Mixed Remixed Festival

Coupleships: The Dynamics of Interracial Relationships

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Coupleships: The Dynamics of Interracial Relationships

Where: Yuki Family Board Room at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA
When: Saturday, June 11, 1:30pm–2:20pm
What: panel to discuss the intricacies of interracial relationships
Who: moderator Lance Tango and panelist leader Christelyn Karazin

This panel at the 2016 Mixed Remixed Festival explored the dynamics of mixed coupleships and also touched on topics related to being a parent in a mixed-family.

interracial relationships, loving, loving filmMany of us partaking in the Mixed Remixed Festival were the children (literally and/or figuratively) of an interracial relationship. Those of us who are of dating age have either thought about or been involved in these pairings ourselves.

What does it mean to be in a “mixed” relationship? To hold different racial and cultural experiences than your partner? In this context, how do we view ourselves and each other, and how do other view us? Who judges whom, and why?

These are only the surface questions. Like most complex topics, mixed-race relations are layered. Therapist Lance Tango moderated a panel discussion on these dynamics. Heading the panel was Christelyn Karazin, author of Swirling: How to Date, Mate, and Relate Mixing Race, Culture, and Creed. 

The Expectations of an Interracial Couple

We enter into any relationship, romantic or not, with expectations. Due to circumstance, previous experiences, or community-derived mentalities, we expect—we meet others with sandbags already tied to our ankles.

Of course, when discussing interracial relationships (I dislike this phrase; from here on out I’ll use “multicultural relationship”), we usually face conflicts of many kinds. There’s internal conflict. Or there’s familial conflict. Cultural conflict. Societal conflict. Each of these can stand alone, or they can mix for an uncomfortable cocktail.

chrstelyn _MG_6044But let’s gloss over the easily imagined racist/bigoted/ignorant parent(s), etc. Family dynamics are often complicated in and of themselves. Judgments are flung like snowballs, and depending on your relationship with said relative, you brush off the flakes and ice, you crumple, or you throw your own. Yes, some families will still disown relatives for marrying “outside” the cultural tribe. Arguably, though, the problems we create ourselves are more interesting—they tend to blindside us.

Christelyn summed this phenomenon up succinctly: “there’s often this internal conflict.” The internal struggle emerges from anxiety. And the anxiety? From a face-off between love and cultural expectations. For instance, upon reviewing Christelyn’s wedding album, her cousin noted that she’d worried about whether or not Christelyn was with her [white] husband for the “right” reasons.

And here we are. Reminded again of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court case in which miscegenation was declared unlawful. (For those of you who’ve had the privilege of not knowing this word, the illness-inducing definition of “miscegenation” is “the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types.” Sorry if I made you lose your breakfast/lunch/dinner. Which word kills you most? For me, it’s “interbreeding.”)

But we’ve come so far, you say. Sure, but the road is long, and the bend continues ahead. A law case and nearly fifty years can’t undo centuries of internal and external strife. Misconceptions are passed down, generation to generation. Suspicions, stereotypes, prejudices. It’s hard to hold a civil dialogue about race when the other party is plugging its ears, shutting its eyes, and screaming its stance like a car alarm.

Also, as panelist Terry noted, “we impose some of those expectations ourselves. We need to separate the needs of our communities from our own.”

We need to separate the needs of our communities from our own. #mixedrace #multiracial

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Racial and Gendered Norms In Interracial Relationships

_MG_6092Out of this layered, Leaning Tower of Pisa–style cake, let’s select two layers. Race and gender. (I’d also add sexuality, but then I’d triple the size of this article. Stay, readers, stay.) For Eric Robinson, a relationship is like a home. You return home seeking “sanctuary.” Your partner is supposed to provide you with refuge, and you’re supposed to provide the same. An equal exchange. An exchange between equals.

Fairy-tale romance aside, relationships—multicultural or not—require dialogue. Listening. Compromise. They can be rewarding, but they take work. Now let’s add outer pressures to the mix. That disagreement about the socks on the floor? Add the subtext derived from “because I married you, my mother thinks I’m a sellout.” The argument’s no longer about cleanliness and chores, is it?

There’s pressure to explain. Why’d you choose a black/white/Asian/Latin or Native American partner? Why’d you chose an outsider? Are we not good enough? Why are you complicating things? Don’t you realize that this person could be fetishizing/exploiting you?

For Christelyn, she felt pressure to “date black.” She felt that her community wanted her to ask for permission to “rewrite the Cinderella story.” Black men, she noted, weren’t questioned for dating who they desired and connected with. But black women were supposed to uphold “standards.”

