Light-skinned-ed Girl

Tyra's Painted Contestants Brown for "Hapa Honor"

Oh really?  Look, I don't watch reality TV--well, except that I do -- in fits and starts -- whenever I get control of the remote and find myself alone -- that is to say I have seen episodes of (but don't "follow" Project Runway, Survivor, and the Real Housewives of Atlanta on purpose.  My A.I. addiction is not included as reality TV.) 

Tonight it was America's Next Top Model.  Love it when I see it except today. In honor of being in Hawaii for the shoot and for the number one Hapa -- the President: she's got the contestants potraying "hapa" with different cultures.  She's painted some of the models brown and is playing "tribal" music in some of the sequences.  One contestant was told she was only portraying the "Russian" side of her "hapaness."  I mean really.

Would she do the same thing if they were in Kenya and said: now we will do a photo shoot of you as a black Kenyan?  No.  

Maybe I am making too big a deal of this --what do you think?

No Difference Between Them: Portraits of Interracial Couples

I was delighted to receive a copy of No Difference Between Them: The Black & White Portraits--a stunning photo book of interracial couples by Robert Kalman.  I was honored to write the book's introduction! 

Congratulations Robert!  And thank you for these beautiful photographs--an essential record of what human connection looks like.

Author Feast Extravaganza: SCIBA

Okay, these guys now how to throw a party!  I had a great time at the Author Feast on Saturday night with Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA).  It was a meet-and-greet as well as an award ceremony -- and really just lots of fun.

And like the wonderful PNBA event I attended in September --it was speed-dating with booksellers for the writers.  This time there were two writers per table which was a delight because I learned about some books that sound great including Liza Palmer's A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents (5 Spot) and Debra Ollivier's What French Woman Know (Putnam). And yes, I confess I was a little star-struck: I ate dinner with Ron Carlson (The Signal) and sat next to Lisa See (Shanghai Girls).  There I was meeting REAL writers.  It was thrilling. 

But the all-time highlight of the night was when Elizabeth Kostova, best-selling author of The Historian and the forthcoming The Swan Thieves and the night's keynote speaker, walked up to my table to introduce herself to ME!  She is connected with the Lois Roth Foundation -- a foundation which awarded me a grant for a work-in-progress about Denmark--for the work she does to support Bulgarian writers and writing.  She had heard about me and wanted to say hello.  She was so lovely and gracious--and I have to tell you it caused quite a stir at my table.  "How did I know her?"  they asked!

That's it for the book appearances until next year's book tour which now starts in January!  I'm excited and nervous and excited and nervous and cycling between these crazy emotions as I think about how it will all go.  I hope it goes well.  Will you come out to see me if I'm in your town and cheer me on?

Miscellaneous Mixedness

I suddenly seem to have the same relationship to blogging as I do to exercising: once I get out of the habit, it's hard to start up again.  How did I manage to post every day in 2008? 

But here I go again trying to get into the groove.  I'm starting easy with some link love for my people:

• My dear friend, award-winning poet & writer extraordinaire, Honoree Fannone Jeffers, has started a blog.  You are guaranteed to like her sassy spirit as you read Phillis Remastered, about "gender, politics, writing, race."
• The lovely, hapa writer, Marie Mockett has a fantastic new book out called Picking Bones From Ash.  You should read it.  We interviewed her on Mixed Chicks Chat this week.  You will be enchanted.
  
• Curly-Hair Queen Teri LaFlesh has a publication date for her book on all things curls: Curly Like Me.  May 2010!  Whoo hoo!
• Mulitracial Americans of Southern California (MASC) celebrates its 20th Anniversary on Dec. 5 in Los Angeles.  Happy Anniversary!

Your Book Reviewer is Not Your Psychoanalyst

I should say upfront that my forthcoming novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, is NOT about me.  Sure, the protagonist is a half-Danish, half-African-American girl who has blue eyes (like me).  Sure, the book's set in Portland, OR (where I grew up).  And yes, I do really have an Aunt Loretta (whose name I am using in the book with her permission). 

The story is not my story.  And the story is not about me.  That's a fact.

BUT, the novel does reflect my "emotional truths"--As a novel writer, I think that has to be the case.  I'm not the girl in the book, but the emotional truth of her experience (as well as that of the other central characters-- the neighborhood boy & the mother's friend) is part of me.

I've been thinking about all of this the past few weeks as the advanced reading copy of my book circulates and the reviews come in.  (It's been nerve-wracking--imagine just sending your toddler or your beloved puppy out in the world without supervision and see how it fares.)

I'm glad that so far the reviews have been good.  BUT, there's a little part of me that wants some new insight into what I've written--into the "emotional truths" that I've put on the page.  "Your book reviewer is not your psychoanalyst," I have to remind myself.  Still, I'd love to do an interview with Michael Silverblatt of KCRW's Bookworm--he's so awesome.  He's able to surprise writers like Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates with his interpretations.

Or maybe it's just this: I wrote the book not for critique--for thumbs up or thumbs down or x number of stars--but to encourage more story.  I think that's what will be most satisfying in the end--hearing from readers about how the story relates to them.

Michelle Obama's Mixed Experience

I loved learning about the story of Michelle Obama's great-great grandfather, Dolphus Shields, a "mulatto" born two years before Emancipation.

Across the blogosphere, the story has met with a yawn, disdain at dredging up a painful history of black women being raped by slave masters, and irritation. Black in America has always meant mixed, folks say.  No argument from me.  

But let me just tell you what made it interesting to me: it was a Story!  Not just an abstract fact of life that most likely there were interracial relations in a family's past.  The New York Times and the genealogist who helped root out the details were able to tell us facts about this man and his life.  What we will never know are his thoughts about the circumstance of his birth, about his relation to living life as a black man when he knew that (if the law had recognized it) he was also half white.

Why is this blog called Light-skinned-ed Girl?

I was 11 the first time I heard the term "light-skinned-ed."  (And yes, the kids said it with the extra "ed.")

My family had just moved and we were living in a mostly black community for the first time. Someone had asked me the now-familiar question "What are you?"  I had learned pretty quickly that when people asked they wanted to know what race I was; why did I look the way I did?  "Black and white," I'd said.  "Oh," the girl said, "I thought you were just light-skinned-ed."

