I was reminded this weekend of how much I love the group Pink Martini headed by my childhood friend Thomas Lauderdale when I heard his wonderful voice on NPR in an interview with Scott Simon. He and the band including the ever-amazing China Forbes have collaborated with the Von Trapp Family singers and are on tour. You can check out the great multicultural mash-up of music they have created in their latest CD Dream a Little Dream.–Heidi Durrow
If you haven’t read The Good Lord Bird by Mixed Remixed Festival favorite James McBride, get it now in paperback. The National Book Award winning book is the kind of story we like to celebrate at the Mixed Remixed Festival. This is how the National Book Award f
olks describe it: “James McBride’s novel takes a pivotal, troubled sequence in American history—John Brown’s abolitionist campaign—and retells it in a voice as comic and original as any we have heard since Mark Twain. The narrator is one Henry Shackleford, aka Onion, an escaped teenaged slave who accompanies Brown while disguised as a girl. Fondly portraying Brown as a well-meaning but unhinged zealot, The Good Lord Bird is daringly irreverent, but also wise, funny, and affecting.” I just call it darn good.-Heidi Durrow
I’m excited to read this new book by Jess Row, Your Face in Mine. It’s about a white Jewish man who undergoes racial re-assignment surgery and becomes a black man. It puts me in mind of one of my favorite books by George Schuyler called Black No More. You can read a little about the book here in a New York Times story by Felicia Lee. And read Festival favorite writer Emily Raboteau’s New York Times Book Review take on the book here. —Heidi Durrow
UPDATE: THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD ON OCT. 25, 2014 AT 11AM. SAME LOCATIONS! We’re excited to have our very first write-in. Now you can meet-up in Los Angeles and the Seattle Area. Bring your neglected work-in-progress and laptop or paper and pen and get energized by your fellow Mixed Remixed writers. And please let us know that you’re coming so we can save some tables together! RSVP here.
Los Angeles: at the Coffee Connection, 3838 S. Centinela Avenue, LA, CA.
Seattle: Third Place Books, Lake Forest Place, 17171 NE Bothell Way, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
See you then! – Heidi Durrow
I reviewed the book this film is based on for NPR a few years ago so I was eager to see how it translated to the big screen. And can I say I thought it translated quite well!
It’s a sweet fairy-tale kind of story and it’s also the kind of story that the Mixed Remixed Festival loves to celebrate: a story about our racial and cultural connectedness. I don’t think I’m spoiling it by saying that the story features not one but two interracial relationships. And well, it’s just a lovely story about longing, and dreaming and what it really means to make your dreams come true. Check it out! I think you’ll like it a lot!–Heidi Durrow
Join us for the 1st ever Mixed Remixed Movie Meet-Up on October 18, 2014 in NY and LA to see Dear White People. We’re excited to see this film and want to make sure that we support it. SAVE THE DATE! More information to come. —Heidi Durrow
If you’re looking for a great read that deals with the Mixed experience. Check out All Our Names by Dinaw Mengetsu. It’s the story of an interracial romance between a mid-western woman and an immigrant African man. Touching and well-told. I highly recommend it.–Heidi Durrow
We couldn’t have had a better time with Festival supporter Lenora Drew and her family and friends. Thank you for your support of the Festival! It means the world to us. –Heidi Durrow
P.S. Have you donated to the Festival yet? Do it now!
We’re excited to have our very first write-in on Oct. 11 11am-1pm at the Coffee Connection, 3838 S. Centinela Avenue, LA, CA. Bring your neglected work-in-progress and laptop or paper and pen and get energized by your fellow Mixed Remixed writers. And please let us know that you’re coming so we can save some tables together! RSVP here. See you then! – Heidi Durrow
Guys! We made the big time. We’re in a book! Check out Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed-Race America by Gary Nash! Festival folks can get 15 percent off using the code REMIXED.
We’re also going to do a giveaway for copies of the book. Stay tuned for information about our contest.-Heidi Durrow
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