Mixed Race 3.0: How to Tell Immersive, Interactive, Integrated & Impactful Stories
This panel turned out to be one of our most popular, informative and entertaining. Panelists Velina Hasu-Houston, Marcus C. Shepard, Marcia Alesan Dawkins discussed what it meant for storytellers as the Mixed Experience becomes more inclusive and more accessible along multiple fronts — age, geography, media, technology etc. However, with so much diversity of content and outreach, learning how stories should be evolving and how to make narratives work is a complicated matter. This panel offered some perspectives on what audiences interested in the future of the Mixed Experience — what we’re calling “Mixed Race 3.0” — may be looking for in their stories, which can be summed up as immersion, interactivity, integration and impact. Velina Hasu-Houston focused on “immersion,” or delving deeper into the Mixed Experience through plays that focus on context and sensory experiences. Marcia Alesan Dawkins focused on “impact,” or inspiring people to take action and learn more about the Mixed Experience through online and on-the-ground engagement.
Marcia Alesan Dawkins
Marcia Alesan Dawkins, Ph.D. is a technology-loving, diversity-oriented intellectual entrepreneur from New York City and communication professor at USC Annenberg in Los Angeles. An award-winning author, speaker, and educator, Dawkins understands how diversity, technology and creative storytelling are changing who we are and how we communicate. Her first book, Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity, was released in August 2012 to rave reviews.
Dawkins has received grants and awards from organizations such as the National Communication Association, the Eastern Communication Association, the Irvine Foundation, the California State University and Google Project Glass. She has been recognized by the University of Southern California for outstanding teaching and mentoring. In addition, she has been awarded residencies and fellowships from Brown University, Vanderbilt University Law School, New York University, Villanova University and the USC Graduate School Office of the Provost.
Marcus Shepard
Marcus C. Shepard is a Ph.D. student at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. His work explores Black musical performance and its intersections and transformative capabilities of race, class, gender and sexuality. Specifically, he focuses on the musical genre neo-soul and its sonic, visual and political implications in the United States within communities of color. Shepard has also worked at the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem as an archivist and maintains his ties to this artistic community. – See more at: http://henryjenkins.org/2013/10/revisiting-neo-soul.html#sthash.mvWcgiG6.dpuf