It baffled me at the time.

Now, I claim the term as my invitation or pass into black womanhood.  (I say black womanhood specifically because I felt most estranged from black women growing up--even though I wanted so much to belong.)

When I claim my light-skinned-ed-ness, it's not to valorize my skin color, but to accept the way that in some ways I belong to the world of black womanhood.  I can look like this and not have to Prove my allegiance.

Yes, well, then why claim it at all?  Why not be on firm ground and simply identify as a black woman?  Many women -- more light-skinned-ed than I -- have done that through the ages.  The answer is simply that it would negate my actual experience -- it doesn't tell the whole of the story I want to tell.

It's complicated this naming business.  I'm not sure that I've figured it out completely myself. 

Jalen's Journey

Please read my friend Hank's touching post about Jalen, a young boy suddenly fighting brain cancer four years after his younger sister died from it.  Please help any way you can.

Book Tour News: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

My book, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, debuts in February but the book tour is taking shape now.  Below are the dates scheduled so far.  To get the latest, visit my website.

I'd love to visit your town too.  If you have contacts at bookstores, universities, or cultural centers in your area, please let me know!

Riverside, CA: 31st Annual Writers Week
Friday, February 12, 4:30PM

Los Angeles, CA: Skylight Books Book Launch
Tuesday, February 16, 7:30PM

Portland, OR: Powell’s Books
Friday, February 19, 7:30PM

Seattle, WA: TBA
Saturday, February 20, 7:30PM

Bellingham, WA: Village Books
Monday, February 22, 7PM

Portland, OR: Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center
Tuesday, February 23, TBA

New York City: TBA
Thursday, February 25, 7:30PM

New Haven, CT: Yale Law School
Monday, March 1, 4:30PM

Santa Fe, NM: Collected Works Bookstore
Friday, March 12, 6PM

Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College
Thursday, April 15, 4pm

“ HAUNTING, AND LOVELY, PITCH PERFECT”  –  BARBARA KINGSOLVER

A Blog Community and a Sad Loss

I learned this weekend that a healthy, 20-something, avid reader of this blog passed away earlier this year.  A relative, coping with the loss, and the stunning development that authorities now believe the death was a suicide, was looking for a connection to her loved one.  She emailed me with the news.

I didn't know the young woman personally, but her death has hit me very hard.  The young woman found this blog because she was grappling with her Mixed experience.  She was embarrassed to talk with friends about her struggle of trying to figure out where she fit in black or white communities.  She read along for a long time before she ever commented.  And she only commented once.

It's still unclear whether the authorities are right.  I hope they're not.  But it's so difficult to think that maybe she thought her struggle was too difficult--and heart-breaking to think that she thought she was alone.  

A beautiful, curious, and vivacious young woman was lost.  She will be missed.

Hello & Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my blog, Light-Skinned-ed Girl, a mixed chick's mixed thoughts on a mixed-up world.

Since 2006, I've been writing about the vagaries of race, biracial identity, and the Mixed experience--essentially I write "On the Biracial Thing."

 Some of my favorite (and controversial) posts on those subjects appear here:

• The Family Album is Mixed
• 1st Mixed Race People History Month Kick-off
  
• 2nd Annual Mixed Experience History Month Kick-off
• 3rd Annual Mixed Experience History Month Kick-off
• Mixed Experience History Month Re-Cap & a Pledge to Soldier On
• Did you know that these people were mixed? playwright August Wilson, artist Isamu Noguchi, writer Nella Larsen (black and Danish like me), activist Mildred Loving
  
• Are Those Your Eyes Part 5
• Are Those Your Eyes Part 7

I'm a writer who often blogs about the creative life: moments of inspiration and disappointment.  In 2008, I won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change.  My debut novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books), will be published in February 2010!  (You can pre-order it now.)  The book, a coming-of-age story mixed with a mystery and a love story, was named one of the Top Ten Promising Debuts in Publishers Weekly in June.  Follow my journey from unpublished to published writer as I chronicle each little step along the way.

• My First Book Appearance
• The Advanced Reading Copy of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is Ready
• I Won the Bellwether Prize!

 Sometimes I write about my travels.  I am lucky to have experienced many adventures.

And sometimes I write about--well, anything that's on my mind.  That was especially true in 2008 when I blogged every single day of the year from wherever I was in the world.

I hope you enjoy the read!

:) heidi

P.S.  If you're looking for more cool stuff, check out my website where you can find more of my writing, or check out the weekly podcast I co-host called Mixed Chicks Chat and then read about the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, an annual free public event, I co-founded and co-produce!

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky: My First Book Appearance

I did my first book appearance yesterday. I was invited to appear as one of about 20 writers at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's annual Author Feast.  

It was a kind of speed-dating with bookstore owners and librarians -- each writer got 20 minutes to talk to a table of folks over dinner about the book s/he had penned.  When the bell went off, we rotated to the next table.  Before dinner, each author signed about 100 books or so that would be given out at the dinner's end.  Richard Oie, of The Book Shoppe, was the wonderful volunteer who helped me sign the books swiftly, opening each book to the right page and handing it to me.  He also introduced me to each new table of folks.

Oh, but I almost forgot!  There was some drama involved before that.  My books had yet to arrive just an hour before the event was set to start.  No problem. The wonderful rep. Kurtis and the very wonderful (and fast-driving) rep. Walter took heroic efforts to get the books there in time--I even had enough time to sign the ARCs (I'd been looking forward to it for weeks!).  Those guys are so awesome!

The drama was behind me, but then--for just a moment--the anxiety kicked in.  What on earth was I going to say about my book?

But you know what?  It was WONDERFUL!  I couldn't have started the evening off at a better table than Table 18.  That's where I met Cynthia of Book Stop, and Karla of Time Enough Books, as well as Claudia and Patty from the Univ. of Idaho Bookstore.  They were a delightful, laughter-inducing crew and gave me some great tips with which to carry on the night and future appearances!  Thanks guys! 

