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Submitted Stories


Exploring Mixed Identity through Food!

  • Published December 20, 2013
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Thanks Meso, for submitting your story!

Meso is an exploratory food project that brings people together to craft, sample, and discuss recipes featuring hybridity in food. Our goal is to create a Mexican-Chicagoan cookbook. In this project, we set out to celebrate our hybrid identities and call out to each of us who have felt like we’re in the middle, neither this nor that, but something of two or more, and still distinctly American. There is a reason we chose to communicate through food. For those of us living with mixed-race identity in the United States, it is a fitting metaphor for experience–mixed, concocted, politicized, appropriated, and of course, consumed. Food’s very nature allows for alterations to the recipe, improvements, mistakes, and quickly the “authenticity” of a dish becomes muddled. And, in the end, food brings us together like nothing else. With this and much more in mind, we present Meso, an exploration of Mexican-Chicago cuisine. This project is a test kitchen. Our process is collaborative and inclusive. We seek people who are interested in exploring identity, making connections between foods and cultures, and are not afraid of bizarre, spicy, frothy, heavy, exquisite, charred, or whatever else might describe the concoctions coming from our chefs’ baking dishes. Our participants give honest feedback and input on food, collectively deciding which recipes are published.

http://mesochicago.com/


“Cultural Collisions” – MASC Benefit

  • Published November 24, 2013
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Cultural Collisions

 

“Cultural Collisions” – a benefit performance for Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC)

Joe Hernandez-Kolski, two time HBO Def Poet, is performing his one-man show at the Bootleg Theater (2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057) as a benefit for MASC. The show is about the realities of being mixed race, and how American society is rapidly changing, and he does so with laughs on the way to truth.

If you live in Southern California, make sure to represent and show your support on December 7, 2013 – 7:30pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/1430119257201103/?source=1


“Other” Mixed Story told through Song

  • Published November 10, 2013
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“Other,” a song by Guante & Big Cats, featuring Chastity Brown, See More Perspective & Chantz Erolin

The song “Other,” from Guante & Big Cats’ 2012 album “You Better Weaponize,” explores mixed-race and mixed-culture identities in a way that is intimate and personal while also keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Featuring Chastity Brown, See More Perspective and Chantz Erolin, the track weaves together different experiences, styles and approaches to coming to terms with what “mixed” really means. More on Guante: www.guante.info

Listen to the song now: http://guanteandbigcats.bandcamp.com/track/other-w-chastity-brown-see-more-perspective-chantz-erolin

 

Thank you Guante for sharing your story with us!


SNAPSHOT: a true story of love interrupted by invasion

  • Published November 2, 2013
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Fusing words, dance, music and film this story chronicles the quest of a mixed-race daughter from Southern Appalachia who eventually finds her homeless Vietnam Veteran father suffering in Hawaii. SNAPSHOT was nominated for BEST ACTRESS at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, special selection at: Cape Town Festival South Africa and International Women’s Festival Tornio Finland and recipient of: Brooklyn Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, and Kentucky Foundation for Women Arts Meets Activism Grant. See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdNsYF6UJro

West Virginia PBS premiere Sunday November 10 at 8pm and Tuesday November 26 at 9pm

 

Find out more about this storyteller at: www.mitzisinnott.com


Black Coral : A Daughter’s Apology To Her Asian Island Mother

  • Published October 30, 2013
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BlackCoralCover11

“Why the title Black Coral? “Locating my family has been like finding Black Coral. Black Coral lies deep within the coral gardens of the tropical deep waters and sea. It is exotic and rare, most precious in color above all other varieties, and often threatened by harvesters wanting to exploit it. Black Coral is often found embedded within the warm waters of the Philippines, the Caribbean and Africa—Black Coral grows in caves under ledges where light is dim; it thrives in the darkness. It grows like trees up from the ocean floor as precious as ivory and pearl.””

Find out more about author C.D. Holmes Miller and her book on her website http://cdholmesmiller.com.

 


Growing Up Mixed in San Francisco

  • Published October 28, 2013
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Julie is scheduled to publish her book Growing Up Mixed in SanFrancisco by the end of 2014. Julie believes positive words, thoughts and actions leads to success.  Those are the things she can control and she chooses to have a positive response to situation, challenges and obstacles she faces.

