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SHOW NOTES
​This week, Erica and Kenrya talk about E's experience with a professional dom, overcoming hang ups around hiring sex workers and the importance of aftercare.

​RESOURCES
King Heff, Pro Dom | Instagram | Twitter | Linktree
​
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TRANSCRIPT
Kenrya: Come here. Get off.
 
[theme music]

Erica: Okay. So Killa.

Kenrya: Yes?

Erica: I did a thing.

Kenrya: What did you do?

Erica: So, you know I quit my job, right?

Kenrya: I’m well aware.

Erica: So when I quit my job, I gave myself a gift and that gift was a session with a pro dom.

Kenrya: Yeah.

Erica: I decided we'd have a little storytime.

Kenrya: Yes. So we know how much y’all love storytimes and them shits is fun.

Erica: Okay. So store time, storytime.

Kenrya: Wait. I just realized we both wearing turbans. These are things y’all miss when y’all don't watch us on YouTube.

Erica: What'd you say?

Kenrya: I said, I just realized we are both wearing turbans.

Erica: Yeah. It's just because I need a haircut and just-

Kenrya: Do you know how long it's been since I wash and twisted my fucking hair?

Erica: You have a lot, so that's a lot.

Kenrya: It's so much hair and it takes so long, but I'm committed to doing it this weekend because I'm tired of looking at it.

Erica: Okay. All right, look at you.

Kenrya: Yeah. I'mma try.

Erica: Okay. Well, so you ready?

Kenrya: So tell me, storytime. Yes.

Erica: Okay. So you know for a while I've been saying that I'm really interested in BDSM. I've done light play, but I was like, I want to do a real scene with someone that knows what the fuck they're talking about. So, I follow pages and end up down rabbit holes. And so I follow a few doms and there was this one dom that I started following-

Kenrya: On IG?

Erica: Yeah. This one dom that I started following and just physically everything, totally my type. Totally my type.

Kenrya: So it's a big Black nigga with a beard?

Erica: Exactly, with a big gray beard. So I was like, yes. So I have been following him for a while and one day he posted a video and it was a short snippet of a session with somebody. And I instantly remember going to his DMs like, oh, okay. I'm booking a session, what's good?

Kenrya: Sold.

Erica: So, he travels, he does a lot of stuff. He's always everywhere. So he was like, these are the dates that I'm in DC. I'm like, I won't be available, but let me know. So long story short, he comes back to DC on a date that I can do it. So I'm like, let's go at it. So leading up to the session... And once I booked the session first, I booked the session and then he was like, send me a list of your hard and soft limits. And he sent me a couple articles to read about BDSM and spankings and all of that. And he's like, what do you want to get out of this? And I was just like, ummm. I ain't say that. Because I was just like, look, I've never done this and I'd really like to experience it.

Erica: So, weeks go by, I'm like fucking off I never sent him the list. So then he kind of turns into like daddy mode and he's like, “I need this shit by Friday.” And I was like, “Okay.” And he's like, “Okay, what?” And I was like, “Oh we doing this. Okay Daddy Heff.” His name is King Heff, he's on Instagram @KingHeffs. I'll link him because y’all would want to see, y’all want to are going to want to have a session. So anyway, so I sent him the information and my session was on a Monday. So he gets to town that Sunday and he's doing a... He also does these seminars. So he was doing a choking seminar, like how to properly choke a bitch. It was not called how to properly choke a bitch, but he probably said it how to probably choke a bitch, a couple times in it. So he calls me the night before my session, before his seminar.

Kenrya: Choke a bitch situation.

Erica: So he is like, “Hey, I got an Airbnb. We're doing the session. If you want, you can come by, you can see the session, see the workshop and it'll be a good chance for us to kind of meet before you show up like, hey girl, get spanked.” So I was like, “All right.” So I did it. So I show up at his house and he's there. One of his submissive is there and they're mad cool, we talk, drink a little bit. Yada yada. Session starts, and I am just like, “Nigga sign me up. Oh wait, tomorrow!”

Kenrya: Right. And so wait, the session is on like-

Erica: He does it via Zoom.

Kenrya: Zoom or something? He's streaming?

Erica: Yeah. He does it via Zoom, you buy tickets and all that. And it was just amazing. He chokes, but while he's choking you he's whispering shit in your ear. Have you seen the tapping thing where people do this or they do this?

Kenrya: Yeah.

Erica: He does that shit while he's choking you out. So he's like choking you and tapping your forehead and whispering shit in your ear. And it is just like, “Nigga, now. Please. Thank you very much.” So session was over, went well. Yay. So I'm leaving. He's like, “Hey, take a cookie, eat this cookie tomorrow. Right before your session.” I was like, “All right, cool.” And I'm noticing that he had, he sells these cookies, but I was like, whatever. So I was just like, “All right, I'll take the cookie.” So go home. Next morning, he texted me, he's like, “Everything good? Ready to come over?” I'm like, “Yep.” Get over there at our intended time.

Kenrya: And you had already taken a cookie.

Erica: Yeah. I ate the cookie and then I headed over there. So one of the things that is such a turn on is the consent involved in negotiating in these scenes. So I walk in and like I said, we're in an Airbnb, and it's like a typical DC house. So you walk in first floor steps right in front of you.

Kenrya: Steps right there.

Erica: Exactly. So I come in, he's there, his submissive is there. She's setting stuff up. She has water out for me, water out for him. And she's like, “Okay, y’all have a good time.” Gives him kiss and she rolls. And I was like, time for this to begin. So I looked to my left and on the couch are all these implements, all these accoutrements.

Erica: And we went through every single one, one by one. “Erica, can I use this on you?” And I was like, “Yeah.” “Erica, can I use this on you?” So he has this one flogger, it's pretty, but it looks scary because it's got like rubber tails on it and rubber I'm afraid of, because I'm like, that shit probably hurt more than usual. So I was like, I don't know. And he was like, talk to me, this is about communication. I was like, “I'm afraid of it.” And he was like, “It's okay.” And he puts it in the no pile and then he has... So he had a bunch of different floggers. He had this little thing, you know when you see people making ravioli and they're like cutting the sides of it?

Kenrya: Yeah. I think it's called a Wartenberg wheel, that thing?

Erica: Yeah. So he had one of the motherfuckers and I was like, okay. And I went to a workshop conference a while back and they had electro play. They were talking about electro play. And so I was like, “I don't know because when I did it in the seminar, you standing in a fucking hotel conference room and she's like, and I'm like, I don't know.” So I was like, “Let's put this on the maybe pile.”

Kenrya: Maybe, yeah.

Erica: And then the final piece, he has a hood and he's like, “Can I use this on you?” And I was like, “Yep.” Because the idea of sensory deprivation just oh, makes me excited.

Kenrya: What that a different experience than using just a regular mask or whatever?

Erica: Yeah, because the hood you ain't seeing nothing. You know how with a mask, if you doing too much, you can be like... A hood-

Kenrya: A cheater.

Erica: Yeah. Hood ain't no thing.

Kenrya: And then is it just like a space for you to breathe and-

Erica: It's literally like a hole cut on the mouth.

Kenrya: In your mouth? Okay.

Erica: And that's it. So once we're finishing negotiating, he's like, all right, hood goes on. I was like, “Oh shit.”

Kenrya: It's time.

Erica: It's time. Let's get ready to rumble.

Kenrya: I think you got to pay to say that now. You might want to be careful.

Erica: Oh shoot, you do? All right.

Kenrya: Well, no one's allowed to use it because dude owns it. Wow. And then he retired. So when you watch boxing now like Top Rank and shit like that, all the announces have bootlegs ass, janky ass, fucking catch phrases, because they're not allowed to say let's get ready to rumble.

Erica: Tonight let's fight. Get it tight.

Kenrya: Right.

