Presenters

Ivan E. Coyote was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. An award-winning author of five collections of short stories, one novel, two CD’s, four short films and a renowned performer, Ivan’s first love is live storytelling. Over the last fifteen years Ivan has become an audience favourite at music, poetry, spoken word and writer’s festivals from Anchorage to Amsterdam. The Globe and Mail called Ivan “a natural-born storyteller” and Ottawa X Press said, “Coyote is to CanLit what k.d. lang is to country music: a beautifully odd fixture.” Toronto Star praises Coyote’s “talent for sketching the bizarre in the everyday”, and Quill’s Magazine says Ivan has a “distinctive and persuasive voice, a flawless sense of pacing, and an impeccable sense of story.” Ivan’s column, Loose End has appeared monthly in Xtra West magazine since 2001. Coyote’s first novel, Bow Grip, was released in the fall of 2006, and was awarded the Relit award for best fiction and named by the American Library Association as a Stonewall honor book in literature. Ivan recently completed an eight month writer in residence at Carleton University in Ottawa, and is hard at work on her second novel. Her fifth collection of stories, The Slow Fix, was released in September, and has been nominated for a Lambda award.

Session: Bootcamp For Procrastinators – A Writing Workshop.

Malkia “Mac” Amala Cyril is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice (http://cmj.centerformediajustice.org/) in Oakland, CA.- a national media strategy and action center building a powerful grassroots movement for racial and economic justice through media change. Key projects include the Media Justice Movement-Building Initiative, the Justice Communications Initiative, as well as training and tools to help grassroots organizers and leaders become better strategic storytellers and media activists. Malkia’s history as a media and movement strategist is informed by h/er organizing and communications work at We Interrupt This Message and the Applied Research Center, the Community Organizing Team, Youth Together, and the Youth Force Coalition in the SF Bay Area. As a queer, working class African-Am/Caribbean born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Malkia’s belief in media change as a core strategy for social justice is based in her experience as the daughter of a black panther mom. “I watched how media bias helped destroy a movement, and I believe in the power of strategic stories to help raise it again.” Malkia is author of numerous articles on movement-building, political organizing, strategic communications, and media policy change, and creative works in anthologies such as Aloud, Afrekete, and In the Tradition. As an artist, organizer, and communications strategist- Malkia hopes h/er leadership and commitment to struggle speaks beautifully and humbly for itself.

Session: Sunday Keynote

Cynthia Degnan is a volunteer and former intern at the LGBT Resource Center at UC Davis, where she is a Graduate Student in the Department of English. She is currently working on a dissertation that examines the relationship between representations of children and queerness in 20th century American lit and film.

Session: Reclaiming Butch/Femme: Who’s Heteronormative?

PaPa Dino PaPa Dino “You can always count on PaPa Dino for a number that is ‘mucho suave.’ He likes to tease the ladies, but he has a little bit of something for everyone. Welcome to the stage the smooth and sexy stylings of PaPa Dino.” – Heather MacAllister, Founder and Artistic Director of Big Burlesque and the Fat-Bottom Revue. www.bigburlesque.com

Session: Butch Burlesque

Kelli Dunham (www.kellidunham.com) is a New York based activist, author, stand up comic and registered nurse who grew up in the beet and beef land of rural Wisconsin. She has two comedy CDs, “I am NOT a 12 Year Old Boy” and “Almost Pretty” to her credit as well as four published books of light-hearted nonfiction. She was one of the co-founders of the Philadelphia Dyke March and was a long time board member of Sisterspace of the Delaware Valley. She identifies as gender queer/butch/boi depending on which day you ask her.

Session: Improv Meets Activism: The Nuts and Bolts of Healthcare Advocacy

Cheryl Dunye, a native of Liberia, holds an MFA from Rutgers University. Her third feature film, Miramax’s, My Baby’s Daddy, was a box office success. Her second feature, HBO Films’, Stranger Inside, garnered her an Independent Spirit award nomination for best director. Dunye’s debut film, The Watermelon Woman, was awarded the Teddy Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Her other works have premiered at film festivals and museums worldwide. Dunye served on the boards of Outfest, the DGA, and the IFP. She has been honored with a Community Vision Award from National Center for Lesbian Rights, a Creative Excellence Award from Women in Film and Television, and a Fusion Award from Outfest. Dunye was selected as one of the 2008 PowerUp Top Ten Women In Showbiz and one of the 2009 Go Magazine’s 100 Women We Love. She is presently working on a new film, The Owls, a lesbian noir thriller about butch menopause, relationships and murder.

