Anyway, when I was on Facebook I was beyond delighted to join Black Girl Nerds and other groups not on FB at the time, like the Black Science Fiction Society. So many such groups have been created and now Blerdcon - fantastic. Thanks for posting, Recursion!
Shoot, I remember back in my day attending the first Star Trek convention. I'd be lying if I said I remember another black person there back in the late '70s. It was not really a convention but a packed lecture that I think eventually became a convention. I was hoping Shatz and Nimoy would be there but no, I got the impression that it was beneath them when they were interviewed. Gene Roddenberry carried the whole thing. He talked and talked for a couple of hours and delighted the audience with stories, clips of the series and, ooh, possibly a movie.
The fascinating thing in my journey in this my beloved genre is the constant surprise of many white people who think/thought that we have no imagination and/or do not belong in speculative fiction. That we do not have stories of pantheon of gods and goddesses, lesser deities, creatures, witches and the like. But now I'm so gratified to read globally many, many, many PoC authors expanding the genre by going back and exploring stories from Africa.
I could talk about the many facets of Blerdcon forever but got to include those who've sustained Afrofuturism and were my touchstones as a girl. Cute video below unfortunatley doesn't include W.E.B DuBois and godmother of Afrofutrism Octavia Butler,
Afrofuturism - Sun Ra, Uhura, George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix, and Missy Elliott