Erica: Whatever nigga. Okay. So bam, let's go at it. So he guides me by my hand over like a love seat and I am in it. I get on my knees and I'm like on my knees leaned over the love seat with my butt on the air, right? Oh, what was I wearing? I went with lingerie because I was like, I want to feel sexy. I want to feel sensual, so I had on lingerie. So here I am, ass up, face down and it starts. So first he starts off slow. So he'll do hand spankings and then he'll alternate it. And he'll hit you with the flogger. And it's really interesting because... If you spank something for so long, your skin gets hot. So then he would lightly rub his fingers across my butt to like...

Kenrya: Take some of the sting away?

Erica: Yeah. Or it was like, he knew just enough to make it hurt when you're like, “Oh my God, that hurts so bad. I'm not sure if I can take anymore.” And before I even say anything, he's like, whoop let's switch it up. So you're constantly going to this pain threshold. And it was just, I was just, bitch. He's like spanking me and shit. And it was amazing that I was... I usually got to fuck to come. I got to fuck. I need some clit action. I need something to come. Girl, this shit had me like ready to come, just from spanking me, all this shit. Then I hear him kind of walk off. He comes back. This motherfucker have floggers in the freezer.

Erica: And then so also when you're getting flogged, they do this whippy thing. So they like, you feel the air, but it doesn't hit you. So then you're feeling cold air and then it's like, bitch, it was amazing. So then he takes me over to a chair, leads me by my hand to a chair, cuffs my hands behind my back. And I am just like, this is definitely an exercise in trust. You have to trust this person because I mean like, bitch a bunch of little motherfuckers could have came kicking me in my gut and I would have been stuck.

Erica: So I'm sitting in a chair and this nigga... So up until this point, it was mainly the flogger. He would kind of run his nails against my skin or spank me with his hand. But then he was like, it's time to use some other shit. This motherfucker had a vibrator. And he started poking me with the vibrator in different parts of my body. Bitch, this nigga hit my lower back and I came. I came, I squirted everywhere. It was like-

Kenrya: The fuck?

Erica: It was amazing. It was amazing. And it was like an intense ass orgasm.

Kenrya: From your lower back.

Erica: It was so intense. It was like all of my body, it was like I was one big ass clit. It was like, everything was connected and it was oh. So, the cookies we're wondering about, the cookies he sells them. They're called like pussydoodle, they're like snickerdoodles, but they make your pussy wet and no fucking lie, I am not a squirter. I am not a squirter. You know them little fountains in the parks? That was me the entire time.

Kenrya: Wow.

Erica: So much so, at one point I could hear him sloshing through, stepping in wet shit. I was like, someone going to have to clean this shit up. It was fucking amazing. Like it was so fucking amazing. So then he pulls out the little electro play thing. So an electro play thingy, I don't even know, wand, it looks like an immersion blender. You know how an immersion blender has a handle and then the little thing is sticking-

Kenrya: Yeah, you got me an immersion blender for Christmas a couple years ago. And I got you one too. The same year.

Erica: Exactly. Right. So it has all these different tips. So it has like a little bulb tip. You run it across, but then it has some pointed tips, but it also has this attachment because one it was over, I was like, nigga I need to see this.

Kenrya: I need to see what the fuck, yeah.

Erica: It's this attachment. It's like a metal plate. So he put it in his waistband. So the metal plate sits against your body and you hold the wand and you adjust the power on it. But because the metal plate is against your body, your entire body is electrified. So every time he ran his hand against my arm, it was like light electricity. And you can change the intensity. We started at a really low intensity. So it kind of felt like... This is a horrible description, it felt like I was in soda bubbles, what's the thing called? It was so nice. And so, he is doing that and he is like, other shit. And he kind of turns it up. And that's the thing.

Erica: I think if I ever was just to be fucking and a nigga pull out a fucking cane and smacks me against the ass, I'm going to be like, “What the fuck?” Bitch, by the end of this, he’s like smacking me hard as fuck with a cane. And I was like, “Oh, this is great.”

Kenrya: Because y’all worked up to this, my guess. Right?

Erica: Exactly. And it was so fucking amazing. I came a million times. Oh, sorry, let me end it first before I give the recap. So here I am squirting, and coming and coming, and squirting and coming and squirting. So then I get out of chair, he unlocks me, puts me back in the chair with my butt up and he has an anal plug. And so here's the thing with anal. I've talked about it. I have a love, hate relationship with it. I love it. But I just, I don't anal train. Girl by the time we got there-

Kenrya: It's a lot of work.

Erica: That nigga was like, that's me with a water bottle. Okay, maybe it wasn't a water bottle, but I was so loose and it was just-

Kenrya: All that coming.

Erica: Magical.

Kenrya: It got to open your booty hole.

Erica: Yeah. That was it. It like released everything. It was amazing, nothing short of amazing. When it was all said and done, I felt like I had like... You know how you leave a spa and you're just like, your body feels light and wibbly? And that is how I felt. It was fucking amazing.

Kenrya: That's what’s up.

Erica: And then when it's all over with, he's like, “What do you need? Do you need a hug? Do you need to sit there alone?” I was like, “Give me some water.” I'm standing there like a little baby drinking down water. It was amazing. Nothing short of amazing. I have decided that this is something that I will regularly do for myself because it was amazing. And it compares in no way, shape or form to just some random nigga saying, “Hey, I know how to whoop your ass.”

Kenrya: That's what I was going to ask, it feels like because he is a professional, that this is some next level shit than just some nigga who wants to smack your ass.

Erica: Yes, he's a pro. And so I think he has years of experience of knowing how to take you to your highs and your lows. But I also feel like if your partner was just really determined to listen and pay attention and do this, I think it's possible for your partner to do it. But I think it's just something that, this ain't just walking in and smacking a bitch on her ass. This ain't just choking a motherfucker out. There's so much more to it that people miss out on. And he provided it. I was like, yo, this shit is...

Kenrya: What did the aftercare look like? I know you said he gave you a bunch of water, but what else was involved in aftercare? That's such a big part of BDSM, I know.

Erica: For me, I like snuggles. So he literally sat there and held me on the couch and snuggled. It was great. Some people like, “I need frozen Reese's cups.” Okay. Everyone gets their own thing. And I think maybe once I do it more, I probably will find what my thing is. But for this situation it was cuddles and we literally sat down the couch and he held me kind of, it was just like, I just needed to come down. I was like buzzing. And so I just needed something to hold me-

Kenrya: Some containment.

Erica: As everything came down.

Kenrya: What, what did you learn about yourself in this process?

Erica: It's a mindfuck. And Daddy Heff always says like, where the mind goes, the body will follow. I think he says somebody else said it, but I don't remember, but where the mind goes, the body will follow. And that is so true. I was amazed, I thought that I was the type of person that generally needed just penetrative sex or some sort of action on my clit. But it was truly like for the first time I saw my entire body as one sexual organ, it was beautiful.

Kenrya: Maybe this is that, but I'm going to ask it anyway, was there anything that was surprising about the process?

Erica: Bitch, how I squirted like a motherfucker. I was like, God damn. I was surprised. I was truly surprised about that piece. I was also surprised at how cool everybody was, like him, his submissive. It was just like, okay, I see why this works. Everybody was just cool and chill and all of that.

Kenrya: Is there anything that you would've done differently? Hindsight, being 20/20?

Erica: I probably wouldn't have waited so long to do it. Personally, I had hang ups about... We all have hang ups. But I made a very conscious decision to employ a sex worker for my gratification. And so then you're like, I'm hiring a John, that kind of shit. And now I'm just like, going through it, I'm like some of y’all need to try this. Some of y’all walking around and you need to just need to be properly unwound. And I hate that, that was a thing because I consider myself very sex positive and yada, yada. But it was always like a, “You like it? I love it. It ain't my thing.” But no, it's totally my thing. Because also, you get what you paid for, and I paid for a professional that knew exactly what the fuck he was doing and how to do it as opposed to spending my time at Olive Garden with a motherfucker, who brought me home, spit on his dick and thought he was doing some, right?

