queer

A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk features approximately 100 ensembles, from 18th-century menswear styles associated with an emerging gay subculture to 21st-century high fashion. This is the first museum exhibition to explore in depth the significant contributions to fashion made by LGBTQ (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer) individuals over the past 300 years.

Special Exhibitions Gallery
September 13, 2013 – January 4, 2014

More info: http://www.fitnyc.edu/21048.asp

NewFest is dedicated to bringing together filmmakers and audiences in the building of a community that passionately supports giving greater visibility and voice to a wide range of expressions and representations of the LGBT experience. Their 25th anniversary festival starts next month, and I’ve got a

Two kink related films, either created or produced by James Franco, caught my eye.

Interior.Leather Bar.


In order to avoid an X rating, 40 minutes of gay S&M footage was rumored to be cut and destroyed from the 1980 film, “Cruising.” Inspired by the mythology of this controversial film, filmmakers James Franco and Travis Mathews collaborate to imagine their own lost footage.

‘kink’

@mx_600

Kink takes us into the painful but oh-so-pleasurable world of five San Francisco–based BDSM workers as they choke, spank, and scream their way through just another day at the kink.com studios. Produced by James Franco and directed by Christina Voros, Kink not only humanizes the bondage and sadomasochism industry, it also uncovers a professional world in ways the uninitiated would never expect. Click here to read an interview with director Christina Voros and James Franco about making this film.

NewFest 2013 schedule info is here:
http://newfest.org/wordpress/

Say Please: Lesbian BDSM EroticaAlthough it’s April Fools, I get to kick off the virtual book tour for Sinclair Sexsmith’s Say Please: Lesbian BDSM erotica anthology (Cleis Press), and that’s no joke! I got a copy when I saw Sinclair at Lesbian Sex Mafia’s workshop with KD, 2011 International Ms. Bootblack. There’s also going to be a book launch party in NYC and I’ll post that next.

With contributing authors Miriam Zoila Pérez, Wendi Kali, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Gigi Frost, BB Rydell, Amelia Thornton, Vie La Guerre, Sassafras Lowrey, Dusty Horn, Kiki DeLovely, Elaine Miller, Shawna Elizabeth, Sossity Chiricuzio, Meridith Guy, August InFlux, Maria See, D.L. King, Anna Watson, Dilo Keith, Sinclair Sexsmith, Alysia Angel, Xan West, and Elizabeth Thorne, there’s a little bit of everything in this luscious anthology: leather, whips and chains, dungeons, sensation play, discipline and power, topping and bottoming, submission and surrender, sadism and masochism, fetish:

. . . But when I began sorting through the stories, reading nearly a hundred submissions, I started questioning what constituted BDSM in this specific context of lesbian erotica.

It is an acronym, multilayered, as sorne of its letters have multiple meanings: the BD is for bondage and discipline, the SM is for sadism and masochism, and the DS in the middle is also for domination and submission.
But it is more than that. As my definition widened, I started to see it as including all kinds of kink in general, the dozens of fetishes that get us hot and get our engines revving, our blood pumping.

I’m thrilled to have immersed myself in the kinky BDSM lesbian erotica submissions that came through my in-box and to have emerged with twenty-three stories with a huge range of sensation, discipline, bondage, topping, bottoming, submission,power, sadism, masochism, surrender, and fetish. This collection includes writers whose names you will probably recognize, writers who are new to publishing erotica, and quite a few who have never been published before. As with many things, the more I look closely at BDSM, rhe harder it is for me to bring my flogger down on it and define precisely what I think it means. But I do think this anthology begins to explore the depth and breadth of experiences that this kinky queer world has to offer.

I’m especially looking forward to the stories which queer some classic domination and submission dynamics and gender play. It’s nice to see some of the writers I’m familiar with, such as D.L. King, Xan West and Sassafras Lowery, and some new voices I’m unfamliar with such as Elizabeth Thorne and Kiki DeLovely. Congratulations  to Sinclair Sexsmith and all the authors!

