mixed | Mixed Roots Stories

Scholarships for Media Makers – DEADLINE 2/17/14

The Purpose: By endorsing and supporting quality education, the Alliance for Women in Media, Southern California (AWM SoCal), wishes to guarantee the future quality of radio, television, digital media and related fields in Southern California. Toward that goal, AWM SoCal has established a scholarship fund to aid in the higher education of promising students. This complements AWM SoCal’s mission: to advance the impact of women and men in the electronic media and allied fields by educating, advocating and acting as a resource to its members and the industry.

The Scholarship: AWM SoCal will make available funds for annual scholarship awards for tuition and books. Awards will be announced on March 8, 2014. Scholarship winners will be invited to attend the Genii Awards on April 24, 2014 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Eligibility Criteria: Applicants must meet the following criteria:

Southern California resident (male or female) in Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, or Riverside counties.
Attending a Southern California accredited four-year College as a junior, senior, or graduate student.
Enrolled in television, radio or digital media courses or related curriculum.
Enrolled in at least 9 semester hours Spring 2014.
Verification by department head, advisor or counselor certifying applicant meets the eligibility criteria.
Previous AWM Southern California scholarship winners are eligible.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO: http://awmsocal.org/content.php?page=Scholarships

Solo Performance Theater Festival – Submissions Open 2/1/14

From the All For One website:

The All For One Theater Festival is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of solo performance. The annual Festival takes place in New York City and offers extraordinary solo theater, workshops and panels to increase awareness and appreciation of the form. After the Festival, the organization works year around to book AFO shows in order to create sustainable opportunities for solo artists and teachers. AFO also works to create opportunities in education and community engagement for all solo artists. – See more at: http://www.afofest.org/about/#sthash.UC2A5mAN.dpuf

The Mixed Reddit Experience – Is Obama ‘Black’?

Reddit is an online resource that allows its readers to ‘upvote’ posts. If enough people respond to and click the ‘up’ arrow on a post, it ends up on the ‘front page’ of Reddit – making it more accessible to thousands (if not millions) of people. About a month ago someone posed this question on Reddit: Why is Obama always referred to as black? Surely you would be equally as accurate in calling him white… or am i missing something?

The conversation that follows is fascinating, informative, and very well worth the read.

One Drop of Love at Choate Rosemary Hall

I had the immense pleasure of performing One Drop of Love for over 300 students at Choate Rosemary Hall last weekend in Connecticut. Here is one of my favorite quotes from one of the students, and a link to the full review:
I’ve seen a lot of white struggle stories, and a lot of black struggle stories, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mixed struggle story. Zemia Edmondson ’16. http://thenews.choate.edu/article/getting-race-y-pmac#sthash.VGQFeIAj.dpuf

Playwright Sarah Rutherford Explores Mixed Families

Sarah Rutherford is a British playwright married to a Jamaican man and raising mixed children. Her new play Adult Supervision, a dramedy, was influenced by conversations she’s had with others about her children and husband (both alarming and encouraging). Adult Supervision explores what happens when a group of mothers gathers to celebrate President Obama’s election. Here’s a quote from the article on representing mixedness in theatre:

Do you think theatre has been shy addressing issues of multiculturalism?

I guess I’ve become very used to seeing certain issues addressed in relation to race: drugs, gangs, all that. Of course they’re more than valid subjects for drama, but what I don’t see on stage is people like me and my friends and family. When there was an outcry about Danny Boyle‘s depiction of a happy, educated, middle-class mixed-race family in the Olympic ceremony, I was aghast at the claims that such families don’t exist. We’re probably one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country; yet we’re pretty much invisible in the media and especially on stage.

A Mixed Roots Hero: Brendon Ayanbadejo

We were so happy to read THIS article about former NFL player and sports commentator Oladele Brendon Ayanbadejo. He has and openly discussed his parents’ interracial marriage in connection with his support for legalizing gay marriage – equating the immorality of anti-miscegenation laws (which would have made his own parents’ marriage illegal in 16 states prior to 19670) to laws like Proposition 8 in California prohibiting gay marriage.

Jude Narita

from JudeNarita.com

Jude Narita is a renowned solo performance artist whose plays address the Asian and Asian American experience. Her most famous play Coming Into Passion/Song for Sansei was awarded a number of important distinctions: The LA Drama Critics Award, a Drama-Logue Award, the James Wong Howe Award and the VESTA Award. Take a look at her website for more details on when she is performing (she also teaches!): http://www.judenarita.com/

Special Series on France’s Black Community

There are many Mixed Roots Stories to share on the topic of immigration. The headline of this story particularly caught my eye: In May 2013, France’s National Assembly successfully voted on a bill to remove the words ‘race’ and ‘racial’ from the country’s penal code. It introduces a special series on ‘Black France’ that delves into the question of whether politics will have a lasting effect on those who face the daily disparities caused by the belief that ‘race’ somehow makes us different from one another. Click the link for more: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201382894144265709.html

Blood Type: Ragu

from bloodtyperagu.com

This looks like a great solo show on the Mixed immigrant experience – it won the 2012 and 2013 United Solo Festival Awards for Best Comedic Performance and Best Comedic Script.

Award winning writer/performer Frank Ingrasciotta gives a tour-de-force performance in this humorous and heart-warming one-man play. Blood Type: RAGU is a coming-of-age story exploring the first-generation American’s delicate dance between culture and identity.

Click the link for more info: http://www.bloodtyperagu.com/about/

Hapa Happy Hour!

Hapa Happy Hour celebrated 5 years of podcasting in 2013! They explore through a lively discussion the celebration of mixed heritage and intercultural experiences!

http://www.hapahappyhour.libsyn.com/

Congratulations on a successful 5 years Hapa Happy Hour! Thanks for sharing this milestone with us!!