Con or Bust!

[oyceter]

con_or_bust is still going, and bidding closes on Sunday Feb. 26. And, more excitingly, they are trying to raise more this year because they are widening the scope to send fen of color to all fannish SFF cons, not just Wiscon! This potentially includes non-USian fans and non-USian cons!

Also, there is some really cool stuff up to bid on. I, alas, am going to be entirely selfish and only link to things I have been outbid on. But check out this gorgeous robot palm leaf engraving! And signed copies of a comic about beautiful women and monsters! (The Attack of the Alien Robotsaccount of how deepad got them for the auction is pretty awesome too.) Or tuckerization in the fourth Sarah Tolerance mystery!

I am offering a used Alex ereader. It is very lovely, and the only reason I am giving it up is because CB gave me a Nook Touch a few months ago.

And as to "Why help?" this is how Con or Bust has affected me.

The first time I went to Wiscon, it was 2006, and it was one of my first cons. It was smaller than Norwescon, the other one I had been to, where I think I was one of three Asians out of thousands of people. At Wiscon in 2006, maybe I was one of ten Asians out of a thousand, but I still felt out of place and very alone. I felt even worse when my friends and I started to talk about race and cultural appropriation online and clearly I was being racist! and gross! and prejudiced! to feel so out of place at Wiscon.

The next year, a few more fen of color went, people submitted more programming about race, and I felt a little less alone. And in 2009, after the first Con or Bust auction, there were so many fans of color that we couldn't fit in a single room for a small gathering, so many that there wasn't just one gathering or one event, so much that I felt okay not having to "represent" all the time. I met so many people from the online Racefail discussions. I got to hang out and rant about race and rant about things that had nothing to do with race with just fans of color, with fans of color and white fans, with white fans, and all combinations of the above. It was great because I finally had that choice, you know?

And in 2011, I had finished grad school and was sitting around unemployed, and Con or Bust gave me the chance to go back to Wiscon to hang out with friends I don't get to see otherwise, as well as a chance to meet even more people.

So that's why I'm pitching in.

And here are some other stories:
- deepad on expanding Con or Bust
- fantasyecho's experience

Comments

[dorothean]

I was almost sorry to outbid you on Kumari Loves a Monster, because I figured that if you won it, you would write about it for 50books_poc! But then, someone else outbid me...

I love the idea of Con or Bust, even though I haven't ever been to a convention, heh. Thanks for this post about it!

[oyceter]

Hee! I am sad to be outbid, but also happy because it makes Con or Bust more money!

[estara]

Did you see that Elizabeth Wein added a signed bookplate to my Code Name Verity offer *nudge nudge* ^^

[oyceter]

I did and I want it so!!!! I am so sad the bidding went out of my price range =(.

[lady_ganesh]

Thanks for the reminder, I'll go looking.

[oyceter]

Hope you find many awesome things!

[lady_ganesh]

I did! "Awesome things in my price range" was a slightly different story of course...I just got outbid on something and now I have to decide if I want to bid more. (I figure getting outbid isn't all bad, though, 'cause more money goes to the cause.)

[oyceter]

Ahaha, so sympathize re: price range!