Session: Is That Me on TV?

Clair Farley is a community leader and mentor working to support transgender people as they overcome barriers in their personal and professional lives. She is dedicated to creating safe and equal workplaces that do not discriminate based on gender identity or expression. She is the star of the documentary film Red without Blue in which she and her family share their beautiful story of transition and change against all odds. Clair coordinates the Mentorship and Outreach components of Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative (www.teeisf.org), the first coordinated program to help transgender and gender-nonconforming people find sustainable jobs in safe workplaces.

Session: Non Conforming Gender Presentation and Job Searching

Krys Freeman is a genderqueer masculine identified lesbian writer, viral media strategist and activist. In 2007 s/he graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in Urban & Environmental Policy and a minor in Critical Theory & Social Justice. In 2008 s/he served as a Media Fellow for Communities of African Descent at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation where s/he helped to develop the voices of straight ally, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people for media outlets like the New York Times and Essence Magazine.

Krys describes herself as a “diligent, dissident, queer woman thinker” on her blog, at http://www.blaktivist.com. Some of her writing has been published on AOL.com and Wiretapmag.org. S/he also manages a social networking community s/he created for transgender men and masculine identified lesbians called “The Definition,” at http://beydonstud.ning.com, launched in August of 2008. Though a native New Yorker, Krys now resides in the conference’s host city Oakland, CA while she prepares to pursue a graduate degree in Urban Planning.

Session: Creating Spaces for Lone Wolves & Intergenerational Panel

Sasha T. Goldberg is a masculinity enthusiast. She is also a believer in queer advocacy and social justice, and, accordingly, has organized conferences, film festivals, fundraisers, workshops, and events, as well as having spoken extensively on sexuality, gender, and identity. In her professional life, Sasha is the Assistant Director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality, and holds a Masters in Judaism from the Graduate Theological Union. When not busy espousing the lustiness of the masculine or being a professional Jew, Sasha enjoys strong coffee, analysis, bromance, second helpings of pie, and spending time with her pack. Sasha hails from the good Midwestern stock of the United States, and has long since made her home in San Francisco.

Sessions: Bulldagger: A Discussion for Woman-Identified, Female Pronoun Using Butches & King-Sized: Fat Butches and Boys on Well-Built Masculinity

Grey studied the self-defense martial art of Ki-Aikido for several years and also participated in street self-defense classes as a presenter (Self-Awareness for Empowerment – SAFE) and student (Impact: Model Mugging). As an out and visible African-American butch (writer and director of 1993 video, The Nia Project: Images of African-American Lesbians), Grey is keenly aware of the importance of developing skills for maintaining emotional, physical and spiritual safety. Grey resides in Chicago.

Session: Butch in the Streets: Techniques for Increasing Your Safety in Public

Melanie Hagan is a fat nelly nerdy butch who will be a parent, one way or another. She currently makes her home in Portland, where she is completely devoted to her little tiny dog, Frances McDormutt. A behind-the-scenes lawyer by day, she enjoys watching nerdy television programs, finding new places for gay brunch, and planning frequent trips to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Session: Butches Having Babies

Minal Hajratwala is a San Francisco performer, poet, femme barracuda, and author of the nonfiction book Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents. (http://www.minalhajratwala.com)

Session: Writing Our Desire

Jack Halberstam is Professor of English and Gender Studies at USC. Halberstam works in the areas of popular, visual and queer culture with an emphasis on subcultures. Halberstam’is the author of Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (1995), a study of popular gothic cultures of the 19^th and 20^th centuries; Female Masculinity (1998), a study of non-male masculinity; and In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (2005), a theory of queer reconfigurations of time and space in relation to subcultural scenes and the emergence of transgender visibility. Halberstam was also the co-author with Del LaGrace Volcano of a photo/essay book, The Drag King Book (1999), and with Ira Livingston of an anthology, Posthuman Bodies (1995). Halberstam regularly speaks on visual culture and recently wrote catalogue essays for Austrian artist Inez Doujak, and Australian performance group, The Kingpins. Halberstam is currently finishing one book titled “Notes on Failure” and starting another on “Bats.”

