Tag: people of color

Animation, Anime

The VO Actors of Global Majority You Need to Know: Ryan Colt Levy

Edward Hong

Over the past three years, I’ve encountered some truly remarkable voiceover actors from the PGM (People Of Global Majority) community, so remarkable that I thought it would be a worthwhile endeavor to dedicate an article about themselves, their accomplishments, and where you can find them and do so every week. When will this end? Most likely never so as I cackle at the infinite posts this may generate, I am so very happy to tell you all that my spotlight for this week is on Ryan Colt Levy! (Banner design once again done by the incredible VO artist/graphic designer Belsheber Rusape Jr.)

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Animation, Anime

The VO Actors of Global Majority You Need to Know: Emi Lo

Edward Hong

Over the past three years, I’ve encountered some truly remarkable voiceover actors from the PGM (People Of Global Majority) community, so remarkable that I thought it would be a worthwhile endeavor to dedicate an article about themselves, their accomplishments, and where you can find them and do so every week. For this week, my spotlight is on Emi Lo! (Banner design by the incredible VO artist/graphic designer Belsheber Rusape Jr.)

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Interview, Movies, Television

Culture House’s Raeshem Nijhon Talks About the Importance of Representation

Jamal Michel

The last several years have seen numerous fallouts from Hollywood industry titans with regard to representation and the arts. NBC cancelling the 2022 Golden Globes amid the problems the HFPA essentially created for itself is a reminder of the strides still to be had for the industry. Enter Raeshem Nijhon, executive producer and founder at Culture House, a black, brown, and women-owned premium film and TV production company.

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Comics, Hard N.O.C. Life

Bonus Hard NOC Life | Drawing Marvel: Representation in Pop Culture, Presented by Scholastic

Hard NOC Media

Hard NOC Life is still on hiatus; however, we have an exciting bonus episode to bring you!

Last week, Keith was asked to moderate a panel as part of Scholastic’s “Power of Story” speaker series. Two artists, Eric Wilkerson and Pablo Leon, speak about the important of representation in comics and children’s lit. You can also watch the original panel on Scholastic’s YouTube channel and Facebook.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Music, Streaming, Theatre1 Comment

Bonus Hard NOC Life: ‘Hamilton’ as Fan Fiction (from 2016)

Hard NOC Media

Hard NOC Life will go on a brief hiatus as we prepare for our landmark 200th episode.

But since today is the premiere of Hamilton on Disney+, we’re re-sharing this panel from November 2016 as a bonus episode of the podcast. You can find the original post here.

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Comics, Literature1 Comment

Q Is For Queer Speculative Fiction

Dennis R. Upkins

Originally published on The Future Fire

As a writer, storyteller, and a queer person of color, it goes without saying that diversity and inclusion is very important to me.

Anyone who’s known me for five seconds is aware of the fact that I’m a rabid comic book fan. It’s modern day mythology and as a writer and an artist, this medium especially appeals to me for obvious reasons. Watching beautiful muscular men is a pastime that I can live with.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Poetry, Sci Fi2 Comments

Bryan Thao Worra on Lao Science Fiction (From CTRL+ALT)

The Nerds of Color

In our final live edition of Hard NOC Life from the NOC Reading Lounge at CTRL+ALT — the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s pop-up culture lab in the former Pear River Mart location in SoHo, award-winning poet Bryan Thao Worra discusses the literature of the Laotian diaspora and explains why the Asian American literay canon needs more speculative fiction.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Music, Theatre

History as Fan Fiction: A CTRL+ALT Panel on ‘Hamilton’

The Nerds of Color

Back in November, we recorded a live edition of Hard NOC Life from the NOC Reading Lounge at CTRL+ALT — the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s pop-up culture lab in the former Pearl River Mart location in SoHo. Hamilton superfans Constance Gibbs, Kendra James, and Kevin T. Morales joined Keith to nerd out over the smash Broadway hit musical Hamilton.

