SASHA AND GRASP PRESENTS
A Queer Carnival of Ideas
Where sexology and psychoanalysis enter the fray, slow dance, wrestle, and keep on talking.
Carnival Countdown
Who is part of the conversation
Line-Up
It’s with great pleasure and excitement we announce the Queer Carnival line up of speakers, presenters, performers, and provocateurs…
Dr Avgi Saketopoulou
Psychoanalyst and author of Sexuality Beyond Consent
Prof Sally Swartz
Psychoanalytic psychotherapist and author of Ruthless Winnicott
Dr Bev Ditsie
Radical gender nonconforming lesbian activist and filmmaker, instrumental in bringing...
Dr Catriona Boffard
Accredited clinical sexologist, psychotherapist, sex researcher and educator.
Michael Benn
Clinical psychologist and IPA-registered psychoanalyst.
Avri Spilka
Counselling psychologist and co-director of SASHA.
Dr Bruce Laing
Clinical psychologist and senior psychoanalytic candidate.
Kelly Bild
Kelly Bild is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist, and part of GRASP’s core
Elliott Kotze
Community-based counselling psychologist and President of SASHA.
House of Ditsie
Johannesburg-based, queer-led social enterprise and production collective
Johannesburg Queer Chorus
The Johannesburg Queer Chorus is a choir for ...
About the Carnival
Into the Fray
A Queer Carnival of Ideas is a provocation of orthodoxy, set at the intersection of psychoanalysis and sexology, two major authorities of the Sexual, born of a shared ancestry, yet seldom seated at the same table. The Carnival is set to the beat of Sexuality Beyond Consent, Dr Avgi Saketopoulou’s landmark book. With great excitement we can confirm that Avgi will be joining us in Johannesburg, all the way from New York, for a six-day cornucopia of learning, connection, playing and thinking together.
A Queer Carnival of Ideas brings together psychoanalysis, sexology, activism and the arts in an exploration of sexuality, relationality, gender, race, traumatophilia, the limits of consent, opacity, and exigent sadism. The aim is to create a genuinely multidisciplinary space in which difficult questions can be explored with curiosity, rigour, creativity, and openness.
SASHA and GRASP have joined forces to bring you a programme that puts psychoanalysis and sexology into dialogue, and Avgi’s work under South African pressures around consent, trauma, race, and queer life.
If your work is in and with the sexual, and you want to delve deeply and queerly into what that means in South Africa today, you’ll be right at home at the Carnival.
Sexologists, psychologists, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists; doctors, nurses, physios and OTs; sex educators and coaches, social workers, bodyworkers, researchers, activists and students: all are welcome. While a background in psychoanalysis and/or sexology helps, please don’t let a lack of familiarity put you off. We’ll find our way into the material together, whatever your starting point.
- The Sexual
- Racel
- Exigent sadisml
- Opacity
- Limit consent
- Traumatophilia
- Queer Lives
About the Carnival
Into the Fray
A Queer Carnival of Ideas is a provocation of orthodoxy, set at the intersection of psychoanalysis and sexology, two major authorities of the Sexual, born of a shared ancestry, yet seldom seated at the same table. The Carnival is set to the beat of Sexuality Beyond Consent, Dr Avgi Saketopoulou’s landmark book. With great excitement we can confirm that Avgi will be joining us in Johannesburg, all the way from New York, for a six-day cornucopia of learning, connection, playing and thinking together.
A Queer Carnival of Ideas brings together psychoanalysis, sexology, activism and the arts in an exploration of sexuality, relationality, gender, race, traumatophilia, the limits of consent, opacity, and exigent sadism. The aim is to create a genuinely multidisciplinary space in which difficult questions can be explored with curiosity, rigour, creativity, and openness.
SASHA and GRASP have joined forces to bring you a programme that puts psychoanalysis and sexology into dialogue, and Avgi’s work under South African pressures around consent, trauma, race, and queer life.
If your work is in and with the sexual, and you want to delve deeply and queerly into what that means in South Africa today, you’ll be right at home at the Carnival.
Sexologists, psychologists, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists; doctors, nurses, physios and OTs; sex educators and coaches, social workers, bodyworkers, researchers, activists and students: all are welcome. While a background in psychoanalysis and/or sexology helps, please don’t let a lack of familiarity put you off. We’ll find our way into the material together, whatever your starting point.
- The Sexual
- Racel
- Exigent sadisml
- Opacity
- Limit consent
- Traumatophilia
- Queer Lives
Step RIght Up
Get your tickets here!
Select the days you want to attend below, or select the Full Avgi for an all-access pass to attend all events at a discounted rate.
04/09
2027
Pre-Carnival Event: Babel Fishing
- Led by:
- Ticket:
- When:
- Where :
04/09
2027
Pre-Carnival Event: Introduction to Laplanche
- Led by:
- Ticket:
- When:
- Where :
15/02
2027
Sexology Training: Sexual Attitude Reflection (SAR)
- Led by:
- Ticket: R2000 members / R2200 non-members
- When: 15 February 2027, 9:00–18:00
- Where: The Bioscope
- Places: 40
16/02
2027
Tuesday Study Groups
- Led by:
- Ticket: R700 members / R800 non-members (half day)
- When: Tuesday 16 February 2027, 9:00–17:00
- Where: French Lane
- Places: 40
Step Right Up
Your Hosts
The Southern African Sexual Health Association (SASHA) is a professional home for practitioners working in sexual health across disciplines and throughout the region, including clinicians, therapists, educators, researchers and activists. We work to strengthen the field and to support practitioners’ growth through the creation of educational platforms for evidence-based learning, conscientisation and community.
Step into Into the Fray at the Queer Carnival of Ideas
15 to 20 February 2027, Johannesburg. Places are limited. SAR and study group participants get priority access.