Kenrya: Yikes. That makes me think about, two things like at various times, as you said earlier, talked about the possibility of integrating more BDSM into your sexual relationships. And then you also just said that you're planning on doing this in terms of working with a pro worker on kind of a regular basis. I'm wondering how you think you might integrate, what you learned and what you experienced into your sex life with your current partners? If at all, maybe you won't.

Erica: That's the thing. So I think I am going to... Here's the thing, I feel like having gone through this, I feel like this is something you got to study for. You got to know what the fuck you're doing. And I've had really great partners, sexual partners. The one sexual partner, I think that would really be into like, “Okay, let me figure this out” and that kind of thing. He told me from the beginning, “I have an allergy to pain. I have an allergy to my pain and inflicting pain,” so that he's out the window. And then the other motherfucker is like, “If these niggas ask me to take some courses to fuck them better, I'd be like…“

Kenrya: “Fuck, that's too much work.”

Erica: All right. And then I do that thing we talked about in the other episode, ghosting. So I think right now that's something that I would necessarily incorporate, but I definitely see... Once I end up in a monogamous relationship and we're riding this shit out like, nigga you got to go to seminars, we got to do something because it was just great. So here's the thing, we talked about anal a lot, and I feel like there's so much talk about women, how to prepare for anal, how to do anal. There's no training for men on how to do anal. And there is a lot of shit that goes into anal for men that they just don't think about. They just think it's just like, you show up [crosstalk 00:28:13].

Kenrya: People with penises.

Erica: That's the same way with BDSM. I feel like, niggas just show up thinking, this is easy. And it's like, no. You have to be conscious and conscientious about what you're doing, especially if you're doing it right. As a submissive, as a bottom, you have safe words and they talk about slipping into subspace where you're just kind of like in a trance. And not that you're unable to function, but you're in a trance and just kind of enjoying what's going on. And so your dom has to be paying attention to make sure that you're safe because you might be so into it that you don't... Forget your safe word, there's so much that goes in into it. And I think that it's something I would definitely want in a monogamous relationship. I feel like it's work. And I don't quite know if I have a partner right now that I'm willing to invest all that in.

Kenrya: That makes sense. What about in unpartnered situations? Going to Dungeons, events, that kind of thing?

Erica: So, I think I'll do the hooded thing. I am realizing the more I deal with my nails that I definitely have a nail fetish. I love rubbing my nails against somebody's back and that kind of thing. I am down for light spankings maybe, but the scene that I had with Daddy Heff is going to have to be with somebody that knows what the fuck they are doing.

Kenrya: All right. Is there anything I didn't ask you that you wish I had?

Erica: No, it was a good session overall. It was a really good session overall. So I recommend, if y’all interested, and there are tons of doms on the internet. There are women that are doms. There are men that are doms. There are theys that are doms. And so find one that works for you. Because Instagram has all these rules, you probably got to follow most on Twitter or go to conventions, expos, that kind of thing, you'll meet people. And yeah, enjoy. But I say, if you are unsure about it, this is your sign. Do it.

Kenrya: Actually, I just thought of another question that I think some folks might ask. So y’all had penetrative sex with toys, but was there actual flesh on flesh, penetrative sex? Is that a part of that experience?

Erica: No. And one of the things that I learned, because when I was at the Sex Down South conference, there was a dom there and he was there with his submissive and a lot of women were interested in it and they were like, “How do I find one?” And he was like, “Look, I'm going to be honest, some of these niggas just do it because they want pussy.” And so they ended up doing it for pussy. And I get it. Totally see how things could happen. But yeah, it's possible to do it without it, and actually the few Black doms that I know that I think, of most of them are in relationships and have they're submissive and this is just something else they do, bringing smiles to lonely divorcees.

Kenrya: Okay bitch. Word. Well, thank you for the storytime. I hope y’all enjoy it.

Erica: Yes, it was dope. It was dope. I'm telling y’all treat yourself, don't cheat yourself. It was great.

Kenrya: Dope. All right. Well y’all check out the show notes for information on, what's Daddy Heff?

Erica: On Daddy Heff, King Heffs. I call him Daddy Heff now that he's beat my ass.

Kenrya: King Heffs, excuse me. Although I feel like now it might be harder for you to get an appointment. Yeah. You might have given out too much information.

Erica: The niggas ain't cheap. Here look, it ain't like you out running getting a McDonald's meal.

Kenrya: If you want to-

Erica: If you want to spend by all means.

Kenrya: Enjoy.

Erica: Yeah. But Daddy Heff, I do need to be at the front of the line when it comes to scheduling. Please and thank you.

Kenrya: All right. Yes.

Erica: But yeah, it was dope.

Kenrya: That wraps up this week's quickie. Thank y’all for listening. We'll see y’all next week.

Erica: Peace.

[theme music]
 
Kenrya: This episode was produced by us, Kenrya and Erica, and edited by B'Lystic. The theme music is from Brazy. Hit subscribe right now in your favorite podcast app and at YouTube.com/TheTurnOnPodcast, so you'll never miss an episode.
 
Erica: Then follow us on Twitter @TheTurnOnPod and Instagram @TheTurnOnPodcast. And you can find links to books, transcripts, guest info, what's turning us on, and other fun stuff at TheTurnOnPodcast.com.
 
Kenrya: And don't forget to email us at [email protected] with your book recommendations and your pressing sex-and related questions.
 
Erica: And you can support the show by leaving us a five-star review, buying some merch or becoming a patron of the show. Just head to TheTurnOnPodcast.com to make that happen.
 
Kenrya: Thanks for listening and we'll see you soon. Holla.

LISTEN TO THE TURN ON
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SHOW NOTES
​This week, Erica and Kenrya talk to author adrienne maree brown about "Pleasure Activism," the distinct joy of writing fiction, growing a pleasureful life, learning in public, what the Black kink community can teach us about negotiating intimacy, the joys of integrating your sexual self with your other selves, navigating disability and sex and why we're so damn grateful that Black people write books.

​RESOURCES
Guest, adrienne maree brown | Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

adrienne's Books:

• "Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds" | Bookshop | Amazon
• "Grievers" | Bookshop | Amazon
• "Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation" | Bookshop | Amazon
• "Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements" | Bookshop | Amazon
• "Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good" | Bookshop | Amazon
• "We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice"| Bookshop | Amazon

adrienne's Recommendations:

• "The Prophets" by Robert Jones Jr. | Bookshop | Amazon
• "Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead" by Brené Brown | Bookshop | Amazon
• "Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement" by Tarana Burke | Bookshop | Amazon
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The Turn On participates in affiliate programs, which provide a small commission when you purchase products via links on this site. This costs you nothing, but helps support the show. Click here for more information.

TRANSCRIPT
Kenrya: Come here. Get off.
 
[theme music]

Kenrya: Hey good people. Today, I don't even know how to explain how excited we are.

Erica: We never do. This is a very special episode of The Turn On-

Kenrya: Ever.

Erica: This very special episode of The Turn On.

Kenrya: Yeah, it's true because, y'all, today we're talking to adrienne maree brown. When we first had the idea to do this show, there was a very short list of folks who we knew we wanted to talk to and adrienne was on that list. You don't even write erotica, we were like "meh, details."

adrienne maree brown: Oh, I do.

Kenrya: Oh, what? Wait.

adrienne maree brown: We'll talk about it.

Kenrya: Oh, shit, okay. Yup. Let's get into the intro so then we can get into the stuff. Okay. So adrienne's pronouns are she and they. adrienne is the author of “Grievers.”
 
[Kenrya holds up copy of “Grievers.”]

adrienne maree brown: Oh my gosh, I'm gonna cry.

Kenrya: The first in her novella series with the Black Dawn imprint. “Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation”; “We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice”; “Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good”; “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds”; and the co-editor of “Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements.” She's also the co-host of the How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia's Parables podcasts, and adrienne is rooted in Durham.

adrienne maree brown: That's true.

Kenrya: Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

adrienne maree brown: Thanks for having this show and thanks for having me on it.

Erica: So adrienne, what did you want to be when you were growing up?

adrienne maree brown: I love that question. Gosh, well, there's always been a dual path for me, so I always wanted to be a writer. I always knew I was a writer. As a kid I was writing stories, but I was also a performer. I wanted to be a singing, dancing, theatrical star. I actually auditioned. I mean, I was in every dance class, every play, everything like that my whole childhood. I went to the North Atlanta High School of the performing arts, where was told I was on path to become the next Jasmine Guy which was, I was like, "I'm for it, I'm here for it. I love ‘A Different World’ and I'm here for it." Yeah, it was always a performer and a writer, always a creative endeavor.

Kenrya: Well, so usually my next question is how did you get from there to here, but it's a straight line kind of, sort of?

adrienne maree brown: No. I mean, I spent 25 years in social justice movement work thinking definitely like I'm never going to be a performer, or a singer, or anything like that. Or if I do, I'll only do it like, I'll sing in movement spaces or I'll sing to gather people back from small groups, something like that. Which I did, I used to be like, "It's time!" Then writing on the side. I was like, I blog, I do stuff over here, but I really... for a while I was like, "I don't know if I'm going to get this fiction thing happening or books happening." That was okay because I am a good facilitator. I'm a great facilitator, and I love doing it. It uses my brain in ways that are good for my brain. I synthesize, I can hear between the lines. But yeah, there was a period where I was like, "Okay, this is my life of service," and yet, and the other part just kept knocking at the door like, there's songs, and there's books, and there's stories, and there's other stuff.

adrienne maree brown: My close friends and family will tell you that at least once a year I call them like, "I'm a writer," and they're like, "Yes. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows that. Everyone already knows that so what are you going to do about it?" Then after having published several nonfiction works I was like, "I'm a fiction writer," and they're like, "Yeah, what are you going to do about it?" I have continuously kept trusting the process, trusting. I write, I just keep writing. I joke around I stay writing. If I have, that might be what goes on my tombstone is just, "She stayed writing."

Erica: “She stayed writing.”

adrienne maree brown: "She stayed writing. She's probably still writing." I'll be an ancestor be like, “Thoughts on the afterlife.” But yeah, it doesn't feel like a straight line to me, but it feels like I'm landing in something that I always knew I was supposed to be in.

Kenrya: What's your favorite thing about what you do?

adrienne maree brown: I get a lot of pleasure from what I do on a daily basis. I love my work and the more I talk to other people who write, the more I recognize how special that is. Because I know a lot of writers who are like, "I have to write, but I hate writing. I don't enjoy the process. I'm pushing it out. I'm struggling with it." For me, I never feel like that. I'm always just like, "I get to write. I can't believe I get to write all day today." When I get to clear out space and just write there's times when... I'm the kind of writer who I'll wake up in the morning, usually the content is there, something's there. It's like, "You have to write about this. You have to write about this." Writing fiction is really a pleasurable, daunting experience because it's not about reacting to the world in that day in the same way. It's really stepping back and world-building. I feel like a student there, so I like the balance in my life of getting to be someone who knows about certain things and is still learning about others.

adrienne maree brown: Then I really like that I get to determine how my time is spent. I think I have found myself saying a lot that I feel like one of the freest people to ever live. I'm like, "Why does it feel that way?" I have done a bunch of study of my own lineage and my ancestral lines, and what humans have been up to. So much of human history is shaped around the labor of survival, the labor of obligation, or the labor of subjugation. Being in conditions where you didn't get to determine how you spent your own time. Then a lot of it was like, how do we survive how other people feel about us, hate us, want to oppress us, want to tear us down? And I've got all the different things. I'm Black, I'm queer, I'm a woman, I'm disabled. All the things that traditionally have been like, "Oh, you are not going to get to do what you want to do." The fact that I wake up most days and I'm like, "I want to do everything that's on my schedule. I only say yes to things I want to do."

adrienne maree brown: Like his conversation I'm like, it's like I open up my calendar for the day I'm like, "That's going to be wonderful." I feel really strongly I'm like, that's my favorite part about my life is... I work a lot, but I don't feel like I hustle. I don't feel like I'm in a tense hustling place I did for a long time. But one of the nice things about being in social justice work for a long time is I learned that I can really live a satisfying life on not a lot of income. I have a great life and I have enough and I'm not constantly striving for, “I need a Benz.” I'm like, that's not driving me. I want to be able to write. I like being in love. I don't need a massive house, I just want enough space. That gives me a lot of freedom in my days because I'm like, "Okay, I have enough. Okay. Let's do what I want to do."

Kenrya: That's great. What's the most challenging thing about all of this?

adrienne maree brown: Yeah. Well, I mean, because I don't have some other boss there's no one else telling me what to do. The most challenging part is sometimes figuring out, how do you write a book? Or, how do I make a deadline? I've had to create systems of deadline for myself, so that's been one. It's just like, when do I know something's complete? I have to often be the one who determines that something is complete. There's no one else to be like, "Yeah, I approve that." I'm like, "Do I think it's done?" I think the other part is what society is up to right now is it's daunting to be a visible person in any way. Because on one hand people are like, "Oh, I love you. I want to put you up in some visible space," but we're also really structured around destruction of those that we can see and we'll destroy for any reason. So whatever it is, its like, "Oh, this is your weak point," or, "This is your mistake," or, "This is your thing." There's a lot of, as soon as you're like, "Oh, I'm doing what I love." There's someone who's like, "I hate you." What? You don't know me.

adrienne maree brown: Hate is such a strong emotion to focus on and generate, and it's not how I'm structured. I'm like if I don't like an artist, or a writer, or a movement, thinker, or whatever, I just don't put my mind on them. That's my [crosstalk 00:10:56]-

Kenrya: That's not for you.

adrienne maree brown: It's not for me. There's clearly in service of something else and someone else because they have followers and that's okay, but I bring my attention away. That part is always challenging where I'm like my ego. I'm an appease, I'm a likable person or at least I want to be. For a long time it was important to my work. As a facilitator, it's important to come in and not be ruffling the feathers in the room because it's like, "It's not about me. I need to be a neutral, kind energy that can allow movement to happen here." But now as a writer I get to step out more and more as, here's what I think about things, here's how I feel. Pleasure activism, that was a major leap from what I had been doing and where I had been. Suddenly I was like, "Also, let's talk about squirting. Also let's talk about consent. Also let's talk about spanking. Let's talk about these very important topics."

adrienne maree brown: There were a lot of people who were like, "I don't respect that. I don't understand. How am I supposed to honor that or take you seriously as a leader?" Then I've done other books that were challenging. People are like, "What? That's not what we wanted from you." I'm learning though to also take that challenge as growth, as a way of growing, as an invitation to grow. I can't remember who said it right now, maybe Baldwin, but it's like, if you're not upsetting anyone then you're not actually doing your job. If no one is critiquing the work, then you're not actually taking any risks. In that way I start to receive certain challenges as like, "Okay, I'm taking risks." Brené Brown has this book, “Daring Greatly” which I recommend to people when it's like, "I'm trying to take a risk." You know, that book, right?

