BGNO Anniversary: Robyn’s Favorite Moments

You may have noticed this week is the anniversary of Black Girls Nerd Out and we are celebrating by looking back at our favorite moments. It’s pretty incredible to believe that we have been working on this blog for a year. Two posts per week, a podcast, HogwartsBSU and an occasional newsletter and countless conversations and experiences in between. So, like Bayana did on Monday, I will be sharing my favorite moments of the past year.

My Favorite Posts of Mine

When we first started the blog, I was very skeptical of my ability to write a new compelling post every week. So I started thinking about things I love and trying to mine topics from it, this is how I came to write Libraries Matter.

Both Bayana and I are huge Michael Jackson fans so one week in August we decided to celebrate his birthday by dedicating our posts to him. MJ and Me talks about my connection to Michael.

Obviously, Harry Potter is a big part of this blog and a big part of my life in general, most of my favorite posts are about this subject. There’s Something about Lily Evans, #HamiltonPotter and Harry Potter and Stunted Adolescence are all favorites because I get to analyze the characters of my favorite series.

I was excited to start this blog as a way to spend more time nerding out with Bayana but I also really wanted to work on my writing ability. Funny enough, I think some of my writing came out of some of my most personal posts but I also liked this purely silly post about Traveling with the Doctor.

My Favorite Posts of Bayana’s

When #WizardTeam started Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bayana continuously brought up great points about the house elves and so I was really happy when she wrote the post about Happy Slaves.

Bayana’s critical lens of media is always appreciated but never more than when she wrote about White Guilt and Paranoia in the aftermath of Pottermore’s History of Magic in North America.

I loved Bayana’s post about her favorite episodes of Doctor Who so much I decided to write a rebuttal of my least favorite post.

After Alan Rickman’s death, she wrote about the Revisionist History of Severus Snape and perfectly captured my feelings on the character.

While not a post, Hogwarts BSU is one of my favorite things about BGNO and it exists mostly because of Bayana and her dad. It’s a great way to make the blog more inclusive and give a space for other black Potterheads to include themselves in the world we love so much.

#WizardTeam

#WizardTeam is something I’ve wanted to do for such a long time but when we launched the blog and Bayana told me she was down to do it I was so excited. It’s so hard to pick out favorites but I really loved the discussion about the Weasleys vs the Malfoys. Also being who I am I really love the episodes where things get completely out of control so this Chamber of Secrets episode with Hotep Ernie will always have a special place in my heart, and of course, the episode immediately after Black Hermione was confirmed.

Community Moments

Basically, the ENTIRE #WizardTeam history is my favorite, every time i check and see people having deep conversations I’m so happy. I was also super excited when we started getting guest posts and submissions, I hope we get to do more in the future!

I’m so excited for what the next year will bring!