CosQuiz Trivia and Black Girls Create Partner for “Harry Potter” Trivia Fundraiser

Are you ready to put your Harry Potter trivia knowledge from our most recent event to use for an important cause (or two)? This week, you have the chance to do just that!

CosQuiz Trivia and Black Girls Create have teamed up for a Harry Potter trivia fundraiser, with the proceeds going to support both Campaign Zero and National Bail Out. The trivia tournament will be held via Zoom on Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13.

CosQuiz Trivia is a trivia company of “cosplayers who love trivia,” and Black Girls Create is “a unique intersectional hub for Black creators and critical fandom.”

The Black Girls Create team explains its mission on its official website:

Founded in 2015, Black Girls Create is a unique intersectional hub for Black creators and critical fandom. Through substantive but easily accessible content, we encourage fans to celebrate and critique pop culture while also advocating for and contributing to the increased media representation of Black women specifically, and people of color in general.

Anthony of CosQuiz Trivia explained that the organization began as a local trivia event in Sydney, Australia, earlier this year. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced trivia nights to go virtual, Anthony and friend Charlotte set up their first online Harry Potter trivia event under the name CosQuiz and hosted it on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. They then met K. Alexandra of Black Girls Create through a mutual interest in trivia.

In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others in recent months alone, Anthony wanted to do something to support Black Lives Matter and connected with K. Alexandra and Black Girls Create to establish this trivia fundraiser. More than that, it is Anthony and K. Alexandra’s hope that the event will “[turn] fandom into activism.” Anthony noted that the aim is simply to make the world a better place:

Something I would like to add about the event is that [i]t is our love of fandom and Harry Potter that brings us all together; from reading Harry Potter, we are taught to be accepting, open[-]minded and overall better humans, so why don’t we use these teachings to come together and help to make the world a better place[?] This is why we are doing this event, to come together in our love of fandom to contribute to organisations that are actively trying to help the world and make it a better place. Nothing outside of thanking the people who came to play and donating to the causes. We as Potterheads understand that we are to take an active role in turning fandom into activism.

For this event, the trivia organizers have chosen to support both Campaign Zero and National Bail Out, two organizations known for their ongoing work against the systemic anti-Black racism present in the United States.

Campaign Zero is working to end police violence in America, and its website describes how donated funds will be used.

Funds donated to Campaign Zero support the analysis of policing practices across the country, research to identify effective solutions to end police violence, technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns and the development of model legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide.

The organization calls upon local, state, and federal government officials to take action against police violence and has outlined ten separate but related categories of action, including limiting the use of force by police, implementing community representation, and demilitarizing the police. More information about these efforts can be found on Campaign Zero’s website.

National Bail Out, meanwhile, works to address the problem of mass incarceration in the United States.

The National Bail Out collective is a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration. We are people who have been impacted by cages — either by being in them ourselves or witnessing our families and loved ones be encaged. We are queer, trans, young, elder, and immigrant.

National Bail Out supports the reform of the pretrial bail system and coordinates efforts such as the annual Mama’s Day Bail Outs, “where [National Bail Out] bail[s] out as many Black Mamas and caregivers as [it] can so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families where they belong.” More information about National Bail Out is available on its website.

The trivia event itself “will be discussing the themes of rebellion, incarceration, stereotyping and diversity,” and the questions for the tournament will come from both the seven-book Harry Potter series and Fantastic Beasts.

In keeping with Black Girls Create’s focus on “critical fandom,” the organizers note that this event is intended to spark discussion.

As well as trivia, during our intermission, we will be speaking more about the organisations that this trivia is supporting and giving information as to how you can support them.

As Potterheads trying to create a more equitable world, it’s important for us to acknowledge that [t]he [w]izarding [w]orld itself is both a magical yet flawed place. We want to create a space to not only acknowledge this but to also open up conversation about our roles as fans.

All participants in the trivia tournament – whether playing as an individual or as part of a team – must pay $5.00 for entry. Two separate sessions will be run in order to cater to fans across different time zones, and more information about the tournament itself is available on Facebook.

As we at MuggleNet work to reaffirm our commitment to inclusivity and equity, we encourage you to learn more about the ways in which we all can work to advance social justice – in our fandom and wherever we live.

Will you be taking part in this trivia fundraiser? Let us know in the comments below!