DISABLED EROTICS

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 in kink scenes such as Bob Flanagan, Sheree Rose, Audre Lorde, and Sheila Courser, read sections of Alice Wong's new Disability Intimacy, and engage with Amber Jamilla Musser's book Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism, specifically the chapter on Bob Flanagan and Audre Lorde. Students will create week-long pain journals inspired by Flanagan's 1995 text Pain Journals and engage with Audre Lorde's Uses of the Erotic through a creative project highlighting sensation other than sight. Through this class, students will think complexly about touch, intimacy, eroticism, kink, and BDSM in ways that combine the political and the personal.

This class will be held in person at the Abrons Arts Center with a hybrid option for those with access needs. Masks are mandatory.  
THIS CLASS IS AVAILBLE IN PERSON
​AT ABRONS ARTS CENTER:
466 Grand Street, NY, NY

MONDAYS 6-9 PM EST
October 14th - November 4th, 2024
4 sessions +
culminating share out on Thursday November 14th
$350 Tuition
BIPOC sliding scale available
50% low income discount available
+ $25 non-refundable registration fee

INSTRUCTOR

Mae Howard is a visual artist whose interdisciplinary approach extends across research-based, participatory, and collaborative projects ranging from lens-based media, sculpture, installation, and performance. Calling upon lineages of disabled/trans labor economies, Mae is interested in the embodied, fleshly, and material enmeshment of BDSM, the medical industrial complex, biopolitics, and disability. Their work explores the residue of discard, debilitation, and excess. They were a 2023-2024 fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program and a 2024 fellow in EmergeNYC through BAX Arts. They have been a resident at pocoapoco, Picture Berlin, and ACRE. Their work has been exhibited in New York, Berlin, Mexico City, and Philadelphia. Mae lives and works on occupied Lenape and Canarsie land. http://www.maehoward.com
Image credit:  Crip Gimp, by Mae Howard
This program is made possible through the generous support of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).