Virtual Book Tour Stops
http://saypleasebook.wordpress.com

April 1      Say Please release party in SF
April 1 Viviane http://www.thesexcarnival.com
April 3 Rachel Kramer Bussel http://lustylady.blogspot.com

April 4 Giselle Renard http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com
April 5 Evoe Throw http://www.wholesexlife.com
April 6 Liz http://AlphaHarlot.com
April 9 Roma Mafia http://www.romamafia.com
April 9 Daniela http://www.thecsph.org

April 10 Official release date! Sinclair http://www.sugarbutch.net
April 11 Dede / deviantdyke http://deviantdyke.blogspot.com/
April 12 Helena Swann http://www.cuntext.com

April 13 Kim Herbel http://www.butchlesque.com
April 13   Say Please release party in NYC
April 14 Lily Lloyd http://theblackleatherbelt.com
April 15 Kelli Dunham http://www.kellidunham.com

April 16 Lyzanne http://sexpositive.tumblr.com/
April 17 Lula Lisbon http://www.lulalisbon.com
April 18 Ali Oh http://www.madeofwords.com
April 19 Jameson http://www.ftmbutchdude.com

April 21 Charlie Ninja http://charlieninja.tumblr.com/
April 22    Say Please release party in Boston
April 22 Meredith Guy http://meridithguy.tumblr.com
April 23 Wendi Kali http://astrangerinthisplace.blogspot.com

April 24 Lolita Wolf http://leatheryenta.com
April 25 Audrey at Babeland http://babeland.com/blog
April 26 Seth B http://smokebellyscorner.wordpress.com

April 27 Danika http://www.lesbrary.com
April 28 DL King http://www.dlkingerotica.com
April 29 Kiki http://kikidelovely.wordpress.com
April 30 Dilo Keith http://dilokeith.wordpress.com/blog-2/
April 30 Xan West http://tgstonebutch.livejournal.com/
May 2 Say Please release party in Seattle

Forget the mistletoe. Never mind the eggnog. Let’s celebrate the season with stories of spice and erotic mirth! Join hostess Lori Perkins as she welcomes Andrew Grey, Indigo, Tobly McSmith and others to our December 2nd Ravenous Nights. Let’s stir those embers under the yule log and heat up the night!

Where:  Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street (Pink awning says “Xie He Health”)
(212) 334-9676
Cost: Free
More info: ravenous.journurl.com
Fetlife RSVP: https://fetlife.com/events/79377/v2

Authors of the Evening

Indigo is a black poly kinky feminist queer dyke; writer, teacher, artist and aspiring sex education/blogger. She’s about liberating the woman, questioning the man and fantasizing about all folks in between. She reads, questions, wonders, writes and hopes the art leads the way. Her blog, Indigo’s Theory, explores being in a loving poly relationship, having sex in great spaces, learning to love her skin, belly, hair, etc. and coming into her kinky queer self.

Andrew Grey grew up in western Michigan with a father who loved to tell stories and a mother who loved to read them. Since then he has lived throughout the country and traveled throughout the world. He has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in information systems for a large corporation. Andrew’s hobbies include collecting antiques, gardening, and leaving his dirty dishes anywhere but in the sink (particularly when writing) He considers himself blessed with an accepting family, fantastic friends, and the world’s most supportive and loving partner. Andrew currently lives in beautiful, historic Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Tobly McSmith loves sex. She has reviewed over 50 sex toys for SexHerald.com, is a sex expert on CherryTV.com, and has written award-winning BDSM erotica. When Tobly isn’t performing in her sketch group Beaches2, or playing in the band Pretty Pony Party, or writing her self-help book, she is collecting commemorative plates of dead people on ebay. Tobly is currently writing erotica and having sex with her red-hot, red-headed, burlesquing girlfriend.

 

Join editor Tristan Taormino and local contributors as they read their work from Take Me There, a groundbreaking new collection of transgender and genderqueer erotica. Readers include legendary author of the Marketplace series Laura Antoniou, queen of erotica Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Sinclair Sexsmith of The Sugarbutch Chronicles, and poet/performer/activist Rachel K. Zall.

Where: Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street (bet. Stanton and Rivington), NYC
Google Maps: http://g.co/maps/dhrth

Cost: FREE, but we will pass the hat in support of Bluestockings.

Post reading drinks and socializing at:

The Magician
118 Rivington (bet Essex and Norfolk)
212-673-7881
Google Maps: http://g.co/maps/bvj8b