Category: Program

Presented by Greg Pizzino

An exploration of steam era frauds, fakers, and practical jokers. From faked artifacts like the Cardiff Giant and falsified oddities like the “Feejee Mermaid” to famous pranksters Theodore Hook and Horace de Vere Cole, we’ll see just how much you could get the 19th century public to believe!

Greg Pizzino is an author, playwright and performer from Ypsilanti, MI whose work often intersects with historical oddities. His short fiction, (published under his Thomas Gregory pen name) has appeared in numerous anthologies including “The Queen of Clocks and Other Steampunk Tales,” “Fairytales Punk’d Vol. 1 & 2,” and the Harvey Duckman Presents series. He is the author of numerous plays and audio dramas including “Lee’s Grand Tiki,” “Scav,” “The Gillman Problem,” and “Whatever Happened to Captain Future.” Currently, he serves as technical director at Ypsilanti’s Neighborhood Theatre Group.

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Presented by Jessica Lucci

What if the American Revolutionary War took place in a steampunked British colony?

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of a new nation, and this presentation will honor history while exploring an alternate timeline. From Lafayette’s airship to Paul Revere’s horse, plus a surprise character from another dimension, this fast-paced, informative, and titillating presentation will deliver an out-of-this-world take on the days leading to epic changes in society.

Jessica Lucci is a poet and steampunk author who writes about modern issues while maintaining historic integrity. All of her books feature multi-faceted LGBTQ+ main characters. New release: “Rivets and Revolution.”

Rivets and Revolution Rebellion, and the shadow of war, spreads across a British colony powered by steam and mechanisms. Liberty, the printing press master, is desperate to aid the Minutemen. When she risks everything to become a rebel spy, she forges unity with foreign kingdoms against an unexpected foe. All the while, she depends on her lover Georgia, the Lady of the governor’s mansion, to keep her secret, even when their lives hang in the balance. If Liberty cannot navigate in this war of worlds to freedom, a mysterious being will overtake them all. Jessica Lucci is a poet and steampunk author who writes about modern issues while maintaining historie integrity. All of her books feature multi-faceted LGBTQ+ main characters. 

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Presented by Gregory Laffrenzen

The tales of our clothes weave a colorful tale about values, nature, creativity, and ingenuity. Enjoy stories about what we have donned and doffed for the last several millennia.

Gregory Laffrenzen once lost a game of Timeline because he didn’t know when the zipper was invented, so clothing facts became his special interest for a month. He also enjoys creating steampunk costumes and props. He spends free time learning about history and is happy to share what he’s learned.

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• Games Master: Jodie Starks
• Gaming System: Dungeons & Dragons 5e
• Players: 2 – 6
• Gaming Time: 3 hours
• Sign Up at the main Registration Desk in the Atrium Lobby

It’s alive! The dangerous, dragon-like creature that terrorized the woods is roaming once more. Believed to be dead, our adventurers are asked to seek it out and find the secret to its survival. Travel through the dark woods to search for this monster, but beware, the forest is not what it seems. Don’t get lost or this may become home.

Meet Jodie Starks, a traveling bard with a real passion of enjoying time with friends and family (a performance really isn’t as much fun by yourself). She remembers the first time she was invited to play D&D, 2nd edition. Her entire family sat around the table and helped her role up her first character: a male, elven fighter with a wolf companion (some of you will know her inspiration for that). From there, she was hooked! After that, she ran games for family off and on for a while.

For the last seven years, she has ran D&D games weekly. In her free times, she runs one-shots for others. Although D&D is her system of choice, she is familiar with several (and have even run games in Pathfinder and 2d20). She enjoys sharing her passion with others and love to see new players get hooked. This last year she has become the GM for the YouTube stream, Dungeons & Dad Jokes.

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• Games Master: Jodie Starks
• Gaming System: Dungeons & Dragons 5e
• Players: 2 – 8
• Gaming Time: 3 hours
• Sign Up at the main Registration Desk in the Atrium Lobby

A mysterious door, living artwork, and a ghostly curator. The key to the Silver Bell gallery has been taken by a cunning creature known as Chester. Our adventurers must travel through the paintings to find Chester and locate the key to exit this maze of halls. But beware, he is not so easily found. So bring your wits and weapons and be ready to travel through the gallery of the Silver Bell.

