Northern Exposure 5 Wrap Up
When most folks in the Lower 48 think of Alaska, they get skewed visions of ice roads, gold mining, and crab fishing courtesy of reality television shows. The fifth installment of Alaska’s premiere Leather conference Northern Exposure proved that if Alaskans work hard they play even harder.
The official kickoff to Northern Exposure 5 (NE5) was a meet and greet potlatch (read potluck) at the Raven, Anchorage’s Leather-friendly bar. The potlatch provided the presenters with an opportunity to meet and mingle with all of the attendees. It also offered an opportunity to show off one’s culinary skills and share local delicacies. The potlatch served as the official start of registration. The volunteers made sure that the registration process ran really smoothly.
Friday kicked off with an amazing homemade brunch prepared by the volunteers from the local Leather community. Classes were housed in two separate facilities which gave everyone the opportunity for a short walk in the gorgeous Anchorage weather. In addition to the two classroom and vending spaces, the Identity Center of Anchorage also opened their doors to act as a social center for attendees. The Identity Center of Anchorage is a community center for the Anchorage LGBTQ community. We had the opportunity to sit and talk with the center’s director who was eager to trade ideas and resources for community building. He was also interested in learning more about the Leather and kink communities.
Big Bad Jim from Edmonton served as this year’s education coordinator and did a fantastic job of securing a top-notch line up of presenters from the US and Canada including Hardy Haberman, Karen UltraDomme, Allena Gabosch, Sharrin Spector, Pat Baillie, Phoenix B, Snook, and Coral. Sadly Jim is currently ill and was not able to attend the classes that he helped organize. Please keep him in your thoughts.
Thanks to Jim’s hard work, it was often difficult to select which education session to attend and every single session received rave reviews from the attendees. While most of the presenters were from out of state, Northern Exposure also works hard to recognize the talents of their local community and this year, three presenters from Alaska gave classes.
After classes wound down, there was a brief dinner break and then it was time to go to the play party. Apparently no one bothered to tell Alaskans that S&M is short for stand and model as the party space was filled with tons of hot play and cruising galore.
Saturday started with another round of amazing classes. During the lunch break, slave elizabeth and I took the opportunity to play tourist and visited the Anchorage Market and Festival. This gave us a nice excursion to see the local crafts and foodstuffs. Alaskans seem to take particular delight in reminding Texans (like yours truly) that their state is twice the size as Texas and one of the more popular booths at the market specialized in selling T-shirt celebrating Alaska’s largeness. There were also a plethora of gigantic vegetables that thrive in the near constant sunlight of summer and a wide variety of ethnic foods that represented Anchorage’s multi-cultural diversity.
Following lunch there were more classes and then a break before the Saturday play party. While Friday’s play party would put most conference play parties to shame, Saturday’s was even more intense with hot and super intense scenes everywhere one looked.
Sunday classes mercifully started later than Saturday’s which gave everyone a bit of extra time to recover from the wild play party. After we taught our class, we attended classes for the rest of the day and waited for the closing dinner celebration which is the traditional conclusion to Northern Exposure.
The closing dinner consists of a seven course meal where each course represents the seven deadly sins and features local Alaskan cuisine. My personal favorite course was the shrimp even though I didn’t get one. Every table is served a single shrimp which represents envy. Other highlights were the bear meatloaf and Keith’s super-secret recipe mushroom soup.
Looking back on the event, it was fantastic to see the bright and vibrant Alaska Leather community. While Sarha, International Ms. Leather 2013, may be the most visible member of the community to those of us in the Lower 48, the Anchorage Leather community many Leatherfolk who have been active for decades. I always enjoy the opportunity to see their hard work and share their wit, wisdom, and experience.
On Monday after the official end of the conference, the VIP after party began. The after party started with a survivor’s brunch at Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant. Rumor has it that Gwennie’s is in the location of Alaska’s first whorehouse. That coupled with the hearty food made it a perfect locale for an invasion of 50 hungry kinky folk. Following brunch the group headed to the local leather store before travelling down the amazingly scenic Turnagain Arm. After a gorgeous drive looking at the mountains and glaciers, we wound up at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The conservation center gave everyone an opportunity to experience the Alaska wildlife up close. The evening concluded with a barbeque at the FoxDen.
On Tuesday, everyone met up for another brunch followed by shopping. It was a nice and relaxing way to end our time in Alaska. We had to attend leave late Tuesday, so we weren’t able to attend all of the after party events, but by all reports a good time was had by all.
