Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts, authors of Amy Hodgepodge Books
Frank Buckley Host for Mixed Roots History Panel
The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival (TM) has celebrated so many wonderful moments since its establishment in 2008!
Target Free Family Day at Mixed Roots
We have celebrated the achievements of Kip Fulbeck, Dr. Maria P. P. Root, Angela Nissel, James McBride, Dr. Maya Soetor-Ng, Nancy Brown, Hines Ward, Velina Hasu Houston, Paul Spickard and Jenny Lumet–all award winner’s of the Festival’s Loving Prize.
We have screened dozens of films including the award-winning documentaries One Big Hapa Family dir. Jeff Chiba Stearns, Off and Running dir. Nicole Opper, Biracial Not Black Damn It directed by Carolyn Battle Cochrane, Black White Yellow directed by Nicole Koschmann, Running Dragon directed by Kim Noonan, the stirring Silences directed by Octavio Warnock-Graham, and dozens more all about the Mixed experience. In 2011, Yelling to the Sky (dir. Victoria Mahoney) celebrated its LA Premiere at the Festival!
Kip Fulbeck at Mixed Roots 2010
Our literary line-up has been stellar including best-selling and beloved writers Danzy Senna, Rebecca Walker, a Festival founder Heidi Durrow, Faith Adiele, Mat Johnson, Susan Straight, Nina Revoyr, and Sarah Culberson. We’ve highlighted the work of wonderful new poets Neil Aitken, Tara Betts, and Jennifer Lisa Vest among others. And we’ve been excited to feature some wonderful emerging voices of the Mixed experience curly hair expert Teri LaFlesh, Liberty Hultberg, Monique Fields, Kerina Pharr and Jason Sublette.
Each year we love to see the families gather for our Target Free Family Day activities which wouldn’t have been the same without husband-wife team Kim Wayans and Kevin Knotts, authors of the popular children’s book series Amy Hodgepodge.
In 2011, the Festival was featured in the New York Times! A Festival founder interviewed was quoted: “We are saying we are the American experience,” Ms. Durrow said in a recent interview. The census, she said, “doesn’t say enough about who you are, it doesn’t tell about the complications, it doesn’t tell a story.” The Festival is a place where all of our stories are heard.
