Eclectic Reviews

Ten artists took part in the Deep Space Art Show that took place in the Smugglers Tavern on Saturday evening, the 27^th November 2004. The artists represented different aspects from the worlds of fetish and BDSM, some direct and literal aspects and others from the more ambiguous and philosophical side of alternative artistic expression.

In the upstairs gallery were Cassandra’s vivid, fiery erotic figures, Eylau’s dark, red fetish hotel doll’s house and Rico’s delicate yet flamboyant black and white mistress portraits. These pieces were joined by Incubus6’s finely drawn etchings of BDSM themes and scenes, Claudia’s large, bold pictures of space age fetish girls and Stefan’s pastel kinky comic strip pieces. Violently’s work was an intriguing blend of fetish objects, plastered in monopoly money, sitting on a monopoly board, I found it deeply thought provoking and beautiful. Also on display was Ernesto’s multi-media presentation which featured interwoven images from an SM pride march and a Catholic passion festival.

Downstairs featured Marc Blackie’s mysterious black and white bondage portraits and Princess Spider’s collage of photographs of a slave’s eye view of the dominatrix. My work consisted of collages based on 1950’s science fiction themes, the Word Play kinky poetry games and a series of personal transformation portraits.

Also downstairs was the “Earth Visitor’s Information Centre”, for any curious vanilla people who happened to have wondered in and the SubVerse poetry corner. With help from Voxx and Peter we were able to use the pub’s huge TV screen to show presentations from Princess Spider, Ernesto and elle, which I thought added another special dimension to the evening.

I thought the paintings, pieces and people were wonderful. With the lights dimmed slightly and our sampled sci-fi Deep Space sound track playing in the background, I felt the event had just the right unearthly atmosphere.

I would like to thank everyone who made the evening possible and the artists, helpers and audience who made the show a success.

After over four years of producing poetry books and information leaflets, running competitions and workshops and organising gatherings and events, I have decided it is time for a break. However I will be keeping the website, the publications and the newsletter on the go for some time further to come.

SubVerse Gathering – New Venue

(Review of the meeting on 7^th August 2004)

Things were going downhill at Bar Chocolate, or maybe we just had a couple of bad months. Whatever the reason, I felt that a change was called for. Luckily the “Coffee, Cake and Kink” café was ready and waiting for us, quite literally just around the corner at 61 Endell Street, Covent Garden.

Saturday the 7^th August 2004 was our first day at the new venue. I arrived, a little late, and made my way down the intricate staircase to our designated sofa in the basement below. There were a couple of new people already there waiting for us, a member of the gay community and an Asian social worker. We soon settled down to our hot beverages and friendly discussion and were soon joined by regulars, Peter, Nick, Mike and Grace, a jazz musician and a couple from Surrey. There was much discussion on different aspects of submission, including the latest on the S & M scene, a brief discussion on comparative religion and more information on our next big event the second Deep Space Art Show.

All in all we had a very good time and it was one of the best SubVerse Gatherings we’d had for ages. We had twelve participants in all and our friendly discussions went on a little while after our designated 5 pm finish. Coffee, Cake and Kink has a sumptuous and pristine ambience and a friendly and warm atmosphere. The kink on offer is subdued, tasteful and in keeping with the homely feel of the café. Downstairs, the basement was at once cool and comfortable, homely and elegant.

We would like to say a big thank you to the management and staff at Coffee, Cake and Kink for making our first gathering at our new venue such an enjoyable and successful occasion

Beat Poetry

(A review of the SubVerse poetry evening at the Wicked Cabaret, 5.11.3)

It was months since I had last been to see Caroline and Brian, Club Wicked and the nightclub under the London Bridge Arches, so I was full of anticipation for the evening ahead. The first most noticeable change was that the night club is now officially called “Wicked” complete with a BDSM dungeon entrance and sparkly Cynthia has disappeared for good.

The cabaret was part of a general cultural experience which included painting, photography and statue galleries and a room for showing erotic art films. The exhibition featured some specific BDSM images such as statues of naked, kneeling and bound female figures and Stefan’s “Story of O” paintings; however most of the exhibits were of fetishistic, erotic and nude subjects rather than specifically BDSM.

I had not seen the interior of the refurbished arches before, so I took special note of how they looked. I found them sumptuous and luxurious with red velvet furniture and artificial silk flames flickering up from the floor. The BDSM play rooms towards the cabaret bar were bare and unoccupied; they had a dark ritualistic feel about them which made me wonder what would be on offer at the cabaret.

