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Mixed Experience History Month 2016: Regina M. Anderson, playwright & artistic leader

May 20, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

mixed race historyRegina M. Anderson (1901-1993) was born of mixed-race ancestry.  She identified as “American” and was a leader in the black artistic community.

Anderson received a master’s degree in library science from Columbia University.  She worked as a librarian with the New York Public Library for more than 40 years.  Her home became a central hub for Harlem’s intellectuals and artists.

She was a founding member of the Krigwa Players, a black acting troupe with became the Negro Experimental Theatre.  Anderson was also a playwright who wrote under the pseudonym Ursula or Ursala Trelling.  Her work included Climbing Jacob’s Ladder (1931) and Underground (1932).

She is quoted as saying in 1981: “It gives me a great deal of personal satisfaction to have lived to see much of what we and other pioneers worked to achieve becoming a reality. However, we need more and more opportunities for our actors, writers, and directors.” Anderson died in 1993 in New York. –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.

Filed Under: Mixed Experience History Month Tagged With: biracial, biracial artists, growing up biracial, heidi durrow, mixed experience, mixed experience history month, mixed race history, mixed roots, multiracial

Mixed Experience History Month 2016: Samuel Cornish, journalist and religious leader

May 17, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

mixed race historySamuel Cornish (1795-1858) was born to free parents of mixed race.

Cornish was ordained in 1822 and established the first black Presbyterian church in New York City.

He was an editor of Freedom’s Journal, the first black owned and operated newspaper in the country.  In 1833, he became one of the founding memebers of the interracial American Anti-Slavery Society.  Cornish died in 1858.-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.

Filed Under: Mixed Experience History Month Tagged With: biracial, heidi durrow, mixed experience, mixed race history, mixed remixed, multiracial

Season 3, Episode 1: Pulitzer Prize Winner Gregory Pardlo

September 7, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Digest Gregory Pardlo Heidi DurrowHeidi DurrowRECORDED 9/28/15: I enjoyed speaking with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gregory Pardlo to kick off Season 3 of The Mixed Experience.  Listen in to learn more about his writing, his scholarship, and his connection to the Afro-Viking experience. You can also download the episode on itunes.-Heidi Durrow

I talk with Pulitzer Prize Winner Gregory Pardlo .@pardlo abt his path to writing!

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Greg Pardlo in conversation with Heidi Durrow

Gregory Pardlo‘s ​collection​ Digest (Four Way Books) won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Digest​ was also shortlisted for the​ 2015 NAACP Image Award and is a current finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His other honors​ include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts; his first collection Totem was selected by Brenda Hillman for the APR/Honickman Prize in 2007. Pardlo’s poems appear in​ The Nation,Ploughshares, ​Tin House, T​he Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry,Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. Pardlo lives with his family in Brooklyn.

Filed Under: Books, Episodes Tagged With: Gregory Pardlo, heidi durrow, mixed experience, multiracial, pulitzer prize

Season 2, Summer Short 4: Kristen Green Author of Something Must be Done About Prince Edward County

August 1, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

RECORDED 8/10/15 11:00am: I had a great conversation with Kristen Green, author of Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle.

something must be done about prince edward countyHere is the publisher’s description: “In the wake of the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, Virginia’s Prince Edward County refused to obey the law. Rather than desegregate, the county closed its public schools, locking and chaining the doors. The community’s white leaders quickly established a private academy, commandeering supplies from the shuttered public schools to use for their all-white classrooms, while black parents scrambled to find alternative education for their children. For five years, the schools remained closed in Prince Edward County.
Author and journalist Kristen Green grew up in Farmville and attended Prince Edward Academy, which didn’t open its doors to black students until 1986. Thirty four years after the Supreme Court ended school segregation, Green first began to learn the truth about her hometown’s shameful history. As a wife and mother in her own multiracial family, the revelations of the haunting period in our nation’s past become more complex and painful as she discovers the role her own grandparents played.
Combining hard-hitting investigative journalism and a sweeping family narrative, Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County by Kristen Green is a provocative true story that reveals a little-known chapter of American history.”
Kristen Green is also part of a multiracial family and has written movingly about her experiences in articles widely shared on social media like this NPR Code Switch essay.  You can listen to the episode here or download it from itunes!
One lucky listener can win a free copy by signing up for my mailing list or email me at heidi(at)heidiwdurrow.com; people on the mailing list are already in it to win it!  I’ll pick one lucky listener at random next Monday 8/17.–Heidi Durrow

