Present your Kinky Creation on the Fetish Runway!

Do you like to design, build, or model erotic or outrageous outfits or gear?

Do you enjoy creating kinky toys or fetish items, and showing them off?

Then step up and join our Fetish Runway, at the “Keep SOMA Kinky” Arcade, an interactive, 18+ part of the Virtual Folsom Street Fair, coming to you online on Sunday, September 27, 2020!

See full info about the “Keep SOMA Kinky” Arcade here.

You may enter in either or two ways:  “Enter with Video” or “Present Live on Zoom”.

Enter with a Video — Deadline Extended! 

To enter with a video, prepare a video in MP4 format, and upload the file by no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, 2020 Saturday, September 26, 2020.

  • The video should last no more than 30 seconds.   If you are including a performance or demonstration, keep it under two minutes.
  • Background music is permitted.
  • The video should display your most creative, erotic or kinky creation, and (if you wish) demonstrate how you like to wear it and use it.
  • Your creation may be an entire outfit, a garment, a toy, or any kind of fetish object.
  • We will be looking at all the creations and declaring winners in four categories:
    • Most Creative
    • Most Outrageous
    • Most Erotic
    • Best in Show
  • You may give credit (verbally or in titles) to anyone involved in the creation or presentation, including logos or links to Venmo accounts, Web sites, etc.
  • Viewers will all be 18+, so self-censorship is not required; however be aware that your video will be shown on the Internet, so privacy cannot be assured.
  • The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District reserves the right to edit your videos for length or content, and is not responsible for technical glitches.
  • You may enter as many times as you like.  Your entries may be separate, or presented as part of a themed “fashion line”.
  • Videos will be presented in our Fetish Runway, which starts at 2:00 pm on Sunday, September 27, 2020, as part of the “Keep SOMA Kinky” Arcade at the virtual Folsom Street Fair.
  • Entries may also be displayed on our Web site after the Fair, unless you request otherwise.
  • Please upload your video file to our Dropbox here, and send an email to arts-chair@sflcd.org with:
    • The name of the file you uploaded,
    • Your name (as you wish to be identified during the Fetish Runway),
    • The name of your creation (if any), and
    • Any text that you want us to read to introduce your video.
  • You may enter both with a video and live via Zoom.  You may submit multiple videos, but only one live presentation.
  • Winners will be selected entirely at the discretion of our panel of judges, and will be announced in the Arcade at approximately 5:30 p.m., and posted on the LCD Web site.

Enter Live via Zoom

  • To participate Live via Zoom, enter the Folsom Street Fair virtual event and make your way to the “Keep SOMA Kinky” Arcade (i.e. follow the link to join our Zoom meeting).  You must arrive between 1:45 and 2:00 pm, on Sunday, September 27, 2020.
  • Send a chat message to the Zoom host to let them know you wish to participate.  The Zoom Host will send you into the “Green Room” (a dedicated Zoom breakout room for presenters.)
  • The Presenter Manager will greet you in the Green Room, and will ask you:
    • how you would like to be introduced,
    • your email address (so we can send you our thanks, along with any award or prize you earn),
    • if you want us to pause recording and NOT capture your presentation, and
    • if you want us to provide background music.
  • Get ready.  Make sure your camera is lined up, that your internet connection is solid, that the lighting is good, that no one else is visible in the background, etc.  Have any props ready at hand.
  • When it is your turn, we will invite you to leave the Green Room, and rejoin the main Zoom meeting.  Unmute yourself.  We will “spotlight” your camera, and introduce you.
  • Take about 30 seconds to show off your outfit, garment, toy, fetish item, etc.  If you need to demonstrate any special features, take no more than 2 minutes total.  Have fun.
  • We will be looking at all submitted creations and declaring winners in four categories:
    • Most Creative
    • Most Outrageous
    • Most Erotic
    • Best in Show
  • Viewers will all be 18+, so self-censorship is not required; however be aware that you are  being shown on the Internet, so privacy cannot be assured.
  • Our hosts reserve the right to mute you or cut off your camera, and we are not responsible for technical glitches.
  • Unless you request otherwise, your presentation may be recorded and displayed on our Web site after the Fair.
  • After your presentation, feel free to post some text in the Zoom chat window to give credit to anyone involved in the creation or presentation, share links to Web sites or Venmo accounts, etc.
  • You may enter both with a video and live via Zoom.  You may submit multiple videos, but only one live presentation.
  • Winners will be selected entirely at the discretion of our panel of judges, and will be announced in the Arcade at approximately 5:30 p.m., and posted on the LCD Web site.

