We were so excited to get this shout out from Gayle on the Go. Thanks KTLA for helping us spread the word!
Mixed Remixed Festival 2015 Re-cap: Writing Mixed and Queer
Fifteen enthusiastic writers showed up for the “Putting the ‘M’ in LGBT” workshop at the Mixed Remixed Festival on June 13th and we had a great time talking and writing ‘mixed and queer’.
I created a timeline of writers, who were mixed and queer, for the workshop – not an easy task! It was hard to find people who were on record as identifying as both mixed and queer before the 1980s. We talked about why this might be.
In the early part of the 2oth century the outlook for mixed or queer people was not always easy – attitudes in society and in some cases the laws of the land were discriminatory. This context was reflected in the literature of the time where the narrative arc of the “tragic mulatto” often paralleled that of gay characters, both generally ending in tragically for the protagonist.
However by the 1960’s, laws prohibiting ‘interracial marriage’ were being challenged in the US State of Virginia, the US was passing its Civil Rights Act while in the UK, ‘homosexual sex’ was decriminalised. These shifts were reflected in the world of literature and by the 1980s there was a blossoming of mixed/queer writing.
Writers on the timeline included:
Jackie Kay [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiP684Ss3FI[/youtube]Stacyann Chin [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc9MUvyAAkI[/youtube]
Carl Phillips[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YdeDWeUf9g[/youtube]
15 Lucky Festival Attendees Will Get Greg Pak’s New Book Hot Off the Press!
We’re so excited that thanks to the generosity of Greg Pak we’re giving away 15 copies of The Princess Who Saved Herself. The children’s book based on a song by Jonathan Coulton, and follows the story of the multiracial Gloria Cheng Epstein Takahara de la Garza Champion. You will be among the very first to get the book! Come early and snag a copy in the giveaway!-Heidi Durrow, Festival Founder
MIXED HERITAGE BONE MARROW REGISTRY DRIVE AT MIXED REMIXED FESTIVAL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Heidi Durrow
Phone: 213-293-7077
Email: heidi@mixedremixed.org
Website: www.mixedremixed.org
MIXED HERITAGE BONE MARROW REGISTRY DRIVE
AT MIXED REMIXED FESTIVAL
(Los Angeles, CA) The Mixed Remixed Festival will register bone marrow donors with the help of Mixed Marrow on Saturday, June 13, at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles (100 N. Central Street).
Mixed Marrow strives to inform, educate, and register more minority/multiracial donors so that people of all races and colors can have an equal chance at finding a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Mixed Marrow, founded in 2009, recruits donors for Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches, Be The Match, and the National Marrow Donor Program. Mixed Marrow is currently working on a documentary film, Mixed Match, to help bring awareness.
Mixed Marrow founder, Athena Mari Asklipiadis, shared the importance of the cause, stating, “Patient-donor matches rely heavily on inherited genes so similar ancestry (race) is usually the case which is why it is important all communities register as donors.”
About 70% of patients in need of a transplant do not have a matching donor in their family. They depend on the Be The Match Registry® to find a match. Siblings with the same two parents only hold a 1 in 4 chance of matching. Because ethnicity is a determining factor in finding a match, patients will most likely find a donor within their racial and ethnic community. Yet, of the 6 million people on the registry, less than 7% are of Asian/Pacific Islander descent, less than 6 % are of Hispanic descent, and only 7.6 % are African Americans. Of the 11 million donors on the registry, only 4% are mixed race (all possible combinations).
Prospective donors between the ages of 18-44 can register in only 10 minutes at the Festival by filling out a registration form and having their cheek swabbed for a sample. All donors will be placed on the National and Worldwide registry so that every patient can have a fair chance to look for a match.
The Mixed Remixed Festival, which takes place June 13, celebrates stories of the Mixed experience and stories of interracial and intercultural relationships, blended families, and anyone who identifies with having mixed roots.
A free public event, the Mixed Remixed Festival brings together film and book lovers, innovative and emerging artists, and multiracial families and individuals for workshops, readings, film screenings, a special series of family events Saturday afternoon, and a dynamic live performance of music, comedy, and spoken word Saturday evening. Registration is strongly encouraged.
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Presenter Spotlight 2015: Writer Marie Mockett
Featured Writers Reading
June 13, 2015 3pm-5pm
Marie Mockett was born and raised in California to a Japanese mother and American father, and graduated from Columbia University with a degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her first novel, Picking Bones from Ash, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and a finalist for the Paterson Prize. She has written for The New York Times, Salon, National Geographic, Glamour, and other publications and has been a guest on Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered on NPR.
In 2013, Marie was awarded a Fellowship by the NEA and Japan US Friendship Commission, which enabled her to live in Japan. While there, she was featured in the NHK (Japanese National Broadcasting) Documentary, Venerating the Departed, which was broadcast internationally several times. Her memoir, “Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye,” was published in January 19, 2015 and examines how the Japanese overcome extreme grief and disaster, against the backdrop of the 2011 tsunami and Marie’s own family temple in Japan, located 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Reactor.