What We Learn From Being Part of an Interracial Relationship

interracial relationships _MG_6099When we’re raised in a certain community, we’re inculcated with racial, cultural, sexual, and gendered norms. Parent to child. Community leader to community member. Media to consumer. We’re inundated. Sometimes a little self-awareness is all that’s needed to break the ties we don’t want to be bound by. Other times, the situation’s harder to escape from.

let’s all agree to ponder the prefix “inter” in the word “interaction.” #mixedrace #multiracial

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Toward the end of the panel discussion, Erica gave audience members some thought gems. “Real-life experiences of oppression lead to solidarity.” This solidarity complicates already-complex generational familial differences and multicultural relationships. However, the uplifting end note: “I don’t think the differences are insurmountable.”

The salve can be found in open-minded communication. So let’s all agree to ponder the prefix “inter” in the word “interaction.”-Joy Stoffers, Festival Blogger-in-Chief

This is one story in a series about the programs held at the Mixed Remixed Festival 2016.  Please read through them all by searching our blog with “2016 Festival Re-Cap.”

Writing with Jamie Ford: A Workshop at the Mixed Remixed Festival

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New York Times Best-selling Writer Jamie Ford Coaches Next Crop of Storytellers of the Mixed Race and Multiracial Experience

Where: Mixed Remixed Festival Yuki Family Board Room at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA
When: Saturday, June 11, 9:30am–11:30am
What: interactive workshop to discuss manuscript excerpts from five writers
Who: moderator Jamie Ford

This was a special fiction manuscript workshop with Jamie Ford. Participation was limited to pre-selected writers who had registered and submitted their respective work-in-progress (a maximum of 25 pages) in advance of the festival.

Writing with Jamie Ford

Jamie Ford, growing up biracial, mixed race writers, multiracial writers, mixed race, multiracial, biracial celebritiesWriters, like everyone else, have heroes. I’m tired of affiliating myself with the word “emerging,” so I declare myself a hatch-ling. Arguably, writers in the incubation or hatching stage put more weight on (famously) hatched authors. Our chick eyes widen at the sight of appreciated chickens and roosters.

Anyway, fowl metaphors aside, I’m going to out myself and state that Jamie Ford is one of my novelist heroes. It was a real thrill to be participating in a small workshop that he led—and this thrill was heightened by the fact that the Mixed Remixed Festival was the reason for its existence. I’m not the only one with such feelings. For workshop participant Romalyn Tilghman, it was “an extraordinary opportunity for feedback and conversation with an important, published author and [to hear] emerging voices.”

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure (or torture, depending on workshop circumstances) of experiencing a writing workshop, know that outcomes and discussions can be unpredictable. It’s easy to imagine. 1) Insert a recognized writer or professor and fledgling writers in the same room. 2) Discuss in-progress work. The moderator needs to make the sharers comfortable, but also challenge them. Praise but critique. Encourage experimentation but advise regarding practicalities. From the beginning, the room’s sweating with at least mild tension or nervousness.

In case you were wondering who my workshop colleagues were—and where you can find their writing, allow me to virtually introduce you to fellow Mixed Remixed Festival blogger Clare Ramsaran, writer Katrina Goldsaito, writer Shannon Luders-Manuel (who unfortunately couldn’t join us), and of course aforementioned writer Romalyn Tilghman.

multiracial writers, mixed race writers, growing up biracial, mixed race, multiracial, biracialI may disappoint some of you by revealing that during the workshop there were no raised voices, thrown papers, or tears. The session went smoothly. We began with short introductions, and then made the most of workshop time. Each writer commented on a particular writer’s manuscript excerpt, Jamie offered his thoughts, and then the author explained and/or asked questions.

That sounds stiffly academic, but the atmosphere was a relaxed, productive one. Personally, my favorite parts were when Jamie sprinkled manuscript commentary with general writing advice. Thus, without further ado, Jamie’s thoughts on the art of writing.

Write what you want to write. #mixedrace #multiracial

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Jamie Ford Quotes on Writing

I took a moment to write for myself.

I think there’s a Venn diagram of what we write and what people want to read. [Shame on me: I couldn’t write the gold fast enough. But I can paraphrase: Jamie noted that we can aim to meet readers somewhere in the middle of the diagram. (What’s this, intersectionality? Sounds rather mixed remixed…yes, I give you permission to cringe at the adroit-less pun.)]

I encourage self-awareness as a writer.

Find a way to be happy [on the spectrum of critical acclaim and commercial success].

I encourage people to be genre-blind. [I.e., challenge yourself to write outside and in between genres. Write first, and worry about marketing later.]

The work requires its own deadlines sometimes.

Write what you want to write.

What you put on the page—that’s you.

[Don’t be] slave to a trend.

You can be a prisoner of your success. [So, to return to his first quote, write for yourself.]

Final Thoughts from a Hatch-ling

Try to discover who you are, and who you think you want to be. As a mixed-race person or not. As a writer or not. We live in flux, and in the flux. Accept change. Create change. Work with change. When we learn to house ourselves in our own skin, we learn to mind what we want to mind, instead of what we “should” mind.–Joy Stoffers, Festival Blogger-in-Chief

Try to discover who you are, and who you think you want to be. #mixedrace #multiracial

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This is one story in a series about the programs held at the Mixed Remixed Festival 2016. Please read through them all by searching our blog with “2016 Festival Re-Cap.”

