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Jamie Broadnax

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Jamie Broadnax
Born (1980-04-24) April 24, 1980 (age 44)
Portsmouth, Virginia, United States
OccupationFilm critic, writer
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNorfolk State University (BA)
Regent University (MA)[1]

Jamie Broadnax (born 24 April 1980) is a film critic, podcaster and writer, known for founding[2] and being editor-in-chief and CEO of the Black Girl Nerds community.[3]

Biography

Broadnax, who has a master's degree in Film and Marketing,[4] started her career in film, by working on several film shoots in various positions. Broadnax became a film critic,[5] is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association,[6] and as a freelance writer about films has written for numerous publications, including HuffPost,[7] the New York Post,[8] Variety,[9] and Vulture.com.[10]

Broadnax has hosted panel discussions, including the panel at the A Wrinkle in Time premiere and the Sorry to Bother You panel at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.[11] She has also co-hosted the "Misty Knight's Uninformed Afro" podcast about black superheroines,[12] and in April 2017, she co-launched the #NoConfederate hashtag campaign in response to HBO's plan to produce a series - Confederate - with the premise "What if the Confederacy never lost?"[13][14] In an October 2015 guest appearance on the Melissa Harris-Perry TV program, Broadnax talked about diversity in comics and at New York Comic Con.[15]

In 2014, Broadnax was accredited by MSNBC's The Grio 100.[16] She has been described as "one of the biggest up-and-coming names in black-nerd pop culture" (by The Root's Jason Johnson[3]) and as "one of the most important makers of 2016" (by Paste's Shannon M. Houston[4]).

Mid 2018, after co-finding "Universal FanCon"[17] and running a successful Kickstarter campaign for the convention,[18] Broadnax caused controversy when the convention was cancelled[19] and she demoted herself from co-founder to member.[17]

Black Girl Nerds

Black Girl Nerds initially started as a Blogspot journal,[20] where Broadnax wrote about various topics, including her own online dating experiences.[21] In 2013, Black Weblog Awards awarded Black Girl Nerds "Best Podcast".[22] The community gradually became more mainstream, in particular after a shout-out by Shonda Rhimes in the September 2014 issue of Marie Claire.[11] In October 2015, HuffPost named Black Girl Nerds one of the leading Black Podcasts.[23] Late 2017, its website had over 200,000 monthly visitors.[20]

Universal Fan Con Scandal

In December of 2016, Broadnax along with several figures within the Black geek/nerd community created a Kickstarter for Universal Fan Con. The event was advertised as, "more than just a geek event, it is a movement" and encouraged diversity and inclusion, specifically for underrepresented groups within the geek/nerd community. The Kickstarter alone earned over $56,000, well over the original $25,000 goal. The event, which was to be held at the Baltimore Convention Center in April of the following year, was an unmitigated disaster of mismanagement which caused financial and emotional hardships upon the very community it reached out to[17]. The event itself was canceled via tweet, but in direct reaction to this news the #FanCon hashtag on Twitter began trending with many demanding answers and immediate action.

Also in response to this news, Nerds of Color and Black Heroes Matter created a pop-up con in the Baltimore area named #WICOMICON[17]. This spur of the moment action allowed attendees and affiliates in the area to recoup some financial losses, but more importantly it helped rebuild faith within the community.

The Universal Fan Con team, including Broadnax, has yet to repay attendees, backers, or affiliates. The last official response from the Fan Con leadership claims that the event is postponed. Broadnax continues to claim that she was simply "a volunteer" and that the con's failure was "a misunderstanding".

See also

References

  1. ^ Howard, Sheena C. (2017). Encyclopedia of Black Comics. Fulcrum Press. ISBN 978-1682751015. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ Broadnax, Jamie (27 February 2018). "Why 'A Wrinkle in Time' Is the Movie Girls of Color Need". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 February 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  3. ^ a b Johnson, Jason (27 April 2018). "Universal Fan 'Con'? A Conversation With Black Girl Nerds' Jamie Broadnax on the Biggest Black Convention That Wasn't". The Root. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  4. ^ a b Houston, Shannon M. (2 February 2016). "Making Black Girl Nerds, And Re-Making TV with Jamie Broadnax". Paste. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  5. ^ "Jamie Broadnax Movie Reviews & Previews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  6. ^ "BFCA Member Profile". Broadcast Film Critics Association. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  7. ^ "Jamie Broadnax at HuffPost". HuffPost. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  8. ^ "Jamie Broadnax at the New York Post". New York Post. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  9. ^ "Jamie Broadnax at Variety". Variety. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  10. ^ "Jamie Broadnax at Vulture.com". Vulture.com. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  11. ^ a b Broadnax, Jamie (11 March 2018). "Jamie Broadnax; Creating The Black Girl Nerds Community" (Interview). Interviewed by Rhianna Patrick. ABC Online. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  12. ^ Blanchard, Dave (13 November 2017). "A Lifetime Of Finding Peace, Purpose And Voice In The Pages Of Comics". NPR. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  13. ^ Gonzalez, Sandra (29 July 2017). "#OscarsSoWhite creator wants to stop 'Confederate'". CNN. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  14. ^ Brown, Tessa (13 May 2018). "April Reign at Stanford". Stanford University. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  15. ^ "Melissa Harris-Perry, Transcript 10/11/15". MSNBC. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  16. ^ "theGrio's 100: Jamie Broadnax, encouraging black girls to embrace their inner nerd". The Grio. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  17. ^ a b c d Kent, Clarkisha (24 April 2018). "It Be Your Own People: On Universal FanCon and the Perversion of Community". The Root. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  18. ^ "Universal Fan Con by Universal Fan Con". Kickstarter. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  19. ^ Shapiro, Lila (7 May 2018). "The Story Behind FanCon's Controversial Collapse". Vulture.com. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  20. ^ a b Zakarin, Jordan (12 September 2017). "Black Girl Nerds is building a geek empire from the outside". Syfy. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  21. ^ North, Anna (8 August 2014). "Read This Before You Write Your Dating Profile". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help)
  22. ^ "2013 Black Weblog Awards Winners". Black Weblog Awards. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  23. ^ Blay, Zeba (9 October 2015). "11 Black Podcasts Leading The Golden Age Of Audio". HuffPost. Retrieved 5 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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