Conversio Virium

Pony Romp in the Park

Thanks to an email from Richard Cordage, one of the new TES-TNG Co-Facilitators, we at CV can bring you information about an exciting upcoming event being hosted not by TES but by Niuka Dragon Stables of which the owner, Reina Darkness, recently held a pony play workshop for TES also. Below is the information for how to register and attend:

Last chance to register for our Pony Romp in the Park event in Central Park, New York City, Fri – Sat, May 2-3, 2008! Click here to register and go to their website to find out all the details of the Romp.

The $45 event registration fee includes the Friday Field Trip with discounts at Purple Passion, the Round Up at the Pony Romp Headquarters, Romping the Park including a cross-country trot down the Ravine and the opportunity to run (or ride) the famous NYC Central Park Bridle Path, pony watering and PG grooming by The Pool, a catered BBQ feast back at HQ, and the Private Pony Play Party!

Please contact us if you have questions or need more information.

I can’t wait to see our ponies under the Central Park Cherry Blossoms!

Best regards,

Ms. Reina
Niuka Dragon Stable

(Do you know of an event that you don’t see on our calendar and want to share? Please send it in!)

SPAM Party!

As listed on the SPAM party web site:

Admission: $10 women/trans $20 men
student’s 18-22 w/valid id FREE!!
Doors close at 2am.
Call for exact location 718.789.4053

Brooklyn’s Nastiest Queer Party!
Mandatory Pants Check Down To Your Underwear!

New expanded space! New equipment!

**NO HETEROSEXUALS ALLOWED** NO SMOKING **
**Other New Rules to Maximize your Fun and Keep It Safe**

Bklyn’s Hottest Sex Party for the entire LBGT community
BYOB~~Hot Music~~WOMEN/TRANS ONLY ROOM~~Queers Only!

Safety’s name of the game with our SPAM quality control experts who
circulate in order to maximize your nasty fun.

For more info and party location please call 718-789-4053

check out spam party at their website
If you have questions, please email Red@submitparty.com

Grapple Den! NYC’s Sweaty Underground Fetish Fight Club

We at CV are so happy to announce that Grapple Den, an awesome-looking wrestling party taking place on a regular basis, has approached us to spread the word and find more people to wrestle with. Check out the Grapple Den website for any and all information regarding news and events. Here’s a brief intro of their club, and the info for their next party:

About The Grapple Den Wrestling Party:
NYC’s Sweaty Underground Fetish Fight Club
@ Tagine. 537 Ninth Ave (@40th St)

Underground wrestling, competitive grappling, and physical domination at it’s finest, brought to you by the Grapple Den Association for Recreational Violence.

Come to the neutral meeting ground for pro session wrestlers, fetish wrestlers, and grappling hobbyists.

Watch wrestling performances, come play, come enjoy the straining bodies in action. View a variety of matches as you recline on our couches and enjoy a drink or two. We have female vs female and mixed matches taking place all evening. Male vs male matches take place after midnight.

For you voyeurs, we have *both* ring-side couches and dark corners where you can sit and observe the action.

Our Next Party:
Grapple Den Wrestling Party
May theme = Tribal

Stay tuned. Note that Grapple Den events are all-inclusive unless otherwise noted for specific purpose. Men, women, straight folks, gay folks, trans folks, wrestlers, spectators, young, old, tall, small, and so forth, all are welcome. You just need to sign our liability waiver if you want to wrestle.
All play must be safe, sane, and consensual.

Join Barbara Carrellas for Urban Tantra: Sex and the Tao of Power Exchange

Barbara Carrellas generously returns as our host into the Tantric workings of our bodies and minds. Please join her if you have not yet experienced her unique and deep workshops that tie in Tantra and BDSM so well together:

This evening we’ll explore the ecstatic potential of conscious erotic power exchange. All our relationships involve an exchange of power. Some of these exchanges are subtle and unconscious, others are intentional and consensual. Using techniques borrowed from both Tantra and BDSM, you’ll learn how to create your own personalized style of power sharing and discover how the conscious, intentional use of active and receptive energies can amp up the energy in any style of erotic relating.
Note: Please attend this workshop with a partner. That partner can be a lover, a friend, or someone you just met. There will be no nudity or explicit sexual touch. Single attendees will be paired at the workshop, with consent, of course. All genders and sexual preferences welcome.

