A Message from Interim-Executive Director Tom Kovach
I bet your body and breath will respond as you think about this: How has your life been affected by your connection to the Body Electric work and community? What does BE mean to the lives you are part of? We want to hear your answers, because we are delighted to announce the creation of the Body Electric Library. This library will gather and preserve documents of the school’s erotic liberation work over the last 40 years, in a way that will eventually be available for viewing and for researchers.
We are primarily interested in your personal stories, including photographs. In addition to those stories, we welcome all documents and artifacts of our communal history: newspaper and magazine articles, audio and video recordings, brochures of classes, etc. Do you, or someone you know, have something to help us more fully understand the depth and breadth of the way BE provides a container for transformation?
Preparing for BE’s 40th anniversary has been an erotic experience unto itself. Here is the first story I will submit to the Body Electric Library: Recently I spoke to an elected official in my state. Our relationship warmed and became personal. It turns out that he attended a BE workshop in Hawaii decades ago! We bonded so much that we shared pieces of our histories, which in his case included time as a porn star. One thing led to another until he eventually thrilled me by picking me up and twirling me above his head. Remembering and sharing our experiences (without violating anyone’s confidentiality) sparked joyous embodied manifestations of loving and connecting to fierce erotic power.
Our founder, Joseph Kramer, has offered to send us what he has collected of our incredible story. In fact, he inspired me to reach out to the extended Body Electric community and ask for help in creating this archive. He suggested that I contact Collin Brown, who bought the school from Joseph and led it for 15 years. He also facilitated my first CBE in Tulsa, so reconnecting with him was wonderful. Collin agreed to join us in asking you to help preserve the stories of Body Electric as it changed — and perhaps saved — so many lives.
The BE community, nearly 40 years in the making, is composed of participants, facilitators, team members, coordinators, and now board members and ambassadors. Since its inception, it has been a transformative vessel of Eros buoyed by love, labor, talent, effort, devotion, and the donations of so many. As we sail into our future, we can’t forget how we got here and the steps that were taken to make us ready for our future. Can you help us preserve and share that history and bring it to many others? We hope so, and we thank you.
The library accepts submissions in all formats: digital, tapes, disks, and paper. Send the librarians digital materials, or a note telling them what you wish to mail to the library, at tom.kovach@bodyelectric.org.
As the work of Body Electric continues to evolve, we have seen a rise in interest from people who do not fall neatly into traditional constructions of gender. This emerging and important reality is good news for us! It asks us to envision spacious, expanded spaces where people can explore themselves erotically. “Man” no longer simply means a male-identified person with a penis. “Woman” no longer simply means a female-identified person with a vulva. As Tuck Mallory wonderfully articulates in Lucie Fielding’s book, Trans Sex,
Body Electric’s Workshop Evolution
As the work of Body Electric continues to evolve, we have seen a rise in interest from people who do not fall neatly into traditional constructions of gender. This emerging and important reality is good news for us! It asks us to envision spacious, expanded spaces where people can explore themselves erotically. “Man” no longer simply means a male-identified person with a penis. “Woman” no longer simply means a female-identified person with a vulva. As Tuck Mallory wonderfully articulates in Lucie Fielding’s book, Trans Sex,
The experience of being affirmed, radiant, expansive in gender, especially for someone who has been forced to deny the magnificence of their existence, is healing and transformative for all aspects of one’s life… What I know is that experiencing gender affirmation through my physical body, through my senses, is a visceral, neverending delight.”
We have received feedback that it would be useful to clarify whom our workshop spaces are designed for. We’re also determined to be more inclusive in some of our workshops while also honoring the affinity spaces where some people find healing, pleasure, and connection.
With this in mind, we’re going to experiment with some of our workshop spaces moving forward — taking an intentional step toward being more inclusive and clear about whom a particular workshop is designed for. Some workshops will be designed either for all men or for all women, which will include trans, cis, genderqueer, and nonbinary folks who align with these spaces. In these workshops, there may be a whole range of genital expressions. In this model, for instance, a CBE for All Men would be for all people who identify themselves as a man, regardless of how their genitals express.
Some workshops will be designed only for cisgender men or for cisgender women, to honor the power and importance of affinity spaces. For example, there may be cisgender women who feel it is valuable to share erotic space specifically with other cisgender women. We want to honor that desire.
And as always, we will continue to have workshops for all people of all genders where all genitals and all expressions of gender are welcome.
We are expanding and stretching. We are listening and honoring. And we have questions and curiosity about how this will work. Much of the great experiment of Body Electric has required finding our way as we go along: With care, intention, and wisdom, we can create erotic spaces that serve our growth and healing. For all of us. If you have questions and comments, we want to hear from you. Please send us an email at admin@bodyelectric.org.