Wiscon 09 Reax
May. 28th, 2009 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unusualmusic_lj_archivethe good
I didn't write up anything and I wish I had, but hopefully I'll have a laptop next time. I've got to say that I cannot believe the sense of community and sheer love that I got for the POC that were there. I have no clue exactly how much of us attended, I a hearing estimates of 40-50, which is still pretty small in a convention that caps off at 1000, but the fact that I knew so many and could attend panels that contained audience members and panelists that were POC made such a big difference. To say nothing of POC only events were we could just let our hair down. I met so many cool people that I cant even list them all,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sparkymonster(you rock!), moondancerdrake (I intend to get your book as soon as my bank account permits!), badgerbag (so so glad I met you!), troubleinchina (though I only got to see her for 10 minutes before she left on Monday, will have to plan better) littlebutfierce(I LOVED your zines, and am reminding you for the fifth time, remember me when your website is launched!) deepad (who is just, fucking awesome!) hari_mirchi (love you so much and so sorry I missed so many of your panels! really need to schedule my sleep patterns a lot better!), hermatic (I saw you around the internets and am very very glad to meet you in meatspace), coniraya (so. much. fun!!!!) ladyjax (thanks a lot.), karnythia and wayoftheid (the verb_noire party was badass and the candy captions rocked so hard!) and vito_exacalibur (I kept missing your panels until I finally made one! so glad to meet you) and popelizbeth ( i really enjoyed talking to you, and seaya and lavendertook and nojojojo and tempest and onceupon and bork...SO many more whose names I don't remember I am so sorry but you all were AWESOME!!!!! And I missed you shewhohashope, and I hope I might meet you in the future, maybe next year?
I've got to thank the POC who blazed the trail and endured the stares and isolation and fail and BS in later years and who organized and fought so that newbie con-goers like me could come and have a great time for the most part and those people that are continuing the fight to make the con safer for everyone, POC, lgbt, differently abled, sexual assault survivors and everyone else.
Also, Trouble was badass in bringing up the issues surrounding differently-abled persons and how they were treated, from the problematic language use to their erasure by able-bodied persons at the "Getting it wrong gracefully" panel, and the mod was surprisingly not an asshole about it, she accepted the correction and made some effort to watch her language for the entirety of the panel.
the bad
There was fail. From the Russian lady (whose name I can't remember), who cornered deepad after one of her panels and seemed to be trying to get deepad to agree that Russian authors should be allowed to exaggerate and fuck up Indian mythology and lore in the service of getting more Russians interested in India (WTF), to the spectacularly bad modding at the Take back Sci-fi seminar, to the madness at the Verb_Noire Party, to Mary Robinette taking up so much space at the Getting it Wrong Gracefully Panel(seriously, she would not shut up, and kept trying to make it all about her) and the unfortunate reiteration by an audience member of the trope :POC need to need to explain at all times what they are angry about and when they don't they have a piss-poor attitude! (and this was even more faily because that particular audience member knew better). There were also audience members who were insisting that on trying to make it about white people's about being challenged on their racism and assorted phobias, rather than the problems of the POC and other oppressed groups who were the recipients of their toxicity. There was trouble due to disabilities not properly accounted for at the con: a lift that was hard to work, a mixup in conference rooms that resulted in a panelist not having access to a ramp, thus making it harder than it needed to be for her to get to her table.
Also, I missed seeinghaddayr entirely due to bad planning and I only realized who troubleinchina was in time for her to leave. And I missed so many ppl, willow, skywardprodigal, shewhohashope and spiralsheep AND others...So that sucked.
Overall, I really loved the con, have every intention of going next year. And Maybe I might try being on a panel or two...
I didn't write up anything and I wish I had, but hopefully I'll have a laptop next time. I've got to say that I cannot believe the sense of community and sheer love that I got for the POC that were there. I have no clue exactly how much of us attended, I a hearing estimates of 40-50, which is still pretty small in a convention that caps off at 1000, but the fact that I knew so many and could attend panels that contained audience members and panelists that were POC made such a big difference. To say nothing of POC only events were we could just let our hair down. I met so many cool people that I cant even list them all,
sparkymonster(you rock!), moondancerdrake (I intend to get your book as soon as my bank account permits!), badgerbag (so so glad I met you!), troubleinchina (though I only got to see her for 10 minutes before she left on Monday, will have to plan better) littlebutfierce(I LOVED your zines, and am reminding you for the fifth time, remember me when your website is launched!) deepad (who is just, fucking awesome!) hari_mirchi (love you so much and so sorry I missed so many of your panels! really need to schedule my sleep patterns a lot better!), hermatic (I saw you around the internets and am very very glad to meet you in meatspace), coniraya (so. much. fun!!!!) ladyjax (thanks a lot.), karnythia and wayoftheid (the verb_noire party was badass and the candy captions rocked so hard!) and vito_exacalibur (I kept missing your panels until I finally made one! so glad to meet you) and popelizbeth ( i really enjoyed talking to you, and seaya and lavendertook and nojojojo and tempest and onceupon and bork...SO many more whose names I don't remember I am so sorry but you all were AWESOME!!!!! And I missed you shewhohashope, and I hope I might meet you in the future, maybe next year?I've got to thank the POC who blazed the trail and endured the stares and isolation and fail and BS in later years and who organized and fought so that newbie con-goers like me could come and have a great time for the most part and those people that are continuing the fight to make the con safer for everyone, POC, lgbt, differently abled, sexual assault survivors and everyone else.