Writing Memoir & Shaping Your Life Story: Multiracial Writers Speak

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The Writing Memoir & Shaping Your Life Story panel at the 2016 Mixed Remixed Festival included authors Dr. John Reed, Michael Gordon Bennett, and TaRessa Stovall, and was moderated by the inimitable Joshua Silverstein. The topics covered ranged from the writing style and process, to the healing power of writing your story.

The opening question was about the memoir writing and publishing process, and right from the start each panelist had a unique journey to share, each with its own set of lessons to be learned.

michael bennet, mixed race, multiracial, multiracial writers, mixed race writers, growing up biracialMr. Bennett wrote the initial draft of his memoir “7/10 Split: My Journey As America’s Whitest Black Kid” in 30 days. Ten years later he published his book independently. The story is a chronologically ordered account of his life as a self-proclaimed “army brat” who, at various points of his childhood, lived on military bases in Spain, Maine, Florida and Colorado. Conversely Ms. Stovall’s memoir “Swirl Girl: Confessions of a Racial Renegade,” is written in a style that “reads like a novel.”

taressa stovall
Author Taressa Stovall

Both Ms. Stovall and Mr. Bennett were drawn to publish their work independently. A “[b]ook proposal is a marketing business plan to prove you have an audience,” stated Ms. Stovall. While she has published traditionally in the past, she chose to publish independently on this occasion to maintain more control over her content. When pitching “7-10 Split” to publishers the typical response was “we don’t know how to market your story,” explained Mr. Bennett. Independent publishing empowered him to get his story out there and prove that there is an audience for his work. 

Race and racism figure prominently an all three of the panelists work.

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Race and racism figure prominently an all three of the panelists work, but each from profoundly different perspectives. In Dr. John Reed’s memoir “It’s Not Always Black and White, Caught Between Two Worlds,” Dr. Reed, writes from the perspective of having lived in different countries, each with very different ideas about race. Mr. Bennett writes from the perspective of having experienced the Civil Rights era from the “bubble” of military bases. The struggle to find and define one’s identity is a theme both works share. In “Swirl Girl,” Ms. Stovall gives us a young woman’s experience “navigating the tightrope of intimate race relations.”

But for all the struggles described, there is a healing aspect a memoir. “We are not taught to own who we are,” stated Dr. Reed. “It’s important to tell your story because then the respect for the individual comes in.” Mr. Bennett explained that, for him, the most difficult aspect of writing was “revealing myself.” The writing experience, he continued “allowed me to get in touch with myself for the first time in my life.”

Even if everybody is different, that’s a common theme.

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If there is one theme that came across loudly and clearly, it was that if we embrace ourselves, embrace all pieces of our identity, embrace our multiplicities, embrace our stories, we’ll learn just how much it is that we have in common. As Dr. Reed stated, “Even if everybody is different, that’s a common theme.”- Michael Maliner, Festival Blogger Twitter @plasticspoon

This is one story in a series about the programs held at the Mixed Remixed Festival 2016.  Please read through them all by searching our blog with “2016 Festival Re-Cap.”

Hapa Writers: Our Stories in Fiction

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IMG_1070Part book reading part panel discussion, the Hapa Writers panel was among the highlights of the Mixed Remixed Festival. Panelists included authors Maria T. Allocco, Jackson Bliss, Leslie Li, Victoria Namkung, and Joy Stoffers, and was moderated by Mixed Remixed’s own Jamie Moore.

In addition to the panelists in the room, hapa artist and writer Kip Fulbeck was present in spirit: two writers on the panel (as well as this writer, and I suspect many present in the room) were introduced to the word “hapa” by way of Fulbeck’s book “Part Asian, 100% Hapa.”

“It opened up a whole new world for me and I really I started thinking about why I didn’t necessarily connect with all of the protagonists I was reading when I was growing up,” said Ms. Stoffers. 

“I actually started crying,” said Mr. Bliss, telling the story of his stumbling upon “Part Asian, 100% Hapa” at a Tower Records in New York City. “I literally went home and, for the first time, started writing characters that were mixed race. And it was all because of the word.”

“No one asked John Grisham or any white man why his characters are white and male.” #multiracial #mixedremixed

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IMG_1044The evolving vernacular used to describe us is surely a symptom of the the dearth of hapa representation in modern fiction, and why readers are so taken aback when introduced to a mixed race character. While touring for her debut novel, “Things We Tell Ourselves,” Ms. Namkung found that on many occasions readers asked her why her protagonist was mixed race. “I just feel like no one asked John Grisham or any white man why his characters are white and male,” she said, shedding light on a challenging reality: our voices must be heard. Ms. Namkung’s next book will also include a hapa character.

