write a new piece of their own, exploring the variety of ways poetry and language can excite us, stimulating our minds and our desires.

What was it, the thing that changed… everything? Pushed you over the edge, into ecstasy, into each other’s arms, out of their life, big or small, the last straw, the moment you knew, without a doubt…?

We all have favorite films where the sex should have been epic. Here’s the do-over.

This PRIDE we’re exploring gender, not just under the queer umbrella, but through the range our own experiences, of ourselves, our lovers, pasts, presents, futures, how we live it, and alter it to express more than a single (binary) identity.

There are many more ways to interpret this free verse, poetical form than you may realize. Let us show you.

Do you have a type? Are you sure? Sometimes who we think we want isn’t really what we want, and sometimes who we end up loving is even better than what we expected.

Tonight let us tell you a story inspired by the history of the city we love, our muse, beautiful and complicated, delicious and messy, unfathomable and unlike anywhere else in the world. Welcome to New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.

Stories and tales told through the centuries help us understand our place in the cosmos and continue to echo within us.

We write a lot about healing, reclaiming our selves and sexuality, but we don’t always talk about the process. For this theme we share the honest reality and vulnerability of how our health struggles affect our intimacy, our desires, our needs, and our relationships.

We’re doing something extra special & very sexy for our Anniversary this year… and we can’t wait to see you there.

The list of words being banned, flagged, and excised from websites, curriculums, and public discourse continues to grow. We believe in free speech, of all kinds, and there’s nothing free about censoring words or ideas. For this show, we’re using ALL of Our Words. Find the full list of currently banned words here, https://pen.org/banned-words-list/.

How important is love to your sexual connection? Is it essential? Immaterial? A beautiful bonus that can increase intensity? Let’s explore it together.

Sometimes fear and sex intersect. Again, this Halloween season we are going all out for a night of erotica unlike our others. We’re bringing you the dark, the macabre, and the violent.

Join us as we reimagine the Major and Minor Arcana for a lucky-number-seven(th) year at an evening of magic and erotic weavings.

Earlier this year, we explored the past lovers we had been. At this show our provocateurs imagine what may have been possible at another time, with different choices, kinds of love, or lovers.

Connection, intimacy, desire, these things are the essential elements of magic of being alive around and in us. This night we celebrate the ceremony of self, the liturgy of lovers, the spells we cast when we come together, skin to skin.

Everyone has heard it is better to give than to receive, but it’s also easier for many of us. Learning to how to open one’s self up and accept the gifts, advice, life lessons, care, love, others have for us can be a lot, but it’s worth it. Trust us.

Carnival makes as many different kinds of magic as there are ways we celebrate it... but the real fun is up to you. Join us as we confess some of what we all got into.

Our local provocateurs revisit the past and the lovers we’ve been for night of sexy reminiscences.

To Celebrate the New Year, on January 7th & 21stth, Your Favorite Local Provocateurs are bringing back to the stage our Absolute Best of 2025.

To Celebrate the New Year, on January 7th & 21stth, Your Favorite Local Provocateurs are bringing back to the stage our Absolute Best of 2025.

Be it volume, texture, feelings, or moments, Esoterotica’s provocateurs are often bombastic, this night is the opposite.

Join us as we reimagine the Major and Minor Arcana for a sixth year at an evening of magic and erotic weavings.

There is a special sensuality to a lover whose name tastes like pear or whose voice sounds like purple. On this night, our local provocateurs will translate their memories of people, of loves and lovers, across the senses, summoning a stimulating evening of synesthetic erotica.

Fucking throughout all of human history has been a lot more interesting than you’ve been led to believe.

Sometimes fear and sex intersect. This Halloween season we are going all out for an erotica show unlike our others. We’re bringing you the dark, macabre, and violent.

As humans beings, we are excited and impassioned by the art we see and how it changes us. This night is dedicated to those moments when a feast for the eyes only ignites more hunger.

Our Provocateurs submit to the kink of form poetry, finding out just how creative they can be when bound by structure, by rules inflicted on their words.

This is the end. After it all falls down, who are we? What desires remain? On this night our Provocateurs offer up a collaborative writing experience, bringing you into a world that is both removed and familiar as we explore ‘Edging the Apocalypse.’

Join us as we re-experience some of our favorite, previous pieces of erotica reworked, reimagined, and revived. Liked the original? Wait until you hear the Remix.

…Of Love, Of Trust, Of Self, Of Sex.

We often don’t say goodbye the way we wish we could have. It takes time and perspective to know exactly what and how we feel. Come feel it with us.

How we experience, perceive, and wield words is deeply personal and unique. They can be both the cause of wonder and of conflict. Our Provocateurs will choose five words from a list of 20, suggested by our audience, and write a piece highlighting how different and similar each of our individual relationships are to language.

For our breath of life, our muse, our most delicious, and deliciously messy liaison... New Orleans. Plus, a special sneak peek of 20 Words.

Spill it. Whisper. Shout. Welcome to a confessional unlike any other.

Love, sex, desire can make Gods & Monsters of us all, often both at the same time.

How important is love to your sexual connection? Is it essential? Immaterial? A beautiful bonus that can increase intensity? Let’s explore it together.

On this night we exalt the short form poem, showing you just how much dirty work and filthy fun can get done in a small amount of time.

We all have those lovers we can’t shake. Those who we seem to orbit again and again. Their pull is enticing, the desire intoxicating, and while invigorating, not always wise to follow.

Connection, intimacy, desire, these things are the essential elements of the magic of being alive. At this show we celebrate the ceremony of self, the liturgy of lovers, the spells we cast when complete the ritual of coming skin to skin.

What we hear can turn a moment into a wildfire of arousal. From a lover’s voice, a remembered phrase, a favorite song, the vibrations of a concert, the insistent beat of a dance floor. Tell us what you hear.

Life is fleeting. What’s on your list to do, get done, and have done to you before you go?

Something ‘elemental’ is a force of nature, uncontrollable, undeniable, surfacing in the sexual and sensual of a person, an event, or in ways simply innate in our very being.

At our January 29th show we will be asking the audience to put anonymous suggestions for themes in the hat. Each of our Provocateurs will choose one of these random suggestions and will have one week to write a new piece based on it. This is gonna be fun…