Five years ago, we were living in a world that seemed hard to recognize. So many people I cared about and respected, who had put up with poor treatment of various kinds throughout their lives just because of who they were or were not, were reacting to a culture that had declared open season on them. That declaration came all the way from the top.
Category: inclusion
We head out for Pennsic today. I’m excited to be doing the whole thing this year and camping on-site once more, even as I’m nervous about factors beyond our control that we never used to worry about (Covid, air quality).
And I’m excited to be doing my concert again, having opted not to stay for war week last year. Barring things we can’t prevent, I’ll be performing on the big stage for the first time in four years. So I wanted to do something special. Ambitious. Maybe a little crazy? (For someone who isn’t exactly made out of spare time.)
I decided to perform Hold the Door Open with a full voice cast for the four main characters. A representative voice cast, including performers who could demonstrate the diversity of sometimes marginalized experiences the song is about.
The weekend before last, the Second Ethereal Bardic Symposium happened, spearheaded by Hilla Stormbringer, the Bard of the Midlands in the Middle Kingdom, and staffed by some dedicated people.
This wonderful weekend of classes, performances, and conversations may well have unexpected consequences (which I will discuss with relish in an upcoming post). But Hilla also set up a round table panel discussion on Neurodiversity in the Bardic and SCA communities, which I was privileged to take part in.
The panel consisted of Hilla, myself, and Ruqayya bint Rabi’a al-Aliyya of Atlantia. It was not live-streamed, but we had good participation from interested parties, both Neurodivergent and Neurotypical, who attended on Zoom. We had the opportunity to get into some “real talk” about issues that come up in the Society, and in Bardic, for those of us who are Neurodivergent. The session is now available on YouTube if you wish to check it out:
Hi everyone. This continues to be a challenging time, and finding the energy and will to blog regularly is much heavier. And I’m pushing through that today, because there are some recent developments I think are worth taking the time to share.
Recently, I have made a significant change around my moderation duties on Facebook. After eight glorious years, I have handed over the reins of the SCA Bardic Arts group to my long-time co-moderator Aneleda Falconbridge, and recruited a new team of moderators to help keep the group thriving into the future (more on that below). I’ve done this to provide me time and space to focus on a new FB I’ve just launched, SCA Neurodiversity. The group has been operating for nearly 3 weeks, and I’m very pleased with the growth and the responses from new members.
There are issues that have been on my mind a lot for the last few years, and these issues have been thrust to the fore this past week. Some of what I have been grappling with:
- What does it mean to be a real ally?
- How can I see past my own privilege to better understand the lived experience of people who have been marginalized?
- What does it mean to truly include others whose experience is different from mine?
Drake Oranwood 