There were many more wonderful people at Table 18 and beyond whose names I didn't catch, or unfortunately, have forgotten (I'm sorry)--but everyone was just a delight! It was such a special night all-around.  (Oh, yes, and I met Jenny from Waucoma Bookstore who read the book a few weeks ago in a single-sitting!  I'm so happy she liked the book! )

Someone asked me near the end of the evening whether the event was tiring for the authors.  "Not for me." I answered.  "It's a dream come true to be able to talk about the book and share it with all of you.  I don't want the night to end!"

On originality

"Everybody is original, if they tell the truth, if they speak from their true self.  But it must be from their true self and not from the self they think they should be.  So remember these two thing: you are talented and you are original." - Brenda Ueland

2010 Bellwether Prize Accepting Submissions

This is a true story: I almost chose not to submit The Girl Who Fell From the Sky for the Bellwether Prize.  I was grumpy the day it was due.  Dispirited.  I didn't have enough printer ink and didn't want to buy more; didn't want to go to the post office; and didn't want to send my work to be rejected.  I'd had enough rejection that week: a short short rejected, and a slight by a guy (who I knew) who couldn't remember my name. 

Besides, the application was a little different than others for which I had applied.  I had to show "proof" of publication and explain "why" my work counted as literature of social change.  It just seemed like too much work.  Why bother?

I swear: I almost didn't send it in.  But then I did.  Thank goodness I didn't listen to myself.  But now, I hope you will listen to me: if you have a novel that fits the Bellwether Prize --please send in your manuscript.  The submission period runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 2.  Complete application information can be found here.

"Fiction has a unique capacity to bring difficult issues to a broad readership on a personal level, creating empathy in a reader’s heart for the theoretical stranger. Its capacity for invoking moral and social responsibility is enormous. Throughout history, every movement toward a more peaceful and humane world has begun with those who imagined the possibilities. The Bellwether Prize seeks to support the imagination of humane possibilities."

         Barbara Kingsolver, founder of the Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change

Bread Loaf Writers Conference 2009: so far . . .

I've been here for a week and I'm exhausted--but in the best way.  The time's flown by with excellent readings (btw: if you have not experienced a reading by writer Luis Urrea then you have missed out on a wonderful life event--I was feeling the spell of his storytelling a day later!), great conversations (many of which are about writing too), and just plain fun.

There's so much more to tell, but not now--I'm still living it!  In the meantime, I share with you the reading I did on the second  night for the Scholar's Reading.  I was pretty darn excited --not just to read to this amazing group in the spot where Robert Frost once stood to read -- but because it was my first time as an almost-published author too.  I think it went well.  Check it out on my website:

Bread Loaf Scholars' Reading 2009: Heidi W. Durrow

A Day at the Printers

At the last barbecue we had, my dear neighbor mentioned that he had a letterpress in his garage.  When his son was in high school some 30+ years ago, he had a letterpress business printing business cards, social note cards, and personalizing lunch boxes.  "It still works," he said.  "It just needs new rollers (for the ink)."

Well, lo and behold, he bought the new rollers (from a dealer in England!), dusted off the equipment and the type and invited me to give it a whirl.  How could I resist?

He greeted me with a snazzy little hat that matched his own and an apron.  And we were off.  We worked on a prototype for menu cards.  I LOVED setting the type together.  There was something that was quite meditative about it.  Centering and fitting the graphic with the border took some doing and my neighbor took the lead on that.  And I learned some letterpress language. 

After fours hours on the project, we called it a day.  I can't wait to try it again!

It's Here: Advanced Reading Copy of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

In my hot little hands I can now hold an advance copy of my book!  It's so incredibly exciting.  The front cover, the back cover, and the spine--all put together in such an appealing package to hold the words I made.  It's so, well, lovely!  (And I love the seal.)

The advanced reading copy is for reviewers and folks interested in showcasing the book at an event (or something like the Oprah show!)--it's not for sale.  And the advanced reading copy gives me a last chance to correct anything that needs correcting.

I am simply over the moon!  Just a few more months and the book will be out there -- Hooray!

Long Time No See!

I have been on the move and in flux for the last several weeks.  First there was the Festival, then the big 40th birthday parties (yes, there were three of them!), a trip to Denmark, to Portland and at least three back and forth trips from East to West Coast.  Whew!  I've just been worn out.  Many things have gone by the wayside including that fabulous at 40 workout routine that helped me drop 15 pounds, and well, this blog.

But I'm back. 

Next week I'll be blogging from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.  I've been twice before--in 1997 as a contributor, and in 2004 as a waiter.  I'm moving up the "food chain" and will attend this year as a scholar.  I'm terribly excited, but also nervous. I get first-day-of-school jitters before going to these kinds of things: What if I don't make any friends?

 I expect to have a good time though.  I always leave Bread Loaf thoroughly inspired, and energized to do new writing.  And I have left both times with very good and dear friends.  More from Vermont!

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky Named Top Ten Debut of Season

I hope this is just the first good news I can relay about my book which will
be published February 2010.

Today, Publishers Weekly, the main book publishing trade magazine, featured
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky as one of the season's top ten most promising novel debuts!

I am over-joyed!

Light-skinned-ed Girl in Copenhagen

I am on the surprise 40th birthday celebration tour.  It started in LA with an amazing surprise dinner and tomorrow I'm having a real Danish birthday lunch.  I'm so excited.  We were greeted yesterday at the airport by my dear cousin Lone, and kids, and aunt Henny.  Waving flags the whole thing.  This has been a wonderful week.  (I haven't even told you about the wondrous 2nd annual Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival -- but will when I return stateside next week.)  For now, I am enjoying family, friendship, fellowship and food.  This is the best birthday ever!

Please Join Us at the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival

Many of you know that I am the co-founder and co-producer along with my buddy, Fanshen Cox, of the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival --www.mxroots.org--which takes place at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles, CA (369 East First Street) on June 12 and 13.

This is the second year of the Festival and we are so excited about the line-up.  Mind you, as two women who didn't plan their own weddings because it was too daunting--it's a miracle that we're pulling this off, but we really are. 

Last year we had the help of some extraordinary folks: cousin Lesa, Meesh, and Amy!  They put in so many hours and hard work.  There really is no way to thank them.