Meet Jodie Starks, a traveling bard with a real passion of enjoying time with friends and family (a performance really isn’t as much fun by yourself). She remembers the first time she was invited to play D&D, 2nd edition. Her entire family sat around the table and helped her role up her first character: a male, elven fighter with a wolf companion (some of you will know her inspiration for that). From there, she was hooked! After that, she ran games for family off and on for a while.

For the last seven years, she has ran D&D games weekly. In her free times, she runs one-shots for others. Although D&D is her system of choice, she is familiar with several (and have even run games in Pathfinder and 2d20). She enjoys sharing her passion with others and love to see new players get hooked. This last year she has become the GM for the YouTube stream, Dungeons & Dad Jokes.

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Presented by M. Leigh Hood & Dash Qualls-Gibeau

Royal and noble women with a taste for blood and terror are more than mere fantasy. They are historical fact. Investigate the terror these blue-blooded women inspired in their own lands and unpack their complex legacies as we dive into characters far more colorful than the Red Queen.

M. Leigh Hood is a rare beast of the Cincinnati wilds, most often found walking her monstrous hound, Shuck, or working hard to exacerbate her carpal tunnel syndrome at the computer. Her work appears in Fairy Tales Punk’d Volume II, Cincinnati Magazine, and the in-development MonThology project.

Dash Qualls-Gibeau – Part automaton, all intellectual dilettante, Dash Qualls-Gibeau spends inordinate amounts of time venturing to the past to get answers for questions as old as time . . . a bit of a polymath regarding the darker side of life . . . or death.

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Presented by M. Leigh Hood

Meet furred menaces to society and feathered guides to other worlds as we burrow into folklore and legend that may have inspired Lewis Carrol’s chronophobic bunny. It’s story time for the charmingly deviant and wildly disturbing.

M. Leigh Hood is a rare beast of the Cincinnati wilds, most often found walking her monstrous hound, Shuck, or working hard to exacerbate her carpal tunnel syndrome at the computer. Her work appears in Fairy Tales Punk’d Volume II, Cincinnati Magazine, and the in-development MonThology project.

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Presented by M. Leigh Hood

Venture through the mists and under the sea to discover a host of strange and wonderful places a step removed from our own. We’ll discover various lands ruled by the Good Folk, elemental fairies, and very damp kings in sunken realms.

M. Leigh Hood is a rare beast of the Cincinnati wilds, most often found walking her monstrous hound, Shuck, or working hard to exacerbate her carpal tunnel syndrome at the computer. Her work appears in Fairy Tales Punk’d Volume II, Cincinnati Magazine, and the in-development MonThology project.

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Presented by Barfleet

Barfleet will be hosting board games in room 1321 Friday and Saturday 1 PM to 4 PM.

Open to all ages. We have an extensive game library ranging from City of Gears and Steampunk Rally, to Kings of Air and Steam and Lost Cities.

Come play our handmade giant sized version of Battleship called Dueling Depths! Attempt to have your kraken pull your opponents ships down into the depths!

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Presented by Ursula Bielski

Beneath the gleaming marvels of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition lay a haunted landscape of fire, fear, and Victorian mystery. In Ghosts of the White City, renowned historian and supernatural researcher Ursula Bielski guides you through the eerie underworld of 19th-century Chicago’s most unforgettable paranormal tales.

Uncover the restless spirits of the Great Chicago Fire, the sorrowful legends of Lincoln Park’s Suicide Bridge, and the blood-chilling legacy of H.H. Holmes and his “Murder Castle.” Then descend into the city’s strangest true legend: the Great Chicago Vampire Hunt of the 1890s, when terrified citizens stalked a creature of the night through the gaslit streets.

Through dramatic storytelling, rare historical accounts, and deep-rooted folklore, this presentation breathes life into the ghosts that still linger in the shadows of the White City.

Ursula Bielski is a Chicago historian, author, and founder of Chicago Hauntings, Inc. Known internationally as The Ghostlorist, she is one of the country’s foremost authorities on supernatural history and folklore. A lifelong scholar of the city’s dark past, Ursula has written more than a dozen books on Chicago’s haunted history and has appeared on Ghost Adventures, The History Channel, PBS, and dozens of other media outlets. Her work blends rigorous historical research with the storytelling traditions of old-world paranormalism.

With a deep love for Victorian culture and a sharp eye for the uncanny, Ursula brings to life the strange, spectral, and often forgotten tales that shaped the shadow side of the Second City.

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