The SubVerse
Story
Beginnings
The idea for SubVerse came to me in June 2000. There had been a discussion on the UK BDSM Newsgroup about how to make munches less intimidating to newcomers. I suggested that a good idea would be to take munches out of their usual late night pub settings and set one in a café in the afternoon near a comforting crowd. I also suggested that another focus was needed, a soft and gentle focus on poetry, surrender, spirituality and philosophy, to counter the more usual kinky sex aspects of BDSM. As you can imagine the silence was deafening. This indicated to me that the idea was probably a good one and so I set up the SubVerse Writers Group in an attempt to show the world the softer, gentler, more beautiful and more poetic aspects of surrender and submission.
Review 2000
Written in December 2000
SubVerse was born in June 2000, four months after the birth of my daughter. The main aim was “to do something positive for myself and maybe others by combining my two big passions in life, writing and submission, in a way that might bring people together in an inspired and inspiring, and also supportive and sensitive environment”.
The SubVerse gatherings started in July. They are small gatherings averaging five people. We share poems around, chat about life and submission and drink and eat. It is just like a “munch with poetry”.
The website was set up beforehand, to help advertise the gatherings. I started adding the first “poetic musings” after our first meeting, there are now over thirty poets who have contributed to the site. We also have a group happenings section, a writer’s lives section, a mailing list and links to other BDSM and poetry sites.
I have embarked on an extensive advertising campaign which has taken in all kinds of environments, where I might find some like-minded participants for SubVerse. These have included the Poetry Library, the Lady O Society, Informed Consent, Skin Two, Brit-Poets mailing list, GLBT-BDSM Library Group, the UK Depressives newsgroup, Time Out, Paradiso Bodyworks, nerve.com, the poetry café and the Sister Moon feminist bookshop.
We produced our first booklet in September 2000. I have sold a few copies and donated complementary copies to a few chosen libraries and societies. It has been well-received by those interested in the subject matter.
We took part in our first poetry reading event in October at AltaSpace in
To read this review in full please go to the Group Happenings web page.
Plans for SubVerse 2001 are for more of the same, more gatherings, more readings, more publicity, more publishing and (of course!) more poetry. I also hope that SubVerse will be able to take a small part in the SM Pride day in the summer.
Review 2001
Written in December 2001
SubVerse began 2001 with a series of poetry recitals as part of a London Poetry Reading Odyssey. This started with “Unplugged Music, Poetry and Weird Things” in Earl’s Court, taking in Cat’s night Out at the Poetry Café (promoting women poets), Survivors Poetry (promoting poetry by survivors of mental distress) and “Virtual Movie Night” at the Raj Tea Rooms, Highgate and concluding at Bohemian voices in West Hampstead. The readings were well-received and helped gain more publicity and support for SubVerse.
Our monthly gatherings continued on the last Saturday of the month at Bar Chocolate. We also started our regular IRC meetings entitled Virtual BDSM Poetry Nights in March 2001, they are held on the Moonkissed IRC channel, on the last Monday night of the month.
The SubVerse Benefactors scheme was set up in March 2001 to help pay towards SubVerse’s printing and publicity costs, booklet distribution, special events and other SubVerse activities. Benefactors pay £5 a year and receive a quarterly SubVerse Update newsletter, which includes information about SubVerse activities, poetic musings and eclectic reviews. The SubVerse “Fantasy into Reality” poetry competition was also launched in March. It is an ongoing competition and is open to all. We received an equal number of entries for both the “Best Poem Category” and the “Worst Poem Category”. In the end, Night Pangs by Courtney, won and The Worst Pervy Nursery Rhymes in the World evey by Stephen Harris, lost.
Although SubVerse is primarily a poetry group we have also branched
out into other areas. As part of my work at SubVerse I was invited to make a
speech at
To discover more about Unassertiveness Training please visit the Unassertiveness training web page.
SubVerse finished its very busy year with opening its submissive poetry stall at the London Fetish Fair named the Moon and elf Inn. We sold a lot of booklets and little books. We also sold some of our other objects of merchandise including t-shirts, bookmarks, posters and mugs. We also gave away a lot of our growing numbers of pamphlets and leaflets.
Review 2002
Written in December 2002
2002 has been a consolidating year for SubVerse. As a librarian I know the wisdom of the phrase “successful systems for successful services” and 2002 saw a development of SubVerse’s systematic approach to its poetic endeavours.
At the beginning of the year we embarked on a five date “Mad March Tour”, which resulted in more exposure and material for SubVerse. I then gave a SubVerse Mini Lecture in the Spring at the Sexual Freedom Coalition conference called Submissive Liberation which led to me producing a BDSM beginners safety guide called “Ten Things I wish I’d known about”, which is also available via the Library Discipline website. The Unassertiveness Workshop had two outings in the summer. The first was at SM Pride’s Pervfest and the second at an SM-Bi’s monthly meeting. I also developed The Unassertive Correspondence Course, which has so far received two happy customers, both from the transgender community. The gatherings went on throughout the year, some of them very well attended, others much less so!
Due to work and family commitments the Autumn has seen me concentrate on more homely activities with SubVerse. The SubVerse Poetry Competition attracted many more entries than last year, which meant that this year there will be four winners and four losers. The seventh poetry booklet was published and the first six booklets were sent to the binders to form “Sub Verse: Volume One”. The website has received a major facelift and has become much brighter as a result. There are now one hundred poems in the Tea Room Poetry section; thank you to everyone who has donated poetry over the last two years. New pages added have been Finishing School, SubVerse Events and SubVerse Gatherings. The monthly updates to the historical archives finished in the summer. I have kept the two years worth of updates on the site for historical record.
