Chauna Lawson, who cosplays by the name “CC the Geek,” thinks about the last time she felt truly embraced and acknowledged for all of who she was.

“That was when I was at Bowie State,” says Lawson, an alum of the historically Black university and founder of HBCU Con, a fandom convention held there April 30.

At her dorm in Alex Haley Residence Hall, she and her friends would play video games, watch anime like Sailor Moon and Digimon Adventure and talk about life.

“Nothing was off the table and everyone was respected in the room, regardless of where they came from,” Lawson says. “I just wanted to take that experience and recreate it and give it back to the people because it really got me through some really tough times in my life.”

Lawson, who graduated from Bowie State University in 2009, is the CEO of HBCU Con. It’s a convention where people dress up as their favorite characters from video games, anime, science fiction novels, comics or even their own creations, and celebrate both HBCUs and Black geeks.

At the three-day event, people meet other cosplayers, participate in panels on anything from life as a Black K-pop fan to the history of cosplay, participate in a gaming tournament, and attend events like a step show and fashion show put on by HBCU students.

Lawson said she didn’t want students and alumni to feel like they were the “afterthought,” but rather the “highlight” of the convention.

“I want HBCU students and alumni to know that you can be just as proud in your Blackness as you are in your geekiness, and it doesn’t make you less of either one,” Lawson said. “We’ve always been scholarly and ahead of the curve.”

Now, in its second year, attendees called the convention a “welcome home” and joyful day for nerds. We spoke with a few of the cosplayers who attended HBCU Con and asked them what it means to them.

Kurenai Kiba 

Kurenai Kiba, a 32-year-old Baltimore-based cosplayer and seamstress, considers her first entry into cosplay when she dressed as Scary Spice from Spice Girls when she was a kid.

“I was a little too accurate and my dad was a little too Jamaican for me to be wearing that,” Kiba said, laughing. But since then, she’s created and sewed outfits for Halloween. Sewing has always been a bond between Kiba and her mom, and she has since cosplayed characters such as Tentacruel from Pokémon, Shego from Kim Possible, and more.

When posting looks on the internet, Kiba said she will receive one or two, if not more, negative comments from people. This abuse is commonplace for many Black cosplayers to face online.

At HBCU Con, Kiba said “there’s that general feeling of welcome home.”

“When I’m walking around, I know there’s nobody going to approach me of, ‘Oh, your cosplay is inaccurate, mainly because of your skin color’ or something else negative like that,” she said. “The atmosphere has just been so nice and familiar.”

Morganne Lamberth

Morganne Lamberth, who posts on social media as EbonyHeart Cosplay, has been an anime fan since watching Sailor Moon in 1995. The 30-year-old was first inspired to cosplay when they saw a friend dressed up as Tsunade from Naruto.

“She was a plus-sized Black woman, and I didn’t know there were other people who were Black like me who wanted to do cosplay or were in it,” Lamberth said.

Growing up, Lamberth said they were one of five Black students at school. When people found out Lamberth liked anime, they would say, “You’re supposed to like rap music, only like sports, only like this, that and a third and put you in a box.”

Lamberth said having a cosplay convention at an HBCU is amazing. “They’re such a great safe space for people to really embrace who they really are, instead of just being confined to the box that society has put them in for so long,” Lamberth said.

Shemika Renee

Cosplaying has been part of Shemika Renee’s life since third grade, when she was asked to do an oral presentation on a book.

She asked her teacher, “‘Can I dress up like the character of the book I’m doing?’” she remembers. Her teacher said yes, and Renee was hooked. For years after that, she dressed up to give school presentations.

Now, the historical performer, makeup artist and actress works at Accokeek Foundation in Piscataway Park as a costumed interpreter and outreach specialist. At HBCU Con, she presented a panel on history and cosplay, with a focus on Black history, and dressed up as “Ms. Story” from her one-woman show Ms. Story’s Living History.

Her children, Liana and Alex Berry, grew up cosplaying too and attended the event with Renee. Some of their earliest costumes were inspired by Monster High, Disney Bounding and Black Panther. One thing the siblings noticed at HBCU Con? They felt more represented compared to some other cons they’ve been to.

“I think it’s really cool to walk down the halls and see people who look like me,” Alex said.

Elizabeth Robertson

Elizabeth Robertson, 61, calls herself, “a geek from way back.” She’s watched anime since she was a kid and owns all of the Studio Ghibli films. Her favorite: Ponyo.

She’s always helped her friends make costumes for cosplay conventions, but Robertson said she’s never done it. “I don’t see people like myself doing it, at least in my age group, so it’s really nice to be here and see all these young people dressing up,” Robertson said.

She was geeking out so much to hear there was an HBCU Con, and drove an hour to attend the convention, she said. “The idea that there is a historic Black university doing an all geek festival for us folks and its anime and it’s everything else — it’s mind-boggling,” Robertson said.

Jared Ross

For HBCU Con, Jared Ross, 27, made a costume rendition of two of his favorite things: his alma mater Morehouse College and Monkey D. Luffy from the anime One Piece.

“This is the best way that I could project the theme of the con,” Ross said.

Ross has been a content creator for three years — he’s got more than 290,000 followers on TikTok. Ross posts weekly content on his YouTube called “Anime Sundays,” and does funny skits on TikTok about anime scenes and characters.

He began cosplaying when he first started going to conventions a few years ago. He traveled all the way from Atlanta to attend HBCU Con. “It’s always good to have more cons like this because people of color get to come and really feel like it’s not just all for the white celebrities,” Ross said.