DISABLED EROTICS

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

​Disabled Erotics examines the tension between BDSM and kink as liberatory practices and their enmeshment within the prison and medical industrial
complexes. This class will explore histories of key figures such as Bob Flanagan, Sheree Rose, Audre Lorde, and Johanna Hedva, watch films by David Cronenberg and Shu Lea Cheang, and engage with Amber Jamilla Musser's book Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism, specifically the chapter on Flanagan and Lorde. Students will engage in creative exercises including Pain Journals inspired by Flanagan’s text, and a piece exploring sensation other than sight inspired by Lorde. Through this class, students will think complexly about touch, intimacy, eroticism, kink, and BDSM in ways that combine the political and the personal.
Thursdays, 6-8 EST (3-5 PM PST)
​Online on Zoom
120 minute sessions, 5 weeks
June 25 - July 23, 2026
$125 - $375 Tuition
Select scholarships and solidarity rate discounts available upon request.

INSTRUCTORS

Mae Howard’s interdisciplinary approach extends across research-based, participatory, and collaborative projects. Calling upon lineages of disabled labor economies, Mae is interested in the embodied, fleshly, and material enmeshment of BDSM, the medical industrial complex, leather histories, biopolitics, and debilitation. Howard received an MFA and Certificate in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies from The University of Pennsylvania. They are an alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program and have recently completed residencies at Bemis Center, Pioneer Works, BricLab, ACRE, BAX Arts, Pocoapoco, Activation Residency, and Picture Berlin, Their work has been screened and exhibited at Dia Chelsea, GHOSTMACHINE, Westbeth Gallery, Vox Populi, Atelier Gallery, Automat Gallery, Ingrown Gallery, tête, and gr__und. Howard has taught, given lectures and participated on panels at the Migros Museum, Max Planck Institute, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Pratt University, Dia Art Foundation, Brown University, Smith College, University of Pennsylvania, and Abrons Arts Center.

Fluent is a transsexual leatherdyke.
Image credit: Perri Cohl