Light-skinned-ed Girl

Making Connections: Lisa Marie Rollins & Hillary Jordan

What an excellent day.  I had the chance to have breakfast with activist and blogger Lisa Marie Rollins of A Birth Project and head of the Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora.  I love her energy and her commitment to creating community among other transracially adopted folks.  She led a workshop at the 2008 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival --and it sounds like she's going to be joining us again this year.  Yay!  If you don't know of her, you should.  She's smart, funny, warm and sassy (even though we couldn't seem to capture "sassy" in the photos we took together before parting!)  (LMR: Can I post the photo here?)  I have a lot I want to learn from this lady.

Then it was off to lunch to meet Hillary Jordan, author of Mudbound and the previous winner of the Bellwether Prize.  She is just as pretty as her book jacket photo and really cool to talk to.  We spent a good deal of time praising our hero, Barbara Kingsolver, who established the prize.  And Hillary also shared with me some tips as I head down the road to publication.  Her book is a must-read if you're interested in stories of the Mixed experience--I loved it!  Her number one piece of advice: stop fretting about the book that's coming out --get to writing the next book--NOW!

So, enough socializing.  Tomorrow's an all-day writing day.  Wish me many words.

Mixed Minute: Nella Larsen

I love Nella Larsen.  She's my muse and literary forebear--a Danish and black woman writer!  Here's my Mixed Experience Minute tribute to her.

The Oscars for Books

I LOVE the Oscars and am maybe way high with the excitement of the night but here's the idea: the Ocars for Books.  (Can you tell this is just a blurt? because it's totally a crazy thought I am having watching the Oscars!) 

I know we've got the Pulitzer and the Nobel and the National Book Award for books  and the this and the that (no offense, I would love to be eligible for all those awards).  But why don't we have books for the way that we read them?  Best Lead Male Character?  Best Female Lead Character?  Best Plot?  Most Lyrical?  Most Suspenseful?  Best Love Story?  You tell me what else.  This is how we read books.  Let's award the ones that matter.  I think Vroman's Bookstore may be excited about the idea as I twittered it to them moments ago.  We can vote and announce the awards at the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival  -- we've already got the space spoken for.

Okay, tell me: what do you think?  And if you like the idea email Vroman's--they love getting emails and they also love for you to buy books from an indie as do I!  Support your indie bookstores!

Vroman's Bookstore

orders(at)vromansbookstore(dot)com

695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
Tel: 626-449-5320
Fax: 626-792-7308 

On Being a Writer

“I didn’t want to be myself. I wanted to be a writer.” --Jamaica Kincaid

Kip Fulbeck: On Speaking Up

I couldn't say this better.  Thank you Kip for sharing this at the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival 2008.

Curly Hair Salon: Go and Be Worshipped!

Yes, another post about a visit to Devachan!  I love that place.  My stylist is Keith, a dapper, handsome man, who "gets" my hair.  Today, he cut the front so there are some rogue curls that can lazily (sexily?) fall into my face.  And how cool: I met Lorraine Massey, the owner.  They invited me to a special publicity event this weekend.  She's gathering a bunch of curly-haired people to film "in the act of" doing good things to their curls.  I hope to make it.

I love the shampoo beds.  I love the bright lights. I love the super-fast drying hair contraption.  I love the way my hair smells, and curls, and bounces.  And I love that there is a whole racial spectrum of curly hair folks there.  Maybe we should create our own tribe!

I was going to post before photos--but NOOO--not when the after pictures are so goooooood!

 

 

Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival 2008: Kip Fulbeck Loving Prize Speech

So great!  I am glad we're able to share this.  Hapa artist Kip Fulbeck is amazing.  See for yourself.  Makes you wanna come to this year's Festival, huh?  www.mxroots.org.

Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival

We're gearing up for the 2nd Annual Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival June 12-13, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA at the Japanese American National Museum, and we thought we'd share with you what you missed last year if you weren't there--just to entice you.  Look for more footage from the Live Performance on YouTube in the coming week!

My Place by Sally Morgan: A Mixed Experience Memoir

I picked up a sale book today because, well, because I have been lusting for it and it was $9.99.  It's a thick dictionary-size softcover called 501 Must-Read Books --Not that I need anymore books to read.  I have  piles of novels on my office floor dying to be opened--all books that I haven't read exactly because I bought them and I figure I'll have them around a long time.  But this 501 Must-Read Books book is gorgeous-- it has a good feel in my hands and the most beautiful images and photos inside.  I've been opening it up to random pages and have read about many books I've never even heard about and sound fascinating.  The book I am most eager to read now is My Place by Sally Morgan.  It's a memoir about a woman who learns as a teenager that she is half-Aboriginal.  According to the book, "Sally Morgan was one of the first people to give a voice to the Stolen Generations, the 35,000 Aboriginal children who between approximately 1900 and 1970 were taken from their parents and placed in government or religious facilities."  In the memoir Morgan writes about reuniting with her ancestors: ". . . all of a sudden we had a context . . . we weren't just this small isolated family in the non-Aboriginal community, we were part of this huge family and that really gave us a sense of belonging, that was very important."  I can't wait to get my hands on this book!

The Beige Girl Hears Some Words She Loves

So I'm at the movies--watching the hunky Clive Owens in The International.  His hunkiness is about all that recommends this very boring and improbable film--until . . . cut to the bad guy (who had been English speaking until this moment) at home playing chess with his son.  Subtitles appear--but lo and behold, the little beige girl (me) in the dark doesn't need to read the words.  They're speaking Danish.  The father and son exchange a few lines--no one ever says: oh, the bad guy is Danish--in fact, I am guessing I am the only one who could identify the language they spoke.  It was pure delight!  It was like I was suddenly home.  So thank you to The International for that.  It made the movie worthwhile.  It made my whole day!