Kenrya: Yeah.

adrienne maree brown: In it she quotes, I think it's Teddy Roosevelt in the beginning. She's like, "If you're not in the arena..." basically it's, don't listen to the people who are not in their arena. If you're brave with your life and you choose to live in the arena, then you're going to get your ass kicked. I love that. I love that, that I'm like, "Yes." If I have haters, or if I have challenging critiques, or if I have stuff like that, it means I'm in there in the space trying to learn and trying to figure it out. Learning in public is really challenging, but I feel committed to continually doing that. Trying to think if there's other challenges. There's a certain loneliness to a writer's life sometimes. It's like a self-imposed thing but I'm like, "I'm clearing out space, I'm clearing out space, I'm clearing out space." I'm like, "I'm all by myself in this space." Sometimes there's that, having a... my fiancée now has helped a lot with that, but there were years there where I wasn't with anyone and I had started to make room for writing.

adrienne maree brown: I was just like, "Am I just going to be alone for the next 15 years writing books?" Because my characters are good company. I love being in a book and being in a writing process. I have great friends who check on me and who show up with me. But especially when you're trying to write something new or something that feels new, there's a way that you're inching out onto a certain limb by yourself and it can feel lonely there. I think now I go out there and then I come back to the whatever [inaudible 00:14:51]. I'm just like, "Okay, I need nourishing. I need loving up. I need my people to circle around me." When I release a book now I turn way deep inward. It's like, "Okay book, go out there. I'm going to go turn deeply inward, check in with my people. Let them just love up on me for completion." Because out there on the limb, people start throwing things, yelling things. It's like, hold on. I don't know how people are going to feel about this, but I'm going to go get nourished first before I look at the reviews.

Kenrya: Yeah. It's a blessing that you have that space where you can be nourished in those times. Yeah.

adrienne maree brown: Inner circle is everything.

Erica: We talk about sex. We always ask folks, what was the prevailing attitude about sex in your home growing up?

adrienne maree brown: I feel like it was generally positive but private. I don't remember seeing my parents interact with each other much physically in a way that was like, "They're getting it in. That's their vibe." I know that I was the oldest of three so I was like, "Y'all are still making more babies somewhere." I know that they loved each other. They were very cute, adoring with each other. I remember reaching a certain age where my mom was like, yeah, just always make sure that part of the relationship is good. She's like, "If something's wrong with the sex part of the relationship, it's going to be hard for the rest of it to work." I thought that that was really good... it has been very good advice in my life. There have been periods where I was like, "I think everything's great, but I'm not satisfied." She's like, "Get out of there."

Kenrya: Because it only gets worse.

adrienne maree brown: It's only going to get worse, A. B, she's like, "There's something in that root system of desiring each other and being able..." she's like, "You just can work through a lot in that space." I do find that to be the case in my loving relationships. The best relationships I've had have been ones where I was like, "We mad, let's go work it out." Makeup sex is a really magical thing in a healthy relationship. Yeah, but that was it when I was growing up. My parents are both Southerners. I don't think my dad's ever read “Pleasure Activism.” This is something you don't really talk about. Yeah. That was the energy.

Kenrya: I mean, you just talked about how that influences your relationships. Now, I'm wondering how coming from that space, being rooted there, influences your work now.

adrienne maree brown: Yeah. Well, I think it's so interesting because there's still this part of me that is always like, "I can't believe we're talking about this." When I was doing the book tour for “Pleasure Activism,” it was actually hilarious because I would do this dealer's choice thing with the audiences because it was like, be in a room with a couple of hundred people and I was like, "Which pieces do you want me to read?" There was always the nipple piece, the squirting piece. It was always the reasons that I was like-

Erica: This is what you like in front of people.

adrienne maree brown: I was in front of people and comrades. In front of people who I'm like, "I've been your facilitator for years. I've maybe been your boss or whatever." Now I'm like, “So, squirting.” There's still in me that trained in, I don't know if it's prudishness or a polite company. There's something in there that's like, "Oh, adrienne," even as I'm the one who's crossing those boundaries. I think there's a real sense of love should be a part of all of it. Growing up, what felt important in the household I grew up in was love matters so much and being loved and loving matters so much. I think that shows up in every aspect of my work now. It's like, everyone deserves to be loved. Everyone deserves that. You don't have to perform it for other people. You don't have to show that, but you need to know that it's good. You need to know that you're loved and that you have your people. That shapes a lot of my work now.

adrienne maree brown: There's a lot actually that I don't share with the public now, but it's because it's good. I'm like, "This is functional. This is great. This is working. I feel deeply joyful. I feel deeply satisfied." I'm like, "That doesn't have to be performative. It doesn't have to be for the Gram." In some ways I feel like I'm trying to notice that. I'm like, for some people, the most healing thing you can do is reveal more and for some people the most healing thing you can do is really tune in and make sure you're in an authentic place. You have to know which medicine is the right one for you.

Erica: We asked you to come on the show because “Pleasure Activism” aligns so closely with what we do here. I opened up by saying it is one of our guiding lights. Tell us a little bit about that book and what did you want? What pushed you to write it?

adrienne maree brown: That was one of the books that it was like, "I'm going to be written." I kept waking up with clear stuff that wanted to be said. It just kept showing up in my life. Since I was in my early 20s, I was really aware of how important sex, and orgasm, and pleasure were to my reclamation of myself as a fat, Black woman. Then doing drugs was important to me. I'm like, I really feel like a large reason why I'm in touch with myself in the ways that I am is due to mushrooms, and weed, and ecstasy. I felt like I was around a lot of people who had similar experiences, really positive experiences, of sex and drugs helping them to become themselves, and yet feeling like we had to hide that part like we were living in some mythological society where those things were naughty or bad. I'm like, "No, we're all adults." What we're not talking about is actually allowing so much harm to happen because we don't talk about our desires. We don't talk about our drug use. We don't talk about our sex lives.

adrienne maree brown: It means some people are just never having great sex. Some people are having really unhealthy sexual relationships. I think a lot of the sexual harm, sexual abuse, things like that come from repressed desires and mishandled desires, and things that don't get spoken about. Things that people are like, "Oh, I'm ashamed." I'm like, "You don't need to be ashamed. You need to find people who share that kink with you and where you can consensually do that thing. You need to find people who can help you heal if something has been harmed or broken." All of that was a big part of my life. One of my first movement jobs was at a place called The Harm Reduction Coalition. It was training people in, how do you reduce the harm that comes from drugs and sex? It was such a, one, I'm so grateful that that was one of the first things I ever did professionally. Because I was around a lot of other adults who were like, "We're fucking. We're fucking and we're drugging, and we're high, and there's nothing wrong with any of that." Actually, there's something wrong with being in a society that acts like the poor people, and the Black people, and other folks who do that are somehow bad and wrong, even though everyone's doing it.

adrienne maree brown: I mean, we see that. We live in a society where white people are getting very wealthy off of selling marijuana while Black people are sitting in prison for the same thing. All of that was fascinating to me. First I started doing this column for “Bitch Magazine” called The Pleasure Dome. I was just like, "Let me feel into what it's like to write about these things more publicly." I had done a little dabbling on my blog and it was so good and I got such positive responses. People were like, "Thank God you're talking about this and from a social justice perspective, from an abolitionist perspective, from a radical perspective, that there's nothing wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with desire." Everything can be in alignment with the future we want. I feel like the book really was pushing itself out. Then there were these edges I would come to where I was like, "I don't know enough about this, but I know who does." It was really a hybrid of my own writing and an anthology of other people who I really look up to and learn from.

adrienne maree brown: There's another book in the works now that is going to be a book on Black feminist kink that I'm really excited about. I have a team of incredible Black, radical, feminist women who are working on that now and teaching me. I'm like, "Tell me everything because y'all are..." they're further along than I am in the practices. I'm like, I think we have a lot to learn from the BDSM kink communities around how we communicate what we want to need and getting it. Yeah, some stuff there.

Erica: That's so dope. I actually just got back from a conference and there were... I was at the Sex Down South Conference. There were lots of kink practitioners there. I went to a workshop that was about BDSM and its therapeutic benefits, and I felt like I was at a Jodeci concert. It was all Black women in there.

adrienne maree brown: Yes.

