It was a real thrill to talk with Gene Demby for this episode of NPR's Codeswitch. Our wide-ranging talk lasted more than an hour. It's condensed to seven minutes in the podcast episode. The whole episode is great, but if you want to hear me I think my interview starts around minute 23. What do you think?
I was very excited to talk with the Washington Post about the importance of mixed race stories. You can read the full interview here.
For the last couple of weeks I have had the great opportunity to write at an artists' retreat in remote Wyoming. I had been saying to myself (and actually out loud to others) for the last few weeks of 2016 that I needed to get away from the busy-ness of my every day, from the work of festival planning, and from everything that was taking my attention away from the writing.
This time has been life-saving.
I was so out of balance in every way and this retreat has given me a chance to step back, slow down, and recalibrate. And, let's not forget: WRITE! I didn't realize how much I missed writing on a daily basis. It has been a struggle on many days even though I have all day and all the space to write. And luckily I've been able to find fixes (even if short-term) for the blocks and the resistance.
I've also found my way outside to enjoy the amazingly beautiful scenery. The first two weeks were very cold with lots of snow (some 20 inches? over the course of the days. But it has been a balmy 37 degrees and the sun is out. I've snowshoed (once) --dang that is hard! I thought it was just walking. It's walking plus--I definitely worked up a serious sweat. And I've walked up to the lodge and back (a short walk but there's a nice hill to face). I just cannot describe how beautiful and peaceful it is here. But maybe you can see in these photos.
So, I'm 7 days away from heading back to civilization. Wish me words!
This is my labor of love! My passion project. Be a part of the Mixed Remixed Festival-- submissions now due 2/14/16.
I have become what I jokingly call a "professional mulatto." That means when the Census numbers come out every ten years and show that there are more multiracial people and the multiracial population is growing rapidly (this is "news every 10 years by the way), or a story like the Rachel Dolezal case break, media folks often call me for comment.
My phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook, but because biracial people (people passing as biracial people) are making the news I do hear from producers and reporters pretty often. It makes me think: are we in the midst of a multiracial/biracial moment or is this truly a multiracial/biracial movement?
My thoughts on this are still evolving, but right now I am thinking: There is no multiracial/biracial movement and there won't be for some time. Let me tell you why:
I want to flesh out some of these points in future posts so stay tuned. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think!
"We all start out as children." --Swedish Proverb
I'm learning to embrace stuckness these days. This isn't the first time I've felt this way in my life so instead of panicking this time I have tried to look back on those periods of my life and be honest about what I did to get unstuck.
Here are some of those things:
1. Read a self-help book. I love a good self-help book. I have ever since I was a teenager and discovered How to Survive the Loss of a Love: 58 Things To Do When There Is Nothing To Be Done. The book became my bible at age 15 when I was re-buffed by my big crush. Yes, I know the book was meant for people who were grieving a loved-one's death, or a divorce, but teenage love and angst was very real for me. The bullet-point instructions and the accompanying poem for each step really spoke to my teenage-self:
i am missing you
far better than
i ever loved you
BTW: I think I had talked to my crush once on the phone after the horrible "break-up." Ah, teenage self, I wish I could have whispered in your ear: get over it!
Anyway, I digress, I still love self-help books. My go to now is any book by Pema Chodron. I have downloaded them all from Audible and have listened to the books and lectures dozens of times. Check out Pema Chodron's Getting Unstuck; it's one of my favorites. I also love Wishcraft by Barbara Sher; The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. (Maybe I'll do a post with the whole long list soon.)
2. Exercise, exercise, exercise. I was really stuck back in 2002 and struggling to figure out what the story of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky really was. I decided to start running. I hate running. But I thought if I could run a marathon it would help me with my confidence and therefore would help me with my writing. It worked. I went from running a quarter of a mile to running 8 to 10 miles per day. I did a run-walk interval: 3 minutes running, 1 minute walking. When I was tired I would always think: "Well, I know I can run for 3 minutes. Let me just do that." I ended up running 3 marathons in three years. And I finally finished a first draft of my book! What made it work? Well, I could see how clearly that having a dedicated plan for running I was able to become a marathon runner (scratch that) --I became a marathon finisher in just a few months. I started to apply the same principles to my writing. I also needed that time to meditate while I ran. I spent time with my characters while I ran in a way that I never did if I was on an elliptical trainer catching up on The Bachelor or Project Runway (and yes, I still watch terrible reality TV!).
3. Lower your standards. This is so antithetical to my core way of being. I'm usually an unrelenting perfectionist. But I read this advice from one of my favorite poets William Stafford and it really changed my world. So when I'm stuck with my writing I write bad haiku until I can get back to the project I'm working on. Or I write bad poetry "on spec" using poetry exercises from one of my favorite writing books. The only requirement is that I make the poetry BAD. It's amazing. It's really hard to make something that really totally sucks. That always helps me to recognize that sometimes I have to go through the awful bad sentences and paragraphs and even drafts before I can get to the good stuff.
4. Recognize that maybe you're not ready. This was advice from Toni Morrison I took to heart after I read it. This is what she said about writer's block in a 1994 interview:
"There are times when you don't
know what you're doing or when you don't have access to
the language or the event. So if you're sensitive, you
can't do it. When I wrote Beloved, I thought about it
for three years. I started writing the manuscript after
thinking about it, and getting to know the people and
getting over the fear of entering that arena, and it
took me three more years to write it. But those other
three years I was still at work, though I hadn't put a
word down."
So I've learned that even if I'm not involved in the "output" that I want (words on the page during butt-in-chair time), there is always a piece of me that is working and if I pay full attention to myself the answers will become clear to me.
* * *
So what do you do when you feel stuck? And is it the same thing as feeling sad? Or is it worse?
I'm excited to announce that I'll teach a week-long writing workshop Writing the Debut Novel: Developing Your Craft & Your Career in January 2016 at Djerassi, an idyllic writer's retreat where I was in residence for 4 weeks in 2005 and 2013.
The workshop is geared to debut novelistsand is well-suited for those writing about difference, race, and social justice. The workshop will include workshop manuscript critiques, time for new writing as well as workshop writing prompts, a private consultation of 50 pages of your manuscript, and talks on actionable steps you can take to start your career as a published writer. Includes up to 50 pages manuscript consultation in private 1/2 hour session with me. Full novel review available for an additional fee. Applicants accepted pending review of writing samples. Space is limited. I hope you'll apply and make the promise you've made to yourself come true: finish that novel you've always wanted to write! Learn more here.
Statement:
"At age 29 I quit my job and set out to write the Great American Novel by age 30. After 6 years of feeling stuck, I realized I was only playing at writing a book while I waited for my muse to come and for someone to discover my talent. I had to treat my ambition to become a published novelist the same way that I had planned out my professional career. That’s when I started to see results the non-MFA way. I learned to grow my craft and my career and ended up with a New York Times best-selling novel that continues to grow a wide readership now internationally. This workshop is tailored for the person who has always wanted to write for a living, but doesn’t have an idea about how to start. I'm looking forward to sharing my process and helping other writers who are looking for a way to take tangible steps toward achieving their dreams."--Heidi
Testimonials:
"Heidi herself was warm, generous, and gently constructive & gave attention to practical matters, e.g. how to give a great reading. She set a wonderful tone for workshop and critique to be directed at expanding work in progress, rather than attacking it."— Jenn R., workshop participant
"Heidi's candor was refreshing. She really emphasized how relentless debut authors need to be BEFORE being published and after publication. She shared some critical strategies and some of her mistakes so that we can avoid making them. I also liked her authenticity. She was not afraid to get emotional. She does not present a façade, she is refreshingly real and approachable. One story she told us about one of her young readers perfectly illustrated the power of being an author and it had nothing to do with fame, money or ego. The story she shared left me determined to create art with my novel. I never had that goal before the workshop because I did not consider myself an artist. Finally, I think Heidi is brilliant. She has keen insights and is a writer’s writer. She set a constructive tone for the workshop by emphasizing that we look for the energy in each other’s work and suggest ways to build on that. That was such a great approach and we all benefitted. I felt like I could share freely because I was in a safe place." — Robin Farmer, workshop participant
"Heidi provided extremely constructive, detailed manuscript critiques; extremely useful and practical information re the nuts and bolts of selling and promoting your work – and the practice doing readings was so helpful. Heidi is an engaging, energetic and masterful guide through the intricacies and necessary action steps to successfully complete, publish and promote your novel.