Find out more about her story through her book and read her blog posts on her website http://www.juliegramlich.com/about-me/

 


Watermelon Sushi

  • Published October 27, 2013
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Yayoi L. Winfrey filled out our ‘promote your story link’ to promote her film Watermelon Sushi. Let us know if you have any projects you’d like us to promote!

“Michiko Johnson looks Asian. She says she’s black. A hip-hop head, soul sistah who greases on greens and cornbread, Michiko is outspoken about her African roots. She adores her younger sister, April, whose physical features are more African than hers. But April speaks fluent Japanese and eats only vegan meals with chopsticks.”

“Told against the backdrop of the rising rap music scene of the early 1980’s,Watermelon Sushi plans to feature old school rappers like Chuck D, Kool Mo Dee, LL Cool J, Afrika Bambaataa and newcomers like Japan’s superstar enka singer, Jero-san.”

In addition to being in film production Watermelon Sushi is an art exhibit series, a blog, and book of photos/poetry/illustrations “Watermelon Sushi: The Story of a Black Girl and Her Japanese Mother.”

http://www.watermelonsushi.com/


Multi-talented Performer Alejandro T Acierto

  • Published October 25, 2013
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Alejandro T. Acierto is an award winning performer.

“Alejandro T. Acierto is a musician and interdisciplinary artist whose innovative work in contemporary music, performance art, and art installation has led Time-Out New York to call him a “maverick.” He employs a multi-media aesthetic integrating music, sound, performance, and installation that explores notions of fluid identities and the slippages of cultural definitions.”

His next performance, Suspicious Package, is October 26th at 7:30pm in Brooklyn, NYC.

He will be in Saint Paul, MN November 5th and Chicago, IL  Nov 8th.

Learn more about this storyteller and his future performances at

http://alejandroacierto.com/


The Whipping Boy

  • Published October 5, 2013
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Letters To A Mixed Race Son

My dad had stories. Near the end of the 1800s, his father was brought up with a whipping boy. The idea was to use the natural affection the little white boy would have for his playmate. The threat or punishment of the little black boy was used to control the white boy. Later as they grew up, the culture would not permit them to remain as friends, certainly not equals, so they were required to part ways. My dad said his dad loved his friend, but I don’t even know the man’s name, was told they set him up in business when airplanes were new, as a barnstorming wing walker. He even described the ad that was used. I am the grandson of someone who had a whipping boy.

 -Frank Robinson
Frank &amp_ Sandra Wedding - Copy

Free Range: Where Heritage Meets Hope

  • Published October 5, 2013
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Free Range: Where Heritage Meets Hope is a rockumentary style film that follows Jessica Marie Porter (Chinook) as she embarks on a journey to transform her life. Her travels take her to indigenous communities and sacred regions around the world.

https://www.facebook.com/freerangethefilm

Free Range is currently running a KickStarter campaign that ends in 16 days! Support Alicia Woods and Jessica Marie Porter by spreading the word/liking their Facebook page/donating!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/428245815/free-range-where-heritage-meets-hope-rockumentary?ref=live


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Podcast

Sharing the personal stories behind the scholars, activists, artists and community leaders whose work addresses the mixed experience.

January 2017 Featured Artist – Nicole Kurtz

Nicole Kurtz is our January 2017 Featured Artist She is featured in the 2017 Mixed Roots Stories calendar. In this interview, she shared with us her story, about the piece, and her current projects. Visit Nicole’s website HERE to follow her work!
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BOOK REVIEW – Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World

Sharon H. Chang’s inaugural book, Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World, lays out a blue print that outlines the history of white supremacy and how it has corrupted the way people treat each other, specifically Mixed Race/ Multiracial and Multiracial Asian individuals. She develops an important foundation that provides a glimmer of hope for moving forward toward improving our future world, despite the powerful suppressive system before us. The title might make you think it is a parenting book, and it ... read more
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MXRS Episode 5 – Jenina Gallaway

Jenina Gallaway recently joined us for a MXRS Podcast – Telling the Story Behind the Stories. You can follow her on her Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/jeninagallawaysoprano and support her http://www.gofundme.com/z7tuys. Listen to her interview (also found on iTunes). Read her full bio below. Soprano, Jenina Gallaway, has performed internationally and throughout the United States in a wide range of genres. Operatic repertoire includes: Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, the title role in Suor Angelica, Serena in Porgy and Bess, ... read more
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