Welcome to the First Progress Report for Arisia 2025!
Arisia 2025 is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Boston/Cambridge, January 17-20, 2025. In this issue, we are bringing you the news of our guests of honor, our new hotel, registration information, volunteer opportunities, and highlights.Announcing the Arisia 2025 Guests of Honor
Author Guest of Honor: Moniquill Blackgoose
Moniquill Blaindigenous woman facing camera with long hair, black bandana, purple shirtckgoose is an enrolled member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe and a lineal descendant of Ousamequin Massasoit. She is an author, costumer, convention-goer, and activist currently living in Pawtucket, RI. Her works often explore themes of inequality in social and political power, consent, agency, and social revolution. She has blogged, essayed, and discussed extensively across many platforms the depictions of NDN and NDN-coded characters in sci-fi and fantasy, and would like to help other authors better understand how to produce respectful and well-thought-out indigenous characters and what the common pitfalls are in doing so. Her debut novel, To Shape a Dragon's Breath, won the 2024 Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and the Lodestar Award at the 2024 Hugo Awards in Glasgow.Artist Guest of Honor: Sarah Morrison
Sarah Morrison (white woman smiling at camera, blue purple hair and glasses on faceshe/her) is an award-winning fantasy illustrator and portrait artist. Working primarily with oil paint, she focuses on figurative works designed to inspire narrative, with attention towards faces and fabric. Escapism through fantasy has always been a central theme to her art, engaging her viewers with wonder and imagined stories. You can see her work at http://sarahmorrisonillustration.com.Fan Guest of Honor: Siobhan Flanagan
Siowhite woman, curly red hair, glasses on facebhan Flanagan is an historian by degree and taught a college level class on History through Science Fiction as an undergrad at UMASS, Amherst. She has published a short story under the name Sioban Krzywicki.Siobhan worked in many different roles in IT for decades. She’s been an SFF and comic collector and fan since she was 5, amassing a collection of over 5,000 books and over 40,000 comics. She is a trans, bi/pan, poly woman. Siobhan listens to a vast variety of music and has studied its history, participating in some of its subcultures and as a singer. She reads widely in the various sciences and study the history of science as well.
Siobhan helped run Readercon for seven years, three as conchair and one as assistant conchair. She also has done sound, logistics, signage, treasury, and was on the board. She ran a Fundraiser to purchase new sound equipment, hosted main evening events and fundraisers, gave away a departed fan's books at the con at their request, and DJ’d Readercon's dance in addition to pitching in wherever needed. She has moderated and been on panels at Arisia, Readercon, Worldcon, and Wiscon.
Our New Hotel
Arisia 2025 will be at the Hyatt Regency Boston/Cambridge, January 17-20, 2025. We expect to open the room block in September. Watch for a Special Hotel Edition Progress Report soon.Get Your Arisia 2025 Membership
Registration is Open for Arisia 2025!
Weekend Rates:
$55* through 9/30/2024 for full memberships
$75 for Turtle Track (professional childcare for children ages [18 months to 5 years]) Space is limited, sign up now!
$30 for students (students age 13-25 with a valid student ID)
Free for Kids-in-Tow (must be with a paying attendee at all times)
Free through Card to Culture (see below)
Please note, Fast Track Memberships are currently paused while we continue to recruit for a Fast Track Area head.
Card to Culture
Arisia is once again participating in the Massachusetts Card to Culture program. Card holders can register to attend Arisia 2025 at no cost to them. This includes all levels of membership and Turtle Track (professional child care for children ages 2-6), but space is limited! Email mailto:registration@arisia.org with a photo (front and back) of a participating card (SNAP/WIC/MassHealth) and your name, email address, phone, and mailing address.Be Part of the Convention Committee!
Our first Convention Committee (ConComm) meeting of Arisia 2025 will be on Sunday, September 18th from 2-4p via Zoom. For the Zoom link info, please email conchair@arisia.org.We also have some Division Head positions open. We’re looking for folks to head up Communications, Food, Guests of Honor, and Youth Services. We also need a Con Treasurer! Some Divisions already have key staff in place or mentors available. Please email conchair@arisia.org or tas@arisia.org to learn more.
Call for Volunteers!
Would you like to volunteer for Arisia 2025?Letting us know early is great, even if you only want to work during the convention! It helps our staff to plan ahead, and it lets us make sure we have your size of volunteer t-shirt.
We also have a number of roles that will earn volunteer hours before the con. This means that you can help us out, get rewards for your volunteer hours, and spend the entire con just having fun!
Choose your volunteer adventure by visiting https://www.arisia.org/Volunteer!
Access at Arisia
The Accessibility Division wants to hear from you. We are working diligently to bring more access-related services and function to Arisia as a convention and for Arisia 2025 in particular. CART and assistive listening devices will return, as will limited braille programs and large-print maps. To request or suggest new accommodations please fill out this form.
Con Chair Corner: Wendee
As some folx know, this year instead of a single Conchair, we are a Conchair team. I’m proud, happy, and a little overwhelmed to be part of this year’s team. Each of us are going to share a little bit about who we are in a Progress Report, and I’m up first.
I’m Wendee Abramo. I came to my first Arisia (at the Ziggurat!) alone. I didn’t know a soul and committed to working for pretty much the entire convention. Now, I consider Arisia to be my found family. I have always declined senior leadership positions, but the idea of working on a team with more seasoned folx was hard to say no to.
My first three crushes were Aquaman, Davy Jones, and Bela Legosi’s Dracula and that right there tells you a lot about me. I grew up a weird kid and at some point in my early adulthood, I embraced the weird. These days, I’m a dancer, a fat liberation activist, a podcaster, and I pay the bills by working in higher education as an administrator. I love joyful movement, belly laughs, my friends, and my family. Old friend or new, I really hope to see you at con this year.
COVID Policy Reminder
Arisia 2025 will require masks in all convention spaces unless they are otherwise marked as mask-optional. The hotel does not have a mask mandate, which means there are likely to be unmasked individuals in public areas of the hotel. Masks in Arisia spaces must be a minimum of a medical mask with a filter. We encourage use of higher filtration masks such as N/KN 95 or KF94. Additional information regarding COVID-related policies for Arisia 2025 will be announced in an upcoming Progress Report.View our Code of Conduct.
Any other questions about Arisia 2025? Email us at info@arisia.org!
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