The cabaret itself was held in one of the older rooms at Cynthia’s which had sparkling metallic floors and walls like a late 70s futuristic discotheque. There was a fair sized audience gathered in the bar by 9 pm which allowed the proceedings to proceed.

I was first on and began my set by introducing people to the various concepts surrounding SubVerse including the Unassertiveness Workshop, National Surrender Day and the Poetic Justice good and bad poetry competition. I then went on to read a number of my own poems which included an introduction to SubVerse’s political wing, “The Yes Party” with their party manifesto. After me, eylau read one of this poems inspired by the erotic film “Last year at Marienbad”.

After eylau there came an exotic dancer called Gwendoline. She did a burlesque routine to a nineteen-forties soundtrack in an authentic nineteen-forties costume. I enjoyed her and found her routine attractive and tasteful. After Gwendoline; came another Beat poet in the form of Ernesto Sarezale. Ernesto took the opportunity offered by the risqué venue to be more adventurous with his performance poetry than he could have been at the poetry café.

He performed his first poem fully clothed, his second doing a subtle striptease and a third completely naked. Whereas eyalu’s and my poetry had received a rather cool reception, ernesto’s flamboyant and passionate performance earned him a much warmer appreciation.

There was a short break before Lara began her introduction to some more Beat Poetry, courtesy of elle finn and Wicked Kev. I read three poems by other SubVerse Writers. These were Household Objects by Little Miss Sunshine, Cyber by Nightwing and In Praise of the Dark Side by Ms. D. Kev read his poems of romantic dominance, full of feeling and passion which I always find very moving. After Kev, came our compare Lara to perform an exotic dance wearing a patterned body stocking, a black and gold mask and a feather boa. It was very sensuous and exciting and had an “Eyes Wide Shut” feel about it.

After Lara came Gwendoline again. This time she wore a gold and glittering dress. She danced an exotic, burlesque dance where the props included a cocktail shaker and glass with an olive on a stick and a white fluffy rug. After the last dance Lara came back on to thank all the performers. Unfortunately she slipped up on our name and called us the Dead Beat Poets by mistake, which I found rather amusing!

I would conclude that the Wicked Cabaret is not the ideal venue for SubVerse anymore than the Poetry Café was. The best suggestion of the night was that we incorporate poetry performance into the next Deep Space Art Show where we are more likely to get an audience as open to art and poetry as they are to BDSM.

The Soft Option

(Review of the event held on the 26^th September 2003)

I can’t remember being as nervous for any other SubVerse event as I was for the Soft Option. It was the first time SubVerse had been on its own holding its very own poetry event at the Poetry Café. It was a very vanilla affair, it was advertised in Time Out and my mum was coming to it! All in all there were about twenty people at the event, so we had a fairly quiet evening, but no less stimulating for that.

I began the proceedings with an introduction to who elle finn is, who SubVerse Writers are and what the meaning behind The Soft Option was. I began my poetry recital with “The Wave”, which was one of my mum’s favourites. The poems I then recited included Omega, the Shadow People, the Yes Party Manifesto and Malleable, they received a warm and polite appreciation.

After me came Ernesto Sarezale who is a more energetic and flamboyant performer and who read more explicit poems such as Velcro, Cacophony and Foetuses, which were well received from the small, mixed audience. He began his recitation with an old favourite at SubVerse “Competition Rules” by David Bircumshaw, which left the audience rather nonplussed. He also read out a poem based on an intense BDSM scene which provoked more mixed reactions.

Durlabh Singh was next on and his poetry was of a much gentler nature even though his performance style was no less energetic and flamboyant. Durlabh recited his poetry of love, spirituality and nature in an articulate and animated manner which I felt engaged with the audience in a very positive manner.

Last but certainly not least came Wicked Kev in his poetic performance debut. WK’s poems are beautifully reflective of the joys and challenges of being a Dominant man. My mum and I both enjoyed WK’s poems very much. I particularly enjoyed “Captured Angel” which was inspired by a painting by Cassandra, one of our Deep Space artists.

After a short break we began the second part of our poetry event with our one and only floor reader for the night, Hugh. Hugh’s first poem was a Christian poem about the value of prayer. After Durlabh, Ernesto, WK and I all had another turn with our poems, Hugh returned with a long and meandering poem which included many references to pop stars from the 1980s including Duran Duran and the Pet shop Boys. At the end of the evening two more audience members arrived, who left with some free SubVerse handouts.

