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Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Paula Gunn Allen, writer and scholar

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Paula Gunn Allen, born in 1939 in New Mexico, was the daughter of a Lebanese-American man and a Laguna-Sioux-Scotch woman.  She once described herself as a “multicultural event.”

Her early education was at mission schools; she went on to earn several advanced degrees including a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1976.

Allen was a pioneer of Native American literary scholarship.  With the publication of her book, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986), she helped define the canon of Native American literature.

Allen was also a prolific writer of poems, fiction and essays publishing 17 books during her lifetime.  She received several awards for her work including the American Book Award, and the Hubbell Medal.

Twice married and twice divorced, Allen identified herself as a lesbian at one point, but later said she was a “serial bisexual.”

She died in 2008 of lung cancer.  She was 68.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Educator & Activist

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Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, also known as Zitkala-Sa or Red Bird, was born in 1876 to a full-blooded Sioux woman and a white man.

She struggled with her mixed-race heritage as a chid on the reservation as well as off.  She received a scholarship to attend Earlham University where she studied violin.

Her activism began after she took a teaching position at the New England Conservatory where the school’s founder’s philosophy was “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

She started writing essays against the movement to make Indian students relinquish their cultural identities.  In 1916, as an officer of the Society of American Indians, she was instrumental in the formation of the Indian Welfare Committee and wrote an investigation into the government’s mistreatment of Indian tribes–specifically, the defrauding of American Indians in Oklahoma of their oil-rich lands.  In 1926, she founded the National Council of American Indians, a lobbying group for American Indian legal rights.

Zitkala-Sa’s worked as an activist her entire life, but she also kept up her love for music and writing.  In 1938, her opera “Sun Dance” debuted on Broadway.  She died that same year.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

 

Mixed Experience History Month 2017: James Welch, award-winning writer

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mixed race, multiracial, biracial, mixed race historical figures, mixed race history, biracial historical figures, the mixed experienceJames Welch (1940-2003) was a mixed-race writer of Native American descent.

Welch was the son of two mixed-race Native Americans of Blackfeet and A’aninin tribes.  They were both raised with their Native American cultures as was Welch.

Welch published his first poetry book, Riding the Earthboy Forty, in 1971.  He published several novels including Winter in the Blood, Fool’s Crow, and The Indian Lawyer provided him interntational critical acclaim.  He wrote about Native American life and experience.  He received the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

He died in 2003 from a heart attack.

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Chocolat, famous circus performer

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mixed race historical figures, biracial historical figuresChocolat (born between 1865 and 1869-died 1917 ) whose birth name was Rafael had no known surname.

Rafael was born in Cuba to an enslaved woman of African descent.

As a child he was taken to Spain to work as a servant.  He escaped his servitude at age 14 and earned a living doing various menial jobs and performing on the streets for a change doing strength and dance routines.

After the popular performer Tony Grice saw Rafael perform, Grice offered him an apprenticeship with the circus.  He was given the stage name Chocolat because of his dark skin.

In 1886, Chocolat debuted at the Nouveau Cirque.  Soon after, Foottit, a famous English clown, would hire him away from Grice.  Chocolat became part of several popular acts thereafter.  In 1890, Chocolat became Foottit’s regular partner.  Their act is described as a “routine between an authoritarian white clown, and a stupid poor Negro” who at the end of each sketch was slapped.  In 1905, Foottit & Chocolat as they were known lost their contract with Nouveau Cirque.  Their act ended in 1910.

Chocolat was a central cultural figure during his time.  He was the subject of several paintings and sketches by Toulouse-Lautrec; the model for popular soap advertisements; and the character inspiration for writers Colette and possibly Samuel Beckett.

Chocolat (nor Foottit) achieved the level of success in his continued performing career.  He died penniless at 49. – Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Mixed Experience History Month: Lydia Hamilton Smith, abolitionist and mixed-race businesswoman

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mixed race history, mixed race, biracial history, biracial, growing up biracialLydia Hamilton Smith (1813-1884) was the daughter of a mixed-race free woman and an Irish man.
In 1847, Smith started working as the housekeeper to abolitionist and long-time US Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Smith, however, comported herself as an equal to Stevens–essentially as a common law wife. Stevens was an Underground Railroad activist and Smith was also helping to distribute food and provisions.
When Stevens died, Smith received a portion of his inheritance which allowed her to buy his house and adjoining property. She also bought a boarding house in Washington D.C. that she ran successfully.  She died in 1884 on Valentine’s Day.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Anne Brown, World-Class Soprano & Broadway Star

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Anne Brown, (1912-2009), was a world-class soprano and the inspiration for George Gershwin’s Bess in his folk opera “Porgy & Bess.”

Brown was the daughter of an African-American surgeon and mixed-race musician.  She attended Juillard where she received the Margaret McGill Prize as the school’s best singer. She started working with Gershwin after writing to him and requesting an interview.  She nailed it.  As Gershwin composed the opera, Ms. Brown sang the music.  “Porgy and Bess” opened in October 1935 with Brown playing Bess.  Ms. Brown was the only person Gershwin ever saw perform the role of Bess. Brown also appeared in “Mamba’s Daughter” in 1939, and a revival of “Porgy and Bess” in 1942.

 

I’ve lived a strange kind of life–half black, half white, half isolated, half in the spotlight. #mixedrace #multiracial

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Brown then performed throughout Europe and the Americas as a concert artist. In 1948, she moved to Oslo and married a Norwegian man.  In a 1998 New York Times article she said: “We tough girls tough it out.  I’ve lived a strange kind of life–half black, half white, half isolated, half in the spotlight.  Many things that I wanted as a young person for my career were denied to me because of my color.”

