I hope you’re all ready to read a little something because here’s our next “Where Are They Now?” post! Today we’re focusing on Marcia Dawkins, author of the book “Things Said in Passing” and a volunteer at last year’s Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival. As a volunteer, she was a moderator for the film “Biracial… Not Black Damnit!” As I learn more about this program, I find that there are so many ways in which one can help out!
One of Miss Dawkins’s positive experiences at the Festival was actually meeting people she had previously only come to know through the internet or literary sources. Her motivation to help out with the event in the first place comes from when she was interviewed by Heidi Durrow and Fanshen Cox on Mixed Chicks Chat. The descriptions of the events and hard work that was needed spurred Miss Dawkin to participate in the Festival.
Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar at Brown University, where she works as a syndicated blogger for Huffington Post and a as a columnist for Truth Dig. She is also working on her next work, “Eminem: The Real Slim Shady,” a book that addresses identity, race, communication and economic literacy in the realm of popular culture. In addition to all of that, Miss Dawkins lectures at universities across the United States and does press interviews to share her research.
Thank you so much for your time, Miss Dawkins! I hope you decide to attend the Festival this year as well!

I am pleased to announce to anyone who comes across this blog that after much managing, waiting, and all-around cursing of the time difference between Los Angeles and Berlin, Miss Fanshen Cox and I were able to get in an interview via email. (Thank goodness for internet!) While we were unable to chat face-to-face (or rather, computer to computer), Miss Cox’s personality still showed through her typed answers.
In the event that you haven’t yet had the opportunity to check our “Organizers” page, allow me to mention that Fanshen Cox is the Co-Founder/Co-Producer of the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival. After Heidi Durrow and she started the Mixed Chicks Chat podcast, it became apparent that there were simply too many stories that had not been shared. In order to fix that little problem, the two of them founded the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Miss Cox’s drive to take part in storytelling through performance can be dated back to when she starred as the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in her school’s bilingual elementary school production of “The Nutcracker.” As someone who enjoys the theater experience, I am personally grateful to those who put on a show, whether it is through film, performance, or literature. The concept of telling a story and bringing understanding as well as entertainment to the audience never ceases to leave me in awe. Helping to further this concept, the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival has brought to reality “a warm, nurturing environment where artists feel comfortable and comforted in sharing the whole, complicated, true story of their racial and cultural backgrounds.” This accomplishment was originally Miss Cox’s goal for the Festival. Well, Miss Cox, it has certainly sprung to life!
When asked if she had anything she would like to add to this interview, Miss Cox replied by thanking everyone who makes the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival possible. We need you all and are so grateful for the work you do! On a quick closing note, I would like to thank Miss Cox for taking time out of her schedule to be interviewed!

Time for another little game of Let’s See What They’re Up to Now! This time we’re checking up on Kristen Lee, who attended the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival in May 2010. At the Festival, she screened her short documentary film, “MiXeD mE” (directed Chris Woon and Nancy Wen, as well as Kristen Lee herself).
The UCLA Ethnocommunications Course film has since screened at a Critical Mixed Race Conference and, on May 1st of this year, will make its Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival debut. In case you are unable to make it to that screening of the film, or if you just happen to be in New Orleans at the time, “MiXeD mE” will also be featured later in May at the 2011 Association of Asian American Studies Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
When asked to relate her favorite memory of the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, Miss Lee replied that she greatly enjoyed “networking with other mixed race creative artists, entrepreneurs, families and business professionals!” Her inspiration to take part in the Festival was due to the need of “having a space that welcomes Mixed Race artists.” What a great thing that the Festival provides such a place.

Thank you for your interview, Miss Lee, and congratulations! (Miss Lee graduates from the UCLA Asian American Studies Program this June with a Masters of Arts.)

Before last Thursday, I had not had opportunity to meet with  Heidi Durrow, co-founder of Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival and author of the New York Times Bestseller The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. My year studying abroad sometimes brings about inconveniences such as that there is a nine hour time difference between Berlin and Los Angeles. And, due to the fact that I do not own a personal jet plane, I cannot fly out to meet people who I would like to interview for this blog. However, technology is on our side. In a recent Skype interview, I was able to meet Miss Durrow “face-to-face.” Usually I shy away from technology, but what could be better than something that allows people to connect across continents?
Durrow, like most of us, cannot recall exactly when she began writing, but that once she learned how, she was hooked. As a child she had pen pals, to whom she wrote numerous letters (yes, letters, for those of you who have forgotten what the world was like without email). And instead of saving up for a kite or sweets,Durrow would spend her change on journals, pens, and stationery.
This method of writing has followed Durrow throughout her career. Even though she does incorporate a computer into her writing process, Durrow’s first drafts are handwritten. She explained this by stating that, “[to her,] having a pen in [her] hand is important.” (And in case you were wondering, this post was written, at least in part, by hand.)
On occasion, Durrow has had to face situations both strange and offensive because of her mixed-race heritage. She recounted her time in Spain as a foreign exchange student. Many people she encountered in northern Spain mistook Durrow to be a child of gypsies, a group which is still marginalized in parts of the world today. It is shameful that diversity, the very thing that makes us stronger, is often used against us. And we can all have equal opportunity when there are no feelings of superiority or inferiority between ethnic groups.
When asked what motivates her to write stories addressing multi-racial issues, Durrow spoke about how she herself did not have the chance to read many such books growing up. On a recent visit to a few schools in Oregon, Durrow was able to meet students who had read her book. She described the experience as bittersweet, relating how a lot of the young people could identify with the book, which focuses on the coming-of-age experiences of a biracial girl growing up in a prejudiced world, our world, actually.
Thank-you Heidi Durrow for your time, your efforts, and your eye-opening book.