![[WisCon 35] Oh Crap, I Haven't Figured Out What I'm Reading This Weekend](https://ktempestbradford.com/wp-content/uploads/icons/Boondocks-OhShit.jpg)
I was supposed to do that. Um.
Maybe I’ll read The Birth of Pegasus. Or Until Forgiveness Comes.
*looks at newish stuff* Fie.
I was supposed to do that. Um.
Maybe I’ll read The Birth of Pegasus. Or Until Forgiveness Comes.
*looks at newish stuff* Fie.
The Safer Space for POC at WisCon 35 is a room set aside for con attendees of color to have in-group discussions about issues surrounding speculative fiction, feminism, fandom, and convention-going. By issues I do not mean “problems” (just to be clear). There are some conversations that need to happen within a group that only concern the group, and for the second year in a row WisCon is officially acknowledging this need and providing official space for it.
The Safer Space for POC is located in the Solitaire Room — just off the lobby behind the restaurant. The location is marked in the Program Book.
Con attendees of color are free to use this room as a lounge/chill space, just as with last year. Come hang out when you’re not attending a panel, between panels, during lunch, whenever. This year the hotel is providing coffee and tea service throughout the day.
In addition to the lounge aspect, I’m also encouraging people to use the Safer Space as a place for breakout sessions, standalone discussions for small groups, and post-panel de-pressurization. Is there a conversation you’d like to have with other POC about an issue relating to SF, feminism, fandom, media, or literature? Would you like to continue a panel with a smaller, POC-only group? Then I encourage you to use the Safer Space, because this is exactly the reason it exists.
If you already know that you’d like to use the space, great! Please leave a comment with details (what your discussion/breakout session is about, time) and be sure to let people at the con know. Flyers are useful. Even if you don’t have an idea now, you may get one at the con. If so, just invite folks to the room. Even if there are already folks inside, there will probably be enough room.
This isn’t a super structured effort, just a way to ensure that people know that they can use the room for these purposes. There are no hard and fast rules. Just that the space is reserved for POC.
I’ll update this post with activities posted in the comments and there will be a list in the room at the con.
Friday
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM Authors of color bookswap — facilitated by Oyceter
Pre-meet-up before the big dinner in case there are antisocial people who like to dip their toes in the water first. Bonus topic: Rant about Tiger Whatevers in the media!
Saturday
10:00 AM – 11:15 AM Breakout Session immediately following this presentation: Steam Around the World: Steampunk Beyond Victoriana (8:30 AM – 9:45 AM: Assembly)
Sunday
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (Lunch Break): Con or Bust Meetup — Kate Nepveu, CoB organizer, will be in the space to answer questions and listen to your feedback. If you received money from Con or Bust this year, you’re also invited to stop by and meet fellow recipients (and Kate, if you’ve never done so).
5:15 PM – 6:00 PM: Breakout session immediately following this panel: FAIL! (4:00 PM – 5:15 PM: Capitol A)
As things are getting started today, this will be my last update of this post. However, if you wish to know if there are any additional breakout sessions planned, just go to the Solitaire room and look for flyers or a schedule.
It’s that time of year again. You know, when a young girl’s thoughts turn to wild unicorns and orcs frolicking together and eating things? That’s right, the WisCon POC dinner is on, baby.
Here are the deets:
Update: We’ve now set the menu for the dinner. This year we’re doing a buffet instead of a traditional sit-down to facilitate mingling and to accommodate those who might be late. Buffet items include:
Since this is now a catered event/buffet, there’s a set price for dinner. The minimum required to eat is $20. However, if you can pay up to $30 we’d appreciate it. We’re doing a bit of funky math here to keep costs down for everyone and because I don’t know exactly how many people are coming.
If you absolutely cannot afford this, drop me a note, please.
I’m almost completely sure I did not see a netbook panel for WisCon this year (had to go though aaaaalllll the items the other week). Would anyone have interest in an informal technology meetup at WisCon where folks can talk about their netbooks, tablets, phones and other cool tech, others can ask questions and play with said cool tech, and we can pow wow about the tech we care about and why? There’s got to be some sort of feminist theme in there, right?
In preparation for the WisCon panel on “How To Describe Nonwhite Characters Sans Fail”, I’m looking up descriptions of characters in my favorite books to analyze what I like about them and why they work. I’m hoping to bring some concrete examples of literary awesomeness so we can keep the panel balanced between “this is why describing people this way is a problem” and “here are non-faily descriptions, learn from the best.”
I have a few already, but I’d love to hear about your favorite character descriptions as well. Not just of characters of color — though good examples of such are very much welcome — but phrases or passages that stuck out for you, that created clear or powerful pictures in your mind. No need to limit yourself to SF; show me your romance, your mystery, even your poetry! (Be sure to include the author and origin.)
As part of my duties for the WisCon 35 programming committee, I’ve been put in charge (officially) of the Safer Space for POC at the con. Essentially they’d like me to address any issues the community has with said space and make it as useful and comfortable as it can be. Thus, I’m opening up the discussion here to make sure I address issues I’m not aware of. Hopefully, even though this is online, we’ll get a mostly representative mix of ideas and concerns.
First thing: the Safer Space is still in the Solitaire Room this year, just like last year. I remember hearing people complain that this ended up being a detriment as it is so out of the way. However, it’s too late at this point to move it this year. Next year, perhaps. The reason it ended up in the Solitaire Room (from what I understand) was to cut down on gawkers.
One solution to this issue is to plan events and meetups in the space to encourage people to come. And I wouldn’t mind having a lunch together again. The concom also said they’d look into having a coffee/tea service in the room.
So, my question to the WisCon-attending POC out there is: how can we make this room more useful to you beyond the basic function? Are there things you want to happen that didn’t last year? Events you want to see continue? Suggestions, comments, issues, cookies in the comments below! However, if there’s anything you’d like to bring up with me privately, please use the contact form on my website if you don’t know my email or message me on Facebook. I can keep your concerns private/anonymous if need be.
SF3 posted this on their blog:
SF3 has withdrawn the invitation to Elizabeth Moon to attend WisCon 35 as guest of honor.
As I’ve said to others lately, this by itself will not fix everything. However, it is a step in the right direction.
For those of you who haven’t heard, the SF3 organization that is the parent org for WisCon passed a resolution at their Oct 3rd meeting recommending to the concom that they rescind Elizabeth Moon’s guest of honor invitation. This is just a rec, though. It’s still up to the concom — I assume the troika, actually — to follow through on it. Based on this post by Karnythia, there seems to be a lot of discussion going on within the concom about following this rec, with some strong voices opposed to doing so.
Karnythia’s post is a must read, but even more so the comments. She is not the only one stating that she does not want to attend WisCon but will probably come to Madison. There are even some saying they will not come to Madison at all. The people saying this are people whose contributions to WisCon — both on the concom and the community — are so valuable. They are awesome people, exactly the kind of people you’d want to spend a weekend having conversations with.
That these people may not show up to the con is breaking my heart. And I am so, so angry and hurt by those who are seriously attempting to brush aside the bigotry of Elizabeth Moon so that she doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable and be sad.
Fuck that.
These people are pouring acid over the best part of WisCon, the community. A community that will be diminished if this foolishness doesn’t come to an end. I want to go to WisCon and honor Nisi and have a fabulous tine. Damn you people for putting that in jeopardy.
As Nora succinctly states: A con that honors a bigot is not feminist.
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.