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Podcasts, Tech2 Comments

#SupportPOCpods: An Open Letter From Podcasters of Color

Shaun

In the aftermath of the United States’ 2016 presidential election, many white Americans are asking how a candidate so inexorably tied to white supremacy was able to secure a seat as the leader of the free world.

People of color in the United States, however, are somewhat less surprised. We’ve seen, felt, and suffered under white supremacy as long as we’ve been alive.

Discussions examining the conditions resulting in the President-elect’s ascension have largely been variations on a limited set of themes, and are often confined to the world of political machinery. Was it the relative political weakness of his opponent? The failure of mainstream media to do its job?

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Movies, Star Wars4 Comments

Rogue One Might be the Best Star Wars Ever

Keith Chow

As we inch closer to the release of the first chapter of the Star Wars saga outside of the “Episodes,” everything we’re seeing about Rogue One has us feeling that it just might be the best film in the franchise. We’ve already lauded how diverse it is and profiled the film’s POC characters, but now that the final trailer and one-sheet have been released, December 16 can’t get here fast enough!

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Marvel, Movies65 Comments

X-Men Apocalypse: Fox Wins But People of Color Lose

Valerie Complex

Don’t expect this movie to rely heavily on the source material. Director Bryan Singer presents a film that’s a hodge-podge of various stories made up by people who know nothing about the X-Men. Aside from Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Apocalypse (Oscar Issac, doing well with whatever the hell he is given) being mildly entertaining, they can’t save the film from imploding. Everyone else is either used as filler or bores you to death with their on-screen presence. Choppy action scenes are put in place to mask the uninteresting, underdeveloped characters, cheesy dialogue, Playstation 2-quality special effects, and makeup that looks like it was bought from the bargain bin at Chapel Hill Beauty Supply. The worst part is the newcomers don’t get their chance to shine like the trailer would have you believe. Particularly the characters of color.

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Fantasy38 Comments

Going Medieval

Dennis R. Upkins

I’m always amazed at how many people are so quick to argue that people of color did not exist in Europe during medieval times or that black people, for instance, weren’t around during the Greek and Roman eras. And to include said PoCs during such time periods would be unrealistic and another example of shoving a PC agenda down our throats OH-EM-GEE.

This usually comes up in medieval fantasy stories. Like say for instance, Guinevere in BBC’s Merlin. Actress Angel Coulby caught heat for daring to be a beautiful powerful black queen.

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Marvel, Television4 Comments

Diversify Cast Regulars on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

A.L. Baroza

Warning:  spoilers for season two of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., including the season finale, are included.

In my earlier post about Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the agonizingly long list of characters of color who have been either killed off, turned evil or left physically mutilated illustrated the series’ awkward reliance on negative racially-coded tropes.  Now that the season is over, let’s finish that list, shall we?

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Literature, Sci Fi2 Comments
Illustration by John Jennings

An Update to the Brood

Walidah Imarisha

We know it has been a while since you have received an update about the visionary sci-fi anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction From Social Justice Movements.

That is because we have been involved in a transition and re-evaluation phase. It’s the end of that phase, and we are so happy to be able to officially announce two incredible things: 1) the final list of contributors to the project, and 2) that AK Press (in conjunction with the Institute for Anarchist Studies) will publish Octavia’s Brood!

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Literature, Sci Fi

Octavia’s Brood is Touring the Northwest

Walidah Imarisha

ImageA few months ago, I wrote a piece for Nerds of Color called Growing Octavia’s Brood: The Science Fiction Social Justice Created. It focused on the genesis of the anthology, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements, an upcoming collection of sci fi short stories written by organizers and activists.

We are excited to announce we will be doing a Northwest Tour at the end of February! Though Octavia’s Brood won’t be out until the summer, my co-editor adrienne maree brown and I are excited to do a series of readings, writing workshops, organizing workshops, and presentations based on Octavia Butler, science fiction, social change, and the anthology.

Read on for details about each stop on the tour!

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