"The positive energy, support and enthusiasm from Heidi and the workshop attendees that renewed my spirit and revved me up with the energy and tools I need to complete my novel and get it out into the world." — Ginger McKnight-Chavers, workshop participant
"I loved the intimacy of the group—it was very supportive and generative. And I loved Heidi’s teaching/coaching style. She is a natural teacher and encourager. I enjoyed the pacing and the mix of sessions and events planned. I learned so much, and received so much encouragement from, the workshops, the one-on-one, the discussions and talks that Heidi gave on the other parts of the writerly life. I appreciate Heidi’s style and her genuineness. And I surely appreciated her generosity of spirit and heart."— Michele Beller, workshop participant
"I was so impressed with Heidi’s organization and preparedness for the workshop. I wasn’t expecting anything more than a few workshops and time to write, but she provided so much more than that with super informative sessions on marketing, networking and getting published. I am always so focused on writing that I hadn’t even thought about all of the nuts and bolts that go along with creating art. She also managed to curate a group of writers who seemed to mesh perfectly together, as well as create a workshopping environment that managed to be both nurturing and constructive. I didn’t feel like my fellow workshoppers (or Heidi) were holding back, but at the same time I never felt attacked or defeated. Quite the opposite." — Jessica Haas, workshop participant
"It was, quite simply, a stupendous experience. Heidi packed so much into a few days: giving us advice; providing the opportunity to have our work read by others as well as by herself; and even “forcing” us to read our own work, out loud and in public. Her selection of other writers was spot-on, and she quickly created a safe space for us to bond and support each other. I don’t think anyone expected we’d become life-long friends, our own clan, within a few short days." — Romalyn Tilghman, workshop participant
I was super excited to attend and speak at the BlogHer 2015 conference this year. One of the benefits was getting to check out the vendors and exhibits in the conference expo hall. I learned about some great products like My Intent, Keepsayk, Realtimes (which I'm really loving because it makes video editing so easy), and the brand new Jet!
It's basically a rival to Amazon--and we could definitely use an alternative to Amazon just to make sure prices are fair and innovation keeps happening. Full disclosure, I received a year membership free to Jet as a BlogHer attendee. And the good news is you can too. I have exactly 25 free membership codes to share for a free 1-year membership to Jet, worth $49.99. The code expires 8/18/25. Happy shopping! Email me at [email protected] if you would like the promo code.
Okay, let me just say: I am an introvert. Seriously. I may not seem like it when I'm out on the road speaking or doing book readings, but that's only because I work on it. I spend an incredible amount of energy getting myself ready because I get anxious in big groups, and I get nervous around people. I much prefer my desk most days and the imaginary characters and conversations I have in my head as I work on my new book.
That said, I decided to challenge myself and sign up to be a speaker at the 2015 Blog Her conference this year. I have wanted to attend since the first year of the conference, but never worked up my nerve. Lo and behold, I was accepted as a speaker on a great panel with Jill Nystul and Louise Sloan. The panel was called Blog to Book, Your Content, Your Proposal, Your Platform.
We each shared our very diverse journeys to publication and then dedicated the majority of the session to questions from the audience. I think a lot of folks walked away with a tip or two to move forward with their projects or at least a little more hope that they should stay in the hunt and hungry to make their dream to be published come true.
Best of all was that I got to meet some of my readers and also met some great bloggers I only knew on-line or just got introduced to at the conference. I would definitely recommend this conference to anyone interested. And yes, I plan to go again!
I'm super excited to speak at BlogHer15: Experts Among Us conference next week July 17 at 2pm.
I'll be part of a program called The Creative Life: Blog to Book, Your Content, Your Proposal, Your Platform. Longtime readers of this blog know that I started this blog in 2006 when I heard from my agent that none of the three dozen editors she had approached were interested in my manuscript which eventually was published as The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. I was seeking community when I started this blog and also just a sense of confidence in my writing and my voice. I hope that I can help other writers with my story. So if you're in New York City next week, don't miss this awesome conference. I've been wanting to go for years and now I get to speak at it! I'm so excited! Oh, and you'll get a 30 percent discount on registration if you sign up here.
Here's a description of the program:
You have the story to tell, but how do you evolve from Expert blogger to book author? This session will dig into the three components that are now a necessary part of any prospective author's toolkit: content, a proposal, and your platform. Great content is the foundation, a great proposal gets you in the right doors, and understanding how to leverage your platform to first get you the deal and then promote the book is critically important.
Speakers:
Heidi Durrow, Light-skinned-ed Girl
Jill Nystul, One Good Thing by Jillee Inc
Louise Sloan, Singlewith.com
I met a famous writer a few weeks ago who I admire greatly. I was nervous for my friend to introduce me to her because well, . . . what if she wasn't like the person I knew from her writing?
But guess what? She was lovely. She was warm and genuine and funny. Before the party ended, I broke out my selfie-stick and we snapped a photo together. And I walked away from the party just giddy.
When I got home from the conference, I worked up the nerve to send a note to her and a copy of my book. Truly, I had no expectation that she would read it. But then . . . I got an email from her saying that she had just devoured the first 64 pages of my book but had to put it down only because grades were due the next day and she had work to do.
Of course I was elated. And I thought that was that. Until . . . I received another email a few days later that read:
"Dear Heidi, Yes! You have restored my love of reading! Thank you for this powerful novel." Signed Famous Writer.
So, yeah. That happened. And I'm not sure that I have totally processed it, or celebrated it, or took to heart what it means.
