Portals to Overwhelm: Exploring Psychological Edge Play / Wednesday, May 15th

Note: when signing up for classes online, please choose the "Class sign-up" free shipping option on the Shipping Method page at check-out. 

This class will be held LIVE online via Zoom — Zoom links are sent out 3 days prior and then again 1 hour prior to class. If you sign up within 3 days, please be patient in waiting for the final reminder email, which will be sent out 1 hour prior to the class.

The class will be recorded and available for a limited time shortly following the class. Registration deadline: 1 hour prior to class Pacific time. No day-of cancellations.

Wednesday, May 15th — 6pm - 8pm Pacific

Psychological edge play scenes provoke disquieting states of psychic overwhelm. They provide participants with emotional experiences of dangling over a cliff, of feeling their bodies and hearts filled beyond capacity as they share the fear, anticipation, and terrifying ordeal of being seen and held in the rawness of their being and becoming.

This 2-hour class with Empress Wu and Lucie Fielding is designed to transcend and push the limits of the traditional workshop format and provide participants with a visceral experience. As they present workshop material, they will execute a psychological edge play scene that includes you, the audience, in voyeuristic complicity.

In this workshop we will discuss:

• Why people might engage in psychological edge play
• What can be experienced in psychological edge play
• Forms psychological edge play might take, as well as scene ideas
• Negotiation and risk-aware consent considerations for co-creating scenes

Together, let's explore edge play not as a shocking spectacle or a risk-laden set of fantasies, but as a field of possibility, a yearning for mutual entanglement, and a precious gift of co-presence.

Content note: This workshop will include a live demo scene. Due to the emotionally intense nature of psychological edge play, and the fact that it can involve conscious and intentional exploration of trauma material, workshop attendees are encouraged to anticipate and tend to their needs as well as make arrangements for aftercare.

Empress Wu (all pronouns) is a dominatrix and cultural activist practicing in NYC and beyond. Their work explores the performance of intimacy, through digital landscapes, queer SM, sexual labor, ancestral ritual, conflict, and more. Her work in all its forms have been seen at MoMA PS1, Performa Biennial, Brown University, and probably a dungeon near you.

Lucie Fielding (she/they) is a neuroqueer, trans misogyny-affected (TMA) leatherfemme. They are a sex therapist, a sex educator, and the author of Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments, which was named a 2022 Lambda Literary Award finalist and was the recipient of book awards from AASECT and SSTAR. She is presently working on a second book, co-written with Tristan Taormino, and also writes t4t queer kink MDlo erotica under her scene name.

Due to our commitment to paying educators fairly, all classes are excluded from sales and discounts.