Author: Miriam Green

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Change After fourteen years in SOMA, and ten years under my ownership, Wicked Grounds will be winding down physical operations at our 8th Street location at the end of June. Over the past three years, downtown San Francisco has changed substantially; many much larger and better-resourced businesses than us have pulled out. Keeping a retail & drop-in space in the neighborhood’s current economy is unsustainable – and a distraction from the many things we still have to offer. Evolution Wicked Grounds is growing as an educational and events business, and we are keeping that mission alive. Going forward, we will lend our support to other community organizations and stay stronger together. Our online events will continue with no significant change to the events or scheduling. Our in-person and hybrid workshops & classes will be moving to other venues, starting with the Folsom Street Events center, who have worked with us to take on most of our local programming after Pride. We’re excited to help support their growth in their new location! We will also be hosting classes at our new home at Trellis (6th & Mission) and Sacred Muse (Oakland). All our new spaces are wheelchair accessible! We will continue to teach in the Bay Area and beyond, bringing kink education to local and national organizations and events. We will continue to offer retail sales through our website and pop-up events. (We have our fingers crossed to get back to more vending at parties, too!) Our Patreon members will see more and better content, and continue to receive discounts on classes and online purchases. We appreciate your continued support during this transition. Please stick around. We need you to do what’s next!) Our new home at Trellis is building out podcast & video production space, so you can expect our podcast and pre-recorded video classes to (re) launch this fall! If you have a ticketed event at Wicked Grounds, you’ve probably already been re-located – check your email or Forbidden Tickets. I’ve been able to reach several munch leaders & leaders of pass-the-hat events already to plan for the future of those events. If you host a munch or pass-the-hat event, and we haven’t connected yet, I have recommendations on spaces that can house you – just reach out. Once we’ve worked out a new space/ time for your event, Wicked Grounds will help you promote the new location. If you’re interested in acquiring anything from café and Annex equipment to furniture and board games, please reach out our just drop by (keep an eye on Erobay for available boutique & “garage sale” hours now through the end of June). We must have the space cleared out by June 30th, and almost everything must go. Beginnings I am pleased to announce that as part of our transition, I have voluntarily recognized the formation of the Wicked Union – a labor union of most Wicked Grounds staff. This formation is a huge accomplishment, and I hope that you will join me in congratulating the team. Epilogue Transition and change is inevitable, but our mission remains the same: Kink Community. Everywhere. I hope you will continue to support our evolution.Do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions or assistance as we make this change. In closing, I want to echo what a dear friend of mine shared eighteen years ago, when his first large-scale event space was being closed for redevelopment in downtown Phoenix: “Losing this space isn’t a big deal. It doesn’t diminish the book you’re reading because you reach the end; you can read it and relive it again and again,” says Michael 23. “So much happened inside this space in the past 10 years, and I don’t think there’s anything ending, really. We’re closing one chapter and opening another, and we’re not disappearing from the scene. There’s still other things we need to do.” Michael was true to his word and kept shaping the Arizona arts scene for decades afterward. Wicked Grounds is not disappearing from the scene. (Far from it.) There’s still other things we need to do. Warmly,Mir

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Effective through Sunday, we are going to be running some seasonal clearance sales at the Grounds. In store: see us in person for 15% off consignment gear and 30% off all other gear & books in stock. (This stacks with your VIP discount!) Online: order as many books as you like at WickedGrounds.com using code HEAVYMAN for our Books Are Heavy sale, and get 30% off. We appreciate your support! xo Mir

I have just received some excellent news that will support us in bringing back our podcast — and finally rolling out pre-recorded class content! — starting this September, if not sooner.  Keep your eyes on this page. Patreon members will see it all first, and again be able to pitch us with questions & topics for future classes and shows!  xo  Mir 

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I want to get this out here, clearly and quickly. I’ve said this in each public post, and will say it again: We’ve been planning for several weeks to wind down to-order food & drink, and that’s an economic necessity. We simply cannot continue to lose money on offering these products. Removing food & to-order drinks from the menu (milkshakes, hot drinks, etc.) and the overhead associated with those items is the only expected change to our business plans. We were able to make a plan that retains all current staff and will allow for expanded hours & more shifts in the mid- to long-term. I am committed to providing a sustainable compensation model, and am open to improving our current offer as we get the business back on the right footing. It’s an unfortunate fact that I was planning the change to our product and services offering for several weeks while Wicked Grounds staff were also planning to unionize. It’s understandable, but unfortunate, that no one had insight into the full picture. I continue to believe that we’re all looking at the same set of concerns: we are simply underfunded on the cafe side, and as a net-negative offering we’re not in a position to fund the cafe to offer anything like its old standards from the early days of my tenure. No one likes that. We may have different ways we want to address it, but our concerns are aligned.  This Monday, we had an all hands meeting at which I announced the shift to retail & events. About 45 minutes into that meeting, many staff announced that they were forming a union. I was caught off guard but have made clear to everyone that I welcome all staff to continue at Wicked Grounds as our operations evolve. I continue to support and encourage the team to make their own choices about unionization and I will keep that discussion open. The team have asked me to negotiate with them in late May, and that is the current plan. If they approach me with a different plan, I’m open to that as well. I hope this is helpful, and continue to welcome questions. WarmlyMirOwner, Wicked GroundsMir@WickedGrounds.com tl;dr: I plan to support the staff in the direction they feel is best. My only hard line in the sand is that funds do not exist to continue offering to-order food and drink, and Wicked Grounds cannot commit to bringing that back. Everything else is open to negotiation, and negotiation is what we do!