My conversation w/writer @kgreen abt her new book & being part of a #multiracial family.

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“Powerful. . . . The author movingly chronicles her discovery of the truth about her background and her efforts to promote reconciliation and atonement. A potent introduction to a nearly forgotten part of the civil rights movement and a personalized reminder of what it was truly about.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Kristen Green grew up in Prince Edward County, Va., the only community in the nation to close its schools for five years rather than desegregate. She attended an all-white academy, which was KGREEN_AuthorPicfounded in 1959 by her grandparents and other white leaders when the public school doors were locked. The private school did not admit black students until 1986, when she was in the eighth grade.

Kristen has worked for two decades as a journalist at newspapers including The San Diego Union-Tribune and the Boston Globe.

She was recognized by Media General for her local news writing at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2011. She has been awarded the Best of Gannett Outstanding Achievement in Writing, and her work has been recognized by the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists and the National Headliner Awards. Kristen also received a fellowship from the Scripps Howard Institute on the Environment at University of Colorado at Boulder. Kristen has a Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. She and her husband, Jason Hamilton, and their two young daughters live in Richmond, Va.

 

Filed Under: Books, Episodes Tagged With: biracial, heidi durrow, mixed experience, mixed race, multiracial

Season 2, Summer Short 5: Blaxicans in Los Angeles

August 1, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

RECORDED 8/17/15: I had a great talk with Walter Thompson-Hernandez about his wonderful photo project on Blaxicans of LA.  Learn more about how he navigated growing up Black and Mexican in LA and is scholarship on the issue as well as some of his thoughts about whether there is a multiracial movement afoot.

“The wblacklovebrownay I see it, Blaxicans really challenge the way we think about race and force us to think about racial identities in more inclusive and broad ways. Blaxicans are dual minorities. We represent two of the largest ethnic minority groups. And I think because Blaxicans represent two of the most aggrieved groups in Los Angeles, it’s important to understand that certain sets of issues and challenges that have been traditionally labeled as African American or Latino, ultimately, do not exist for people who self-identify as Blaxicans.” Walter Thompson-Hernandez

Learn more about the project in this LA Times article or listen in on our conversation here or download it on itunes! –Heidi Durrow

 

A great conversation with @blaxicansofla about #multiracial #mixedrace experience.

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walter thomopson hernandez
Walter Thompson-Hernandez is a researcher, photographer, and documentary filmmaker based out of Los Angeles, California who will begin his doctoral research in the Fall of 2016. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and is a recent graduate of the Stanford University Latin American Studies Master’s program. He is currently a researcher at the University of Southern California (USC), Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII), and Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE), where he is part of a research team that is working on a forthcoming book about Latinos in South LA. Outside of his work at CSII, Walter’s research looks at issues related to immigration, race, Afro-Latinos, and sports in the United States,  Latin America, and Europe. His research and projects have been featured by CNN, BBC, Los Angeles Times, Remezcla, and UNIVISION. His latest academic project will be featured in a forthcoming book titled, “Afro-Latinos in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas.”
instagram:
@mychivas
@blaxicansofla
personal website: wthdz.com

 

 

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: biracial, blaxicans, heidi durrow, mixed, mixed experience, mixed race

Mixed Experience History Month 2015: Elizabeth Keckley, White House seamstress & memoirist

May 12, 2015 by admin 1 Comment

Mixed Experience History MonthElizabeth Keckley (1818-1907), a mixed-race woman bought her freedom in 1855 for $1200.  Keckley was an accomplished dressmaker and went on to become the seamstress and confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.