This topic resonated with many of the panelists. “I wanted to reach out, through fiction, and put a voice to what I had felt was so silent,” described Ms. Stoffers. Mr. Bliss described a responsibility to tell the hapa story “because it [the hapa story] hasn’t been told enough, [any hapa story] becomes the monolith we use to evaluate other people who are hapa which is what happens when you don’t have enough representation.” The hapa story, he went on to say, need to be “written over and over and over again by millions of other hapa writers.”

“I wanted to reach out, through fiction, and put a voice to what I had felt was so silent.”

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In response to a question from the audience about how having a mixed race character affects character development, Ms. Li felt that a mixed race character “brings a complexity and also a higher degree of conflict. And I think when you’re writing a novel, when you’re writing anything, whether it’s nonfiction or fiction, the level of conflict will make the story a lot more interesting.”

IMG_1065The use of the word “hapa” itself was a topic of conversation. Ms. Allocco described her complex and evolving relationship with the word. On the one hand, she felt the term to be Eurocentric, tending to exclude, for example, Afro- and Latino-Asians. On the other, there is a shared experience common to mixed Asians, and “hapa” is a word we can rally around. Ms. Allocco’s also briefly spoke about how she describes herself:

I’ve shifted away from the “half and half” type of language not just because, on a very basic level I’m whole, and I try to write from a place where I’m whole, but because my experience is so much more – it’s the opposite of half!

mixed race, multiracial, hapa, biracial, growing up biracialWhat became clear during the course of the discussions is that the hapa identity is a complex topic, and the more the times the story is told, the more we will come to an understanding of what it means to be hapa in an increasingly diverse United States. And fiction is a potent tool when it comes to inserting new patterns of thinking into the collective conscious. We are all stories, after all.-Michael Maliner, Festival Blogger Twitter @plasticspoon

This is one story in a series about the programs held at the Mixed Remixed Festival 2016.  Please read through them all by searching our blog with “2016 Festival Re-Cap.”

Bombarding the Slush Pile: Literary Submissions with Women Who Submit

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Where: Mixed Remixed Festival 2016, Democracy Lab at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA
When: Friday, June 10, 11:30am–12:20pm
What: interactive workshop to discuss literary submissions
Who: moderator and poet Ashaki M. Jackson

Writers Talk Literary Submissions at Festival Celebrating Mixed Race and Multiracial Stories

This workshop was open to literary writers interested in creating a submission practice and/or increasing their readership by being published in top-tier journals. Ashaki and her colleague, Ashley Perez, provided an overview of basics, including creating a submission schedule, submission tracking, and cover-letter development. Participants left the workshop with simple submission materials. 

women who submit logoWomen Who Submit (WWS) seeks to empower women and non-binary writers by creating physical and virtual spaces for sharing information, supporting and encouraging literary submissions, and clarifying the submission and publication process. In their fourth year of operations, they have chapters in California’s Bay Area, Long Beach, and Las Vegas—with new possible roots in Arizona and North Dakota. The founding body has a membership of over 30 women, and their virtual communities each exceed 1,000 people.

On the second Saturday of every month, women congregate at a member’s house for a “submission party.” Amidst the wine and cheese and chips, writers sit down and write out their submission goals. Sometimes guest speakers visit to discuss writing craft and publishing. They welcome women and non-binary writers to register and partake in a new-member orientation. It’s no secret society, and it’s an incredibly nurturing one.

The “Why” of Literary Submissions

After informing an eager audience of Women Who Submit’s history and mission, poet and co-founder Ashaki Jackson asked us this seemingly simple question. I scanned the faces of writers in the filled room. Confusion, unease, and ponderous looks. Maybe I was merely projecting my own feelings, but I think these resonate.

Ashaki, in her calm wisdom, asked us to materialize these fears through words. She pointed to the sticky note in the green submission booklet each participant had. We needed to write down our hesitations—and then stick them onto a board. Seeing the little pink and teal squares against the white background almost felt comical. “This is the Wall of Terror,” she joked. We laughed, partly because it was funny, but partly because the metaphor hit truth.

The two most common concerns/fears that Ashaki read aloud?

  1. Rejection
  2. Where to begin?

Let’s explore them.

Rejection Woes

Why we submit trickles from why we write. As Ashaki said, “you’re writing for yourself; you don’t have to write for your readers.”

Write for yourself; submit for yourself. #mixedrace #multiracial

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Ashley Perez, a WWS member, agreed. “We submit to silence that voice in our heads that says we’re not good enough. I write and [submit] because there’s something in me burning…I have to get this work out of me and onto the page.”

An attendee, Maria, had similar thoughts. “I submit almost as a writing exercise. I now feel like a door has opened and I want to share [my writing] with the world.”

Ashaki JacksonBut what about those rejections? Ashaki offered answers. “It takes time to build your confidence. Know you’re not alone, and that you’re trying to build your readership.”

Rejections will always hurt, at least a little. But for Ashaki, WWS encourages us to “celebrate rejections because we’re exercising our submission muscles; we normalize rejections.” When rejected, “we just need to find a better fit.”

