I have been so harried the last few months, that this WisCon was somewhat unprecedented for me, in that I only signed up for one thing, a single panel. No art show, no spice-grinding at the Gathering, and usually I have at least three panels / day, instead of just one at the con.
It was good. I am overall, trying to do less. This was a LOT less, and probably I’m going to settle into a happy medium — I hope so, anyway. But I needed the rest, and lots of undisturbed time with people I love. It was a real gift.
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The panel I did was on refugee representation in speculative fiction — I was moderator, and started by reading out Warsan Shire’s _Home_, to ground us. I’ve never read the whole poem out loud, and when I came to the line about putting your children in a boat, I totally broke into tears. But the audience was patient, and waited for me to collect myself, and then we went on.
I thought we had a really interesting and deeply personal discussion, and I want to thank Naseem Jamnia and Alex Gurevich for their thoughtful and brave engagement with this difficult topic. I learned a lot, and I hope the audience felt the same.
A reading of “Home” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI9D92Xiygo (content note: the poem contains the n-word, and is read out in this reading)