‘Naked Boys Reading Tampa Bay’ Kicks Off Thursday In St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — An adults-only literary series is coming to the Tampa Bay area.

Naked Boys Reading, an international literary salon featuring fully nude males reading books to an audience, kicks off Thursday, from 8 to 9:30 p.m., at the Studio at 620. Tickets range from $33 to $43 and can be purchased online.

“Do you enjoy good literature? Do you enjoy unclothed men reading to you?” Naked Boys Reading Tampa Bay wrote in a Facebook post, adding, “This is only the first of many (events.)”

The performance art concept launched in London in 2012 and has since spread across the globe, organizers said.

The local version of the series is organized by LGBTQ+ poet Nathan Truly, who hosts an open mic in Ybor City.

“I’ve been increasing my platform to offer more literary events to the community that I think aren’t being seen as much and combining that with LGBTQ+ safe spaces,” he told Watermark. “Literary events are a great fit for that. Books are needed more and more, especially in the state of Florida under the current political climate.”

The theme of this first show in the Tampa Bay region is “Saints & Peters” to honor the city’s thriving literary arts community.

Passages read “by a diverse set of readers in the buff” will include fiction, nonfiction, poetry and prose.