See all our 13 Days of A+ Content!
Yuletide greetings, friends!! For serious, let’s embrace the meaning of the season and spend it together, you know, gayly.
The 13 Days of A+ Pop-Up Discord opens NOW (scroll to the end to hop on) and it will close on December 26 at 12pm PST. Why keep it so fleeting, so ephemeral? Well, we are a small team for one, and while I am going to enjoy the heck out of being with you all over the next several days, it isn’t doable for us to monitor something like this long-term, at least not currently. Plus, if one of our server’s purposes is to meet people, we like that it can be a place where people come together, almost like a seasonal festival, to meet and make connections, before it disbands for a time. It’s not permanent, but it also comes back, you know?
THAT SAID, we have a lineup of events to expect. Not least, tonight is our A+ Read a Fucking Book Club author chat with none other than our managing editor Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya! We’ll be talking her first book, Helen House, lesbian ghost stories, and more! Join us on the discord popup at 5pm PST / 8pm EST to participate! Don’t ghost us, now!
AND what else do we have for you?
December 15th: Snow Globe Making Workshop with Laneia and Kayla
2pm PST / 5pm EST
Bring your hot cocoa and your craft supplies (get the list here!). We’re going to dive head first into the glittering, magical, snowy world of Discord Voice channels in which Laneia and Kayla will stream their snow globe making workshop live (with generated captions). Keep an eye out for Laneia’s post all about this and a list of supplies to get ahead of time, publishing tomorrow! We’ll be recording this, too, in case you can’t make it live.
December 16th: The L Word Gen Q Episode 5 Watch-Along With the Cast of To L and Back: Generation Q
6pm PST / 9pm EST
That’s right. We’re all going to get on Discord, press play at the same time, and watch episode 5 of the latest season of The L Word together with Analyssa, Drew and Riese — not to mention that other members of the team will likely be there, too! (At least Heather and me for two.) When Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig said on the Pants Podcast that The L Word was best watched communally, they were right, and that is JUST what we’re going to do. Why episode 5? It just happened to fall within the 13 Days and there is no further logic beyond that. So buckle your seatbelts (especially if you’re driving to see your new girlfriend while thinking about your ex wife) and get ready for some talking, laughing, loving, breathing, fighting, fucking, crying, drinking, riding, winning, losing, cheating, kissing, thinking, dreaming — but together, as a community.
AND WE DID NOT FORGET ABOUT OUR FRIENDS ACROSS THE POND! This watch-along was timed with our members in different GMT and CET in mind, thought up by the incomparable Sally.
December 22nd: A+ Watchalong: Lost & Delirious, hosted by Sally Neate
11am PST / 2pm EST / 7pm GMT / 8pm CET
As we nestle cozily into the holigays, what better way to celebrate than with a watchalong to a 20-year-old lesbian classic that is not in any way seasonally adjacent?
There is no good reason why Lost & Delirious is so embedded in queer culture, yet somehow it is. We’ve talked about it, we’ve emulated it, so why not watch the damn thing…together!
I’ll be looking for your most chaotic conversation contributions on the A+ Discord as we attempt to solve such mysteries as “whatever happened to Mischa Barton’s career?” and “Why does Riese insist on excluding this film on her list of dead TV lesbians?”
What’s more, for the first time, this Autostraddle watchalong will be during UK and Europe evening time! Obviously, folks in the US are also welcome to join during their morning/early afternoon – what better way to eat your lunch than to the sound of a shrieking raptor? – Sally
In the UK, this film available for rental through Amazon Prime for the grand sum of 99p (there are two listings for some reason, here’s the cheaper one), or via Google/Apple for £2.49.
What will the event be like?
So, unlike a permanently run Discord, we will open this Discord, and then close it, so it’s great if you can stop by before it melts away like Frosty the Snowman!!! We keep our Discord pop-up’s text-based (except for the rare exception involving snow globes). They’re essentially like a chatroom or a Slack with different “channels” based around different topics you all might want to discuss such as sports or TV or parenting or crafts. You can use Discord on your phone or on a computer (probably also a tablet) and you’re invited to stop in as much or as little as you like. We ask every member to abide by a code of conduct (best summarized as respect each other and respect consent!). We just hang out and chat and share photos of our crafts or baked goods or leather work, whatever! It’s a good time and a great chance to talk to fellow queers and Autostraddle community members.
Accessibility
We want Autostraddle events to be as accessible as possible and we opted to go with a text-based chatting format via Discord in large part because it was one of the most accessible ways to hold this virtual event, not just in terms of audio/visual accessibility, but also because we know it can be hard to ask a question out loud or know when to jump into a conversation. We hope this helps things go as smoothly as is possible for a virtual event. That said, if there are accommodations that would make it easier for you to attend this event, please reach out to me at nico[at]autostraddle.com to let me know. Also, here’s a link to a guide on using Discord with a screen reader.
When will you have a Pop-Up Discord again?
I think we will have one in the first quarter of next year!
Ready to hop in?
Here’s the link to join, or, use the widget below! Let me know if you need any help!
omg a watchalong for GMT and it’s Lost & Delirious 😂 . so glad you included the link because I have my American (region 1) DVD here in London which I’ve owned for like 15 years but I no longer own any devices that it will play on.