Urban Tantra: Erotic Meditations on Touch with Barbara Carrellas

The beautiful and talented Barbara Carrellas continues with her amazing Tantra workshops all around the city.

Catch her while she’s still in town!

In this workshop you’ll learn Tantric techniques for building and sharing sexual energy with a partner. Simple techniques such as conscious touch, breath, and movement can expand our concept of gender roles, help us transcend fears of intimacy, and enable us to build and share enormous amounts of sexual and spiritual energy and power. Come and learn how to transform your touch into an energetic exchange of love and bliss.

Note: Please attend this workshop with a partner. That partner can be a lover, a friend, or someone you just met. There will be no nudity or explicit sexual touch. Single attendees will be paired at the workshop, with consent, of course. All genders and sexual preferences welcome.

The workshop will take place at:
Phoenix Temple
65 West 55th Street, Suite 7C
New York, NY

$35. Reservations: sensualshaman@gmail or 646-460-9397.

CV Meeting: Booted Domination

Join us for the last official meeting of the semester! Avivokhai will discuss usual boot kink, pain, and kicking, as well as methods of femme style domination with boots, especially forms that are creative but non-painful. Demonstration will be “pretty and flexible”.

On a personal note: Avivokhai introduced me to Conversio Virium and her legs have captivated me since freshman year. I can’t think of a more suitable ending to my time as an administrator. Drop in and say goodbye before our graduation!

Barnard Event: Sexhibition 2008

Sexhibition is Barnard/Columbia Take Back The Night’s annual sex-positive, consent-based fair. This year’s event will take place on Lehman walkway (rain location to be announced).

CV donated a pretty exciting raffle item, so you should all get tickets!

ECLTH: BDSM Community Forum

The East Coast Leather Town Hall (ECLTH) presents a moderated, open forum and panel discussion on the history and future of the different BDSM, Scene, and Leather and Fetish groups. Many people, whether members of this community or just discovering it, are unaware of the vast array of different groups, their goals, and the variety of events in which they are involved.

Conversio Virium’s current and future presidents will both be on the panel representing our organization. Come to show your support for CV and experience the diversity of the BDSM community!

The event details:

5$ suggested donation
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212 620 7310

CV Meeting: Pushing the Limits of Sane in SSC with Blaise Part 2

Safe, Sane and Consensual is the motto of many BDSM educators and organizations including CV. Sanity, however, is one category which is especially subjective. Blaise will lead a discussion about substances and how their use pushes the limits of SSC in a scene.

KinkyJews New York City’s Third Annual Kinky Seder

Want to spice up your Passover this year? Join KinkyJews for this annual treat:

A Seder like you’ve never experienced before. While maintaining key elements of tradition, celebrate Passover with KinkyJews, as we have a humor and hedonism infused chocolate themed Seder with four cups of chocolate milk, chocolate covered matzah, Hillel S’mores, and more. Have a wild time with the search for chametz kit (candle, feather and wooden spoon), Passover erotica, maggid show and tell, re-enactments slavery and redemption, floggings a-plenty, new friends and fun! Play space is available for use after the afikomen is found.

LOCATION: Grand Space, 778 Bergen Street (at the corner of Grand Street) in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn 11238

RSVP: RSVP by April 23 to contact@kinkyjews.com. A $5 charge will be added to the cost of anyone who RSVPs after April 23.

COST: $30 for couples (any gender), $25 for single men, $10 for women and $10 students under 25. If the cost is prohibitively expensive for anyone, please let our coordinator know at contact@kinkyjews.com.

“SWITCH” it up @ Paddles – new party!

Check out SWITCH, the newest monthly BDSM party, set to take place at Paddles. Gina, the organizer, has also asked us to pass on the following message:

“In case anyone is feeling particularly enthusiastic, I’m looking for volunteers for the door! It’s not the door of paddles, and not taking money or anything, but just being in front of the closed doors of the party to let people know it’s going on and that it’s a women/trans/genderqueer party (there will be signs for the door and everything and i’ve been telling people to team up to make it more fun!)”

