Source: The Center for Sex & Culture (CSC)
By: Company Press Release
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) — In her newest book ”Gaia and the New Politics of Love,” Lambda Award finalist Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio has authored the first academic study linking human sexuality and the practice of polyamory to the overall health of the global ecosystem. Published by North Atlantic Books (Berkeley, CA), the book provides the basis for a special three-workshop series Anderlini-D’Onofrio brings to the Center for Sex & Culture next month.
Anderlini-D’Onofrio works with the scientific and spiritual principles of Gaia (the mythological Greek goddess personifying Earth), which argues that the flora and fauna of the planet operate in a self-regulating web that keeps the world livable. Gaia and the New Politics of Love explains how to practice the arts of loving within the context of Gaia theory — as a form of the arts of healing, which includes creating and sustaining amorous communities through shared amorous resources. ”In her clear, intelligent voice, Anderlini-D’Onofrio demonstrates that no law of love conservation exists. The more we love, the safer we are and the more love we receive. Read Gaia and the New Politics of Love for what it is: An original idea, a serious, scholarly antidote to the lovelessness that makes us miserable on this liveliest of planets,” said Lynn Margulis, winner of the National Medal of Science and author of Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution.
Join Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Ph.D. For ”Gaia, Eros, and the Sacred” — three interconnected topics which can be explored independently or taken as part of a complete series. ”This will be a weekend of growth, connectedness, love, and abundance,” promises Anderlini-D’Onofrio. ”We will experience Gaia as a practice of love and life and as a cosmic health theory.”
About the classes: Class # 1: The Scientific and Spiritual Principles of Gaia Theory Saturday, Nov 14, 3:00-4:30 PM Class # 2: Sacred Erotic Energy and its Circulation in Amorous Communities Sunday, Nov 15, 12:30-3:00 PM Class # 3: Sharing Amorous Resources and Creating Global Health and Abundance Sunday, Nov 15, 4:00-6:30 * Each class includes: A Seminar to delineate its major ideas (with open Q & a period) – 60 to 90 minutes a Workshop to practice and experience them – additional 30-60 minutes
View more details at CSC Events Calendar here: www.sexandculture.org/events/icalrepeat.
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Register and purchase tickets here: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/76406 (or pay at the door; register at mail@sexandculture.org)
Based on the contents of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, the book whose entrance into the national polyamory debate was marked by the article ”How Polyamory Can Save the Planet”
The author is offering a free Signed Copy of Book with Early Registration (by October 31st).
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio gave the keynote address at the 2007 Loving More and World Polyamory Association conferences. She has been interviewed on Italian public TV about her books on practices of love that include bisexuality and polyamory. She is a writer, educator, activist, healer, scholar, and cultural theorist. Her numerous books include Gaia (2009), Eros (2007), Plural Loves (2005), Women and Bisexuality (2003). She leads classes, workshops, and lectures on Gaia Theory, Sacred Erotic Energy, Sharing Amorous Resources, and Narrative Healing. She blogs at SexGenderBody.blog. She has been published and peer-reviews for several journals. She is a University of California PhD and a professor of humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. She lives in Cabo Rojo, Western Puerto Rico. She believes that ”a world where it is safe to love is a world where it is safe to live.”
Visit her on the web at www.serenagaia.com She is available for interviews.
Newly added to the series! Flogassage: The Bioenergetics of Multiple Loves a hands-on workshop with Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD Wednesday, 11/18, 7 PM $15-35 sliding scale; register at mail@sexandculture.org Teacher of the arts of loving, workshop leader, keynote speaker, practitioner of holistic massage and health This workshop combines small group massage and mild flogging to convey the bio- energetic experience of polyamory. It works with three basic principles of participating in multiple loves: compersion, tantric energy and kundalini, and love for the person. Compersion is the ability to share love among three or more people. Practicing compersion helps to transmute jealousy into the joy and elation of being present to multiple loves, to give up exclusivity, and to express pleasure and ecstasy (or being the ”pleasure emitter” in a multipartnering situation) Tantric Energy & Kundalini are modes of amorous expression that enable one to give, receive, store, and transmute erotic energy throughout the body and the chakra system. These modes are often experienced indirectly. In this workshop we focus on the back side of the body as a place to store and transmute these energies.
”Love for the person is the ability to love someone independently of their gender and sexual orientation,” says Anderlini-D’Onofrio. ”Many experienced bisexuals practice this kind of love. In this workshop we focus on changing roles within a small group, exchanging erotic energy with diverse participants, adjusting degrees of participation, and experiencing full-body erotic pleasure, to convey the experience of loving the person.”
The workshop is open to everyone over 18. It is especially recommended for massage therapists and other kinds of holistic healers interested in exploring the sensual aspects of the healing arts. The workshop will be held in a clothing optional environment. Participation in the exercises is based on consent. Graded levels of participation are encouraged.
The Center for Sex & Culture (CSC) has been called ”Best Emerging Sex Nonprofit” (the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay, June 2004). It is open by appointment and for events. The Center for Sex & Culture is a nonprofit volunteer organization that subsists on donations from the public, including donations of books, art, videos, archival materials, etc. CSC’s mailing address (where donations can be sent) is 2215-R Market Street, #455, San Francisco, CA 94114. Website donations can be made at www.sexandculture.org; people can sign up for CSC’s twice-monthly email calendar at the same address.
Press please contact Carol Queen: carol@sexandculture.org, for interviews please contact: Serena Anderlini D’Onofrio at serena.anderlini@gmail.com.