One easy way to self-encourage? When submitting an self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE), “write an encouraging note to yourself on the envelope.” If you receive a rejection, the first thing you’ll see is your comforting note, and your familiar handwriting. It’s a little way your present self can make your future self feel better.

Drowning in Too Much Information

Google’s great. Perhaps too great. Type in a single word and you can receive 1,470,000,000 results in 0.39 seconds (literally: I just searched for “submit”). Where do we begin when we don’t know about or don’t have access to journals, top-tier or not? WWS to the rescue! At submission parties, members bring a portable journal library, and are happy to share those glossy in-print pages. Go to the library to check out ones you like to read. (Would you want to submit to a journal you hate? I hope not.)

“Familiarize yourself,” Ashley advised, “with the same spaces writers you admire occupy.”

Ashaki encouraged us to note where our peers have been accepted. “What do you read, and where do you want to be? Access who you think you are as a writer.” Think beyond the big-name journals to find “your personal tiers.” Again, submit for yourself: “you don’t have to follow the traditional system.”

Access who you think you are as a writer. #mixedrace #multiracial

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Poets & Writers, as well as The Writer’s Chronicle, are helpful starting resources.

Once you know where you want to submit, materialize your goals—ink them out in a list.

Also, if you’ve got a forthcoming publication, Ashaki especially believes in submitting. She submits 6–8 months prior to her work being published.

Attendee Takeaways

Katrina and Liane both found the session helpful and informative, and thought that WWS gave them direction and inspiration.

Via really appreciated the booklet WWS provided, and thought that Ashaki and Ashley made the submission process less intimidating.

Aurelia said that she’d been writing all her life, but until now hasn’t had the courage to submit. Through Ashaki’s workshop, she’s now listening to the possibility.

The Founding Mothers of WWS

Women Who Submit co-founder Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is a high school English and drama teacher, as well as a poet and fiction writer. Sundress will publish her poetry collection, Built with Safe Spaces, in fall 2016. Co-founder Ashaki M. Jackson is a social psychologist and poet. Her chapbook, Surveillance, is available through Writ Large Press. Senior member Tisha Reichle is a high school teacher and fiction writer whose work is included in The Acentos Review and the Santa Fe Writers Project.

This is one story in a series about the programs held at the Mixed Remixed Festival 2016.  Please read through them all by searching our blog with “2016 Festival Re-Cap.”

Our Mixed Voices: Sharing Our Stories

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Our Mixed Voices: Sharing Our Stories, the first workshop on the first morning of my first time at the Mixed Remixed Festival. Will I be the only Asian mix present? Do I look mixed enough? Will I fit on, or will this be just another event in which I find myself sitting on the periphery armed with polite nods and laughter conjured on cue?

growing up biracial, mixed race, multiracial, hapa, mixed, mixed identityThere were 35 orange chairs arranged on the floor of the Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Lab. I was among the first to arrive, but one by one people steadily stream in on my heels.

“I’m blogging for the festival,” I explained to Roxanne Kymaani, an expert in group dynamics and cultural construction, and one of the two workshop facilitators. (What I meant, of course, was “I’m going to watch (from a safe distance) but I’m not going to participate (or make myself vulnerable.)) Fortunately for me, she was having none of that. “Why don’t you participate?” was her response.

Dutifully, I took a seat, by which time most seats were already taken and the audience was still growing. Ultimately, the crowd swelled to over 50 many of whom had to sit on the floor despite the extra chairs were were able to find.

“What struck me were those faces – no two alike and every single one beautiful.” #mixedrace

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What struck me were those faces – no two alike and every single one beautiful. Never in my life had I witnessed such diversity. Never in my experience had I been in a room filled entirely of mixed race folk. Never before had I occasion to use the word “us.”

mixed race, mixed, growing up mixed race, biracial, multiracial, mixed race identityAs we begin introducing ourselves I began to realize just how mixed mixed can be. White, Black, Japanese, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Vietnamese, Pennsylvania Dutch, all mixed together in so many different combinations, resulting the stunning people in this room! Had I found a safe place, a place where I belong, a home?

Angelo Lewis, author, life coach and creator of the Dialogue Circle Method, shared facilitator duties with Ms. Kymaani. After introducing ourselves, he got us started with the following prompt: Describe a time when you experienced you mixed identity in a strong or powerful way. Mr. Lewis shared his experience first and it was a story about his struggle to claim his Japanese heritage.

Here was a man, who reads as black, describing how important it was for him to embrace his Japanese heritage. For the first time I saw  being mixed, not as a burden, but rather as a rich experience resplendent in its complexities. And just as Mr. Lewis grew to embrace his mixed heritage fully, so too would I.

Never before had I occasion to use the word “us.” #multiracial

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As we continued to share I heard stories of feeling pressured to choose a side, never fitting in, turmoil over self-image, of feeling called upon to prove one’s ethnicity. The group assembled were no longer strangers to me; they were kindred souls who have lived the experience I’ve lived but never had a name for, the mixed race experience.

