I am staggered by how utterly Universal FanCon has failed us.
We here at ComicAttack.net feel let down, not simply as one of the many Kickstarter backers who had their rooms cancelled and plans upended but as a member of a burgeoning community of creators, journalists and fans of color who united behind the banner “#WeAreFancon” for the unifying potential it stood for. Universal FanCon was supposed to be something great, a meeting of a marginalized community to celebrate their fandom. However on the morning of April 20th when we were hit with news of Universal FanCon’s “postponement” via tweets from vendors who had their rooms surreptitiously cancelled, myself and the staff at ComicAttack.net were stunned. For the past 5 days I have been simultaneously sorting through the mess created by the organizers lack of transparency while helping staff amend travel plans and make alternative arrangements for the weekend the con was supposed to happen and I am absolutely exhausted by it all. The few statements that have come from the leadership of Universal FanCon have been sparse, confusing, and entirely inadequate and as one of the many affected by the mismanagement of this situation, I felt it was time to speak out on behalf of ComicAttack.net, our staff and our many affected readers.
We believed in the vision of what Universal FanCon was supposed to be. As members of a community that is often overlooked, under represented, and is frequently only acknowledged as an afterthought by some of the more traditional conventions in the country, we were excited to have our own space to celebrate our fandom. With the rising of other conventions created with diversity in mind such as Black Comic Book Festival, FlameCon in NYC, BlerdCon in DC, Texas Latino ComicCon in Dallas, as well as so many others we were excited to help a new convention grow. We, like so many of you, used the hashtags and did what we could to help get the word out about the event and were excited to celebrate our community in Baltimore on the 27th.
Yet on Friday April 20th when the news of the cancellation of Universal FanCon broke through the justifiably outraged social media posts from the community AND NOT FROM THE EVENT ORGANIZERS, I scrambled much like I imagine you all did, to see if there was some notice that I might have missed or some new information explaining what our next steps might be. To date all anyone outside the inner circle has received were apologies as worthless as the promises that preceded them. Since then it seems that the community has been left to their own devices and it does my heart good to know that the community has come through in a clutch. Online shops have been set up for vendors to sell merch, in order to help them recoup their financial losses from UniverasFanCon’s collapse, then WICOMICON pop-up, a pop culture convention pulled together in just 48 hours by Nerds of Color and Black Heroes Matter was created in order to make sure that the nerd community of Baltimore had an event where positive representation for people of color, LGBTQ, and disabled fans was at the forefront.
So if you will be in Baltimore this weekend due to the failure of Universal FanCon just know that a space has been made for you. Thanks again to The Nerds of Color and Black Heroes Matter and everyone else involved for doing this.
Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net
