Mixed Remixed Festival

PANEL: How to Make Living the Writer’s Life a Reality 6/14 FREE!

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WRITER'S-LIFE-MIXED-REMIXED-Don’t miss this great panel of writers and screenwriters who made the transition from professional and traditional careers to writing full-time!  Find out their steps and secrets! 6/14

How to Make Living the Writer’s Life a Reality

June 14, 2014 at 10:00am-10:50am

Panelists: Lori Lakin Hutcherson, Julie Buxbaum, Heidi Durrow, Marissa Jo Cerar, Ernessa T. Carter

Pre-registration strongly encouraged.  Save your spot by registering here.  FREE!

You keep telling yourself one day you’re going to write that novel. Well how can you take practical steps to make that dream a reality? Hear the stories of some successful writers of books and films and how they transitioned into living the writer’s life.

Lori Lakin Hutcherson

mx14_lorilakinhutchersonLori is a Los Angeles native, graduate of Harvard University and a former Vice President of Feature Film Production at 20th Century Fox, where she helped oversee such movies as “Waiting To Exhale,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” “The Truth About Cats & Dogs,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Crucible” and “That Thing You Do.”

After six years as a film executive, Lori climbed out of that circle of Hell into the creative one, and has since written for TV shows such as “Daddio,” “Abby,” “The American Embassy,” and the Will Smith/Jada Pinkett Smith-produced “All of Us.” Most recently she was a Supervising Producer and writer on VH1’s “Single Ladies.”

Lori is the mother of two young children, Xavier (7) and Phoebe (4) and is really freakin’ happily married to writer/director/comedian Warren Hutcherson, former executive producer of “Moesha” and “The Bernie Mac Show.” She is currently working on growing her news/media website, goodblacknews.org, freelancing for L.A. Parent Magazine, and de-cluttering her way too kid-friendly home.

Julie Buxbaum

Julie Buxbaum is an internationally renowned novelist, and the author of THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE and AFTER YOU (both published by Dial Press, a division of Random House). Her work has been translated into twenty five languages, and is available in over fifty countries. THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox with Anne Hathaway attached to star. She has also written for Redbook and The New York Times. A graduate of Harvard Law School and The University of Pennsylvania, Julie now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Heidi Durrow

HDmixedremixedHeidi Durrow is the founder of the Mixed Remixed Festival, a former litigator, a former Life Skills trainer of professional athletes, and the New York Times best-selling novelist of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books) which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize and was named to several Best of Lists in 2010.

mx14_Cerar_Marissa_Jo_300x300Marissa Jo Cerar

Marissa Jo Cerar grew up in a family of eight adopted kids, as the only brown person in the cornfield-lined roads of her rural Illinois town. She has a BA in Film, concentrating in Screenwriting from Columbia College Chicago and is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project: Involve. During the Project: Involve program, Marissa Jo’s short script STEPS was produced and then screened in multiple film festivals around the world. In 2012 her award-winning feature script CONVERSION was on the prestigious Black List and Hit List as one of best unproduced scripts in Hollywood, and in 2013 she was named on Hollywood’s Young and Hungry List.

Marissa Jo works as a story editor on the critically acclaimed ABC Family show, THE FOSTERS, and her script CONVERSION is in development with Tim Robbins attached to direct.

 Ernessa T. Carter

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Storyteller’s Prize and Live Event with Host Erica Gimpel

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Gimpel_Erica_0984_xret-2We are so elated!  Erica Gimpel will host the Mixed Remixed Festival live event and Storyteller’s Prize presentation featuring a talented group of performers.  I have adored Erica since her days as Coco on Fame.  She was my idol!  Confident, talented, beautiful –and she looked like she was part of my tribe. There really was someone else who looked like me!  Erica has carved out a singular acting and singing career since she was a teen and continues to inspire on stage and on the screen.  We are so lucky to have her as a part of and supporter of the Mixed Remixed Festival.  Don’t miss this amazing event where we will honor Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, writer Susan Straight, and Cheerios.  It’s going to be a great night!–Heidi Durrow

Poets & Writers Connecting Cultures Reading with Mixed Remixed Writers

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mx14_fb_coverYou don’t want to miss this great reading!  Poets & Writers has asked Mixed Remixed Writers to be part of this wonderful reading series on 5/22/14 7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.  Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Here is more information about the event and the writers participating:

