Welcome to Folsom Week here in beautiful, diverse, and, yes, kinky, San Francisco! Here are three books of interest that have published in the past month guaranteed to appeal to your kinkier side, your alternative sexual proclivities, and your nasty, deliciously dirty sense of carnal adventure.
"Kink Is," curated and edited by Race Bannon, Patrick Davis, et al, $34.99 (Unbound Edition Press)
This incisive essay anthology of "surprisingly relatable true stories about sex, power, and joy," is all about perspective. Embedded within the numerous contributors' complex personal stories and histories are truths about identity, passion, love, respect, honor, community, allegiance, sensuality, brutality, consent, connection, and SEX, in all its glorious variations.
Providing the introduction is celebrated actress, comedian, and activist Margaret Cho, who loves sex and especially loves kink "because I know the way to pleasure is not always in a straight line." She believes kink is a normal expression of oneself and celebrates this book to share experiences, share stories, and glean insight and awareness about the people and practices that make us the unique community we are today. "Kink informs my daily life and makes me very aware of power dynamics overall," she writes.
Curated by local San Francisco author, educator, sexuality authority Race Bannon, the 70-year-old "kinkster" (self-acknowledged since he was a teenager) sees his affinity for the "power dynamics" of kink as an identity since "even when I am not actively doing it, I'm likely thinking about it."
The book's contributing voices describe their personal meaning of kink in diverse ways. Individual profiles range from a relative newcomer to the scene to folks with several decades on the books in the kink community, to local San Franciscans within the BDSM universe to internationally-based men and women.
The common bond all of the contributors share is the appreciation and deployment of non-traditional powerful pleasure, interaction, intersection, and individual expression, embodied from all walks of life.
Appearing throughout the essays are a married, "hetero-flexible," Black woman who burlesque dances and openly elaborates on the heated topic of fetishization of people of color in kink situations.
Sex authority Carol Queen describes kink as "roaring, erotic energy" and encourages everyone to explore the boundaries of their own sexuality and tastes for bodily experiences. A young grandmother reflects on her incremental appreciation of kink as "kind of like a switch had turned on slowly" and her first experience became one of "erotic pleasure, physical pleasure and sensation, and mental stimulation."
Disabled, polyamorous pony player Mystic Storm admits she thought her life was over after suffering a catastrophic illness that put her in a wheelchair. But she found the strength to embrace the "Rainbow Zebra persona" she now embodies from her power chair.
Leather dyke domme Queen Cougar remarks that, at nearly 70, her energy level for kink events isn't what it used to be and encourages others like her to "just enjoy the lust and desire to play and the fun of all of it." And that's just a small taste of the revealing experiences shared throughout this book; there are dozens and dozens more.
Photographs provided by the essayists reveal just a glimpse into who they are; the real, raw, and honest details can be found in the generous and candid reflections they offer about life on the kink spectrum.
Closing out the volume are preferences and guidance on the practice of aftercare ("an essential part of a Kink/BDSM encounter") and how kink partners care for each other after play "as well as before and during it, too."
Celebrating its contents as "educational and informative but not instructional," this outspoken kaleidoscopic collection of unvarnished sexual adventure and personalized preference transcends the stereotypical and is a fearlessly diverse addition to the genre of books celebrating the wide and wonderful world of kink. Don't miss this true labor of love.
Race Bannon and other contributors to "Kink Is" will appear at the book's national launch event for readings, discussion, audience Q&A, and more:
Sept. 22, 1pm-3pm at Mr. S Leather, 385-8th St.
Sept. 23, 7pm to 9pm at Oasis, 298 11th St.: National Book Launch with special guests and readings
Sept. 24, 1pm-7pm at Pegasus Books on Shattuck, Berkeley
Sept. 25, 6pm to 7:30pm at the SF Eagle
Sept. 29, 11am-6pm at Unbound Edition Press's booth at the Folsom Street Fair.
