WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

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BDSM on a Budget: Build a Toybag for a Hundred Bucks - Kim Ivey

The toys! The clothes! The boots! It’s all so shiny and pretty and… expensive and overwhelming! It’s a sad fact that cost keeps some people from trying out a lot of BDSM experiences, but sometimes the best things in life aren’t the ones with the largest price tags. Learn how to not break your bank account and still play in style. In this workshop we’ll take a hundred bucks and create an entire toybag (including the bag!) that includes restraint options, percussive play implements, stingy toys, thuddy toys, and a plethora of other evil delights!

 

The Dance of D/s: Cultivating Dominant and Submissive Body Language – Andrea Zanin

A dominant / submissive dynamic can be a beautiful thing to experience and to watch. The flow of power between two or more people is a lot like a dance – in fact, specific physical motions and positions can lend D/s much of its flavour and beauty. This class will explore the use of body language to reinforce your dominant/submissive dynamic, focusing on grace, subtlety, confidence and attentiveness for both dominants and submissives. There will be lots of opportunities to try out physical exercises to get you started on developing your own smooth dance of power. Areas we’ll cover include opening doors / walking through, kneeling / receiving kneeling, serving / accepting objects, handing something over to be taken / gracefully taking, assistance with dressing and undressing, walking, sitting, waiting, voice, touch, sex and play. Great for couples and groups; solo participants are welcome.

 

The Dis/ability in bDsm – Miriam Katz

Disabilities don’t have to limit play. In this workshop we will discuss some aspects to consider when playing with a differently-abled adult. Some topics will include visible and invisible disabilities, tips and tricks as well as how to sexy-up equipment.

 

Is It Hot In Here? A Temperature Play Sampler – Sarah Pie

Learn the basics of several kinds of temperature play in a fun and interactive setting. We’ll explore warm luscious wax, searing scary heat, biting numbing cold and how to combine them in toe-curlingly good/evil ways. Topics will include safety and risk management, chemistry and physics for dummies, and opportunities to sample a variety of sensations and techniques.

 

Mapping A Spirituality of Power – Anika Bergstrom

Spirituality and leather life often develop an affinity for each other. This being said, the places where power and spirit flow through and around one another are uniquely personal and often involve navigating uncharted territories. This workshop will provide a space to dialogue about the ways in which these dimensions of our lives commingle. Activities will help to develop symbols and vocabulary to support both individual and collective “cartography.” (Compass and star chart helpful but not required…)

 

M/s: Why? – Sir T’Hayla

Why do you feel the calling to move beyond the limits of D/s into the realm of Mastery and slavery? Is it too much? Is it a need? Is it not just play, but your identity? What makes you want to take the risk and explore and embrace M/s?

 

Ouch...MMM! Temporary Piercing for Predicaments – Xray Aims

This workshop assumes that participants have an introductory level knowledge of and experience with temporary piercing. Though we'll quickly cover materials, procurement, methods, safety etc., our main focus will be on creating creative predicament scenes, and we’ll touch on longer scenes and scenes with many needles.

 

Pain & Play – dani Belec

What is a masochist? Some people like pain, get off on pain, others don’t. Many of us include pain in our play, in our sex, in our scenes. This workshop is for those wondering about pain & play, for those wondering about the possibility of being a masochist. This discussion will analyze how pain can be hot, and how advanced players can take more pain in their play. This seminar will be a guided discussion covering many aspects of pain & play. Topics will include: chemical release in the body and how it affects pain response, the use of energy and importance of breathing, accepting pain as service, pushing limits of the masochist and non-masochist, and different types of pain. This seminar is appropriate for all levels; novices and veterans will find the discussion interesting and thought-provoking.

 

Piss Play – Naughty Nancy

Warm golden showers cascade over my lover's head as I coat her in my scent. Drink from me, I say, and her mouth opens. I have not taken vitamins or eaten asparagus today. Wonder why? We will explore the fun and intimacy of playing with piss, including safety, piss enemas, and hot group scenes. Bring questions or stories.

