Stuff I will certainly be at above the cuts and marked with **, stuff I might be at behind them (generally).
Wow this is a lot.
Thursday
Arrive mid-day late afternoon. Collect T-shirts from hotel. Collapse in little heap.
(I seem to have been under the mistaken impression that stuff started Thursday when booking my flights. That's okay, this gives me plenty of time for travel snafus, decompressing (oh so necessary), etc.)
Possibly attend 6:00 reception/reading at Room of One's Own Bookstore.
Friday
** 1:00 PM - 3:45 PM: Capitol/Wisconsin: The Gathering
At which I help with Con or Bust's silly SFF Characters of Color Faceoff (go tick some boxes to select the characters who'll be in the bracket), while sneaking peeks at the Clothing Swap and Tiptree Auction Preview.
And then some panel choices:
4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Assembly: Join the Mod Squad: Enhance Your Moderation Skills
Ever go to a panel and spend your time thinking, "With a good moderator, this would be a much better panel?" You won't become a hippie if you attend this panel, but we will review several ways to be that good moderator, offer tips and tricks, and generally work on improving WisCon's already high standards for panel moderation. We strongly encourage you to attend this panel if you are moderating at WisCon, especially if it's your first time. It's also a great experience if you ever have, or think you ever will, be a panel moderator anywhere.
M: Alan Bostick. Ann Crimmins, Christopher Davis, Beverly Friend, Elise Matthesen
Senate A: Black Souls in White Clones: Swimming in Shawl's "Deep End"
This story (from Nisi's Filter House collection) challenges every boundary between the "true" self and the lived-in body. If we create a life in the edges of a prison culture, can we ever be free? If the only way to breathe air is in the jailer's clone, are we still ourselves? How can our lover's unfamiliar bodies still enchant us? When the clone begins to decay, can we accept its limitations?
M: Eileen Gunn. Andrea D. Hairston, Nancy Jane Moore, Jef a. Smith
Senate B: Immigration, Fictional and Non-Fictional
People have moved around on this planet since there's been people and since there's been a planet. However, since this newfangled "nation-state" invention, it's gotten a little more complicated. Come talk about both fictional and nonfictional examples of people emigrating from one nation-state to another nation-state, remembering that immigrants aren't an abstract construct, but real people.</p>
M: Mary Anne Mohanraj. Ay-leen the Peacemaker, Suzanne Alles Blom, Amal El-Mohtar
** 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM: POC Dinner
Night
So many parties! Arrgh!
I will definitely be at the Carl Brandon Society Party (room 629), where we will be selling the aforementioned T-shirts. And at the Live Journal/Social Media Party (room 607)—stickers! Saying hi to other people! And I want to hear about FOGcon (room 611). . . . I guess I'll be skipping the vid party (room 623).
Saturday
10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Too many choices!
Senate B: Yearning from the Threshold: Magic Realism & Diaspora Literature
Those who write about diaspora create from the threshold, from the border. Magical realism—with its crossing of many borders, including the border between magic and reality—allows the writer to celebrate the myths and folklore of home, even as the story echoes the experience of being ex-centric, out of the mainstream, and on the threshold. Join us for a conversation about the ways that the displaced writer (whether immigrant, ex-pat, diaspora, or refugee) uses magical realist fiction to explore the idea of marginality.
M: Mary Anne Mohanraj. Hiromi Goto, Nisi Shawl, Sheree Renée Thomas, Ibi Aanu Zoboi
Wisconsin: Class Issues in Science Fiction and Fantasy
It's not been easy for the SF community to come to terms with class. In a society where the working poor and the unemployed are growing in number, and the middle class is being destroyed, it's vital that we discuss class. Let's build on our discussions of class at WisCon 34, which included a powerful Class Basics panel, to discuss class and class warfare in SF as well as the real world.
M: Eleanor A. Arnason. Jess Adams, Beth Plutchak, Fred Schepartz, Chris Wrdnrd
Capitol A: How Intersectionality Enlarges Feminist Community
Although feminism has historically focused on gender, there are a lot of different axes of oppression in the world and the daily lives of most people interact with those oppressions at least as much as gender. A forward-looking, relevant feminism needs to take that into account and work for people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, people of size, and people who speak different languages, to name just a few. What are the challenges and opportunities available if we expand our focus to include other oppressions? How do we do so without losing our soul or asking our allies to lose theirs? How do we do so without engaging in "the Oppression Olympics"?
M: E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman. Ian K. Hagemann, Betsy Lundsten, Isabel Schechter, Shveta Thakrar
Then, lunch and bake sale and last-minute prep for two of my panels:
** 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM: Conference 4: Vigorous Debate, or Verbal Harassment?
One of the strengths of the SF community is that it's almost always open for discussion and debate. Unfortunately, when discussions get intense, the line between "vigorous debate" and "verbal harassment" can go from blurry to invisible. How can we tell when a discussion has crossed that line? What do we do if we're the one who's crossed it? How can we step in to call back a friend who's crossed it? Let's discuss how to recognize verbal harassment and brainstorm strategies for addressing it within a community where everyone is a friend of a friend.
M: Jess Adams. Andy Best, Michelle Kendall, Kate Nepveu, Maevele Straw
** 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM: Capitol B: Fanfic 401
This is the serious stuff—it is most certainly NOT a 101 panel! Let's discuss bisexual invisibility, the erasure and/or marginalization of female characters, authorial intent, trigger warnings, underage audiences, and source problems. When does fanfic get it right? When does it get it wrong? This will be a cross-fandom discussion.