This year the lovely Jennifer Frappier has whipped our vision into what looks to be an exciting and smoothly run event. 

I am so proud of this project.  I would really love for you to join us.  Please come.  And guess what?  It's all free!  This is what you get:

·       

• The Festival hosts the largest West Coast Loving Day party, a nationwide celebration of the Supreme Court decision which affirmed the right of people of different races to marry, on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 6:30pm. The free mixer features the Coca - Cola Lounge for drinks and cool fun while DJs Life and Vika spin decades of dance floor classics.

• Writer and producer Angela Nissel (Mixed, Scrubs) will receive the Festival's award for inspirational storytelling of the Mixed experience during the Saturday night Loving Prize Presentation, June 13, 2009 at 6pm, which features performances by musician Jason Luckett, actor Chris Williams, and comedian Maija DiGiorgio.

• The Melting Pot Moms, a multiracial family support group, will host a Family Event on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 10:30am-12:30pm, for kids ages 3-11, featuring TV actress Kim Wayans and husband, Kevin Knotts, reading from their popular children's book series, Amy Hodgepodge.

• Hollywood actors, directors and writers discuss Mixed in Hollywood in a special panel on Saturday, June 13, 2009 12:50pm-1:50pm.  Karyn Parsons, Chris Williams, Joe Anaya, Jenny Rich and Angela Nissel.

• Among the dozen films that the Festival will screen is the award-winning In the Name of the Son (dir. Harun Mehmedinovic), which was an Official Selection of the Festival de Cannes and winner of the AFI Directing Award. Making her directing debut is the popular You Tube vlogger Tiffany Jones of the Mulatto Diaries.

• The Festival includes author readings by award-winning author Danzy Senna (Caucasia, Where Did You Sleep Last Night?), Bellwether Prize winner novelist Gayle Brandeis (The Book of Dead Birds, Self-Storage) and poet Neil Aitken (Winner of the Philip Levine Prize, The Lost Country of Sight), among others.

 

All events are free and open to the public. The complete schedule can be found on-line at www.mxroots.org. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged especially for the Loving Day Party. On-line registration is now open at www.mxroots.org.

Festival sponsors and donors include: Japanese American National Museum, Social Justice Works!: The Aaronson Fund, Zerflin.com, the Coca - Cola Company, Trader Joe's, Subway, Dolls Like Me, Devachan Salon & Spa, SAG Indie, Urth Caffé, L.T. Projects Plus Catering.

Mixed Experience History Month: A Recap & Pledge to Soldier On!

We've reached the end of the 3rd Annual Mixed Experience History Month!  Here are some of my favorite posts this year: Paula Gunn Allen, Charles Curtis, and William H. Johnson.

It has taken an extraordinary amount of research to find these forgotten, hidden or erased stories of the Mixed experience: many of the people I profiled this month were "new-to-me" biracial--maybe they were for you too.  In any event, I love mining the history books for these stories--more to come next year.  In the meantime, please send recommendations my way of people/events/ideas that you'd like to know more about.

I leave you with this wonderful email I received last week from the brilliant actor Stephen McKinley Henderson who recently directed the amazing show, Zooman and the Sign, at Signature Theatre in New York.  I am a huge fan of his work and was floored when I received this email from him in response to my August Wilson post.  I share it here with you with his permission:

Hello Heidi,

I was moved to write you because of the August Wilson entry that Google sent my way.  Your premise for the website is inspired.  The ancient literary staple of the tragic mulatto has long been eclipsed by the contributions and personal missions of mixed blood perspectives.  Every war that has been fought, perhaps even the war on terrorism soon, has produced children born across enemy lines.  Nothing human is foreign to us.

Thank you for your piece on August.  I traveled with him during the last ten years of his life as an actor in several of his plays here and abroad.  Freeing ones self and others from negative perceptions of the self and the world is a noble mission.  Soldier on, Sister.  Soldier on.


Stephen McKinley Henderson

I soldier on!  Thank you Stephen, and thanks to all of you who have followed Mixed Experience History Month this year.
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Mixed Experience History Month is a yearly blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience.  Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that we have long been a nation of multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May right here at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.

Mixed Experience History Month: Casta Paintings

Casta paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries featured mixed-race people in the post-Conquest period.

Done by many of Mexico's great artists including Miguel Cabrera, the paintings were often comprised of several family group scenes which showed the progressive dilution of 'pure' Spanish blood,
with Indian, and African blood.

In casta paintings, Spaniards have the highest social standing; in successive scenes, the families become darker and increasingly poor.  Beneath the paintings are inscriptions, such as "From Spaniard and Black, Mulatto," which essentially: "narrat[e] the process of miscegenation."

More information: Casta Painting: Images of Race in Eighteenth Century Mexico.

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Mixed Experience History Month is a yearly blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience.  Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that we have long been a nation of multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May right here at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.

Mixed Experience History Month: Garcilaso de la Vega, historian & writer

The product of a mixed marriage between a Spaniard and a royal Incan princess, Garcilaso de la Vega was born in 1539 in Cusco, Peru.

Garcilaso spoke both Quechua and Spanish and traveled to Spain in 1560 with money inherited from his father.  There, he was educated but only after presenting his case to the Spanish courts to receive recognition for the rights of his father--mixed marriages were not recognized in Spain at the time.

Garcilaso took the name "El Inca," thereafter, as a proud statement of his heritage.

Garcilaso published Comentarios Reales de los Incas in 1609.  The book serves as the most detailed document of Incan history and early colonial rule of its time.

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Mixed Experience History Month is a yearly blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience.  Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that we have long been a nation of multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May right here at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.

Mixed Experience History Month: Nicolas Guillen, poet & activist

Nicolas Guillen, an Afro-Cuban born in 1902, became known as Cuba's national poet.

Of African and Spanish descent, Guillen studied law in Havana but abandoned a legal career to pursue journalism.

Guillen founded a literary magazine with his brother and wrote for several Cuban newspapers and magazines.  In 1930, he published his ground-breaking collection of poetry, Motivos de Son.  Guillen's poems were informed by his multicultural background.  In Songoro Cosongo, published in 1931, he emphasized the importance of mulatto culture in Cuban history.  Langston Hughes translated Guillen's poetry in a collection called Cuba Libre.  Guillen's writing became increasingly political; and in 1937, he joined the Communist party. 

