PRESENTER BIOS

Anita Wagner is a polyamory advocate, writer, spokesperson and educator. She is an organizer of the 2009 Polyamory Leadership Summit, and serves as polyamory community advisor to CARAS - the Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of LovingMore®, is co-founder and past board member of Chesapeake Polyamory Network and is co-founder and former member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for 21st Century Relationships/the Foundation of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. She is also a past board member of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. She is a founding member of the Greater Washington Area chapter of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness. Anita has appeared on television in interviews on polyamory in Washington, DC and Baltimore, in newspaper articles in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and Salon.com, amongst many others, and has presented educational programs on polyamory at Good Vibrations, Sex 2.0, Dark Odyssey, Black Rose, Building Bridges, Free Spirit Beltane Gathering, Florida Poly Retreat, and the Loving More® Retreat. She was keynote speaker on polyamory and the media at Florida Poly Retreat 2008. She was a featured speaker at the 2007 and 2008 Polyamorous NYC Polyamory Pride celebrations. She authored articles on polyamory and bisexuality published in Loving More® Magazine and ITCR's Relating© newsletter, respectively.

Barbara Carrellas (urbantantra.org and barbaracarrellas.com) is the author of Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty First Century and Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure. She is the founder of Urban Tantra®, an approach to sacred sexuality that adapts and blends conscious sexuality practices from Tantra to BDSM, and the co-founder of Erotic Awakening, a pioneering series of workshops focusing on the physical, spiritual and healing powers of sex. Barbara was named Best Tantric Sex Seminar Leader in New York City by Time Out/NY Magazine for her Urban Tantra® workshops. Barbara delights in blurring the lines between sacred and profane, enlightened and perverted, pleasure and pain. This fall Barbara will be presenting new workshops in London and Stockholm, at Louise Hay's "I Can Do It" conference in Tampa, and the first ever Urban Tantra® Professional Training Course. Barbara is a proud graduate of the Coney Island Sideshow School with a double major in fire eating and snake handling.

Bobby lives in Pittsburgh as a polyamorous Dominant, sadist, and sexpig. He is a proud member of a Queer Leather Family of peers founded in 1995, Alpha Mates with Sir C, and actively searching for a household live-in slave. Outdoor group scenes (buried alive or woods cruising) and iconic indulgences (boots and cigars) are his favorite features of Summer Camp. Outside of Leather, he is a speaker, trainer, and transgender advocate in healthcare.

Capt. Gordon Staub has more than a decade of experience tattooing, piercing, and branding. He owns Time Bomb Productions - a tattoo studio in Frederick, MD - and brings his award-winning art to tattoo conventions and pagan festivals each year. Gordon uses various shamanic tools in his energetic workings, customizing tribally-inspired body modification practices to accommodate the needs of the community, clients, friends, and family. His drumming, dance, Reiki, visionary artistic eyes, skillfully dexterous hands, and warrior spirit all lend to his healing body transformation workings

Elkor and Margo Eve met at BR ‘99, and have been presenting together and separately for more than half of that time. A sensual Top with a dominant streak, Elkor is possessed of a quirky sense of humor and likes showing people they can enjoy the things he wants to do to them. Margo Eve has been involved in the scene for more years than she’s willing to admit and has given up on labeling herself. Their mutual interests often lead them to collaborate on class topics, and occasionally resort to flipping a coin to decide who gets to talk first. They both enjoy fire spinning, Poi, dancing, knives, good conversation and figuring out the best way to get into peoples’ heads.

Felice Shays: Where respect, sex, throwing people around, laughing, safety, and talking shit all intersect is where you’ll find Felice Shays; she’s a sex and BDSM educator and counselor who travels the US and Canada. Newly relocated to Portland OR, this Brooklyn girl has presented at a plethora of events for almost a decade including Black Rose, Pacific Friction, Dark Odyssey, Babeland, LSM, TES, Wicked Womyn, KinkFest, Safer SM, Tribal Fire, MOB, Come As You Are, The Exiles, Desire, Thunder In The Mountains, and IMsL. Felice is an ASL interpreter, and produces crazy-fun sex and BDSM parties for women and trans people. An accomplished performer, Felice will be touring her newest show, The Possibility Of Response, later this year. ThePossibiltyofResponse.com

Graydancer, Ninja Sex Poodle & Ronin of Love, comes from the venerable rope bondage tradition of Madison, WI, where he honed his craft to become the world premiere podcaster of rope bondage with "the Ropecast". He has presented and performed at venues across North America and is the creator of the GRUE (Graydancer's Ropetastic Unconference Extravaganza), a grass-roots kink event held in various cities. His writing has also been published in Secret, Power Exchange Magazine, and several anthologies published by the Ravenous Romance imprint. He is also the author of three self-published novels of erotic magic, Nawashi, Jujun, and the forthcoming Kumir. Currently Graydancer plies his trade as an itinerant rope top, burlesque performer and kink educator, smiting the evil of sloppy ends wherever they may lie.

