Mixed Race Studies

The Fluency of Light: Coming of Age in a Theater of Black and White

University of Iowa Press
April 2013
144 pages
5 ¾ x 9 ¼
Paper ISBN: 1-60938-160-2; 978-1-60938-160-8

Aisha Sabatini Sloan

In these intertwined essays on art, music, and identity, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, the daughter of African American and Italian American parents, examines the experience of her mixed-race identity. Embracing the far-ranging stimuli of her media-obsessed upbringing, she grasps at news clippings, visual fragments, and lyrics from past and present in order to weave together a world of sense.

Art in all forms guides the author toward understanding concepts like blackness, jazz, mortality, riots, space, time, self, and other without falling prey to the myth that all things must exist within a system of binaries. Recalling her awkward attempts at coolness during her childhood, Sabatini Sloan evokes Thelonious Monk’s stage persona as a metaphor for blackness. Through the conceptual art of Adrian Piper, the author is able to understand what is so quietly menacing about the sharp, clean lines of an art gallery where she works as an assistant. The result is a compelling meditation on identity and representation.

Mixed feelings

NOW.
2012-06-30

NOW is the online source for news, features, analysis and much more, covering Lebanon, the Lebanese diaspora and the Middle East.

“The people photographed are so beautiful they make you feel like having mixed race babies,” said Kevork Baboyan, one of many attendees at Wednesday’s opening of the photography exhibition, Mixed Feelings.

Over the years, racism has slowly but steadily started to raise eyebrows in Lebanon, a country that is infamous for abusing migrant domestic workers and discriminating against refugees and other groups of society. Rarely, however, has anyone addressed racism between Lebanese until Lebanese-Nigerian activist Nisreen Kaj sought – in collaboration with Beirut-based Polish photographer Marta Bogdanska — to explore the concepts of race and identity.

“Living in Beirut as a black Lebanese has [clearly highlighted] the hierarchy of skin color and ethnicity in the country,” Kaj told NOW Extra. “This reality has gotten under my skin, which is only a figure of speech, for it is in fact about the surface, about the skin, about the way we perceive identity, race, and ethnicity.”

Opening at Hamra’s Dar al-Musawwir, the launch combined images and interviews of some 30 Lebanese from African and Asian descent and was produced in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Middle East Office…

…When asked whether racism was more prevalent in Lebanon as compared to other Arab nations, Khoury said it was “particularly [widespread] here, but this is exhibit is a start.”

“They see my car keys and can’t believe I own a car… so [people at the supermarket] follow me to see whether or not it’s actually possible,” said Khoury’s mother laughingly, recounting the incident with equal humor and frustration…

Read the entire article here.

World Premier of Christmas in Hanoi

East West Players
120 Judge John Aiso Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
2013-02-07 through 2013-03-10

Tim Dang, Producing Artistict Director
Eddie Borey, Playwright
Jeff Liu, Director

East West Players Presents Christmas in Hanoi

A mixed-race family returns to Vietnam for the first time since the war. One year after the death of their strong-willed mother, siblings Winnie and Lou travel with their Irish Catholic father and Vietnamese grandfather to re-connect with their roots. Whether they embrace that past or reject it, they are haunted by their own family’s ghosts and by the phantoms of Vietnam’s long history.

Christmas in Hanoi is the Winner of the East West Players Face of the Future Playwriting Competition.

Featuring: Joseph Daugherty, Elyse Dinh, Michael Krawic, Elizabeth Liang, and Long Nguyen.

In association with Multiracial Americans of Southern California and Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association.

For more information, click here.

Still Too Good, Too Bad or Invisible

The New York Times
2013-02-15

Nelson George

A black slave is torn apart by dogs as a crowd of white overseers savors the sight and a black bounty hunter watches passively behind shades. A black father makes his little girl crack open a crab with her bare hands then flex her tiny muscles like a pint-size N.F.L. linebacker. A black pilot snorts a line of cocaine after a night of debauchery and, just a few minutes before liftoff, knocks back several miniature bottles of alcohol. A black woman tells President Lincoln that God will guide him as he pushes legislation that will end slavery but not dent notions of white supremacy.