In 1862, Keckley established the Contraband Relief Organization, a women’s organization that helped former slaves seek refuge in Washington D.C.  In 1868, she published her autobiography Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House.  Her public discussion of White House life was unprecedented and was roundly criticized as a salacious tell-all.  Keckley was ostracized and the book was pulled from bookstores.  She died in the Home for Destitute Colored Women & Children in 1907.-Heidi Durrow

Here’s my Mixed Experience History Minute about Keckley.

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 at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015

Filed Under: Mixed Experience History Month Tagged With: biracial, growing up biracial, heidi durrow, mixed experience, mixed experience history month, mixed race, mixed remixed festival, multiracial

Mixed Experience History Month 2015: Philippa Schuyler, child prodigy and journalist

May 11, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Mixed Experience History Month phillipa schuylerPhilippa Schuyler (1931-1967), the daughter of black conservative writer George Schuyler, was a talented pianist and journalist who demonstrated her gifts at an early age.  At age nine, she was profiled in “Evening with a Gifted Child” by a celebrated New Yorker writer.

As a teen-aged concert pianist, she toured widely throughout the United States and overseas and claimed New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia as one of her biggest fans.

In 1967, Schuyler died in a helicopter crash off the Vietnamese coast where she had traveled as a war correspondent.  Alicia Keys is rumored to star in a film version of Schuyler’s life in development (based on Kathryn Talalay’s book Composition in Black and White).-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 at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015.

Filed Under: Mixed Experience History Month Tagged With: biracial, growing up biracial, heidi durrow, mixed, mixed experience, mixed experience history month, mixed festival, mixed remixed festival, mixed roots festival, multiracial

Mixed Experience History Month 2015: Norris Wright Cuney, politician

May 8, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Mixed Experience History MonthNorris Wright Cuney (1846-1898) was the son of a wealthy white plantation owner & politician and an enslaved African-American woman.

The fourth of eight children, Cuney was spared the duties and cruelties of enslavement.  He was sent to school in Pittsburgh at age 13.  The outbreak of the Civil War prevented him from attending Oberlin.  Instead, after years of working on steamships traveling between the North and South, he took up self-study of law and literature.  Soon he became involved in politics with the Republican Party.

In 1870, he became sergeant at arms in the Texas legislature.  Cuney went on to hold several important political appointments.  He became chairman of the Texas Republican Party, but was ultimately removed in 1892 when President Grover Cleveland was elected.  Historians have dubbed the years from 1884-1896 as the “Cuney Era” for all of his accomplishments particularly with regard to empowering the black community.-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 at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015.

Filed Under: Mixed Experience History Month Tagged With: biracial, growing up biracial, heidi durrow, mixed, mixed experience, mixed festival, multiracial

Mixed Experience History Month 2015: James Mye

May 7, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

The Mixed Experience history MonthJames Mye (ca. 1823 – ca. 1890) was a descendant of Africans who escaped slavery in the British colonies and found refuge in Native American communities.  He was of Mashpee and African descent.  Mye was an indentured servant to the Hall brothers beginning at age 11.  However, in a 1804 legal case that became an important precedent in subsequent cases concerning child labor, the court determined that his servitude was akin to slavery and not legal.  This daguerrotype of Mye was taken circa 1840 in Cape Cod.–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 at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015.