Brown was not able to continue her singing career because of difficulties with asthma.  She became a voice teacher of many famous performers including Liv Ullman.

In 1998, Brown received the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America.

Brown had two daughters–one from her second marriage and one from her third.  Her marriages ended in divorce.  Brown died in 2009.-Heidi Durrow

Gershwin & Bess: A Dialogue with Anne Brown {excerpt} from Nicole Franklin on Vimeo.

 

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Kick Off!

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Mixed Experience History Month begins!

Now in its 11th year, this series that I founded in 2007 continues to highlight really wonderful histories of mixed-race and multiracial people and experience.

I established Mixed Experience History Month originally on my personal blog Light-skinned-ed Girl as a way of claiming a history and a voice that I felt had been denied me.

Part of the difficulty of claiming one’s identity in the Mixed experience is that we have no history.  Our stories have been written out of the texts to conform to what society has allowed us to say about our racial identities.  And usually that has either silenced our experiences and/or simplified them.

Part of the difficulty of claiming one’s identity in the Mixed experience is that we have no history. #multiracial #mixedrace

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It’s easy to celebrate Mixed Experience History Month!  Just follow along with the posts I’ll make each weekday in May profiling historical figures and events that relate to the Mixed experience.  This year I will be posting the blog profiles on my website The Mixed Experience in their entirety and in part on my personal blog with a click through link.

If you have ideas of people I should profile please email me at heidi(at)heidiwdurrow.com.  And remember this is history so I’m only looking for people to profile who have passed away!  P.S. Anybody know who this year’s badge features (I made it easy this year)?–Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Season 4, Episode 16: Linguist and Scholar John McWhorter, “Talking Back, Talking Black”

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heidi durrow, mixed race, multiracial, mixed experience

LIVE 3/13/17 5pm Eastern: I am very excited to speak with linguist, writer and scholar John McWhorter about his new book Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America’s Lingua Franca. You can listen to the conversation live or download the episode from itunes.-Heidi Durrow

I interview @johnhmcwhorter about his new book Talking Back, Talking Black. #multiracial

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It has now been almost fifty years since linguistic experts began studying Black English as a legitimate speech variety, arguing to the public that it is different from Standard English, not a degradation of it. Yet false assumptions and controversies still swirl around what it means to speak and sound “black.” In his first book devoted solely to the form, structure, and development of Black English, John McWhorter clearly explains its fundamentals and rich history, while carefully examining the cultural, educational, and political issues that have undermined recognition of this transformative, empowering dialect. Talking Back, Talking Black takes us on a fascinating tour of a nuanced and complex language that has moved beyond America’s borders to become a dynamic force for today’s youth culture around the world.

Season 4, Episode 14: Mixed Race Writer Maria Olsen on the New Normal Family

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LIVE 2/13/17 5pm Eastern: I am excited to talk with Maria Olsen who is a children’s book author and now has a new non-fiction book: Not the Cleaver Family–The New Normal in Modern American Families (Tate Publishing, 2016).Don’t miss my talk with her.-Heidi Durrow

I interview Maria Olsen 2/13 5pm EASTERN. Tune in!

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Maria Leonard Olsen is a biracial woman whose parents were forbidden by law to marry in their home state of Maryland in the early 1960s. She is the mother of two children, a lawyer, journalist, radio talk show host (WPFW fm 89.3 in Washington, D.C.) and author of the children’s book, “Mommy, Why’s Your Skin So Brown?” Maria graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, served in the Clinton Administration’s Justice Department, fostered newborn babies awaiting adoption, and has been on the boards of Children’s National Medical Center BOV, the Catholic Coalition for Special Education, GirlsUp and the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Washington. She has written for The Washington Post,Washingtonian, Bethesda Magazine, Parenting, BabyTalk and Washington For Women. She lives in Fairhaven, Maryland.

 

Season 4, Episode 9: Shine Text Founders & Mixed Chicks Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi

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shine-logoRECORDED 10/19/16: You don’t want to miss this conversation with two of the most dynamic young, mixed-chick entrepreneurs around.  Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi are the co-founders of Shine Text. Shine is a daily text experience to help you be your best self at work and life. Every morning, Shine sends you actionable tips and content around confidence, daily happiness, mental health, or productivity. It’s available via Facebook Messenger as well.  Learn how these millenials went from good idea to product and now an ever-growing tech business.  You can listen to the episode here or download it from itunes.-Heidi Durrow
multiracial, heidi durrow, the girl who fell from the sky, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoption
Marah Lidey
multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionMarah Lidey is the co-founder of Shine Text, helping people live more intentionally through the power of daily messaging. Her expertise lies at the intersection of millennials and messaging; Marah previously directed mobile for brands like DoSomething.org, American Express and Viacom. Marah secured her B.A. in Journalism at the University of Georgia and currently reside in Brooklyn, NY. A World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and one of the Top 35 People to Watch in NYC Tech by Built in NYC, Marah also actively advocates for increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity in technology and entrepreneurship.
 
Naomi Hirabayashi 
Multiracial, mixed race, biracial, growing up biracial, biracial identity, multiracial identity, multiculturalism, biracial family, blasian, hapa, mixed race adoptionNaomi Hirabayashi is the co-founder of Shine: the daily messaging experience to help you be your best self. Prior to Shine, Naomi was the Chief Marketing Officer at DoSomething.org, the largest organization for young people and social action in the world. Naomi, named one of the Top 35 People to Watch in NYC Tech by Built in NYC, lives in Brooklyn with her fiancé, is passionate about diversifying entrepreneurship, women & confidence, and believes Brené Brown is a QUEEN.

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