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This Is What A Geek Looks Like

Arianna Coghill | September 16, 2019

Topics: anime, black youth, bryanda law, crystal healing, Culture, geek, gender, larissa orakunda, lauren grant, LGBTQ, lgbtqia, lizzo, megan thee stallion, my hero academia, nerd, people of color, quirktastic, race, Sailor Moon, woman of color

The creatives behind Quirktastic grew up without a space for black youth in nerd culture… so they made their own. 

“You’re not really the right race to dress up as that character.”

“You don’t really look like a geek.”

“Are you pretending just for guys’ attention?”

Lauren Grant has heard everything in the book. But together with Bryanda Law and Larissa Orakunda, she’s cultivated an inclusive space for geeks, nerds, and weirdos to freely be themselves with no judgement.

Quirktastic is a website dedicated to all things alternative, featuring articles, videos and quizzes on everything from anime to crystal healing. Beginning as a blog in 2014, Quirktastic has grown into a full fledged, LA-based media company.

Law’s goal when creating Quirktastic was to make an outlet that people wished existed when they were growing up quirky, alternative, and black.

Quirktastic team. LEFT: Chief Content Officer Lauren Grant. CENTER: Founder + CEO Bryanda Law. RIGHT: Editor-In-Chief Larissa Irankunda.

“There was no other site dedicated to creating black-business lists that cater to quirky black women, or anyone writing love letters to black men who play with LEGOs,” Law stated in a 2017 interview. “I wanted to be that site.”

Grant, a VCU Broadcast Journalism alum, joined the team in 2017, two days after leaving the worst job of her life. One of her best friends tweeted her Quirktastic’s call for writers. When she saw the website, it was love at first click.

“When I clicked on the website, I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of Quirktastic before!” says Grant. “Quirky black girls like myself were writing pieces that related to me, pieces I actually wanted to read not only from the perspective of a nerd, but from the perspective of being a woman of color.”

Grant has moved through the ranks and is now the Chief Content Officer of Quirktastic, producing all of their video and podcast content.

Grant has always known life as a geek. She first remembers getting into the culture at about seven years old, when her childhood friend Amanda introduced her to Sailor Moon, a popular Japanese cartoon and comic book about a group of magical teenage girls saving the Universe.

However, largely due to her gender and race, many people have looked at her interest with an air of skepticism.

“I wish I could say that it’s stopped, but even as someone who has worked in a geeky space for years, I still am hearing, ‘You don’t look like a geek.’” 

Photo via Quirktastic Quizzes

Even black female celebrities have recently come under fire for their interest in nerd culture. Rapper and singer Lizzo dressed as Sailor Moon for a concert. Megan thee Stallion did a photoshoot for Paper magazine as Todoroki, a character from the anime My Hero Academia, and has multiple mentions of anime in her lyrics.

Both celebrities, especially Megan thee Stallion, were accused of faking their interest in order to chase “clout” and exploit “real anime fans.”

This strict gatekeeping has been one of the greatest hurdles that the Quirktastic team has tried to overcome since relocating to LA. During many investor meetings and networking events, they keep hearing, “Well, you don’t really look like geeks.”

Quirktastic has made strides in creating a community for those who feel ostracized. With the creation of a friendship app and the hashtag #thisiswhatageeklookslike, the Quirk community has a strong emphasis on inclusivity.

“We give everyone a chance to shine, especially women, people of color, and the LGBTQIA+ community — but our platform doesn’t just cater to minorities like ourselves,” said Grant. “We don’t care who comes into our nerdy space, as long as you come in with empathy and respect… and often that’s all anyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, wants.”

When it comes to advice for young black nerds who might feel alienated, Grant has plenty.

“Find your tribe! Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you don’t belong in this space. There’s room for all types of geeks! YOU are what a geek looks like!” 

Top Photo via Quirktastic

TheatreLAB’s Deep Comedy Topdog/Underdog Highlights Brotherhood and the Past

Jo Rozycki | May 17, 2018

Topics: Brotherhood, comedy, Pulitzer Prize for Drama, race, Theatrelab

Two black brothers, one named Lincoln, the other named Booth.No, you did not read that incorrectly. Yes, the irony is purposeful.

TheatreLAB, home of “unexpected and evocative performance,” is at it again with another unforgettable piece. Finishing off their 2017/2018 season entitled “Picking Sides,” the award-winning Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks revolves around brothers Lincoln and Booth, their struggle with their past and the subsequent hardships that affect their future, as well as grappling with all-to-familiar scuffles with family and brotherhood.

