Geek Out for Pride

Prop sword and shield workshop

This year as part of Pride Month we were lucky to be part of Geek Out for Pride. This is a rainbow community pop culture event featuring gaming, cosplay, comics and workshops in a friendly, supportive environment. Unfortunately it had to be postponed one week due to a lockdown, in spite of that we still had a good turn out for the first time this event had ever run.

The stacks of foam that had been laser cut in preparation for Dani’s prop sword and shield workshop.

The biggest highlight of the event for TAPlab was our workshop for making prop swords and shields from foam. This was run by Dani, a professional prop maker who has been a member of TAPlab for the last few years. When Dani had first suggested this I had asked ‘What age group would this be for?’ – the reply was ‘All ages, kids love swords but people my age do too’.

This broad appeal was what made it so successful. We had families with kids of varying ages, adults and members of the LGBTQ community all working together at the same time, in the same workshop.

Te Atatu Peninsula is an area that has a lot of young families. Our hope is that having events like this that bring everyone together will mean from an early age young people will see that their community supports them no matter what sexual orientation or gender identity they may have.

A quickly made sign that we think would be a great idea for a future workshop

One of the participants at the event mentioned they would love to have a sign with their name and pronouns. Dani quickly drew something up on the computer and was able to laser cut and engrave it! We think this could be a great idea for a future workshop.

Thanks heaps to Toby Marris for organising this event and inviting us to be a part of it. Also a big thanks to the Te Atatu Peninsula Community Centre team and Proud Centres for the amazing support they gave.