Guillen spent much of the 1940s and 1950s in exile but was welcomed back to Cuba by Fidel Castro.  Guillen published more than a dozen books in his lifetime.  He died in 1989 after a long illness.

Mixed Experience History Month: Ann Plato, essayist and poet

Ann Plato, born free in 1820, was African-American and Native American.

The details of her life are culled mostly from her book, Essays: Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose and Poetry, published in 1841.  It was the second book published by a woman of color in America.

Plato's writing focused on living a pious and industrious life dedicated to education.  She wrote: "A good education is another name for happiness." 

Plato's essays also dealt with European colonization of Africans and Native Americans and one that concerned her father, a Native American seaman.

However, Plato was criticized for not addressing slavery in her work. 

Nothing is known of her life after 1845; the date of her death is unknown as well.

More information: Essays: Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose and Poetry.

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Mixed Experience History Month is a yearly blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience.  Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that we have long been a nation of multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May right here at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.

Mixed Experience History Month: August Wilson, playwright

August Wilson--born in 1945 Frederick August Kittel, Jr. in Pittsburgh--was the son of a German immigrant baker and an African-American cleaning woman.

Wilson's mother raised August and his siblings as a single parent until marrying in the 1950s when Wilson was a teenager.
The transition which included a move from a mostly black and Jewish neighborhood to a working class white neighborhood and school proved difficult for Wilson.

He eventually dropped out of high school but continued to educate himself reading the great African-American writers at the Carnegie Library.

Wilson joined the military serving for a year before he left.  In 1965, he changed his name to honor his mother after his father's death.

In 1968, his first play was produced.  He is best known for his Pulitzer-Prize winning plays Fences (1985) and The Piano Lesson (1990), which were both part of the ten-play cycle that secured his legacy as one of America's greatest playwrights.

August Wilson died in 2005 of liver cancer at the age of 60.

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Mixed Experience History Month is a yearly blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience.  Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that we have long been a nation of multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May right here at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.

Mixed Experience History Month: Paula Gunn Allen, writer & scholar

Paula Gunn Allen, born in 1939 in New Mexico, was the daughter of a Lebanese-American man and a Laguna-Sioux-Scotch woman.  She once described herself as a "multicultural event."

Her early education was at mission schools; she went on to earn several advanced degrees including a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1976.

Allen was a pioneer of Native American literary scholarship.  With the publication of her book, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986), she helped define the canon of Native American literature.

Allen was also a prolific writer of poems, fiction and essays publishing 17 books during her lifetime.  She received several awards for her work including the American Book Award, and the Hubbell Medal.

Twice married and twice divorced, Allen identified herself as a lesbian at one point, but later said she was a "serial bisexual." 

She died in 2008 of lung cancer.  She was 68.

"I have noticed that as soon as you have soldiers the story is called history. Before their arrival it is called myth, folktale, legend, fairy tale, oral poetry, ethnography. After the soldiers arrive, it is called history." Paula Gunn Allen

More information: interview; on-line memorial.

Mixed Experience History Month: Olivia Ward Bush Banks, poet & journalist

Olivia Ward Bush Bank, born in 1869, was of African-American and Montaukett Native American descent.

Olivia married Frank Bush in 1889; they had two daughters.  As a working mother, Olivia still managed to find time to write. She published her first book of poetry, Original Poems, in 1899.  It was met with a great review by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.  Olivia published her second poetry book, Driftwood, in 1916.

Olivia's career spanned many decades and professions:  she worked as a tribal historian for many years and also as a journalist writing for the Colored American magazine.  In the 1920s, she created a salon for artists in Chicago called the Bush-Banks School of Expression.  In the 1930s, she returned to live in New York and counted among her friends central figures of the Harlem Renaissance including W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes. 

Olivia was proud of her mixed heritage and celebrated her mixed-race background in her writing.  Much of her work was unpublished in her lifetime because of the interracial themes.  She died in 1944. 

More information: Original Poems by Olivia Ward Bush Banks.

Mixed Experience History Month: Charles Curtis, U.S. Vice President

Born in 1860, Charles Curtis was the first person--with non-European ancestry--to serve in the nation's Executive Branch as Vice President of the United States under President Herbert Hoover.

Curtis was the son of a woman of mixed Native American descent and a man of English ancestry.  He grew up speaking French and Kansa and lived for a time on his mother's tribe's reservation.  Curtis' childhood was marked by tragedy: his mother died when he was three and his father was sent to a military prison, a result of an incident during the Civil War.

Curtis was raised by both his maternal and paternal grandparents --on the reservation and off.  Both sets of grandparents stressed the importance of an education and Curtis decided to study law.

Curtis became an attorney who served as an elected member of Congress (beginning in 1893) and then the Senate (beginning in 1907) representing Kansas for many terms.  He was a passionate advocate for Native American rights but also believed that education and assimilation were important to elevate the status of Native Americans.

In 1929, Curtis was sworn in as Vice President under Hoover.  In 1933, Curtis' term ended.  He died in 1936 of a heart attack.

More information: Official Charles Curtis Website; Charles Curtis Museum in Topeka, KS; NPR story about Charles Curtis.

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Mixed Experience History Month is a yearly blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience.  Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to show that we have long been a nation of multiracial individuals and importantly multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May right here at Lightskinned-ed Girl Blog!  Thanks for reading.

Mixed Experience History Month: William Wells Brown, writer

William Wells Brown, born into slavery in 1816, was the son of a white plantation owner and black slave.  Brown attempted to escape from slavery several times as a young man.  He succeeded New Year's Day 1834.  Brown became the husband of a free African-American woman and father to three daughters.  During the late 1830s and into the 1840s, he was a conductor of the Underground Railroad in New York state.

He was an active abolitionist and orator.  In 1847, he published his memoir, Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself, which was second in popularity to Frederick Douglass' autobiography.

Brown was also a novelist and playwright.  His novel Clotel, or the President's Daughter: a Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (1853), gained much attention because of the parallels to the secret affair between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemmings (who bore several of Jefferson's children.)