Erica: I mean, it was just full of Black women. At the end we were like, "How do I join?" It's wild because I feel like the more Black women get exposed to this, the more they're like, "Hmm, this seems pretty interesting." I mean, some might not identify. Because I think we hear about BDSM and the first thing that goes to our mind is submission, which that's some people's thing, but there's so many parts of it, right?

adrienne maree brown: Yeah. There's so many parts of it. I think for me, the thing that is important is we have... Black women's history, especially in the US, is that we were brought here to be in total subjugation. Our bodies to be used as labor, as sexual labor, as whatever was demanded of us. There was harm, there was pain, it was built into the structure. I think that for a lot of people who are like, "Oh, I would never want to go someplace where there was harm, there was pain, there was submission." But I think the thing that's been fascinating to me about everything I've been learning in my dabbling practices are like, it's actually about power and it's about reclaiming power over every aspect of this. I wish that every single person who has sex of any gender, background, anything would go through the BDSM checklist, or would go through that aftercare checklist and just be like, "Here's the things that I know I like, here's what I know I don't like, here's what I consent to, here's what my safety language is. If I need to change that arrangement, here's what I need afterwards in order to feel cared for and loved."

adrienne maree brown: That stuff is just brilliant for anyone who's negotiating sex with a new partner. I think the BDSM community teaches us a lot. I also have been blown away by my gay male friends who are negotiating a lot of this stuff on apps. I remember when Grindr came out and they were all like, "Yeah, I'm doing all this stuff by chat before I ever get there so I walk in the door and we both know what's up, and we both know what we've agreed to, and we both have to honor that." They're having sex with people where they're like, "We don't even know each other's names necessarily, but we had a very deep, intimate experience where we both were in consensual, pleasurable time." I'm like, okay, how can I make sure that Black women get to experience something like that? Because what I'm hearing concurrently from Black women is that we keep ending up in relationships where we don't feel empowered to articulate what we want. Where we have been trained and socialized that our job is just to please our partner. It's not just our male partners, those dynamics shift over into queer relationships too. Patriarchy is still present.

adrienne maree brown: That being in service rather than being in a collaborative experience towards pleasure, that's built-in. We have to actually intentionally, think of doing something differently if we want different results. I love the tools of it. Then I think it's important to testify when you do have an experience that's like, "Oh wow! That blew my mind in ways that I didn't expect." I find it very fascinating that there's so many Black women who love being flogged, or being spanked, or being hit in those kinds of ways where they're like, "I'm in charge of this." Because I'm like, "What happened for that to be a healing and pleasurable experience for people whose lineage comes from slavery?" That is a massive transformative thing to be able to do in a few short generations. To me, it's part of why I'm like, I don't think anyone should ever be spanking children because I'm like, there's a pleasure sensibility to this act that shouldn't actually be done with children who can't consent. It's being done as a punishment, I think it's confusing.

adrienne maree brown: I don't think anyone should ever hit a kid for any reason, but especially that reason. But I'm like, "Oh, the more I understand what spanking actually is the less I think it should happen to anyone who can't consent to it." There's just all this fascinating stuff there to me that I'm like, let's unlock those conversations and not be ashamed of them. I also meet a lot of Black women who are like, they'll whisper to me what they want. I'm like, "You're telling me that. I'm not going to bed with you. I'm not going to be able to help you get that." I'm like, "You don't feel comfortable telling the person you're having sex with, or the people you're having sex with what you actually want. Let's work on that." Because everyone deserves a space where they can articulate their desires and have them be held and figure out, is there a safe, consensual way to have this experience?

Erica: We know that “Pleasure Activism”, we've touched on this, is so much more than just sex. But as you mentioned, you do have chapters on nipples and squirting. You also mentioned earlier that sometimes you struggle with integrating your sexual self with your other selves. How do you find common ground?

adrienne maree brown: Yeah, I mean, I think it's gotten easier. It definitely helped putting that book out. Putting the book out. One of the things that happened after the book came out, I was still actively facilitating during that time, and I started showing up spaces. If people were late or if we had a break, folks were pulling me to the side like, "Can we talk about pleasure? Can we talk about sex? Can we talk about it?" What I found is that I became a little bit of a portal for people that they were like, "Now I know." Sometimes you just become a portal or a beacon just by being or talking about something. Suddenly people were texting me, "I just had this orgasm," and DM-ing me about the pleasure practices they were in. What it made me realize is that it actually was helpful, the more I could integrate this for myself, the more I could actually be of use to all the people who are like, "I'm in relationship to you, I trust you, and you're able to talk about these things. Help, help, help."

adrienne maree brown: To me the integration was both for myself because I'm like, this is just the truth of my life is that I'm a sexual goddess. I've been that way since forever. I can't remember. Even at a very young age, I was thinking about pleasure. My mom was like, "You were always making out with your friends. You were always physically in touch with them." I was always getting caught under the covers with someone. That was always me. The only thing that put me off that path was going through experiences of sexual harm and sexual assault and having to recover from those experiences and be like, "Actually, this is still me. What was done was not about sex, but about power."

Kenrya: Or about you.

adrienne maree brown: Exactly. It was like, "That's that person's work, but mine is to continue healing and to be my whole self." It feels now much more integrated into who and how I am all the time. One of the things that's been fascinating more recently is I've been experiencing so much satisfaction in my life in general. I have been writing the books I want to write, I'm in partnerships I want to be in, I'm engaged. All my niblings and my family are doing well. My friendships are deep. I've been saying I feel like I'm experiencing lifegasms. There's something that I used to think only happened for me in the orgasmic realm of the bedroom that I'm like, "Oh, no, this feeling can be expanded into my whole life." I wrote about this, living in the yes in “Pleasure Activism.” At that point I think I was like maybe 60 to 70% there. I was like, "This feels good. I can feel this. This is great." But actually putting the book out unleashed a whole different level where it's just like, I'm still withholding parts of my truth and parts of myself. The more I can actually let those out and articulate them, the more aligned I can be in my life.

adrienne maree brown: I feel like now I move fluidly through my wholeness. I think the other piece is, I don't feel like I have to perform anything around it. Because I feel like there's that pendulum swing where it's like, you move from the prudishness all the way to, "I'm only talking about sex, and fucking, and sucking, [inaudible 00:34:34]." You can also end up on the other side of that spectrum where you're sexualizing every experience, and every relationship, and everything. I definitely went through that too. I was like, "Everyone's hot." I'm like, "Well-"

Kenrya: Maybe not.

adrienne maree brown: Everyone is hot, but I'm not actually attracted to everyone. I'm very picky. Even when I was in my very, I've got different lovers all over the country phase, I was still very picky about who they were and what experience I wanted to have. Now I'm in this new wild experience where I'm in a monogamous engagement with someone that I'm madly in love with, and deeply attracted to, and growing a pleasureful life with. Where it's like, we both are looking for the utmost joy and the utmost feeling good throughout our lives. Sometimes that looks like erotic dates painting, and sometimes that looks like going to movies, and sometimes that looks like making love. It starts to weave into everything.

Kenrya: You write quite beautifully in “Pleasure Activism” about how pleasure led you to fall in love with yourself through the terrain of your body. As someone who…I quite frankly struggle with that. I'm disabled now, but even long before that, body image has been a thing for me. I'm wondering, can we talk about how you got there and how you stay there? Because also-

adrienne maree brown: Well, that's what I was going to say, it's not a one-time journey. It's daily practice. It's really daily practice. There's some practices that I return to over and over again that help me looking at myself, really contending with myself in the mirror. I'm very much like, I look at myself I'm like, "Yes, look at this. Let me see this body. Turn around, let me see that ass. You look good." I'm always just on the precipice of posting so many nudes on Instagram because I'm just like, "I look so good to me." That self-affirmation practice feels really important. I say in the book, I think I talk about how I started with doing one part of me at a time. I started with my left pinky finger, because that was undoubtedly lovable and I worked my way up to parts that seemed less lovable to me at the time. Since “Pleasure Activism” came out my ability has shifted pretty drastically. My arthritis has taken off. Some days I wake up and I feel like I'm in a bone cage. I can't move the way I want to move.