Join us on May 22, 2014 for Poets & Writers Fourth Annual Los Angeles Connecting Cultures Reading featuring writers representing P&W-supported organizations: 826LA, Heartland Institute for Transformation, Lambda Literary Foundation, Levantine Cultural Center, Mixed Remixed Festival, and Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore. Readers include: librecht baker, Jesse Bliss, Laura Davila, Gayle Fuhr, Trebor Healy, Queen Hollins, Juliana Maio, Jeffery Martin, Jamie Moore, Melinda Palacios, Bernard Radfar, Luivette Resto, Chris L. Terry, Tony Valenzuela, Vickie Vértiz, and Esme-Michelle Watkins. This event is free and open to the public! Reception to follow.

 

PANEL: Mixed Latinos in the Flesh 6/14

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Mixed Latinos in the Flesh
June 14, 2014 3:00pm-4:30pm

Facilitator: Thomas Lopez
Panelists: Elizabeth Liang, James Tyner, Jessica Arana, Sandra Ramos O’Briant

Pre-registration strongly encouraged.  Save your spot by registering here.  FREE!

Writers, poets, visual artists and performers will share how their identities as mixed Latinos influence their work. The works of the panelists range in diversity from literary and theatrical memoir to historical fiction to poetry. Mixed Latinos are likely the largest single segment of the mixed community although very little is known about them. Even the name “mixed Latino” requires an explanation. Attendees will learn of the unique experience of mixed Latinos as well as the similarities they have to the mixed experience.

Thomas Lopez

Thomas LopezThomas Lopez has been a member of MASC for over fifteen years and is a past president of the organization. He has made numerous television, print, and on-line media appearances and speaking engagements as a keynote and panelist. As a long-time board member he has also organized conferences, a mini-film festival, and diversity training workshops. Apart from MASC, Thomas is a mechanical engineer having worked in multiple industries the most recent being medical devices. He was born and raised in Southern California with parents from Mexican American and German-Polish roots.

Elizabeth Liang

ELElizabeth Liang is an actress and writer. Her one-woman show, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, had a full run in Hollywood in May 2013 and has begun its national tour in festivals and the college circuit. Her essays on developing the show and producing Chekhov’s Three Sisters have been published and reprinted. Elizabeth was raised in Central America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Connecticut as a Guatemalan-American business brat of Chinese-Spanish-Irish-French-German-English descent. She graduated from Wesleyan University, where she got her B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Film Studies. Elizabeth transferred to Wesleyan from Wellesley College, where she had won the Isabelle Eastman Fisk Performance Prize for acting. After graduating, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City during the summer before she moved to Los Angeles. In L.A. she studied acting with Jonathan Banks, Marilyn Fox & Gar Campbell at Pacific Resident Theatre, and Cinda Jackson at The Lost Studio. She also studied Shakespeare with Louis Fantasia, and improv with ComedySportz and Gary Austin, co-founder of The Groundlings.

On stage Elizabeth has acted at East West Players, Theatre of NOTE, the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Quantum Theatre Company, 2100 Sq Ft, and Pacific Resident Theatre, among others. She also served as Co-President of the Artistic & Management Committee at NOTE. Elizabeth has won Stage Scene LA, Garland, and LA Weekly Awards for her performances. She was twice named one of the “5 Best Actresses of the Year” byReview Plays and was also named one of the “Top 10 Actresses of the Year” by Dave Barton of the OC Weekly. Elizabeth has acted in both English- and Spanish-language features and short films that have been screened all over the globe. Some of her television credits include Law & Order: LA, Criminal Minds, and a recurring role on The West Wing.

James Tyner

James TynerAs Fresno’s first poet laureate, James Tyner is now tasked with endorsing poetry and literary arts, with the goal of increasing awareness of the city’s history of poetic accomplishment. Tyner, 38, graduated Fresno State’s Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts program with distinction in 2009. But he was an accomplished writer even before tossing the graduation cap. During his college years, Tyner earned the Larry Levis Poetry Prize and the Andres Montoya Scholarship. Tyner has run Poets in the Library, one of the longest-running free poetry series in the Valley, a program that has attracted poets and writers from all around since 2005.

