R245. Hybridity as Origin: Writing from Multiracial Experience

Room M100 D&E, Mezzanine Level
Thursday, April 9, 2015
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

 

What are the defining origins of multiracial writers? How do they construct their own voices beyond borders of race, ethnicity, and gender? Can the writer represent an authentic voice of her or his cultural heritages? This panel will explore how multiracial writers evolve their origins, and are not solely defined by them. We will discuss in particular how each breaks down and recreates histories by examining the various migrations, assimilation, and beliefs that shape the creative self.


Participants

Moderator:

Rosebud Ben-Oni is the author of Solecism, a poetry collection. She is a graduate of the Women's Work Lab at New Perspectives Theater. She was awarded a CantoMundo Fellowship in 2013 and is an editorial advisor for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

Marie Mutsuki Mockett is half-Japanese and half- American. Her memoir, Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye: a Journey, examines grief against the backdrop of the 2011 Great East Earthquake, and Mockett’s family temple, twenty-five miles from the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

Alyss Dixson ran director Brett Ratner's company before working as a vice-president of production at Paramount Pictures. Now, she is an independent writer-producer, a Cave Canem fellow, a Callaloo fellow, and on the executive committee for VIDA.

Wendy Babiak is the author of a book of poems, Conspiracy of Leaves. Her poems have been published in a wide variety of online and print journals, and in anthologies. She serves as co-editor for Poets for Living Waters.

Aaron Samuels is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the book Yarmulkes & Fitted Caps. An alumnus of the Providence Youth Poetry Slam, Aaron has coached youth poets in Providence, Boston, and DC. He is the founder of WU-SLam, a collegiate literary organization at Washington University in St. Louis.

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February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center