Mixed Remixed Festival

Day 41 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

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Richard Loving died in a car accident in 1975 when a drunk driver struck his car.  Mildred lost an eye in the same accident.  Mildred never re-married. She lived the rest of her life in the Virginia home Richard built.
 
Join us June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival, the biggest celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision with a film, book and performance festival that showcases stories of the mixed-race and multiracial experience. FREE!

Day 42 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

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Mildred Jeter was just 18-years old when she married Richard Loving who was 6 years her senior.  They married in 1958 and it wasn’t until 9 years later that their right to marry was acknowledged by the Supreme Court.

Join us June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival, the biggest celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision with a film, book and performance festival that showcases stories of the mixed-race and multiracial experience. FREE!

23andMe Joins as Benefactor Sponsor of Festival Celebrating Mixed-Race Families

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23andMe Joins as Benefactor Sponsor of Festival Celebrating Mixed-Race Families

LOS ANGELES, CA, April 28, 2017  — 23andMe, the leading personal genetics company, has signed on as a Benefactor Sponsor of the Mixed Remixed Festival, the nation’s largest gathering of mixed-race and multiracial families and artists. The Festival will take place at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles (514 S. Spring Street), June 10, 2017.

Now in its fourth year, the Festival celebrates stories of multiracial Americans and families, the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. A free public event, the Festival brings together film and book lovers, innovative and emerging artists, and multiracial and multicultural families and individuals for workshops, readings, performances, and film screenings. Families can enjoy interactive craft activities, free face painting, and interactive storytelling time.

“We are extremely pleased to have 23andMe as a sponsor,” says Festival Founder Heidi Durrow who calls herself an Afro-Viking because she is African-American and Danish. “The company provides a valuable service that helps people discover the complexity of their backgrounds. The DNA stories 23andMe reveal highlight how the Mixed experience is one that we all share.”

“We are excited to support such a wonderful event,” said Joanna Mountain, PhD, population geneticist and Senior Director of Research at 23andMe. “Our country’s rich and diverse history is reflected in our DNA. Exploring your family’s genetics is just one way to connect with and discover more about your family’s unique story.”

The Festival, a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization, is produced by Durrow a New York Times best-selling writer, and a talented team of entertainment professionals and artists.

Registration opens May 1 for the fourth annual Mixed Remixed Festival, a free event that is open to the public. The complete Festival schedule will be available when registration opens at www.mixedremixed.org.

Festival sponsors and funders include: 23andMe, Mixed Chicks, the Leo Buscaglia Foundation, and the Puffin West Foundation.

The Mixed Remixed Festival, a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization, celebrates stories about mixed-race and multiracial experience and identity with an annual film, book and performance festival.

 

23andMe Joins as Benefactor Sponsor of Festival Celebrating Mixed-Race Families #multiracial #mixedrace #mixedremixed

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Day 43 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

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Loving v. Virginia is an Important Story for Kids to Know

 
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s as part of a multiracial family, I seemed like our family was an aberration.  I would have loved to know more about the history of mixed-race and multiracial families.
 

Today, there are two wonderful children’s books that help explain the story of the Lovings and the Supreme Court case: 

The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko and Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Join us June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival, the biggest celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision with a film, book and performance festival that showcases stories of the mixed-race and multiracial experience. FREE!

Day 44 Fun Fact Countdown to 50th Anniversary Celebration of Loving v. Virginia at Mixed Remixed Festival

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Photo: Grey Villet, [Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work, King and Queen County, Virginia], April 1965. © Estate of Grey Villet.
The Loving v. Virginia decision made it legal for people of different races to marry nationwide, but anti-miscegenation laws stayed on several states’ books for many years later.  Alabama was the last to strike anti-miscegenation laws from its statutes in 2000.  Source New York Times November 12, 2000. 

Join us June 10, 2017 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown Los Angeles for the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival, the biggest celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision with a film, book and performance festival that showcases stories of the mixed-race and multiracial experience. FREE!

 

3 Trends You Need to Know About How to Talk About Mixed-ness, Mixed Race and Multiracial Experience and Identity

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Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoption

Sometimes it feels like the needle is not moving fast enough on the conversation about mixed-race and multiracial identity and experience.  But if we take a moment to take a look at the conversations that we’re having today, there are some changes happening in the way that people are talking.  Here are 3 trends you should know about if you’re talking about mixed-ness these days:

Intersectionality

Legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw provides a very good explanation of what intersectionality is about in this essay.  (See also her 2016 TED Talk.)  She’s not writing about mixed-race issues in particular but the ideas still apply.

“Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power. Originally articulated on behalf of black women, the term brougMultiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionht to light the invisibility of many constituents within groups that claim them as members, but often fail to represent them.  Intersectional erasures are not exclusive to black women. People of color within LGBTQ movements; girls of color in the fight against the school-to-prison pipeline; women within immigration movements; trans women within feminist movements; and people with disabilities fighting police abuse — all face vulnerabilities that reflect the intersections of racism, sexism, class oppression, transphobia, able-ism and more. Intersectionality has given many advocates a way to frame their circumstances and to fight for their visibility and inclusion.” Kimberle Crenshaw

 

 

 

 

 

Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power. #multiracial

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Multi-Generationally Mixed (MGM)

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionMore people are connecting with their mixed backgrounds.  That means people who felt like they didn’t have permission before are claiming a heritage that had been denied them before.  Many of those people are “multigenerationally mixed” — a kind of remix of mixing.  NPR’s Leah Donella wrote a really great piece about this changing landscape and terminology for mixed-ness.  You can read it here: All Mixed Up: What Do We Call People Of Multiple Backgrounds?

 

 

 

 

 

 

People are “multigenerationally mixed” — a kind of remix of mixing. #multiracial #mixedrace

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Reclaiming the Word “Mulatto”

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionThere is a lot of discussion about this word that many consider perjorative.  But there are many thought leaders in the mixed race community who are eager to reclaim it in the same way that the LGBTQ movement reclaimed the word queer.  I myself am sometimes one of these people when I jokingly refer to myself as a professional mulatto.  You can check out the wonderful work of Tiffany Jones of the Mulatto Diaries (still relevant now a couple of years later).  And definitely make sure that you read Mat Johnson’s defense of the word mulatto here: Why You Can Kiss My Mulatto Ass

 

 

 

 

Yo, I’m a mulatto. And I have to tell you, it’s great.-Mat Johnson #multiracial #mixedrace

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Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoption, heidi durrow, mat johnson“Yo, I’m a mulatto. And I have to tell you, it’s great. I was black for most of my life, which is also great, but the thing is I look white and, coincidentally, my dad’s also white (he’s great too), and after a while I needed a word that offered me a better fit, and acknowledge my father and his whole family’s impact on my life, which was also a big part of my identity. So I converted to mulatto, which I see as a subset of the larger African American experience. I actually love the word mulatto.” – Mat Johnson

4 Creative Ways to Connect with Other Mixed Folks and Families

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Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoption

Social media and the internet has been an amazing way to connect with other people and families that are mixed-race and multiracial.  But it’s also super-meaningful to get together in person. Here are some ways that we have found like-minded folks and created great friendships.  So please check out these 4 creative ways to connect with other mixed folks and families:

Mixed Remixed Festival

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionThe Mixed Remixed Festival is an annual cultural arts festival held each June in Los Angeles, CA. This year will be the 4th Annual Mixed Remixed Festival. We hope that you will join us.  It’s the largest gathering of multiracial and mixed-race people in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mixed Remixed On-Line Book Club

We started the Mixed Remixed On-Line Book Club last fall and it’s been a ton of fun.  Each month we connect in a discussion that takes place over the phone and on-line to discuss a book about the mixed race experience.  Keep the conversation going the whole month with our Goodreads book club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loving Day

Loving Day, the brainchild of Ken Tanabe, is celebrated each June — all of the country!  Check out the organization’s website for more information about what’s happening locally.

 

 

 

Los Angeles Farmer’s Markets

Okay, I’m kidding.  But I’m kind of not kidding.  Ever notice how many multiracial families and people go to farmer’s markets?  I think we should do a big meet-up some time! 

4 Creative Ways to Connect with Other Mixed Folks and Families

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MIXED REMIXED RECEIVES GRANT AWARD FROM CALIFORNIA HUMANITIES

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Heidi Durrow

Phone: 213-293-7077

Email: heidi@mixedremixed.org

Website: www.mixedremixed.org

Twitter: @mixedremixed

Instagram: mixedremixed

 

MIXED REMIXED RECEIVES GRANT AWARD

FROM CALIFORNIA HUMANITIES

 

LOS ANGELES, CA-January 2, 2017– California Humanities has recently announced the 2017 Humanities For All Quick Grant awards. Mixed Remixed has been awarded $5000 for its project entitled “Mixed Remixed Festival.”

multiracial, mixed race, biracial, mixed festivalHumanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities. Grants are awarded to projects that give expression to the extraordinary variety of histories and experiences of California’s places and people to ensure that the stories can be shared widely. These narratives help us find our commonalities, appreciate our differences, and learn something new about how to live well together.

The Mixed Remixed Festival, an annual film, book and performance festival that celebrates the stories of multiracial and mixed-race families and people, will bring together film and book lovers, innovative and emerging artists, and multiracial families for film screenings and discussions. The Festival–now going on its fourth year–is an annual free public event and is an all-volunteer effort. The 2016 Festival attracted approximately 1000 attendees and was featured by NBC News, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times and KTLA.

