Dear Games was a project bringing videogames to the US oldest remaining feminist bookstore, Charis Books and More of Atlanta, GA. Active between 2014 and 2019, the project took the form of public programming at Charis Books including lectures on feminism and videogames, workshops on how to create your own digital games, Q/A sessions with indie game developers like Mattie Brice and Nina Freeman and readings from game studies authors such as Adrienne Shaw and Shira Chess.
Dear Games maintained a freestanding arcade cabinet in the store which featured games by women game developers which were free for customers to play. A collaboration between the Different Games Collective and Charis Books, Dear Games was organized by Charis’ Errol Anderson and Different Games’ Michael Vogel and I with help from collaborators including Dee Del Rosario, Adam Le Doux, Kyle Blevins and Albith Delgado as well as Charis’ owner Sarah Luce Look.
I spoke about the project at the 2017 Game Developers Conference Education Summit in a talk titled “Teaching Games at the Feminist Bookstore” and our arcade launch was covered by Atlanta’s WABE. More info at deargames.tumblr.com