Mixed Race Studies

MASC’s Thomas Lopez Discusses Mixed Latina/o Identity

Mixed Race Radio
Wednesday, 2012-10-17, 16:00Z (12:00 EDT, 09:00 PDT, 17:00 BST)

Tiffany Rae Reid, Host

Thomas Lopez

Thomas Lopez continues to amaze me. He has held various positions with Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC), Los Angeles, CA since 1995 and continues to organize numerous conferences, workshops and events such as “Race In Medicine: A Dangerous Prescription” and “A Rx for the FDA: Ethical Dilemmas for Multiracial People in Race-Based Medicine” at the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, DePaul University, 2010.

Thomas is also a filmmaker, having produced, Mixed Mexican: Is Latino a Race? which was shown at the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival (2010), Readymade Film Festival (2010), and Hapapalooza Film Festival (2011)

On today’s episode of Mixed Race Radio, Thomas will announce the start of a new program by Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC) called: Latinas/os Of Mixed Ancestry (LOMA).

The purpose of the LOMA project is to:

• Provide space for expression of mixed Latina/o identity.
• Provide culturally relevant material to the mixed Latino community.
• Raise awareness of this community to society at large.

This will be accomplished by:

• The establishment of a website with blog and forum discussions.
• Social media campaign.
• Attendance at conferences.
• A public relations awareness campaign.
• MASC seeks to broaden self and public understanding of our interracial, multiethnic, and cross cultural society by facilitating interethnic dialogue and providing cultural, educational, and recreational activities. In 2009 MASC celebrated twenty years of incorporation.

As a part of our mission, MASC has always worked to raise awareness of the impact of multiracial identification. During the 1990’s, we successfully worked to revise the Census to allow multiple racial classifications.

For more information, click here.

Blackface, Whiteness and the Power of Definition in German Contemporary Theatre

The International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures” invites Bühnenwatch
Studio 1 Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2 / 10 997 Berlin
2012-10-16, 11:00-16:30 CEST (Local Time)

With presentations by Sharon Otoo, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, Dr. Daniele Daude, Dr. Azadeh Sharifi and Julia Lemmle

Moderated by Oliver Kontny

Program

11.00 Introduction by Oliver Kontny
11.30 “Reclaiming Innocence: Unmasking Representations of Whiteness in German Theatre,” Sharon Otoo
12.00 “Not just a Blackened Face: The Back Stage of a Stereotyp,” Sandrine Micossé-Aikins
12.30 “The (Un)Chosen Bodies of Myths. Performing Race on Opera Stage,” Dr. Daniele Daude
13.00-13.30 Discussion
Lunch
15.00 “Black artists in German theatre,” Dr. Azadeh Sharifi
15.30 ““Ich bin kein Nazi!” The blackface debate in the German mainstream media,” Julia Lemmle
16.00-16.30 Discussion…

For more information, click here.

Anomaly – Film Screening and Performance

Bentley University
Wilder Pavilion – Adamian Academic Center
Waltham, Massachusetts
Wednesday, 2012-10-24, 18:30 EDT (Local Time)

Jessica Chen Drammeh, Director/Producer

Sharon Smith, Co-Producer

Anomaly is an award-winning documentary that provides a thought-provoking look at multiracial identity by combining personal narratives with the larger drama of mixed race in American culture. The characters use spoken word and music to tell their stories of navigating identity, family and community in a changing world. As it unfolds, Anomaly tells a story that is deeply personal, yet broadly American. Live music will follow the screening featuring Pete Shungu, who stars in the film.

Invisible Woman: Growing up Black in Germany

University of California, Berkeley
Center for Race & Gender
Multicultural Community Center, Hearst Field Annex-D
2012-09-25, 12:40-14:00 PDT (Local Time)

A reading by Ika Hügel-Marshall

Ika Hügel-Marshall was the child of an African-American serviceman and a white German woman. Born and raised in post-Hitler Germany, she tells about her experience of anti-Black racism and how she came to terms with her identity as an Afro-German. Only at the age of 39 she met other Afro-Germans and was involved in setting up the “Initiative of Black Germans” (ISD). In 1993, she found her father in Chicago and met him and his family—a most profound experience.

For more infomation, click here.

2nd Annual: What Are You?

Brooklyn Historical Society
Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations
2012-10-04, 19:00 EDT (Local Time)

Let’s talk about race and ethnicity, and where we’re from (or where we’re from from); how we express our own multicultural identities, and how others perceive us. Panelists will start the conversation and we hope you’ll join in. We’ll discuss big questions like: How does our cultural background shape us? Can we see race? Is identity fixed or fluid?  #CBBGwhatru

Featuring:

• Jen Chau, founder of Swirl
• Erica Chito Childs, author of Fade to Black and White: Interracial Images in Popular Culture
• Heidi Durrow, co-host of Mixed Chicks Chat and author of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
• Ken Tanabe, founder of Loving Day
• Angela Tucker, director of Black Folk Don’t

Co-sponsored by Swirl, a multi-ethnic, anti-racist organization that promotes cross-cultural dialogue

For more information, click here.

