I know I have been a bit spotty this month, but today’s post is, in part, the explanation of why. ^_^

First, I participated with my co-presenter Willow Nunez, on Yuri Cafe Anchor, at Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium. My very many thanks to Aurélie Petit and Megan Rose for all their hard work getting this together. There were three days of presentations, over multiple sessions, which tried to account for various time zones. Ultimately I as able to see many, but not all the presentations. The keynotes were outstanding and the presentations thought-provoking. They were all recorded, so hopefully you’ll all be able to watch at least some of them when they get posted. The link above is to the ticket site, but go ahead and checkout the presentations – really fascinating stuff.

In addition(!), Willow and I plan on working up our portions of the presentation into an article which I will hope gets published. If not by the journal I want to submit to, then it’ll go up on Okazu. ^_^ This symposium was handles in what I know now to be an academic fashion, with each presenter given about 15 minutes to present. So when those videos go up, they will be fun, short watches.

So, that was amazing and I really hope it continues. It was a fantastic symposium, with lots of great presenters. We need more of this perspective.

Also, April saw my return to in-person events for the first time since 2022. It’s still pretty stressful for me to be in a room with other people who are not masked. (Please be considerate of other people – at least if you are inside, wear a mask. I will be masking the rest of my life, because almost dying from Long COVID was not fun.)

Once the Sympoium was completed,  I hustled to get myself together for Rainbow Book Fair at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in New York City. I had not been back to that part of town in ages. It was nice to return for such a fantastic event. This is a free event, they only ask $3 dollars donation. I was part of the Queer Comix group with Rica Takashima, Jennifer Camper, Carlo Quispe and a pile of other amazing, fun, talented people.

It was…really nice. Everyone coming in had amazing stories, hair, clothes, attitudes, load of smiling faces and welcoming people. It was like a big warm hug of an event. Friends stopped by, which was lovely. Good to see you Anne, Mari, Hazel and Grace! And we made a ton of new friends, as well. ^_^

I was able to introduce Yuri to a bunch of people who had never heard of it, and folks who had were excited to see it represented, which was a definitely feel-good moment. At least one person who followed me on social media came by to get a copy of By Your Side: The First 100 Years Of Yuri Anime And Manga.

If you couldn’t make it to NYC, don’t worry, I’ll be doing a BYS Special with original prints by Rica of the cover art. Keep your eyes peeled for that. I have about a dozen books in the house and would love to clear them out. ^_^

Thank you so much Rica for tabling with me. It’s always fun to hang out with you. Rainbow Book Fair is a great place to experience a wide range of queer creativity. I’ll hope to see you there next year!

Life is getting weird and fun and complicated again, and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully I’ll see you at a future event. ^_^