Lady Hilary & Marine - Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Lady Hilary and Her Marine are celebrating 10 years together as Lady and 'property' this very weekend! And they couldn’t imagine a better place to celebrate 10 years together, than at DO Summer Camp. Lady Hilary and The Marine share a combined 40 years in the leather community and continue to contribute by volunteering and presenting for numerous groups including: The Exiles; Alameda Leather Corps; Santa Clara County Leather; SM Odyssey; The Citadel; The Society of Janus; Rio Grande Leather; Dark Odyssey; and Southwest Leather Conference. Lady Hilary’s guiding vision is to help individuals in the leather/kink community find their path toward a passionate life. Toward this end Lady Hilary and Her Marine envisioned, created, and now produce regular Vanguard Leather personal growth retreats (ask about Vanguard 10!) This weekend’s classes will include some of the material and exercises used in past and present Vanguard events. With joy, Lady Hilary maintains passionate, loving leather relationships with her beloved Marine, her boys Moose and Dr. Fruity and Her extended Leather Family both near and far.

Lee Harrington (PassionAndSoul.com) is an eclectic artist, spiritual and erotic educator, gender radical and published author on human sexuality and spiritual experience- including Rope, Bondage & Power, Shibari You Can Use: Japanese Rope Bondage and Erotic Macramé and The Toybag Guide to Age Play. Well known for his fun and informative approach to education, he approaches sexuality as yet another art to master, or simply an art to enjoy to its fullest! He has been an active part of the international kink and sex positive communities for 13 years, and his stories make people laugh while showing them that eroticism can be as serious, sexy, or silly as they make it. Lee's writings and photography have appeared in numerous anthologies including Dark Moon Rising: Pagan BDSM and the Ordeal Path (also under Bridgett Harrington), and his image has been seen everywhere from Playboy TV to Skin Two Magazine.

Lolita Wolf (http://leatheryenta.com/) discovered the BDSM scene back in the late 80's when “online” meant being on the phone sex lines. She is an activist who defends sexual freedom for all consenting adults, spreads the word about BDSM, sex and poly, and helps the community grow and flourish. Yet, her goal remains "to have fun." Lolita has many specialties including bondage, impact play of all sorts, hot wax, fire play, poly relationships, social skills, communication and negotiation, CBT, violet wands, etc. Lolita has presented workshops for organizations and events across the country. She is well-known for a fun and entertaining style that packs a lot of information into a short class. Lolita is an Emeritus Board Member of both TES and Leather Leadership Conference. She is a former Chair of Lesbian Sex Mafia, an honorary member of GMSMA and an Associate Member of New York boys of Leather. She is active with National Coalition for Sexual Freedom and Leather Pride Night. She has authored two books: Spanking and CBT in a Nutshell.

Marcia Baczynski is director of relationship programming at www.IdealBalanceInc.com. An extraordinarily talented workshop designer and facilitator, teacher, coach and leader who is passionate about providing the world with better tools for relationships and sexuality and empowering people to use them, Marcia landed herself in the international media spotlight as co-creator and spokesperson of the unique communication and intimacy workshop Cuddle Party. An expert in gender dynamics, sexuality and interpersonal communication, she combines a keen analytical ability with warm personal skills to provide her clients and students with an experience of being seen, being validated, learning something new and feeling smarter for it. In her work with couples and singles, she helps clients to identify what they want out of their relationships and how to create it. As director of relationship programming for Ideal Balance, Inc., and as co-creator of Cuddle Party, Marcia has worked with thousands of people, teaching them about boundary-setting, non-sexual intimacy, and effective interpersonal communication. Marcia is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she studied public relations, history and women’s studies. She has been a Barbara Sher Success Team leader, a guest lecturer on sex and gender at CUNY, and featured speaker at dozens of conferences on relationships and sexuality. From a young age, Marcia has been heavily involved in volunteer work, participating in projects as diverse as the 1996 Olympic Games, HIV education and awareness, boat-building for kids in alternative schools, and the Burning Man arts festival.

