Blerdcon co-founder Hilton George talks to theGrio about how he infuses the culture into nerdom.
Somewhere in Bunkie, Louisiana, there’s a 19-year-old Black man in the backroom of his grandmama’s white clapboard house hiding his Sith Lord mask and Gundams. He just wants the matriarch and her deaconess friends to stop praying for the devil to let him go.
Something similar plays out in Corvallis, Oregon. Only this time, it’s not age or Big Mama’s religion restraining her spirit. It’s race. And gender. Corvallis has a Black population of just 1.3%, and the 26-year-old cosplaying physics teacher who loves comic books just wants to stop feeling “other.”
That’s why, six years ago, along with Hassan Parrish, Hilton George co-founded
George’s gut told him that cosplayers would want fresh lines that they can’t get on a Wednesday and look like authentic characters at the convention on Saturday. “If you are looking at intricate haircuts like Blade or Aqualad, those are cuts that need to happen that morning to make that cosplay come off that afternoon,” he said. Who knew that was enough to overcome that cultural barrier and get people into a strange barber chair?
George recognizes that “nerd” also is no longer the pejorative it once was. Nerds are successful tinkerers, creatives, engineers, and even actors. Remember that time Michael B. Jordan clapped back after being ribbed for loving anime?
George and Parrish founded Blerdcon in 2016, and the first convention occurred in 2017. Since 2018, George and his team have selected a theme so anchored in the souls of Black people that it immediately conjures a cultural sentiment or memory. In 2018, it was “Reunion.” (You thought family, matching T-shirts, melting in a park and banana pudding, didn’t you?) “Blerd Magic” centered 2019. Covid prevented a con in 2020, but Blerdcon came back last year with “Chocolate City.” And this year, it’s “Homecomin’,” and Orlando Jones of “Drumline” fame is the celebrity guest.
“‘Homecoming’ absolutely harkens back to the HBCU experience,” George says of this year’s Blerdcon experience. “You know the term ‘drumline’ harkens to the HBCU experience. For [Jones] to play the role makes him iconic in the theme. We’ve got an amalgam HBCU band coming out to perform.”
Actor, comedian, activist Orlando Jones will be the celebrity guest at Blerdcon 2022 (Photo credit: Blerdcon)
“Homecoming” also connotes acceptance that isn’t always found or felt at home or work, George adds. “We still have older parents, grandparents who think that Dungeons and Dragons, videogaming or cosplay have something to do with devil worship or make you gay,” he explains.
For some people attending Blerdcon, it’s their first time realizing“how puckered and congested we make ourselves in white spaces sometimes,” George says. “There are a lot of people who come to Blerdcon … and it is their first time being in a space where 99% of the people are Black, and all of the things around them are resonating with the Black experience, and they feel at home with everything that is happening. So sometimes the only way they can describe it is ‘homecoming.’”