 

Pregnancy and Play

When I got pregnant, I started looking for information about sex and play in pregnancy books. They’re fat books and I figured that they must include everything. But the only advice they seemed to have on the topic was “don’t forcibly blow air up the pregnant person’s vagina.” I’d never heard of this practice, but they all mentioned this. Noting that pregnancy books are targeted at a straight audience, this must be a fairly common practice among heterosexuals; however, I was at a loss about the rest of us. This workshop is more about guidelines than rules, more about things to watch out for or be aware of than absolutes. It should help both pregnant people and people playing with pregnant people to feel safer and more confident. Come prepared to share your questions and experiences.

 

Rape play and pre-negotiated non-consent – Jacky

Taken by force, the victim struggles against hir captor. Tears of pain and humiliation abound as s/he is fucked and forced to engage in various sex acts against hir will by one or more perpetrators. For some, this is a real or imagined nightmare. For others, it is a wetness-inducing kinky scenario requiring negotiation, clearly identified parameters and an enormous amount of trust. For many of us, it’s a bit of both. This facilitated discussion is for those with or without experience who are interested in rape play, either as “victims” or “perpetrators.” We will brainstorm and discuss the special types of negotiation and precautions that are required and the physical and emotional risks involved. A demo is possible if the participants are up for it. WARNING: This is an open and honest discussion of play involving violent and humiliating forced sex acts and could potentially trigger some strong emotions. Please come prepared.

 

Send in the Dancing Girls/Boys: Serving with Dance – Aurora

In the BDSM/Leather community you often hear the mantra “communicate.” Dance is a universal form of communication through which you can express passion, desire, emotion, need, dominance and/or submission. In this workshop we will explore how your favourite dance style can be used to enhance your unique power exchange relationship. For submissives this may offer one more fun way to serve your Dominant, and for the Dominant, it might encourage new styles of submission to demand. Dominants may also want to explore ways to use their dance skill to tease, torment, objectify or dominate the submissive of their choice.

 

Sex Magick – Alex Cafarelli, aka Sir Femme, and Sharman Potechin, aka Hothead Boy

In this workshop, we will explore some of the ways that Sex Magick can enhance our kinky play. The workshop participants will be invited to join in a Northern European / Celtic-based kinky urban Magick ritual structure of cleansing, casting a circle with Earth (bondage), Air (flogging), Fire (candlewax), Water (needles/blood), and Centre (webweaving), building a Cone of Power with clear intention (climax), and then grounding the energy to close the circle. Alex will lead the ritual and will invite the audience to hold space while she tops Sharman with each of the elements. Alex will also give a brief overview of different ways that participants can access Magick, both as release and an empowering tool. With Magick, we can access everything from sacred erotic playfulness to the divine healing of deep wounds. With respect to sensitivity around cultural appropriation, we will not be working with deities in this workshop.

 

Skillshares – you!

We’ve put two skillshare sessions on the schedule—bondage and percussive play (as in, hitting)—so that you, the participants, have a space to share your passion and teach each other what you know. These are informal, participant-driven sessions, not workshops. Show up, ask questions, tell stories, show-and-tell what’s in your toybag, and connect with people who share your interest! Oh, and don’t forget, hands-on learning is often the very best kind…

 

Step-by-Step Guide to Anal Fisting - Clara and Mandy

This presentation will offer insight, information, tips and techniques for safe and fun anal fisting. The workshop will present a brief history of anal fisting in queer communities. This will be followed by a basic ass anatomy presentation. In addition, necessary tools for a pleasurable experience will be shown and discussed. The hands-on portion of the workshop will be based on a picture diary containing explicit anal fisting images, “starring” Mandy and Clara. Through this picture diary, they will discuss tips and techniques, as well as the benefits of incorporating anal fisting into participants’ sexual practice repertory. Intermittently, they will provide narrative from their own anal fisting experience. Along the way, the facilitators will debunk some myths about the practice of anal fisting and its impact on the body.