With their father giving them the most ironic names as a mere joke, Lincoln and Booth struggle to make the most of their lives with the chips stacked against them. Lincoln, played by the powerful Jeremy V. Morris, is attempting to leave his successful career hustling three-card Monte behind him. In order to leave his hustling days behind him, Lincoln seeks out a more respectable job portraying his namesake in an arcade. Lincoln’s past haunts him as his younger brother, Booth, begs him to teach him the ways of three-card Monte. Lincoln desperately wishes to leave his past behind him and continue on the straight and narrow, but as everyone knows, it’s hard to leave your past behind. The symbol of the card is not just drawn from the hand of Lincoln. It’s also in the way these two brothers handle the cards they’re dealt with in the game of life.

Photo by Tom Topinka

Director Katrinah Lewis, associate artistic director of TheatreLAB, acknowledged the complicated layers that overlap one another thematically within this show. When asked whether this would be considered a “race play,” Lewis thoughtfully said, “I think that race is always a motif because of who we are and our culture and because race is so important in America.” The choice of making the two main characters black highlights the universal yet important paths that result for people. “They’re two black men in America that are trying to live with all of the given circumstances of what that means,” said Lewis.

Lewis, Morris, and Jones are all familiar with one another since their day jobs bring them together as actors in Colonial Williamsburg. “We come to this process with a level of trust and understanding. In a two-person show, the chemistry between the two people onstage is so important. It was there before we even started.” The amount of affection she spoke with regarding the two actors was infectious. “[Jamar is] very funny and polished and graceful. His intellect is flowing through him in a very eloquent way all the time. It’s very similar with Jeremy. He’s just transforming in this piece.”

Photo by Tom Topinka

Winning a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Outer Critics Circle Award in 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks marked her name in the book of modern American classics. “It’s so beautifully crafted the way these themes come out. The language is so rich and alive,” said Lewis. “It’s done so poetically. It’s finding the poetry and the music in that mode of communication. It’s funny and it’s poignant.” Lewis mentioned how Parks imagined all of the productions that would play around the world and the importance of two black male artists “coming together to work this thing out.”

Admittedly, this is a hard show to nail down. “ I don’t know that it’s a play about race,” said Lewis. “At the end of her introduction, Parks says, ‘This is a play about family wounds and healing. Welcome to the family.’ So it’s not a race play. It’s a play about brothers who are black and whose circumstances are, for lack of a better word, colored by the fact that they’re African American, but it’s really about family and family wounds and attempting to escape the past or attempting to make your life better.” With resentment, childhood trauma, and sibling rivalry at the epicenter of this comical yet cogent play, audiences are sure to leave the theatre feeling the impact of this performance. The given circumstances of these two men, as bizarre as they are, set up, as Lewis said, “the framework for these themes that are themes that we see in a lot of different plays.”

This is a show you do not want to miss. The opening preview for Topdog/Underdog is May 24, opening May 25. Get your tickets and more information here.

Opinion: Things All White People Need To Hear

Chelsea Higgs Wise | December 8, 2017

Topics: Black People, Blackness, Conversation, Dialogue, Lens, Lived Experience, race, White People, Whiteness

It’s a daily process, measuring my capacity for whiteness. It’s a self-exercise for a black woman but also determines where I place my energy for the day.

While assessing myself and my capacity, I start the morning with the social media scroll before I become engulfed in a toddler routine. As I sip caffeine and review my timeline, I notice rarely a day goes by where I don’t see someone being triggered by conversations about race.

I attempt to surround myself with people of all backgrounds who have the best intentions. Yet, even when the race conversation is rooted in positivity, I notice a theme with my white associates. The theme is white people’s overwhelming under awareness of the off-putting messages they send to black people. These messages can be delivered as words, non-verbals, tones, laughs, choice of wording, and historical references that you don’t realize are racist as fuck. If you’re interacting you’re sending a message, and that message could be felt as aggressive to black people. It seems that more work should be done to ensure that white people’s intended message is received by black folks – especially in this day and age.

Because of this, I have started to wonder why those who have the same goal of progress continue to fail miserably at these discussions. Perhaps it is because white people have yet to assess their own capacity for blackness. Even just having a white person say “black” when referring to a person without a facial twitch is truly impressive. As a result, I can only assume that making space for blackness is not a thing for most white people.

This discussion can obviously be applied to any population. But for the time being, I’m using what I know growing up as a biracial black female in the suburbs of Chesterfield County. I will not claim that my experience makes me a white people expert, but what I can do is speak to my own exposure.

This exposure will include the obvious fried chicken jokes, the natural hair being “interesting” compliments (eye roll), right down to the offensive messages that I know – in my heart – that white people don’t even hear themselves say. For example, when white people talk about race, I often hear phrases like, “I tried to get on their level” in order to communicate. We use this same phrase with children and it implies that a white person is superior – being encouraged to “dumb it down” – to reach a black person – like adults do with children.

