A Celebration of the Fantastic Nerd in You!

WHAT:

The first annual BLERD CITY Con will hit New York City’s historic neighborhood and Silicon Valley East, DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.) Saturday, July 29 and Sunday, July 30, 2017.

BLERD CITY’s mission is to provide the Black community with substantial connections to talented and cutting-edge professionals in the craft of positive image making.

BLERD CITY, Black + Nerd = Blerd, a conference dedicated to showcasing the complexity and multi-dimension of NERDiness through Art, Science, Film, Literature, and Technology.  The conference includes panels, workshops, film screenings, and a marketplace. The BLERD CITY marketplace will feature a mixture of curated gaming and comic books, and a children’s area for science and technology exploration.

BLERD CITY panels and workshops (list in formation) include:

Saturday, July 29, 2017

• Women In Comics

• Martial Arts and the Urban Landscape

• Afropast and Afrofuture

• Imprisonment from Birth to Death

• Spotlight: Cosplay Interaction

• Artist Spotlight:  Tim Fielder and Jim Fielder

• Coders & Writers

• #BlerdFoodJustice

• SciFi/Fantasy/Horror: Session 1

• SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Film Screenings

• Children’s Area

Sunday, July 30, 2017

• Consequential Voting

• #BlerdOut: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

• Manga

• Indy Explosive Comic Books

• Award Ceremony:  L.A. Banks Tribute

• AfroCrowd: Bringing the Digital Footprints of the African Diaspora with Wikipedia

• #BlerdDating

• SciFi/Fantasy/Horror:  Session 2

• Betting Big: Tech and Business

• SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Film Screenings

• Children’s Area

WHO:

To date, a number of internationally renowned and critically-acclaimed Blerds have committed to presenting at BLERD CITY including:

• Tim Fielder, graphic artist, cartoonist, and animator, Afrofuturism The Next Generation, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/fashion/afrofuturism-the-next-generation.hml?_r=0

• Nicole Franklin, CBS Sunday Morning Daytime Entertainment Emmy® Award winning editor, filmmaker, and co-producer and co-moderator of the weekly Monday night Twitter series #BlerdDating, http://www.nicolefranklin.com/

• Warrington Hudlin, dvRepublic, veteran producer of film, television, and online media, https://japanesemartialartscenter.com/learnmore/warrington-hudlin-interview

• Sheree Renée Thomas, award-winning fiction writer, editor, and poet, work includes Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora and Dark Matter: Reading the Bones, http://www.aqueductpress.com/authors/ShereeThomas.php

• Floyd Webb, award-winning filmmaker and groundbreaking film festival producer, http://floydwebb.com/about

• Regine Sawyer, coordinator and founder of Women In Comics NYC Collective International, https://www.womenincomicscollective.org

BLERD City Con’s founder and executive producer, Clairesa Clay, has taught English in the New York City Department of Education for nearly 20 years. During this time, she has also served in a variety of capacities and worked with a number of academic institutions and literary and art organizations including: New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs (A Is for Anansi: Literature for Children of African Descent conference), the Organization of Women Writers of Africa (Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization conference), and the Harlem Art Alliance (Kwanzaa at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.)

See Also

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Exploring the Ties Between Native Americans and Black Americans

Clay co-founded and curated Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series (Reel Sisters) for 11 years; founded The Luminal Theater summer microcinema pop-up in 2015; and, most recently, she curated documentaries focusing on current issues affecting the African-American community for CeeCee’s Film Salon. Clairesa is an award-winning poet, filmmaker, and sculptor and currently serves on the board of advisors for Reel Sisters and on the board of directors of ImageNation Cinema Foundation.

WHERE:

• The Dumbo Spot, 160 Water Street​

• Green Desk, 155 Water Street

• Creative Chaos, 28 Jay Street

• Automatic Studios, 52 Bridge Street

• Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Empire Fulton Ferry (Near Main Street)

PRICES:

$28: One-Day BLERD Pass

$45: Two-Day BLERD Pass

$33: One-Day BLERD Family Fun Pass

For more information about BLERD CITY or to register, please visit https://www.blerdcityconference.com/.