Strength and beauty are virtues of the vulnerable.
– Katherine Ramdeen, If I Could Tell You Supernatural Calendar, 2018
Katherine Ramdeen as photographed by Illya Swan. Their copyright. (c)2018
[No copyright infringement intended and no money made.]
Credit to Stands. (c)2018
Shoshannah Stern is an actress, in theatre, television, and film. She played hunter, Eileen Leahy on the hit show on The CW, Supernatural. The Supernatural cast and fans are known for their various charities, especially for actor/activist, Misha Collins’ Random Acts.
The All You Need is Love campaign will run for the next seven days. Items will begin shipping the third week in May. Proceeds from this campaign will go to Off The Grid, a non-profit that provides access to survival tools in high risk and remote areas all across the world. One of those survival tools is for the deaf and hard of hearing who are often forgotten about during emergency communications.
Shoshannah herself is deaf; her first language is American Sign Language. She is currently co-starring (and co-writing as well as having created) This Close, a series currently appearing on the Sundance Now streaming service. This Close is a modern day drama showing the universal story of friendship, love, and life where the two main characters (and others) just happen to be deaf.
New York Times article on This Close
Here’s their official trailer:
Two nights ago, my daughter asked me about the back door pilot for Supernatural. She was wondering if they had started filming the new series yet. I answered that we hadn’t heard if it was picked up, but I was sure that they would be given a chance, at least a thirteen episode mid-season introduction like they did with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
My husband laughed at me.
“We?” he asked, almost mockingly. “Do you have an inside line to the producers?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do,” I said with the surety of an arrogant know-it-all.
Of course, I don’t and I don’t really know any of the producers or showrunners personally, but I do know the Wayward Daughters Academy and I follow the Wayward Sisters cast and writers (as well as Supernatural) on social media, so if I were going to hear about it, I would certainly be one of the first of the fans to hear about it. This was a total grassroots effort. Just getting this far was a fandom and social media triumph. Such is the #spnfam.
When I know, you will know.
This is a review, and contains multiple spoilers for Supernatural and Wayward Sisters. If you have not seen the episodes, The Bad Place [13.09] and Wayward Sisters [13.10], and you don’t want to be spoiled, do not read any further. I reference characters and plot points from all of Supernatural’s history, so be aware of those spoilers as well. Episode references are in brackets with the first number being the season, and the second number, the episode. Continue reading
I, for one, am very excited for television in the New Year. Spoilers for everything in the tags follow. Read at your own discretion. Continue reading
When I was younger, throughout high school and college I collected autographs. I couldn’t say who was my first. I’d write letters and receive replies. The objects of my fannish obsession ranged between television and movie actors to sports figures, both professional and Olympic when they were amateurs. I received a Christmas card and a post card from Bart Conner (Olympic gymnast) and a thank you card from Randy Gardner (Olympic ice skater). I have postcards from Jon-Erik Hexum, Robert Blake, Pierce Brosnan, and Linda Kelsey, one of my fictional journalist heroes. I met Telly Savalas in a Long Island diner once and waited outside the Nassau Coliseum to meet Don Maloney, Ron Duguay, and Mike Allison of the New York Rangers. I finally met Bart Conner in a shopping mall autograph event with his wife, Nadya Comeneci. My and and I both received separate lovely letters from Mr. Rogers, each one in tune for our individuality, his at five, mine as a bit older mom of a five year old.
I don’t know when I stopped.
Somewhere along the way, autograph collecting made space for selfies and social media likes. I was thinking about this earlier in the week. Ed Asner liked my tweet about his new book. It made my day. Sam Smith of Supernatural liked my post about my Halloween cosplay as her character Mary Winchester. John Barrowman liked when I welcomed him to the 50 Club. Yvette Nicole Brown has actually comforted me when I was feeling lost.
These are all the ways we connect with the public people who help us through the day. They inspire us, they advise us, and they help us feel less invisible.
Our heroes have always been the ones who we can be, inspire us to do better, fill us with ideas of the things we could do with just a little positivity, a little encouragement, a little push in the right direction. I told Ed Asner that his Lou Grant was one of the reasons I began writing. Linda Kelsey was a female journalist on television at a time when there weren’t that many in real life. That show, and those actors were some of the reasons I took a journalism class in high school.
