Name: Aurora Lee

Current Title: Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride 2015

City, State: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Website & (if any) regular community events that you produce or participate (limit 3): I currently produce ‘Cigars and Leather: A Play Party for the Community,’ monthly socials for the Twin Cities girls of Leather, and a variety of Minnesota Leather Pride fundraisers.

Favorite Leather item in your arsenal of bar/fetish wear: I would have to say that my favorite item in my leather arsenal would have to be my Leather Hair Bows. They allow me to flag without having a back pocket.

Is your IMsL run in April sponsored by an Event, bar, club, organization? If so Please tell me about your Sponsor:   I am lucky to have overwhelming support from my home community and region.  My main sponsor is Great Lakes Leather Alliance, producers of my current title: Great Lakes Ms. Leather Pride 2015. I have three supporting sponsors: Minnesota Leather Pride, Twin Cities Leather and Latte, and The Saloon.  Minnesota Leather Pride awarded me the title of Ms. Minnesota Leather Pride 2015, and I currently serve on the board for MNLP.  Twin Cities Leather and Latte is my current employer and the local Leather shop. The Saloon is my home bar for the fundraisers and events that I produce.

By Bob Miller

The Leather Hall of Fame announced the inductees for 2016. The Leather Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Brunch will be held during CLAW 16 at the Holiday Inn Ballroom, Sunday, May 1 at 1 PM.

Larry Townsend (1930-2008)

Larry Townsend is best known for the 1972 publication of The Leatherman’s Handbook, one of the first books written on the gay male Leather and SM subcultures. The Leatherman’s Handbook went through several printings and a second edition, The Leathermen’s Handbook II. Along with Drummer magazine, The Leathermen’s Handbook was instrumental in establishing a national Leather subculture.

Townsend was a prolific writer of fiction. Run Little Leather Boy (1970), Run No More, Leather Ad (volumes 1 and 2), and The Long Leather Cord helped establish the genre of gay leather erotica. In addition to many other works of fiction, as well as a frequent column, the Leather Notebook, in Drummer.

Townsend was involved in the founding of Drummer through his activism in the Los Angeles “Homophile Effort for Legal Protection,” also known as HELP. HELP was founded to assist in the legal defense of individuals arrested for gay offenses by the aggressively anti-gay Los Angeles Police Department. Townsend served as President of HELP, and through Townsend, when John Embry moved to Los Angeles, he got involved in HELP Embry began to edit the HELP newsletter, also called Drummer, and eventually left to establish Drummer, the leather magazine. Townsend continued to write and publish until shortly before his death. His papers are now at the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco.

Jim Stewart (1932-2012)

Jim Stewart’s was the founder and mastermind of Fetters London, the innovative manufacturer of physical restraint equipment. Under his ownership and management Fetters set a new standard and became an internationally known source for high quality physical restraint equipment and other erotic fetish gear.  Fetters UK manufactures and sells bondage and fetish gear across the UK and Europe. Stewart’s business partnership with Richard Hunter of Mr. S Leather in San Francisco introduced his products to the wider US and international audience.

Jim also created and realized fantasies built around items designed for physical restraint which had not previously been considered items with a sexual context. His innovations inspired BDSM enthusiasts as well as other manufacturers. Without his research, high-quality manufacturing techniques and openness to new ideas, BDSM play would be much poorer.  

Jim Kane (1929-2004)

Jim Kane was one of the founding members of the Rocky Mountaineers Motorcycle Club in 1969, Colorado’s first ever LGBT organization. After moving to San Francisco, Jim and his slave and partner, Ike Barnes, purchased a home at #11 Pink Alley, an address that would subsequently become an important axis around which that city’s first Leather “salon” revolved. In addition to their local social centrality, Jim and Ike were deeply connected to the early national and international gay Leather networks. They regularly hosted visiting Leather dignitaries who came through town in their impeccable home and dining room. Their downstairs dungeon was equally legendary. Sam Steward, writing as Phil Andros, memorialized the dungeon at Pink Alley in two short stories published in early issues of Drummer magazine: “Babysitter” and “Many Happy Returns.”

In addition to his role as a venerated figure among gay Leathermen, Jim played a key role in transmitting the highly developed sexual culture of gay male Leather to the early straight, bi, and lesbian kink communities in the Bay Area. He was among the first Leathermen to join the fledgling Society of Janus in the mid-1970s. After The Eulenspiegel Society, Janus was the next mixed gender, mixed orientation SM educational and social organization to form in the U.S. In many workshops and programs for Janus and its offshoots, Jim shared his extensive knowledge of SM practice. He helped train a key generation of perverts in the emotional and technical skills of BDSM, and many of those he influenced went on to also become important educators and practitioners.

