Blerd City Con is Coming!

Calling all Black Nerds! BLERD City Con is Celebrating You in New York City — Come Together at the Dumbo Spot July 29^th & 30^th

Get ready New York!

BLERD City Con is about to bring a revolutionary event to the historic Dumbo Spot in New York, NY — and you’re going to want to grab your tickets soon. BLERD City is an innovative, unique, creative, and challenging celebration of the Black community and all the glorious nerdiness held within. Art, science, film, literature and technology; it’s all going to be on display from Saturday, July 29th through Sunday July 30th. This family-friendly festival is going to be hyperactive and fueled with fantasy and fandom.

“What is a BLERD?” A Blerd is simply a “Black Nerd”. They are those who have an interest in what others would say are strange and specific things. An interest in talking about unrivaled passions for characters, stories, and forms of art that often outweigh real celebrities. The goal of Blerd City Con is to honor creativity of the Blerd culture, encouraging inclusion, community and awareness in the process.

Clairesa Clay, the founder of BLERD City Con, has a simple and inspired mission: “I want the audience to experience Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy by the talents of leading African Diasporic filmmakers, writers, coders and creators who are serving the community of Black and Nerdy.”

BLERD City is a conference dedicated to showcasing the multi-dimensional complexity of black nerdiness through all spectrums of creativity, invention, and innovation. We’re going to have panels, workshops, film screenings, special guests, presentations, and so much more. Visit our marketplace for gaming and comic books and take your kids to our all ages science and technology exploration center.

This year, BLERD City Con will be honoring L.A. Banks for her outstanding contributions in fantasy horror speculative writing and non-fiction with an award in her name. BLERD City Con has worked with some of the most renowned, accomplished, and critically-acclaimed presenters within the community:

Sheree Renée Thomas, award-winning fiction writer, editor, and poet, and author of Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora and Dark Matter: Reading the Bones. Sheree will be honored with the new L.A. Banks award.

Tim Fielder, graphic artist, cartoonist, and animator, best known for Afrofuturism: The Next Generation.

Warrington Hudlin, veteran producer of film, television, and online media

Floyd Webb, an award-winning filmmaker and groundbreaking film festival producer.

Regine Sawyer, owner and writer at Locket Down Production a press comic book company. Also the founder of the Women in Comics Collective International.

BLERD City Con’s mission is to provide the Black community with a tangible connection to the talented and cutting-edge professionals working within the arts and sciences, providing room for inspiration, networking, and education.

In addition to featured guests, BLERD City Con panels and workshops include:

People of Color Gaming
Venture Capital for Technology
Women in Comics
The Great Black Panther Debate
Afropast, Afrofuture
Black Karate
Coders and Writers
SciFi/Fantasy/Writers Reading
AfroCrowd: A Wikipedia Workshop

This expansive cultural celebration will be held over five areas: The Dumbo Spot (Panels), Creative Chaos (Book Readings), Automatic Studios (Film Screenings and Panels), The Green Desk (Workshops), and Brooklyn Bridge Park (Children’s Corner). You don’t want to miss this one-of-a-kind event and experience. Tickets are available now.

BUY TICKETS HERE

CURRENT BLERD CITY SCHEDULE

SATURDAY JULY 29, 2017 PANELS

A live reading and examination of Josh Whedon’s 2009 Wonder Woman Script
Examination of Josh Whedon’s Wonder Woman script of sexism and racism.
Facilitator: Valerie_ComplexWomen In Comics: Gender and Inclusion in the Modern Age of the Comic Book World Looking at leading women artists who are in the comic books industry.
Moderator: Regine SawyerEnter the Last Dragon: Black Folks & Martial Arts
A panel on the love of Martial Arts by Black people
Moderator: Jacinto Taras RiddickWakanda’s World and a Superhero’s Journey
A discussion about the upcoming film Black Panther, and the history of the comic book.A Right Not to Die: Imprisonment from Birth to Death
A discussion about the prison system’s impact on black and brown males and females.
Moderator: Monifa Bandele, Community ActivistCorrecting People Correctly
Empowering yourself to respond to hate and bigotry online and in real life. Panel discussion led by an all queer black cosplayers.
Facilitator: Brienne ColstonCosplay Ball
The audience and cosplay judges will decided the best costume of showmanship and creativity.
Mistress of Ceremony: Robyn Warren