Jessica Arana

JessicaHeadShotJessica Arana is a NYC trained artist and designer now based in Los Angeles.

Her artwork expresses her vivencias (its paradoxes and differences), as a multidisciplinary and Multiracial artist. Her most recent work uses memories, embroidered drawings, and photography to reveal her complex identity experiences. Jessica’s artwork acts as sutures to the sometimes-fractured experiences of women and Multiracial individuals. And, she incorporates the concepts of fluid identity, mestiza and hybrid consciousness, diaspora, and feminist theory into her pieces. For Jessica, the creative process is a way of finding home and belonging, and a method of creating Borderland spaces for self-authorship outside of monoracial normativity.

Jessica received her B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and her M.A. degree with distinction from California State University, Northridge. She has also studied fine art and photography at the Instituto Allende in Mexico. As an art director, Jessica has lead design initiatives for many leading brands and firms nationwide.

Sandra Ramos O’Briant

mx14_Sandra Ramos ObriantAs the daughter of a Spanish Catholic and a Texan Baptist, Sandra Ramos O’Briant was introduced to both the self-flagellating Penitentes of New Mexico and the tent show holy-rollers of East Texas. In addition, her hometown of Santa Fe, the city of Holy Faith, is host to state politics and the attendant corruption, artists and their hangers-on, and a thriving tourist economy. All of this went into her first book, The Sandoval Sisters’ Secret of Old Blood. The issues confronted by three sisters are contemporary: racism, sexual and religious intolerance, and the power of superstition. Finally, it is a story of what constitutes a family, and the myths associated with the blood and bounds of loyalty. Sandra Ramos O’Briant’s grandmother was a Sandoval, and married a Gallegos. Her mother married the O’Briant. Her father was no sweetheart, but she’s stubbornly clung to his name. Growing up in Santa Fe, both her brother and she got the sh** kicked out of them for having an Anglo last name. Yet, her mother had proudly relinquished her own father’s Spanish surname because of the discrimination she experienced for being Mexican. For her, an Anglo last name was a step up. She had no idea her future children would experience reverse discrimination.

PANEL: Before Obama Was Obama

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This is a great conversation led by Cathy Tashiro you don’t want to miss with folks who have been living the Mixed experience before the Loving decision!

Before Obama was Obama: Voices of Older Mixed Race Americans & Interracial Families
June 14, 2014 10:00am-10:50am

Panelists: Cathy Tashiro, Roy Harrison

Pre-registration strongly encouraged.  Save your spot by registering here.  FREE!

Cathy Tashiro

mx14_cathy_tashiroOBAMA-MIXED-REMIXED-Until now, no one has examined the collective stories of the 20th century’s older, mixed-raced Americans. Stories of younger people of mixed heritage are out there but Cathy Tashiro’s book Standing on Both Feet: Voices of Older Mixed Race Americans (Paradigm Publishers, 2013) takes the story one step further―analyzing how previous generations worked to find their place in decades when their very existence violated entrenched societal beliefs and legally enforced color lines.

Standing on Both Feet: Voices of Older Mixed Race Americans interweaves the experiences of 20 people born between 1902 and 1951 who are mixed African American/Caucasian or Asian American/Caucasian. The book’s title refers to a frequent theme in their stories―a life with one foot in each culture; but a society that checked the box of racial identity for them based largely on rigid definitions of race. The title comes from a direct quote by Roy Harrison who will be on the panel with Cathy.

Like the people she interviewed, Cathy Tashiro is of mixed race. She was born to a Japanese American father and white mother from Kentucky who got together right at the end of World War II when there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment. Her mother was initially disowned by her white grandfather for marrying her father. She is Faculty Emerita in the Nursing and Healthcare Leadership Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Her perspective is informed by the unique blend of her experiences as a health care provider and sociologist, and she has published articles and book chapters on mixed race identity, mixed race and health disparities, and the meaning of race in healthcare and research. Before getting her doctorate in sociology, she was a health care provider in many community-based settings with diverse populations.