The four films noted here are contenders for a slew of major Oscars: “Django Unchained,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Flight” and “Lincoln.” In the year America gave its first black president a second term, some of Hollywood’s most celebrated films, all by white directors, dealt with black-white race relations or revolved around black characters, which is rare. For the first time in recent memory race is central to several Oscar conversations. But the black characters’ humanity is hit or miss. These films raise the age-old question of whether white filmmakers are ready to grant black characters agency in their own screen lives.

Looking at these Oscar-nominated films, we should ask: Are black characters given a real back story and real-world motivations? Are they agents of their own destiny or just foils for white characters? Are they too noble to be real? Are they too ghetto to be flesh and blood? Do any of these characters point to a way forward…

…A more sophisticated standard for judging a character’s merits has emerged as the most obvious stereotypes have, for the most part, faded and as filmmakers, for better and sometimes worse, have attempted to normalize the black image. In the age of Obama, when a black man is the protagonist in our national narrative, are Hollywood’s fictional characters allowed the same agency in the stories built around them? That’s a fair question to ask of these Oscar contenders…

Read the entire article here.

“Faces In Between”: A 3MW Collective Exhibition [Review]

Jenney Donkey
2013-02-12

Jennifer McKinley

At an event, a party, a gathering or any place where I meet new people, I am invariably asked the Question: Where are you from?
 
“Toronto,” I answer. This is not the response they are looking for and I know it.
 
“No, but where is your family from?”
 
“My parents were born in Toronto and so were my grandparents. All about ten minutes away from where I currently live actually.”
 
Their frustration mounts.
 
“No, but what’s your background? This is Canada. Everybody comes from somewhere.”
 
I respond differently each time I’m asked. Sometimes I give the précis answer, sometimes I make them guess and sometimes I flat out refuse to answer.
 
When people are not satisfied when I say I’m Canadian, I find myself scrambling to answer the question in terms of what will make my observer comfortable. I cling to a mixed identity that is ancestrally correct (though incomplete due to family secrets) but doesn’t quite fit with how I see myself.
 
I identify as Canadian.
 
My background is Irish, Italian, English, Black, possibly Scottish and possibly more.
 
In many ways, it is Toronto, the city of my ancestors, that informs my history and identity rather than some distant country that a person I never met came from.
 
Yet, the question persists…

…Because I am so often questioned and analyzed, I was naturally drawn to “Faces In Between”, an art exhibition by 3MW Collective showing at Daniels Spectrum in the Artscape Lounge. 3MW Collective seeks to create a progressive discussion about mixed race identity. 3MW is comprised of three mixed-race identified artists Rema Tavares, Ilene Sova and Jordan Clarke….

Read the entire article here.

The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America and the American South

University of North Carolina Press
September 2011
320 pages
7.625 x 8.375, 20 color illus., bibl., index
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8078-3494-7

Sandra A. Gutierrez

In this splendid cookbook, bicultural cook Sandra Gutierrez blends ingredients, traditions, and culinary techniques, creatively marrying the diverse and delicious cuisines of more than twenty Latin American countries with the beloved food of the American South.

 The New Southern-Latino Table features 150 original and delightfully tasty recipes that combine the best of both culinary cultures. 

Gutierrez, who has taught thousands of people how to cook, highlights the surprising affinities between the foodways of the Latin and Southern regions—including a wide variety of ethnic roots in each tradition and many shared basic ingredients—while embracing their flavorful contrasts and fascinating histories.

