GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -This past weekend The Warehouse in conjunction with MAsT, Grand Rapids hosted an entire weekend with Mr. Jack Rinella. The weekend festivities included a Meet & Greet, Book Signing, Four Classes & Two Play Parties while spanning the course of three days.
(Full Disclaimer: As a staff member of The Warehouse, I have written this article as a report on only the event schedule itself and not my opinion as to the quality of this event as to avoid any claim of bias on my part.)
The weekend opened Friday evening with the Meet & Greet & Book Signing. Mr. Rinella brought with him a number of his published works including “The Masters Manual”, “More From The Master”, “The Compleat Slave”, “Philosophy In The Dungeon”, & “The Dionysian Alliance” among other titles. Also in attendance with Mr. Rinella was his long time slave Patrick, the author of “Slave-ography: Serving Jack Rinella”. The book signing was followed by a play party where those in attendance enjoyed use of the Warehouses play space featuring multiple hard points, spanking bench, cage, medical table, massage table, and two St. Andrew’s crosses.
The educational portion of the weekend started on Saturday as Mr. Rinella presented three of his four classes. The first class of the day was his class, “BDSM Arithmetic, a class on polyamory”. During the polyamory class Mr. Rinella explained that for every person brought into a polyamorous relationship the considerations needed grew exponentially. After a half hour break came the class “The Dark Side”, a look at the darker psychological side of BDSM covering the affects of the Conscious, Subconscious, Ego, & Self on ones psyche. A dinner break followed, where those in attendance dispersed to one of the many restaurants in Grand Rapids. When the attendees returned from break they were treated to the third & final class of the evening focusing on CBT. The CBT class was chosen via online vote by those attending the event. Following the third class The Warehouse provided the second Play Party of the weekend.
Sunday MAsT Grand Rapids hosted a potluck dinner and a class titled “Extreme Control” a class on objectification, degradation, depersonalization and ownership. In this class Mr. Rinella discussed the theory of turning a slave into an object completely. He discussed the psychological ramifications that such a transformation may cause and theorized the many ways to build that kind of dynamic. This class seemed to bring out the most questions from the attendees as many people seemed to have questions and their own theories to share. The weekend wrapped up with social time and one last opportunity for those in attendance to speak with Mr. Rinella.
This weekend’s event brought out residents from all across Michigan and as far away as the state of Wisconsin. Also in attendance were many MAsT members from other areas as well as event coordinators from the east side of the state making for a diverse demographic of attendees.
