2022 Year in Review

The new year always offers an opportunity to look back at the previous year to evaluate successes and failures as we determine what’s next. As we move into 2023 together, I find myself considering 2022 and looking at SLSC’s accomplishments, just as I do my own.  I am proud of a big year for us and excited to continue bringing our mission to you all in the new year.

The beginning of 2022 saw us all continuing our slow recovery from the pandemic, and it found SLSC balancing our desire to bring kink education to a larger audience while minding the safety and needs of that community. Our rope bondage classes continued to be successful, and we sought to connect to a larger audience and make ourselves accessible through new avenues. We knew that a renewed presence on the web and social media would help us do so. In April, we launched the new SLSC website, and in June, we joined Instagram and Twitter to meet community members where they are.

May brought us a new topic in CBT, but June is when SLSC got into full swing. We were once again able to join in the celebration of Pride month with our ongoing rope bondage series; two cigar socials; breath control, flogging, and erotic hypnosis classes; and a partnership with the Daddy Issues party to close out Pride weekend on a joyous note. We had been unable to share our vision for Pride since our Carnal Pride play party in 2019, and I was overjoyed to reconnect after two hard years. The return of cigar socials was a special pleasure; SLSC’s cigar socials were a central part of our early days, and I continue to be grateful to The Mercury for offering its space again after completing a long remodel and pandemic recovery of its own.

The transition from summer to fall saw us expanding our offerings with a fisting class in August and the launch of the SLSC Blog. September brought electro play, our first class in Doghouse Leather’s new location, alongside our first community-focused interview with its owner, Dan “Puppy” Daniels. As an addition to technique-focused instruction, we hosted a class on planning play parties in October and an exploration of leather protocol and its expression in November. Finally, in December, we closed out the year with an excellent discussion on the humanity of dominance and some welcome rest after a busy year.

Reading back over these accomplishments fills me with pride in our organization and in our community. We founded SLSC in 2019, but 2022 is the year when we began to find our place in Seattle’s vibrant scene. I am grateful to our board, our volunteers, and our many excellent presenters. We could not do this without you all, and I offer special thanks to Peer Seattle for generously hosting us.

In 2023, SLSC will see more classes, more opportunities to connect, and more topics that bring kink education into the safe and inclusive arena where it belongs but has so often gone missing. Further, we will continue to expand the diversity of our presenters, and, hopefully, our audience. As I said after Touché Chicago’s 45th anniversary brought us a shameful and racist stage show, part of building a solid foundation for kink education is acknowledging and challenging racism, misogyny, anti-queerness, transphobia, and bigotry in all its other forms. I promise the community that SLSC will continue these vital efforts in 2023. We will also launch our first service project this year, so keep an eye out for more updates in the coming months.

Our doors are always open, and our success depends on giving our community the knowledge to live our kinks through methods that are safe and engaging. Help us make 2023 our best year yet. I am excited for the new year, and I look forward to continuing our mission of service, education, and play.

In leather,