Describe a time when you experienced a conflict between our public identity and a hidden identity.

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His next prompt: Describe a time when you experienced a conflict between our public identity and a hidden identity.

IMG_0958I’ve ways been conflicted in sharing my Filipino heritage because I look more Spanish than Malay or Chinese. People don’t see me as Asian and as a result I almost feel as if I’m lying when I admit that I’m part Asian. 

So many people in the room shared the same experience, which, up until then, had been a private struggle for me because I believed that it was mine and mine alone. I looked around the room at all of those striking mixed faces, and I realized I had found my people, that my experiences were, in fact, our experiences.

The workshop ended with a free-association exercise about what we had experienced during the workshop. Just as we did in the workshop, I end here with the words and phrases we shared: validation, synthesis, holding that space, connectedness, finally belonging, we are all different but we all have the same problems, I am home and i am here to aid in the healing, relieved, complexity, our stories matter and they deserve to be told.

–Michael Maliner, Festival Blogger, michaelmaliner.com

This is one story in a series about the programs held at the Mixed Remixed Festival 2016.  Please read through them all by searching our blog with “2016 Festival Re-Cap.”

Mixed Remixed: Clare Ramsaran

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I’ve been a blogger and member of Mixed Remixed for about a year and a half now and it’s been a truly amazing experience being able to work with truly wonderful people. As soon as I started getting to know Clare, with a similar Caribbean/European background, I was definitely intrigued to know about this highly motivated and virtually always positive woman. The following interview was a treat as I got to know Clare a lot better and hopefully you, too, will see her in a more intimate and inspiring light.

Clare Ramsaran Present Day

  1. How did you learn about the Mixed Remixed Festival, and how did you first become involved?

I heard about the Mixed Roots event through Mat Johnson and Faith Adiele from the VONA writing community. Then I was Googling ‘mixed race’ (as you do), when the Mixed Remixed Festival came up. I hadn’t been to a mixed race event since I was in my twenties and used to run a mixed/queer group called Mosaic, in London. But it spoke to something in me, it was the right event at the right time, and I took myself from San Francisco (where I live now) to LA to the festival. Heidi and all the other folks there couldn’t have been more welcoming and generous. It felt wonderful to be there, like the homecoming I didn’t know I’d been looking for.

  1. What made you want to run this workshop?

My writing workshop at Mixed Remixed aims to make as space for writers who are mixed and queer, like me (!) as well as allies. I’ve been twice now to Mixed Remixed and always felt very at home there, but wanted to raise the profile of folks who were mixed and queer, to provide a space for us to meet each other, and to write about this intersection of our identities. Last year, I saw that younger folks were sometimes grappling with living within these two ‘outsider’ identities and wanted to show them that ‘it gets better’ as you get older and that you can hold these two identities comfortably and harness that ‘outsider’ status for your writing and for life in general. Also I don’t know if my ‘gaydar’ is broken… but nowadays it’s not always easy for me to spot other queer folks at an event and thought it might be the same for others!

  1. It seems almost fashionable nowadays to be in an interracial relationship and to have “cute little mixed babies.” Can you tell us how this may have been different for you growing up in England in a mixed Irish/Guyanese family in the late 70s/80s?

Being mixed definitely didn’t seem fashionable when I was growing up. There was a lot of hostility to South Asian people in London when I was a child (I’m of Indo-Guyanese and Irish heritage) and it seemed to permeate our existence—I remember my sister’s friend (whose parents were Pakistani) got her windows smashed most weekends, and I was aware of racist attacks and marches going on around me. I went to my first anti-racist protest when I was thirteen.  There was also hostility to Irish people, so sometimes I felt that we were getting it from both sides. At the same time, life was just life and you were a kid, learning to ride a bike, climbing trees, going to school, etc.

In my class at my Catholic girls’ school, there was another girl, Bridget who was German and Indian (and yes, the teachers used to get us mixed up), one girl who was of Indian heritage and I think everyone else was white. I remember other girls making comments about ‘Paki’s’ and getting really angry with them.

Clare Ramsaran Teenager

There was hardly any representation of mixed people in books or in the media then, and I remember that when I heard that the all-Ireland dance champion was half Indian, it felt like a personal victory. Also Phil Lynott, the leader of Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, was half Irish and half Afro-Guyanese so he was also strongly on my radar.

4. Have you always identified as a mixed person or were there times were you in fact felt pressured to commit to only one of your heritages? What was that like?

I’ve mostly identified as mixed. I remember when I was at community college in a politics class when I was 17 (by the time I was 16 I didn’t want to be at a Catholic girls school any more) and about six of the kids were of South Asian heritage with two white boys. The two groups always sat separately—with me in the middle. I remember one of the boys always called me a ‘f***ing half breed’, which was very upsetting, and I didn’t have enough confidence to challenge him at the time. Of course, I found out later that he was mixed as well, and ashamed of it. I think in my twenties in the cauldron of activism and student politics (I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!) I probably embraced my South Asian side more, but then moved to a different balance in my thirties and beyond.

