We are extremely pleased to have writer May-lee Chai as part of our Featured Writers Reading. You can hear her read on June 10, 2017 at 1:00pm at the Mixed Remixed Festival. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged.
What are you?
Mixed-race Asian-American, specifically Chinese-Anglo/Irish/German.
What is your mixed experience?
I am biracial, daughter of a Chinese father and White Irish-Anglo-German American mother.
What is the most important thing you want people to know about the mixed experience?
We are not half anything, we are wholly ourselves. Our families have a right to exist and we have a right to celebrate our existence and to see our families represented in American culture in a positive way through a non-racist lens.
Do you remember when you first started thinking about the mixed experience? Was it because of a certain moment or event? Please tell us about that.
I had to think about the mixed experience for survival’s sake when I was 12 and we moved from the NYC-area to rural South Dakota and people started driving by our house to stare at us, shout racial slurs, and eventually to shoot and kill our dogs. I had to assert my right to exist when monoracial adults and their children told me God didn’t want the races to mix and that I by my existence was a sign of the “End Times” and Satan’s reign on earth. I learned to insist upon my family’s right to exist and our right to be represented in American culture in a positive light rather than through the lens of racism.
Is this your first time attending the Mixed Remixed Festival?
Yes
Why did you want to be a part of the Mixed Remixed Festival? What do you hope to gain?
I want to represent my family, I want to tell my story, I want to meet other mixed-race writers and artists and families.
What are you looking forward to most at the Festival this year?
Meeting everyone and hearing all the stories!
Did you know that you can hear the oral argument before the Supreme Court of the Loving v. Virginia decision? You can find it 
Loving Day
Richard Loving was a white man who was in some ways “passing” as black. As writer and scholar 
Richard and Mildred Loving raised three children Sidney, Donald and Peggy. Scholar and write 
Chief Justice Ear Warren wrote the unanimous Loving v. Virginia. “To deny this right on so unsupportable a basis as racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment,” wrote Warren , “is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.”
“‘No way. No way. People will think you are marrying a foreigner’ . . . He said, ‘I don’t care what people think. I’m marrying you.’ He was so persuasive. So we got married. And, actually, there was no repercussion because people knew me.”
Exploring the impact of race and culture on relationships, PG is specifically pertaining to parents that feel uncomfortable with their children being romantically involved with someone outside of their race/culture. The film ventures through different avenues of dealing with this issue, while still maintaining one’s relationship with their parents.
In this interactive storytelling workshop you will learn how to tell your Mixed experience story. Using improv, breath awareness, and voice techniques, participants will learn skills to inhabit curiosity and their full selves. This interactive workshop is led by professional actor and master teacher Rayme Cornell.
Rayme Cornell is an Assistant Professor on the Performance Faculty at UNLV. She teaches in the Graduate studio and is the Head of Undergraduate Actor training. She has been a Professional Actor for over 20 years. Rayme is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Actors Equity Association. Rayme received her B.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and her MFA in Acting & Directing from the University of Missouri Kansas City in association with the Missouri Repertory Theatre. She was the host of the national award winning PBS show Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy. She has worked in film, television, Off Broadway and with some of the nation’s most prestigious Regional Theatres including, The Old Globe, The Alley, Crossroads, ATC, The Vineyard, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Primary Stages, The O’Neill, Missouri Rep., Unicorn Theatre and with New York’s famous Acting Company. Rayme is a private coach for professionals. Her speech and acting clients range from network News Anchors and Celebrity Chefs to UFC champions. Rayme is also known for her extensive voice-over work. Rayme is a Master Teacher at the Don LaFontaine Voice Over Lab at the Screen Actors Guild Foundation in Los Angeles and New York. Rayme has represented 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 Candidates and many more. Her greatest role to date is that of being Brick’s Mom.
It’s 2017. What’s the big deal about the mixed-race experience? It’s a question we keep hearing from many younger people. Is the mixed-race conversation is still relevant 50 years after Loving and given the current political climate on issues of race? Panelists of four different generations address these issues. There will be extended time for audience Q&A. 
One of the hottest comedians on the Hollywood scene, Actor, tv/radio host, and activist, Tehran Von Ghasri, is a Washington DC native. Mixed Iranian and African-American, Tehran is known for his multiculturalism, diversity, and unique life perspective. With degrees in International politics, economics, and law, Tehran often brings activism and social commentary to life on stage through his comedy. A Laugh Factory favorite, Tehran has been seen on Fox, Bravo, Pivot, Revolt and Comedy Central.
Dr. Greg Kimura was ordained at age twenty-five in Alaska. He then obtained a PhD in philosophy of religion and taught. He then served as the head of Alaska’s humanities council before taking on the role of president/CEO at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. He now serves as Rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Ojai, Ca. Kimura is hapa, half Anglo and half Japanese.
Karen Grigsby Bates is a Los Angeles-based correspondent for NPR, where she covers race, identity and culture issue for the network’s award-winning Code Switch team. Her work often appears on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. A former contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times op-ed page, Bates’ work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian UK, Essence and Emerge magazines.