Latasha Hampton also known as Frat Elaborate of Alpha Lambda Zeta Fraternity, Inc. became a member of the fraternity on Apr 21, 2007. She is currently the President of the Western Region of Alpha Lambda Zeta Fraternity. Elaborate joined the Fraternity because she wanted to be apart of an organization dedicated to positively representing the professional Ag, stud, dom womyn and one committed to uplifting the LGBT community through Service. Latasha Hampton has dedicated her life to service to her community and her Country by serving in the U.S. Army as a Military Intelligence Officer and she currently works as a Police Officer for City of Tempe Police Department in Arizona.

Session: LGBT Greek Life

Mira Ingram is indigenous (Blackfoot), butch, disabled, a former drag king, and a lifelong activist, drawing connections between – and fighting – many forms of oppression.

Session: Enabling What? Exploring Disability, Gender and Sexuality

Bev Jo/Slake is a 58 year old working-class Lifelong Lesbian and Butch, disabled with chronic illness, European-descent with some Native American ancestry. She’s been an activist in the Lesbian community since 1970, and worked on one of the first Lesbian conferences in 1972, co-wrote one of the first radical Lesbian newspapers in 1973, Dykes and Gorgons, worked in the A Woman’s Place Bookstore and the Lesbian Coffee and Lesbian collectives, taught self defense to females for 10 years and was part of The Dojo (a women’s Jujitsu school). She’s continued working on Lesbian-only events over the years. She’s co-written the book, Dykes-Loving-Dykes, which includes a chapter about Butch reality and oppression, as well as articles and poetry published internationally in journals and anthologies.

Session: Intergenerational Panel

Jaron Kanegson, 38, is at long last a parent after many twists and turns along the way. Though ambivalent about my actual experience of pregnancy, I am so happy and grateful that my son Asher (8 months in August) is here– enough so that I’d like to do the whole thing again soon. A single parent, I’m currently about to transition out of my position as a social worker in foster care/adoption, and would also like to adopt children myself in the future

Session: Butches Having Babies

Lenn Keller is an African American, self-identified feminist butch, photographer, filmmaker and writer. She hails from Chicago, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years. She is recovering from Lyme Disease and is the producer/director of a feature length documentary (in production since 2001) entitled, A Persistent Desire, that celebrates and affirms butch & femme identities and dynamics from a feminist perspective.

Session: Enabling What? Exploring Disability, Gender and Sexuality

Paige Kruza is a white queer butch woman who identifies as stone and likes her leather. A proud New Englander, she just moved to the Bay Area from Boston, where she did work in queer and trans communities around civil rights, health and human services, and grassroots fundraising. She is committed to economic justice, public health work, and multi-issue organizing. Her favorite things are: her dog and high femme cat, efforts to end partner abuse and oppression, and action plans.

Session: Classic or Classy? Exploring class in butch-femme communities

Sophia Lanza-Weil is a queer femme with rough edges, happily identified as an old-school, working class and feminist femme. She is committed to anti-oppression work in activism and communities, and currently works as a union organizer. She has been involved with various queer and trans groups across the country; and has also worked with HIV/AIDS advocacy and education, youth sexual health advocacy, and immigrant, worker and women’s rights groups in the US and in Mexico. Sophia adores high-heeled boots, motorcycles, books and traveling.

Session: Classic or Classy? Exploring class in butch-femme communities

Joe LeBlanc is a Cajun Genderqueer Butch who divides his time between being an activist, poet, photographer, and music junkie. Joe is a believer in personal story-telling as a significant method for people to share experiences and solidify a better understanding about LGBTIQ identities, issues, and concerns. In the past, he has served as a member of the University of Michigan’s Spectrum Center Speakers’ Bureau and TransGender Michigan. He has also worked as a part-time volunteer marketing intern for Homofactus Press, and is a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. He’s presented panel workshops at the 2008 Borders & Bridges Conference, as well as the 2008 Femme Conference.

