12:00 PM-6:30 PM
We are bringing you a variety of new vendors while also making sure that many of your favorites return! Please note that, in order to provide you with more play space at night, there will be no vending after 6:30 PM (with the exception of Frisky Business, which vends in Club Era at night) . See our vendor's page for a list of vendors.
CLASSES AND OTHER EVENTS
As a follow up to our popular featured event in the Spring, we are once again going to feature a forum, "Maintaining a Kink Community of Care," which will take place from 6:00-7:00 PM. We urge everybody who does not feel like they will be triggered by a discussion that will include references to substance use and sexual assault to attend this event. Please look at the description below for more information.
12:30-3:00 PM in the Basement (Club Era): Rope Bottoms Exploratorium, with Kink Practice (THIS CLASS IS FILLED)
The Rope Bottom Exploratorium is your chance to get in some rope with instructors and guides from around North Carolina! These are “taster ties” that are quick and on the ground. The “hands-on” experience with multiple rope practitioners is what makes this class unique. We have a team of rope Switches (folks who both top and bottom for rope) ready to tie you up! Each Switch runs a station and ties a pre-determined specific tie:
Station 1: Kilia will be tying an arms front chest harness
Station 2: EmjUnbound will be tying tengu (arms bent and to the side)
Station 3: Wrappedinstring will be tying a mermaid hip harness
Station 4: Freakspet will be tying shin torture tie
1:00-2:00 PM in the Ground Floor Dungeon: Primal Play Forum, with Garou (she/it), Mystrix Vixen (she/they/it), The Fet Witch (she/her), Antagonist (he/him), and Heather (she/her), moderated by Tulpa (she/her).
Ever wonder what primal is about? Have you ever felt an animalistic urge in - or out of - play scenes? Our panel of local Primals welcomes you to our open-forum to answer questions and share their own experiences. We will touch on primal play, but this panel primarily focuses on the nature of being primal.
2:00-3:00 PM in the Ground Floor Dungeon: "When No Doesn't Mean No": Negotiation and Communication for Consensual Nonconsent, with vahavta
How do you keep yourself safe when you want to feel you're in real danger? How do you push someone past their breaking point and still leave room to repair the damage? Is there a way to forego hard limits and safewords and stay ethical in play? When you start to play on the edges of consent, everything becomes a little bit trickier. In this class, vahavta draws on theory, research, and years of lived experience in 24/7 consensual nonconsent (CNC) dynamics to share tips and strategies for developing and staying within a personal risk profile, communicating in-scene without "breaking the tone," and pursuing intense experiences without overlooking the physical, psychological, and relational complexities that come with them. Both bottoms and tops will leave with greater clarity on how to articulate and navigate their own CNC-oriented boundaries and desires — with risk mitigation and communicative collaboration in mind.
vahavta is a kink educator, writer, and the creator of Submission Beyond Limits: a Workbook for Empowered s-types. Drawing on more than a decade of lived experience in 24/7 CNC-based Total Power Exchange, she's spent the past few years teaching kink to international communities with an emphasis on psychological edge-play, practical risk awareness, and the validity of all consensual desires. More on vahavta's work can be found at kinkbeyondlimits.com, where she curates the BDSM Risk Evaluation Database (RED).
3:00-4:00 PM in the Ground Floor Dungeon: Anal Play: Romancing the Hole, with Veruca Sal and Puppy Violet
The anal class for folks who haven't gotten what they needed from other anal play classes. Favorite toys, hole care, accessibility and a love of fussy holes. Taught by a certified sex educator & asshole obsessed sex worker.
Veruca Sal (He/Him/Sir) is a Venezolana, Gender Queer, AuDHDer and Owner and Handler with a deep affection for pet play who really wants to pet that dawg. Veruca is also a sex educator whose focus is on creating emotionally safe and connective kink, redefining what good sex can be by tossing out cis/het/ableist pleasure markers, and expanding access to gender pleasure for trans/gender-expansive folks by making gender pervertible. Puppy Violet (any pronouns) is Vera's neurotypical service animal, a pup with access needs and the goodest girl.
3:00-4:00 PM in the Basement (Club ERA):
BIPOC Kinkster Discussion Group, with John Blaze and CallMeJenny
This panel invites BIPOC kinksters to come together in a supportive and affirming space for connection and meaningful discussion. Together, we’ll explore what it means to navigate a largely white kink community as BIPOC individuals, how we feel about showing up as our full selves in spaces, share what events are happening on a regular basis, and what resources are helping us learn, grow, and take care of ourselves. We can also delve into what makes a space or partner feel truly safe, especially in these challenging times. We want to hear the ups, the downs, and we want to open the door for community.