Although the Soft Option was not as popular as I would have hoped, I feel it was a successful experiment. The general consensus was that for our next poetry event, we need to find a more SubVerse friendly venue.

SubVerse Unplugged 2003

Gig One: Welcome to Wormworld

(Review of gig on the 17^th August 2003)

After two false starts, SubVerse Unplugged 2003 finally got underway on Sunday 17^th August at Welcome to Wormworld in East London. I am used to Bohemian poetry settings, the SubVerse Gatherings happen in a rather bohemian cafe, but Welcome to Wormworld’s Foundry venue beats Bar chocolate hands down, in terms of Behemianness. The more outlandish features of The Foundry are its modern art installation of hanging baby dolls, its reverence of graffiti as an integral part of the décor and its very impressive “Matrix” computer screen savers.

When I first entered the place I thought I had stepped back in time as I was treated to the sounds of the seventies as background music featuring all sorts of groups from Blondie to The Stranglers. The pub was very friendly and even had an underused cappuccino machine, although some urgent repairs looked like they needed doing to the building in general.

The poetry got underway at about nine. From then on there was a whole lotta ranting going on, on stage and a whole lotta heckling going on, in the audience. I was third on and tried a bit of the usual SubVerse humour on the audience with references to “The Unassertiveness Workshop” and “National Surrender Day”. I read four of my poems out “Malleable”, “The Yes Party Manifesto”, “Dare” and “Omega”. They went down very well and I only got heckled in a good natured way. After my turn “Surrender” became the most popular heckle of the evening. Another SubVerse Writer, Durlabh Singh, was also there to perform and between us we handed out leaflets for SubVerse and also “The Soft Option”, I even managed to sell a SubVerse Booklet! So, all in all, despite the heckling and the graffiti, Welcome to Wormworld turned out to be a very positive experience.

NB. Unfortunately due to ill-health and unforeseen cirumstances SubVerse Unplugged 2003 had to be cut short after this gig.

From AltaSpace to DeepSpace

(A Review of The Deep Space Art Show, 25^th January 2003)

The first visitor to the Deep Space Art Show arrived at the Smugglers Tavern at about 5.30 pm on Saturday 25^th January 2003. The Deep Space artists had already been busy all afternoon transforming the pub into an SM-Arts wonderland ready for our grand opening at 6 pm. Many more visitors arrived after 6.30 pm. It was great to see so many people coming along to support us and enjoy the diversity of the show.

There were ten participating artists in the show. There were poetic sketches and a poetry tea set from elle finn, etchings and intricate illustrations of detailed dungeon scenes from INCUBUS6, a concept ambient poetry installation by cain tracing the development of a Mistress and slave relationship and graphically enhanced graphic poetry by Ernesto in the downstairs gallery. In the upstairs gallery were delicate and ethereal pastel and watercolour erotic portraits by tracie, vibrant boldly coloured figure-work by Cassandra, fine art by Paul and magnificent oil paintings by Stefan taking the “Story of O” paintings into new realms. Violently’s display included an aged book published in 2003, a baby shoe sculpture and elegant and intricate framed pieces. Also showing upstairs were eylau’s BDSM art films, which had a new and appreciative audience each time they were shown, and ernesto’s 2000 video diary of SM Pride and AltaSpace.

There were loads of personal highlights for me. It was great meeting new people who I have only previously encountered in cyberspace including Kat and her leather family from the British BDSM mailing list and Sarah Hartwell, who both won and lost the 2002 SubVerse Poetry Competition. As well as the supportive BDSM community, we also had some appreciative viewers from the vanilla population including one of the waiters from the SubVerse frequented Bar Chocolate in d’Arblay Street and Julian from the New River Writers Group.

The evening was magical. A big thank you to everyone who took part and came along to support us. A special thank you to the Smuggler’s lone barman, who was helpful and hard-working throughout the evening.

SubSpace Exploration 2002

(Review of the Unassertiveness Workshop held at SM-Bis in August 2002)

The fourth Unassertiveness Workshop ever, took place at the Smuggler’s Tavern near Warren Street on August 11^th 2002 as part of an SM-Bi’s meeting. Following the overwhelming attendance at the SM Pride event and the undermining influence of a recent attack on the Unassertiveness Workshop on the UK BDSM newsgroup, I had reshuffled the workshop and added further elements to clarify and explain certain areas, which were a little too hazy, even by Mindscape Jung standards.