Brown who had moved abroad returned to the U.S. in 1854 when a friend "purchased" his freedom--as an escaped slave he was subject to the Fugitive Slave laws. 

He continued to write focusing on historical works. Brown died in 1884 in Massachusetts.

More information: Wikipedia;

Mixed Experience History Month: Jan Ernst Matzeliger, inventor

Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born in what is now Suriname to a white Dutch engineer and a black slave, in 1852.

At 19, he left his native land and worked as a sailor eventually settling in the U.S. 

Matzeliger was good with his hands and mechanically inclined. He worked for a cobbler and developed a great interest in shoe-making.  At the time, the upper part of a shoe had to be attached by handwork.  Even expert "hand lasters" could only stitch together 50 shoes in a 10-hour work day.  Shoes were very expensive.

After much trial and error, Matzeliger developed a shoe lasting machine and received a patent on his invention in 1883.  Matzeliger continued to improve his design and two years later his machine could produce up to 700 pairs of shoes each day.

Matzeliger became ill from tuberculosis in 1886.  He died in 1889 just 37-years-old.  A Black Heritage Month stamp issued in 1991 commemorates his accomplishments.

Mixed Experience History Month: Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born Christmas Day 1745 in the French island of Guadeloupe.  Bologne was the mixed-race son of a Senagalese slave and a French plantation owner.

His father, unjustly accused of murder in 1747, fled to France bringing Joseph and his mother along so that they could not be sold.  Granted a royal pardon, Joseph's father returned with the family to Guadeloupe when Joseph was eight.

As a young man, he earned a reputation as a great sworsdman (was a an elite musketeer of the King’s Horse Guard), a violin virtuoso, and talented composer.

Joseph wrote dozens of concertos, songs and sonatas in the style of Mozart and Haydn.  In 1775, he was considered for the job of artistic director of the Royal Academy of Music.  His consideration for the post faced strong opposition.  In a letter to the Queen who oversaw the appointment, an opponent wrote begging: "that their honor and the delicacy of their conscience made it impossible for them to be subjected to the orders of a mulatto".

Joseph served in the Army during the French revolution and was appointed the first black colonel in the French army commanding a regiment of free colored soldiers.  Though hailed as a hero for his brave service, Joseph was expelled from the army when he was denounced by one of his deputies (writer Alexandre Dumas' father).  He spent a year imprisoned due to the accusations.
Joseph continued to work as a composer in the 1790s.

He died in June 1799 of a bladder infection with no known heirs.

Thank you to blog reader Anne-Suzie for letting me know about this fascinating man!

Mixed Experience History Month: William H. Johnson, artist

 

Born in 1901, William H. Johnson was a talented artist who became famous for his Scandinavian landscape paintings and "primitive" scenes of black life.

A South Carolina native and son of an African-American/Sioux woman and a white man, Johnson moved to New York in 1918 to study at the National Academy of Design.  In 1926, he was passed over for a traveling scholarship because of his race.  Considered one of the school's most talented students, a teacher gave him $1000 to travel abroad. 

Johnson would spend most of the next twelve years in Europe including France, Norway and Denmark.  In 1930, he married a Danish artist, Holcha Krake.

Johnson returned to the U.S. in 1938 with his wife.  When she died in 1944 of cancer, he returned to Europe only to return to New York three years later because of his own failing health.  Johnson died in 1970 after being hospitalized for the last 20+ years of his life.

Today Johnson’s work is represented in many important collections, including National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; The Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; and Kerteminde Museum/Johannes Larsen Museet, Denmark.

More information: William H. Johnson Foundation (provides grants to artists); biographical essay.

Mixed Experience History Month: Mary Seacole

 Mary Seacole, the daughter of a white Scottish officer and a colored "doctoress," was born free in 1805 in Jamaica.

Mary trained as a healer under her mother's tutelage and became a nurse whose healing work was as important to her era as the work of Florence Nightingale.

Mary married in 1836 but was widowed eight years later.  Her life was dedicated to doing healing work.  She treated patients of the cholera outbreak that killed tens of thousands of Jamaicans; and in 1853 during the Crimean War, Mary joined the English forces to treat sick and injured soliders. In 1857, Seacole published a memoir, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands which was popular for a time.  However, after her death in 1881, Mary was lost to history  until the early 1970s when she became a symbol for black nurses, the civil rights movement, and women's liberation.

More information on Mary Seacole: wikipedia; Mary Seacole website; essay about Florence Nigtingale and Mary Seacole.

Mixed Experience History Month: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, born in 1875, was the son of an African doctor and an Englishwoman.  He became one of the greatest classical composers of all time.

Coleridge-Taylor's father left his mother before he was born.  It is speculated that he didn't know that she was pregnant.  Coleridge-Taylor was raised by his mother with the help of her father.

Coleridge-Taylor studied at London's Royal College of Music.  He proved his genius early with compositions such as Ballade in A Minor. His cantata, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, is considered his major work.

In 1904 he traveled to the United States where, according to Wikipedia, he developed an interest in his racial heritage: "He sought to do for African music what Johannes Brahms did for Hungarian music and Antonín Dvořák for Bohemian music."  After meeting Paul Laurence Dunbar in London, Coleridge-Taylor set some of his poems to music.  Coleridge-Taylor came to be known as the "African Mahler." 

He died suddenly in 1912 at the age of 37 of pneumonia having written some 80+ compositions.
In the 1915 biography, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician: His Life and Letters, his biographer wrote: "although certain of his friends whose opinions I value have counselled avoidance of his racial qualities, Coleridge-Taylor never forgot them, never feared to defend them, and his music is so fraught with their characteristics that to ignore them, had it been possible, would in my opinion have been a deliberate misinterpreting of my subject."

More information: biographical essays; book-length biography.

Mixed Experience History Month: Rudolph Lacasie, Albino Circus Star

Rudolph Lucasie was an albino of African descent who made his living as a sideshow act with Barnum's American Museum.  Lucasie and his family--who had white skin and pink eyes but "African" features--worked for Barnum as "living curiousities" for three years beginning in 1857.  Barnum billed the family as "white moors" who slept with their pink eyes wide open.
The family continued to tour throughout the world with other circuses until 1898 when Rudolph and his wife suddenly died.