As one of the main figures of “old guard” gay male Leather community who participated in, and made huge contributions to, the mixed gender and mixed orientation SM population and its institutions, Jim Kane was an invaluable conduit between these communities. He helped to forge the broader BDSM scene that exists today.

Leather Hall of Fame

The Leather Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Brunch will be held during CLAW 16 at the Holiday Inn Ballroom, Sunday, May 1 at 1 PM. (brunch opens at noon, ceremony begins at 1pm) Tickets are $35, $20 for volunteers. Complimentary and reduced price tickets also available. We invite all Leather people to join us to learn about, celebrate and honor the lives and accomplishments of these great inductees. Find out more, and order your tickets now at http://www.clawinfo.org

The Leather Hall of Fame honors and preserves the legacy of the extraordinary men and women who have significantly shaped the history of the Leather/BDSM communities worldwide since 1950.

Nominations can be made by anyone. A Board of community scholars and organizers and leaders select three inductees each year. To learn about the Leather Hall of Fame’s previous inductees, or to make a nomination, please visit http://www.leatherhalloffame.com

CLAW is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation and has donated over $600,000 to community charities. More information a http://www.clawinfo.org

The contestants for International Ms Leather 2016 and International Ms Bootblack 2016 were announced recently. IMsL and IMsBB will be held in San Jose, CA the weekend of April 14-17.

Following a terrific year with each of their titles, IMsL 2015 Sarge and IMsBB 2015 slave tabitha arie will pass their torches to one from each group below.

International Ms Leather and International Ms. Bootblack 2016 Contestants

Aurora Lee

Aurora Lee’s own rags to Leathers story brings her from small-town Missouri girl to Twin Cities Metropolitan Leather Woman. She co-founded the Twin Cities girls of Leather as one of the several ways she focuses on empowering those who identify as Female and Leather. Involved in several clubs, Aurora is frequently found volunteering for events when she’s not tied up getting flogged. Suffice to say when she’s not giving, she’s certainly receiving. She’s well known for her Leather working, fundraising, and photography skills that she frequently lends in service to her local community

 
LasciviousJane

LasciviousJane is a power-femme switch, kinky burlesqueer, and sex educator. In addition to being perpetually covered in leather and glitter (a bootblack’s worst nightmare), in 2015, she became the first Ms Philadelphia Leather in a decade. She is the Artistic Director of the multi-award-winning Liberty City Kings Drag and Burlesque and sits on the Board of Directors of The Diabolique Foundation, which produces Philadelphia’s largest charity fetish ball. She is also a charter member of Queer Leather Alliance. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching the art of striptease, getting dirty in her garden, and community organizing.

 
Miss BEEHave

Smart, sassy, powerful, present, fierce and Femme… Miss BEEhave is Sydney (Australia’s) Ms Leather for 2015. Also an integral part of Sydney Femme Guild, she works toward building Leather Femme visibility in the broader community. She has co-taught a fisting workshop (No Holes Barred) in conjunction with Sydney Leather Pride, and has also conducted joint events with GLBTI groups to build community partnerships.
Leather is Ms BEEHave’s presence, her power, her strengths and her loves, embodied as an ever-evolving outside skin. Her belief is that the leather family holds a beautiful space where identity, expression and love are never questioned.

 
slavegirl marion

slavegirl marion, an attorney by trade, began following the BDSM path in 2005, and Leather in 2007. She is an active member of several Leather clubs and is a volunteer at Xpressions Dungeon in Tulsa. She has been a collared service slave to Master Malik since May 3, 2014, and enjoys serving him. She is focused on serving the community, working to help her kinky community grow, become well educated, and to ensure that there are safe and comfortable play spaces available. She also enjoys spending time with her husband, Tom, children, and grandchildren.

Angel

Angel began to embrace her whole self through striving to be beyond the binary. With a teacher’s heart she walks her path ever growing and learning. She is a multi-faceted edge player and believes in exploring beyond labels when it comes to play, boots, and love. There are many ways to love and be loved. She uses Bootblacking to support her community, opening dialogues about leather, and collecting history. She has been honored with the titles of Ms. Great Plains Olympus Leather 2009 and 2010 and Southwest Bootblack 2014. Her devotion for service shines through in all she does.