The end of the year has seen me in more artistic mode preparing for a BDSM arts event scheduled for early next year called “Deep Space”. The SubVerse art exhibits include East and West double poetic Triptych, three of the best elle finn poetry pictures, The SubVerse Poetry Tea Pot, the recycled Poetry project and the Puzzle postcards. The exhibits are more mysterious and less explicit than is the usual elle finn and SubVerse way. I put the current mysterious element down to a development of my appreciation of spirituality, religion and God.
Review 2003
Written in December 2003
In 2003 SubVerse matured and gained some stability. The SubVerse Gathering and SubVerse E-Group became the main source of socializing in the real world and on-line. The postal service has been very well used, with poets coming to SubVerse via the Writers Handbook. The website has also attracted a lot of interest and comes up frequently in Google searches for Submissive poetry. Our presence at the Poetry Café and the Poetry Library has created more interest from the poetic community.
Our publications have gained stability too. We are approaching the completion of SubVerse Volume Two. “Tea Room News”, our quarterly newsletter has successfully continued, as has the SubVerse Benefactors Scheme. Our series of occasional publications has also grown to include “The Unassertive Companion” and “The Little Book of D/s Haiku”.
Our events have settled into a four a year pattern. The first and most successful of the 2003 events was the Deep Space Art Show. The show was not only a great success but also gave me a chance to develop as “Elle finn the artist”, which I was very grateful for. One idea I was happy to develop was “Word Play”, a series of SubVerse word games.
You can find “Word Play” by going to the “Poetry Games” section of the website.
There was no Unassertiveness Workshop in 2003, the nearest we came to it was Holistic Submission at Coco de Mer, which had a dismal attendance. In answer to this failure I came up with the idea of a SubVerse passivity rather than activity and established a “National Surrender Day” on the 30th June.
In the latter half of the year our activities became more poetically inclined. The SubVerse unplugged London Tour unfortunately only comprised of one gig “Welcome to Worm World,” due to family troubles, misinformation and other unfortunate events. The two other reasonably successful poetry events have been the Soft Option, a vanilla event at the Poetry Café and Beat Poetry, a kinkier event at the Wicked Cabaret. The last event of the year was the conclusion of Poetic Justice 2003 which received a decent amount of interest particularly in the good poetry section.
The end of 2003 sees us looking forward to the second Deep Space Art Show and the second volume of SubVerse Poetry. After taking the first step into individuality with the development of “elle finn the artist”, I have begun work on more personal creative projects, incorporating the valuable lessons I have learnt from SubVerse Writers.
Review 2004
Written retrospectively in June 2006
2004 was the last active year of SubVerse.
In the spring we produced our last booklet. The poetry included is increasingly mainstream. Durlabh Singh contributed heroic spiritual pieces; there were poems about dreams, home, depression, patience and love. There were SM poems by Wicked Kev, Robert Yates and Ernesto. I contributed two poems, one called Heaven and one called Hell.
After the production of the twelve booklets it finally became possible to bind the last six booklets into “SubVerse: Volume Two”, which I proceeded to do (With the help of Blissets the bookbinders!).
Later in the year we moved our regular gatherings to the first Saturday of the month and to a new venue. “Coffee, Cake and Kink” is a cafe where you can enjoy a cappuccino while sitting quite comfortably next to a gigantic pink silicone dildo surrounded by soft porn décor. A few of the regulars welcomed this move, but it became clear early on that I had made a mistake in moving SubVerse from the slightly bohemian but still neutral, setting of Bar Chocolate. SubVerse was not necessarily kinky or erotic; it was about surrender and submission from a poetic and philosophical viewpoint.
I went on a fact finding mission to find more possible spiritual outlets for SubVerse. I visited the Christian Meditation Centre at Angel and the tea rooms of Southwark Cathedral, a stones throw from Club Wicked. I thought a poetry meeting in a church café, might steer us in a more heavenly direction, but I had grave doubts as to us being accepted and more doubts that SubVerse’s regular clientele would be tempted by a poetry meeting in a church café.
I decided instead to finish my SubVerse activities and go out with as big a bang as possible by producing Deep Space Two. The Smugglers Tavern was confirmed as the venue and the last Saturday evening of November was confirmed as the time.
The preparations went well and included a big promotional campaign based on the Science Fiction B Movie Posters of the 1950s. “It came from the imagination” and “Sights too weird to imagine” were just two of the slogans used. To view the main poster please click here.
The evening went well and was fairly successful. Cassandra and Violently’s exhibits were particularly lovely. We also had work from a fetish photographer and an artistic dominatrix. My work was the usual tea, poetry, flowers and femininity themed exhibits that I had been working on since the start of SubVerse. I sold quite a few items to curious passers by and the event was covered by a reporter from the Westminster Gazette.
I was pleased with how the event went and I said my goodbyes to people I thought I might not see again.
There were no more gatherings after Deep Space Two and December was spent producing the last “Tea Room News” which contained the last competition results of 2004’s SubVerse Poetry Competition entitled “Angelic Anthems and Demonic Dirges”. The competition was both won and lost by imdwhisper with the poems Beauty and Negotiation and the judges Mistress Mean and Lady Lovely were finally revealed.
To view the complete poetry competition results please visit the Poetic Justice web page.
Endings
After the loose ends were tied up at the end of 2004 I let the dust settle a little on SubVerse in 2005. I have no plans to resurrect any of the SubVerse Activities I participated in during the poetry group’s active period. SubVerse now exists as a historical record, in real life through the two volumes of poetry and on the web through the SubVerse website. With the closing of the e-group and the e-notice board, SubVerse has also become non-interactive; however you can still find contact details for elle finn and SubVerse elsewhere on this website.
I hope you enjoy your visit to SubVerse.
elle finn,
http://www.elle.finn.btinternet.co.uk/SubVerse.htm