Cosplay, Disabilities, Geek Culture and Neurodiversity
Cosplay and geek culture have helped and hindered the disability culture. Panelists discuss experiences including topics such as neurodiversity, disabilities (both visible and invisible), and the accessibility of cons and geek culture as a whole.
Moderator: Joseph Munisteri

Hackathon: Coders & Writers
Inviting coders and writers to the same room to hash out stories involving responsible image making of people of color for the next century game.

#BLERDFOODJUSTICE
The examination of the food injustices in the African Diaspora community.
Moderator: Keith Carr

Artist Spotlight: The DieselFunk Brothers – Gloggers Tim and Jim Fielder
The creative ventures of the two brothers, Tim Felder and Jim Felder, glogging—graphics and digital media—around the political world.

AfroPast and AfroFuture: Indy Explosive Comics
Meet 2017’s new and exciting Comic Book artists.

Propulsion of Black Aesthetics Mixtape Parables
Speculative Fiction and poetry artists of Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy reading their current works. Audience members are invited to wear their favorite character from Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy book or book inspired film.
Moderator: Sheree Renée Thomas

Imagination Short Film Showcase
Programmer: Moikgantsi Kgama

Creatively Speaking Short Film Showcase
Programmer: Michelle Materre

SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2017 PANELS

Fandom Diversified: The Changing Face of Nerd Journalism
From the Gamergate scandal to the advent of BlerdNation, both high and low points are heavily spotlit. But what does this mean for the future? Is it mission accomplished? We;ll talk to writers from Black Girl Nerds.
Moderator: Valerie_Complex

#BLERDOUT: A Picture is Worth Less than a Thousand Words
Nerds come to tell your stories of being a Black Nerd. Bring in a picture of yourself to tell a 3-4 min story that answers the question: “I became a Blerd when. . .”

Anime & Manga Mash Up
Part 1 Kpop and Blackness: Appropriation or Appreciation?
Panel explores the instances of some of the cultural manfields that kpop and black fans often have to negotiate.
Moderator:Johnny GoodMo

Part 2 Anime, Manga, Kpop & Race Mash Up
Prepare to be schooled on the racial dynamics of Anime, Manga, and Kpop Fandom with the intersectionality of fetishization of women and idolization that intersects with Western gaze and other images in pop culture.
Moderator: Black Girl youth Moderators

AfroCrowd: Bringing the Digital Footprints of the African Diaspora with Wikipedia
AfroCrowd is a new initiative, which seeks to increase the number of people of African Descent who actively partake in the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture and software movements. Learn the landscape and skills to make an entry in Wikipedia. The history is at our computer board.

#BLERDDATING: A Twitter Storytelling Chat
A workshop about the world’s first Twitter stories/chat mash-up party from a blerd POV that are smart and funny and weird. Talking about dating/relationship issues. Some are deeply personal.

Multiverse: Close Encounters of the Stellar Kind
Speculative Fiction of Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy reading their current work. Audience members are invited to wear their favorite character from Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy book or book inspired film.
Moderator: Sheree Renée Thomas

Betting Big! Tech and Business Showcase

Black TV and Film Collective Short Films Showcase & Workshop
Short films and a workshop
Programmer: Huriyyah Muhammed

ImageReMaker Short Film Showcase
Programmer: Anjanette Levert

About BLERD CITY

BLERD City Con is a two-day conference celebrating the fantastic NERDiness in you! Join panels & workshops in Games, Tech, SciFi/Horror/Fantasy film screenings and book readings.

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