Monday, May 4, 2020

FOLD2020

I am writing today's blog on the day it goes live - Monday, May 4, 2020 - because I'm reflecting on an event that just happened Sunday night.

Two acronyms are suitable for beginning this post, and both begin with F.

FOMO stands for "fear of missing out" (confirmed via https://www.dictionary.com/e/acronyms/fomo/) and was what I was experiencing when I was reading the tweets from my friends.

FOLD stands for the Festival of Literary Diversity (confirmed at https://thefoldcanada.org/) and was the subject of all these tweets. This year, because of the global pandemic, the festival ran online.






Thankfully, there were still spots open for a Sunday afternoon session called "Fighting Injustice with Fiction", which was a panel featuring Kagiso Lesego Molope (@kagisobua), Adnan Khan (@whotookadnan) and Danny Ramadan (@DannySeesIt), moderated by Wayne Grady.

For some reason, I was both excited and nervous to register. I wasn't already familiar with these authors; does this mean I'm just a poser? What should I expect? What is a Zoom Meet with over 100 people going to be like?

The first thing that impressed me was the land acknowledgement before the session began.


What I really liked about it was that it included a personal action item: "we are dedicated to continuing to increase our own awareness, understanding, and conscientious action on this land". This is so important because recently a friend informed me that she heard someone comment during a different webinar, "Is this really necessary?" as the land acknowledgement was shared.

Based on advice from my friends who have attended previous FOLD sessions, I had pen and paper at the ready, as well as my cell phone so I could tweet some of the memorable insights.


The above tweet was my way of dealing with my ambivalent feelings about the performance of the moderator in this panel. The moderator was prepared; it was clear he had read the novels written by the panelists. (Sometimes it was too clear, as he revealed plot "spoilers" during the conversation!) The questions started strong, with "Why do we write novels?" but faltered afterwards. I believe the session truly became remarkable and memorable when the panelists almost ignored the moderator and began to talk amongst themselves about their experiences dealing with conferences and publishing companies.

Before you think I am being unfair to Wayne Grady, let me back-pedal a bit. There were tweets that lauded his moderating skills. This could just be a matter of opinion. Also, as I allude to in my tweet, moderating isn't easy. It's not like I felt like I could have done a better job - heck, I didn't even think I was worthy enough to even attend. This was nothing like the absolutely appalling debacle at another festival where the moderator of a panel that was supposed to be about diversity on the Young Adult fiction industry bemoaned the lack of representation for straight white boys. My concerns are nothing as serious or severe as that. It was, overall, a very good session.

There were so many great things said, especially in the later half of the panel. My notes are a mess, so instead I've copied and pasted my Twitter thread during that time, where I tried hard to capture all my favourite quotes. (If you want to read them in the order they appeared, read from the bottom up.)





Kudos should also go to Danny Ramadan, who was somehow able to tweet and retweet while still contributing fully to the panel. That is a level of multitasking that I cannot ever hope to achieve!

I enjoyed the panel and felt like I learned quite a bit. In the future, if people complain about undefined words or terms in books from different languages, I'm going to remember Adnan Khan's comparison to whaling in Moby Dick. I am also going to investigate and purchase at least one of the featured authors' books - it's been ages since I read an "adult" book (which reminds me that one day I need to write about getting "traumatized" by books).

The icing on the cake was when FOLD founder Jael Richardson hosted a Kahoot game at the end of the panel with actual prizes.


After the fifth question, I was in 11th place. That was my highest standing and I fell far behind shortly thereafter, but it was a fun and interactive way for the audience to participate.

Thank you to the FOLD organizers, the participating authors, and my persuasive friends for an excellent experience. I look forward to seeing/listening to some of the other panels from #FOLD2020 when they become public.





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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMay 4, 2020 at 6:08 PM

    I'm so very glad you took the leap, and then applied your usual critical thinking lens to the proceedings. I learn so much from the way you process events in your after-wrap-up. I very much appreciate that you give yourself a little time to let the content settle. I live-tweet like a fiend, as you know, but I don't do enough of going back, and reflecting. thank you for always giving me another perspective.

    I will have to catch this one in its recorded version - I was super impressed with some of the moderation I saw, so I'll be intrigued by seeing how this compares. And the panelists bouncing off each other would have been really interesting to watch - more organic than a set order of response.

    I very much enjoyed the Kahoot after the YA panel as well, and managed to finish in 10th place (mostly because I knew a tricky order of publication question). Jael did an incredibly job ramping us up during it!

    Next year, we all need to go to #FOLD2021 together in person! (especially the YA panels!)

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