{"id":49863,"date":"2016-11-10T20:57:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T20:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=49863"},"modified":"2016-11-10T20:57:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T20:57:32","slug":"from-raised-eyebrows-to-raised-curtains-rachel-atkins-tackles-racial-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=49863","title":{"rendered":"From Raised Eyebrows To Raised Curtains: Rachel Atkins Tackles Racial Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Raised Eyebrows To Raised Curtains: Rachel Atkins Tackles Racial Identity<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

KUOW.org 94.9 FM: Seattle News & Information<\/a>
\nSeattle, Washington
\n2014-02-27<\/p>\n

Marcie Sillman<\/strong><\/a>, Arts and Culture Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nActresses Kia Pierce and Marquicia Dominguez in Rachel Atkins’ play, “Black Like Us.”<\/em>
\nCredit Courtesy of Annex Theatre\/Shane Regan<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

When Rachel Atkins<\/a> was 7, she and her sisters got a new stepfather. Atkins loved this man, but when she and her family went out in public, they raised a lot of eyebrows.<\/p>\n

“My stepdad, who raised me, was black,” says Atkins. “We were three little white Jewish girls in New Jersey<\/a>, when multi-racial families were not that common. We would get asked all the time, ‘Who’s that guy with your family?’ And we’d say, ‘That’s our dad.'”<\/p>\n

Decades later, Atkins’ experience was part of the impetus behind her new play “Black Like Us,” currently having its world premiere production at Seattle’s Annex Theater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Black Like Us” is about two black sisters in 1950s Seattle<\/a>. Feisty Maxine is attracted to the nascent Civil Rights movement<\/a>; lighter-skinned Florence is in love with a white man. Following her heart, Florence passes herself off as white<\/a> and estranges herself from her entire family…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>. Listen to the interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Raised Eyebrows To Raised Curtains: Rachel Atkins Tackles Racial Identity KUOW.org 94.9 FM: Seattle News & Information Seattle, Washington 2014-02-27 Marcie Sillman, Arts and Culture Reporter Actresses Kia Pierce and Marquicia Dominguez in Rachel Atkins’ play, “Black Like Us.” Credit Courtesy of Annex Theatre\/Shane Regan When Rachel Atkins was 7, she and her sisters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,6462,20],"tags":[14428,14607,25390,25389,25391,25388,5409,2685],"class_list":["post-49863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-kuow","tag-kuow-org","tag-kuow-org-94-9-fm","tag-kuow-org-94-9-fm-seattle-news-information","tag-marcie-sillman","tag-rachel-atkins","tag-seattle","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49864,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49863\/revisions\/49864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}