The party information follows from the promotional material:

SWITCH

the all new monthly
women/trans/genderqueer
bdsm party
in a room of our own
behind closed doors
at PADDLES

EVERY 3RD FRIDAY
APRIL 18TH
MAY 16TH
JUNE 20TH

$10
($5 for LSM members)

MAT FOR WRESTLING! BOY FOR BOOTBLACKING!

No experience necessary. No participation required.
We won’t beat you up unless you ask for it.

PADDLES 250 W. 26TH STREET
(enter through parking lot side door facing 8th Avenue)
mailing list/info/volunteer:
switchparty@riseup.net

Urban Tantra Workshop with Barbara Carrellas

Head down to Babeland’s Mercer Street location for another workshop hosted by the lovely Barbara Carrellas about her Urban Tantra techniques. For more information regarding this event, please contact Babeland directly at (212) 966-2120, or visit Babeland Events.

Barbara developed Urban Tantra as an approach to sacred sexuality that adapts and blends conscious sex practices ranging from Tantra and Tao to BDSM. The result is a hot and healing brand of sex for the 21st century sensualist.

On the Tantric path, pleasure, vision and ecstasy are celebrated rather than repressed. In other words, when other spiritual practices say no, Tantra says a great big YES. Tantra is not only a sexual practice, it also is a sensuous way of life and path to spiritual growth. In this workshop, you’ll learn Tantric techniques for intense full-bodied orgasms, amazingly deep, heart-centered connections (with a partner or with yourself), and the bliss that comes when your spiritual and sexual paths are one.
We’ll practice techniques and exercises that can help you to:

• Discover your top ten turn-ons
• Open your senses and develop your sensuality
• Unleash your orgasmic energy
• Attract your ideal lover
• Create and practice self love
• Celebrate pleasure, vision and ecstasy

This evening is instructional, and respects personal boundaries. All genders and sexual flavors are welcome.

Book Launch Party at Pleasure Salon

Pleasure Salon hosts an exciting book launch party! About this upcoming event:

In honor of our connection to Tristan Taormino, whose visionary work inspired the Pleasure Salon, we invite you to join us at Mark, Patricia and Tristan’s joint Book Launch Party, at the Happy Ending Lounge. For the book party, please RSVP by emailing sarah@puckerup.com.

Pleasure Salon at the Happy Ending Lounge

Pleasure Salon returns, this time at the Happy Ending Lounge, on 302 Broome Street.

If you still haven’t been, this is a great opportunity to go:

The Pleasure Salon has been created to build community, allowing sex-positive activists to cross-pollinate. Our gatherings bring together members of the BDSM, swinger, alternative gender, LGBT, sex-activist, nudist, sex-magic, polyamory, Pagan, radical faerie, tantra, dark odyssey, sex-blogger, porn, pervert and sex-worker communities, and others whose passion is sex. (Let us know if we missed any one of you!) Through building networks in the sex-positive community, The Pleasure Salon hopes to help create a sex-positive world. It is a place for the open exchange of ideas and sensual expression.

We have been thrilled by the turnout at previous gatherings. A community of New York area Pleasure Positive folks is developing rapidly, and we hope that you will join us or continue to be part of it. Please invite your like-minded friends. In keeping with the spirit of Dark Odyssey, we encourage everyone to embrace the basic principles of respect, tolerance, acceptance, openness, and non-judgmental support.

Starting in June, Pleasure Salon will meet at Happy Ending the first Wednesday of every month.

We hope to see you there,
Patricia Johnson, Selina Fire & Mark Michaels

SPAM Party

SPAM’s happening once again. No, it’s not in your inbox (unless that’s what you want to call it).

Admission: $10 women/trans $20 men
Students 18-22 w/valid ID free.
Doors close at 2 am.
Call for exact location 718.789.4053

Brooklyn’s Nastiest Queer Party!
Mandatory Pants Check Down To Your Underwear!

New expanded space! New equipment!

**NO HETEROSEXUALS ALLOWED** NO SMOKING **
**Other New Rules to Maximize your Fun and Keep It Safe**

Bklyn’s Hottest Sex Party for the entire LBGT community
BYOB~~Hot Music~~WOMEN/TRANS ONLY ROOM~~Queers Only!

