New Tech, Communication Competency, and Classes This Week

News & Appearances
Written By Lee Harrington

Hello beautiful beings,
 
I did it! Thanks to Danarama sharing information on how he sets up captions when running Zoom classes, I broke down and bought myself a tablet! He breaks down on this video over here how he uses Google Live Transcribe on his tablet to run a transcription of his classes while he is talking. Though Google Meet has a captioning system, so many of the classes that I teach or discussions that I lead use Zoom as their platform. There are a few different software systems that are usable, but I really liked this format Dan was using, so her it is. I am now a tablet human.
 
What does this mean? It means that in the coming week or two I will be figuring out how to best set it up, and hopefully come Wednesday’s discussion on our Ancestors of Love I will have it going for folks who are hard of hearing, deaf, or find such things useful. It also means I have a larger screen format for downloading videos and other such things for when travelling, so that is cool. Fingers crossed on this all working.
 
Right now, on top of Danarama’s help, I am feeling gratitude for a number of other things. Gratitude for my printers of Shibari You Can Use turning around a new print run in quick time when I realized how close to out of stock we were at the distribution warehouse. Gratitude for folks continuing to like that book! Gratitude for my new therapist who is not just trans/nonbinary themselves, but polyamory aware, kink competent, authority exchange aware, pagan aware, and can ask me hard questions by truly understanding the concepts at play inside my head.
 
I spend a lot of time in my life code-switching and explaining things to people in their language. It is part of my purpose, my calling – to make complex topics understandable, and in doing so, help people understand each other better. Bring more communication, connection, and beauty to the world. But there are a lot of times when I want to speak about my life and my experience in my base language, my default internal terminology for my learned experience. Finding a therapist for whom I can say “my polycule,” “astral body,” “bottom surgery,” and other such things and have to not break down the concepts is… refreshing. 
 
Over the coming week I am offering a *large number* of classes, discussions, and demos. This will include classes on polyamory, abusive behaviors, authority exchange, rope bondage, sacred sexuality, erotic roleplaying, and our ancestors beyond our biological ties. I encourage you to read through the extensive list below and consider coming out to something you are passionate about… or something you want to build competency on. It is something I regularly do when at conferences – choose one teacher I have never seen before, and one class I know little about. By learning about others and their journeys, or new skills, exposure to different concepts, we can learn, grow, and help build webs of empathy with others… and heck, even uncover new things about our own journeys. 
 
This week, come join me at: 

Beyond Bowed Heads: Rituals for Dominance and Submission

  • Online - ++Cleveland Area Only++

With Academy of Fetish Arts 
September 26, 2020 (2-4p Central, 3-5p Eastern)
Share on Facebook: 
Share on Fetlife: https://fetlife.com/events/936040  
 

Rituals are a key part of any D/s relationship, whether acknowledged or otherwise. From casual kisses at the door to formal slave poses, ritual objects such as collars to slave contracts, the BDSM world is rife with concepts of ritual – but what is a ritual? What are the levels of ritualistic interaction we have between one another? Let’s look at our rituals in day to day life (including how to get out of work or parent space), sacred time, intense connection, erotic play, solidifying relationships, changes within relationships, and the taboo subject of the devastating loss of a relationship or its natural end. From terminology to developing codes of ethical interaction, this class covers a bevy of styles and types of interpersonal reactions that can help everyone in a relationship examine what they are already doing, and what they want to build together.

Be Yourself or Something Else: An Introduction to Erotic Roleplaying

With Black Thorn
September 26, 2020 (5-7pPacific, 7-9p Central, 8-10p Eastern)
Buy your tickets: https://black-thorn.org/events/2020-09-26-be-yourself-or-someone-else-an-introduction-to-erotic-roleplaying 
Share on Fetlife: https://fetlife.com/events/936145

So you’ve decided that it could be fun to do some roleplaying, but aren’t sure where to go with it? Let’s develop some skills together! Using classical evocation skills, we will work to pull upon our sensuality, anger, sadness, and other feelings on command. Evocation is an amazing tool for pulling out our own inner Daddy, pony, Goddess, or slave. We can then turn to the idea of invocation, to tap into personal, cultural, and universal archetypes as well as other concepts that we are drawn to. Just because it’s not inside you, doesn’t mean you can’t, through some simple exercises and brainstorming, learn how to “draw it down" and be yourself or be somebody else!

