See What Happened At The Pleasure Lists Event

It was a night of Pleasure. Thank You For Coming!

Feb 18, 2025

I’m still reeling from the high that was last Monday night. You all rocked my socks off at our first-ever in-person event, An Evening of Pleasure Lists at McNally Jackson.

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Emmeline Clein

wrote a wonderful diary report/recap of the event for Elephant Magazine, which you can read here.

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I was completely blown away by the turnout and community this project has become. When I started

The Pleasure Lists

, I had no idea how meaningful the connection to pleasure and oneself would be for so many people. The simple act of making a list of one’s Pleasures is a thread that can be shared universally. Pleasure is not just essential, it is crucial. It is urgent. It asks nothing of us but to be cherished, enjoyed, appreciated.

I enjoyed meeting so many of you and was astounded at the enthusiasm that the Pleasure Lists has created. There were so many new faces, so please say hi virtually and introduce yourself, I’d love to meet you all.

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We started the night off with drinks (thanks to Warby Parker) and mingled with the Pleasure Lists community. Everyone received a notecard on which to write their Pleasure Lists.

Then, people got to writing their Lists. It was so fun to see everyone participating in this exercise — I think it’s a really beautiful way to slow down, connect, and appreciate what’s around you.

There’s something to be said about the desperate need for Pleasure in the current moment. The urge to find others and connect with community over this shared desire brings everyone so much joy.

Everyone went home with a Warby Parker tote to put their lists/notebooks in.

Our community dresses with so much Pleasure

I keep thinking of the French word boîte, which technically means “a small restaurant or nightclub” — I realized I use it the way The New York Times has been doing for years in their Boîte column. It felt like one!

Then, we moved into the second part of the evening, in which I handed the floor over to our amazing readers. The pieces they read aloud ran the gamut, from annotated versions of their Pleasure Lists to meditations on Pleasure spanning the far and wide.

I read Bertolt Brecht’s original poem and introduced the readers.

Guests dropping in their Pleasure Lists to the fishbowl to be read aloud.

It was a night filled with so much Pleasure — more than I could have ever imagined. Thank you so much for being there and sharing it with me. I hope to do it again soon — make sure you stay in touch for more updates, news and events like this coming soon.

All photos by Sophie Fabbri @sophiefabbri