50 min listen
Strange Fruit #235: Mistress Velvet, The Dominatrix With A Syllabus
FromStrange Fruit
ratings:
Length:
44 minutes
Released:
Mar 9, 2018
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Chicago dominatrix Mistress Velvet did not intentionally build her practice around dominating white men. But she was living in a predominantly white part of North Carolina at the time, and most of the people who could afford to hire her, fit that demographic. "It just happened to be that a lot of my clients were white men," she says, "and they were just really awful." One client said he appreciated that she was so well educated. "I've had black mistresses in the past," he told her, "but they were often ghetto." At the same time, she said he seemed to be struggling with a lot of white guilt. She figured he needed some education himself -- and he happened to be paying her to tell him what to do. So she ordered him to read an essay by Patricia Hill Collins on the importance of black feminist theory. "It just gave me so much life," she says. "He was on his knees, at my feet, reading an essay to me, and I'm like snapping the whole time -- at least internally. You know, I have to keep up my persona of being very cold." She decided she wanted to be doing more of that kind of work, and now Mistress Velvet specializes in dominating white men and teaching them black feminist theory. Depending on the client, she says the assignments can be used as a treat or a punishment. Mistress Velvet joins us to talk about her work, mainstream perceptions of BDSM, and how race and racism plays into intimate power dynamics. We also have a conversation this week with poet, teacher, and self-described "queer black troublemaker" Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Her newest book, "M Archive," is told from the point of view of a future researcher, looking back on the antiblackness of late capitalism. The publisher describes it as "a series of poetic artifacts that speculatively documents the persistence of Black life following a worldwide cataclysm."
Released:
Mar 9, 2018
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Strange Fruit #42: Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney: Playwright [Tarell Alvin McCraney](http://www.steppenwolf.org/ensemble/members/details.aspx?id=54) has been called the next August Wilson. Maybe that can be partially attributed to the fact that there are so few prominent African American playwrights, but there's still no doubt he is carrying an important mantle. At age 33, he's already had plays debut at the Royal Court London, New York's Vineyard Theatre, the Young Vic, and Steppenwolf Theatre, where he is an artist in residence. In March, he received the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. We spoke to McCraney this week about his career, and how and why he writes about black gay life. He told us the real-life roots of some of his most famous works, and about working as August Wilson's assistant at Yale (including an unforgettable story about buying Wilson an iPod). In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we had lots of news to cover: The #[solidarityisforwhitewomen](http://thehai by Strange Fruit