TEENAGERS!

[lydamorehouse]

 Today was the first of my volunteer stints with Q-Quest, the Saint Paul Public School's GSA (Gay/Straight Alliance) queer festival. It was exactly the unrestrained chaos I thought it would be? 

I suspected my topic might be popular. I decided to offer a workshop version of a class that I had a lot of success with at the Loft with teens called, "Capturing Kudos: Tips for Improving Your Fan Fic." 

There were well over 30 participants, some coming in in groups, others signally. I was supposed to have a volunteer host who would be helping me manage the chat and letting people in, but that person either didn't show or chose not to be of much help??  I'm going with the first, since it's kinder, but the chaos might have been slightly less if I wasn't doing introductions, while answering the flurry of beeps as more and more students joined the Google Meet. 

So, I mean I feel like it could have gone a little better? But, the fact that the group (did I mention--over 30 students!!??) were self-organizing a Discord for queer fans makes me figure I basically did a good, even if I lost control of the conversation really fairly early. Not that they really had to fight me for it? I asked students to unmute and talk amongst themselves and so they totally did. In fact one of the students decided to self-appoint themselves as moderator of their Fellow Youth (TM) and I stepped-back and let them. As I told them, this isn't a class; it's their time to make of it what they want. If they wanted to spend 45 minutes squeeing at each other about fandoms... GO!

And that's basically what they did and then they spontaneously organized themselves.  

It was actually fairly cool to watch? 

Tomorrow: Middle Schoolers.  I have slightly less faith that they will be as self-directed, but I can hope. if not, I have an actual power point presentation I can deploy. 

I feel deeply organized today, however, because not only did I prep and launch the chaos workshop, but I am also ready for my critique group tonight having read and commented on the two other people (besides myself) who are under the microscope tonight. Our new group finally decided on a name, too. We are now the Pen Dragons, which is a name I am sure others have thought of, but we're going with it for now. 

Oh, and then I also went off to the library to pick up a bunch of books I put on hold. In case you're wondering what's on my TBR pile, it is:

TROUBLE THE SAINTS  by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Tor)
THE MIDNIGHT BARGAIN  by C.L. Polk (Erewhon/Orbit UK)
MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey/Jo Fletcher UK)
THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga/Titan UK)
WHAT STRANGE PARADISE  by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)

I even started reading What Strange Paradise... WTH. Who even am I??  SO. ORGANIZED.

Now I just have to try to somehow stay awake until the meeting tonight. Wish me luck!

So, it is Wednesday? What's on your TBR shelf? What have you read recently and enjoyed??

Comments

[sabotabby]

Yaaaay go you!

I looved Mexican Gothic and enjoyed The Midnight Bargain far more than I expected to. Also thanks for the reminder that I need to post my weekly reading.

[lydamorehouse]

You are welcome!

[j00j]

I love that your schools' GSAs have a festival. In the late 90s mine was barely tolerated, and of course before that there weren't any allowed at all. So while things aren't universally improved, they are getting better in many places!

I also love that the kids are self organizing.

TBR: Mostly courtesy of my Room of One's Own subscription-- I think next up is _The All Consuming World_ by Cassandra Khaw.

[lydamorehouse]

This Q-Quest thing is very new. Mason attended one--at least when I asked him about it, he remembered going to something like it. I was, of course, too terrified to come out in high school in the early 1980s.