FRIEND: how strange & hippy dippy is the intimacy workshop going to be?
ME: not at all and I’ve got video to prove it!
FRIEND: will it give me the ability to carry on a conversation?
ME: it will give you the ability to acknowledge the funny feelings you feel when you make eye contact with people.
FRIEND: sounds like a first step if I ever heard one!
I have been raving about Leslie Blackburn’s work as a sexual healer and transformational guide ever since last spring when I had my mind blown at her “Sacred Sexuality and Female Ejaculation” workshop. The three hours I spent learning from Blackburn evoked an awareness of the possibility for a greater, more sensitive existence. I left feeling the demands of these freshly-opened spaces–an urgent and unplaceable awareness of their need for recognition and nurture. Even though that particular workshop was just an overview of the approach Blackburn takes in all of the engagements through her company, One Space, I knew that I had a transformative experience like none I had ever had before.
These are strong words, and I am well aware that speaking or writing in this way has the tendency to put people off. Like my friend in the text messages, I am normally quite squeamish about spirituality and have spent my life silently rolling my eyes whenever the issue arises. And it is this history of being utterly uncomfortable with spirituality that fuels my enthusiasm about Blackburn’s perspective: she enlightened me, and this guided me to a place of possibility.
Blackburn’s personhood had a lot to do with how and why I opened up to all of these feelings and ideas–had it not been she who presented them to me I don’t believe I would have taken to them easily. So when I ran in to Leslie after her performance at Damned and found out that she was holding another workshop, I asked if I could interview her about it. Perhaps listening to and seeing Blackburn on video could be the straw for someone else who is on the line about going to the workshop and having realizations as significant as I did.
Below are two excerpts from our one-hour interview. In the first video, Blackburn talks about the importance of self-pleasure to achieving intimacy with others. In the second video she discusses her workshop, “Improving Intimacy and Connection.” This workshop will take on Sunday, December 5th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Detroit Flyhouse in the FD Lofts in Eastern Market. More information and directions to register for the workshop (make sure to do it by Wednesday!) can be found here.