M: Florian. Johanna Eeva, Beth Friedman, Kate Nepveu, Nonie B. Rider
And then if I don't collapse in a heap or want to talk to lots of people afterward to continue the panel, I'd really like to go to
4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Wisconsin: How To Describe Nonwhite Characters Sans Fail
How do we get beyond "Her skin was the color of a delicious Coca-Cola?" What metaphors, similes, techniques, and descriptors are less problematic when describing nonwhite characters' physical bodies? (Starter link: http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2009/06/12/12163.html)
M: Mary Doria Russell. K. Tempest Bradford, Moondancer Drake, Amal El-Mohtar, Rachel Virginia Swirsky
Night
Then I figure I should at least stick my head in at the Tiptree Auction. And I want to go to the Think Galacticon party (room 634); I hope I can fit a book or two in my suitcase to donate to the swap.
Sunday
Why are there so many interesting-sounding panels at 10 in the morning?
10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Senate A: Once Upon A Time
Panelists use the card game "Once Upon a Time" to tell half-baked fairy tales for laughs. Find out what happens when panelists play tug-of-war with a story, trying to bend it towards wildly different endings.
M: Vylar Kaftan. Kimberly A. Blanchette, Christopher Davis, Julia Rios, LaShawn M. Wanak
Wisconsin: The Body Language of Online Interaction
Contrary to received wisdom, it's possible to convey emotional information in text. In addition to the widely scorned emoticons, there's an evolving body language expressed through sentence length, word choice, timing, as well as purely typographic means. Every online community has its own nuances, and it can bewilder those hoping to join. This paraverbal information is used to maintain the boundaries between the cool kids and newcomers. Learn how to identify the body language in use to become a more confident net citizen.
M: Jaymee Goh. Lisa C. Freitag, Debbie Notkin, Heidi Waterhouse
Room 629: Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku: The Inner Chambers
Since winning the 2009 Tiptree Award for the first two volumes of Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Fumi Yoshinaga's series has continued on through volume 5 and forges further into the alternate history in which a terrible plague affecting only men utterly changes medieval Japanese culture. Beautifully drawn, the story is a feast for science fiction readers whose sense of wonder is sparked equally by the gender themes, alternate history speculation, and the we're-not-in-Kansas-anymore vision of historical Japan. Yoshinaga's view of gender and power isn't a simple matter of women taking charge from men. What characteristics does Yoshinaga clearly think are gender-specific, no matter which gender is in power? What changes in this alternate history with the transfer of power?
M: Andrea Horbinski. Mely (coffeeandink), Cynthia Gonsalves, Margaret McBride, Gregory G. H. Rihn
** 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM: Con or Bust in the POC Safer Space
I'll grab some lunch and hang out in the POC Safer Space during the break; any persons of color/non-white people who have questions or feedback about Con or Bust can stop by then. (Everyone is welcome to ask me about it at any time, too.)
Two post-lunch panel options:
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Wisconsin: How to Respond Appropriately to Concerns About Cultural Appropriation
At WisCon 33, the Carl Brandon Society taught a course which reviewed the basic concepts around race, colonial history, and cultural appropriation, along with a discussion of ways to build a vocabulary to discuss these topics. Let's use that background to discuss what would be appropriate, considered, thoughtful responses by authors to concerns that their work contains cultural appropriation.
M: Victor Raymond. K. Tempest Bradford, Mary Doria Russell, Geoff Ryman, Rachel Virginia Swirsky
Room 623: Religion in Hard SF: Why Don't We See It?
Religion has been a driving force for many aspects of Western culture, yet authors of futuristic science fiction often ignore its force (with Mary Doria Russell, Lois McMaster Bujold, Dan Simmons, David Weber, and Robert Heinlein being notable exceptions). What is missing when stories of future societies leave out religion?
M: Juliana. Chip Hitchcock, Isabel Schechter, Philip Weiss
** 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM: Wisconsin: SIBLING OF REVENGE OF NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL
Back for a third go-round, by popular demand! Writers of color working in F/SF face unique challenges, it's true. But, at the end of the day, being a "person of color" is only one aspect of what makes up our identities as writers. While it's very flattering to asked to be on panels, most of these panels never crack the ceiling of Race 101. With that in mind, wouldn't it be nice for multiple writers of color to sit on a panel that isn't about race at all? Here's our chance to do just that. So, what are we gonna talk about, instead? Practically anything! Presented in game show format, SIBLING OF REVENGE OF NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL brings together writers of color to get their geek on about any number of pop culture topics—none of them race related.
M: K. Tempest Bradford. Amal El-Mohtar, Michelle Kendall, Victor Raymond, LaShawn M. Wanak
As I am reliably informed that it is not to be missed.
** 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM: Capitol A: FAIL!
Racefail, Open Source Boob Project… so many ways to fail. How do we keep stepping in it? What is it we're stepping in? How can we avoid stepping in it?
M: E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman. Molly Aplet, Florian, Rachael Lininger, Kate Nepveu
** 5:15 PM - 6:00 PM: Post-FAIL! panel breakout session in POC Safer Space
A breakout session for POC to follow up on the FAIL! panel immediately prior.
Night
GoH speech, 8:30; maybe parties, maybe collapse, maybe stop in the dance party. I leave Monday morning, so we'll see how much I've left in the tank.
And some of these panels are probably going to put aside in favor of "sell T-shirts at the Aqueduct Press table." (What are the dealer's room hours?)
Wow this is a lot.
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