The workshop got underway with a new introduction, which emphasised the light-hearted, artistic and philosophical nature of SubVerse. This was followed by the newly written “Unassertiveness: a soft option and a good choice: a testimony by elle finn”. This explained my personal experience of submission, where my ideas came from and how they were developing, it even included a quote from Confucius.

After I’d said my piece it was time for the workshop proper to start. The first exercise was “An exercise in itself”, which involved the workshop attendees (there were eight of us in all) choosing what exercises they wanted to do. The first chosen exercise was a group discussion called “Unearthing Unassertiveness”. The section on “Why it is nice having Unassertive people around” caused the most amusement, “the dependent needs of unassertiveness” caused the most thought and the section “The gift of your self”, which considered how the concept of submissiveness fitted in with the culture of the self, caused the most discussion, I have already changed this controversial section in time for the next workshop.

“Questionnaires of an extreme nature” caused more discussion, especially in the realm of fear and anger. The group concluded that fear could be a good thing and could be safely appreciated in our culture via the horror genre, theme park rides and BDSM, similar conclusions were drawn about anger. I sensed that at this time of the proceedings the group could do with a bit of light-hearted role-play to break things up a bit, so I asked for volunteer tea maids to enact “The Right Sub for the Job”. Not everyone volunteered, so Voxx became the Dominant tea maid inspector and I took on the role of the sullen tea maid. Jackie, an exuberant SM-Bi regular, took on the dual role of the enthusiastic and flamboyant tea maids.

The angry tea maid slammed the tea down with such force that he spilled quite a bit of the tea, I was sullen and Voxx commented that it wasn’t far from my normal self, the paradoxical tea maid left people perplexed, the helpful tea maid was just that, Jackie made such an over-enthusiastic tea maid I wondered how she was going to top it to be flamboyant, but she managed to. In the end Jacke’s enthusiastic and flamboyant tea maid won the day and a SubVerse tea mug. After the excitement of the SubVerse tea maids I calmed things down a bit with the Bluffers guide to BDSM and the Mindscape Jung self-help guide.

We finished with the closing ritual of people kneeling down and saying “Yes I will”. Only Conto took part in this and everyone was too unassertive to ask for a SubVerse certificate, although Voxx commented that for an unassertiveness workshop this was an “Excellent result”. I’m not sure how thought-provoking the workshop managed to be, but it certainly provoked a lot of laughter.

SubVerse goes to Homophone

(Review of the event held in July 2002)

It was a sultry summer’s evening when SubVerse visited Homophone in the Poetry Café near Covent Garden. The relaxed mood was matched by the elegant, laid back and subdued atmosphere of the queer open mic forum. I was one of two women in the mostly male audience and the only female to recite. However I felt most welcome and hardly out of place at all, as I sat in a corner drinking a bottle of Guinness. In fact I was called to offer some encouragement to a nervous beginner, which I did, explaining that I was always nervous myself. I told him I found the best nerve tonic was to think about the performance in terms of being your small contribution which will help make the event a special evening.

Among the open mic readers were Ernesto, who read some of his own vivid and raw poems, including a very memorable one about anal fisting and a poem by Thom Gunn, and the co-host who recited poems by well-known writers such as Tennessee Williams and D. H. Laurence. There were some beautiful and evocative poems written and recited by the evening’s photographer, an experienced black writer and the aforementioned nervous beginner. There were a number of Americans reading including a New Yorker who read a travelling poem, a man with a lip-ring who read the end of a poem by Bertholt Brecht and a prolific poet from San Francisco who spoke inspiring words about Stevie Smith and Annie Lennox, read some of his own poetic works and ended with an animated acapella version of an old folk song.

I was third to read and after receiving an informative introduction from Ernesto, I shared details about the forthcoming SubVerse Unassertiveness Workshop, the SubVerse Poetry Competition and the SubVerse Tea Meetings. I first read four of my own poems, Malleable, Omega, The Yes Party Manifesto and The Shadow People. As an epilogue I read two poems by other SubVerse Writers, Newbie by Nightwing and I’m Not Eve’s Daughter by Haze McElhenny. The audience were very appreciative, although I think they were more entertained by the SubVerse activities than the SubVerse poetry.

There was no second half. So after I had bought myself a Cappuccino I had a further talk to the man from San Francisco. His name was GG-Re, he ran a poetry magazine called “Po” and owned a website called “Que.Net”. SubVerse seemed to have a lot in common with his poetic projects and we had a big talk about where we were both going, creatively speaking. Ernesto also expressed Homophone’s interest in future collaboration with SubVerse. The girl from SubVerse? She said yes!

Submissive Liberation

(Review of the SFC speech made on the 1^st June 2002 by elle finn)

It was a very hot afternoon at the Diorama Centre near Great Portland Street when the Sexual Freedom Coalition’s mini-conference “Reclaiming Sex” took place. The small black theatre was decorated with purple sashes, flowers and the Erotic Oscar’s golden winged phallus. There was a lot to get through in four hours, so a strict five minutes speech and five minutes Q & A session per speaker was imposed.

The conference featured a very mixed bag of speakers. We were predominately female and included approximately three strippers, Queeruption, Rock Bitch, Tuppy Owens, the lib-dems and the green party, the International Sex Workers Union, Club Wicked, a Cambridge graduate, a disabled speaker speaking about his experience with prostitutes and sex-surrogates and various other sexologists and anti-censorship campaigners.

I was fifth to speak and my five minute speech concerned Submissive Liberation, the freedom from sexual repression I had found through SSC-BDSM, how I had found acceptance of my submissive nature via the Internet community, how I had been inspired to set up the SubVerse Writers Group and the Erotic Variations Library, the prejudice that surrounds BDSM and a request for support for the SSC-BDSM community. The speech went down very well and I explained about selective submission and the SM Pride organisation in the Q&A session after my speech. Voxx, who had been coaching me for my speech during the week, was very pleased with my performance on the day.

It was a packed, informative afternoon, followed by a rather Bohemian party in a grand London House, which took place in the balmy summer evening. I was very pleased to have taken part in such a celebratory and diverse afternoon and evening.

The Mad March Tour 2002

(Event Review by elle finn)

First Date: Poetry Unplugged

SubVerse's Mad March Tour of 2002 got off to an inauspicious start on Tuesday 12^th March at Poetry Unplugged in the Poetry Cafe. The event was upbeat, a bit rowdy and very popular. Male poets outnumbered female poets three to one, which I felt set the tone for the rather boisterous poetic entertainment. My turn came near the end of the first half. I was very nervous, but endeavoured to do justice to SubVerse Writers. The audience found SubVerse's concept of valuing submissive people very amusing, which did unnerve me a bit. I also felt they found the poems I read out; Malleable, Darkflame, Strength and Household Objects; rather odd. I think a few people understood where SubVerse was coming from and they're the ones who were interested in finding out more about the poetry group. I'm hoping the Spanish poet Felix will come along to a future SubVerse Gathering, he was very interested in SubVerse and one of his poems was a complaint about modern women being obsessed with control and power. I think most people fell into the two categories of being bemused by the whole thing or thinking SubVerse was irrelevant. I also picked up on one or two people feeling rather uncomfortable with the SubVerse material I was reading out. I think one of the main problems was the lack of warmth emanating from me. I hope to be accompanied to the next gig, which will hopefully result in me feeling more comfortable and better able to communicate with the audience.

Second Date: Aroma Poetry

It was a busy Sunday afternoon on Oxford Street when the SubVerse Poetry Tea Room came to the Aroma Poetry Cafe, to partake of an evening’s coffee, tea and poetry. For this event I was accompanied by Voxx, another SubVerse Writer, who was also coaching me in how to improve on my performance at Poetry Unplugged. I was feeling very nervous and had difficulty concentrating on his advice, however luckily something inside clicked in time for my poetry spot. There had already been six people reciting poetry before me. The poets were very good, very entertaining and the event had a warm, welcoming feel to it, despite the noisy chat coming from upstairs and a few non-poetry people who were sat amongst the poetry appreciating audience. I followed Voxx’s advice, introduced myself as elle who runs the SubVerse Writers Group, then moved onto pastures new. I spoke about the Unassertiveness Workshop and read out The Yes Party Manifesto, I then read three more of my own poems, Omega, The Shadow People and Malleable, before finishing with I’m not Eve’s daughter by Haze McElhenny. The audience found the poems amusing, Voxx said he could see I had developed a good rapport with the audience and there were some eager people interested in finding out more about the writers group as I handed out my leaflets at the end of the first half. Voxx and I both agreed, it was a very successful night for elle finn and SubVerse.

