Mixed Remixed Festival

Bravo (again) Cheerios! A True Storyteller’s Prize Leader!

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Cheerios Camille Gibson and Doug Martin with Festival Founder Heidi Durrow
Camille Gibson, Vice President of Marketing of Cheerios; Festival Founder Heidi Durrow; Doug Martin, Marketing Manager of Cheerios

We were pleased as punch to honor Cheerios with a Storyteller’s Prize in June at the Mixed Remixed Festival for their work in celebrating the diverse American family in their commercials.  Cheerios’ Camile Gibson and Doug Martin accepted the award on behalf of the company and really stole the show (video to come soon).  Now, Cheerios has released this awesome video in its continued commitment to portraying life in America as it is in all of its wonderful diversity.  Check this out!  Bravo again Cheerios! And here’s more praise for Cheerios from Slate Magazine, and Adweek.–Heidi Durrow

[youtube]http://youtu.be/QvHGKSqBVjs[/youtube]

Bravo again @Cheerios! Thank you for your continued commitment to the diverse American family! #mixedremixed

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What’s Your Mixed Remixed Silly Collection?

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As I grew older and learned how to talk about being in the Mixed experience, I found it was very important to keep my sense of humor about some of the conversations I had. To that end, I have also started a collection with a nod to my mixed roots as an adult. I started collecting zebras and mules and lately pandas. It’s silly, but fun. How do you like my mule. His name is Otto. Get it? Mule Otto? Do you have a silly collection that nods to your mixed roots background? —Heidi Durrow

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Otto the Mule from collection of Heidi Durrow

Do you collect mules? Are you mixed? #mixedremixed

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Mixed Remixed Festival 2015: Submissions OPEN

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MIXED REMIXED FESTIVAL

CELEBRATING MULTICULTURAL FAMILIES AND STORIES

SLATED FOR JUNE 2015:

SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN

 

(Los Angeles, CA) The Mixed Remixed Festival, the nation’s premiere multicultural film, book and performance festival, will take place at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Avenue on June 13, 2015 in downtown Los Angeles.

2014-06-17 16.43.35The Mixed Remixed Festival celebrates stories of multiracial and multicultural families, interracial and intercultural relationships, transracial and transcultural adoptions, and individuals who identify as multiracial, multicultural, Hapa or mixed.  The Festival will present several films, readings, workshops, panel presentations, and will include family activities and a live performance.

The 2015 Festival will bring together innovative artists, film and book lovers, multiracial individuals and families, the country’s fastest growing demographic according to recent Census reports.  Events are free and open to the public.

The inaugural Festival in 2014 showcased appearances by Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, actress Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games), and actress and singer Erica Gimpel (Fame, Profiler) among others.  The Festival also presented Cheerios with its Storyteller’s Prize for its celebrated series of commercials featuring an interracial family.2014-06-17 16.44.29

The call for submissions for films, workshops, panel presentations, readings and performances by writers, actors, comedians, spoken word artists and musicians is open now until Jan. 15, 2015.  There is no submission fee.  For specific submissions requirements and festival information check here.

DSC03811About the Organizer

Heidi W. Durrow Founder/Executive Producer is the New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books), which received writer Barbara Kingsolver’s PEN/Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky has been hailed as one of the Best Novels of 2010 by the Washington Post, and a Top 10 Book of 2010 by The Oregonian.  Ebony Magazine named Durrow as one of its Power 100 Leaders of 2010 along with writers Edwidge Danticat and Malcolm Gladwell.  Durrow was nominated for a 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Debut.  Durrow has been featured as a leading expert on multiracial and multicultural issues and identity by the NBC Nightly News, the New York Times, CNN, National Public Radio, the BBC, Ebony Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is an occasional contributor to National Public Radio and blogs for the Huffington Post.

DSC03837Past Sponsors

Cheerios, Miss Jessie’s, Pitfire Artisan Pizza, Poets & Writers, Zerflin, and Cards in Color.

Mixed Remixed Festival Seeking Films, Writers, Performers. #mixedremixed

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Key & Peele: “This prize means belonging.”