 

 

“We are grateful for the support of California Humanities for our annual festival,” says festival founder Heidi Durrow who calls herself an Afro-Viking because she is African-American and Danish. “While the Festival offers attendees an opportunity to share personal experiences and insights, the grant provided by California Humanities will help us ground our discussions by tracing the development of racial categorization standards and the names mixed-race people call themselves; and by introducing central concepts including the history of miscegenation, hypodescent, the one-drop rule, identity and the social construction of race. Our goal for these programs is to balance the experiential and the social scientific and connect contemporary storytellers’ work to historical and social scientific concepts,” Durrow says.

“Everyone participates in the humanities in one way or another, and everyone has something to share to help us better understand and appreciate each other,” noted Tricia Wynne, chair of the board of California Humanities.  Our new Humanities for All Quick Grants program is a way to make support for public humanities programs more accessible across the state of California, amplifying voices we may not often hear.”

California Humanities is an independent nonprofit and state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.  This year marks the organization’s 40th anniversary of promoting the humanities as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California.  The organization produces, funds, creates and supports humanities-based projects and programs, eye-opening cultural experiences and meaningful conversations.  During the past 40 years, California Humanities has awarded over $29 million in grants across the state.  For more on California Humanities’ work and current initiatives, please visit www.calhum.org, connect on Facebook at “California Humanities,” and Twitter at @CalHumanities.  

 

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5 Stunning Photo Books of Mixed People, Families and Interracial Couples

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Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptioWe think it’s always important to have media images that show positive representations of mixed-race and multiracial people and families.  These are some of the large format photo and portrait books that we’ve loved over the years.  Learn more about them.

5 Photo Books for Mixed Race & Multiracial People & Families #multiracial #mixedrace

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No Difference Betwen Them, Robert Kalman. Here is the easiest way to describe this lovely book of portraits.  “Robert Kalman’s extraordinary portraits of interracial couples in No Difference Between Them show us what love looks like. It’s not contrast but connectMultiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionion that he has captured. Kalman meets the shared gaze of each couple with warmth. And whether they hold onto each other or not, the couples look like they belong together. Kalman’s photographs witness their bond. No Difference Between Them is an essential record of what human connection looks like. And Kalman has done it with great skill and clearly great love.” — Heidi W. Durrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionPart Asian, 100% Hapa, Kip Fulbeck This beautiful photo book has become a staple of mixed race studies and a must-have for all multiracial families.  The photos are part of a traveling exhibit that has toured across the country a few times and always generates wonderful conversation.  You will love this collection of portraits and the insights into how we see ourselves through the subjects’ eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionMixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids, Kip Fulbeck

Fulbeck took his genius to a new project that focused exclusively on kids.  It’s not just a collection of cute “mixed-race” kids; the book also collects their thoughts on race and identity in their own words.  There is a lot of wisdom from these young kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionBlended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed Race Americans, Mike Tauber

Mike Tauber is a super-talented photographer and he has captured great portraits of mixed-race individuals as well as their stories in this large-format coffee table book.  This would make a great gift!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionOf Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families, Gigi Kaeser

This too was a wonderful traveling exhibit.  What is wonderful about this book is that it portrays whole families in a really beautiful way.  Here is a description of this book: “Of Many Colors tells the stories of thirty-nine families who have bridged the racial divide through interracial marriage or adoption. In these pages, parents and children speak candidly about their lives, their relationships, and the ways in which they have dealt with issues of race.”

 

 

 

 

 

Photo books to celebrate #multiracial #mixedrace families

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A United Kingdom Film, an Epic Mixed-Race Love Story, Opens February 10 in American Theaters

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An Inspiring Interracial Love Story that rocked the world in the 1940s!

mixed race, mixed roots, multiracial, biracial, mixed remixedWe are super excited about the release of the new film, A United Kingdom, directed by Amma Asante that shares the forgotten, yet epic love story that rocked the world in the 1940s.

Here is a synopsis of the film:

A UNITED KINGDOM tells the inspiring true story of Seretse Khama, the King of Bechuanaland (modern Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British and South African governments. Seretse and Ruth defied family, Apartheid and empire – their love triumphed over every obstacle flung in their path and in so doing they transformed their nation and inspired the world.

The excellent new film directed by @ammaasante in theatres now! #multiracial #mixedrace

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Director Amma Asante Powerful Honors this Mixed-Race Love Story

Director Amma Asante recently spoke to Vanity Fair about the film which the magazine calls “heart-wrenching”: 

Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoption“To me, I always think that we know that times are changing when there’s more than one of this kind of film,” Asante told Vanity Fair during a recent phone call.

When we can get to the point where non-white or interracial stories don’t give audiences pause, Asante continued, then “we can concentrate on the story, and not simply the fact that there’s people of different colors. Now, I think we’re moving somewhere positive.”

Go see @aunitedkingdom! Support films that honor our #mixedrace #multiracial stories!

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Mixed-Race and Multiracial Families in Film!  The Mixed Race Experience is a Global Experience!

The reviews have been great and we want the box office to be great too.  Make sure you support films like this so that our stories continue to get heard in the mainstream! 

 

 

 

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