But for today at least, I'm sitting down with the manuscript again after another long hiatus and I'm keeping Famous Writer's words in front me so that I can keep reminding myself I can do this. I can fill up that blank page.
It's May and so our celebration of Mixed Experience History Month begins! I established Mixed Experience History Month in 2007 on my personal blog Light-skinned-ed Girl as a way of claiming a history and a voice that I felt had been denied me. Part of the difficulty of claiming one's identity in the Mixed experience is that we have no history. Our stories have been written out of the texts to conform to what society has allowed us to say about our racial identities. And usually that has either silenced our experience and/or simplified them. It's easy to celebrate Mixed Experience History Month! Just follow along with the posts I'll make each weekday in May profiling historical figures and events that relate to the Mixed experience. This year I will be posting the blog profiles on my website The Mixed Experience in their entirety and in part on my personal blog with a click through link. If you have ideas of people I should profile please email me at heidi(at)heidiwdurrow.com. And remember this is history so I'm only looking for people to profile who have passed away! P.S. Anybody know who this year's badge features?--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 at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
I started this blog on March 9 nine years ago today. This was my first post:
The post title was just the word "integrity" and the post itself was the word's definition:
"the quality or state of being complete, unbroken condition, entirety."
I wish I could tell you why that was the first of close to 1000 posts that have been viewed almost half a million times since then. I cannot. I can tell you that I know I was decidedly not in an "unbroken" state at that point in my life.
I had just learned that after almost 2 years of shopping my novel manuscript to publishers, my agent had run out of options. Everyone had said no. The manuscript was dead. When she told me the news, I wept as if someone had died. My husband held me and then set me down in my favorite chair. "I'll be right back," he said.
Fifteen minutes later or so, he returned with a tray that held champagne, strawberries, olives and cheese. I mustered a smile of gratitude as he sat down with me and enjoyed the treats. We sat for a long time without words until I said: "You know I just can't get rid of the sadness."
And my wise husband replied: "Well, then we'll just have to keep it company."
And we did.
But in the morning I got up and I created a plan. What most of the publishers had said was that they liked the book but there was no market for a story about a half-black/half-Danish girl. Essentially, they were saying no one could relate to a story about a girl with that specific background; that there was no Afro-Viking demographic.
I set out to prove them wrong. So I started this blog to find the community that I knew was out there and would be interested in the story I had to tell.
In the years since, I have found more than community. I have found friends, and I have found my voice. Well, let me say that again: I Had found my voice.
After finally publishing that novel manuscript that would become The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books), I worried about what I should share. I worried that my blog writing wasn't good enough. And then I didn't have the time to write because of my touring and speaking engagements and then I didn't have the time to listen to myself.
And then a couple of years ago I decided I didn't really want anyone to pay attention to me as I healed from a very difficult ending to a very important friendship in my life.
But now I'm done hiding. And I'm done with worrying about "good enough". And I'm done with worrying about those folks I've had to let go and what they say about me.
All of that to say: I'm back. And I'm going to post regularly and it's often going to be floppy, or messy or down-right bad. But I'm ready for that feeling I had when I started this blog nine years ago. Yes, I was struggling. But I was unbroken. I was complete.
I was so lucky more Danish family visited this year. First little cousin Magnus in May and then last week my aunt and two cousins who hadn't been to Southern California before. We had the best time as you can see from the photos! We talked, and walked, and laughed and ate. Oh man, we ate a lot, but it was so good! And we had the very best weather that sunny California can offer.
But now it's back to real life and the words and the pages again. I've got a deadline to meet in just a few days. Wish me words!
Has this happened to you? I'm totally addicted to it. I have bought 5 "anime" drawings of myself and a couple of pop art renditions. I've ordered animations, and videos, postcards and flyers and I'm about to order some more. My first mistake was searching the site while drinking a glass of wine. Never go on Fiverr.com while drinking! You will suddenly need your name spelled in salt or some other weird thing because, well, it's just five dollars.
I'm telling you don't go on Fiverr.com if you have any kind of tendency to get hooked on things. Seriously. But I'm too far gone. I think I need to buy another anime drawing. Those are so much fun. Check out me as an Afro-Viking Word Warrior (trademark!).--Heidi Durrow
Thanks so much for reading this year's posts and profiles.
It's been a fun year for research. I learned a lot and I hope you did too! What were some of your favorite profiles?
See you again next year and remember please keep spreading the word!--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Wong On (1844-1937) was a pioneering Chinese immigrant who became a successful merchant in the post-Civil War south.
On was born in China in 1844. In 1860, he emigrated to California where he worked on the railroad. In 1875, Wong moved to Mississippi where he first worked as a cotton picker.
He soon pooled his money with other Chinese immigrants and was able to buy land in partnership with them and became a tenant farmer.
