Matt is looking for short non-fiction writing to include in the anthology. Send a 3 paragraph summary and a short contributor bio to him by July 31^st to be considered. Details of his Young and Kinky call for submissions follows:

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Young and Kinky, edited by Matt Johnson aka Bad Faggot

We’re the present and future of a network of communities which are growing by leaps and bounds but which nonetheless feel marginalized and threatened. We’re either hailed as saviors of a sexual culture or framed as a problem that culture is forced to confront in order to survive. We’re often talked about in the abstract but only rarely are our individual voices setting the terms of the conversation. This book means to shift that balance.

Young and Kinky (working title) is an anthology of short nonfiction by people under age 40 who are participants in leather, BDSM, fetish, kink or related communities. This collection defines “community” as broadly as possible: from educational events to sex parties, from book clubs to social networking sites, from erotic businesses to charitable organizations.

Possible topics for inclusion:

• coming out narratives: finding communities, finding other young kinksters
• forming our own groups: TNG, boys/girls of leather
• integrating into existing groups: how to do it successfully
• bars, clubs, contests: are kink institutions still relevant?
• the generation gap: relating to our elders and our history
• youth leadership in kink communities
• where we live: physical and virtual gathering places
• what we do: is our kink different?
• naming: what do we call ourselves and why?
• why now? are there more of us than there used to be?
• is age just a number? when are we no longer “young”?
• talking across divisions of gender and sexual preference
• does young equal submissive?
• social bias (racism, sexism, ageism, biphobia, transphobia) in the scene
• out in the world: kinky at work, with family, friends, and children, in other communities

Contributions should range from 1000 to 5000 words in length. Please no fiction, porn/erotica, or poetry. This is a nonfiction volume reflecting our lived experiences as younger kinky people of all genders and orientations. Contributions from women, transfolk, and kinky folk of color are particularly encouraged.

Please submit a summary (no more than 3 paragraphs) plus a brief contributor bio no later than July 31, 2009. Initial submission of full articles should be no later than December 31, 2009. Electronic submissions strongly preferred.

Contact: “Matt Johnson” <badfaggot@hotmail.com>

PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE WIDELY

On June 12^th, the S&M and sexuality documentary film Sex Positive—The Richard Berkowitz Story opens at the Quad Cinema on 13^th Street here in Manhattan. David Oliver Cohen, the film’s producer, wrote to CV to tell us a little about the film:

The film explores the origins of safe sex through the eyes of Richard Berkowitz, a former S&M sex worker turned AIDS activist and writer.

The film is an essential educational tool for younger generations who have no real concept of how safe sex came about during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Richard Berkowitz is credited as co-writing the first safe sex manual in the world, “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic,” with activist Michael Callen. Richard is still around and is actively spreading his message about safe sex.

There is a large portion of the film that deals directly with Richard’s work as a dominant-for-hire.

(Emphasis added.)

I first heard about this documentary when Clarisse Thorn published her interview with the star and brought up the very good point, what does it mean to be sex positive? Safer sex practices such as the use of condoms were not always so endearingly looked upon as symbols of sex positive activism. In fact, decades ago, the opposite was true and sex involving physical barriers was exceptionally stigmatized.

As David says, the film Sex Positive is an exceptional educational tool because it documents the history of how we got to where we are. I’d encourage you to see and support the film, watch the trailer, and maybe even bring your friends along and start a discussion about sex positivity.

In both popular and underground culture, the representation of dominant women has long been monotonous in both subtly and explicitly negative ways. Arguably the most well known of these representations is the “bitch” stereotype, which defines an extremely narrow and off-putting attitude for dominant women to prescribe to so that they can be considered, well, dominant. However, in reality, there are just as many ways to be a dominant woman as there are dominant women—and there are a significant number more of you than looking around a typical fetish club would have you believe.

Next Tuesday, the Museum of Sex will be hosting Midori to speak about this issue.

In today’s world, being a strong female is often equated with being a bitch. On May 26, 2009 at 7:00 PM, let Midori teach you how to overcome the bitch stereotype and find a sexy and effective style of dominance that is authentically you.

Using a special technique she handcrafted, Midori will help you find your inner power femme archetype, allowing you to pursue erotic fulfillment in sensual power play. Not your typical how-to class, you will discover the difference between constructive and destructive desires guiding you towards ways of bringing more sexual satisfaction for both you and your partner.

About the presenter:

An acclaimed writer and lecturer on a wide range of sexual topics, Midori has a degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and vast indispensable experience as a pioneering San Francisco sex educator. Midori is known for her humanistic, humorous and warm classes that help people to spice up their sex lives and encourage self discovery and personal growth. A regular advice columnist for Men’s Health, she has appeared on HBO and BBC, and has been featured in Vogue, Playboy, Der Spiegel, Cosmopolitan and more. She is also the author of The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage and Wild Side Sex.

Can you believe Pleasure Salon has been going strong for two years now? Join Patricia, Mark, and Selina celebrate its second year anniversary at the Happy Ending lounge on 302 Broome Street this April 1^st. No tricks, just fine drinks and fine company!

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, sex educator, 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 events. Join us in building New York’s pleasure positive community, and bring your like-minded friends to this social gathering. The Pleasure Salon embraces respect, acceptance, and non-judgmental support in this public space.

As always, Pleasure Salon is a free event, but you must be 21 years of age or older to drink. (Sorry!)

On the second Sunday in March, a sexuality event like no other New York City has ever seen is being born. It is a full day of free interactive presentations and discussions about all things sexuality-related. It’s called KinkForAll, and anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. When you come, be prepared to share with others. When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

More detail about the event is provided on the KinkForAll wiki:

KinkForAll is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people of the kink, queer, sex-positive and related communities to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, presentations, and interaction from all participants. It is inspired by and based upon the BarCamp community.

Attendees must give a talk or a presentation, help with one, or otherwise volunteer/contribute in some way to support the event. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance (if you want to), but come early to get a slot on the wall. The people present at the event will select the demos or presentations they want to see.

You can learn more about what to expect or to participate sign up for free on the KinkForAll New York City pre-registration page. There are already some fantastic presentation topics being discussed, including Audacia Ray discussing new media and sexuality rights activism, Sinclair Sexsmith on gender theory and identity development, as well as a number of our very own Conversio Virium members and alumni!

Come and experience this intense full-day event at the LGBT Center at 208 West 13^th Street (in Greenwich Village), in Room 310.

Blaise writes in to tell us that MIX NYC, a queer experimental film festival is happening this week, and at least one (but probably most!) of the films are a must-see!

them radical anarchoQueers are at it again…

We’re screening PUNK FUCK FUCK at the MIX FESTIVAL!

Punk Fuck Fuck is a short Qurash Co-lab product, featuring the sweet & rude, the liberated & the bound, bicycles, chains, godzillas with hard-ons attacking turkeys, DIY fuck toys, fab art & guest appearance by the Matriach of Dildos. It is not to be missed.

The MIX Festival is the one and only NYC festival of Queer (and kinky!) Experimental films, installations and amazing parties. If you wanna know what all the other cool kids are up too…. ;)

Tickets and listings of their other fabulous movies and parties at MIXNYC.org.

Punk Fuck Fuck is in the X Marks the Spot program, on Friday night Oct 17^th, 10 PM at the MIX Factory at the Seaport, 217 Water Street at Beekman.

First, even though it’s not readily apparent to most of you guys, the CV Executive Board receives emails almost weekly asking for advice, support, or some other kind of question. With CV’s growth, these emails are becoming increasingly difficult to respond to in a timely fashion and, more to the point, sometimes we just don’t have the expertise to answer the question thoroughly even though we know that one of you probably does.

That’s why we’d like to encourage everyone who hasn’t done so already to check out the recently-renovated CV Google Group, which hosts a public email discussion list that we’d love to see you join. In fact, if you’ve got an account here, you were already invited. (Don’t worry, you won’t get subscribed unless you accept the invitation, which is on its way to you right now if not already there.)

We’ll be pointing our many email corresponders to the discussion list in the future as well as trying (hard) to keep up with the load ourselves. Our hope is that with the discussion list, we’ll be able to involve everyone in this process more readily. We also hope that the discussion list will be a great place to just bring up whatever sexuality- or kink-related things you want to discuss.

Since the mailing list is not the only unofficial CV site, there’s now also a Related Sites page that lists some of the other places you can go to chat with fellow CV’ers online.

Finally, we’ve also begun to invite contributed event postings from readers just like you. This means that, if you’re inclined to do so, rather than simply telling us about upcoming events, you can post the events directly to our calendar yourself. Just request contributor status for your account via email and we’ll show you the rest. We’re really hoping event organizers will take advantage of this and contribute their own events to the CV calendar.

Do you run a kink group? Are your events on the CV calendar? Here’s looking at you, kid.

Can you believe it’s not even August and the new Executive Board has done all this? And September has even more letters!

If you haven’t yet gone to one, I highly encourage you to check out the monthly Pleasure Salon get togethers hosted by Patricia Johnson, Mark Michaels, and Selina Fire at a downtown Manhattan bar or lounge. If you have gone to one, then you’ll be happy to know the next Pleasure Salon is being held next week on March 27^th. As usual, from the open invitation:

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.

TES-TiNG is coming up to visit us at Conversio Virium It’s an honor for CV to host TES-TiNG, TES‘s group for young adults, aged 35 and under. This is also a chance for us at CV to network with the rest of the New York City kink community. From the TES-TiNG calendar announcement:

Join us at 7 PM at the Chelsea Gallery Restaurant (72 7^th Avenue between 14^th and 15^th Street) for dinner, coffee, and/or a snack. Ask for “TES” at the diner. Then at around 8 PM we’ll head up to Columbia University to attend a Conversio Virium meeting, Columbia/NYC’s Student BDSM Discussion Group

Patricia Johnson, Mark Michaels, and Selina Fire‘s monthly gathering of the diverse pleasure-positive communities in New York City is meeting again this month. From the invitation:

For a Pleasure Activist, every day is Mardi Gras!

[…]

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.

Pleasure Salon is also announcing discounted rates to the Dark Odyssey Winter Fire event that’s upcoming in March for all registered Pleasure Salon attendees. Registration is free and easy. Just sign up for their event invitation list when you get your name tag at the Pleasure Salon you attend.

Pleasure Salon members are eligible for a Dark Odyssey group discount. Go to DarkOdyssey.com and enter “Pleasure Salon” when you register.