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biracial celebrities
Keegan-Michael Key, Erica Gimpel, Jordan Peele

mx_key_and_peele_prize_watermarkMixed Remixed Festival honored Key & Peele with a Storyteller’s Prize in June 2014.  It was exciting to hear biracial celebrities we adore talk about their own Mixed experience.  The Storyteller’s Prize is presented by the Mixed Remixed Festival to artists, scholars, activists, organizations and community leaders who illuminate and celebrate the Mixed experience.  The complete Storyteller’s Prize presentation featured many talented performers including Khanisha Foster, Aaron Samuels and Mya Greene.  Video footage of the show will be posted on our You Tube page.  You can see Key & Peele’s acceptance speeches here:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/IrsXHId3eRo?list=UUNJXzxVW32o6p66tL9ySX2w[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/D7VRVQgbDvE[/youtube]

Aaron Samuls Mixed Remixed Festival

Khanisha Foster Mixed Remixed Festival

Mixed Remixed Festival Mya Greene

 

 

Meet Our New Tweeter-in-Chief

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edessenb-headshot-croppedWe are so excited and so lucky to have Erica Dessenberger on board as our new Tweeter-in-Chief! Please say hello to her on our Twitter feed @mixedremixed! Here’s a little more about the wonderful Erica:

Erica Dessenberger is absolutely pumped to be a member of the Mixed Remixed team! Born and raised in Northern California, she comes from a mixed race family of many cultures. In 2010, she graduated from the University of California, Davis with a B.A. in English, three different Twitter accounts, and a growing interest in social media marketing. Most recently, Erica spent two years tweeting up a storm and providing marketing and fundraising support for Ballet San Jose, the Silicon Valley’s professional ballet company. She continues to work with nonprofit arts organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and looks forward to setting the Twittersphere ablaze with news about Mixed Remixed Festival 2015!

Mixed Remixed Festival 2015: SAVE THE DATE!

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Keegan-Michael Key, Lesa Lakin, Heidi Durrow, Jennifer Frappier, Jordan Peele
Keegan-Michael Key, Lesa Lakin, Heidi Durrow, Jennifer Frappier, Jordan Peele

It’s official!  Join us for the 2nd Annual Mixed Remixed Festival on June 13, 2015 at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles.  We’re planning our programming now so if you have any ideas you’d like to share please email info(at)mixedremixed.org.  SAVE THE DATE!–Heidi Durrow

Festival Fave: James McBride’s Good Lord Bird Now in Paperback

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If you haven’t read The Good Lord Bird by Mixed Remixed Festival favorite James McBride, get it now in paperback. The National Book Award winning book is the kind of story we like to celebrate at the Mixed Remixed Festival. This is how the National Book Award fla-la-ca-0823-james-mcbride-016-jpg-20130828olks describe it: “James McBride’s novel takes a pivotal, troubled sequence in American history—John Brown’s abolitionist campaign—and retells it in a voice as comic and original as any we have heard since Mark Twain. The narrator is one Henry Shackleford, aka Onion, an escaped teenaged slave who accompanies Brown while disguised as a girl. Fondly portraying Brown as a well-meaning but unhinged zealot, The Good Lord Bird is daringly irreverent, but also wise, funny, and affecting.”  I just call it darn good.-Heidi Durrow

Top 10 Favorite Kids’ Books for Multiracial Kids and Teens

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CoverWe thought as the kids head back to school we’d share some of our favorite kids’ books for multiracial children and families for all those book reports that will be due soon.  Check some of these out and let us know what you think!

  • Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson (YA)
  • Bird by Crystal Chan (YA)
  • Amy Hodgepodge by Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts (series)
  • Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (YA)
  • Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena (YA)
  • The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (YA)
  • All the Colors of the Race by Arnold Adoff (poetry)
  • I am Mixed by Sebastian Jones and Garcelle Beauvais
  • I am Flippish by Leslie Ryan
  • Half and Half by Lensey Namioka

Oh, and we’re also kind of partial to our Festival founder’s book which is written for adults but skews YA and is taught at high schools across the country: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow

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