In 1881, On married, Emma Clay, a black woman, and together they opened a store in Stoneville, Mississippi called Charlie's Store. They had 12 children.
A popular man in the town, On was called Captain by the townsfolk. He lived the rest of his life in Stoneville and died in 1943.--Heidi Durrow
Photo of Chinese farmers not Wong On.
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Yung Wing (1828-1912) was the first Chinese person to graduate from an American college.
Wing was born in southern China in 1828. He was the son of poor farmers who decided to send him to a missionary school to improve his life's prospects.
Wing was sponsored by an American missionary who operated schools in China to come to America to study.
Wing graduated from Yale in 1854 and returned to China. He had difficulty securing employment for some time. In 1872, he helped from the Chinese Education Mission that allowed Chinese students to study in the U.S.
Wing married a white American woman in 1875 with whom he had two children.
In all, the Chinese Education Mission allowed 120 Chinese students to travel to and study in the U.S. The program lasted 9 years.
Wing had to flee China when a coup brought the Empress Dowager CiXi to power. His U.S. citizenship had been revoked but he managed to sneak back into the country. He died penniless and is buried in a Connecticut graveyard.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Charles Chestnutt (1858-1932) was an accomplished writer and important civil rights activist.
Chestnutt was born in Ohio. His parents were "free persons of color." Chestnutt could easily pass as white. However, he identified as black and noted that he was 7/8ths white.
At age 9, Chestnutt's family moved to North Carolina. He studied to become a teacher and eventually became the assistant principal at a school that trained black students to become teachers.
In 1878, Chestnutt married. The couple moved to Ohio where Chestnutt studied law. He made a good living from the court reporting business he established.
On the side he wrote fiction and published his first short story in 1887 in The Atlantic Monthly.
Chestnutt published two short story collections (The Conjure Woman and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line) before publishing his first novel, The House Behind the Cedars in 1900.
He continued to write and publish but his books were not commercially successful. In 1928, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal for lifetime achievement. He died in 1932.
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
John Richard Archer (1863-1932) was a mixed-race British politician and first black mayor in London.
He was the son of Richard Archer, a black man from Barbados and Mary Burns, a white Irish woman.
Archer was in the merchant navy and travelled extensively. He married a black Canadian woman and eventually settled in Battersea in Britain.
Archer was variously described as a singer, medical student and eventually as a political activist, and photographer.
He started speaking publicly some time after 1900--speaking against spiritualism and for the civil rights of blacks. He served in a variety of elected posts and in 1913 was elected as Mayor of Battersea as a Progressive. He went on to serve as alderman later. And in 1931, he returned to the Council. He died suddenly in 1931.-Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) who became known as Koizumi Yakumo was a writer who is best known for his books about Japan.
Yakumo was born to an Irish father and Greek mother in Greece. The family moved to Ireland when he was 2. As a teenager, an accident left him with vision in only one eye.
At 19, he immigrated to the United States. He became a respected journalist and wrote for the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer. When it was discovered he had married a black woman--which was illegal at the time--he was fired. The couple divorced in 1877.
From 1877 to 1887, Hearn lived in New Orleans and wrote about Creole culture and voodoo practices and other things specific to the area.
From 1887 to 1889, he lived on Martinique and wrote two books about the French West Indies. In 1890, Hearn went to Japan where he would live the rest of his life.
He married a Japanese woman with whom he had four children. In 1896, he took the name Koizumi Yakumo and became a naturalized citizen.
He taught English and English literature and wrote about Japanese folk life. He died in 1904 of heart failure.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
James Mye (ca. 1823 - ca. 1890) was a descendant of Africans who escaped slavery in the British colonies and found refuge in Native American communities. He was of Mashpee and African descent. Mye was an indentured servant to the Hall brothers beginning at age 11. However, in a 1804 legal case that became an important precedent in subsequent cases concerning child labor, the court determined that his servitude was akin to slavery and not legal. This daguerrotype of Mye was taken circa 1840 in Cape Cod.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938) was a historian and writer and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
He was born in Puerto Rico--the son of a freeborn black woman from St. Croix and a white German merchant. He was educated at St. Thomas College in the then Danish-ruled Virgin Islands.
Schomburg moved to New York City in 1891. He was a staunch advocate of Puerto Rico's independence from Spain and called himself "Afroborinqueno."
Schomburg worked as a teacher, and a law firm clerk among other things. He wrote on the side and began publishing academic histories and pamphlets.
In 1911, Schomburg founded with John Edward Bruce the Negro Society for Historical Research. In 1916, he published a Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry. In 1927, the New York Public Library bought Schomburg's book and art collection. Schomburg became the curator of the collection and a library was named in his honor. Schomubrg also helped curate the collection of Fisk University.
