The Mayhem! weekend is organized by Canadian Mayhem / Bride of Pride, a group of six leatherdykes whose collective experience at leatherwomen’s event facilitating exceeds three-quarters of a century. Bride of Pride (Sid, Arleigh, Kona, Elaine, Catherine, and Kricket) has been operating in its current form since 2006, putting on play parties and sauna events for women on a thrice-yearly basis. Our goal has always been to put on the exact kind of party that we all dream of attending, and of course that includes inviting everyone along.
Arleigh is a fierce, fat, femme with a passion for all things pink and a penchant for sparkly things. She’s helped build community since the mid-nineties. Several organizations have welcomed her time and energy over the years: NLA-BC, The Other-Side, Bound (a women’s BDSM party), Purgatory, MVK and Canadian Mayhem/Bride of Pride. Arleigh has run the Vancouver DM Team since 2005. Arleigh is passionate about community and often says that her desire is ‘to facilitate a good time’ at all the events she helps make happen. If you find yourselves questioning the yummy smells in the air you are not mistaken as Arleigh is often found in the age play area happily playing with her TWO Easy Bake ovens making cookies to share with all the guests. Go ahead and ask her for one, but don’t be surprised if you’re met with the enthusiasm of a 4 year old, as that is one of her favorite ages to revisit. Someone once said the kinkiest thing they had seen in a dungeon was Arleigh in her jammies delivering freshly baked cookies.
!Kona is a dominant known as as both the Nubian Imp and the Tormentrix. She hails originally from Edmonton, and has been kicking around the public BDSM scene in Vancouver since the late 90’s. Her first public play party in the city was at Studio Q, the event space run and supported by some of her current Mayhem conspirators. Since then she has inflicted her booming laugh on conferences and dungeons in British Columbia, Alberta, the PNW and even the Eastern United States. One day she will take it overseas.
In addition to working to organize events with the deviant dykes operating as Canadian Mayhem (Bride of Pride), !Kona is the host of what this year will be the 4th Annual Sexy Sauna Party celebrating her birthday and as of last year, Elaine Miller’s too. She is also the instigator of the D/s Dinner/salon; a conversation focusing on inter-personal power dynamics, and that features her D/sM/s library of over 50 books.
Considered a heavy top, she would rather harass a psyche than a hide – except for when she wouldn’t. !Kona loves blushing, sweating, squirming, stammering butches willing to acquiesce to her particular style of dominance, and can “jizz in [her] pants” when smart is spoken directly into her cunt. She will always answer when called Ma’am and is referred to by many (in a non-play sense) as Mama. Some folks consider her scary or intimidating, but those folks don’t know her well or have been her prey. http://NubianImp.com
As a person, Elaine Miller is a Vancouver leatherdyke with a very full life and too many projects on the go. She’s the co-owner of LeatherDyke.com, a community space for lesbians into kink, and owns and runs VancouverLeather.com, a community site.
As a writer of erotic short fiction, Elaine has been anthologized in: Best Bondage Erotica 2, The Best of Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica 2005, Hot Lesbian Erotica 2005, With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn, Best Lesbian Erotica 1998, Best Lesbian Erotica 2001, Exact Fare Only II, The Best of Best Lesbian Erotica, Skin Deep 2: More Real-Life Lesbian Sex… Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, plus various periodicals and websites.
Elaine was BC’s Xtra West newspaper’s monthly queer and kinky sex columnist 2002 – 2006, and wrote several additional full length feature articles on sexuality during that time, plus other articles and columns. Elaine published Diversity Magazine (pansexual, pornographic, perverted and political.) from 1994 – 1997, and worked with Lezzie SMUT! Magazine as Submissions Editor through 1993.
As an event organizer, Elaine has been involved in and around the production end of women’s leather events since 1993 (she had to, as only about 50 leatherdykes at a time could to fit into her house and home dungeon.). She has been sharing the driver’s seat for such events since 1998, starting with the infamous StudioQ parties, and continuing to the present day with the Bride of Pride dungeon parties. http://elainemiller.com
Sid’s been a player for more than 18 years. She’s been organizing S/M events for over a decade, including some delightful years as the owner/operator of the notorious StudioQ kinky artist’s space and SM parties. Sid– also known as S.D and Shaira– does the photos for Mayhem including pictures below of catherine, Cynthia and Samantha. If you’d like to get shot by her please contact her through http://sdholman.com
Kricket arrived in Vancouver in 1994… “I have been playing with Kink for most of my life. I got involved in the community when I headed to a Rascal’s event and met an old friend who introduced me to one of the BIO owners. I was the Volunteer Coordinator for them for about 4yrs or so. I took a break from work n started playing a bit more. I have been friends with the dykes of Mayhem for a long time. We first started playing with Ladies Sauna night n kept growing to bigger and better things, and here we are. My job is making a space look warm, welcome, sexy and fun. I love the challenge of making 4 walls look sexy, isn’t always easy in some venues. I am an artist in many fields. I love designing things to carve in bones (one of a kind) I’ve always loved playing with leather… etc. I would consider myself an Interior Design Consultant. This is really a passion for me; to walk into someone’s mess and struggles and create warmth and order that’s workable for them. I am a lady of many passions, a quiet one but always warm to all walks of life, and enjoy bringing a smile to peoples faces.”
Melhas been hanging around the kink community since she went (very timidly) to her first sincity at 19. In the last couple of years she has joined the Vancouver DM Team, stunt bottomed for a number of workshops, become a recruit of the Dyke Uniform Corps and generally gotten more involved in the community. This is her debut into the organizing side of things. Be nice! In the 9-5 you can find her in boots and coveralls running a small alternative energy plant on the north shore. She’s handy with a wrench. She also plays trombone in the Rainbow Concert band, Canada’s only GLBT concert band.
And lastly, we are saddened beyond belief to say that on November 29, 2009, we lost one of our family of organizers to a fatal small plane crash. Catherine, dear friend, sister, and wife of Sid — we’ll miss you forever. http://sdholman.com/catherine