An advocate for building Queer community wherever possible, both in person and in on-line forums devoted to Queer issues, Joe possesses eclectic tastes in music and books. He is also a fan of taking way too many photographs, most of which never get seen. Joe enjoys endless conversations about gender and sexuality, interlaced with talks about pop culture and fighting prejudice. You can usually find him on-line or at a Starbucks basking in the coffee afterglow.

Sessions: Intergenerational Panel & Fathoming Each Other: A Community Healing through Witnessed Mediation and Heartshare

Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman has served as the spiritual leader of Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative congregations, and taught in academic institutions including the University of Judaism, California State University Northridge, and Loyola Marymount University. Prior to becoming the Western Regional Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, she was the spiritual leader of gay outreach congregations Kol Simcha and Sha’ar Zahav, and is the author of numerous articles and essays on feminism, creative liturgy, contemporary theology and queer theory. Her article on Jewish views of gender expression, “If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit” in New Jewish Feminism, is considered one of the most comprehensive and accessible discussions of the subject.

Session: Is God Butch?

Dante Javier Diego Mandala is a fat, super furry, shapeshifting, study in contrasts. He is a working class, masculine, multi-racial, perverted size queen, who has big love for the chubby chunks, fat femmes, husky boys, and big ass butches, (especially for our elders who cleared the way). He is long time member of the Bay Area queer community and has recently relocated to Durham, NC where he is loving thunderstorms, fireflies, and growing tomatoes. He can be reached at genderoutlaw@gmail.com or http://www.facebook.com/dmandala.

Session: King Sized: Fat Butches and Boys on Well-Built Masculinity

Jill Nagle is a community healer, mediator, published author, screenwriter, and sometimes performer. She’s mama to a six-year-old son, co-founder of and blogger at awakeparent.com, and girlfriend of a transfluid butch. Her first book is Whores and Other Feminists, and her second, a coedited volume, is Male Lust: Pleasure, Power and Transformation. Her work has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals. Her character Dick van Dyke was first runner up in the 2005 San Francisco Drag King competition, in which she performed with the late and much loved and respected Heather McAlister, founder of Big Burlesque and Fat Bottom Revue. For a number of years, Jill identified (and behaved) as a “Girl Fag,” making a little ripple in the sexual identity conversation pond. She is seeking a producer for her screenplay First Crack, about a rookie journalist who investigates a psychotherapy cult and almost gets sucked in.

Session: Fathoming Each Other: A Community Healing through Witnessed Mediation and Heartshare

Joan Norry has been involved in the organized leather community since 1999 with the Alameda County Leather Corps. She served asMs. Alameda County Leather in 2006 and just completed a year as American Leatherwoman 2008 in July.

She has been interested in the leather lifestyle and what it means on a personal level since High School when she got her first pair of handcuffs and used to bring her girlfriend to class on a leash. She personally believes in consensual choices, safe and sane sexual relationships, and the rest of the titles are based on individual preference. She prefers not to limit herself with a label or a box that identifies her for others’ comfort and acceptance, and she believes in the right to privacy in the bedroom and in the community.

Kimberly Peirce is a self-identified butch who has staked her place as a director of singular vision and craft with her unflinching debut feature film, Boys Don’t Cry. Upon its release, Boys Don’t Cry became one of the most acclaimed and talked about films of the year, earning many honors, including the Best Actress Oscar for the film’s star, Hilary Swank, as well as a Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Awards, NY and LA Critics Awards, and the National Board of Review Award. Her most recent film, Stop-Loss, is a topical and emotionally penetrating drama inspired by the real-life stories of American soldiers, including her own brother, fighting in Iraq and coming home. She was honored with the Hamilton Behind the Camera True-Grit Directing Award for the film. Kimberly is a storyteller who focuses on identity related stories and is familiar with navigating the business and media world as a butch. She is currently working on a romantic sex comedy for Universal and Judd Apatow. Kimberly received her BA from the University of Chicago and MFA from Columbia University, and she is a graduate of the Sundance Institute’s Writing and Directing Film Lab programs.

Sessions: Is That Me on TV? and Boys Don’t Cry and Beyond: A Conversation Between Jack Halberstam and Kim Peirce

Vanessa “Vinny” Prell dedicated one quarter of his life to anti-oppression work, and continues these efforts as the Executive Director of the National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students (NUJLS). An old hand at program development and workshop leading, she has conducted workshops on topics as varied as becoming an ally, sex education, religion and abortion, and rape culture. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with honors, and degrees in Literature and the Study of Racism, and is honored to serve on the Social Action/Social Justice Committee of Bet Mishpachah, Washington DC’s egalitarian Synagogue embracing a diversity of sexual and gender identities.