In 1938, Schomburg died suddenly after having dental surgery. He was survived by his second wife, and three children from his first marriage and two from his second.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Mary White Ovington (1865-1951) wasa co-founder of the NAACP and a journalist.
She was the daughter of progressive white parents. Her involvement with social justice issues was sparked by a Frederick Douglass speech she attended.
Ovington helped to create the Greenpoint Settlement in Brooklyn and led it for a decade. Her next job was as a fellow of the Greenwich House Committee on Social Investigations which studied employment and housing problems of African-Americans.
She wrote for several liberal publications, and would go on to publish several academic books and an anthology for children.
In 1909, Ovington helped spark the movement that led to the formation of the National Negro Committee. At the Committee's second conference in 1910, the NAACP was organized and Ovington became its executive secretary.
Ovington was active with the NAACP for the next 38 years and was an outspoken advocate for racial justice. She served on the Board until 1947. She died in 1951.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
William Edward White (1860-1937) was Major League Baseball's first black player but passed as white at the time.
White was the son of a white Georgia businessman, Andrew Jackson White, and a mixed-race enslaved woman, Hannah. He was one of three chlidren the couple had. They lived together as a family.
White played only one game with the National League's Providence Grays on June 21, 1879 when he was a 19-year-old student at Brown. The Grays won the game 5-3 with White scoring 1 run. It's unknown why he never played another professional game.
White went on to marry a white woman in Chicago with whom he had 3 children.
White seemed to have had a serious setback in his later years. Separated from his wife, he was reportedly living in a flophouse in his final years. He died in 1937 of blood poisoning after breaking his arm from a slip on an icy sidewalk.
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Laura Matilda Towne (1825-1901) was a pioneering white woman educator of the first newly freed enslaved people of the South.
Towne was born in 1825 to abolitionist parents. She grew up mostly in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
She was educated in homeopathic medicine and education theory and practice.
A year after the Union Army had taken over South Carolina's Sea Islands, Towne moved to St. Helena Island to be a part of the Port Royal Experiment, the first large-scale project designed to help the freed men, women and children transition from bondage. It was 1862, and after beginning her work as a medical healer, Towne founded the Penn School along with her lifelong friend and companion Ellen Murray.
The Penn School had a rigorous curriculum and ultimately a teacher training program. Towne ran the school for 40 years and during that time she and Murray adopted several African-American children who they raised as their own.
Towne died in 1901 of influenza. She was a beloved figure of the community and greatly missed.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
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Toshi Seeger (1922-2013) was a filmmaker and activist who brought attention to the importance of America's folk music including traditional African-American work songs and the music of her husband, the singer, Pete Seeger.
Seeger was born in 1922 in Germany; she was the daughter of a Japanese exile and an American mother. The family moved to New York when she was six-months old. Toshi graduated from a Manhattan high school in 1940.
In 1943, Toshi married Pete Seeger who she had met four years earlier. They had three children. Pete Seeger called his wife "the brains of the family," according to the New York Times.
Toshi was an activist who wanted to preserve America's folk music as well as the environment.
She helped create the Newport Folk Festival in 1960 and later the Clearwater Festival designed to bring awareness to the Hudson River clean-up.
Filmmaking became a natural extension of her efforts to preserve the history of American folk music. Her films included Afro-American Work Songs (1966) and the Emmy-winning documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007). She also produced the TV show Rainbow Quest which her husband hosted from 1965 to 1966.
Toshi died in July 2013 just nine days shy of her 70th wedding anniversary. Her husband died six months later.
Toshi is survived by her children, grand-children and one great-grandchild. Seeger Fest will be held this summer to celebrate Toshi and her husband and their important work.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Anita Thompson Dickinson Reynolds (1901-1980) was an actress, model and bon vivant who traveled in the circles of the affluent and influential in the 1920s and 1930s and later with the white bohemians of New York City.
Reynolds--who was a cousin of Langston Hughes--was the daughter of politically engaged African-American parents and grew up in Los Angeles.
Reynolds' mother enrolled Reynolds in a prestigious all-white dance program when she was young. Reynolds "passed" as the sole "Mexican" pupil.
As an adult, Reynolds capitalized on her racial ambiguity. She worked as an actress and played an Arab servant as well as a transracial adoptee in films. She also worked as a model for Chanel, and was sketched by both Man Ray and Matisse.
Reynolds enjoyed an expatriate life in Paris and Morocco. She hobnobbed with a cast of distinguished characters including James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Claude McKay, Paul Bowles, Gertrude Stein, E. E. Cummings, and Picasso.
Reynolds never denied her African-American heritage but seemed to delight in the many racial identities that others assigned her.