A.C.T.O.R. presents Dorothy Roberts

Busboys and Poets
14th & V Streets, NW
Washington, D.C.
Langston Room
2012-10-07, 17:00-19:00 EDT (Local Time)

Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology; Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights
University of Pennsylvania

Dorothy Roberts is author of “Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century.”

A.C.T.O.R. A Continuing Talk on Race – Open discussion. The A.C.T.O.R series is hosted by Busboys and Poets as a community service. This discussion  series provides the opportunity for people to come together and speak openly and honestly about issues of race.  The intent is that each person walks away from the discussion feeling something: challenged, educated, uncomfortable, enlightened, refreshed, reassured and hopefully inspired and moved to action!  Regular discussions take place the first Sunday  of each  month a new topic is discussed, with Busboys and Poets sponsoring a facilitator.

For more information, click here.

David Domke & Christopher Parker: Obama, the Tea Party, and Racism

Town Hall Seattle
Great Hall; enter on Eight Avenue
2012-09-24, 19:30-21:00 PDT (Local Time)

David Domke, Chair of the University of Washington Department of Communications and a winner of the school’s Distinguished Teaching Award, believes President Barack Obama has been subjected to historically unprecedented disrespect by legislators and many citizens. Is this evidence of racism toward our first African-American president? What role has the Tea Party played in this animosity? What does public-opinion data tell us; what do we learn from public rhetoric; and what does news coverage suggest? Speaking to the data, UW Professor of Social Justice and Political Science and author of the forthcoming book Change They Can’t Believe In, Christopher Parker joins Dr. Domke in a candid, evidence-based conversation around this explosive topic. Presented as part of the Town Hall Civic series, with Elliott Bay Book Company. 

For more information, click here.

Poet to discuss biracialism during UHV/ABR Fall Reading Series

University of Houston-Victoria Newswire
Victoria, Texas
2012-09-20

Born to a Chinese mother and a Norwegian father, award-winning author Paisley Rekdal’s mixed heritage often influences her poetry and essay writing.

She will share her insights about biracialism on Sept. 27 as the second speaker in the University of Houston-Victoria/American Book Review Fall Reading Series. Rekdal also will give a reading of her poetry.

The event will begin at noon in the Alcorn Auditorium of UHV University West, 3007 N. Ben Wilson St. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

“Rekdal’s interesting mix of style and subject matter is a great addition to our reading series,” said Jeffrey Di Leo, ABR editor and publisher, and dean of the UHV School of Arts & Sciences. “As an Asian American, she gives a voice to a part of biracialism that is underrepresented and continues that theme to other subjects that are often overlooked.”

During the event, Rekdal plans on reading and sharing photographs from her latest book, “Intimate: An American Family Album.” The book is a hybrid photo-text memoir that combines poems, fiction and nonfiction with photography from Edward S. Curtis, a famous photographer of the American West and Native American people.

The book explores her father’s mixed-race marriage to her mother while paralleling it with stories about Curtis and his Indian guide, Alexander Upshaw. Rekdal found inspiration by looking at photographs from Curtis and imagined his life.

“It’s a memoir about my family, but it also talks about representation of mixed-race people or how they are not represented,” she said…

Read the entire article here.

Poet Laureate Inaugural Reading

Library of Congress
Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building (ground floor) (view map)
10 First Street, SE
Washington, D.C.
2012-09-13, 19:00 EDT (Local Time)

Natasha Trethewey, the 19th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry of the Library of Congress, will kick off the Library’s literary season with a reading. The event is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow.

For more information, click here.  Also, a list of 2012/2013 public readings by Poet Laureate Trethewey are here.

View the inaugural reading here.

Marcia Dawkins Booksigning

Eso Won Books
4327 Degnan Blvd (Leimert Park Business Center)
Los Angeles, California 90008
Phone: 323-290-1048
2012-09-12, 19:00-21:00 PDT (Local Time)

Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity by Marcia Alesan Dawkins. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2012, 285 pages. Hardback ISBN: 9781602583122.

Passing (def): usually understood as an abbreviation for “racial passing.” Describes the fact of being accepted, or categorized successfully as, a member of people classifed as white.

Clearly Invisible journeys to sometimes uncomfortable but unfailingly learned places as Dawkins retells the contemporary expressions and past experiences of individuals who pass as white people. Along the way these former non-white people’s stories sound familiar but take subtle turns to reveal tensions lurking beneath the surface, non-white people who ultimately expose as much about white supremacy/racism as they conceal about themselves.

Bring your questions, put on your thinking cap and enjoy this controversial topic.

For more information, click here.