Sessions: Politics of Passing & King-Sized: Fat Butches and Boys on Well-Built Masculinity

Ami Puri is a bike creature and filmmaker spawned by a mixed Punjabi and white family. A genderqueer of FTM descent, Ami dreams of global cultural change that re-centers the values of playful, just and creative sharing of resources.

Session: Gender Transgressive Individuals of the Asian Diaspora

Q, often known by her easily identifiable blonde mohawk, is a two time award-winning bootblack and aspiring presenter, both within and outside of the leather community. An activist for over 15 years, Q consistently makes strides to bridge the communities to which she belongs. Her most recent journey as a titleholder in the leather community provided her with the opportunity to continue a rich tradition of education, while indulging her activist side. It’s well known that flirting is Q’s default mode of communication. She can often be found with a charming smile on her face, or looking mischievous with the other bois.

Session: Flirt Like You Mean It

Loren Quon, I identify as, well, Loren. Other stuff: I’m a mixed-raced, butch-leaning androgynous dyke and I’ve been involved in the leather-scene for mumble-mumble years. I am the proud owner of chris and the spouse/submissive of General Elaine (damned proud of that too).

Session: Butches in Leather

Jai Arun Ravine is a writer, dancer, performer and visual artist. Jai has published work most recently in Yellow as Tumeric, Fragrant as Cloves from Deep Bowl Press, Tinfish 18, and Across and Between the Void from Achiote Press. Jai performs with The Rice Kings, a bay area A&PI drag king troupe, and is the author of The Spiderboi Files, a choose-your-own-gender graphic novel. Jai performed at the 2008 Trans March and exhibited visual art at the 2008 Fresh Meat in the Gallery. trans/verse: http://eucalyptusraven.blogspot.com/; the spiderboi files: http://spiderboifiles.blogspot.com/; the rice kings: http://thericekings.blogspot.com/

Photo Credit: Christine Pan and Mia Nakano Photography

Session: Gender Transgressive Individuals of the Asian Diaspora

Laura Rifkin, Ph.D., Jewish femme, is the creative catalyst/midwife of “Fabled Asp”- Fabulous/Activist Bay Area Lesbians with Disabilities: A Storytelling Project. To learn more: www.fabledasp.com. Her recent work has been published in the open issue of Sinister Wisdom. She has been creatively living with a disability for over 30 years and has been actively exploring butch/femme identities and chemistry for longer than that!

Session: Enabling What? Exploring Disability, Gender and Sexuality

Margo Rivera-Weiss loves delicious words, making visual art and short films. Made in Miami, lives in Oakland. Butch & Queer. Latin@ & Jewish. (http://www.margoriveraweiss.com)

Session: Writing Our Desire

Sophie Rogers-Gessert is a recent escapee from an international think-tank. In her newfound role as a fugitive, she plans to work on poetry, painting, photography, theater, and the unsung art of doing interpretive dance in her living room. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in philosophy and linguistic anthropology, Sophie has also appeared as a lead actor in The Vagina Monologues, Defying Gravity, and Private Eyes. And though she currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with Nico Carbellano (and no cats), she will always remember her tree-hugging, earth-saving roots in Eugene, Oregon.

Session: Getting What You Want: Sexual Boundaries for Tops, Bottoms, and Everything in Between

Dr. Diane Sabin and Jewelle Gomez were engaged for 16 years before being married in 2008. They were among the co-founders of 100 Lesbians & Our friends, a philanthropic/educational venture. Dr. Sabin is the Executive Director of the Lesbian Health and Research Center. Ms. Gomez is the author of seven books.

Session: Butch/Femme Communications: Not Ozzie. Not Harriet.

Syndy Sharp is a fat, differently abled Butch dyke living in Oakland. She is currently working on a book of poetry about kink, disability and sexuality.