 

Suturing and Surgical Stapling Demo – Miss Jenn

Come watch as Miss Jenn puts sharp pointy objects through the skin of a few willing victims—ahem, volunteers. She’ll give some basic safety instruction, and talk about sterilization, instruments, and basic knowledge while she works. This session is intended only as a demo (read: an hour long interuptable scene) and therefore as an intro to surgical stapling and suturing, but with lots of info.

 

Teaching Kink: How to Build a Sexy Session

Second in the Growing New Talent series

Moderator: Jacqueline St-Urbain

Speakers: Anika Bergstrom, Ericka Black, Ingrid Amazon, Mitch

So you’ve got this great idea of a kink workshop you’d like to teach. Where do you go from there? How do you develop that into a compelling class that will pack people’s minds with new perversions and leave them pleading for more? Failing that, how do you come up with a solid workshop outline? This panel brings together four BDSM teachers and facilitators who also teach for a living in other contexts, from adult special ed to high school to the university classroom, to share their tricks of the trade. Half the session will be given over to Q&A, so bring your queries and experiences to share.

The Growing New Talent series aims to encourage and support the development of new kink presenters for An Unholy Harvest and beyond. That means you!

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PRESENTER BIOS

Alex Cafarelli aka Sir Femme – Oakland, CA

Sex Magick

An Oakland-based Jewish Witch, Alex Cafarelli has been actively involved in the BDSM community since 1999. She co-founded the queer ritual performance comedic singing troupe, The Psycick Slutz, in 1992, and continues to hold space for audiences across the U.S. to heal the split of sex and spirit with the transformative tools of BDSM. Alex has been leading workshops on Sex Magick since 2003.

 

Andrea Zanin – Toronto, ON

The Dance of D/s: Cultivating Dominant and Submissive Body Language

Andrea, a.k.a. Sex Geek, pretty much writes and talks about sex all the time unless she’s eating, sleeping or having it. She frequently lectures about alternative sexuality in Canada, the States and internationally. Andrea also writes sexuality news for the Montreal Mirror, the Toronto Xtra! and Outlooks Magazine, and blogs at http://sexgeek.wordpress.com. She has a background in women’s studies and sexuality studies from Concordia University, and is pursuing an MA in those same fields at York University. She co-organizes An Unholy Harvest, enjoys spending as much time as possible with her two partners, and occasionally writes erotic fiction on the side.

 

Anika Bergstrom – Montreal, QC

Mapping A Spirituality of Power, Teaching Kink: How to Build a Sexy Session

Anika Bergstrom is a Montreal leatherdyke who’s been an organizer in the Unholy Army since 2005. She has a strong sense of vocation and has been involved with spiritual leadership in one form or another for about ten years. Her spiritual world and her experiences of power exchange are so symbiotic that she probably couldn’t separate them if she tried – and she doesn’t want to. Her latest personal project has been creating and moderating a FetLife group called Sacred Exchange, where she encourages dialogue about the intersections of kink and spirituality with a growing list of over 800 members.

 

Aurora – North Bay, ON

Send in the Dancing Girls/Boys: Serving with Dance

Aurora is owned by, and married to, Master Bren in a 24/7 D/s relationship, and has been exploring the lifestyle since she found an old copy of “The Story of O” in 1983. Aurora is a healer, Pagan priestess, performance belly dancer, writer (www.makinascene.com), farm wife, and slave to Master Bren. She serves both her Master and her community with dance and has shared this workshop with the Sudbury BDSM community with great reviews.

 

dani Belec - Burk’s Falls, ON

Pain & Play

dani is actively involved in D/s & S/M as a submissive girl and masochist. dani’s main fetish is energy, the energy created between people and the energy created in power exchange and play. dani was aware of her high pain tolerance before realizing she was a masochist; since she started her D/s & S/M journey, pain has became a large part of her play. Because of her strong understanding of the body and how adrenaline works, dani became interested in the energy created through pain & play. This is dani’s third Unholy Harvest and she is excited to be here!