Meghan

Meghan is proud to represent her region as Great Lakes Bootblack 2015. Since 2012 she’s been active in her local Kink and Leather communities, blacking regularly at The Barracks, ReMix and fundraisers throughout her region. At home, Meghan runs a Boot Lab for new and existing bootblacks in the area. She also serves as Treasurer for Mr. Friendly: Team Louisville.
Meghan seeks to create an experience in her chair that not only honors and worships your Leather, but also your journey. Bootblacking gives her the space to define her ideas of sexual expression and spirituality in ways that resonate deeply.
 

Shelly

While reading fanfiction Shelly stumbled upon a story involving a D/S couple and identified with the submissive. She was intrigued! She needed to get started immediately! She found The Threshold Society. She dove in by playing and volunteering. Being of service to her local community was not enough, so she found the Leather scene. Shelly began bootblacking in 2012 and fell madly in love with it. The science, the art and the service became the focal point of her Leather lifestyle. She is mentored by Q and owes Jayson DaBoi a big hug. She also enjoys puppies and purple.

The panel of judges which will make the decision on the IMsL 2016 torchbearer are Ms World Leather 2001 Annie Romano, American Leatherwoman 1994 Sarah Humble, International Ms Leather 2014 Patty, International Mr. Leather 2015 Patrick Smith, International Mr. Bootblack 2001 Paksen Burrell, past IMsL producer Sky Renfro and Metis Brown; the IMsBB 2016 judges will be International Ms Bootblack 2014 Dara Bryant, International Mr. Bootblack 2015 Bamm Bamm and International Ms Leather 1987 Judy Tallwing McCarthy.

The tally folks will be Women's Leather Legacy 2013 Tracy Wolf and TNG founder Boymeat.

To see the IMsL and IMsBB 2016 contestants' photos go to http://imsl.org/contest/2016-imslimsbb-contestants/

This year’s brunch will welcome Keynote presenter, Vi Johnson. Vi is a Leatherwoman, activist, author and archivist who embarked on her journey in the Leather/BDSM scene in the early 1970s. A strong advocate for the necessity of preserving Leather/fetish/erotic history, Johnson speaks and writes with a single-minded focus on the broad spectrum of issues that concern her and her community.

For registration information visit http://imsl.org/event/register-now/ There will not be any on-site registration. Registration closes on April 13.

South Plains Leatherfest and International Master/slave Weekend 2016 will be held at the Doubletree Dallas Near the Galleria, March 11-13 in Dallas, Texas.

South Plains will see great workshops, hot pansexual, men’s and women’s play parties, Sunday Brunch with this year’s keynote Ms Kendra, the South Plains Coffee House, a great vendor mart, the International Master/slave Contest, and the South Plains Living Room.

The theme of South Plains Leatherfest and International Master/slave Weekend is We Will Not Forget. During the weekend guests and staff will remember its history and traditions, celebrate the present, and look forward to the future.

The South Plains Traditional Sunday Brunch tickets are $30 and are available through on-line registration. The keynote speaker will be Ms Kendra who is the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Leather Alliance.

There will be over 40 workshops and classes with the following South Plains 2016 M/s presenters: Master Jim and slave marsha, Master  Obsidian and slave namaste, Master Michael and slave angie, Master Kevin and slave feyrie, Master David Walker Master Dan and slave dawn, subHaven, Raven Kaldera and slaveboy joshua, slave Melissa, Master T’Hayla and  Gillian, Ms Brenda, Ms Kendra, Master George and slave bren, Master Neko and koneko, Ranell, Aren and Ms WillowKat, Reggie, kasi and evie Alexander; South Plains 2016 SM/Leather Presenters: Sir Cougar, boy alex, Wayner Brawner, Hardy Haberman, Sarah Sloane, Mark Frazier, Sean Grey, Cecelia, Daddy Rose and Pup Rylee, Keith aka “Beast," MizLilly and Zap, boy dave, Andrew Love, Mason Alexander, Master Konraad, Tifany and Stephen.

The International Master/slave 2016 contest will be held on Saturday night.

Play Parties are set for Friday and Saturday nights from 9 PM to 2 AM. As always, the on-site play space will feature separate pansexual, women only, and men only spaces. Admission to the parties is sold as a package, rather than as individual party tickets. A play party admission package, which entitles one to attend both of South Plains’ play parties, is $30.

The Doubletree Dallas Near the Galleria is located at 4099 Valley View Lane, Dallas, TX 75244. Phone (972) 385-9000. Standard rooms are available at a special rate $99, which will secure a room for up to four people. Parking is free and in addition to hotel dining, there are plenty of restaurants nearby. To register or to book online to get the South Plains rate so just go to http://www.southplainsleatherfest.com