Session: Enabling What? Exploring Disability, Gender and Sexuality

Davey Shlasko is a multi-issue educator, author, and activist, and Program Coordinator of the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative (www.teeisf.org), the first coordinated program to help transgender and gender-nonconforming people find sustainable jobs in safe workplaces. As a consultant and trainer, Davey helps individuals and organizations to develop cultural competence and work effectively for positive change. Davey is passionate about removing barriers so that everybody can exercise self-determination of their gender, their bodies, their work and their live

Session: Non Conforming Gender Presentation and Job Searching

Miriam Theus also known as Frat Moksha of Alpha Lambda Zeta Fraternity, Inc. became a member of the Fraternity April 19, 2009. Miriam joined this organization looking for a bond with professional womyn like myself that was drama-free and was dedicated to making a difference in the world. Miriam currently works as a Traffic Officer.

Session: LGBT Greek Life

Morningstar Vancil identifies as Two-Spirit and Butch, and as a folk-artist, veteran, and community builder. Morningstar was born in Cavite City, Philippines and her family ancestry is Asian (Filipino), Native American (Mohican tribe), and Black Negritos (African). Morningstar came to the United States to gain political asylum in 1984, after the assassination of Benigno Aquino in 1983 and the start of the popular uprising now called People Power. She left the Philippines to resist the Marcos administration’s policy of civil disturbance and use of the military to quell citizen dissent. Morningstar has been an advocate for People of Color (POC) in the areas of: immigration, human rights, domestic partnership, and tribal alliance-building. She has been clean and sober since 1991. She served as a volunteer for the Two-Spirit Groups’ Archives of the LGBT Historical Society, spoken on POC panel discussions, and co-founded ForS/mWoC, an organization dedicated to creating an equal and harmonious relationship among the S/M communities. She is a member of Kreatibo (a queer-pinay performance troupe), Butch Magic (a drag king troupe), Fat Bottom Revue (Big Burlesque), and Neshkinukat, a coalition of Native American artists in Northern California. Morningstar is a founding member and former officer of the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits and serves on the LGBT Advisory Board of the Human Rights Commission (City of San Francisco) and is presently LGBT board member of American Cancer Society. She is life-partner to Rae Suber. She is also recovering from gynecological cancer, diagnosed in 2003, and has been very active in creating community for lesbian survivors of this disease.

Session: Enabling What? Exploring Disability, Gender and Sexuality

Jay Walls is a Butch artist, film maker, and proud parent of 5 children. Born and raised in Texas, she and her partner of 9 years moved to Seattle in 2001 after Jay received a degree in Fine Art/Art History. Jay enjoys creating art in a variety of mediums, including photography, drawing, painting, and mixed media. Jay’s work encompasses a variety of subject matters and ideas including the concept of her evolving identity through a series of self portraits she has created over the last 10 years. She is currently a stay at home parent, and has never worked harder in her life!

Session: How is That Your Mom? Isn’t He a Boy?

Willy Wilkinson is an award-winning writer and public health consultant who provides LGBT cultural competency training and technical assistance throughout California, with an emphasis on transgender equality. Willy performs spoken word in the recently released film, Against a Trans Narrative (Jules Rosskam, director), and is interviewed in Diagnosing Difference, a film about Gender Identity Disorder (Annalise Ophelian, director). Both films are currently playing queer film festivals worldwide. Willy lives in Oakland with his beautiful, irreverent wife Georgia, their charming, mischievous three year-old son Skyler, and their daughter, who will make her entrance into the world moments before the conference. www.willywilkinson.com

Session: Gender Transgressive Individuals of the Asian Diaspora

Rope Wolf has taught classes at National Leather Assoc-Dallas, Exiles S.F., International MsLeather, S.F. Citadel, Leather Levi Weekend, Mayhem Canada and privately on a variety of topics including: Erotic Dominance/submission (D/s), 24/7, knife play, beginning bondage, beginner fisting, fire play and Mind Fucks/Mental Games. Hy is a member of Alameda County Leather Corps, Exiles, MasT (Masters and slaves Together) and co-founder of www.ButchFemmeSocials.com.

Session: Butches in Leather

Erica Woodland, a self-identified black lesbian stud, is an Oakland transplant, born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She is an activist, organizer, and social worker and has spent more than six years practicing harm reduction, prison abolition, and HIV/STD prevention within communities most impacted by poverty, racism, misogyny and homophobia.

Session: Constructing Black Fe/Male Masculinity