 

Ericka Black – Ottawa, ON

Fresh Meet, Teaching Kink: How to Build a Sexy Session

Ericka Black is back for her third round at Harvest, where she has previously offered workshops on flogging and roleplay. She has been in the scene for a number of years as a player and teacher, and most especially enjoys doing demos of cutting and piercing with her mate, La Modératrice.

 

Ingrid Amazon – Waterloo, ON

Teaching Kink: How to Build a Sexy Session

Ingrid (a.k.a. Amazon) is one of the rare species known as the butch M2F. She is also known as “Daddy” to Dani, her “little girl.” Ingrid is a hands-on Top who enjoys spanking, slapping, punching, choking, fisting, fire, and sharp things. Ingrid has presented fire play, advanced needle play, interrogation and humiliation workshops for The Exiles (San Francisco), By Invitation Only (BIO) (Vancouver), Wicked Womyn (Seattle), The 101s (Toronto), An Unholy Harvest, Mr. Leatherman Toronto, and JaSMin Berlin. She is a completing a Philosophy MA at Wilfred Laurier University, with evil plans to do her PhD on the ethics of BDSM and go on to teach young, impressionable vanilla minds.

 

Jacky – Montreal, QC

Rape Play and Pre-Negotiated Non-Consent

Jack is a queer and trans kinkster from Montreal. He is also a mom, a college teacher, a PhD student in anthropology, administrative member and performer in Montreal’s drag king troupe, the Dukes of Drag, and an active supporter of queer, trans and Native rights. He has been a regular participant of the Unholy Army of the Night for about three years. A target of rape and other forms of abuse in his past life as a young woman, he has spent years trying to reconcile his penchant for rape play, alternately as a “victim” and “perpetrator,” with a real-life abhorrence for all forms of abuse.

 

Jacqueline St-Urbain – Ottawa, ON

Teaching Kink: How to Build a Sexy Session

Jacqueline St-Urbain is a hard-core switch who likes floggers, fists and sharp, pointy things. The founder of the Unholy Army of the Night and co-organizer of An Unholy Harvest, Jacqueline's activism is firmly rooted in creating welcoming, fun spaces for leatherqueers. Jacqueline has been teaching for most of her life, and has facilitated workshops on sexuality for almost a decade. She's taught for a wide variety of organizations, from grassroots groups to universities. Jacqueline lives in Ottawa with her partner in crime, Ericka Black. They get up to a lot of mischief.

 

Kim Ivey – Kitchener, ON

BDSM on a Budget: Build a Toybag for a Hundred Bucks

Kim is a bisexual, poly-something switch and all around intensity junkie with a fetish for all things relating to BDSM. She’s an educator and has given workshops on such topics as switching, needle play, fisting and communication strategies. Kim is the creator of Kink in Motion, and under that banner is the organizer of the Triple S Group in Southern Ontario, Whip Practice in the Park in Waterloo, and play parties in Kitchener including Sinergy and Tribal. In her spare time Kim is a sometime fetish model and professional photographer with a focus on erotic images.

 

Mandy - Quincy, MA

Step-by-Step Guide to Anal Fisting

Mandy has been involved in the BDSM community for a several years. She has been a demo bottom for many events, such as New England Leather Association (N.E.L.A) Annual Fetish Flea as well as for XRay Aims, a local Boston performance artist who uses needle play as an art form. Mandy has also facilitated workshops for NoLose in Northampton, MA on squirting (2005) and a bootblacking workshop for the Unholy Army in Montreal (2007). Mandy is a self-taught kinkster who has read many volumes on BDSM and is quite the fisting aficionado (anal and otherwise). No doubt her passion for anal fisting will be helpful for any workshop attendees.

 

Miriam Katz – Ottawa, ON

The Dis/ability in bDsm

Miriam Katz is an Ottawa leatherdyke who has been kinky for as long as she’s been having sex (all of her adult life). She also lives with a progressive invisible disability that sometimes requires creativity to continue playing. She is an educator by trade and loves to teach people things… and then try them out!