Later in life she became a psychologist and worked in the Virgin Islands where she died in 1980. She had no children.
Cornell University Professor George Hutchinson discovered her unpublished memoir which was recently published by Harvard University Press as American Cocktail: A Colored Girl in the World.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was a celebrated American artist who started his career as a graffiti artist.
Born in 1960, Basquiat was the son of a woman of Puerto Rican descent and his father was originally from Haiti. He grew up mostly in Brooklyn and was a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He demonstrated great artistic skill as early as 8-years-old. When his parents split up, Basquiat's father raised him. His mother struggled with mental illness which would lead to multiple stays in mental institutions when Basquiat was in his teens.
At 15, he dropped out of high school.
Basquiat would go on to gain notiriety for his graffiti art that appeared on Lower Manhattan buildings tagged SAMO. But it was when he was part of the noise rock band, Test Pattern, that Basquiat met the artist, Andy Warhol, with whom he would colloborate on many projects.
Basquiat's solo career took off in the 1980s. His art was featured in Artforum magazine in 1981. He went on to become an art world celebrity and a successful artist, but struggled with a growing addiction to heroin. In 1988, he died of a heroin overdose in his studio.-Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) was an upper-class mixed-race Brit who it is believed helped shape the views against the slave trade of England's most powerful judge, her great-uncle who raised her.
The daughter of an enslaved African woman and Admiral Sir John Lindsay, Dido grew up in the home of her father's uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield along with her (white) cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray who was around the same age.
Dido's social position is not entirely known, but it is thought she was raised as her cousin's companion. However, she was not always allowed to dine with the family, and yet would socialize with them over tea and dessert. She received a stipend that was much greater than a domestic servant but less than half the amount her cousin received.
Dido is depicted in a 1779 painting with her cousin that now hangs in Scone Palace in Pert Scotland. The painting inspired the current feature film, Belle (dir. Amma Asante), about Dido's life.
Upon her father's death, Dido received a small outright inheritance and even smaller annuity. Most importantly, however, her freedom was finally documented. (As the daughter of an enslaved mother, Dido would legally be considered enslaved too.)
In 1793, she married a Frenchman and had three sons. She died in 1804. -Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Hilarius Gilges (1909-1933) was an Afro-German amateur actor and political activist who was killed by the SS.
Gilges, known as "Lari," was the son of a Dusseldorf textile worker and an African man (unidentified) who likely worked on a boat on the Rhine. Gilges was given his stepfather's name when his mother married in 1915.
Gilges joined the Communist Party a a young man. He was an activist and worked to share his political views through agitprop theatre. He served a one-year sentence from 1931 to 1932 after a skirmish related to his activism.
In 1933, he was tortured and killed by SS officers and Gestapo after he was discovered despite being in hiding. He was survived by a wife, Katharina Hubertine Laatsch, and their two children. Today, a Dusseldorf plaza is named after him to commemorate his life.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Joseph Johan Cosmo Nassy (1904-1976) was a portrait painter and Holocaust survivor. He was born in Surinam to a father of a Jewish family that had fled Spain during the Inquisition.
He moved to New York City in 1919 to join his father. After finishing school, he went to England in 1929 where he worked as a sound system installer for a film company. He worked through Europe in similar jobs until 1934. That year he entered a fine arts school in Belgium. In 1939, he married a Belgian woman. As an expatriate, he was working as a portrait artist when the Germans occupied Belgium in May 1940. Two years later he was arrested as an enemy national (he had a US passport). He was detained for the rest of the war--part of the time in German internment camps.
Nassy was able to create a substantial visual diary of daily life in the internment camps and even was encouraged to teach art to other detainees.
Nassy survived the camps and displayed his works after the war in expositions of Holocaust art. Nassy separated from his wife in 1952. He died of cancer in 1976. He had no children. - Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
Toto Koopman (1908-1991) was a famous model and spy for the Italian resistance during World War II.
Koopman--born with the first name "Catherine"--in 1908 to a Dutch father and a half-Dutch and half-Indonesian mother. She grew up in an Indonesia under colonial rule.
She went to high school at a boarding school in the Netherlands. She had an ease with languages and became fluent in six during her lifetime.
At 19, she landed in Paris to pursue a modeling career. She became the house model for Coco Chanel and thereafter her career progressed quickly. She was a favorite subject of several Vogue photographers.
When she moved to London, she purused a career in films. She famously dated Tallulah Bankhead for a few months. During her liaison with Bankhead, she met many more influential people including a billionaire newspaper owner, Lord Overbrook, who would become her lover.
Koopman acted as a spy for Overbrook eavesdropping for him in Germany and Italy under the guise of working as a traveling performer. Koopman who was not know for monogamous relationships began an affair with Overbrook's son, Max Aitken during this time which enraged Overbrook.
