Mixed Roots At JANM And Watermelon Sushi Auditions

Aloha Hip Hapa Homeez!

If you weren't there, you missed an incredible event. The second annual Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival in J-town (Little Tokyo) was all that and more. I promise to post photos on the next few blogs once I get the okay from folks who are in them. I'll also be interviewing some of the attendees, so stay tuned.

Arriving at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) on Friday, June 12 (Loving Day), I was greeted by Fanshen Cox and Heidi Durrow (The Mixed Chicks) who were heading to the Democracy Forum to hear the opening remarks by Curtiss Rooks. Afterwards, I hung out in the lobby and met Facebook friends like journalist Amina Kangiwa of MixedChild.com, writer/performer Kaypri Actswrite, Arana Fossett founder of The Topaz Club, Mulatto Diaries filmmaker Tiffany Jones, musician Jason Luckett, Hip Hapa Homeez officer Martine McDonald, Blended Nation authors Pamela Singh and Mike Tauber, and so many more. In spite of having a bad hair day, I agreed to be photographed by way too many of them and now I'm suffering on their Facebook pages.

First up, I went to Kaypri's presentation of the piece her mother planned to do before she fell and hurt herself. What an awesomely revealing hour! The discussion was about Kaypri's white southern mother who met and married her African American father while both were active in the Civil Rights movement.

Next, I got caught in a swirl (props to Jen Chau!) as I gathered panel participants and help in setting up my camera for the discussion I was moderating called Mixed-Race Relationships. Between listening to Kim Noonan's Short Filmmaking Crash Course, greeting friends who came to offer support, and checking mics and water bottles, I totally forgot to introduce myself to the audience when it was my turn to go on. But the important thing is that we had an interesting and lively discussion about who multiracial people have relationships with. Panelists Sam Cacas (author of BlAsian Exchanges, a novel about Asian men and black women), Sachiko Jackson (a Nurse Case Manager), and Ann Carli (an independent film producer and former music executive) all freely shared their personal stories. Since I haven't viewed the taped session yet, I won't trust my memory to write more at this point, but I will soon. Some of what was revealed was so deep that I had to come up for air. Gulp!

Hey, what a coincidence that my good buddy Trace happens to work at JANM! During her break, she and I refreshed ourselves in the museum's elegant tea shop. Here's a pix of me sitting with tomodachi. And, yes, those are the raccoon dog's genitalia. Don't ask me.

That night, we partied in honor of Loving Day. See the cake, below. Anyone reading this blog probably already knows that June 12, 1967 was the day the Supreme Court overturned earlier decisions that made Richard and Mildred Loving's marriage illegal in the state of Virginia (and 15 others). He was white, she was black, and they had been arrested in their bedroom for the act of miscegenation (race-mixing).

Returning to the Mixed Roots Festival on Saturday, I sat in on the Mixed In Hollywood session completely intrigued. Karyn Parsons (Hillary of Fresh Prince of Bel Air) was very vocal about what she, as an actress of mixed ancestry, had to endure in the biz. Karyn's father is Jewish and her mother African American. Also on the panel were writer Angela Nissel (Scrubs), film director/producer Joseph Anaya, actress Jenny Rich, and moderator Elliott Lewis.

In the lobby, I briefly spoke with Kim Wayans and her husband Kevin Knotts who have a children's book called Amy Hodgepodge. Yes, she's a Wayans sister and, yes, her spouse is Caucasian and, yes, they wrote the book for their child.

Following lunch at a Japanese restaurant where I had the "House Special" aka the only veggie dish on the menu, I returned to JANM. btw, when are Japanese eateries in America going to become as accommodating as their Thai and Vietnamese brothers and sisters? Look, if you want my money and you've got tofu in the kitchen, whip up something that doesn't contain fish broth for vegans like me! Back at JANM, I sat in on the film screenings and, at Fanshen's request, moderated the Q&A on behalf of filmmaker Tiffany Jones.

Finally, on Sunday, we held auditions for Watermelon Sushi and were totally unprepared for this surprise talent. Check out Killa Chan's YouTube vid here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRjDwwWYWIw

Too soon, the wonderful weekend was over. Mad love to the Mixed Chicks for organizing such an amazing event and to all you players who contributed to it. Mahalo nui loa also to all who helped with Watermelon Sushi auditions, and for joining me for dinner in Santa Monica.

My personal rear crawl includes (in alpha order):

Glenn Boggs

Rene Brown, her son Alex and her friend J.C.

Sam Cacas and his wife Dora

Ann Carli

Aklia Chinn*

Robert Clements

Daphne Delores

Gina Hiraizumi

Val hm

Sachiko Jackson

Rae Jones

Pearl, Jr.

Jeff Lee

Miwa Lyric

Yoon-Suk Kim Navarre

Kiyoshi Parker

Gigi Pique

Dmitri, Atsuko and Elena Ragano, and their friends

Ed Rampell

Marlon Ransome

Luis Reyes

Chez Shoji

*Special thanks to Aklia for so generously providing us audition space. Check out her store, Aklia's, at 1515 N Cahuenga in Hollywood (323-461-1810).

Until next week, I'm still...

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

P.S. Don't forget we've still got t-shirts!

Hapa*Teez Hollahs!

Important Announcement:

Hapa*Teez is searching for models who have purchased one of its t-shirts. If that describes you, hollah back at hiphapa@comcast.net. We'd like to post a photo of you wearing your t-shirt both on this blog and on the upcoming, updated version of the Watermelon Sushi website.

Now, on to some news about us blendies. This week, Essence magazine posted an online article about biracial actress Karyn Parsons. You may remember her from tv's The Fresh Prince playing the clueless and self-absorbed Hillary. However, Parsons comes across in the interview as the complete opposite of her spoiled character. Instead of being the airhead that Hillary was, Parsons appears to be quite intelligent as she discusses motherhood and what inspired her to write a book about black history. Although her second husband is white like her father, Parsons has a strong sense of her mother's African roots. Yet, the readers' comments that followed her story were incredible. Evidently, there are a lot of angry feelings in the community among mono-racial people who just don't get the biracial experience. While it's true that slavery of Africans by Europeans is to blame for the color-struck attitudes among some of us, we've reached a time in history when we should know that and move beyond it. Some readers even questioned Parsons' right, given her mixed-race heritage, to address black issues! Unbelievable. Yet, in a way, some of their attitudes are understandable given the horrific incidents that still occur to some blacks today.

For instance, several days later, I read about the murder of an African American woman by a hitman who was hired by her Indian husband's father. That's right, Indian as in India. Now, I know you've seen some Indians who are as African-looking as folks from the Continent. And, it's clear that the geographical locations of the subcontinent and Africa are close enough that it's plausible there were travelers bouncing from one locale to another mixing and mingling. Yet this lighter-skinned Indian man felt that his brown African American daughter-in-law was so beneath his son--even after she gave birth to his granddaughter--that he hired someone to kill her. How can hatred, fostered by differences in skin color, still exist in the year 2008? Why do we still have a caste system based on something that no one can help?

Was I on the receiving end of any good news this week? Sure, there were plenty of kind people out there who encouraged and supported my hip hapa agenda. Thanks to Anjulie and Jamilla, Kim of Tacoma, Jaz of the International Black Film Festival of Nashville, rapper Miwa Lyric, Michelle of the WWII War Brides Association, Ms. Lucy of Kailua, the Mixed Chicks, Kahlil Crawford (pictured above), and many more folks that I've probably inadvertently omitted (apologies!).

In spite of the tragedies and continued misunderstandings that abound about biracial, blended, hapa, mixed-race, multi-cultural and multiracial folks, we're moving forward, kids.

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi