Yaoi North was originally created in 2004 by Bishounen Hideto and Gryvon, after a discussion in Anime North 2004’s yaoi panel about the need for an East Coast version of Yaoi-Con. A few months later, Hideto and Gryvon approached the Anime North staff with the idea of Yaoi North, a one-room event inside Anime North similar to the J-Rock room. They were given the go, and from there Yaoi North was born. Hideto pulled Chris in as staff to do artwork for us while Gryvon grabbed both Matan and Covarla as her lackeys, originally having Matan run Gay Sex 101 and Covarla check IDs. Yaoi North 2005 was the first run of the con. The majority of the programming was taken over by viewings, but a number of staple panels grew out of this year – namely Crossplay 101, World History of Homosexuality, and the ever-popular Gay Sex 101, which ran over its original one hour timeslot to become the longest running panel in con history.
Yaoi North 2006 marked a bit of improvement over the 2005 run. We now had a number of ‘veteran’ panelists, as well as a small fanbase within the Anime North crowd. DramaQueen joined us as the con’s first guest, donating a number of prizes to the con and providing postcards for the Anime North registration bags. The Yaoi North staff also introduced their own line of merchandise with buttons, the first run of the CD Anthology, and three different t-shirts.
In 2007 the convention expanded to offer two rooms of programming as well as Cafe Nocturne, a butler cafe. 2009 marked Yaoi North’s fifth anniversary and the introduction of Ears & Tails: Furries in Yaoi and Yaoi Jeopardy.
2014 brought with it Yaoi North’s 10th anniversary, special guests from /report and Storm Moon Press, as well as the introduction of the Sew Your Own Yaoi Doll Workshop.
I am trying to find information regarding the programming and contests of 2012, but cannot find anything. Do you have any further information for your events, other than that there are some vague notion that they are happening? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.
The 2012 schedule is at: http://www.animenorth.com/docs/an2012_schedule_v2.pdf
Descriptions for panels/contests can usually be found in the “Past Panels” and “Past Contests” pages.
Thank you so much for responding to me so quickly. I did take a look at the Past Events page but did not find what I was looking for, specifically, information for the Iron Smut contest. Do I need to bring anything for that? Is it a writing challenge or something else?
It’s under Past Contests: http://box5294.temp.domains/~owdmfgmy/yaoinorth/past-events/past-contests/
It’s a writing challenge in teams with a presentation portion as well. You should not need to bring anything. (Maybe paper, but I think we have notepads.)