The Mixed Experience

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Season 3, Episode 25: Mari Naomi, Mixed-Race Cartoonist & Writer

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RECORDED 7/25/16: I loved taking with MariNaomi about her recently released book Turning Japanese! You can listen to the episode here or download it from itunes.  Also, you can pre-order her forthcoming book I Thought You Hated Me on Amazon here.-Heidi Durrow

Listen to @marinaomi talk about her newest book Turning Japanese. #multiracial

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MariNaomi has been making memoir comics since 1997. She’s the author and illustrator of the SPACE Prize-winning Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), the Eisner-nominated Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories(2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014), the recently released Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016) and I Thought You Hated Me (Retrofit Comics, 2016), and her self-published Estrus Comics (1998 to 2009). Her work has appeared in over sixty print publications, and has been featured on numerous websites, such as The Rumpus, The Weeklings, LA Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, Truth-out, XOJane, Buzzfeed, PEN America and more. Mari’s work on the Rumpus won a SPACE Prize and an honorable mention in Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Comics 2013.

mari TurningJapaneseMariNaomi’s comics and paintings have been featured in such institutions as the De Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco’s Asian American Museum, and the Japanese American Museums in Los Angeles and San Jose. In 2011, Mari toured with the literary roadshow Sister Spit. She is the creator and curator of the Cartoonists of Color Database and the Queer Cartoonists Database.

Season 3, Episode 24: Author Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Sarong Party Girls

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RECORDED 7/18/16: It was so great to speak with Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan about her new book Sarong Party Girls. You can listen to it here or download it on itunes.-Heidi Durrow

My interview w/ @cheryltan88 Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan abt her excellent book Sarong Party Girls.

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cheryl photoCheryl Lu-Lien Tan is a New York-based journalist and author of “Sarong Party Girls” (William Morrow, 2016) as well as “A Tiger In The Kitchen: A Memoir of Food & Family“ (Hyperion, 2011). She is the editor of the fiction anthology “Singapore Noir“ (Akashic Books, 2014).

She was a staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, In Style magazine and the Baltimore Sun. Her stories have also appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, National Geographic, Foreign Policy, Marie Claire, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, The (Portland) Oregonian, The (Topeka) Capital-Journal and The (Singapore) Straits Times among other places.

Cheryl SPG_FINALCOVERShe has been an artist in residence at Yaddo, where she wrote “A Tiger in the Kitchen,” Hawthornden Castle, Le Moulin à Nef, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Headlands Center for the Arts, Ragdale Foundation, Ledig House and the Studios of Key West. In 2012, she was the recipient of a major arts creation grant from the National Arts Council of Singapore in support of her novel.

Born and raised in Singapore, she crossed the ocean at age 18 to go to Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Unsure of whether she would remain in the U.S. after college, she interned in places as disparate as possible. She hung out with Harley Davidson enthusiasts in Topeka, Kan., interviewed gypsies about their burial rituals in Portland, Ore., covered July 4 in Washington, D.C., and chronicled the life and times of the Boomerang Pleasure Club, a group of Italian-American men that were getting together to cook, play cards and gab about women for decades in their storefront “clubhouse” in Chicago.

An active member of the Asian American Journalists Association, she served on its national board for seven years, ending in 2010.

“Utterly irresistible. I fell in love with the fresh, exuberant voice and trenchant wit of Jazzy … In her debut novel, Tan is saying something profound and insightful about the place of women in our globalized, capitalized, interconnected world.” — Ruth Ozeki
 
“In Singapore this satirical novel of predatory beauties would be regarded as deeply subversive – for the rest of us, and anyone familiar with life in that little island city state, it is hilarious and original.” — Paul Theroux
 

“Scarlett O’Hara would have met her match in Jazeline Lim, the brazen, striving, yet ultimately vulnerable heroine of this bold debut novel. Tan paints a stark portrait, comic yet chilling, of a society in which a young woman who seeks a way out risks falling in too deep.” — Julia Glass

Season 3, Episode 23: Debut Novelist Phenom Natashia Deon

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RECORDED 7/11/16: Please don’t miss my talk with Natashia Deon whose debut novel, Grace, has announced her as a major new novelist to watch! We talked about her book, but also the need for stories and the relevance of the stories of her novel still in this traumatic and difficult time.  You can listen here or download it on itunes.-Heidi Durrow

.@heididurrow interviews the amazing @natashiadeon about her debut novel! #multiracial

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natashia deonNatashia Deón is the recipient of a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices fellowship and her debut novel, Grace, debuted June 2016 with Counterpoint Press.

An attorney, writer, law professor, and creator of the popular L.A.-based reading series Dirty Laundry Lit, Deón was recently named one of L.A.’s “Most Fascinating People” by L.A. Weekly.

natashia deon bookDeón has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Yale, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Prague’s Creative Writing Program, Dickinson House in Belgium, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts.

Her writing has appeared in American Short Fiction, The Rumpus, The Feminist Wire, Asian American Lit Review, Rattling Wall, B O D Y and other places.