4:00-5:00 PM in the Ground Floor Dungeon: Trauma and Racially Informed Femme Domination, with Hazel Sadochist
This class will focus on femme domination from a racially and trauma informed place. In a world that is so scary right now, this is a great way to make sure we are taking care of ourselves and our community. The class will break down the influences of racism and trauma in power dynamics and will include a demonstration on how to implement those skills.
4:00-5:00 PM in the Basement (Club ERA): BDSM 101, with Bryan
This class serves as an introduction to BDSM, and we recommend it for all newcomers to the scene and for anybody who wants a refresher. From safety recommendations to consent guidelines to the fundamentals of BDSM play, the class will provide you with an intro to many of the terms and ideas of kink and BDSM. Bryan will discuss how to find a play partner, what to consider in terms of your own desires, and how to enact those desires in both pick-up scenes and longer-term relationships. He will discuss different types of scenes, what to consider, whether you are a top or a bottom, and how to provide appropriate aftercare.
Bryan is one of the most experienced BDSM practitioners in the PUSH family. He has engaged in impact and other types of play in public and private ever since the Raleigh scene of the 1990s, and he now has a 24/7 D/s relationship. He is also one of PUSH’s lead DMs!
5:00-6:00 PM in the Ground Floor Dungeon: Impact for Pleasure, with Marti Evans
Let's re-think how we do impact scenes! We'll discuss how to make impact more pleasurable in every sense instead of a type of play designed only for masochists (not that there’s anything wrong with masochistic play!). We'll also demonstrate and try out different techniques that show how impact can be used to elicit vibrations and different sensations, as opposed to just simply doling out and taking punishment.
Marti Evans (they/them) is a non-binary parent, athlete, and artist. With a varied history in kink education and performance, nude modeling and photography, animation, belly dance, martial arts, team sports, weightlifting, acting, singing, and contortion, they’ve lived many lives and have seen many things. They are currently working to move into a career as an intimacy coordinator, while doing art and animation on the side.
5:00-6:00 PM in the Basement (Club ERA): Crushing 101: What asexuality can teach us about attraction, orientation, and intentional relationships, with evvvergreen
Learn from the asexual community about what crushes can entail, how we might consider the different dimensions of attraction (or repulsion), and map your own patterns of attraction in this participatory workshop. This workshop is for aces and non-aces (allosexuals) alike! You will come away with a better understanding of the various ways we notice other people and have more language to describe this experience. There will be embodiment exercises to practice better self-attunement, a foundational practice for consent.
Evvvergreen (they/them) is a scientist and sex educator who has been in the Atlanta scene since 2018. They enjoy taking complex topics and inviting nuance through education, with a focus on ace/asexual/demi identities and experiences.
6:00-7:00 PM in the Ground Floor Dungeon: Maintaining a Kink Community of Care, with PUSH organizers Petecock and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, along with Reid Getty from the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, and Lola B from the Southern Queer Survivors Network
This is a featured event that we recommend everybody attend (but please note our trigger warning below).
Building on our immensely successful forum from the last PUSH, we will go into more detail about how we work to build and maintain a kink community of care. Kinky communities can create a sense of safety that allows each of us to obtain greater access to our desires. But the community requires constant care, not only to prevent bad actors from harming us, but also to hold ourselves accountable when we make mistakes and to allow for a healing process. This forum is about creating a kink community that allows for greater erotic experimentation while also preventing sexual harm. In this follow up to our Spring forum on building a kink community of care, we ask what it means to maintain such a community in the face of substance abuse and sexual assault. We will spend the first part of the forum focused on our efforts to maintain such a community with PUSH as a hub, and then we will discuss current issues, with a focus on harm reduction, restorative justice, and building a safe space for survivors.
Trigger warning: please note that this panel will include discussion of sexual assault and substance use from experts who deal with and teach about these issues on a regular basis.
7:00-9:00 PM in the Littles Room: Littles Drawing Time
Drawing Time for the Littles! Crayons and Coloring Books Provided
Please note that PUSH is working to become more accessible. We will be streaming the downstairs classes from 3:00-6:00 PM upstairs for those who are not able to make it downstairs. This will take place in the room that is usually the little’s play space. We are grateful for tech savvy staff at The Fruit for helping us with this request. The stream will be private to protect everyone’s identity. The littles play space will be open after 7:00 PM!
KINKY COCKTAIL AND MOCKTAIL MEET AND GREET
7:00-9:00 PM
Have you never been to PUSH before? Do you want to meet people in a less formal and crowded environment than the Ultimate Fetish Party? Come to the meet and greet from 7:00-9:00 PM (remember that the entry doors will be closed between 8:30 and 9:00).