How can we encourage a sense of inclusivity and community in your favorite geek spaces? Participants: Rakhi Rajpal, Echo Martin, AlysshaRose Jordan, Justin Edward Grays (mod)
Making Geek Spaces Inclusive - CONvergence 2019
Super Bowl Halftime Shakeup
The 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show seems to have ruffled some feathers. I personally didn’t care about Super Bowl LIV until a couple of days after it happened - that was when I started seeing commentary from various folx calling out people who have been having “righteous anger” about Jennifer López and Shakira’s halftime performance. To be honest, I still don’t care about football or the Super Bowl itself [Note 1] [Note 2]; I only liked the beauty, pageantry, and importance of this particular halftime performance.
It took over a day before I saw any negative posts about the halftime show appear in my social media - in fact, I only saw one directly. The condensed version of the one negative post said: “We want women to not be seen as sex objects… yet we celebrate during half time woman[sic] in almost nothing doing strip club moves” and went on to say that men of “integrity” chose a better path than to watch the show [Note 3]. It was strongly implied that the men of “integrity” were some flavor of Christians - Assemblies of God [Note 4], I think. This was a troubling sentiment, and I responded with:
So, we should blame women for men not treating people like people? That doesn't make sense. And what about the Latinx kids in cages singing BORN IN THE USA and LETS GET LOUD surrounded by an illumined Venus symbol? Did you notice the foot work? Did you notice the rope Shakira tied around her body while belly dancing? Everything done at this event has a far, FAR deeper meaning. Not to mention the multilingual songs, the Puerto Rican flag, that sex work is legitimate work and the pole wasn’t about you? This righteous anger is very weird, I find. "Here's what appropriate dress is" with no concept of culture or history, with nothing said about kids in cages or the policing of brown bodies. Depressing.
One person took exception to my saying that sex work is legitimate work, and made her feelings clear about it, expanding on them on her own page. Unfortunately, everything said was either based on a lie, was a half-truth, or was the legacy of white people removing POC agency. I was initially incensed, but then instead of engaging directly I decided to go ahead and write this.
When I made my initial comment on the Super Bowl post, I had not yet seen the entire performance; only clips, stills, and other people's comments. Since then, I have seen the performance in its entirety. I was absolutely floored by it. It was an amazing experience. It also made me even more disturbed by the comment that I saw.
I hope that anybody who reads this will have the opportunity to share it and help spread knowledge - stop the shaming and misinformation.
Polyamory 101 - CONvergence 2019
Back by popular demand! Polyamory means “many loves;” but there are many ways to be polyamorous. Come discuss it and some ways to navigate it. This panel provides space for those new to/curious about polyamory.
I did not record the panel this time due to privacy concerns. It is not safe for people to be openly polyamorous; people who are outed can lose their friends, lose their jobs, be denied promotions, lose their children, and lose their homes. There are audio recordings from other panels that I’ve been on about polyamory & non-monogamy - look at posts with the tags Polyamory or Non-Monogamy [Note 1].
There will be another post later for the Polyamory 202 panel at CONvergence 2019. At the end of that panel, I had made a post that included links to related topics and a form for those who had feedback or had more questions to ask. I am still accepting questions from it and will be making a separate post with responses after I finish writing about the CONvergence 2019 panels.
Avoiding Tokenism in Literature at CONvergence 2018
Creating actual diversity requires a great effort to avoid unintentionally tokenizing your characters. Tokenism, even when unintentional, is what leads to adding "diversity" for the sake of diversity. How do we engender true diversity in our literature?
Panelists: Tamora Pierce, Justin Grays, Kerry Peterson (mod), Jei Herald-Zamora
Polyamory Panel at CVG 2019 Follow-up
At the end of the Polyamory 202 panel at CONvergence, I promised that I would put up a form for those who might have more questions or want to see what was discussed on previous panels. Most everything will have the tags Non-Monogamy or Polyamory, so they will be easy to find in the future (as well as any future writings).
Polyamory and Race
When I had released the survey asking people what to discuss at a future polyamory panel, one of the suggestions was intersections of polyamory, race, and queerness. This topic could be a panel by itself. Here I will attempt to give some insight to my experiences as an African American who happens to be polyamorous, but I am not going to go into detail about my experiences with being queer as I am often perceived as a cishet male and have only recently begun to explore elements of my queerness.
CVG 2018 Day 3, Part 1 - Polyamory 101
CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, almost 3 months ago now. I had planned on getting this post done last week as I have been trying to get posts out on a regular basis, but certain events tied up my brainspace last weekend. Now that I am back on track, I am getting Day 3 (Saturday the 7th) up for you all. I was on the panel “Polyamory 101” and attended “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”. For Part 1, I present to you the audio recording of the polyamory panel as well as my additional written thoughts about what we discussed, a link to “Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities” from MarsCon 2018, and various resources. Listen to the raw recording of “Polyamory 101” here.
CVG 2018 Day 2, Part 2 - When is Star Trek Space Opera?
CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, 2 months ago now. I had meant to write these posts shortly after CVG ended, but as I’ve explained in previous posts, I have been dealing with broken technology, depression, and other things that have been occupying my time. This year, the theme was “Natural Twenty: Celebrating The First 20 Years Of CONvergence” - for the full archive of all twenty years of CONvergence, click here.