This Sunday I will be part of a variety of programming at Folsom Street Fair. Usually Folsom is an event of 400,000 people that take over 13 square blocks of San Francisco for leather, kink, and a celebration of independent expression. From vendors to live music, demonstration booths to random occurrences, it is quite the spectacle… and this year they are taking it on line! Teaching “Crotch Ropes and Butt Bondage” for the Black Thorn Community Room, “Self-Bondage Chest and Body Harnesses” for the Twisted Windows Community Room, and appearing on a “Sacred Kink Q&A” in the Wicked Grounds Community Room. It is all donation-based, and hope to see y’all tune in from around the world!

Naming the Shadows: Bullying, Abuse, and Other Harms in Metamour Relationships

With Sam Savage, MSW
Offered twice for different time zones
September 28th, 2020 (10a-12 or 6-8p PDT; 3-5p or 9-11p EDT)
Event tickets: https://www.nerdsomatics.life/workshops-classes
Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/3368977413125233/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/338966347484268/
Share on Fetlife: https://fetlife.com/events/940843 or https://fetlife.com/events/940845

Within consensual non-monogamous relationships a unique relationship exists - a partner’s other partner, aka “metamour.” Though the concepts of coercion, bullying, and emotional harm have the capacity to exist in a wide variety of relationships, this class will examine how they appear in unique or differently manifested ways within polyamorous (aka polyam) and other forms of consensual non-monogamy. These situations are often not noticed, not seen, or not believed by those directly involved in them, or by those experiencing the behaviors themselves due to these unique circumstances. We will examine a variety of relationship styles, maps, and frameworks, and how attendees have experienced these things in their own life as recipients or unconscious (or conscious) harm-doers. Finally, having named these shadows, we will gather and offer some resources for self-awareness, education, restoration, and healing.
This three-part series of discussions focuses on and centers the individuals who have experienced or witnessed some form of harm within their metamour relationships. Beneath the drive to focus on ‘compersion’ and the positive/rewarding aspects of metamour relationships can hide harmful patterns carried over from dominant cultures of monogamy, whether from family of origin or prior relationships. The social pressure to validate non-monogamy as a healthy alternative can create further silence and shame when this happens.

Honoring Our Ancestors of Love
 

September 30, 2020 (1-2:30p Pacific, 3-4:30p Central, 4-5:30p Eastern)
Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/946954215774093/ 
Share on Fetlife: https://fetlife.com/events/940856/ 
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2439294154?pwd=Yk1IdFVTWTUvZXJZOHR1RDhwdDg0dz09
Meeting ID: 243 929 4154
Password: 136777love
 

For many people there is no emotional or energetic connection to their blood ancestors due to being adopted, kicked out of their home, made unwelcome, or other circumstances. All of us on the other hand have Ancestors of Love – the people who we learned our sexuality, romance, emotional bonding, and erotic information from, were inspired by, or who cleared the way for your love style to be possible. Who were your Ancestor of Love? Who are your trans-cestors, your kink-cestors, your polyam-cestors, your queer-cestors, and your love-cestors? We will explore our ancestors, then look at how we can honor them, remember them, cherish them, heal them, acknowledge the toxic things we learned from them, and call upon them in our times of need.

Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is Optional: Pain Processing Techniques

With Wicked Grounds
September 30, 2020 (6-8p Pacific, 8-10p Central, 9-11p Eastern)
Buy your tickets at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4739984 
Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/791818311572923/ 
Share on Fetlife: https://fetlife.com/events/936175 
 

Each of us processes pain and intense sensations in different ways. Some of us scream, some go silent, and some laugh with glee. Some focus on the connection we have with our partners and go stoic, while others dance, writhe, and squirm to let the pain come out through movement. From distracting ourselves with other thoughts or body inputs, to breathing techniques we will discuss how different individuals process pain and how to increase your own effectiveness in transmuting pain into pleasure, suffering, or erotic connection.

I also have other classes and events coming up in the next few weeks that you may be interested in:

  • … and more being announced all the time!

 
To check out other classes and intensives, visit my Upcoming Appearances page to learn more. From there you can sign up for my free newsletter as well. To enjoy further free material from me, consider joining me over on Patreon as well :)
 
Much love to you all and see you soon!
 
Yours in Passion and Soul,
Lee Harrington
http://www.PassionAndSoul.com

Lee Harrington
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