When her relationship with Aitken ended, she left for Italy where she worked for anti-fascist causes. She was eventually sent to a concentration camp for women, Ravensbruck for seven months until the Russians freed the camp.
Koopman--who had suffered greatly during her time in the camp--moved to Switzerland and then eventually England to be with an influential art dealer, Erica Brausen who was an early champion of Francis Bacon. The two continued a tumultuous relationship until Koopman's death in 1991. --Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
John Punch (mid 1600s)--an African man--served as an indentured servant to a Virginia planter. Researchers have concluded that he likely fathered a child with a white woman. That child, John Bunch, was born in 1637. In 1640, Punch ran away with two other (white) indentured servants. All three were caught in Maryland. The two white men were sentenced to an additional four years to their servitude; Punch was sentenced to a lifetime.
Today scholars have noted that Punch essentially became the first documented slave; the sentence is thought to be the first legal formalization of distinguishing servitude between whites and blacks.
In 2012, Ancestry.com announced that through historical documents and Y-DNA analysis, it is highly likely that President Barack Obama is related to Punch through his mother Stanley Ann Dunham. The Bunch descendants (as the family became known) became landowners as free people of color. Another family line continued to intermarry and eventually assimilated into the white population.--Heidi Durrow
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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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
We kick off 2014 Mixed Experience Month with a profile of President Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995).
Dunham was born in 1942 in Wichita, Kansas.
After a series of moves during her childhood (California, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington state), Dunham's family moved to Honolulu after she graduated from high school.
Dunham attended University of Hawaii at Manoa where she met Barack Obama Sr. in her Russian class. The two married in 1961 when she was 3 months pregnant. Dunham was 18 when her son and future president, Barack Obama was born.
Dunham divorced in 1964 after living apart from her husband for much of their marriage. She continued her studies in Honolulu and raised her son as a single mother with the help of her parents. In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro. She moved to Indonesia with her son in 1967 upon graduating. She had a daughter with Soetoro in 1970.
In her professional life, Dunham worked as a teacher of English, a crafts instructor, consultant and researcher among other things. In 1992, she received her doctorate in anthropology. She died of uterine cancer in 1995.
Dunham was often portrayed as President Obama's "white mom from Kansas" who was of English ancestry as well as German, Swiss, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh. However, in 2012, Ancestry.com announced that there is evidence that Dunham had an ancestor of African origin, John Punch. Punch was an identured servant who fled his servitude only to be captured in a neighboring state and sentenced to a lifetime of enslavement. The New York Times reported that "some historians to regard him as the first African to be legally sanctioned as a slave, years before Virginia adopted laws allowing slavery." It is believed that Punch had a family with a white woman. The family eventually went by the name Bunch and continued to intermarry. Dunham is believed to be part of this family line.--Heidi Durrow
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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by 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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
It's May and that means it's Mixed Experience History Month, a month-long celebration of people and events that have shaped the Mixed experience. I founded this celebration in 2007 with the hope of bringing awareness to the long history of racial and cultural connectedness. I had become frustrated with the idea that my discussions of "mixed-ness" was for a small niche-group and set out to show that the Mixed experience is the American experience--that we're all part of this larger story.
Can you believe it's year 7? Over the years I've profiled close to 80 important historical figures of the Mixed Experience. The profiles have been of political dignitaries, activists, artists, religious leaders, inventors, and musicians. This year I promise to profile a diverse and dynamic bunch again.
Starting tomorrow I will post a new profile of a person or event in the Mixed experience each weekday of the month. If you have nominations for inclusion, please leave a comment below.
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 more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
And I just fled from a yoga class. :(
I'm not entirely new to yoga.
There was a stretch of about two years in my early thirties that I attended two to three classes a week. It was what I called "old people" yoga; very gentle, mostly seated, lots of breathing. It worked for me. I increased my flexibility and focus and decreased my anxiety. Then my teacher left.
I found another great teacher a couple of years later, but then my travel schedule picked up and I didn't go as regularly as I wanted. So I secretly taped the class and have used that class whenever I've been on the road and had time to do yoga. So in my yoga life, such as it is, it's always the week before Columbus Day!
I've been having trouble sitting and know it would help if I stretched more. So in the interest of stretching and stretching myself I ventured to this class today -- my first in more than a year.
And this is what I know: yoga scares me still. In 2009, I did a 30-day yoga practice challenge. I must have been far hardier then or a lot more bendy.
So how do I get back to the mat without the sense of not just anxiety but terror? I have my tape still, but I think I need something that challenges me without scaring me to death. Suggestions? Did I mention I'm not flexible at all?
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