Hello everyone!!

BIG NEWS: We're launching in NYC this week!! We have a series of launch events to share with you alongside some amazing partners, and would love to see your beautiful faces out & about as we create queer, kinky, sex-positive community :) 

On the festival front, we're featuring our partners at Sum of Us, Woodhull's Sexual Freedom Summit, the Mystical Womxn's Magic Fest, and THRIVE: BDSM & Mental Health Conference. We're so excited to uplift these groups working towards LGBTQ+ inclusion, sexual freedom, and de-stigmatizing mental illness in kink. 

We also have our regular roundup of events in the Bay Area, LA, and virtually as opportunities for you all to connect. Have a great week everybody! We appreciate you. <3 

BLOOM NEWS: We're Launching in NYC!!

Join the Bloom team + community members for our official NYC launch party!! We'll get drinks and then head over to Hot Rabbit's infamous annual dance party: a big QUEER PROM like you always wanted! Come stag or grab a corsage for your date - Either way it's time to dress to the nines & party like it's 1999!

NYC LAUNCH EVENTS

• Thurs 4/21: Hit Me Up at House of X
• Fri 4/22: April FemDom Play Party by Taillor Collective
• Fri 4/22: Lexie Peters Going Away Gala
• Sat 4/23: Dave's Lesbian Bar Presents GLOW: An Earth Day Block Party [BLOOM MEETUP]
• Sat 4/23: Hot Rabbit's Annual Queer Prom•LGBTQ+Dance Party! [BLOOM MEETUP]

BLOOM SPOTLIGHT: Sum of Us

  

The Bloom Team + Community are so excited to be heading to the Sum of Us Festival May 20-22, 2022 in the world-famous Yosemite, CA! Sum of Us is the leading wellness community for LGBTQ+ women, trans identities, and gender expansive folks. Join us for a 3 night, 2 night event that creates a safe, reimagined space where conscious community members can authentically heal, learn about ourselves, and connect with each other on a deeper level. ASL, PTASL, and disability access provided.

Whether you partake in our workshops, keep it campy, fill your days with visiting vendors, listen to life-changing panels, swim in the water holes, celebrate into the evening, or choose to participate in every aspect...this is your adventure. Join the Bloom event to see who's going and connect with other attendees: https://bl.ooo/m/sumofus22news. Sum of Us Festival 2022 is sold out, but JOIN OUR WAITLIST (to get a ticket for this year or be first in line for 2023! 

BLOOM SPOTLIGHT: Woodhull's Sexual Freedom Summit 

From policy to privacy, closed doors to open relationships, the white picket fence to the dungeon, this is the event where the conversations happen and the vision for the future comes to life. Woodhull Freedom Foundation is pleased to invite you to our 12th annual Sexual Freedom Summit – the event where everything comes together in spectacular conversations about sexual rights. 

The Sexual Freedom Summit features human rights activists, sexuality educators and researchers, professionals from the legal and medical fields, authors, sexual freedom movement leaders, and organizational partners all working toward the time when sexual freedom is fully recognized as a fundamental human right. 

BAY AREA HIGHLIGHTS

• We're having a Bloom meetup on Saturday 4/23! Come have lunch with the team + community members in the Mission before we head over to Rachel Lark's new musical, Coming Soon! 
• Get your rope on at Wicked Grounds' monthly Rope Jam  (Tues 4/19), Twisted Windows' Self-Tie Rope Jam (Weds 4/20), and/or Voxbody's Tie by Night (Fri 4/22)
• Meet queers in the city at Queer Bowling in the Mission (Mon 4/18) and Queer Bedtime Stories at Milk SF (Thurs 4/21)
• Dance your heart out at East Bay Community Dance (Tues 4/19), Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs at Public Works (Fri 4/22), or Erratic Dance at Bushrod Park (4/23)
• Looking to play? Visit Safehouse in Berkeley (Fri 4/22) or Comfort & Joy's GLOasis (Sat 4/23)

BLOOM SPOTLIGHT: Mystical Womxn's Magic Fest
 

Join us in July for Mystical Womxn's Magic Fest, a sex-positive, participatory festival where you can refresh, renew, and create deep connections. July 5-10 on The Land near Hart, Michigan. Our workshop lineup includes a track devoted to polyamory/ENM, and our Polyam Team is busy planning social events throughout the week! Live music, comedy, drumming, poetry readings, spiritual rituals, vendors, dancing, play parties, late-night fires, and more!

We welcome all womxn: cis and trans women, and nonbinary and trans-masculine folx. We welcome folx of all sexual and relationship orientations. Come feel the rhythm of sacred, sexy connection! www.mysticalwomxnsmagicfest.com 

SOCAL HIGHLIGHTS (LA + SD)

• See some awesome performances at Planet Queer tonight (Mon 4/18), meet poly folks at ENM Social Club (Weds 4/20), and get your cuddle fix at Heart Centered Man's Cuddle Party (Sun 4/24) + Hug Haven Cuddle Class (Sat 4/30)
• Socialize with fellow kinksters at the Beach Cities Social (Weds 4/20), SteelCraft Munch in Long Beach (Sat 4/23), No Time for a Munch Munch (Tues 4/26), Koreatown Munch (Weds 4/27), and/or DTLA Lunch Munch (Fri 4/29)
• Check out 910WeHo's upcoming events including Kink and Ink (Thurs 4/28) + The Observation Room: An Immersive Laboratory Fetish Experience by Mistress Wiley (Sat 4/30) 
• Explore connections through dance and tantra at Fusion Flow (Sat 4/22) & Tantric Connections (Tues 4/26)
• Come hang out with one of San Diego's queer polyam artists, Cuellar, at Bluefoot Bar and Lounge (Wed 4/27)

BLOOM SPOTLIGHT: THRIVE: BDSM & Mental Health

THRIVE is a 3-day virtual conference aimed to bring mental health awareness, smash stigma, build support, and provide a space for BDSM/Kink/Leather Folx to learn, grow, and connect by moving through shame and discovering the warrior within. This is a completely free and all virtual conference with a full schedule of classes, workshops, and activities to join!

VIRTUAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Want to attend mind-expanding workshops and connect with poly people from around the country, all from the comfort of your own home? Join Southwest Love Fest's Virtual Con happening this weekend (Fri 4/22-Sun 4/24)
• Looking for some learning and reflection time? Sex Positive World is hosting a biweekly Polysecure Book Club (Thurs 4/21), as well as Genderf*ckery: A Gender Diverse Discussion Group (Sat 4/23)
• For more opportunities to meet people online, check out virtual trivia night (4/22) and speed meet-and-greet (Sat 4/23) by awesome partners at Normalizing Non-Monogamy 
• Engage your critical thinking side at a talk about intersectionality in the sex-positive movement by the Center for Positive Sexuality (Weds 4/27)