I know, you white people don’t mean it that way. You never do. We (the biracial coalition) believe you. But when you’re preparing to talk to a black person, don’t feel like you must change your speech to communicate with us, but rather change your lens.

Let’s chat about where that lens comes from.

When you see the “***” it means to stop, check your white defense button and remember, the discussion could be applied to many groups of people. But right now we’re just talking to you – white people.

So here is the conversation white people need to hear:

Why so mad? That’s the running joke with black people. What in the world could you (wypipo) possibly be mad about? In fairness, plenty. Everyone has a reason to be mad at the system because, in 2017, we’re all targets. If you’re not in control of the powers that be, or, if you don’t fall into the category of a historically-included heterosexual affluent white man, you’re fucked. So yes, I’m entering into this conversation to admit that I understand there is plenty for white people to be mad at (enter another disclaimer to prepare for white guilt, fragility, and overall defensiveness that the following may trigger).

Along with growing up around middle-class white people, I also am a trained clinical social worker. This means I am skilled to point out people’s lack of awareness. It’s a gift, you’re welcome. But that’s the point. While in school, I traveled a very complicated journey inside my head to develop my awareness of self. And holy shit, I got my own kick in the ass regarding what I didn’t know when it came time for me to look at race.

So, when white people ask general questions when talking to black folks, I coach them through a self-inventory checklist to evaluate their “Black Folk Lens.” 

Checking one’s inventory starts by identifying your “firsts” when it comes to experiencing “blackness” or Black Culture. Reflecting on what has shaped our view of blackness creates teachable moments for us to chew on, but it’s also a necessary step if we’re committed to bridging the missed communications. As much as I want to use my biracial clinical social worker superpowers to translate, it is impossible to talk to white people about black people until white people have awareness of their own biases.

As an example, the Editorial Director of this magazine and I were discussing different experiences and he said to me, “anecdotally, I don’t think most white people are inherently racist outside of the structures of racism that are handed down generationally.” Let’s take this as a baseline theory since I do respect this man and most white people who claim to be progressive seem to have adopted this way of thinking. (I too don’t mind it. Its [a] little too butterflies-and-rainbows for a person of color to identify with, but sure). However, with this theory, in order for a regular white person living in the Fan to chat it up with a regular black person living in Jackson Ward, that same white person will have to know what kinds of structures and institutions have influenced their specific lens as, you guessed it, a white person.***

A white person should start with identifying which specific institutions they have been exposed to. From there, whether that rhetoric and experience has been positive or negative, they can then dissect their person-centered Black Folk Lens. Once this lens becomes clearer, then perhaps our conversations won’t trigger as many eye rolls for black people.

My hope for white people is to learn what messages are being sent in the eyes of your audience, especially when speaking with black folks. Your tone, your facial expression, your silence, and your entitlement*** are all communicating behavior to black folks that is historically traumatizing. If the “cool pose” is part of black culture; defined by the internets as a tough, fearless, and aloof attitude said to be adopted by black men as a coping mechanism to deal with racial oppression; then “dismissive mouth” is what I see white people project. This would translate as an elitist, cocky, indifferent attitude adopted by wypipo as a coping mechanism to ignore their contribution to racial oppression.

Black people in America and across the world are filled with resilience, and have learned to cope in ways that are labeled in 2017 as intimidating and criminal. As white people start to feel the ridiculousness of society and appear to be in a meltdown; I, as a black woman, want to say “Welcome to my lens.” Black folks continue to pick themselves up by their bootstraps while the system is also stepping on the shoestrings. Black folks have an experience unlike any other in America and deserve the effort of white people to check their lens, and create a chance for a better dialogue. Diversity of thought can be beautiful, but instead, it often ends up in a very long, heated argument on social media.

While I encourage the social media conversations, we have a chance to improve how we feel once we put down our phones, but we must first examine our perceptions of race. From there, we can walk away believing in humanity again. It’s a transformative thought, but not impossible. Together we can assess our own capacity for difference before we attempt to translate each other’s experience. We can build a space that’s safe, a place of listening, learning, and overall, just not being annoying.  

 

VA fitness organization to hold inaugural Growler Team Relay event along VA Capital Trail in October

Amy David | August 26, 2016

Topics: race, relay, run, rva outdoors, triple crossing, VA Beer Company, Virginia Capital Trail, Williamburg

One Virginia fitness promotion company is looking to give runners and craft beer lovers alike a chance to get out and be active, drink beer, play games and meet new people.
[Read more…] about VA fitness organization to hold inaugural Growler Team Relay event along VA Capital Trail in October

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