Tag: activism

Why I Haven’t Posted About MoonFail Until Now

By:  TempestRants
Why I Haven’t Posted About MoonFail Until Now

There are a few reasons why most of my reactions to Elizabeth Moon’s post and subsequent discussion and developments have been confined to Twitter and Facebook until now. The main one being that I haven’t had a lot of time for posting, and responding to stuff like that takes time. Lots of things going on at work, as always. Plus, what free time I have I am trying to fill with fiction writing.

But one of the big reasons has less to do with time constraints and more to do with the fact that I did not have to post. By have to, I mean that there wasn’t such silence, such unwillingness to tackle the issue by the SF community at large that I felt compelled to speak out. I no longer feel like mine is one of the few voices calling people out on shit like this.

It’s a good feeling, though bittersweet.

Not just for personal reasons. Yes, activism takes emotional tolls. But also because it means that there are more people using their voices, more people aware of these issues, more people who care, and more people willing to fight. Always a good thing.

None of us should feel alone. Like we’re yelling into the darkness yet no one cares. None of us should have to bear such heavy burdens.

And I’m really glad that the people I see speaking out are not just the groups Moon chose to be so ignorant about and hurtful toward. It’s all kind of people from all kinds of backgrounds being angry and saying: This. Is Wrong.

I will never stop being an activist. But it’s nice to know that I don’t have to be active all the time in order for someone to point these things out. It means things are changing for the better. Maybe slowly, by increments, but it’s happening.

Last Drink Bird Head Awards — I Am A Gentle Advocate

By:  TempestConventions
Last Drink Bird Head Awards -- I Am A Gentle Advocate

I haven’t posted to this blog in a long while, sorry. My job is pretty intense (but awesome) and I have a million other projects and jobs going on, which means my fun time is limited. Or I’m just tired. But some fairly significant things are going on and I’ve been extremely remiss in mentioning them.

A big one is that a few weeks ago Jeff Vandermeer emailed to tell me that I was one of the first nominees for the Last Drink Bird Head Award. This is a new award he and Ann Vandermeer came up with that focuses on service in the genre community. “The purpose of the awards is to celebrate those in the genre community who enrich us with their time, energy, and words, often for causes greater than themselves.” The categories are:

  • Gentle Advocacy
  • Tireless Energy
  • Promotion of Reading
  • Expanding Our Vocabulary
  • International Activism
  • Special Achievement

I was nominated in the Gentle Advocacy category: In recognition of individuals willing to enter into blunt discourse about controversial issues…. The awards were given out at World Fantasy and, despite being up against John Scalzi and Nick Mamatas, I won! Yay!

I actually hadn’t expected to, so I didn’t prepare an acceptance speech, though I did give one. But if I had prepared one, I would have said a lot more stuff. First that my fellow nominees are completely worthy of this award as well. Nick in particular since he’s one of the people who taught me the benefits of being fearless and saying what needs to be said when shit is really wrong in the world.

Second, that the award and the awardees acknowledge that it’s not always easy being a Gentle Advocate, an activist, or someone who repeatedly engages in discussions and debates of heated topics. It does help when people have your back, even if they’re just the lurkers in email. I’m fortunate in that I have many people at my back who aren’t shy about being vocal about it, including the Vandermeers and Scalzi and Mamatas. Having people around you who you’re confident will tell you when you’re wrong and aren’t afraid to back you up when you’re right is the key to sanity. I have tons of people like that, and I appreciate the hell out of all of them.

Last, I’m really proud to be the first recipient of this award and glad that it exists, because there are so many others deserving of it, and I’ll be really happy to see them nominated in the future. And thanks again to Ann and Jeff for the honor and for creating the Last Drink Bird Head Awards.

You can see the list of all the nominees here and the winners here (along with pictures of the award). Everyone listed is well-deserving and awesome.

SF POC Short Fiction Form

By:  TempestThe Publishing Biz
SF POC Short Fiction Form

To make my life easier, I created a form that people can fill out to alert me of short fiction by people of color. That form will then feed into a merge thingy which is supposed to auto-generate lists for me. We’ll see.

And just so this post consists of more than one line, check out how the 2008 list of fiction is growing. Yay! 2009 has a few extra entries, too. Read the fiction available to you then head over to the CBS awards nomination form and let them know which stories or books you thnk deserve some recogniton.

Guest Blogging, Wiki-ing, and the like

By:  TempestBlog Against Racism
Guest Blogging, Wiki-ing, and the like

I feel like I must have mentioned this before, but looking back it seems maybe not. Anyway, this month I’ve been guest blogging at the Carl Brandon Society blog. I think this is going to become a regular thing as it seems like they’re very pleased with the lists of POC fiction I’ve been posting.

By the way, if you’re POC and have short fiction coming out in 2009, please let me know so I can include you in future lists. Instructions at this link. If you already had something come out in 2009 and missed my announcement before, you can add your story yourself to the Carl Brandon wiki. There’s also a 2008 short fiction entry.

At some point I’d like to start listing novels on the wiki. But it may take someone other than me starting that project. Though if I continue blogging at CBS, then another thing I want to start doing is mini author interviews whenever a writer of color has a book coming out. Something similar to the author spotlights I did at Fantasy Magazine. A 4 – 6 stock questions that hopefully elicit interesting answers. It’ll be a quick and easy way to start keeping a list of who’s publishing what and when. Plus, promotion!

And finally, if you will all please head over to this post about artists of color in SF/F — I’m trying to create a list. I hope it will also go up on the wiki someday. I only have two comments, sad! I know there are many artists of color out there. Please add your favorites or add yourself.

WisCon and POC – Spread the Word!

By:  TempestEvents
WisCon and POC - Spread the Word!

Here are the details we’ve worked out for the unofficial POC-only events @ WisCon:

Friday:

Meet & Greet

After the opening ceremonies (approx 8:30PM) there will be an informal gathering of POC so that we can meet each other, plan how we’re going to deal with certain aspects of the POC space during the con, and squee over the # of us all in one place. At around 8:50 we’re going to depart for somewhere other than the lobby–perhaps someone’s room, a corner of the bar, a restaurant, wherever we decide. So be sure to be in the lobby before then!

Saturday:

11:45 – 1:00 PM – Intra-POC Relationships & Coalition Building Kaffeeklatsch
one of the overflow rooms on the 6th floor.

Participants of this kaffeeklatsch will be limited. (I’ll let you guess what the limitations are.) In order to avoid certain unpleasantness, there will be folks at the con with sign-up lists for this event. You’ll be able to recognize them by the buttons they wear, which will say “People Against We-Sha-Sha“. If you want to be one of the people with a sign-up list, please let me know.

(The lunch time begins at 11:15, which gives people time to hop over to the cafe to get some food if there’s nothing in the con suite they can eat. But I believe this year they are making sure there are vegetarian and vegan options.)

Monday:

8:00 – 9:45AM – POC Breakfast & Con Roundup
Concourse Hotel Restaurant

Some have suggested we have a last get-together on the last day to go over our con experiences and sketch out a plan for how we’re going to deal with some of the POC-only spaces next year. I blocked out the entire early morning programming block so that people could drop in as they wake up, pop out to attend a panel, etc.

Also, now that the programming schedule is up, is anyone willing to take shifts (during one programming block, say) so we can have a POC-only lounge space?

Now that we have a day/time, is anyone able to print out a bunch of copies of the info flier so we can hand them out?

And last, I would like to have a reading with all POC participants (though the audience can be mixed, maybe?), maybe on Saturday. Is anyone interested in reading?

Spread the word, everyone! I want as many people to know about this before the con as possible, as it will facilitate getting people in the right place at the right time.