5. The cohesion among groups is often attributed to a shared experience or set of shared values. To what extent, if at all, do you think that there is a shared “mixed race experience” or “mixed-race values”?

In some ways there is no shared mixed experience. In my life I’ve probably met people with the exact same heritage as me, maybe four or five times. The only people I really know who share my heritage are my sisters.  But at the same time I have often feel very relieved and ‘met’ when in the company of other mixed people, that I can bring a part of myself that I can’t necessarily bring everywhere else.

In some ways there is no shared mixed experience. #mixedrace #multiracial

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I remember thinking so much about my identity in my teens and twenties, writing about it, talking about it, finding obscure references in pop music. But now that’s receded, I feel more stable in my identity and can withstand more of other people projecting their own identity, or sometimes one that they fear, on to me. I do feel a deep solidarity with other mixed folks. And I have a good mixed-race writer friend on each continent (Europe and the US) if I need to talk about a ‘race’ issue that’s come up—someone I can just talk to without having to explain.

6. What would you say has been your greatest lesson as it relates to identity, self-love and race in our culture and society today?

That you have to hold your own identity steady. No one else can do it for you and you can’t give away that right to define yourself, not to well-meaning old ladies  in the Mission district, who call you mi hija (my daughter), not to TSA officials who step you into a perspex tube at the airport, to test you for explosives, not to the people who want to practice their Spanish with you—even though you’re not Latina. You have to hold your own complexity, keep it strong while allowing it to be flexible, and once you have that, you have something very precious. You.

You have to hold your own identity steady. #mixedrace #multiracial

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There you have it. A triumphant story of finding yourself by embracing everything that you already are and falling in love with that.

Mixed Remixed: An interview with novelist Joy Huang Stoffers

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Not long after I got involved with the Mixed Remixed Festival through Heidi Durrow, I connected with Joy Stoffers, whose first novel, Whasian, was recently published by Harken Media. Like me, Joy is Hapa. Imagine my excitement over the opportunity to interview her before the Hapa Writers: Our Stories in Fiction panel that the Mixed Remixed Festival is hosting. Joy is among the esteemed panelists.

I’ve corresponded and Skyped with Joy, and will be meeting her in person for the first time in LA where we will be live blogging during the festival. This interview was conducted via email.

How did you get involved with the Mixed Remixed Festival?
In the finalizing of Whasian, I tried to discover what, if any, mixed-race community existed. I found Heidi Durrow’s podcast, “The Mixed Experience,” and became an avid listener. Of course, this led me to read her novel, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, and to learn about the festival she founded.

Mixed Remixed: An interview with novelist Joy Huang Stoffers
Novelist Joy Soffers.

Heidi’s multifaceted engagement with the issues I’d always grappled with inspired me. I sent Heidi a fan-girl email, and she graciously offered to blurb for my debut novel—and to host me on her podcast. After the live conversation ended, we talked offline about the Mixed Remixed Festival. By mutual agreement and hope, I became the festival’s head blogger. Heidi, I think, has a habit of taking on more than most would seem possible. I hope I’ve been able to ease her incredible workload, and I’m excited to attend the festival for the first time this June.

What a great story! Can you talk a bit about, as you put it, the “issues [you had] always grappled with”—presumably because of your being mixed race?
According to my father, when I was five years old, he told me that I was different than most other children. He said that I’d always share this difference with my brother, and that we’d understand each other better because of it. I suppose this was my Caucasian father’s way of explaining racial nuance to a child too young to understand the construct of race, let alone its real-world implications.

Through my experiences—from as trifling as Asian model-minority stereotyping to as frustrating as being called a chink—I learned my own version of race. No matter what I did, or what I said, my appearance and self-expression never matched what people expected of me. I’m naturally a Type B, slow-to-boil person, so add cultural styles of being, and you get an even more interesting mix. As my mother notes, I have my Ama’s (Taiwanese grandmother’s) temperament, and the Stoffers’s (German) stoicism. I’ve been called cold, guarded, reserved, stuck-up, standoffish, etc. Perhaps I deserve these labels, and perhaps I don’t—or somewhere in between. During my childhood and adolescence, the bubbles added up. All my angst and questions boiled into Whasian, a decidedly non-autobiographical novel.

Through my experiences … I learned my own version of race.

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Are you and your brother close?
To use epic terminology, I believe my father’s statement became a realized prophecy. My brother and I are best friends. Part of the reason why I moved to Seattle was to live near him again. Although we’re incredibly different personality-wise and interest-wise (he’s an aerospace engineer interested in music and sound engineering), we share a bond that’s intrinsically tied to our mixed upbringing.

