This event takes place in person at Charis and on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance. Please read the in-person event guidelines at the bottom of this page to be sure you can participate in the event. 

Charis welcomes Jaime M. Grant in conversation with editor Ignacio G. Hutía Xeiti Rivera and contributors Asha Leong and tia marie for a celebration of Kink for Dummies, an exciting, safe, and fun guide to a spicier side of sex.

Kink For Dummies is a safe, positive, and easy-to-read roadmap to expanding (and exploring ) your sexual and personal horizons. It walks you through kink basics, shattering stigmas and myths as it goes, and explains how you can integrate these unique-to-you desires into your life using a mutual consent and respect framework.

This book offers you multiple avenues to explore and play with your fantasies and provides step-by-step guidance on communication strategies, practices, and agreements you'll need to understand and implement so you can safely discover what you and your partner(s) enjoy the most.

Straightforward and non-judgmental kink fundamentals, including bondage, role playing, fantasy, domination and submission, and more

Strategies for overcoming common challenges and fears

Techniques for finding your community and navigating a kinky lifestyle, regardless of your age

A thrilling and informative exploration of mutually rewarding sexual experiences, Kink For Dummies is a fun and shame-free guide to connecting with your sexuality.

Dr. Jaime M. Grant, author of Kink For Dummies, Polyamory For Dummies, and Great Sex: Mapping Your Desire, is an Irish American sexpert, grassroots researcher, and activist who has been involved in LGBTQ, women’s, and racial justice movements since the early 90s. Having survived sexist violence and anti-lesbian disownment as a youth, Dr. Grant became a go-to resource on gender and sex among her peers and colleagues as a matter of survival.

This led to doctoral study in gender and sexuality and the creation of experiential and visual art workshops on desire, friendship, and repair, which she has offered for 20+ years at community centers and universities throughout the United States and human rights convenings around the globe – including Russia, China, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cyprus, Kenya, South Africa, New Zealand, and Mauritius.

Along the path to developing Desire Mapping, Grant spearheaded a number of transformational grassroots research projects, including serving as principal investigator for the National LGBTQ Task Force’s ground-breaking reports on aging, Outing Age 2010 and anti-transgender discrimination, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (2011). In 2018, she co-edited Friendship as Social Justice Activism with Niharika Banerjea, Rohit Dasgupta, and Debanuj DasGupta. In 2019, she launched the first National LGBTQ+ Women’s Community Survey with legendary activist/writer, Urvashi Vaid, publishing its key findings in “We Never Give Up the Fight” and "What’s Killing Us" with the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR).

Ignacio G. Hutía Xeiti Rivera, M.A. (they/elle) is the founding co-director of Heal Sweet Home (formerly, The HEAL Project). They are a queer trans non-binary educator, writer, and cultural sociologist dedicated to advancing sexual liberation and healing from sexual and relational harm, especially childhood sexual abuse. They specialize in community-led solutions and alternative kink healing modalities. With over 30 years of experience, Ignacio integrates economic justice, anti-racist, mujerista, LGBTQI, and sex-positive movements into their work, creating transformative spaces where abolition and healing converge.

Asha Leong is healer, coach and trainer focused on helping queer, trans, people of color thrive.  Asha has a deep passion for helping people heal, understand, create, and manifest their personal vision of sexual. Asha founded the Sexual Liberation Collective which is an intentional collective of people who are passionate about healing and sexual liberation in 2012. Through her practice DreamingDesires.com Asha help’s queer, trans, people of color heal from trauma, create relationships, life plan, name their desires, build queer family and manifest their personal vision of sexual liberation into the world.

tia marie (she/her) is a writer, visionary, and hedonist born and bred on the 3rd Coast of Houston, Texas. Her work moves through the intersections of eroticism and liberation, crafting worlds where the sacred and the secular live side by side.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.

Charis Books is a fully wheelchair accessible space with on site van accessible parking, two ramps, and additional overflow accessible parking nearby. Additional accessibility information can be found on the Accessibility page of our website. 

In-person event guidelines:

All attendees must wear a face mask during the event.

We will begin seating people at 7:00 PM ET.

This event will be live-streamed via Crowdcast. 

As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request specific accessibility accommodations, please contact info@charisbooksandmore.com or call the store at 404-524-0304.

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org.

By attending our event, whether in person or virtually, you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Unsolicited sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to Charis staff immediately or email info@chariscircle.org.

Kink for Dummies: Jaime M. Grant in Conversation with Ignacio G. Hutía Xeiti Rivera, Asha Leong, and tia marie