“Where the Dead Pause” as been widely praised by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times, and has been chosen as an Indie Next Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Of her book, the New York Times wrote: “An intriguing… travelogue through a landscape of Japanese spiritual belief, with forays into history, folklore, and memoir. [Mockett] has the ability, fully available only to those on the margins, “to see through more than one set of eyes, if one learns to pay attention to one’s environment.” It is this gift of double-sightedness, of bringing to bear both the “dry” rationality of the West and the “sticky” sensibilities professed by the Japanese, that makes this the most interesting book so far to have come out of the disaster.” (Richard Lloyd Parry – New York Times Book Review)
Marie online:
Twitter @MarieMockett
Website http://www.mariemockett.com/
By Keri Wilborn
THANK YOU! You made it happen for the Mixed Remixed Festival!
Thank you so much for your support of the Mixed Remixed Festival! Because of you, we were able to raise $12,067 for the Festival this year! That’s way beyond our goal of $10,000 and even more than last year’s final funding number! WOW!
It was truly a community effort: 140 donors in 6 countries donated over the course of 40 days! THANK YOU!
So now, we can’t wait to see you on June 13 to see what your donations have helped support! Don’t forget to register. We want to know that you’re coming so we can give you an extra special hello!-Heidi Durrow, Festival Founder
Presenter Spotlight 2015: Performer Willy Wilkinson
Willy Wilkinson
Storyteller’s Prize Presentation and Live Event, Tateuchi Democracy Forum, June 13, 2015 6:30pm-8:00pm
Willy Wilkinson, MPH is an award-winning writer and public health consultant whose writing has been described as “highly evocative” by the Lambda Literary Review. He has performed spoken word at universities from Vassar College to UC Berkeley, in the film “Against a Trans Narrative,” and at Creating Change, the premier national LGBTQ activism conference. He is the recipient of a National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association award, the Transgender Law Center Vanguard Award, the Asian and Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Community (APIQWTC) Phoenix Award, and is listed on the Trans 100. His forthcoming memoir Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency blends his intersectional experiences of race, gender, sexuality, disability, class, and parenthood with lessons from the fields of cultural competency, public health, and policy advocacy. Learn more at www.willywilkinson.com.
Willy Wilkinson on-line:
Twitter: @willywilkinson1
Facebook: www.facebook.com/willywilkinsonmph
Website: www.willywilkinson.com
Feel Good Five Dollar Friday
What makes you feel better than being able to help someone out? And doesn’t it feel even better when it’s super-easy to help too? We think so. And we hope that you’ll help us out today.
We’re in the middle of our annual crowdfunding campaign and we’ve got just a couple of weeks left to raise almost $3700. We can do it with your help. All we’re asking for is your $5 donation. Yup. Just $5.
Why $5. Well because 1) if everyone who attended the Festival gave $5 we’d meet our goal easily; 2) If everyone who follows us on Facebook or Twitter or even here gave $5, we’d meet our goal easily; 3) it’s fun to say Feel Good Five Dollar Friday!
Please give $5 today. (Or more if you can afford it.) And show us that even the Festival is free to you it’s something that you value. The Festival won’t continue in future years if we don’t have your support plain and simple. Please donate now! Celebrate Feel Good Five Dollar Friday!
5 Best Tumblr Blogs for Mixed & Biracial People
1. What We Should Call HAPA (whatweshouldcallhapa)
This blog is perhaps one of my favorites just because it takes a refreshingly light-hearted approach to relaying the frustrations that come with being biracial or multiracial.
In a thank you note for reaching 100K subscribers, the author wrote:
“I never thought I’d find so many people who get these jokes and understand what it’s like to be mixed.”
2. F**k Yeah Mixed Beauty (fuckyeahmixedbeauty)
“Exploring what it means to be “mixed” by questioning, redefining ourselves, and celebrating the beauty of multiethnic identities.”
Visiting this blog in particular is always an enriching experience. There are always well-researched stories that deal with mixed people or people of color throughout history scattered around the world – you can find yourself in these stories from decades or even centuries ago and feel a sense of pride in shared multiracial experiences.
3. Iyannwayway
Now this one is a personal blog by a beautiful 21 year old mixie named Lyann who shares her life story as well as those of others through reblogged photos, gifs and article snippets relating to all our mixed up experiences.
“[V]eggie,puerto rican, afro caribbean. Afrocentric. Student. Philosophy. Feel free to talk.
Se habla español.”
4. We Are All Mixed Up (weareallmixedup)
How the 4 moderators describe their site: “This is a blog for those of us who are forgotten in the mainstream anti-racism movement. Those of us who are biracial, multiracial, and multiethnic and have struggled year after year with establishing our identities. This is a safe space for all mixed people of color..
This space encourages stories, submissions, art, poetry, photos, research, links to articles, questions, and whatever else you would like to submit!
We hope to create a space that highlights that not every person of color is monoracial and not every problem we face can be looked at through a monoracial lens.”
5. Acceptance Is The First Step (acceptance-is-the-first-step)
We love this site. We love our curls! No matter your curl pattern or texture, this site celebrates us all and plainly shows how beautiful diversity truly is!
Mixed Love Notes #21 #mixedlovenotes
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