Turning to Whasian, how, if at all, does Ava’s mixed race background affect her ability to relate to, and form close relationships with her peers?
For Ava, her mixed-race background disrupts her ability to relate to her peers, and for the majority of the novel, negates her ability to form close relationships. I wrote Ava into being while thinking about the greatest potential for self- and other-made alienation. Most of the time, Ava longs for connection, but at the start of the novel, she’s a slave to her cultural background and identity-centered uncertainties.

I’d like to focus on the what you describe as Ava’s “identity-centered uncertainties.” Do you think that this sort of lack of clarity—or even confusion—about one’s own identity is part of a shared mixed-race experience?
The quest for identity applies to us all, but I think it’s especially salient for those with a mixed-race experience. Other people continuously tell us/ask us what we are, instead of asking us who we are. We feel pressure to choose—but there’s no obvious, “right” choice. So we linger in a limbo until we realize that only we can claim our identities (and that we have many identities). We have the right to voice how we feel, to remain in flux.

So as mixed race people, are our identities always in a state of flux because of there being no single heritage we can wholly claim as our own?
Personally, I believe that yes, most mixed-race people will learn to embody a fluid sense of identity. I think it’s more than being unable to “wholly” claim a single heritage. Our experiences, both individually and collectively driven, are so diverse. There’s rarely a consistent constant for us to grasp as an anchor.

I hope to explore what being mixed-race means to us when we write fiction.

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In what ways might this fluid sense of identity manifest itself in the lives of mixed-race people?
Again, I must begin with the caveat that this is merely my opinion. I’m one speck on a square that’s part of a massive mosaic. From my interactions with other mixed-race people, I hear that we can change our identities on an hourly, daily, weekly, insert-measurement-of-time-here basis. And that every change is subject to change based on circumstance.

Mixed Remixed: An interview with novelist Joy Huang Stoffers
“A fluid identity has led me to a tendency for restlessness in all areas of my life (interestingly, besides dancing and writing, which have always been my constants).”

Do you think that a fluid identity might lead to our changing domiciles more often, or our affect career decisions? Perhaps even our taste in art and literature?
What a novel connection to make! In this case, I can only speak for myself. If I’m not careful, I over-analyze and seek transience. There’s a difference between running and re-assessing. Now that I’m aware of this in myself, I strive to reassess when the time is right, instead of run at first impulse.

I have the feeling that there may be some uncanny similarities in our respective experiences as mixed-race people, and I’m looking forward to hearing more stories at the Mixed Remixed Festival. Which brings us to the Hapa Writers: Our Stories in Fiction panel discussion. Is there a theme you’d like to explore, or message that you’d like the audience to come away with?
I hope to explore what being mixed-race means to us when we write fiction. Generally people assume that because I’m mixed and write about mixed-race and “alternative” styles of being, then I must be writing autobiographical fiction. I shirk the notion that we cannot write outside our lived experiences. My experiences have shaped me as a writer and person, and certainly provide me with inspiration, but I use this inspiration to imagine outside myself. I wonder what the other panelists will think in this regard, and hope to learn from them.

What an important topic to share with other mixed-race artists. I’m looking forward to the panel discussion, and to meeting you face-to-face for the first time at the Mixed Remixed Festival.

—Michael Maliner, Festival Blogger

Hapa Writers: Our Stories in Fiction will take place on June 10, 2016, from 2 to 2:50pm, at the Japanese American National Museum. You can register for to attend this panel here, as well as download a festival schedule.

The Mixed Remixed Festival is an annual film, book and performance festival that celebrates stories of the mixed-race and multiracial experience.

Hundreds of people came from far and wide for celebration, connection and community. Join us for the 3rd annual Mixed Remixed Festival June 10 and 11, 2016. Registration is now open.

FREE Family Activities at the Mixed Remixed Festival June 11, 2016!

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2014-11-01 06.57.30We’re excited to provide several family activities at the Mixed Remixed Festival June 11, 2016.  FREE!  Join us for this amazing annual celebration of stories of mixed-race and multiracial families and people.  We will have FACE PAINTERS, CRAFT ACTIVITIES, and STORYTELLING TIME FOR KIDS of all ages to enjoy.  Oh, yeah, and yes, it’s all FREE!  Learn more about our storytellers below!

REGISTER HERE!

Storytelling for Multiracial and Mixed Race Families

Children’s Storytime

June 11, 2016 1:00pm

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Storytelling Time with Maria Olsen

June 11, 2016

11:30-12:30

maria olsen
Maria Leonard Olsen is a biracial woman whose parents were forbidden by law to marry in Maryland in the early 1960s. She is a lawyer, journalist, radio show host and author of the children’s book, “Mommy, Why’s Your Skin So Brown?” and two others. A UVA Law School graduate, Maria served in the Clinton Administration’s Justice Department, fostered newborns awaiting adoption, and has been on the boards of Children’s National Medical Center BOV, among others.

maria olsen book

 

 

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