LineCon, I mean, Anime Expo, is now upon us this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center and here’s a snippet of the things we are most excited about! From the countless activities, events, panels, and concerts that you can attend and all the endless artists & vendors you can support, there’s something for all the anime lovers guaranteed to swarm the halls:
Continue reading “Anime Expo 2023 Fever is Upon Us”
A magical time is approaching! In February, Black Nerds Create is hosting their sixth annual Black Magical History Month (formerly Black Wizard History Month). The event is a month-long celebration of Black magical stories, characters, and fans.
Continue reading “Get Ready for Black Magical History Month 2023”
Creating an influential and resonating documentary that digs into the heart of cosplay and Geekdom from a Black perspective as her first film wasn’t exactly Cheyenne Ewulu’s plan to begin with. What was supposed to be more of an artistic catharsis to express the frustration with racism and lack of awareness she noticed in the community she called home, became a beacon for Black cosplayers to find hope and admiration in their work.
Continue reading “Cheyenne Ewulu on ‘Shades of Cosplay’ and Artistic Expression”
Cosplay is an enigma to me. The act of dressing up as one’s favorite character to an almost identical degree shows a mastery of craft-making, make-up, and acting that is rarely discussed in other mediums. Being a fan of a show or a character is no longer a passive experience when you cosplay, it becomes an active response to the work that inspires you.
Continue reading “‘Shades of Cosplay’ Makes Me Want to Cosplay”
Film director Cheyenne Ewulu directed the 2015 documentary Shades of Cosplay about four Black cosplayers and their experiences during the 2015 Anime-Matusuri convention. Using her background as a cosplayer, Ewulu weaves a story that interacts with the world of cosplay and its issues of racism and inclusiveness in the space. Now in the year 2022, the film is being released online for the first time on February 4, 2022 — to celebrate Black History Month.
Continue reading “‘Shades of Cosplay’ Brings the Black Cosplay Experience Front and Center”
Animator and cosplayer Vishavjit Singh has experienced tremendous trauma in his life. He survived a genocide against Sikh people in India as a young boy, and after he and his family fled to the US, he’s constantly experienced racism and Islamophobia (despite not being Muslim) in the pre- and post-9/11 era. Despite all of this, he remains an optimist for people to treat each other better, and found through his regular cosplaying as Captain America that he could somehow achieve that. But what drew him to this initially?
Continue reading “Why this ‘American Sikh’ Cosplays as Captain America”
This year, The Nerds of Color has got your back on everything Anime Expo Lite! Be sure you’re tuned in on the program’s website to watch the online press conferences, and keep our tab open to catch live updates. This year, the expo is focusing on amplifying AAPI voices, as well as combating racialized violence with ticket proceeds going to Hate Is A Virus, a nonprofit community of mobilizers and amplifiers to dismantle racism and hate.
Continue reading “2021 Anime Expo Lite Live Updates”
Upon its announcement the DC FanDome experience was going to showcase four separate rooms to explore and a full schedule of DC fan experiences that users could choose from to create a customized itinerary. However, as you can see from the incredible Hall of Heroes event itself two weeks ago, there was just too much awesome to contain to one day.
So on September 12, for 24 hours, get ready to return to the FanDome, to explore the multiverse!
Continue reading “DC FanDome: Get Ready to Explore the Multiverse”
From Comic-Con at Home to DC FanDome, on Hard NOC Life, Dominic and Keith discuss the transition to a virtual con season this summer.
This week the folks at DC and WB unveiled the first poster for Birds of Prey! The film brings back Margot Robbie in her iconic portrayal of Harley Quinn, but also brings a plethora of amazing actresses into the DC Extended Universe, such as Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett as Black Canary, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, and Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya!
Continue reading “DC and WB Unveil Colorful New ‘Birds of Prey’ Poster!”
We held our second annual “Rally For Rose” during San Diego Comic-Con on July 20. Even though we were competing with Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel, we were able to turn out several supporters and raise some money for both Alliance San Diego and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. The rally — which, this year, consisted of a march (or a “Rose Parade,” if you will) that started at the IMDboat and made its way to the Hilton Bayfront and was covered by Variety and NPR. All the while drawing attention to the importance of representation for all marginalized communities.
More sights and snikts from the extraordinarily eventful San Diego Comic-Con 2019 (The 50th edition of SDCC!) Check out earlier coverage here and here!