Third Date: Poetry and Jazz

The title of this Saturday night Poetry Café event would not have got past the trade descriptions act. There was no jazz. Instead there was folk singing, mini chocolate eggs, floor spots and poetesses reciting poems on spring and of love. I was one of the floor spots. I was a little worried about how I would be received, after my last Poetry Café performance and also as the female organisers looked suspiciously like old-guard feminists to me. However my fears were unfounded. Putting the lessons I had learnt from the Aroma Café into practice I humoured the audience with more details of the unassertiveness workshop, which provided much interested and amused exclamations of disbelief, the sublime submissions and irreverent entries of the SubVerse poetry competition and SubVerse’s various monthly inspirational tea flavours. I recited Omega, in the first half and Secret Submission, in the second. I handed out my SubVerse leaflets in the interval. One lady read a B&D poem in the second half. I like to think she was inspired by me! There were not many people at the event, mostly, I think, because if fell on Easter weekend. It was a rather quiet and subdued evening but no less warm and engaging for that.

Fourth Date: New River Writers

I spent a relaxing Wednesday evening in the green garden room at the Percy Arms in Islington in the company of the New River Writers. The group was slow to get going. Nearly an hour went by, before Julian, the exuberant group leader, came in and kick started the proceedings. The workshop began with a writing exercise featuring various miscellaneous words, supplied by the workshop attendees. I supplied the word feminine. After we had all read out our convoluted tales concerning the “starvation” of “Aztec” princesses with a penchant for “proto-digitisation” and “cornucopia”, we each had a turn of reading out our various written contributions for the evening. I was first and I made my usual plug of SubVerse’s Unassertivneness Training and Inspirational Tea-flavours. Both ideas were widely appreciated. I read out The Shadow People and Omega, which were both favourably received. A few people took the SubVerse leaflets and said they would try to make it to a future SubVerse Gathering. The New River Writers certainly provided me with a good evening out.

Fifth Date: The Spinning Room

The North Star Pub Comedy Club Venue at Finchley Road was one of the best poetry venues I’ve attended. However when the Spinning Room poetry workshop got underway it felt like the scariest tour date yet. The gathered poets seemed the most intellectual crowd I’d met and after a brief introduction on literary criticism, it became clear that the mostly male attendees were on the side of the critic rather than the writer. It did not bode well. People began reading rather serious sonnets and political poems, before a man read out a more personal poem called distraction and a woman read out a more pastoral poem by a lady poet. The group was warming up by this time and I felt ready to share some SubVerse poetry with the audience. I felt a bit too cowardly to read out my own poems, so after talking about the poetry group I read out I’m not Eve’s daughter by Haze McElhenny and A walk in the paradise garden by Beauty123. During the interval a few people came up to me to find out more about SubVerse, with promises of attendance at future gatherings. I left shortly after a much braver lady than I read out two of her poems about a dream and a fridge. It was an unexpected evening, but well worth venturing out to.

The Mad Poet’s Tea Party

(A review of an impromptu recital given at a SubVerse Gathering on 23^rd February 2002)

February’s Gathering was remarkable for a number of reasons. It was our biggest ever attendance with 12 people coming along. It had been advertised in Time Out as a “discussion on the value of submission and submissive people” due to the sub-editor’s removal of the word “poetry”. One lady came along hoping for a lecture that would shed light on an academic project she was working on about the possible link between sadomasochism and anorexia. She was intrigued when I explained to her that the proceedings were more on the lines of a BDSM munch and was very pleased when it turned out we were “poetry orientated” as she had been a keen poet for many years.

The gathering was very warm, friendly and animated as I proceeded to get to know a little more about the newcomers, catch up on news from our regulars, promote various SubVerse Literature and make general requests for poetry donations for the sixth SubVerse booklet. Faye (the academic lady) was very interested in finding out more about BDSM and the other concepts behind SubVerse. I explained that SubVerse was not just concerned with “The poetry of surrender” in BDSM terms, we also delved into dominance and submission and their vanilla equivalents control and surrender, in a wider sense. I remarked that it was surprising how much general poetry also fell into the realms of SubVerse’s interests.