These lively dishes—including Jalapeño Deviled Eggs, Cocktail Chiles Rellenos with Latin Pimiento Cheese, Two-Corn Summer Salad, Latin Fried Chicken with Smoky Ketchup, Macaroni con Queso, and Chile Chocolate Brownies—promise to spark the imaginations and the meals of home cooks, seasoned or novice, and of food lovers everywhere. Along with delectable appetizers, salads, entrées, side dishes, and desserts, Gutierrez also provides a handy glossary, a section on how to navigate a Latin tienda, and a guide to ingredient sources. The New Southern-Latino Table brings to your home innovative, vibrant dishes that meld Latin American and Southern palates.

Faces In Between: Art About Mixed-Race Identity

CBC
Here and Now Toronto
2013-02-01

Throughout history, artists have drawn upon their own experience to fuel their work. Tonight, a new exhibit explores mixed race identity from the point of view of three young women. Rema Tavares is one of the artists. She spoke about “Faces In Between.”

Listen to the episode (00:06:14) here.

(1)NE DROP: Fact, Fiction, or Fate?

Drexel University
James E. Marks Intercultural Center (Lower Level)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Monday, 2013-02-04, 17:00-19:00 EST (Local Time)

Africana Studies and the Office of Equality & Diversity present (1)NE DROP: Fact, Fiction, or Fate? featuring Dr. Yaba Blay, artistic director of the (1)NE DROP PROJECT and assistant teaching professor of Africana Studies, Drexel University. Dr. Yaba’s work with (1)NE DROP is currently being featured as part of CNN’s documentary “Who is Black in America?”

This event will explore what Blackness is and what Blackness looks like. On the whole, the project seeks to raise social awareness and spark community dialogue about the complexities of Blackness as both an identity and a lived reality.

(1)NE DROP literally explores the “other” faces of Blackness—those who may not immediately be recognized, accepted or embraced as “Black” in our visually racialized society. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information about the (1)NE DROP PROJECT, please visit http://1nedrop.com/…

For more information, click here.

War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art

University of Washington Press
January 2013
304 pages
63 illustrations, 44 in color, maps
7 x 10 in.
ISBN: 978-0-295-99225-9

Edited by

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media and Design and Director Asian American Studies
DePaul University

Wei Ming Dariotis, Associate Professor Asian American Studies
San Francisco State University

Cover art by Mequitta Ahuja

War Baby/Love Child examines hybrid Asian American identity through a collection of essays, artworks, and interviews at the intersection of critical mixed race studies and contemporary art. The book pairs artwork and interviews with nineteen emerging, mid-career, and established mixed race/mixed heritage Asian American artists, including Li-lan and Kip Fulbeck, with scholarly essays exploring such topics as Vietnamese Amerasians, Korean transracial adoptions, and multiethnic Hawai’i. As an increasingly ethnically ambiguous Asian American generation is coming of age in an era of “optional identity,” this collection brings together first-person perspectives and a wider scholarly context to shed light on changing Asian American cultures.

Visit the website here.

Dance explores diversity in ‘Exodus Project II’ Jan. 24-25

Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
2013-01-18

Topics ranging from biracial identity to physical disabilities will be explored through movement as MTSU Theatre and Dance presents “The Exodus Project II: Understanding Diversity Through Dance” next week.
 
The performance will run two nights, at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24-25, at Tucker Theatre inside the Boutwell Performing Arts Building on the MTSU campus.
 
The nationally recognized MTSU Dance Program has a commitment to multicultural and interdisciplinary education and sponsoring this dance concert is in line with fulfilling that mission, organizers say…

…Included will be performances by Stefanie Batten Bland of Company Stefanie Batten Bland in New York City; Amy Shelley and Angie Simmons of Evolving Doors Dance in Denver, Colo.; and seven members of the MTSU Dance Theatre.
 
Bland will perform a piece called “Weight,” which examines her biracial identity. “What is the weight of your cultural identity?” [Kim Neal] Nofsinger said of Bland’s dance. “How does that hold you back or keep you down, or does that keep you grounded?…

Read the entire article here.