Filed Under: Mixed Experience History Month Tagged With: biracial, growing up biracial, heidi durrow, mixed, mixed experience, multiracial

Season 2, Episode 25: Author of ReJane, Patricia Park

April 24, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

patriciaparkRECORDED 5/11/15: I loved speaking with writer Patricia Park who has a wonderful new debut novel called ReJane.  ReJane is described as “a fresh, contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre and a poignant Korean-American debut novel that takes its heroine Jane Re on a journey from Queens to Brooklyn to Seoul—and back.”  The protagonist is a biracial young woman (a half-Korean, half-American orphan) from Flushing, Queens, looking for where she belongs in the world only to discover that she has to feel like she belongs in her own skin before she finds a landscape that will fit her.  I read the book in one-sitting and loved it!  I know you’ll enjoy this too!  You can listen to the interview here or download it from itunes.–Heidi Durrow, Host of The Mixed Experience podcast

The book is already generating some great buzz:

“The Korean Americans of Queens find a daring new voice in Patricia Park’s debut novel,  as she takes a story we know and makes it into a story we’ve not seen before—a novel for the country we are still becoming.” —Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night 

A great interview with @patriciapark718 about her book ReJane! #multiracial

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“Patricia Park’s Re Jane is packed with authenticity, poignancy and humor. I was enchanted by this modern retelling of Jane Eyre as the tough yet vulnerable narrator captured my heart.”—Jean Kwok, bestselling author of Girl In Translation and Mambo in Chinatown 

PATRICIA PARK was born and raised in Queens and is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. She earned her BA in English from Swarthmore College and an MFA in Fiction from Boston University. A former Fulbright Scholar and Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction, she has published essays in The New York Times, Slice, and the Guardian. She has taught writing at Boston University, CUNY Queens College, and Ewha Womans University in Seoul. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

.@patriciapark718 biracial narrator in ReJane will capture your heart! #multiracial

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PATRICIA PARK WILL BE TOURING TO:

rejane

May 6th Brooklyn, NY BookCourt / 7:00PM

May 9thBayside, NY Barnes & Noble Bayside / 2:00PM

May 11thBoston, MA Harvard Book Store In Conversation with MargotLivesey/ 7:00PM

May 12th San Francisco, CA Bookshop West Portal / 7:00PM

May 13th Seattle, WA Third Place Books / 7:00PM

May 14th Los Angeles, CA Vroman’s Bookstore / 7:00PM

May 16th Hackensack, NJ Barnes & Noble Hackensack / 11:00AM

May 20th Brooklyn, NY WORD Brooklyn In Conversation with Lisa Lutz/ 7:00PM

May 26th New York, NY The Center for Fiction In Conversation with Pamela Dorman/ 7:00PM

 

Filed Under: Books, Episodes Tagged With: biracial, debut novel, growing up biracial, heidi durrow, Korean adoptee, Patricia Park, ReJane, transracial adoption

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Host Heidi Durrow

Host Heidi Durrow

Heidi Durrow is the New York Times best-selling writer of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and the founder of the original mixed roots film and book festival and now the founder of Mixed Remixed Festival , an annual film, book and performance festival, which will be held next on June 10-11, 2016 at … [Read More]

Recent Posts

  • Season 5, Episode 3: Award-Winning Writer Amina Gautier November 14, 2017
  • Season 5, Episode 2: New York Times Bestselling Writer Julie Lythcott-Haims October 12, 2017
  • Season 4, Episode 19: Writer/Literary Critic Janet Savage July 3, 2017
  • Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Paula Gunn Allen, writer and scholar May 17, 2017
  • Mixed Experience History Month 2017: Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Educator & Activist May 16, 2017

The Mixed Experience Minute Vlog

the mixed experience by heidi durrow

The Mixed Experience Minute

In 2007, I instituted Mixed Experience History Month to celebrate historical stories of the Mixed … [Read More...]

Guest Host Jennifer Frappier

Guest Host Jennifer Frappier

I'm so excited that Jennifer Frappier will join The Mixed Experience as a guest host on future … [Read More...]

Podcast Episodes

the mixed experience by heidi durrow

The Mixed Experience Podcast

You can find all episodes and information about guests of The Mixed Experience podcast here and also … [Read More...]

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