Mark A. Michaels (Swami Umeshanand Saraswati) and Patricia Johnson (Devi Veenanand) are a devoted married couple and have been teaching Tantra together since 1999. They have lectured throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, and Australia, work privately with couples, and offer online instruction. Michaels and Johnson have been featured on television and radio and in numerous publications. Their approach combines traditional lineage-based Tantra with the best contemporary methods so that students can bring heightened awareness and an expanded capacity for pleasure into all aspects of everyday life. Michaels and Johnson are the authors of The Essence of Tantric Sexuality (Llewellyn, 2006), which won the USA Book News National Best Books 2007 Award in Health: Sexuality. Their second book, Tantra for Erotic Empowerment: The Key to Enriching Your Sexual Life (Llewellyn 2008) won the 2008 USA Book News Award, also in Health: Sexuality, was selected as an Indie Excellence Awards finalist in New Age Non-Fiction, and is a ForeWord Magazine Books of the Year Award finalist in the Body, Mind and Spirit category. Inspired by their experiences at Dark Odyssey, Michaels and Johnson co-founded the Pleasure Salon (along with Selina Fire), a monthly, New York City gathering of sex-positive activists, educators, professionals, and other like-minded people, in order to build community and create a space for the open exchange of ideas.

Nina Hartley (nina.com) grew up in Berkeley, California and earned her nursing degree from San Francisco State. She began stripping as a sophomore in college and performed in her first video, Educating Nina, in 1984. She has since appeared in over 650 adult videos, directed and produced a bestselling series of sex ed videos for Adam & Eve, and appeared in the mainstream film Boogie Nights. She was in a triad marriage for twenty years and active in the swing scene. She is now married to, and the love slave of, writer, director, editor and BDSM Master Ernest Greene. She identifies as omnisexual, or, in her words, “a universal adaptor.” She particularly likes slutty wenches, Celts in kilts, and giving a good caning. With Greene, she has created a series of BDSM/fetish videos for Adam & Eve. She has won dozens of awards for her videos, has been inducted into the Porn Star Hall of Fame, and has been called “The World’s Best Loved Porn Star.” An outspoken critic of censorship and an activist, Nina tours the country giving lectures at colleges about her unique and quite strong views on sexuality, feminism and pornography. She is co-author of Nina Hartley’s Guide to Total Sex, a sex ed book based on her video series.

Orpheus, the founder of Cirque de Sade, got his start in the fetish lifestyle co-hosting the Internet radio show, Severe Society, on the KSEX network. Working closely with a montage of proDoms, proDommes and prosubmissives that frequented his internet program, Orpheus was able to incorporate a wide array of fetish and BDSM ideals, principles and philosophies into one practical and applicable personal mythology which has come to be widely respected in the community. While honing his newly acquired skills on the dark gothic stages of Club Dungeon, Orpheus was heavily influenced by the Hollywood fetish lifestyle and began performing at other local hot spots such as Bar Sinister, Lair de Sade, Bondage Ball, Passive Arts Studio, and Miss Kitty's Parlor. Orpheus has come to be one of Hollywood’s most respected adult performance artists. Orpheus is also considered a leader in the fire fetish movement because of his innovations on fire cupping (Huoquan Qi), and has reinvented a new form of erotic fire play called Kagutsuchi no Shodô or "Fire God Writing" which has brought him to the forefront of this new genre. Orpheus is also planning on bringing this new form of erotic art to a broader audience by introducing a line of educational videos, books, and erotic adult entertainment such as live stage shows and performance videos in the near future.

Phoenix B made hir “official” entrance into the Seattle BDSM community by joining the local SM Dyke club, Outer Limits, in 1986. From there Phoenix quickly went on to become a coordinator in that organization until it closed in the mid-90's. Phoenix was the co-founder/producer of the well-known and highly-regarded Wicked Womyn SM conferences in Seattle. Phoenix also served as a coordinator for the Powersurge Conferences as well. Phoenix has taught many workshops across the USA, Europe, and Canada on play piercing, cutting, suturing, fire play, blood drawing, flogging, and Japanese rope harness. Phoenix also loves “hooks” and has facilitated many energy pulls and suspensions. Some of the events she served include Women at Leather Pride in Amsterdam, Schmacht! in Berlin, SM Dykes in Manchester England, Dark Odyssey in Maryland, Lesbian Sex Mafia in New York, Thunder In The Mountains in Denver, Southwest Leather Conference in Phoenix, Pacific Friction in Portland, and Seattle events and organizations including Wicked Womyn, PowerSurge, Seattle Women of Leather, Center for Sex Positive Culture (the Wetspot), C-Space, Kinky Carnival, and the Blood Faire. Phoenix believes it is important to share knowledge about SM techniques but also to listen and learn from others as well. Phoenix has many interests, but motorcycle riding and service bois are her favorites. Phoenix identifies as Two-Spirit Native (Swampy Cree/Scots), Gender Queer, Top, Sir, and Daddy, and has a particular fondness for having hir boots shined.

