Mixed Remixed Festival Features Largest Nationwide Gathering of Multiracial Americans #MixedRemixed

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Multiracial Americans represent a growing segment of the population with an increase of 32% between the last two U.S. Censuses. Yet there’s an invisibility of mixed race people in literature, media, and societal systems. Mixed race individuals often feel there’s a lack of resources to support them and their unique backgrounds, but this is changing with the help of the Mixed Remixed Festival.

Now in its thrid year, the festival features the largest nationwide gathering of multiracial Americans. The free event takes place June 10-11, 2016 at the Japanese American National Museum (100 N. Central Avenue) in downtown Los Angeles. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged to ensure adequate food and wine quantities for receptions. More than 1000 attendees are expected where they’ll enjoy film screenings, readings, workshops, panel presentation and performances centered on the stories of mixed-race families and individuals.

“The Festival is the only nationwide gathering where mixed-race people and families can meet and share their stories,” says festival founder Heidi Durrow who calls herself an Afro-Viking because she is African-American and Danish. “We’re a population without a history because we’ve only been able to name ourselves in the last two decades.  The Festival is our chance to talk about our experiences and not just the labels we’ve been given,” Durrow says.

Past festivals have featured dozens of writers, scholars and performers including Comedy Central’s Al Madrigal and New York Times best-selling author Jamie Ford.  This year’s Festival features 90 presenters from 16 states and 3 countries.

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Mixed Remixed Festival Highlights

  • The Festival hosts the largest West Coast Loving DayCelebration, Saturday, June 11, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. with the annual Storyteller’s Prize presentation and live show. The Festival will present the Storyteller’s Prize to film and TV star Taye Diggs and his collaborator, Shane W. Evans, for their ground-breaking children’s book Mixed Me! as part of a dynamic live show featuring comedians, musicians, and spoken-word poets. Diggs and Evans will sign copies of their book immediately following the prize presentation.
  • Families can enjoy interactive craft activities as well storytelling events as part of the JANM Free Family Day. There will also be face-painting (free of charge) and a collaborative family art project.
  • The Festival will present several notable short films including the award-winning Fall Seven Times Get Up Eight: The Japanese War Brides(Directors Kraft, Kasmauski, Tolbert), a documentary about three Japanese women who immigrated to the U.S. to raise their Hapa kids.  A filmmaker Q&A will be moderated by KPCC’s Leslie Berestein Rojas.  Chill (Director Jennifer Frappier), a press-darling documentary about egg-freezing, screens at Mixed Remixed for a special panel on fertility and mixed-race babies and identity. Immediately following each screening, there will be a Q&A session with the filmmakers.
  • The Festival includes author readings by New York Timesbestselling author Jamie Ford (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and SweetSongs of Willow Frost); Sunil Yapa, the author of the breakout national bestseller, The Heart Is A Muscle the Size of Your Fist; Natashia Deon, author of the acclaimed debut novel, Grace; the celebrated writer and transgender activist Willy Wilkinson; and many others. The Festival is also pleased to present Skylight Books as the Festival’s official bookseller.
  • The Festival will feature a special panel on hair and identity onSaturday, June 11 at 10:00am.  Panelists include the founders of Mixed Chicks, the leading curly hair product company.
  • More than a dozen esteemed panelists will speak on diverse topics related to the mixed-race and multicultural experience, including: award-winning writer Faith Adiele and two-time Peabody Awardwinner Dmae Roberts who has released her important new memoir.

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Festival sponsors include: Silver Sponsor – Mixed Chicks; Emerging Sponsors – Home Advisor, Mixed Roots Foundation, Japanese American National Museum, Pitfire Artisan Pizza, Total Wine & More, Whole Foods, Zevia, Zapier, Algonquin Books, My Family Builders, Six Flags, My Heritage Book, and Far Bar. This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers through grants it has received from the Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundations.

Registration is now open for the third annual Mixed Remixed Festival, a free event that is open to the public. The complete Festival schedule can be found online at www.mixedremixed.org. Follow the hashtag #MixedRemixed on social media to see what all the buzz is about!

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Images: Courtesy of Mixed Remixed

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