There Will Be Folsom Street Fairs in Every Town & Every City

Photo by Mark McBeth. 2025.

Introduction

This year I was invited to join PASS Certified, the OSHA of the adult industry and one of my clients, at their booth at Folsom Street Fair. My work with PASS has been rooted in deep conversation and strategy about how to express purpose, vision, values in ways that help move groups of people towards collective destinations. In other words, How do you facilitate that delicate balance between being "Director" and being someone who is trying to cultivate Power-With (not Power-Over)?

Chaos Poetry is an expression of that exact practice. It is a moment of deep connection without any material transaction required. I do not charge for poems beyond having to engage in conversation with me. And those with whom I conversed receive a poem in return. The poem, while of their words, is crafted by me. A delicate balance between conversation and poet.

Chaos Poetry works best when there is some sort of initial form to inspire conversation. One phrase that's been sitting with me due to my work with Trans March, Adult Industry Peer Exchanges (with PASS Certified), and the Leather & LGBTQ District is, "We keep us safe." But who exactly is "we", and what exactly is "safe"? I thought Folsom Street Fair would be a good place to solicit some responses.

I also knew it was fucking Folsom Street Fair, and if I started out with such a heavy question I could possibly put a damper on people's day of revelry, debauchery, and celebration. I needed something a bit lighter, more fun, and definitely sexual. John, my husband, offered, "What's a name for your favorite sexual position?"

That became the first question asked, and the responses became the title of each poem. I then asked for a name to share publicly (they were co-authors), and invited them to share a bit about how they arrived at Folsom and to describe something they saw along the way.

From there I had a series of questions to choose from. It all depended on feeling out the moment. Most were light hearted, and everyone responded generously and graciously. The last question was, "in the phrase, 'we keep us safe,' who is we and what is safe?"

This was my first time making art / poetry at Folsom, or being "of service" to my community at the fair. It profoundly changed my relationship to Folsom Street Fair. What greeted me throughout the entire day were stories of people finding their people, and the power that is inherent in being truly and fully seen free of shame. In everyone's response to the final question, people really considered safety and what it feels like. Maybe it was because the folks I had conversations with were more aware of the impact (pun intended) of kink and nuanced difference between pain and harm.

Or maybe there is a shift afoot, and this terror being unleashed right now is Man's final attempt at annihilating what shall live beyond Man.

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Folsom Street Fair 2025 Chaos Poems

No by Spirit Clomber

Start in Italy

Travel across a sea

See large amounts of cute people along the way

Stimulate the brain with new information

Make small gods cry

Turn sluttiness on & off & on again

Wear an inverted omega symbol before pushing the big red button

Judgment comes

Wake up the next morning

Free from damage

Hot Pot King by Smashly

Meet up with friends before hopping on BART

Notice everyone around you including that sad clown honking

Touch your breasts with a mixture of soft controlling roughness

Experience a lightning storm while the earth quakes

It's time to leave your ego at the door &

Live so no harm is done

Hands Everywhere by Red

Walk into a writhing crowd of kinky people in the fog

Who are in control of their bodies

Who are loved by sluts & those who love sluts

Who do not perpetuate harm because

They hold themselves & each other to account

Walk into this increasingly growing crowd &

Remember the tears & the slobber & the vomit & the moisture of sweat

Remember the controlled constriction & the release

Remember We All take risks &

Remember We All have a responsibility to protect not punish

Grippy Grippy Suckie Suckie by Mika Vauhn

Ride across the Bay to a very pretty Koi Boi

Fuck his face until it is a fount of spittle bordering on a Roman Shower

But only if he's into it

Use your intuition to surrender to restraint &

Do not negotiate

Now is not the time to live in fear

Now is the time of the next generation

Riding on Cowboy by Bravery

Be insatiably adorable and

Help an old woman struggling with the internet get on

Fuck some guy in New Orleans until he pisses himself &

Screams, "Mommy," so loudly even

The Gulf of Mexico blushes

Wear orange, honor your body, taste delights &

Know no fear

Take off your clothes &

Look, truly look at yourself, in the mirror

This is love

Warm and Wet by Evonne

Drive three hours across land & over a Bay to

See a puppy on Folsom getting fisted

Become immediately obsessed with

A future now right here full of community

Where you are you fully

Where your ass is softly tongued, rubbed down, pounded hard until

Wave upon wave upon wave washes over you

Where breath held is what you desire

This is us

This is me

Eye Contact; No Eye Contact by Big Bad Wolf and Z

Take the freeway from LA with Casey in the car

Pass the cows & shit &

Arrive to people being themselves

People enjoying their bodies

People sensuously, vivaciously finding clits & rubbing nipples

Feel a panic attack coming on & love it

Love its forbidden lust

Spanking, tying, dominance, submission

Like earth is about to end but life still lives

Live without fear of persecution &

There will be Folsom Street Fairs in every town & every city