On Friday the 6th, I was a panelist on the following panels: “The Orville Fan Panel” and “When is Star Trek Space Opera?”. For Part 2, I present to you the audio recording of the Star Trek panel as well as my additional written thoughts about what we discussed. Listen to the raw recording here.
CVG 2018 Day 1 - Part 2
CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, 2 months ago now. I had meant to write these posts shortly after CVG ended, but as I’ve explained in previous posts, I have been dealing with broken technology, depression, and other things that have been occupying my time. This year, the theme was “Natural Twenty: Celebrating The First 20 Years Of CONvergence” - for the full archive of all twenty years of CONvergence, click here.
On Thursday the 5th, I attended the following panels: “Deep Space Nine Fan Panel,” “Breaking the Holographic Ceiling: Female Leadership in Star Trek,” “Speculative Biology 101,” “Women in STEM - The Road Not Taken,” “Flirting 101,” and “Misogyny in the Geek Community”. Here is part two of my notes from the panels - I plan on providing my thoughts and analysis of my notes in the near future.
Avoiding Tokenism In Literature at CVG 2018 Follow-Up
Polyamory 101 at CVG 2018 follow-up
At the end of the Polyamory 101 panel at CONvergence, I promised that I would put up a poll to see if we should submit a Polyamory 201 panel for next year, and have fields for what kind of questions there should be. I also promised a couple of people links about "Poly" being considered slur to Polynesians.
Maya Angelou's Poem: "On the Pulse of Morning"
Maya Angelou read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993, becoming the second poet in history and the first African American and woman to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. The poem's themes are change, inclusion, responsibility, and role of both the President and the citizenry in establishing economic security.
Dr. King's Speech: "The Birth of a New Nation"
In April 1957, a month after Ghana liberated itself from British colonial rule, Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech entitled "The Birth of a New Nation." He used Ghana's battle against colonialism and it's significance in representing the hard work that is necessary to bring about desegregation.
MarsCon 2018 - Day 2
If you didn't read the previous post, MarsCon 2018 - Day 1, I would suggest checking that out first. The panels that I was on, "Avoiding the Tokenism in Comics and Sci Fi Cultures," "How to Fail Gracefully," and "Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities" are all related to today's panels in one way or another: "The Prime Directive as Liberal Eurocentric Superiority," "Gem Watch," "Star Trek," "Cleavage Optional: Gender, Cosplay, and Genderbending Cosplay," and "Race and Culture in the Honorverse."
MarsCon 2018 - Day 1
MarsCon is a fan-run science fiction convention for all ages held every March in the Twin Cities area. This year's theme is Robots, Rayguns, & Rockets: The 3 R's of Sci-Fi. Today I was on two panels, "Avoiding the Tokenism in Comics and Sci Fi Cultures," "How to Fail Gracefully," and "Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities." There are audio recordings of all three panels; however, they are still the raw, unedited versions. The normalized, balanced versions will be put up on a later post. I also took some notes for some of the panels - I will include them here so that I can expand on them on a later date. Please feel free to ask questions and post comments about the panels. Enjoy!
MarsCon 2018 starts now!
MarsCon 2018 has begun! Check out my schedule here.
Here are some links to previous posts that relate to upcoming panels:
Dr. King's Final Speech: "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
On April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee, Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his final speech. On the following day, King was assassinated. He was 39 years old.
The speech primarily concerns the Memphis Sanitation Strike. King calls for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, while challenging the United States to live up to its ideals. At the end of the speech, he discusses the possibility of an untimely death.
To Survive, Persons of Color are Taught Differently.
Back on 10March2017, I was pulled over by the Saint Louis Park Police Department. The light over the rear license plate was burnt out - the person whom I had borrowed the vehicle from knew that the light was burnt out and told me that she was going to replace it. I was under the understanding that she was going to replace it before I borrowed the vehicle, but she did not get around to it. She's a white ruralite who does not understand the importance of having every part of a vehicle being up to specs at all times. Fortunately, I only received a verbal warning.
CONvergence 2017 - Two Weeks Later
Since I have returned home, I have not had a change to down the notes that I took on the the other panels that I attended at CONvergence - "Women of Color in Comics: Race, Gender and the Comic Book Medium" and "Latinx Empowerment Through Latinx Heroes" (I also attended "Don't Go There: Taboo Topics and Triggers In Art," but I did not take any notes) - but now I have a moment to get some thoughts down. These two panels do tie into the other panels that I was on (read about Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4), and I plan on writing out detailed thoughts about these as time permits.
CONvergence 2017 - Day 3
If you haven't read CONvergence 2017 - Day 1 or CONvergence 2017 - Day 2 already, I would suggest that you read those two entries first - the four panels that I was on, "Speculative Fiction Against Colonialism," "Avoiding Tokenism in Comics & Sci Fi Characters," "Diversity, Class Systems, and Equality in Science Fiction" and "50 Shades of Blackface," all relate to tonight's panel: "Androids, AI, And Gender Theory."
This post will be in three parts: First, a couple of definitions and points - these definitions will be without citation, as I jotted them down in a notebook for reference for the panel, though I do plan on revisiting them in a future post. Second, a listing of media that has to do with stories about Androids, AI, and/or Gender. Third, free-form notes that were taken during the panel that I plan on elaborating on at a later date.