Mixed Experience History Month: Rebecca Protten, Christian Evangelist

Rebecca Protten was a mixed-race woman born into slavery in 1718.  As a child, she had a conversion experience and dedicated her life to converting black slaves to Christianity.  She gained her freedom in 1730.  Protten traveled widely throughout the Danish West Indies and also traveled to Europe working with the Moravian church.  A preacher and prophet, Protten inspired the rise of black Christianity. 

More information: Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World By Jon F. Sensbach

Mixed Experience History Month: Anna Heegaard, Mixed-Race Mistress of Danish West Indies

Anna Heegaard, a mixed-race woman born in 1790 in St. Croix (a slave colony of Denmark), was the daughter of a native white Dane and a "free mulatto woman." 

Heegaard's mother, abandoned by Heegaard's father, raised Anna with the help of family.  Eventually Anna's mother married a white Danish shopkeeper creating a stable family life for Anna. 

At 19, Anna embarked on a series of relationships with white Danes who provided her with varying degrees of security.  Her long-term relationship with Admiral H.C. Knudsen afforded her new wealth and she eventually bought a house.  As a free woman of color, she also owned 15 slaves.

Anna is known historically because of her relationship with Governor-General Peter Von Scholten.  Von Scholten arrived in St. Croix in 1827.  Von Scholten and Anna began a love affair that seems to be based on mutual respect.  Anna, who served as Von Scholten's official hostess greeting dignitaries to their shared home, continually expressed concern about the situation of the free-coloreds, as well as the plantation slaves.  Von Scholten agreed with Anna's views and expressed his concerns to the King of Denmark.  The government tried to draft a compromise that would appease the plantation owners.  The plan would phase out slavery over the next few decades.  But the conditions on the plantations were growing worse, and the enslaved would not wait.  In 1848, rioting broke out.  As Frederiksted was burning, Von Scholten issued a declaration abolishing slavery immediately.

Von Scholten was recalled to Denmark eventually.  Presumably returning to his white Danish wife.  Anna died in 1859 in St. Croix.  Her gravestone--covered under brush for years--was cleared recently and now serves as an important historical site.

More information: Peter Von Scholten (Danish film with subtitles) ; Danish West Indies.  (I'm currently working on a novel inspired by Anna Heegaard's life.  Stay tuned.)

Mixed Experience History Month: George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower

The 3rd Annual Mixed Experience History Month kicks off with a profile of George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower, a 17th century biracial musical prodigy who is the subject of award-winning poet Rita Dove's new poetry book Sonata Mulattica. 

Bridgetower, born in 1778 or 1780, was an Afro-Polish violinist.  He performed throughout Europe as a child and in 1803 performed with Ludwig van Beethoven.  Beethoven was impressed with Bridgetower's talent and dedicated a composition to him calling it Sonata per uno mulaticco lunattico.  When the two had a falling out later, Beethoven changed the dedication and the piece is now known as the Kreutzer Sonata.

Bridgetower died in 1860 after a long musical career of performing and teaching.  He was survived by a wife and daughter.

It's May so it's the 3rd Annual Mixed Experience History Month

I know I've been silent --but I can't be silent when it's time to celebrate my peeps!

Mixed Experience History Month, established in 2007, celebrates stories of the Mixed experience. I'll bring you a new story each weekday of May starting on Monday, May 4: a new profile of some person, story or experience that highlights the Mixed experience.

I will say it again: the Mixed experience and Mixed identity didn't begin in the 1960s because of Free Love--we have a long history of Mixed experience that's been erased and/or forgotten.  It's time to tell the complicated Truth.

I am more excited to share these stories with you this year than ever before--mostly because I have felt that silence was safer than talking about these issues.  And that's not what I want to believe.

Here's why:
I attended a reception for NAACP President Ben Jealous -- lovely man.  Lovely reception.  I was glad to be invited.

Ben Jealous, by the way, is biracial.  His white father was in attendance --and I know it's not something that Mr. Jealous hides, but it's also not something that he has allowed to complicate the story he's telling about "Colored People."

At dinner after the reception, I managed to get into one of those crazy conflicts when you think that you're in agreement but you see the other person is infuriated (not a good thing at  a nice dinner party).  I was talking about the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival and biracial identity and I was getting all excited.  But the woman who was a Mexican mother of a black-Mexican child objected to the word Mixed.  I couldn't recover.  Or maybe she couldn't.  I wanted to talk about her aversion to the word.  And really, I thought, her aversion to the idea of talking about being Mixed.  But I failed.  The conversation ended on a bitter note in one of those dinner party ways.  I know she was probably still talking bad about me when she left.  And really, I was just wondering what had I said to inflame her?

How do I talk about this stuff without getting people all riled up in a way that turns them off?  Especially someone who should be in my ideal audience.  (Do you think she will buy the book?  :) )

My default is to not make it personal--and maybe that's what went wrong--I didn't stick to the default.  If Ben Jealous or Barack Obama or this young woman who is the mother of a biracial kid don't want to be biracial: cool.  Self-identification is the key.

And it doesn't behoove the story I'm trying to tell to make the biracial thing a "trend."  I love the magazine cover with Heidi Klum and Seal and the photos of their family--but I'm not talking about celebrities or a moment--I'm talking about history --

So .... welcome to Mixed Experience History Month.  Tune in every weekday of May to read about something or someone that has to do with this loooooong history of Mixed folks and Mixed experience.  And now I'm just talking facts! Go on and disagree or not.  Here we go . . .

Light-skinned-ed Girl's Italian Adventure Comes to a Close

The last day in Rome couldn't have been better.  I got a good workout in before heading to the American Academy where we had lunch with Margaret and her husband, Matthew.  Matthew is a photographer who's enjoying a year-long residency there.  It really seems like heaven--the ultimate artist residency.  Margaret gave us a tour of the building and gardens and then treated us to lunch which is prepared for them daily by a Chez Panisse chef.  It was divine.  We stuffed ourselves, enjoyed a coffee and then walked back to our hotel through Trastavere and by the Pantheon! 
The flight home was easy and happily uneventful (unlike my flight out two weeks ago) and now I'm back home.  The adventure is over.  I've got some fun photos, an extra pound or two (well worth it), a pile of laundry, and many wonderful memories.