Reid Mihalko: Reid helps people create more self-esteem and greater health in their relationship and sex lives, no matter what their self-expression of those happen to be or where their interests lie. Reid has worked with thousands of individuals from myriad walks of life, orientations, relationship styles, countries and religions. Known for his charisma, wit and emphasis on integrity, Reid travels the country teaching, coaching, consulting and collaborating. He has been a writer and producer on a number of film and television projects about sex and relationships, and appears regularly in the media. Reid has been a featured speaker at dozens of conferences on relationships and sexuality. He has also appeared on the Emmy award-winning talk show Montel, Fox News, VH1’s Scott Baio is 45 and Single, Showtime’s Penn & Teller’s Bulls**t!, Canada’s The Sex Files and SexTV, and the short-lived Life & Style, on NPR, Sirius’ Maxim Radio and Cosmo Radio, and in Marie Claire, GQ, People, Newsweek and The National Enquirer, as well as media across the globe in thirteen countries and at least seven languages.

Sarah Sloane (www.sarahsloane.net) hails from the metro Washington DC area, where she lives and works as a sexuality & relationships educator, writer, and editor. She identifies as a kinky poly queer woman with a penchant for service (individual and community) and a desire to empower others to succeed. Her website has pretty much anything you could ever want to know about her, including her upcoming projects and schedule of classes.

Sharrin Spector Body modification artist, teacher and vendor, Sharrin Spector has been active in the BDSM community for the last 20 years. Her passions include blood, rattan canes and being on the receiving end of excellent service. Sharrin has taught for numerous organizations including Black Rose, Thunder in the Mountains, Dark Odyssey and IMsL. When not traveling, she lives in a non-traditional poly triad in Oakland, CA and owns Pierce Ink, a full service body modification studio.

Sir C is a sadistic, bisexual, and poly Master and BDSM educator. She shares a home and Her life with Her Alpha Mate, Bobby, and is pleased to be part of PQLF leather family. She is well known for Her rope rigging, interesting training perspectives, unique M/s philosophy, and “evil” genius. She has pursued Her passion for strenuous bondage and suspension professionally on sites like Hogtied, Waterbondage, InSex, Men in Pain and InSexM. Her personal passion is evident in Her local and national affiliations, participation, and teaching. She was the founding Associate Director of MAsT: Metro New York, is a Trainer with The Estate, and has taught at a number of group meetings and munches, as well as national events including TES Fest, Dark Odyssey, BR, South Plains Leatherfest, Ohio Leatherfest, Leather Retreat Master/slave Camp and Shibaricon. She is also currently seeking a queer live-in slave

SwitchMe is a co-gendered, bisexual, polyamorous switch who finds pleasure in helping others discover the sheer joy and bliss of a free and uninhibited sexuality. He has been presenting and teaching for over 10 years on a variety of subjects, including body image, touch, deviancy, anthropology and computing. She is currently working on an advanced degree, conducting fieldwork in the Caribbean, and has several publications. His workshops focus on the many ways to let go of inhibitions and enjoy our sexuality.

Venae is a homoflexible, poly, genderfuck Switch who has learned from some of the best how to give and take respectfully and with care. Some of Venae’s favorite things include kicking, caning, rope and cigars as well as dirty, gross and perverse play.
Wintersong Tashlin (barkingshaman.blogspot.com) is a shaman, magician and presenter who has been teaching and running rituals for over a decade. He is a council member of Clan Tashlin, an earth based teaching and magical order built around a unique approach to magic, spirituality, and the relationship of people to the land and gods. Wintersong sees pain and pleasure as valuable tools, and employs them in both his spiritual work and erotic play. In addition to his magical and spiritual classes he also teaches workshops on various erotic techniques. He and his poly family have been filmed for television documentaries in both the US and the UK. His essays on life as a queer/kinky/pagan/poly shaman living with Tourette syndrome can be found at The Barking Shaman, as well as being a contributing author on the spiritworkers blog The Gods' Mouth's (godsmouths.blogspot.com) and the online magazine Blood For the Divine (bloodfordivine.blogspot.com), which focuses on the ordeal path as a spiritual tool.