We’ll get into the big reveals from SDCC50 on our podcast; we have plenty of time to contemplate the new Picard series, the Top Gun sequel (Miramar is right there in San Diego, after all), The CW’s Crisis crossover, the multiverse of announcements from Marvel in Hall H. For now, we’re still feeling the sunny afterglow from the melting pot of fandoms, cosplayers, and creative folk who make Comic-Con International such a special gathering, particularly so on this week when our Supervillain-In-Chief was yelling bigotry at POCs to “go back where they came from.” What can I say, fool: We’re from here.
Continue reading “Into The SDCC-Cosplay-Verse With The NOC, Part II”
2019 has been full of terrible happenings and counter-happenings, but here we are now at the 50th San Diego Comic-Con! (Or #SDCC19, if you’re into the brevity thing.) Perhaps owing to the superlatively non-racist good vibes induced by Into The … Continue reading Into The San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay-Verse, Part I (2019 Edition)
It’s the first week of July and for the third time in a row, my fellow NOC writer Josephine Chang and myself will be back in the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center among thousands of others (last year had 110,000 attendees) from July 4 to July 7!
This year marks the 50th anniversary of San Diego Comic-Con, and the one-year anniversary since a crowd of Rose Tico cosplayers gathered at Bayfront Park to show their support for Kelly Marie Tran. And we’re doing it all over again! This time, we’re planning to march in a “Rose Parade” from the Convention Center to the NOC Meetup at the Hilton on Saturday, July 20. Let us know you’ll be part of the parade on Facebook!
Continue reading “Join the #RoseParade at San Diego Comic-Con 2019”
Admit it. You’ve wanted to join the X-Men since you were a kid! You’ve wanted the cool powers, the costumes, and the chance to be X-Traordinary (not that you’re not now, everyone’s special — but like, I mean superpowers special, dude)! Well now’s your chance to rock your X-Men best and party like a mutant!
Continue reading “Calling LA NOCs: Join Us for a ‘Dark Phoenix’ Party”
Who needs Halloween when you can go to Los Angeles Comic Con for three days in a row and indulge in all the spoopy cosplay goodness surrounded by all the fandoms you know and love? There’s no place like Los Angeles Comic Con (formerly and fondly remembered as Comikaze, may you rest in pieces) during this time of year where people converge to bring out their best to help end the year of conventions. Come join LACC as it celebrates its 8th anniversary!
Curious as to what there is to check out at this ever expanding convention? Here are some highlights that may pique your interest!
Here are some words about the upcoming CosGala from YouTuber and founder of Gamer’s Guide, Jemarc Axinto:
Southern Fried Asian’s month-long series of food episodes continues with a special Comic-Con conversation with nutrition specialist, and North Carolina native, Dr. Benjamin Ha!
This weekend during Comic-Con International in San Diego, nearly 40 people gathered in cosplay and Rose Tico t-shirts outside the Hilton Bayfront for the first ever “Rally For Rose,” including folks such as author C.B. Lee and Marvel’s New Warriors actress Kate Comer. Our Rally even got the attention of several media outlets like CNET, Rolling Stone, Nerdist, Business Insider, and the Los Angeles Times, to name a few. Oh, and the Rally got tweeted by Rian Johnson and Mark Hamill.
Okay, folks. We’re hurtling towards San Diego Comic-Con this week. Sadly, I can’t make it this year, but as Keith Chow said on the Hard NOC Life Podcast, I’ll be there in spirit.
Many of us have felt the sting of Star Wars whineboys, Tump’s obvious treasonous behavior, the #comicsgate and #gamergate travesties; waiting for a refund from Universal FanCon, or genuinely feel let down by nerd culture. I get it. Trust me. But this weekend should be a time for celebration, connecting with old friends, making new friends, and having fun. Yes! Remember when this stuff was fun?
It goes without saying that we are huge fans of Rose Tico and Kelly Marie Tran here at The Nerds of Color. Unfortunately, there’s a significant portion of Star Wars fandom that doesn’t agree. Even worse, they’ve taken their disdain for a fictional character and used it to harass the actress so much that she had to delete her Instagram.
Continue reading “Rally for Rose Tico at San Diego Comic-Con”
Anime Expo, one of my favorite conventions of the year has come around again and I can’t wait to share the cool things I look forward to doing there with you all! With my writing partner Josephine Chang we’ll be attending for all of the days from July 5 to July 8 so here are the highlights you should most definitely check out:
Continue reading “What To Do For Anime Expo 2018!”