adrienne maree brown: Which has meant that there's been a lot of grief. I feel young to be as limited in my range of motion as I am. I've had to get really creative about what can I still do. I'm having to change what I eat and other things just to be like, "Okay, that is inflammation and that's not," those kinds of things. Now that's become part of my self love practice, is to really think with every single thing that enters my body, "How is this going to feel as it moves through me? Does this serve my utmost mobility, my utmost health, my utmost wellbeing, or does this serve a short-term pleasure that's going to actually cause me a lot of pain?" Ingrid LaFleur actually talks about that in the book. It's like, "How do you live that pleasure life?" I'll also say it's really noticing the things that I have been trained to not like in my body. So I'm like, "Oh, I have been trained not to like cellulite in my body and to feel really negatively towards it. Let me get curious about that. Could I produce a different feeling in myself around cellulite? Are there any people on Instagram?"

adrienne maree brown: Instagram, I really love looking at the fat girls, the big girls on Instagram and just seeing what they're up to. Lizzo has been really helpful for me. I find it helps to have folks who are like Gabi Fresh, and Lizzo, and other people who are larger and who'd just be up there. [inaudible 00:39:14] is one of my favorites because she is a big girl with juicy, big, old thighs, and cellulite, and everything and she just [inaudible 00:39:22] twerks and shakes everything. I'm like, "It looks so good when she does it." I'm like, "Maybe it looks good when I do it." It's just perspective. I've really transformed my thought process around stretch marks. I used to think, "Oh, those can't be good." But I've actually found on my lovers that I love their stretch marks because it's something so distinct to them. I'm like, "That is my boo right there. That's mine." It's so funny, now I'm super into my own stretch marks and how they... there's an intimacy. All these things that we think of as imperfections, those are the intimacies. That's how someone knows they're with us. Those are the markers.

adrienne maree brown: It's like, that's the map, the cartography of your particular body. All of that helps me feel more loving to myself. It does really help to understand that it's like, I'm in a society that has trained me not to like my body, and that should be interrogated. But there's nothing actually wrong with my body. I do a lot of gratitude practices now. My therapist has got me really into this. She's like, "Yes, you have a lot less ability than you did a year ago, but you have a lot more ability than you might a year from now. Let's be really present with the ability you have right now, and let's be really grateful for all of it." When the pain comes, that's a limitation. How can you be really grateful for your body saying, "Oh, hold on message. I can't do that. That's not..." My body is actually communicating with me all the time and something about that is really humbling that I'm like, "This body is an ecosystem, it's not a machine. I'm alive." I've lost a lot of people in my life, so I think that's also a big part of it for me is being like, "I'm alive. This is what my aliveness looks like today. Let me be grateful for this aliveness today."

adrienne maree brown: It's one of the conversations I plan to have with the creator someday is just a little like, "I don't understand why the allergies had to happen. I think I could have enjoyed things more if I could eat almonds. I would love to not... I just don't understand why you made me love pizza if I wasn't supposed to be eating pizza this much." Some of it I'm just like, "This feels like a creative glitch. This doesn't feel like it's on me." But yeah, being with what is, being with what is. When I'm in touch with my mortality, it makes it much easier to just be really deeply in love with the body I have. Going through a loss with people and being like, "I loved their body until the very last breath. There is nothing wrong with it because it was the body of the person I loved." Yeah, so how can I be like that with my own body? Just like, "This is me, it's adrienne, this is my body. It's great."

Kenrya: I love that. I'm sorry. I'm clearly going through it.

adrienne maree brown: Yeah, no, I mean, this is what it is. You have to open yourself. You asked for a medicine that you needed.

Kenrya: Yeah. The bit about being able to sit with the where you are, that really resonates with me. My mobility has also changed quite a bit, quite drastically in just the last couple of months. Thinking about the future of that not in a way that is like, "Oh, it's scary. Where is it going to be?" But more in a, "Let me have gratitude for where I am now and the things that my body can still do for me." That feels really good, so thank you.

adrienne maree brown: And the relationships around it. I mean, I think if I had anything here. I've been really wrestling with, how can I be sexy if I need a special chair at Lowe's? My partner, thank God for her, is just like... I told her that and she's like, "Well, then I'm going to gas you up." When I get in that chair she like, "You look so fine." I'm like, "Okay, good. I just want to make sure I still look fine." It's true. I'm like, we have a long way to go, I think, in understanding that disabled bodies are still sexy as fuck. They're still wired for pleasure. There's still so much happening in all of our bodies. For me, some of my greatest teachers have actually been folks in the disability justice community who have just been like, the folks that [inaudible 00:44:22] they're like, "We are having so much sex and we're having sex that actually is better because we have learned how to articulate what we actually need for our body." I'm not out here... I used to be get on top and cowgirl off into the whatever, moonlight.

adrienne maree brown: I'm like, that's not the knees I have now. So if I do that it's going to be a week of torture. So I'm like, how can I ask for the... and it's related to the BDSM conversation too. It's like, in all of these things, how can I say, "Here's my body, here's my ability, here's my needs, and here's how pleasure can actually work for me." I think we should all know that about ourselves and know that it's constantly changing. I definitely want to be having great sex until the very last minute of my life, so I'm just like, "Look, if nothing is working but my clitoris, you can still suck on it. You just get on in there because we'll figure it out." As long as this works, hey.

Kenrya: Let's get it. Speaking of change, there's a sentence at the end of the intro in “Pleasure Activism” that always gets me. You write, "If this is being read in a future in which this language has evolved, then please know I will be evolving right along with you." I love how future-facing that is and how compassionate it is, not just for the folks who are reading it but for yourself. It also makes me wonder: Octavia Butler taught us that God is change. Have any of your beliefs that you shared in the book changed in these last couple of years?

adrienne maree brown: That's a good question. I think a lot about what I wrote about fantasy and the idea that we should work to get our fantasies aligned with our politics or that we should really notice our fantasies, especially because we're in a world where so much of what is pitched to us is actually sexual harm in different iterations. I think I said in the book, the top searches on most pornography sites are for incest, or for cross. Yeah, a lot of it is just straight up for incest. It's like, stepmom, stepbrother, step this, step that. A lot of the culture... we live in a rape culture and the pornography industry really looks like that, at least the free pornography industry. But I don't know that I got it right in terms of how I wrote about fantasy. I feel like there's more to explore there. Because what is so important to me is that people are not ashamed of what has been shaped in them by the society but figure out, "What are ways that I can be healing in my lifetime?"

adrienne maree brown: There's this vision that a group called Generation Five put out to end child sexual abuse in five generations, and we're really in the first generation of that work. I think about it all the time as I'm like, I don't know how we can engage in any kind of fantasy that supports incest or supports the abuse of people who are teenagers or younger and move towards justice. I just don't know how. I'm like, so I think we need to figure out ways to reckon with that without shaming people for being inside of that. I think that's really hard. I hope that the writing that I did didn't come across as shaming, but I do think that there's some judgment in there and it's judgment I'm still working my way through and trying to navigate. I think it comes from a good place. It's like, when I was writing that book, I was really aware that I'm in love with all these kids who I want to protect and I want to protect them right now, which means I want all the cycles of harm that could possibly hurt them to be done now and facing the reality that they're not. Facing the reality that each of their parents have had to have conversations with them about how to keep them safe.

adrienne maree brown: It breaks my heart. Yeah, sometimes I can feel the heartbreak in there. But overall, yeah, I feel good about what's in the book, I think. I really wish there was a lot, lot, lot more in disability and there was some interviews lined up that fell through and stuff like that. That might be another book that comes out, although there's some good stuff being worked on around it that I'm waiting to see. In the next three years, if I don't see the book that I'm like, "That's it," then I might produce it.

Kenrya: You got it. What are you reading right now?

adrienne maree brown: What am I reading right now?

Kenrya: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

adrienne maree brown: I'm reading “The Prophets,” and it's amazing. If y'all follow Son of Baldwin on the internet, it's his first work of fiction and it's so good.

