39.0°,
Fair East Meadow's EMCon is haven for pop culture fans
The East Meadow Public Library offered fans of anime, pop culture and art a place to coalesce and meet some of the icons in the field during its eighth annual EMCon from May 18 through 19.
Like larger comic conventions, EMCon boasts an array of workshops, meet-and-greets and contests. But what sets the library’s festival a part from others, both guests and contributors said, is its intimacy.
“At a lot of the big cons, you don’t have a chance to sit with fans and explain your work,” said Entertainment entrepreneur Brimstone, or William Kucmierowski, 43, of Levittown. “This is an opportunity to sit down with your fans and really get to know them — and meet new ones too.”
Kucmierowski is one of three hosts of the award-winning multimedia group the Grindhouse Radio. Reaching up to 620,000 listeners in the Long Island area, the Grindhouse Radio has scored sixth on the charts for the Top 20 Best Comedic Podcasts Worldwide on ITunes and continues to hover on the list’s Top 20.
The members of the Grindhouse Radio team were some of many entertainment personalities, artists and creators at EMCon. The weekend also included a meet-and-greet with voice actor Michele Knotz, most famous for her role as Jessie in Pokemon, a costume design workshop with traveling cosplayer Elizabeth Vazquez, or Rizuki, and read aloud and Question-and-Answer session with author Leanna Renee Hieber.
“It’s a community convention,” said Kelly Gordon, library’s art director and co-coordinator of the event. “It’s all about education. There are so many opportunities here to learn about other cultures and meet new people at local venue.”
“This convention is mainly for teens,” added Jude Schanzer, the director of public relations and programming at the library. “It offers them a comfortable, safe and creative environment.”
Gordon said that the convention grows each year and now includes a tent behind the library to host even more contributors. “Everybody wants to be a part of it,” he said. “Everybody just wants to see this succeed year after year.”