Yvette Nicole Brown, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Misha Collins, President Jimmy Carter.
And I will always get excited when celebrity likes my tweet or instagram photo. It is ther same thrill as receiving the California postmarked envelope with who knows what inside. The biggest difference is the immediacy; the instant gratification of a response, although I suppose the anticipation of the autograph had equal value as the ping on the smartphone.
Our heroes are in the palm of our hands – their photos, their quotes, their memes, their ways of communication. We are much more in tune with each other, and much more available for one another.
This is post 1, but it is only a small selection of the pins that I’ve collected over the years.
L-R, Top to bottom: Supernatural’s Devil’s Trap, prison food, The Walking Dead’s Michonne, Supernatural’s Anti-Possession Symbol, Just one more episode, Star Labs from The Flash, piss me off, not nailed down, Harry Potter’s Hufflepuff House. (c)2017
L-R, Top to bottom: Green Lantern symbol, Free Comic Book Day Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doctor Who’s The Tardis, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot, Batman, GOTG’s Groot, Green Lantern symbol, The Flash symbol, Doctor Who’s Starry Night Tardis. (c)2017
Clockwise: Green Lantern Emerald Warrior, Vote DC, Last Action Hero, MCA/Universal Home Video, T2 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), RIP Superman. (c)2017
I have talked, here and other places, about my perceptions of the differences of being a fan and being in a fandom. Those of us in fandoms take things just one step, maybe ten steps further, and for each us it happens in varying degrees and with a variety of participation.
Of all the fandoms that I’ve participated in, I would say that the biggest part of my fannish heart belongs to the Supernatural family, or #spnfamily or abbreviated further as #spnfam.
They are the kindest, most compassionate people who volunteer their time and donate their money to just causes and people in need with their only reward the thankfulness for letting them be a part of it.
From Misha Collins’ Random Acts charity to Jared Padalecki’s Always Keep Fighting campaigns to Jensen Ackles’ raising money and awareness for Down’s Syndrome, and he and his wife (along with the Padaleckis and Collins’ and the rest of the Supernatural and CW folks) raising an incredible $400,000+ for hurricane relief – Stronger than Storms.
They’re supportive.
They’re encouraging.
They’re inspirational.
In addition to the charitable works, Misha’s Scavenger Hunt, Gishwhes, which just finished its final year, the depression awareness, self-harm help, and suicide prevention Always Keep Fighting campaign, a small group of vocal women created a group based on the women we admired of Supernatural.
I say “we” but I was not part of the initial germ of an idea; I joined with other fans in supporting the concept of Wayward Daughters, which became Wayward Daughters Academy. The use of the word “wayward” is a nod to Kansas’ song, Carry On Wayward Son, the unofficial theme of Supernatural. The concept was the the wayward orphan girls on the show would live with Sheriff Jody Mills, and hunt monsters. It’s a nice idea, and the fans loved it. And Kim Rhodes loved it. As well as Brianna Buckmaster, who plays Sheriff Donna Hanscom, and as more orphans arrived on the show, and more kick it in the ass female characters arrived, it grew.
And it grew.
It became a hashtag. #waywardaf
It became a charitable campaign through Creation Stands, now known as Stands.
It morphed into sisters instead of daughters; not biological sisters, but a family of choice.
And now, we fans have realized a wonderful dream: a possible spin-off show starring Kim and Brianna as well as Kathryn Newton (Claire Novak) and Katherine Ramdeen (Alex) and a few other young women.
Their pilot is called a back door pilot. They will have an episode in Sueprnatural’s Season 13 giving us a glimpse of what a Wayward Sisters show would be like, and if it gets enough viewers and potential fans, it’s a go.
I am so excited!
Girl Power!
The future is female!
This is the perfect year for this opportunity.
In addition to a sidebar in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, the Ladies of Supernatural have produced a calendar, sold through Stands for charity. All proceeds will be going to the Jacmel Children’s Center in Haiti.
It’s more than twelve months of pretty pictures; it is also life advice from an amazing grup of independent, empowering, bad ass, wayward af women!
Click picture to buy calendar. (c)Stands, 2017. Pin above used from Kim Rhodes Twitter. (c)KimRhodes, 2017
Warning for minor spoilers from both last season and shows that have already aired this season. Continue reading