She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside–Palm Desert, has two perfect children, and a lovely husband whom she met while living and working in Kent, England.

Season 3, Episode 22: Award-winning Writer Dmae Roberts

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RECORDED 6/30/16: I was so excited to talk with my friend and writer-filmmaker Dmae Roberts about her wonderful new book The Letting Go Trilogies Stories of a Mixed Race Family.  Listen to her interview here or download it from itunes!-Heidi Durrow

Listen to my interview with @dmaeroberts about her excellent book! #multiracial

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dmae LettingGo-CoverDmae Roberts has recently completed her memoir book The Letting Go Trilogies: Stories of a Mixed Race Family which traces four decades of what it means to be a mixed-race adult who sometimes called herself A Secret Asian Woman. With her personal essays written over a ten-year period, Dmae Roberts journeys through biracial identity, Taiwan, sci-fi, and the trials of her interracial Taiwanese and Oklahoman family amid love, loss and letting go of past regrets and pain.

Dmae RobertsDmae Roberts is a writer/producer who received two Peabody Awards for her documentary Mei Mei, a Daughter’s Song and the Crossing East series. She received the Dr. Suzanne Ahn Civil Rights and Social Justice award from the Asian American Journalists Association and is a USA Fellow. She’s been published in Oregon Humanities, The Sun, Where Are You From? (Thymos Group) and Mothering in East Asian Communities (Demeter Press). Her book is The Letting Go Trilogies: Stories of a Mixed-Race Family.

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

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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.

Mixed Experience History Month 2016: Cynthia Hesdra, From Enslaved to Millionaire

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mixed race historyCynthia Hesdra (1808-1879) was born into slavery.  Her father was described as a “half-breed Indian.” She was described as “mulatto” in Census records.

She married Edward Hesdra who was a free mixed-race man.  The couple purchased Cynthia’s freedom after their marriage.  They spent the early years of their marriage in New York City where Cynthia ran a laundry business and owned several properties.

They went on to move to Nyack, NY where they both continued to amass property and wealth.  Hesdra became involved with Underground Railroad.  Runaway slaves would rest at her house stowing away during the day and then traveling on northward once it was night.

In 1879, Hesdra died. At first, it was said, without a will.  Her husband soon produced a will that spurred litigation with the family.  At the time of her death, her assets valued at well over $100,000. –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.

Mixed Experience History Month 2016: Jeremiah Hamilton, black millionaire

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mehm16 LarsenJeremiah Hamilton (1806/1807) became the only black millionaire in New York in the 1850s according to abolitionist and physician James McCune Smith.

Hamilton dealt in counterfeit coins in his early career.  Laer he became a shrewd real estate investor capitalizing on the misfortune of people who lost everything in the Great Fire of New York.

Hamilton was a successful businessman who amassed incredible wealth but he was not well-regarded.  His nicknames included “The Prince of Darkness” and “N***** Hamilton”.

His wife, Eliza was white and they had 10 children together during approximately 40 years of marriage.

Hamilton’s wealth did not protect him from racism and racist violence.  In 1863, a group of white men broke into his home with the intention of lynching him.  When he died in 1875, Hamilton was proclaimed the richest black man in the United States.  Today he has largely been forgotten.-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.

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

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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.

Mixed Experience History Month 2016, James McCune Smith, doctor & abolitionist

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James McCune Smith (1813-1865) was born free to an enslaved woman who later self-emancipated herself.  His father was a white slave owner.  Smith was an exceptional student, but was denied admission to universities because of his race.

Smith found a champion in an African-American minister who helped finance his education at University of Glasgow in Scotland instead.

He graduated at the top of his class in 1835.  He received his medical degree in 1837.  Smith returned to New York in the 1840s as the first university-trained black doctor in the country.  He cared for both black and white patients and worked tirelessly to help children specifically, the kids of the Colored Orphan Asylum where he practiced for 25 years.

Smith was the first university-trained black doctor in the US. #mixedrace #multiracial

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He was a prominent aboilitionist and wrote extensively against slavery including writing the introduction to Frederick Douglass’ autobiography.  Smith died in 1863 in Ohio where he served as a professor at Wilberforce College.  He was survived by his wife and five children.-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.

Mixed Experience History Month 2016: Linda Jum, Jewish Educator & Activist

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linda jum mehm16Linda Jum ( 1954-2015) was an advocate for multiracial Jewish people.  Her background was Chinese and Chinese-American but she identified as Jewish from a very young age.  In 1990, she helped found the Jewish Multiracial Network.  She founded the Jewish Reconstructionist summer camp in 2001.  “Jews have always been a multi-racial people. I always ask people who think Jews should be Caucasian, ‘What part of Poland did Abraham come from?”” she is quoted as saying in a 2004 interview with the New Jersey Jewish News. She received the Jewish Reconstructionist Federations’ Yehudit Award in recognition of her work with the camp and the Reconstructionist youth movement in 2010.  She died in 2015. –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.

 

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