Our Celebrity Judges:

Sumiko Saulson
Author and Host of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District Erotic Storytelling Hour
Carynn Milne
Boutique Manager of Dark Garden Corsetry

Katherine Rose
Reigning Grand Duchess of San Francisco
(seen here with harnessed subject)

Timothy Valdivia
Reigning Grand Duke of San Francisco

 

Beth Hunt to Speak to Commonwealth Club

LAVENDER TALKS: BODY POSITIVITY IN KINK CULTURE

This Thursday at 2:00 p.m., join the Commonwealth Club for the latest in their Lavender Talks series, presented with San Francisco Pride and exploring a wide range of topics of interest to the LGBTQ world. 

In this program, they will explore the role the “kink” subculture plays in the larger LGBTQ community.  The discussion will cover body positivity, inclusion and exclusion, and different attitudes toward desire. How do issues of age discrimination, conforming and nonconforming presentation, racism and more get addressed by and within the kink subculture? There might be some surprising answers, as we look at the state of the kink in the age of pandemic, economic crisis, and racial justice.

Participants will include local kink community leaders:

  • Beth “Bicoastal” Hunt, Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District Manager Emeritus; Lifelong Artist/Performer
  • Danny Thanh Nguyen, Writer; Lambda Literary + Ragdale Foundation + Kundiman Fellow; Columnist, Recon
  • Bianca Spencer, Ms. Rubber San Francisco 2020; Co-Founder, The Unruly Social Club; Former Chairwoman, Lesbian Sex Mafia

It will be moderated by

  • Michelle Meow, Producer and Host, “The Michelle Meow Show,” KBCW TV and TuneIn; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors.

This event is online-only; register to receive a link to the live stream program. Registration ends 1 hour before program begins.

This is a free program; please consider making a donation during registration to support their online program production.  

Full information can be found here.  

Register here

Cultural District Will be Part of OurTownSF LGBTQ Nonprofit Expo 2020

Now in its 5th year, OurTownSF LGBTQ Nonprofit Expo 2020 will once again be the world’s largest LGBTQ resource fair!   This virtual event takes place online August 15, 2020 from 12:30-4:30pm.    It is free to attend and offers Bay Area groups serving the LGBTQ community the opportunity to attract new clients, volunteers, board members and donors.

San Francisco” LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District will have its Zoom Room open to share info about the Cultural District, and to encourage folks to sign up for our mailing list or become members.  Board Members are urged to volunteer to help help staff the Zoom Room.

To sign up for a volunteer shift, please go to:  https://signup.com/go/CYNcrGp.  For information about volunteering, please write to David.Hyman@sflcd.org, or call 415-652-6790.

The annual event is a FREE expo of arts, community, fundraiser, health, athletic, legal, political, recovery, service & spiritual groups serving the Bay Area LGBTQ  community, all coming together for a day of community building.  These groups are going through tough times.  Take this opportunity to meet up with dozens of groups and help support them as a new client, board member, volunteer or donor. Warning! This event is always super queer!

After an intro by Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, plus entertainment by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band and a member of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, attendees will be directed to links in order to reach participants, discounts at various Castro businesses and door prizes.  Links to several forms of health consultations and insurance registration will also be available.

For more information, please visit https://www.ourtownsf.org/nonprofit-expo or the Facebook event.