About half way through, Faye, who maybe decided the proceedings were in need of a bit of poetic discipline, suggested we read some of our poetry out. I thought this was an excellent idea, so I asked the young Eastern European waitress who was looking after us if she wouldn’t mind turning the music down, which she did. I agreed to start and read Malleable, a romantic poem I had written for my boyfriend, Mercedes, another newcomer, read a short, amusing poem with a surrendering slant, eylau read his latest poem which will be featured in the new SubVerse booklet, Peter recited a haiku he had written about Needle Play, Faye read Peaches, a beautiful poem she had written about remembering a past love affair, I hope she may donate it to SubVerse at a later date, Dylan read Thoughts by Master Laurence, which got a very big laugh, Ironmike recited a rather complicated limerick, the penultimate reading was from eylau who read a selection of BDSM orientated poetic lines from various Shakespeare’s sonnets, I thought “Well done Shakespeare” was an apt response and Mercedes finished by reciting a personal ad which was very witty and poetic. The poetry was recorded by Faye on a hand held tape recorder, although she never explained why.

Not everyone read their poetry out and were happy to just sit and listen, which is fine, as the poetry is optional, and sometimes we just sit around eating, drinking and chatting and don’t do much poetry at all. The experience has spurred me on to sort out a few planned SubVerse projects I have been working on recently, namely an SM-Arts Soiree, the SubVerse Talking Poetry Book and the SubVerse London Poetry Tour. Perhaps some links with an academic institution are called for. The gathering finally dissolved at about 5 O’Clock amid more promises of poetry and a couple of pieces of homework for me to do before March’s gathering, reviewing an Arts film and appraising a CD of erotic stories. A submissive’s work is never done!

The Moon and elf Inn

(A review of Moonkissed and SubVerse’s first stall held at the London Fetish Fair 2/12/2001)

I arrived at the fair later than planned, at 11.30 am, so was unexpectedly pleased to be given a prime stall location in the main foyer of the fair next door to the bar.

I had been busy the day before sorting through SubVerse’s ever increasing collection of merchandise, which now includes tea-shirts, tea-mugs, unassertiveness workbooks, passivity packs, poetry booklets, little books, bookmarks, calenders, notebooks, notelets, newsletters and various pamphlets and leaflets. I also produced two promotional leaflets about two future SubVerse projects, SubCulture, a project celebrating various aspects of SM-arts and SubVoices, the SubVerse talking poetry book project, to distribute on the stall.

The fair was slow to get going, although I enjoyed using the slow time to soak in the exotic atmosphere of the fair. When the business started to pick up, I was very pleased with the response to the stall. First of all the most popular item for sale were the little books of SM limericks.

By lunch time the fair had become very busy and the Moon and elf Inn was attracting many people over for a chat. A lot of people were interested in the poetry website and meetings and I managed to distribute all the SubVerse Gathering leaflets. Highlights for me included one customer who recited Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94 to me, which I hope to include in the next booklet and an interesting conversation with another customer about Erica Jong’s poetry.

After lunch Moonman and sofia from Moonkessed came along to help out on the stall, which meant I was free to explore the rest of the fetish fair. I had my aura read by a friendly witch. She told me I was a caring earth mother, easily burdened with other people’s problems and needing structure and discipline in my life, all of which my boyfriend agreed with. Later I bumped into mythical enchantress and MRK from the London Based BDSM group and chatted to them about Christmas happenings before heading back to the stall.

Back at the stall sofia told me she had sold two SubVerse poetry booklets and there had been a lot of interest in Moonkissed and SubVerse. We packed up about mid-afternoon after having spent a very enjoyable time chatting to people and publicising Moonkissed and SubVerse, we didn’t make much money but we all agreed it had been a success in many positive ways.

The First SubVerse Unassertiveness Workshop

(Review of event held on 21^st July 2001)

The first SubVerse Unassertiveness Workshop went down very well with our first ten participants. The workshop was presented by two SubVerse Writers, Voxx and elle. Unfortunately the workshop got off to a late start so SubVerse took the opportunity of selling its paraphernalia before the workshop began, the booklets were very popular, the first hand-painted SubVerse tea mug was sold and an order was received for a large male SubVerse vanilla lavender tea-shirt.

The workshop began with an “introduction to unassertiveness” by elle finn, followed by the first exercise which was to choose what exercises we would be doing. The most popular item for discussion was “Spotlighting Submission” which led to a lively debate on what was attractive about unassertive and submissive people. Attractive unassertive qualities that came up were sweetness, politeness, accommodation and easiness. Someone commented that the mainstream view was that unassertive people weren’t attractive, which led me to make a short autobiographical speech about how much better I have felt about myself after discovering a home for my submissiveness in BDSM. The same person also made a point about submissive people being wide open to abuse, to which I made the point about how important responsibility and trustworthiness were for unassertiveness to be a positive way of life.

