There’s a nice atheist/freethinkers/humanist con coming up: Apostacon: A Midwest Freethought Conference, in Omaha, September 20-22. Omaha! The heart of the midwest. A place in need of more and more apostates and freethinkers.
A couple of thoughts though. One, not nearly enough women. Four out of nineteen. Not.e.nough.
Two, they forgot to get Vyckie Garrison to speak. Midwest freethinkers and apostates! You’re missing a trick! Vyckie is just up the road from you. Vyckie is No Longer Quivering. You need Vyckie.
Vyckie’s talk at Eschaton 2012 was dynamite. I can’t wait for the video to come out so that you can see for yourselves. She has fascinating material – life as a Quiverfull woman, and what it did to her and her children and her husband, and how much better things are now that she and her children have escaped. She has fascinating material, and she presents it well – not least, she’s damn funny.
They need her.
Omaha is a pretty fun place to go for a conference. And in September it could be nice and summery and less humid or it could be a blizzard and pretty white snow. I like Omaha!
If it helps any (not much, I know), I’m actually doing the talk with my husband, so it makes 5 out of 20. Still could use more!
Agreed about Vyckie. She is the bomb.
Thanks for your nice blog post about Apostacon! 🙂
You’re right about us needing more women speakers and we’re working on that… our speaker list isn’t finalized yet so keep an eye out for updates. We added Sarah Morehead from Recovering from Religion to the speakers list last Friday and received an update on Sunday that AJ Johnson formerly of American Atheists has confirmed as a speaker now as well! Thanks also for the tip about Vyckie Garrison, we’ll look into it.
Late September is a perfect time to visit Omaha! The fall colors are just starting to peak. The days are typically sunny with temps in the mid 70’s falling back into the mid 50’s at night.
We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone at Apostacon this fall and expect to be updating the website with an exciting new venue announcement this week, so stay tuned!!
Sincerely,
William Newman
Director – Omaha Coalition of Reason
You’re welcome! That’s great about more women – and about Vyckie. The conference sounds better and better.
Where is Omaha? LMAO! Haha just kidding.
Ok seriously, this conference looks VERY VERY cool, but out of courtesy you might have wanted to contact them before writing this and implying they’re excluding women, or even Vicky, for that matter. That’s a pretty hefty charge in the current state of the movement, and not too kosher when you probably don’t have all the info just yet (unless you did contact them before writing it, and then I take back this comment LOL). I mean, that does seem to be just LOOKING for something to complain about?
It’s rare to have the speaker list FINAL when it’s first published, and that they clearly state they are adding more… maybe hold off on criticizing them. They have 6 women speaking, actually (Jamila Bey, AJ Johnson, Teresa Macbain, Deanna Lyons from her comment above-and I presume she’ll be added to the photo spread, Sarah Morehead & Catherine Stewart), they look like they’re doing a GREAT job representing the minority communities (6 women, 3 LGBTQ advocates, and 3 people of color to date) and it’s clear they are still adding speakers. As for Vicky, her blog is awesome, but they already have quite a few people who are likely speaking on leaving religion and fundamentalism (based on what I can find on google re their topics): Nathan Phelps, Teresa MacBain, Chris Stedman, Seth Andrews, and Sarah Morehead apparently runs an entire org called “Recovering From Religion”. As for local talent, it looks like Nathan Phelps, for one, is from the Midwest, as is Hector Avalos and Sarah Morehead, based on online info?
Thanks for the heads up about this though, I’m curious to see how much it will cost to attend, anyone have an idea or know where it’s going to be? The lineup looks absolutely fucking awesome, and I’d easily pay $100 for a weekend of this caliber. The lineup is better than any I’ve seen shy of the American Atheist convention, so here’s hoping it’s not going to be priced similarly. Who else is thinking of going?
Love your blog Ophelia, thanks!
Michelle – did you see comment 3? William Newman doesn’t seem to think I needed a scolding. He thanked me for the tip about Vyckie. Maybe you didn’t need to scold me either.
No. I was not “just LOOKING for something to complain about.” I am very tired of being accused of that. No, a friend pointed out the event, and I took a look, and the scarcity of women jumped out at me. No I am not just LOOKING for something to complain about when I point out a scarcity of women in movies, tv shows, STEM fields, Congress.
The number of female speakers has risen to nine, at last count!