ayA Con: Day 2

ayA Con day 2 was split between the McNichols Civic Center Building and the Denver Art Museum. After hitting up the dealer's rooms/artist allies one last time I headed over to the Art Museum to see some of the panels over there. This is a bit of a hike for those with health or mobility issues and you have to cut through the park or go way around. I choose to go through the park to try and save my back a little and was only approached by one drunk guy acting weird. Things like this is normal for downtown so you should be ready for it. At the same time as a woman walking by myself I didn't feel too unsafe since it was day time, but it would have been nice if there would have been some security or the such around. 

I grabbed breakfast/lunch in the museum's little café, because there had only been one food truck near by with limited food options. This area is a little bit of a food desert, so you have to be ready to pay high prices even in the café which is cheaper then the main restaurant. One of the cool things about your ticket to ayA Con is that you also get into the Art Museum for free, so between panels and events you can explore. After exploring for awhile I went to the table area that they had set up outside of the panel rooms. 

On one side they had some indigenous costumes that you could get up close to.

Several of the booths were giving away items. This table was also talking about a research project that the museum would be starting soon trying to see if there were any important sites to indigenous people in the Denver metro area that needs to be saved. They had just finished up on a similar Latinx project.

I was actually surprised to see Red Rocks Community College had a booth there where people could take free photos while the Community College of Denver (who is just down the road) was not there. This was a great way to advertise their graphic arts program and CCD lost out on a chance to get students. Good thing that the 'no competition between the community colleges' is now gone.

Other groups that were there, but not pictured, were The Native Rights Fund that was sharing their 2022 annual report and the Creative Nations Arts Collective. At the CNAC table I actually learned that Kristina Maldanado Badhand, the head of ayA Con is actually an artist herself.

Panel Shoutout:

Mapping Interior of Indigenous Horror Presented By Johnnie Jae

Description: An exploration and celebration of Indigenous Horror and its impact on pop culture.

Notes:

-Johnnie Jae is the founder of a tribe called Geek. She grew up loving horror and it is a large part of her life. One of her favorite horror characters is Michael Myers. 

-Indigenous horror started getting mainstream recognition in the early 2000s. It focuses a lot on trauma and spirituality. (Supernatural, land, and community).

-It looks at colonialism, genocide, and cultural erasure.  

-Redsploitation: Billy Jack was popular, but was very exploitative. Mainly started in the 1970s. Most of these movies are low budget and poorly made, but they still get large cult followings. They had lots of graphic violence on indigenous characters that did not always drive the plot forward. Even punchlines in films can trigger pain in those that have lived through events or were otherwise impacted by them. Important questions to think about is why were they putting these things into the films and what purpose do they serve?

-Recommended Books: My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones, Bad Cree by Jessica Johns, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina, and The Hatak Witches by Devon A. Mihesuah.

-Recommended Movies: Blood Quantum, The Smudging, The Deadlands, and Prey.

     ~Prey was one of the first movies to be released in both English and Comanche. It showed that natives had hygiene like brushing their teeth. The actors had to audition in both English an Comanche.

-Many movies will use classic tropes like Indian burial grounds and mystical Indian Shamans. 

-Some native practices can only be viewed through the Christian lens because it was Christian priests that would write native customs down and they used their biases to explain those customs.

-Movie horrors are a way to escape from real life horrors. 

-Johnie Jae can be found on Facebook @GrimNative and @officialjohnniejae and on Instagram @johnniejae

Overall Impressions: This was actually one of the best panels I have been too in my 30+ years of going to cons even with her having to do a digital presentation. If you ever get to see a panel by Johnnie Jae I would highly recommend it. The panel was not only educational, but also funny.

ayA Con Overall

Day 2 was my final day since I had other other things scheduled for day 3 of the con. Overall, I really liked the con. It was a great way to introduce people to another aspect of Geek culture that they may not have known about. Even though this was a geeky con it felt a little off to me. While thinking about it the thing that stood out to me is that I really didn't see any cosplayers and I think that is what made it feel a little off. People were wearing geeky gear, but that you can see anywhere now a days. Besides that I think that most con goers will find aspects that feel familiar to them and I would recommend that everyone check out this convention next year.