Safety’s name of the game with our SPAM quality control experts who
circulate in order to maximize your nasty fun.

check out spam party at www.submitparty.com
If you have questions, please email Red@submitparty.com

CV Featured in the Gadfly

CV has been featured in the Winter 2008 issue of the Gadfly, Columbia’s Undergraduate Philosophy magazine.

In the article, May May and I talk about pleasure, pain and how those two things relate to [kinky] sex.

If you haven’t already seen the article, you should check it out on their website (it’s a PDF). The article is called “Tie Me Up: A Gadfly Interview with Conversio Virium” and begins on page 13 of the magazine.

Without notions of pain, we could not know pleasure—pleasure and pain, one might argue, are two sides of the same token. Or, as the following interlocutors might argue, one side of the same delicious, voluptuous token. In exploration of this latter view on pleasure-pain, Gadfly is proud to bring you an interview with Vice President Tyler and webmaster Maymay of Conversio Virium (CV), Columbia’s very own student BDSM club.

Read the rest of the article here.

CV Elections! Decision 2008!

All members (valid CU-affiliates) are requested to come to this meeting to nominate, run and vote. As always, every CV executive board is up for re-election, which means we have four positions that need filling by current CU undergrads (who expect to be enrolled until at least 2009). These positions are as follows:

President: Generally runs meetings, sets up programming each week with the help of the VP, public relations representative, and handles official correspondence.

Vice-President: Handles membership cards and records, handles correspondence, plans weekly programs with Pres., gets the nifty title of “President of Vice,” fills in any gaps as needed.

Treasurer: Handles all finances, must be especially responsible, reliable and expect to attend meetings regularly, handles refreshments.

Secretary: Sends out [witty] weekly emails, posts events and meetings to the website, helps out in any other way needed by the board.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, or even if you don’t, WE WANT YOU to help run Conversio Virium next year. Remember, this is great experience if you are thinking of going into event planning, public relations, or anything that requires a cool head, and strong organizational skills.

CV Meeting: Erotic Hypnotism

If you missed last year’s hit presentation on Erotic Hypnotism, make sure to catch this week’s meeting. Everyone’s favorite hypnotist is back with a second installment.

If you happened to miss this year’s meeting as well, you can read the handout by following the link above.

LSM Event: Flames of Desire: Tantric Fireplay with Barbara Carrellas

Since it would quite an ordeal to schedule a Fireplay demo or workshop on campus, I am pleased to announce that Barbara Carrellas will be holding just such a class at LSM this month.

Where: The LGBT Center at 203 West 13th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
Cost: $5 for members, $10 for non-members

For more information about LSM attendance policy, please be sure to visit their website.

Imagine the relaxation of a sensual massage combined with the thrill of fireplay. In this workshop, you will learn how the sensuous use of fire can transform a sensual massage into a trance-inducing journey into bliss. Barbara will demonstrate four secrets of exquisite touch as well as the basic techniques of fireplay. She will then demonstrate how her unique combination of fire, conscious breath and sensual massage can create a dramatic, profound and intensely pleasurable sexual and sacred experience. Technique, safety, and sensual/art/erotic applications will be covered. Even if you might think that fireplay is not your thing, you may be surprised by the sensual beauty and artistry of the dance of the flame.Barbara Carrellas is the author of Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty First Century and Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure. She is the founder of Urban Tantra®, an approach to sacred sexuality that adapts and blends conscious sexuality practices from Tantra to S/M, and the co-founder of Erotic Awakening, a pioneering series of workshops focusing on the physical, spiritual and healing powers of sex. Barbara was named Best Tantric Sex Seminar Leader in New York City by Time Out/NY Magazine for her Urban Tantra® workshops. Barbara has been featured in the videos Selfloving, The Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop, Zen Pussy, Annie Sprinkle’s Amazing World Of Orgasm, in the film Sacred Sex, and in several episodes of the HBO television special Real Sex. Barbara frequently lectures, performs and facilitates workshops with her partner, author and gender outlaw, Kate Bornstein. Visit www.barbaracarrellas.com and www.urbantantra.org to find out more.