Oct. 2, 7pm to 8:30pm at Green Apple Books on the Park
www.unboundedition.com
"Sodomy Gods" by David Lauterstein, $34.99 (Unbound Edition Press)
This dynamic, memorable, and sexually frank coming-of-age memoir depicts the author's rise to prominence from his early beginnings as a formerly closeted '90s New York City club kid to becoming the founder and CEO of Nasty Pig clothing brand.
After an anxious "different" childhood where he was chastised at school for the way he carried his books, Lauterstein embraced his uniqueness as a "creative little kid with a strong sense of identity who fearlessly did his own thing."
With college and a poetry degree under his belt, the author came out in 1992, moved to Manhattan and began working in music merchandising. His chance meeting with Fred Kearney at a Chelsea bar would be the start of something life changing.
Experienced Fred became virginal David's first boyfriend, and both combined their fierce love of 1990s-era nightclubbing (the atmospheric descriptions are nostalgically spot-on) and their intuitive creative energies into fashioning unique wearable statement items.
Beginning with the launch (and re-launch) of hand-designed, hologram, "re:vision" eye goggles sold out of a Hello Kitty knapsack on dancefloors across the city, the pair progressed to club wear which began to get noticed alongside encouragement to expand outward into their own business.
The chapters on Nasty Pig's inspiration (with a $50 investment), creation, development, and rise to prominence are perhaps the most elaborative and revealing chapters in the book. The author writes about the immense struggles the brand encountered along the way to get it to where it stands today.
Along the way, Lauterstein shares the melodramatic ups and downs of relationships, the ever-present fear of AIDS while remaining horny, cruisy, and boy-crazy, being the business owner of what would become a highly stylized (and even criticized) queer male fetish brand ("my own great American Wet Dream"), and how life ebbs and flows as time moves on.
The result is a luminous, erotic memoir shot through with brazen honesty, real emotion, and details galore on how to love, lean, create, overreact, and succeed in fashion, culture, and beyond.
Meet-and-Greet event for "Sodomy Gods":
Sept. 26, 6pm to 7:30pm at the SF Eagle
Sept. 27, 2pm-4pm, at Mr. S Leather, 385 8th St.
Sept. 29, 11am-5pm at Unbound Edition Press's booth at the Folsom Street Fair.
www.nastypig.com
"The Modern Queer Tarot" by Robert Barber & John Callaghan, Illus. by Tanya Wischerath, $35 (self-published)
Local husband and husband creative team Bobby Barber and John Callaghan present this informative, queer-driven, vividly illustrated take on the art of tarot which attributes a vibrant queer historical profile to each of the 78 cards in the oracle deck.
The authors note that the large-sized paperback volume was designed "to find a balance between the people that best fit the interpretations of each card without sacrificing any of the inherent, long-honored divinatory meanings of the cards themselves."
Both authors parlay their experience in Western esotericism and metaphysics into the creation of this "divinatory device" that begins with cards of the Major Arcana featuring notable luminaries in queer history like Jean Genet, Susan Sontag, Walt Whitman, Quentin Crisp, The Stonewall Rioters (who ushered in an era where "Gay Power was forever unleashed"), Harvey Milk, social reformer Jane Addams, James Baldwin, and many others.
This section is conjoined by a collection of historical figures representing the tarot's Minor Arcana, such as legendary activist and drag queen Jose Sarria, trans activist Christine Jorgensen, The Cockettes, Freddy Mercury, and African American blues singer Ma Rainey, among many, many others.
The book also comes equipped with a complete companion deck of glossy, full-color tarot cards which create a dual experience of reading the book and having the actual cards in-hand as well. An "applications" section provides useful instruction on how to approach and use both the book and its accompanying card deck to maximum efficacy and enjoyment.
Fans of the metaphysical and esoteric worlds, as well as newer and older members of the queer community, will find inspiration, guidance, and essential lessons on queer history and culture from these colorful, informative pages.
Perfect for coffee table conversation, intuitive readings with friends, or practical inspiration for future tarot readers, this queer take on the world of tarot is modern, mystical, and filled with past members of our community who continue to inspire and encourage perseverance and survival.
www.modernqueertarot.com
For more "Kink Is" and "Sodomy Gods" events, see our Leather events roundup in this week's issue.
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