Recap of Apocalyptic Resource Carnival June 13, 2026
by Sandra Song
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re living in the end times. We have a wealth gap wide enough to swallow Elon Musk’s ego, AI data centers turning Lake Erie into a dustbowl, and a reality star president who thinks getting into a pissing match is foreign policy. Maybe the Doomsday preppers were actually onto something, because the future really isn’t looking all that great. So, what do we do when the billionaires finally flee to Mars? You do the same thing sex workers have always done. You acknowledge the system was never built for you, say fuck you, and figure out a way to survive anyway.
With a new The Sex Workers’ Guide to the Apocalypse zine on the way this September, SWOP LA and SWANS (Sex Worker Abortion Navigation Services) hosted its own Apocalyptic Resource Carnival on June 13. Sex workers are the original survivalists, after all, working within a sociopolitical system that does everything in its power to strip them of autonomy. And that’s why so many of them came out to share skills and knowledge about attaining self-sufficiency through hands-on workshops, community tabling, and giveaways.
The workshops ranged from the practical to the personal, with sessions about everything from live journaling to digital security through presentations like “In a Surveillance State We’re All Cam Girls.” Molly B. Simmons’s “DIY or DIE” workshop taught attendees how to build their own herbal medicine kits using plants native to the LA area. Camila hosted “Gardening for the Apocalypse,” giving out seeds so attendees could grow their own salads in their windowsills within three weeks. And for protection, former MMA athlete and rope artist, Kemo Burns, taught a class called “Chokes and Bondage: Rope for Self-Defense,” where attendees learned how to, literally, kick someone’s ass.
One of the core tenets of SWOP is community building, so it’s no surprise that the Apocalypse Resource Fair also featured dagger wound’s “Hoe Archives: Sex Worker Storytelling” session, Compita’s instructional class on building your own neighborhood mutual aid network, and tabling from organizations like the Euki App and Stop LAPD Spying. At the same time, the carnival also made plenty of room for play, with giveaways, a tattooing station, and Violet Vareti’s sexy clown performance, which involved plenty of balloon popping and clown shoe flogging.
The truth is, sex workers have been supporting each other long before “mutual aid” became a buzzword. Always ahead of the game, they’ve been building the networks, skills, and knowledge to sustain and thrive within a world that was never built to protect them. And in this way, the Apocalypse Resource Carnival wasn’t a novelty, but a continuation of the work SWOP LA has always done. This time, there was just free food and flash tattoos.
Also check out the Instagram recap post here.