About the Founders
Find your voice. Find your people. Find your kink.
glaze (femme pronouns) is a Black, Queer-Femme Leather leader, clinician, and culture-shifter who refuses to let liberation be theoretical. As a nationally certified mental health professional specializing in systems theory, co-occurring disorders, and marginalized identities, she merges clinical skill with embodied wisdom, spiritual grounding, and a deep commitment to Black autonomy. her work challenges sanitized narratives about kink and healing, affirming that pleasure, discipline, power, and ancestry belong in the same breath as wellness and community care. glaze moves with integrity, rigor, and a fierce devotion to those who navigate life at the margins.
As a founder of The Black Kink Network, glaze invests in building sustainable, protected community rooted in cultural pride, kink-affirming education, and collective empowerment. she cultivates spaces where Black kinksters and Leatherfolk connect, learn, and grow without shrinking or translating themselves for mainstream comfort. glaze believes freedom is practiced, not performed. she designs programming, mentorship, and leadership rooted in dignity, authenticity, and intentional fellowship, creating pathways for Black voices, bodies, and stories to thrive in their fullness.
Switchress Shay Au Lait is a cultural architect and erotic-noir ritualist whose work reframes desire as a living technology for personal and communal evolution. With 15 years inside the BDSM lifestyle and two decades in embodied arts, Shay moves at the intersection of performance, spirituality, strategy, and somatic liberation.
As the founder of SpeakEasy Noir and Siren Pack, and the co-founder of the Black Kink Network, Shay designs multidimensional ecosystems that honor sensual sovereignty, empowered identity, and the complexity of erotic expression. Shay’s leadership is rooted in transgression-as-teaching, intimacy-as-praxis, and power-as-a-pathway to self-possession.
Featured in Essence Magazine, CNN, and FuseTV’s Sex Sells, Switchress is known for crafting immersive experiences, rituals, and communities where the sacred and the profane coexist as necessary companions. Shay’s work restores erotic intelligence as a spiritual literacy and positions kink as a legitimate site for awakening, healing, and cultural reclamation.
Mr. Cunning Linguist was a writer, practitioner, and cultural theorist whose work brought analytical precision, erotic inquiry, and relational scholarship into the center of kink culture. With over 25 years studying alternative lifestyles and more than 15 years as a Sadist and Service Top, he investigated power, pain, and play with the curiosity of a scientist and the wit of a storyteller. Often described as a “kink-strophysicist,” his commentary and essays – featured across Fetlife, Medium, and community platforms – challenged assumptions about intimacy, adult sexuality, and how people navigate desire, discipline, and freedom.
As a Co-Founder of the Black Kink Network, he built spaces where rigorous thought and embodied exploration coexist. A Facilitator of Conversation and Conveyor of Thought, he championed mature, culturally grounded dialogue that affirms kink as an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual practice. Rooted in Harlem and Queens and married for more than two decades, he embodied relationship models that hold both devotion and expansiveness. His lived experience, irreverent humor, and sharp critical lens helped shape BKN into a community where kinksters think deeply, express boldly, and explore without apology.
In Memoriam – Mr. CunningLinguist
July 23, 1973 – October 4, 2025
Mr. Prince is a Black, pansexual cisgender man who began seriously engaging with the BDSM community in 2015, after exploring kink in earlier years. He first participated in public munches, demonstrations, and classes, and over time recognized a lack of representation and spaces for
Black people and other P.O.C. in the BDSM scene. In 2017 he founded Cognizance of Varying Erotic Taste (COVET) to help fill this gap and provide a more inclusive, affirming environment.
Through COVET and his own work, he offers demonstrations and teaches foundational BDSM practices such as bondage (excluding suspension), impact play, mummification, sensory play, primal play, rough body play, breath and knife play, and more. His mission is to cultivate a safe,
shame-free space for people—especially Black people and P.O.C.—to explore their sexuality and pleasures with confidence, advocating for self-empowerment and normalization of sexual liberation.
Office of Sr Prince
BKN is a dynamic, evolving, and philosophical ecosystem that fosters education, connection, and exploration.
Siren Pack
BKN was founded by four BDSM leaders, each with a unique perspective and offering to the community and industry at large.
Maybe Nikki's SELF column
A dedication to Mr. CunningLinguist and his legacy.
Featured Hotspots
SpeakEasy Noir
A provocative dive into ritual. Journey in & spiral out tonight. Erotic wellness & immersive embodiment for intensely sensuous & deeply curious souls.
Detroit Deviants
The Detroit Deviants Dinner Club is where community, culture, and connection come together in a beautifully curated dining experience.
C.O.V.E.T.
Based in Mobile, Alabama, COVET works to build a community of like-minded individuals who value integrity, confidentiality, and respect for self and others in the Gulf Coast area.