Roy Harrison Bio: “In 1965 I obtained a copy of my birth certificate which  gave me quite a surprise. It confirmed my birth in 1941 to Roy Harrison, a Negro born in Sheridan, WY and Carole Harrison, a Creole, born in Taylor, ND. My mother was in fact of Norwegian descent. There was no mention of my race. As a child I had no problem with being a Negro but I wondered why, since I was more white then Negro (my father also had Creek ancestry). A friend said he was told that my mother couldn’t be white, because it was illegal. Like many mixed race people living in white areas, I had no idea that there were other people in the world like me. I have been Colored, Negro, Black, African American*, Mixed Race, but I now refer to myself as a Mixed Race-Other. However I claim the right to self determination and call myself whatever I want, whenever I want, even African American* which I don’t care for. To learn more, I suggest you read Cathy Tashiro’s  “Standing On Both Feet, Voices of Older Mixed Race Americans” in which I appear as Fred Johnson.”

A Powerful Writing Workshop with Chris Terry

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RACIAL-MOMENTS-MIXED-REMIXED-Writing Significant Racial Moments
June 14, 2014 11:00am-12:20pm

Instructor: Chris Terry

Pre-registration is strongly encouraged.  Save your spot by registering here.

Writing Significant Racial Moments is an interactive creative writing workshop where participants read from and discuss a piece of published work with a mixed-race theme, explore the possibilities for mixed-race lit and experience, then share and write their own stories. Everyone leaves having shared and written.
Chris L. Terry recently moved to L.A. from Chicago, where he got a Creative Writing MFA from Columbia College. Slate and Kirkus included his novel, Zero Fade, (Curbside Splendor, 2013), on their Best Of 2013 lists. Kirkus called it, “Original, hilarious, thought-provoking and wicked smart: not to be missed.” ChrisLTerry.com has links to more of his writing.

Voiceover Workshop with Rayme Cornell FREE!

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VOICE-MIXED-REMIXED-Don’t miss this great workshop with voiceover artist and master teacher Rayme Cornell.

What Does Your Voice Sell: McDonald’s or Mickey D’s or Both?: Capitalizing on “Ambiguity” with Your Voice
June 14, 2014 11:00am-12:20pm

Instructor: Rayme Cornell

Pre-registration is strongly encouraged.  Save your spot by registering here.

In voice-over, knowledge is power.  What are your voice signatures?  Who is your voices’ demographic?  Is your voice better suited for selling coconut water or cough drops?  Does your voice come across as an everyman or a wild child? During this workshop, actor, voice-over artist and theatre professor Rayme Cornell will help you hone in on what your voice does best.  Demographics, product categories and brands will be considered to help uncover where your voice connects.  Be prepared to get behind the mic and find out what your voice sells.

Rayme Cornell has worked in film, television, Off Broadway and with some of America’s most prestigious Regional Theatres including, The Old Globe, The Alley, Crossroads, The Vinyard, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Primary Stages, The O’Neill, Missouri Rep., Unicorn Theatre and with New York’s famous Acting Company.  She is also known for her extensive voice-over work representing such products as L’Oreal, Ford, Dunkin Donuts, Cingular, Singulair, Lifetime, WE, Oxygen Network, USA Network, MTV, VH1, BET, ESPN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Republican and Democratic Party Candidates and many more.

Rayme is an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Department at UNLV.  She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio and Actors Equity Association. She received her B.A. from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and her MFA in Acting from the University of Missouri Kansas City in association with the Missouri Repertory Theatre.

Krista Bremer, My Accidental Jihad: Featured Writer at Mixed Remixed Festival

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mx14_myaccidentaljihadWe can’t believe our luck in getting Krista Bremer to read at the Mixed Remixed Festival.  My Accidental Jihad is available in stores everywhere TODAY including with our Official Festival Bookseller Skylight Books! (Yes, they do mail orders!)

Here’s a summary of a really great book about a bicultural marriage– a true love story: Fifteen years ago, Krista Bremer was a surfer from a secular middle-class family who dreamed of a comfortable American life of adventure, romance, and opportunity. Then, on a running trail in North Carolina, she met Ismail. Kind, sincere, and passionate, Ismail came from another world: one of eight children, he’d been raised in an impoverished fishing village in Libya. When Krista later realized she was carrying his child—and she and Ismail made the decision to become a family—she embarked on a journey she never could have imagined.

This is what people are saying about this lyrical memoir: “My Accidental Jihad is a bold piece of writing (and thinking) by an incredibly brave woman.” –Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

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