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Just so you’ll know, I may have to postpone this month’s Book-To-Movie review until the fourth Saturday. I regularly do the Book-To-Movie on the third weekend but will not be able to watch one of the movies for it until next Saturday which won’t give me enough time to put together the review. I meant to watch the movie this weekend but have been busy attending “Amazing Stories Magazine”’s first virtual convention, AmazingCon. So I have a brief con report of it for you but first I’d like to go over the actions that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has recently been taking against racism in the science fiction and fantasy community.
SFWA and Black Lives Matter
In response to the recent protests against racial injustice, SFWA issued a statement on June 4th explaining the actions it would take to support the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests. The statement was composed by the organisation’s Board of Directors and is titled, “A Statement from SFWA on Black Lives Matter and Protests”. In this document, SFWA admits that it has a long past of ignoring the issue of racism, especially against Black people, and that it has even reinforced racial injustices and barriers. But the statement declares that the organisation is now doing different: “We support Black Lives Matter and the protesters who are seeking justice for centuries of white supremacy and police brutality.” The organisation is also making some amends. The statement lays out a list of initial actions SFWA is taking to get rid of racial discrimination in its community and make itself more inclusive of and safer for Black writers. These actions include waiving membership fees for the next year for Black authors, funding Black science fiction and fantasy organisations and doing grant-related outreach to these types of organisations. The document also provides a list of Black science fiction and fantasy organisations to donate to.AmazingCon
“Amazing Stories Magazine” initiated its first virtual convention yesterday, June 12, via the Zoom video chat platform. The three-day convention runs through tomorrow. So far, the panels I’ve attended have been really informative and interesting with a lot of great discussion between panelists and attendees. However, there were some setbacks. According to an email from the magasine’s editor, Ira Nayman, the con started with some technical difficulties. Perhaps worse yet, two of yesterday’s panels were disrupted by pranksters--also known as online trolls or, in the case of Zoom, “Zoombombers”--who interjected obscene, senseless and even threatening language in text and audio format. The online intruders also posted irrelevant photos and apparently live video recordings of what seemed to be Zoom users who were not in the panel. These photos and videos, however, did not contain obscene or objectionable content nor did the people in the videos appear to be contributing to the trolling.The panels disrupted were one at 1 pm EST on pitching stories and the other at 5 pm (EST) on pulp heroes. Unfortunately, the first instance occurred just as the panel was starting which had to end right away because of the trolling. The second instance did not occur until about five minutes before the panel was supposed to end. It just interrupted one of the panelists’ answers to a question yours truly asked during the Q&A session and so basically the question never got answered.
Because AmazingCon only allowed for pre-registration it is not open for registration during the event. However, according to “Amazing Stories” publisher Steve Davidson in an email, there are plans to post video recordings of the con on the publication’s YouTube channel (which, according to the magasine’s website, is not yet live).
I’ll have more details about AmazingCon next week. Do you think SFWA has a sufficient plan in supporting Black Lives Matter and the push to end racism in the science fiction and fantasy community? Have you attended any virtual cons lately?
Until next time . . .
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