Erica: Yeah. I just started it last week. [crosstalk 00:50:05]-

adrienne maree brown: It's so good, and it starts off with this very sexy, gay, hot sex scene. It's about, I mean so far. I'm halfway through and it's about a gay slave love story and it's amazing. There's a lot of other stuff happening. I just finished reading my own novel. My novella came and I got to sit and hold it in my hands and read it, which is a different experience than reading it on the computer and the editing process. That was wonderful. Then I have my next book that's going to be read is Tarana Burke's memoir, “Unbound,” which just came out.

Kenrya: Yeah, two days ago.

adrienne maree brown: I just think Tarana is one of the most important humans to ever live. I'm really grateful to be holding this book. I listened to, she did a two-part interview with Oprah about it, where she was talking about so much. It's like, contending with being ugly, contending with being Black, contending with being abused, contending with all these things. I'm just like, we need writing of this caliber and this honesty to keep becoming ourselves. Yeah, I'm grateful Black people write books.

Kenrya: Yes, every day.

adrienne maree brown: Every day.

Erica: What is turning you on today?

adrienne maree brown: Well, my sweetheart and I went through this, have gone through the pandemic together. For most of it we were like, it's just the two of us, no one's leaving the house, everything is happening from the house. In my mind that was like, we're just going to be having sex all the time. But actually it was really hard to keep up a sexual energy in those conditions because it was just like, "This is difficult. We never go anywhere. We're always together and we're always wearing sweat pants. I don't understand." Right now she goes off to work and she comes home and it is like the hottest thing. I love when she comes in from work and she's got a little whole outfit on that she wore to work and I'm just like, "You look so good to me." That's turning me on these days. Then I have a whole group of friends who are going through sexual awakenings themselves. It's just a lot of vicarious delight happening.

adrienne maree brown: We're cheering each other on and just being like, "Yes, live your best hoe life." Watching people figure out how to continuously find connected pleasure in this period of COVID is fascinating to me. I'm like, humans just evolve. We just figure it out. We're never not going to figure it out. We're going to have sex. That's been turning me on and then, I'm trying to think if there's anything else right now. Hot baths. I feel like I take a hot bath and when I come out I'm like, "This is the sexiest version of myself that exists." I'm clean, I'm hot. I literally am steaming off. I'm just like, "God, I'm so hot right now." That's me.

Erica: Okay. So we're going to do a quick lightning round of what brings you more pleasure. I'll give you either or, you tell me which brings you the most. So-

adrienne maree brown: What brings me more pleasure?

Erica: Yup.

adrienne maree brown: Of the things you're going to say?

Erica: Yes. Of the things I'm going to list. Okay, so breakfast or dinner?

adrienne maree brown: Breakfast.

Erica: Yes. Cake or ice cream.

adrienne maree brown: Ice cream.

Erica: Okay. Dress up-

adrienne maree brown: Which is barely.

Erica: I know. I'm like, "Ice cream cake."

adrienne maree brown: I was like, hmmm. There's one particular cake that I have to have every year for my birthday, that's a strawberry cake with chocolate frosting. Nothing will take its place and I need that, and it gives me deep pleasure. But on a day-to-day basis throughout the year, I need my dose of ice cream almost every day.

Erica: I got it. Is this strawberry cake with chocolate frosting from a particular place or it's like [crosstalk 00:54:52]-

adrienne maree brown: It is from a box that you get at the store. Yeah. Everyone will ask me, because they're like, "Are you ready to upgrade to a grownup cake?" It's the same cake I've had since I was like five years old. I'm like, "I am not." Now that no one else is.... I made it for myself this year. I was like, "I don't even need to wait until my actual birthday. We can do it the whole weekend before [inaudible 00:55:12]." Everyone laughs at me in my family but I'm just like, it's the best tasting cake.

Erica: I have the most budget ass taste buds because I love a good box cake or a good Costco cake or Sam's Club-

adrienne maree brown: I'm like, this thing is damaged. I've had so many fancy cakes so I'm like, "The flavor's not really hitting."

Erica: Yeah, no, it needs to be soft-

Kenrya: You know what will make this better? If it was from the grocery store.

adrienne maree brown: I was like, it good was the one that came in a box and then the frosting came in a little plastic container.

Kenrya: Oh, I've never-

adrienne maree brown: This time I actually did it grandma style, which is I didn't put it in the fridge. My grandmother it's the thing was like, "You leave a cake because it stays soft, and moist, and everything. You cover it and leave it on the counter."

Kenrya: Oh yeah.

Erica: That's my norm.

Kenrya: That's what we. Erica bought me a cloche, one of them things, fancy because I don't have nothing fancy. She bought me one for Christmas one year because I bake a lot so that I could do that with my cakes and not have them just sitting out.

adrienne maree brown: I love that. For years I was like, "Oh, I need to be putting this in the fridge." I would put it in the fridge and I'd be like, "Oh."

Kenrya: It's never the same.

adrienne maree brown: This year I was like, "I'm not doing that. I'm baking it in a pan and I'm leaving it on the countertop." It was just delicious to the last bite.

Erica: Yup. Because the last bite is super moist.

adrienne maree brown: Exactly.

Erica: It's super- Dress up or dress down.

adrienne maree brown: I like my partner to dress up and I dress down.

Erica: I like looking at you but I want to comfortable.

adrienne maree brown: Exactly.

Kenrya: It's like every couple that you see in DC walking around.

adrienne maree brown: Exactly. I'm like, "Well this looks good to me."

Erica: Beach or mountain.

adrienne maree brown: Beach.

Erica: Yeah. Last one, country or city.

adrienne maree brown: Country. Yeah.

Erica: All right. That's all-

adrienne maree brown: Nature, I'm just like loving it. I'm like, put me where I can watch what happens in nature and I will be very, very pleased.

Kenrya: Oh yeah. So as we wrap up, what's next for you? You mentioned erotica. I feel like and this what's next for you. I need to hear about this.

adrienne maree brown: I was just like, "Well, don't count me out." I actually won an erotica writing contest some years ago, maybe 15 years ago now. This place called Cake New York had an erotica writing contest when I was living in New York and I wrote erotica for it. I almost always write erotica for my partners, for people I'm dating that stars them or stars folks who are going on sexual adventures in space or whatever is clever. I love writing erotica and I could definitely see myself doing that as a practice. I don't think in the first novella there's any of the sex stuff. There's some in her dreams, but in the next ones there's a lot of sex coming. I love writing sex. I think it's really a beautiful practice to put poetry to and put words to. So yes, the novella, the next one will come out I think about the same time next year. Then the third one will come out the same time the following year. There's a lot of sensual work in those. Then the next book I have slated is a collection of poetry and short stories, or spells and short stories, called “Fables and Spells”; that's coming out in February.

Kenrya: That's what's up. Folks, if you want to keep up with adrienne, there's a lot of different ways. You can go to the website, which is adriennemariebrown. That's A-D-R-I-E-N-N-E-M-A-R-E-E-B-R-O-W-N.net. Then on Twitter you're @adriennemaree. On IG you're @adriennemareebrown, and Facebook is adrienne maree. That's all right?

adrienne maree brown: Yeah.

Kenrya: Okay, awesome.

adrienne maree brown: Instagram is the one where I most often do interesting things. I think that's the best me that you can get online.

Kenrya: Yeah. You post a lot on IG.

adrienne maree brown: Yeah.

Kenrya: Word. Thank you.

adrienne maree brown: Thank y'all

Kenrya: This has been a true pleasure.

adrienne maree brown: I loved talking with you.

Kenrya: Yeah. It was really lovely. Yeah. Thank all of you for listening. This is it for this week's episode of The Turn On and we'll be back next week. Bye.
 
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Kenrya: This episode was produced by us Kenrya and Erica and edited by B'Lystic. The theme music is from Brazy. Hit subscribe right now on your favorite podcast app and at YouTube.com/TheTurnOnPodcast so you'll never miss an episode.

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