The second item we did was the Introducing Unassertiveness opening exercise, which involved people adopting an unassertive posture (a lot of people chose to kneel) and replying “Yes I will” to the introductory workshop question that was asked of them.

The next exercise was called “The right sub for the job” and involved six potential SubVerse poetry tea maids serving tea in a variety of styles. After being served tea in an angry, sullen, paradoxical, helpful, enthusiastic and flamboyant manner, our interviewer for the day concluded that the helpful manner was the only one where he felt like he was being served, as the manner focussed on the other rather than the self. Curiously, this style was the least popular style among the potential tea maids.

The next exercise was “A thing of beauty” which was a thinking and writing exercise about what it felt like to be someone’s beautiful object and how it felt being owned, being beautiful and being an object. The exercise brought out many beautiful, poetic musings, which I’m hoping may get donated to SubVerse.

The workshop ended with people being given their SubVerse Certificates in true submissiveness or real dominance and writing down what they thought about SubVerse Writers and the Unassertiveness Workshop. People thought the workshop was thought-provoking, evocative and challenging. They also said they would have liked a prompt start, more practical exercises and a proper ending, all of which I am working on for next time.

The next SubVerse Unassertiveness Workshop will be taking place on the 19^th August at the Firm’s Medieval Fayre. I would like to take the opportunity to thank SM Pride and The Firm for agreeing to host the SubVerse unassertiveness workshops.

The Softer Side of S&M

(Review of speech given on 9/5/1 at Wadham College, Oxford University)

I had a lovely evening when I went to Wadham College, Oxford University to give my speech on “The Softer Side of S&M” on the 9^th May 2001. My friend said that Wadham College had a reputation for being open-minded, receptive to unconventional ideas and a bit off-centre and that she thought the students would be very friendly, warm and welcoming of me, which they were. Before I did my speech I also had dinner with the students in the college dining room, it was an interesting meal especially the “flambéed banana”.

I was very pleased with how the speech went. I was very nervous but I had a clear idea of what I was doing and where I was going which helped enormously. I had typed everything I was going to say and had been amending it during the week. However I was so nervous the day of the speech that I found myself chatting around the subject sections, rather than reading them out, in my practice run. I think it was very good I ended up doing this, as when it came to the night, my speech ended up with me chatting around certain subjects and reading out other bits from the speech. Although I was nervous, people were surprised it was the first speech I’d given, as it was very well organised.

Elements of the speech that went down particularly well were the SubVerse mission statement, the submissive people FAQs, the safety guide for BDSM beginners and Feminism and BDSM. I did have a poem I was going to recite, but it just didn’t feel the right time or place for a poem, so I left it out. The OHP transparencies were also helpful in breaking up the speech and defining certain points. The question and answer session went really well, my friend said that that was the best bit as I really came alive in that section, whereas I’d been more nervous during the speech. I enjoyed the question and answer session more than doing the speech, but I felt I received a warm reception to both.

Topics that came up during the speech and from the questions afterwards, which I think I should think about more and incorporate for next time are, how BDSM got its name, sub space, the difference between BDSM and abuse and The Spanner Case. The handouts went down really well and I sold two SubVerse booklets, I also had a nice chat with a lady from the Wadham College GLB group.

After the speech I sat in the college bar with the students and drank a lot of much needed Guinness. My friend and I were booked into the guest room at the neighbouring Balliol College, which was very beautiful and had the most gorgeous gardens and trees. All in all it was a lovely experience of making my first public speech on the subject of BDSM. When I told the Student Union Event Organiser that it was the first speech I’d ever given he said “it’s downhill from now on”. We shall see!

London Poetry Reading

(Review of SubVerse’s vanilla debut in January 2001)

SubVerse’s vanilla debut was at “Unplugged Music, Poetry and Weird Things”, a weekly event hosted by the Human Sound Wave Company. It took place at the Finborough Arms near Earl’s Court tube on Saturday 27^th January, following a very enjoyable SubVerse Gathering.

I was very nervous, worrying how my submissive poetry was going to go down with a vanilla audience. Ernesto was also a bit nervous, I think it was catching.

The other acts of the evening were unusual, entertaining and interesting. The venue was warm, prettily exotic and very comfortable. The organisers were friendly, open and welcoming. They accepted SubVerse leaflets for their information table.

Our turn came in the middle of the first half. SubVerse’s