FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Heidi Durrow

Phone: 213-293-7077

Email: heidi@mixedremixed.org

Website: www.mixedremixed.org

Twitter: @mixedremixed

Instagram: mixedremixed

#mixedremixed

MIXED CHICKS JOINS AS SILVER SPONSOR OF

FESTIVAL CELEBRATING MIXED-RACE FAMILIES

LOS ANGELES, CA-May 24, 2016 – Mixed Chicks, the leading hair care product line for curly hair, has signed on as a Silver 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 Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles (100 N. Central Avenue), June 10-11, 2016.

Now in its third 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.

“It is an honor to have Mixed Chicks as a sponsor,” says Durrow who calls herself an Afro-Viking because she is African-American and Danish. “The company’s products directly reflect the diversity of the Mixed experience which is very much the American experience.”  The company’s founders will also participate in a special panel presentation—Naturally Curly or Straight Hair Curious: Tips and Talk about “Biracial” Hair–on June 11, 2016 at 10:00am.

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 volunteers.

In 2015, the Mixed Remixed Festival attracted close to 700 people from across the country and featured dozens of writers, scholars and performers including Comedy Central’s Al Madrigal and New York Times best-selling author Jamie Ford.

Registration is now open for the third annual Mixed Remixed Festival, a free event that is open to the public. The complete Festival schedule can be found online at www.mixedremixed.org.

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• The Festival hosts the largest West Coast Loving Day Celebration, Saturday, June 11, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. with the annual Storyteller’s Prize presentation and live show. The Festival will present the Storyteller’s Prize to film and TV star Taye Diggs and his collaborator, Shane Evans, for their ground-breaking children’s book Mixed Me as part of a dynamic live show featuring comedians, musicians, and spoken-word poets. Diggs and Evans will be available to sign books directly after the prize presentation.
• Families can enjoy interactive craft activities, free face painting and storytelling events as part of the JANM Free Family Day.

• The Festival will present several notable short films including the award-winning Fall Seven Times Get Up Eight: Japanese War Brides (dirs. Kraft, Kasmauski, Tolbert), a documentary about three Japanese women who immigrated to the US to raise their Hapa kids. Chill (dir. Jennifer Frappier), a press-darling documentary about egg-freezing screens at Mixed Remixed. Immediately following each screening, there will be a Q & A session with the filmmakers.

• The Festival includes author readings by New York Times bestselling author Jamie Ford (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; Songs of Willow Frost); Sunil Yapa, the author of the breakout national bestseller, The Heart Is A Muscle the Size of Your Fist; Natashia Deon, author of the acclaimed debut novel, Grace; the celebrated writer and activist Willy Wilkinson; and many others. The Festival is also pleased to present Skylight Books as the Festival’s official bookseller.

• More than a dozen esteemed panelists will speak on diverse topics related to the mixed-race and multicultural experience, including: award-winning writer Faith Adiele and two-time Peabody Award winner Dmae Roberts who has released her important new memoir.

Festival sponsors include: Silver Sponsor: Mixed Chicks, Emerging Sponsor: Home Advisor, Japanese American National Museum, Pitfire Artisan Pizza, Total Wine & More, Mixed Roots Foundation, Whole Foods, Zevia, Zapier, Algonquin Books, My Family Builders, Six Flags. This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers through grants it has received from the Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundations.