Happy October, everyone!
From left: J Mase III (he) and Wendy Phillips (she) join the Effing Advisory Council!
TLDR for this month:
- Welcoming J Mase III & Wendy Phillips to our Advisory Council
- We'll be at PolyDallas Millennium Nov 6-8
- The HEAL Project: getting real + a $5k fundraiser
- Level Ground's SKEW Magazine curated by a team which includes our grantee Lola Rose Eros & Effing Board member Leslie Foster
- Strange Lusts / Strange Loves erotic interactive fiction anthology the spiritual successor to Effing-funded Honey & Hot Wax
- It's almost time for end-of-year giving!?
This month we're excited to announce that J Mase III and Wendy Phillips are joining Taylor J Mace on our Advisory Council this year! Join us in welcoming Mase and Wendy to our big Effing family.
J Mase III (he/him) is a Black/Trans/queer poet & educator based in Seattle by way of Philly. As an educator, Mase has worked with community members in the US, UK, and Canada on the needs of LGBTQIA+ folks and racial justice in spaces such as K-12 schools, universities, faith communities and restricted care facilities. He is founder of awQward, the first trans and queer people of color talent agency. You can find Mase at https://jmaseiii.com/ or on InstaGram @jmaseiii.
Wendy Phillips (she/her) is a twenty-something sex educator, sex toy reviewer, and advocate for mental health. She is a kinky, polyamorous, lesbian who sometimes questions her sexuality when men like Jason Mamoa come into play. You can find her at https://www.thewenchworks.com/ or @thewenchworks.
PolyDallas Millennium ethical non-monogamy conference is online this year!
The Effing Foundation is proud to be a sponsor of PolyDallas Millennium Open To Love: A Virtual Experience, Nov 6-8! PDM is an Effing grantee that works to provide a sex-positive and safe space for people seeking knowledge about ethical non-monogamy. PDM centers the voices and experiences of folks of color who are queer, trans, and/or non-binary.
The Effing Foundation will be hosting a Lunch and Learn at PDM on Saturday, November 7, 1-2pm Central time, for anyone interested in learning more about us and our grant program!
The program schedule looks amazing! If you're interested in ethical non-monogamy, especially if you're a person of color, registration, including student discount, is available here.
The HEAL Project: heal to end child sexual abuse (CSA), from birth to crossing over
Our partner The HEAL Project released an amazing, raw and honest newsletter in September which you should check out if you missed it. AND Ignacio and Aredvi have recorded themselves reading their article "Police Can't Save Children from Sexual Abuse. But, We Must," where they argue that instead of more policing a cultural shift is needed to end CSA. The HEAL Project is doing amazing, critical work right now: If you have the resources, please consider chipping in to their $5k fundraiser!
SKEW magazine from Level Ground
This year's SKEW Magazine, produced by Level Ground, is available for preorder! This year's edition is curated by a team which includes our grantee Lola Rose Eros & Effing Board member Leslie Foster! SKEW is cooperatively owned this year and your pre-order or donation will benefit over 50 contributing Black artists. I grabbed last year's SKEW and I can attest that it was absolutely gorgeous: I can't wait for this year's edition!
Strange Lusts / Strange Loves: An Anthology of erotic interactive fiction
The Effing-funded book Honey & Hot Wax: An Anthology of Erotic Art Games was released earlier this year, to great reviews. (Cheers to all of our August raffle winners!)
Now HHW co-editor & game designer Sharang Biswas and HHW game designer Clio Yun-Su Davis are back with Strange Lusts / Strange Loves: An Anthology of Erotic Interactive Fiction! Sharang kept me in suspense for MONTHS about the details of this project, and I'm not disappointed: Each story is influenced in some way by interacting with it, and each explores a different facet of sex, desire, and romance. If funded, the online anthology will be made freely available via Strange Horizons; backers will get access to a special Kickstarter edition with bonus micro-games.
The work that our Effing family continues to do gives me hope, even in our continuing trash-fire of a year. Please vote if you can, and get ready to keep fighting for justice regardless of what the results are.
And, hey, it's almost the end of the year, which means it's time for our annual fundraising drive! We need your help so we can keep supporting sex-positive artists and educators like the amazing folks in this newsletter. Take a moment to give now if you can and please keep us in mind for your end-of-year giving budget.
With hope that you and yours are staying as safe and healthy as you can,
Kit
Kit Stubbs, Ph.D., Founder & Executive Director