 

Miss Jenn – Ottawa

Suturing and Surgical Stapling Demo

Miss Jenn is a poly lifestyle Dominant with a 24/7 male slave. She has recently taken on two female students who are in her service. While her interests vary wildly (which way is the wind blowing today?!) her passion is D/s. She’s been part of the Ottawa BDSM community for eight years, but has been tying boys to her bedposts since she was 16. Manager of an adult toy store in Ottawa and owner of Breathless, she lives and breathes sex on a day-to-day basis. She’s surely got something to share!

 

Mitch – Toronto, ON

Teaching Kink: How to Build a Sexy Session

Mitch is a paddler (canoes, you perverts), a tree-hugger, an academic, a high school teacher, a queer and trans youth mentor, and a fairy, and a dragon. He made his way into the leather scene in early 2007 and lives as Andrea’s collared boi in a 24/7 D/s relationship. He combines his intense creativity with his 18 years’ experience as an instructor in many capacities—from leadership training to volleyball coaching and from outdoor adventure training to grade 9 English—to create engaging learning experiences for students of all ages, most recently in the realm of kink.

 

Clara - Quincy, MASS / Montreal, QC

Step-by-Step Guide to Anal Fisting

Clara has been involved in diverse queer communities locally, nationally and internationally for 12 years as an activist, board member and educator. She holds a BA in Sexology (UQAM) and a Masters in Addiction Counselling (Université de Sherbrooke). She has created and facilitated multiple workshops in community agencies and at national conferences in Canada, including Negotiating Safer Sex in BDSM, Positive Sexuality, Sexual Health Disparities in Women who Have Sex with Women, Love, Sex & Disclosure: Disclosing your SeroStatus, The Queer Virgin, Being Bisexual and many more. She is fond of all things erotic and is a fierce advocate of pleasure as a fundamental right.

 

Naughty Nancy – Toronto, ON

Piss Play

Naughty Nancy (Nancy Irwin) is an SM activist and a switch who lives to have fun. She has given various SM workshops locally and internationally, organized events, play parties and social groups, and has published incriminating articles in the queer and kinky press. She strives to be out outside the comfort of the leather community to make the world a safer place for all of us. Nancy is an adventurous street biker who loves the dirt and a bad dyke who will play with “others.” The Leather/SM community has enriched her life over the past 20 years. Not dead yet, she’s still having fun!

 

Sarah Pie – Toronto, ON

Is It Hot In Here? A Temperature Play Sampler

Sarah Pie is a leatherdyke switch who has lived a life moistened by kink for more than 15 years, and has been active in the southwestern Ontario and Toronto communities for seven of those as a volunteer, educator, and fun-loving slut. She strives endlessly to learn, share, and open herself up to the beauty and passion of play in all its forms.

 

Sharman Potechin aka Hothead Boy – Ottawa, Ontario

Sex Magick

Sharman Potechin held the title of Ms. Leather Ottawa in 2005 and continues to be active in the leather community. Though new to Magick, Sharman is a natural Wizard and an excellent bottom.

 

Sir T’Hayla – Toronto

M/s: Why?

T’Hayla is drawn to Leather and Mastery from a deeply spiritual place. Her interests include, but are not limited to: M/s, D/s, single tails, blades, needles, fisting and powerful discursive play about all of the aspects of BDSM and M/s. Why we do the things we do is as compelling as the fascinating things we do together that honour our true selves within our many kinks. He is extremely honoured to be a part of Unholy Harvest 2009.

 

Xray Aims – Boston, MA

Ouch...MMM! Temporary Piercing for Predicaments

Xray Aims is a Boston, MA-based performance artist, temporary piercer and educator. The fight between beauty and pain and the intrigue of breaching the delicate envelope that holds the body together are what lead Xray to this work, influenced by Aims’ degrees in art and architecture and many years of design experience. Some of Xray’s work uses the body as a canvas, some creates installations in galleries, some is narrative performances with multiple players and some is created specifically for the camera. Of course, some of it is for the hotness too. Find Xray at xrayaims@gmail.com and http://www.truthserum.org/xrayaims.