Also, Trouble was badass in bringing up the issues surrounding differently-abled persons and how they were treated, from the problematic language use to their erasure by able-bodied persons at the "Getting it wrong gracefully" panel, and the mod was surprisingly not an asshole about it, she accepted the correction and made some effort to watch her language for the entirety of the panel.
the bad
There was fail. From the Russian lady (whose name I can't remember), who cornered deepad after one of her panels and seemed to be trying to get deepad to agree that Russian authors should be allowed to exaggerate and fuck up Indian mythology and lore in the service of getting more Russians interested in India (WTF), to the spectacularly bad modding at the Take back Sci-fi seminar, to the madness at the Verb_Noire Party, to Mary Robinette taking up so much space at the Getting it Wrong Gracefully Panel(seriously, she would not shut up, and kept trying to make it all about her) and the unfortunate reiteration by an audience member of the trope :POC need to need to explain at all times what they are angry about and when they don't they have a piss-poor attitude! (and this was even more faily because that particular audience member knew better). There were also audience members who were insisting that on trying to make it about white people's about being challenged on their racism and assorted phobias, rather than the problems of the POC and other oppressed groups who were the recipients of their toxicity. There was trouble due to disabilities not properly accounted for at the con: a lift that was hard to work, a mixup in conference rooms that resulted in a panelist not having access to a ramp, thus making it harder than it needed to be for her to get to her table.
Also, I missed seeing
haddayr entirely due to bad planning and I only realized who troubleinchina was in time for her to leave. And I missed so many ppl, willow, skywardprodigal, shewhohashope and spiralsheep AND others...So that sucked. Overall, I really loved the con, have every intention of going next year. And Maybe I might try being on a panel or two...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-28 07:37 pm (UTC)You.... have to be kidding me.
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Date: 2009-05-28 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-05-29 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 01:41 pm (UTC)Read this panel write up from last year and watch videos of the OMGWTF to help you ponder who that special person might have been.
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Date: 2009-05-31 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 06:01 pm (UTC)Because you know there is always the off chance that you had been abducted by aliens who had swapped your brain with someone else thus causing uncharacteristic behavior.
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Date: 2009-06-01 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-28 07:42 pm (UTC)I'm always hopeful through the moments of fail there are still good things that grow (like roses out of dung), but even if not seeing so many us together, having so many great conversations, I still walked away from the weekend feeling hopeful.
Oh, and can't wait to hear what you think of Amcestral Magic. HUGS!!!
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Date: 2009-05-28 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-28 08:31 pm (UTC)That Russian lady, man, the Russian word for tea is already chai, what more does she want?
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Date: 2009-05-28 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-28 08:54 pm (UTC)And it was great to meet everyone else!
I'm still decompressing from the weekend, and I haven't had consistent internet access until now - but I'll try to do a writeup at some point.
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Date: 2009-05-28 08:57 pm (UTC)I'm so glad that you were excited by all the zines!! If I had had my shit together more in helping
I'm so glad you'll be going next year!! Hopefully me too!
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Date: 2009-05-29 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-13 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-28 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-29 02:00 am (UTC)I am so glad I got to meet you and spend so much time hanging out with you!
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Date: 2009-05-29 12:54 pm (UTC)I have no clue. I think the incident stayed with me because every time I thought about it, the WTFuckery became more apparent.
I am so glad I got to meet you and spend so much time hanging out with you!
SQUEE!!1
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Date: 2009-05-29 08:29 pm (UTC)YES YES YES!
In fact, I believe the idea submission is already open for next year's con. http://wiscon.piglet.org/account/login?msg=You+must+log+in+to+access+this+feature
no subject
Date: 2009-05-30 01:54 am (UTC)