Studio 58 organizes special events and adult education for folks over 18 years of age to express themselves authentically and explore their sexuality and/or relationships without prejudice in safe, well-managed environments in Maryland and Pennsylvania. I spoke to their wonderful head honcho JP about his organization and most pointedly, the Naughty Knowledge event he has happening in August.
Soon, we will reveal our podcast episdoe talk with JP, but for now…
Let’s start from the present and dip back a bit…tell us about the “Naughty Knowledge“ event you have coming up.
Well, you’re in Jersey, right?
Yes, born, bred, and will die in NJ, I am sure.
So, if you are in touch with the local community, you understand that on the East Coast, there are not a lot of hotel events in the summertime. Most people around here, especially in the DC/Baltimore area, which is the majority of the people that I appeal to, go to camp and the camp is in Maryland, but it’s like the northern part of Maryland, before the Delaware line. So. people from Philadelphia, New Jersey, DC, Baltimore, they all kind of commute to this. And I held an event up there, at a camp in the fall, but it just didn’t pick up traction. I think it was just that people were already camped out, it was at the end of the year, colder, although I tried to make it as unique and as different as I could. I have my loyal followers, they were there, but I just couldn’t get any traction with this Halloween event I held, and it just seemed like it was a lot of effort for little return.
So, I thought up “Naughty Knowledge” for the end of summer.
And you are running a business, right, I mean one needs to pivot, try new things, etc.
Yes, at the end of the day, I’m a businessman, so I had to make a business decision and I decided to release the camp date and try to fill a gap that I felt was missing. And although I know there are surely hotel events—I’m not saying that there’s not—there’s just very few in the summertime. And we also said, what about the people who don’t know anything about the camp, are brand new to the scene? Why not create an event, in the heart of the camp season, when we already know it’s going to be hard to pull our regular demographic, why don’t we reach out and try to find a whole new demographic, and introduce them to this world? The whole birth if you will, of this event was to reach out to people who don’t really know what they’re looking for and to try to go into the vanilla world and say ‘Have you thought of this? Have you thought about that?’
Well, I have to think calling the event “Naughty Knowledge,” there’s got to be some sort of education element to it, right?
Yes, it’s packed full of a lot of the education, etiquette, and everything else that one would need if they were literally brand new. The theme is to come in safely, so folks don’t suddenly find themselves in a situation where they did something that they probably shouldn’t.
It’s funny you say all this, because one of the things Chris and I have too often found when teaching at kink conventions, when set out to do an intro class especially-and the brochure surely indicates the class is something like a “Spanking 101” or something like that-we have often been criticized for the class not being interesting or hardcore enough for the dyed-in-leather kinkster. So, a convention that caters to both the seasoned and the newbie is surely needed.
Yes, there are a lot of people at different levels, and we figured why not reach people out there that are looking to start their journey, but might be intimidated by a full-on camp of a weekend.
But I also want people to know that if you are a seasoned practitioner, you’re not gonna be bored at this event. We are very good at blending the mix, so to speak. But if you are new, this will be the right event for you.
Let’s talk specifics, best you can…where is the venue?
That won’t be revealed until you sign up, but it is in a hotel in Gettysburg, PA. We do a lot of events at this particular venue. It has a private courtyard, so we’ll be able to have outdoor play and stuff like that. It also has an indoor swimming pool, so there’s naked swimming. There’s plenty of room. We have a giant ballroom that we make into a dungeon and some portion of the dungeon is a 24-hour play space. But during the day the bigger part of the dungeon is set up for classes and everything else. We also have other satellite classrooms and other areas where we’ll be running classes.
And I have to guess, for all I have read of what you do, that there will be plenty of ‘socializing,’ however one wants to define that word.
And yeah, it’s a lot of social, a lot of, you know, activity-driven type opportunities are created so people are able to get to know one another. Our motto is “Leave with more friends than you showed up with.” So, this will be a very social event, very welcoming, very open. That’s always been our way.
I know some events get the reputation of being cliquish.
Man, don’t I know it!
Yes, but to date I haven’t heard anybody say that about our events and I’m pretty proud of that. So we do our best to make sure that we’re welcoming and open and make sure that you know, even the shyest people will leave feeling like they had a great event.
What are the exact dates Of Naughty Knowledge?
It starts August 16th, through the 17th and everybody goes home on the 18th. Now with that being said, you are able to sign up Thursday the 15th, you could even add the 14th. We already are seeing high number of people coming on Thursday. I have yet to tell my programming director this and she’s about to find out right now, but we’ll probably will be adding some programming on Thursday if that number on Thursday continues to grow like it’s been; the amount of registrations we have already is over a hundred. And we’ve only been selling tickets a little over a week.
So, what’s the URL, where could people get tickets?
It’s Empowering Adventures for Adults – Studio 58 Events). And on the site, you will also see all the rest of what we do. We do one-night events at the Baltimore Playhouse and our biggest event of the year our “Naughty Noel,” which happens in early December will be going on sale very soon. And then of course our big party, we do a huge Mardi Gras party at the end of March every year and of course that’s our that’s our other baby that we’re pretty proud of.
If you are a kinkster living on the East Coast of the U.S. or even just visiting here in August; a newbie to the scene as well as a dyed-in-leather kinkster you need to check out, if not get your quivering little bum to JP’s Naughty Knowledge as well explore everything else his wonderful Studio 88 does. Again, find them here: https://studio58events.com/
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