Lightskinneded Girl in Rome

we were so sad to leave Catania this morning, but the adventure is coming to a close. We arrived in Rome at gelato time (the time at which we wanted gelato). Found some wonderful gelato flavors at San Crispin near the Trevi fountain. A quick nap and now off to dinner. Tomorrow's our last day abroad : lunch at the American Academy with a friend and dinner at a beautiful restaurant with a view from the Spanish stairs. All wonderful but still we miss the company of the DGs.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless mixedberry

Light-skinned-ed Girl: Loving Sicily!

This should be a long love letter to Pippo and Pinna DiGiovanni!  They have been so incredibly hospitable.  We've eaten the best food--we call it Restaurant DiGiovanni--we have reserved seats for lunch and dinner every day of our stay.  We've had amazing conversations (in a strange blend of English and Italian).  And so much laughter!

Light-skinned-ed Girl in Sicily

 

We are in Sicily and being hosted by the mostest of hosts: the DiGiovanni's, the in-laws of my buddy Fanshen (who is here too with hubby, Diego).

Pippo made the most incredible Easter meal.  I'll have to fill in the details later with accurate Italian spelling.  Then a walk by the sea with niece to make room for more food!  The whole time lots of good talk and good fun and laughter.  More photos soon.  But now I must really take a nap.  After another amazing lunch, I've run out of steam, and must gather my strength for the next meal!

Light-skinned-ed Girl in U.K.

We made the move from Bath back to London, but not before I got a wonderful massage at the Bath Spa Hotel.  Nice work Susan.  The train ride to London is just shy of 1 1/2 hours--the perfect chance to write a few postcards.  Yes, I am still old school in many ways.  I can't help myself.  I've culled my list of send-to people to about 5 after years of sending some 20 postcards to people who didn't really care to receive them.  I'm down to sending the "hi mom" and family cards now. Still, it's always a satisfying part of my journeys (no, twitter and facebook status comments just aren't the same).  London was a lot less sun-shiney today--nevertheless we headed to Notting Hill and Portobello Road where we found some delicious olives and salami.  A very strange little to-go treat as we walked the streets, but you have no idea how much I have eaten!  I wanted to skip lunch but it didn't want to skip me --thus the snack.  Now, off to Benares, the most amazing Indian restaurant I've ever been to.  Swank and comfortable.  Pricey.  But soooo delicious and a wonderful way to end the days here in the U.K.  Tomorrow Sicily!  Can't wait to see the DG's over Easter dinner!

Light-skinned-ed Girl in the U.K.: Bath and Beyond

It was a lovely day: an excursion to see Stonehenge and a stroll in Bath proper with a visit to the famous Roman Baths.  But oh how I hate being a tourist in a tourist destination: herded, and crowded and bustled about from one numbered sign to another looking at things that are no longer really there.  It's the strangest thing: these audio tours.  Dozens of people crowded around rocks that are sectioned off for display and we stare at the rocks while we listen to some bit of information from the audio guide about what the rocks used to look like.   But still there are highlights of the day:
1.  Well, seeing Stonehenge.  It's a World Heritage site--on that long list of things you must see before you die.
2.  Well, seeing the famous Roman Baths--but really, the best part was when a mallard--probably as tired from the rain and the cold day--flew down and took an afternoon swim in the warm therapeutic water.
Now, there's dinner; tomorrow a massage in the hotel spa; and then back to London for a fabulous meal at my favorite Indian restaurant in the world.  And then Sicily for Easter dinner with friends!  More from the road!

Light-skinned-ed Girl in England

After a very difficult trip across the Pond--my flight out of JFK was delayed by 15 hours which I meant I slept in an airport lounge on Saturday sitting up--I finally arrived at close to midnight Saturday.  The last few days have been incredibly fun. Here to celebrate my friend's 40th birthday.  We had a blast.  London dressed itself up gloriously for my best buddy, Rayme, who's never been to Europe before, with tons of sun.  I saw parts of the city I never ventured before because it was too cold or too wet or too both.  We saw the changing of the guards --quite by accident--and strolled through the lovely Notting Hill neighborhood.  Lunch at a sidewalk cafe brought us an unexpected adventure: meeting best-selling author Simon Astaire!  He gifted his book to me and I can't wait to read it.  We walked along the Thames.  We saw two plays: one at the Old Vic  (Thank you to Tina and Kathleen) and one on the West End (Plague Over England--an extraordinary cast).  There was some shopping.  I think I found a good dress for Book Expo for me--and of course, there was much talk and wine drinking.  Tea at Claridge's with a discreet playing of happy birthday and dinner at a wonderful Argentinian restaurant called Gaucho.  Rayme headed home this morning--let's do it again, it was so much fun!  Hubby and I continue the adventure today in Bath, tomorrow Stonehendge, and then off to Sicily on Sunday to reunite with my partner-in-crime Fanshen and husband for a family Easter celebration.  Ah, vacation!  Love it.

Remembering Nella Larsen on the Anniversary of her Death

Today is the 45th anniversary of writer Nella Larsen's death.  I don't know how much I believe in a life after a life, but if she's somewhere around I just want to thank her--for being brave enough to write the story of her complexity--being both black and Danish--almost 80 years ago!  She made my book possible.  It's my letter to her in a way.  And my way of saying thanks.  (This is a photo of the headstone I had installed on her grave two years ago.  It had never been marked.)

Teri La Flesh of Biracialhair.org: Curly Hair Expert!

One of my most read (and favorite) blog posts of 2008 was my interview with curly girl blogger/writer Teri La Flesh who created the website, www.biracialhair.org.  Her website's filled with tips for curly hair--don't you want your curls to as gorgeous as that?
Today she was a guest on Mixed Chicks Chat and shared more about her own struggles to come to terms with her hair.  We had the nicest conversation with her--and good news: her book is coming out from a major publishing house next year.  I've proposed a joint book tour!  I hope she'll say yes!
Here's the interview for you to hear: