One Drop of Love Q&A: Colorism and Being Biracial

TRANSCRIPT:

BRIGETTE: Did you find that; I am not of biracial heritage in that sense immediately but when we talk about Colorism and regardless of whether you’re biracial or not where you fall on that line are those things that come up that came up for you in your work, but really acknowledging our light to darkness and what does that mean regardless of whether you’re biracial or not; the question really becomes what is the real issue as far as one’s aesthetic and how they are then treated based on that it goes beyond the biracial instance biracial can be dark or light so I’m saying how we’re viewed and how we’re treated is really an aesthetic difference are we addressing that wholeheartedly.

FANSHEN: Yeah. The hardest part about this show, y’know, is that I have this amazing opportunity to share this story about my family and about my experiences, but I’m also extremely aware that if I literally told this exact same story but were darker-skinned, didn’t have this eye color, that people might not…no, people wouldn’t listen. And that’s painful and it’s like, so, yeah, I’m constantly struggling with exactly that kind of privilege. We all have the right to share our story, but I think we have to constantly acknowledge privilege and acknowledge that this is not about my being any more evolved or better than someone else – this is my story, this is what happened, hopefully you can learn some things about forgiveness and about treating people the same no matter what it is you think they are. In San Antonio someone asked why they think my brother didn’t get killed, like why is it that my brother stayed alive because in many instances he gets this man in a headlock, he should have been killed. And I think it has to do a lot with skin tone and even in the court proceeding that we had white friends with resources who were character witnesses. So. Yes.

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How I Learned about the One-Drop Rule: Tish

We’re looking for stories from EVERYONE about the first time they learned about the one-drop rule. If you’d like to share yours, send us an email with ‘One-drop rule’ in the subject line and we’ll send you instructions: onedropoflove(at)gmail(dot)com

TRANSCRIPT:

FANSHEN: Recently I asked my friends, “When was the first time they heard about the one-drop rule.” And their answers were incredible, so we’re sharing them here. And we’d like to hear yours, so send us an email, tweet us, anything and let us know: when was the first time you learned about the one-drop rule?

TISH: My freshman year of college when I took my first Black experience class. I think that was when the light bulb went off and there was actual words that could describe what had been put in front of me my whole life. I grew up in a white household. My mother married a white man and they had two children that were blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and while I saw them and because I lived in that world thought of myself as a ‘white girl with a good tan,’ I was constantly told in not-so-subtle ways that I was different and I was not white – either people just blurting it out like, ‘Honey, you’re Black’ or just saying ‘What are you mixed with?’ or ‘What are you?’ and so hearing ‘What are you?’ let me know that, whether I chose to acknowledge it or not, people were seeing something. It really hit home my freshman year when I got my first speeding ticket and when the cop came back to the car, he had his little write up and with all of the pressure that man could’ve mustered, he had written a big, bold ‘B’ in the race column and I remember seeing it and having this moment of – no matter what I was thinking before, or thinking that people weren’t seeing that I was a mixed person, they were seeing it. They were seeing that Black side of me and that was it.

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One Drop of Love Q&A: Boundaries

Tatiana asks what happens when family members don’t want to share about the past – and how to overcome these obstacles.

“One Drop of Love” is a multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class and gender in search of justice and LOVE.

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Direction by Carol Banker
Q&A Host Patti Lewis
Camera by Katie Walker http://bit.ly/1FSOtea
Music by Carol Doom
Editing and logo graphics by Alex Regalado http://bit.ly/1Lh73wE in association with SarafinaProductions http://bit.ly/1OkzzQD
The “One Drop of Love” logo was designed by Zerflin http://zerflin.com/

TRANSCRIPTION:

TATIANA: It honestly blew me away. But I’ve tried this journey myself of self-discovery, and I was completely stopped. My uncle stopped me and was like, “You’re opening up a can of worms we don’t want to discuss.” And so as you were going through this process of finding yourself, what obstacles did you reach where your family was like, “No, we’re not going to go there.” Or they were saying, “This is as far as you’re going to go.” or you were like, “No. We need to discuss this. We need to get beyond this.” How were you able to really push through.

FANSHEN: I have to say, first of all, obviously if you are in physical or spiritual danger around confronting family members – I don’t want you to think that I’m like, “Just call him,” like, I get it. Really. It’s really important. Especially when I talk to young people, I’m like, “I know this is not something that’s easy,” and Girl, it took me 7 years. It took me 7 years and a lot of people, when I stopped talking to my father a lot of people said, “Just come on, you can…come on, call.” And I was like, “Nope. I don’t need him, I don’t want him.” And so for me it took my Grandma getting sick and almost dying. So sometimes it might take some catalyst that you can’t even conceive of right now. Because you’re right. Not everybody’s ready to do that. But certainly if you feel safe? Then keep trying.”

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This Week as an Artivist: 4/2/16 Frida Kahlo, SLC Utah, 50 Push-Up Challenge


Frida Kahlo is my muse (0:00-1:26) (2:31-3:00)
NY Times review of 1992 Frida Kahlo documentary: http://nyti.ms/1SJonfY
University of Utah College of Social Work, Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts in Salt Lake City, Utah (1:24-3:15)
Museum of Tolerance 3/31/16 (3:17-4:48)
Venmo App = racist? (4:48-5:54)
50 Push-up challenge (5:55-6:17) http://bit.ly/20234gp
What are YOUR goals? (6:20-7:09)

Twitter: @fanshen @onedropoflove
Instagram: @onedropoflove

TRANSCRIPT:
So, do you know who Frida Kahlo is? I saw a documentary of Frida Kahlo when I was teaching Spanish to students in the 90s. I was teaching in a high school and my Supervising Teacher recommended that I show my students a documentary about Frida Kahlo, and I had known about her a little bit, I had probably seen her art but I didn’t know a whole lot about her life and I watched this documentary – I mean talking about the original Artivist – I mean not THE original because there have been other Artivists in the world and before her, but in so many ways her work and who she was as a person represents so much of what I want to be. Her work is both deeply personal, but also it talks about the power that women have when we share all of who we are, even when that feels very personal and you start to realize that you have connections to other people by sharing it and I love her. And this summer I was in Mexico and I found this bag, and I was like, “Yes. This is my bag.” And she just inspires me so whenever I travel to do the show I take this bag with me. So I took this bag with me to our show at the University of Utah, which we did on Tuesday. And we had an incredible time. So the show was the closing act of the 10th anniversary of the University of Utah’s College of Social Work Social Justice series. This is put on by this incredible woman teacher, Educator, powerful woman there named Irene Ota. She invited Chandra and me to see her class and she’s doing a class social justice advocacy for social workers, and they’re creating toolkits for social justice advocacy and all of their projects were incredible. One woman is doing a support group for Transracially Adopted kids in Salt Lake City. Another woman is creating a website for parents to know their rights, the educational rights for themselves and for their children. They were just so great and amazing and inspiring! It was wonderful. And then the best part is that then Irene took us out to dinner – we had dinner with some of the students and faculty before the show – the night before the show. And we’re walking up to dinner and Chandra goes, “Oh! Fanshen! Look at the name of this restaurant we’re going to!” and the name of the restaurant is ‘Frida Bistro’ and I got this gorgeous t-shirt from Irene – thank you Irene! That is at Frida Bistro in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was just a wonderful restaurant, the food was great and we were sitting there blessed by Frida herself. I got to speak with quite a few people after the show and they were really moved and had lots of follow up questions, and I’m so proud that we were able to do the show there. So if any of you are watching from the University of Utah – thank you for having us – it was really inspiring. OK this morning I did the show at the Museum of Tolerance here in Los Angeles. And it was so nice to go from – you know that I had big audiences, 1500 students a week ago and then Utah a really big stage, and then here it seats about 115 people or so, but generally these are smaller groups so probably about 35 or 40 people and I’m really up close to them and it makes a difference – it’s a very different feeling of the staging, but it’s really nice because it’s intimate and I can literally look right into people’s faces and interact with them directly. So it’s always nice to be back at the Museum, and also one woman who came today has seen the show there before, and she said, “You know I saw some new things here today,” so that was great – so she’s noticing that I’m making changes. Now also by the way we have two new slides. So I talked a little bit about pacing last week, and how I’m looking at places to pick up the pacing, but I also realized that there’s a slide that can help situate the audience a little bit more when my father and I are both traveling I’m paralleling our trips to Africa together, so I’ve included a slide of when my father went to the Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Now interestingly, I’m using Venmo – Venmo is an app that you can use to pay people quickly. I asked my graphic designer Heather Fipps (who’s amazing – thank you Heather!) – I asked her to create a new slide and when I paid her on Venmo you write a little note like a memo on a check and I wrote “ODOL (One Drop of Love) Slide Sudan Ethiopia.” Well they put a flag on the payment and I just got an email from Venmo telling me they had to investigate my payment and they needed to know exactly what this payment was for, since I had used the words ‘Sudan’ and ‘Ethiopia.’ Interesting. Racist? I don’t what to say. All I can think of is, “My God, if you are Sudanese or Ethiopian, what life must be like for you now. And I am sorry for people who prejudge you – not that I have to apologize for what they do, but I’m sorry for what you have to go through. OK this week I’m going to do a physical goal. A friend of mine posted on Facebook a 50 Push-up Challenge and so it takes you through – you start out with 5 push-ups then you move on to 10 and you get rest breaks and then you move on to 12, and then you keep moving on and you do 50 push-ups eventually! So that’s my goal. How about you? What are your goals? Are you writing? Are you performing? Are you workshopping your work? Are you sharing your work with other people? Are you sharing your story? Someone said today, after the Museum show, “Y’know, your story is incredible,” and I said I didn’t know that until I started sharing it with people. YOUR story is incredible too. You just gotta get it out there – and find out about your parents’ stories, and their parents’ stories and it’s so important to hear someone else’s narrative, so that we are not stuck in what we believe they are just based on what we see on the outside. OK. Thank you for watching #ThisWeekasanArtivist. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I’ll talk to you next week. Bye bye!

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This Week as an Artivist 3/26/16: 1500 Students, Zootopia, Suzan-Lori Parks


TRANSCRIPT:

Artivists! What’s up you all? How you doing? OK. So much to tell you.

(0:05-2:04) First of all One Drop of Love – so many great things. First of all Chandra booked us in Tempe, Arizona at Marcos de Niza High School. We did two shows back-to-back with high school students. 1500 students. So about 750-800 each. Juniors and Seniors first, and then Freshman and Sophomores. It was just fantastic. I got a t-shirt! Oh my goodness my t-shirt collection is growing. And I got a coffee mug!

I’m leaving for Utah Monday morning because we are doing the show for the University of Utah School of Social Work and this is their Voices of Diversity Social Justice Series and it’s their 10th anniversary and One Drop of Love is the closing act for that. So I’m very excited. That’ll be this Tuesday night 6PM in Utah. And then the first week of April I’m doing the Museum of Tolerance and then Philly. Philadelphia. Abington Friends School and that’s going to be for their ‘Many Voices’ diversity series and that’s going to be for parents at the school. And then at the end of April, I am the Keynote for the Mixed Heritage Conference at UCLA! So my goodness SO much going on for One Drop and it’s all incredible and exciting. Chandra noticed that the show is running a little bit over. Usually it’s an hour and it’s been running about an hour and 7, an hour and 8 minutes. So I want to look at what’s happening. Is it pacing? Does it have to do with the number…of course when there are more people it takes longer because I’m going out and I’m interacting with the audience. That’s something that we’re looking at – whether the pacing needs to change, or whether it’s ok – because when we perform for a school we have to keep that in mind because students have to go to another class or at least they have to know how long it’s going to take ahead of time.

(2:04-3:29) OK I have some recommendations for you. First of all have you seen Zootopia? I want to know what you think of it. I mean, I…the first time I saw it I read a friend’s Facebook post who I really respect and admire, and she was like, “Zootopia is all about racial profiling.” And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa – WHAT, WHAT? Really? For real?” So I went and saw it by myself and I cried because I loved it so much. I thought it did a really great job of bringing up questions around gender and race, class in ways that young people can understand and adults…they were very, very clear and accessible, but also using some challenging themes to get their point across and I just thought it was really well done. But then I texted with my brother and he was like, “Well I don’t know – were the predators only supposed to be the Black people?” and I don’t think so because, remember in the beginning there’s that fox who was the bully and he was…he had a southern accent that sounded White southern and again – here I go with my stereotypes – but anyway I’m really curious what you thought. Especially if you have children – how did you feel about this movie? Tish Arana – what did you think? I’m dying to know. Is Zoey Fanshen – would this be a good movie for her to go see? I’m really curious.

(3:29-3:48) Another recommendation is Mashable did an article: 9 Youtube channels that will make you smarter about social justice. So first of all you KNOW – first of all I was following – I was already subscribed to ¾ of them, but there were some that I didn’t know about, so I went ahead and subscribed, so I’m putting a link. Check those out.

(3:48-4:26) OK another thing: check out Suzan-Lori Parks. She’s a great playwright and she’s doing this series called ‘Watch me work’ which is that she goes into a space and works – writes a play – and you have the opportunity to watch her work and write a play and watch her process and interact with her and ask her questions…and it’s just…SO great to allow people to be there and watch and learn from what she’s doing. It’s so encouraging. So I’m putting a link to the videos of her doing ‘Watch me work.’

(4:26-5:54) Alright I want to shout out some folks that are watching the videos, so Carol Banker – what’s up girl!? Alex Regalado – she’s our Editor for One Drop of Love, I think I’ve told you about her before. She’s got this great video, there’s a link for that. Also she did it with her team from the website called TWIGG How-To, which you should also check out, and there’s a link to that. Go, go, GO Alex – I’m so proud of you! DO it and I’m voting everyday and getting other people to vote, so let’s get you to win this and just keep making more amazing content, like you are.

OK last thing – I freaked out this morning because…one of my first…like and early This Week as an Artivist video I talk about LaGuardia Cross, who is a famous Youtuber and does these great videos with his toddler. And he started off with this great statement about success and a specific goal that he had – that was how he started vlogging – this goal that he had and he was going to reach the goal and he was saying it out to the world – so that he could be held accountable and I talked about him in that video – in the #OscarsSoWhite video and he left me a comment today! So – oh my goodness – thank you so much for walking it, and thank you for your work – you are inspiring. Thank you for the comment.

Alright everybody, that’s another This Week as an Artivist. I hope YOU have a great week. Thank you for watching and tuning in. Thumbs up if you like it. Subscribe if you like the videos and also tell me what I should watching and tell me what you’re up to. I would love to help support everybody as well.

Alright everybody have a great week. Bye bye.

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How I Learned about the One-Drop Rule: Rudy

TRANSCRIPT:

FANSHEN: Recently I asked my friends, when was the first time they learned about the one-drop rule, and their answers were incredible, so we’re sharing them with you here, and we’d like to hear yours. So send us an email onedropoflove@gmail.com, tweet us, anything, and let us know: When was the first time YOU learned about the one-drop rule?

RUDY GUEVARRA, JR.: I took an undergraduate course at the University of San Diego – Intro to Ethnic studies and that’s where I learned about it. As somebody that was mixed race it really made me interested into how that functioned with identity and larger issues of race relations. And that course gave me that information and that one thing got me interested in understanding how race functions. I’m racialized Chicano and oftentimes when I’ve had conversations, I’ll say I’m Filipino, or I’ll say I’m Mexipino and they’re like, “But you’re Chicano,” and I’m like, “Yeah, but I’m this too.” And the fact that, I think that I have this ‘drop’ – but more so the phenotype that comes with that drop, I think that there’s a conversation that I have to push back on sometimes, from people. Sometimes, and in particular within the Latino community, in particular the Mexican or Chicano community, they don’t often think that…or there’s not so much…there is and there isn’t…this association with Blackness and these connections and intimate relationships with Blackness that I engage in and always felt this engagement with, that I get questioned on sometimes.

But, I’m going to love who I love – and I don’t care what anybody says.

CHANDRA CRUDUP: Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel to keep up with the latest One Drop news and other videos. Do you have ideas for more video content? Tell us what you’d like to see. We’ll see you next time to share more drops of love. Be sure to tell us by commenting here and on twitter @onedropoflove and facebook.com/ondedropoflove how YOU are spreading drops of love.

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This Week as an Artivist 3/5/16: Haircut, Nina Simone, Native Voices

TRANSCRIPT:

0:00:00.000,0:00:06.029
Happy Women’s History Month! Yay! DO it
women. Let’s DO it! Alright.

0:00:06.029,0:00:13.870
Oh my goodness did you see this? Check it
out. Yeah I got a hair cut. Yeah. My friend Erin Athey

0:00:13.870,0:00:20.789
does my hair and she’s so great at it
and she loves CURLS, which is more and

0:00:20.789,0:00:24.580
more common, but it’s been a
really hard time finding somebody who

0:00:24.580,0:00:29.460
actually enjoys doing my hair and she does
and I love her, so links to her, of course

0:00:29.460,0:00:35.090
below (http://erinatheyhair.com/). So first of all I saw a play – you know I like to go see my shows the

0:00:35.090,0:00:39.290
first one was “Colony Collapse” at the
Boston Court Theatre. The other play

0:00:39.290,0:00:44.750
I saw is “They Don’t Talk Back” and this
is part of Native Voices at the Autry

0:00:44.750,0:00:52.690
it’s just…I just sit and watch and think –
it is so sad to me that I only get to

0:00:52.690,0:00:58.949
see something like this once or twice a
year. This was beautiful and unique and

0:00:58.949,0:01:03.640
they incorporated movement, incorporated
masks. So if you’re in Los Angeles I

0:01:03.640,0:01:07.930
think it’s a short run, it’s just
playing through the end of March but

0:01:07.930,0:01:12.670
then it’s going to the La Jolla Playhouse and it’s
also going to be in Anchorage, Alaska

0:01:12.670,0:01:17.400
which is where the writer is from. So
check it out, Native Voices that the

0:01:17.400,0:01:23.939
Autry. Alright tonight I’m going to my
school. Cal State LA. I don’t think I’ve

0:01:23.939,0:01:27.590
talked to you about where I got my MFA,
so I got my MFA at California State
0:01:27.590,0:01:33.180
University Los Angeles. It is the
cheapest MFA in the entire country, so

0:01:33.180,0:01:36.909
that makes it unique in and of itself;
the other great thing is that Cal State

0:01:36.909,0:01:44.640
LA is very, very diverse and an inclusive
environment socioeconomically, racially

0:01:44.640,0:01:50.630
and culturally, age-wise it’s a
wonderful campus and tonight they’re

0:01:50.630,0:01:55.070
doing their MFA alumni awards and
so I’m going to that and I’m always down

0:01:55.070,0:02:00.719
for supporting my school, so I’m excited
to go to that. I just…I’m…so many

0:02:00.719,0:02:04.750
people have talked about this already,
and I just want to kind of like, leave

0:02:04.750,0:02:08.569
it here for posterity, and also to see if
I change my mind

0:02:09.179,0:02:13.450
on this later on because I think it’s a
good healthy thing to grow and

0:02:13.450,0:02:19.530
evolve – but it makes me really sad that
Zoe Saldana was cast as Nina Simone.

0:02:19.530,0:02:24.920
Now I know how this business works. I
know it so well and I know that this is

0:02:24.920,0:02:30.019
not entirely of Zoe Saldana’s doing,
and that there was lots of pressure to

0:02:30.019,0:02:34.430
do the role and also that she felt like
she could do that role. And I never

0:02:34.430,0:02:38.109
want to take away from another actor –
because I know what it feels like to

0:02:38.109,0:02:43.250
have somebody not believe in you to be
able to deliver on a performance – but

0:02:43.250,0:02:50.220
unfortunately they made the really bad
decision to  put black face on her. I mean I’m

0:02:50.220,0:02:54.549
like, look – if you’re confident that you
can play this role? Don’t put blackface,

0:02:54.549,0:03:00.290
don’t put on prosthetics, like, let
Nina Simone’s essence come out of you.

0:03:00.290,0:03:08.329
But more importantly, Nina Simone fought
against racism and colorism and shadeism

0:03:08.329,0:03:15.169
and that was an important part of who she was as a
person and her activism, so to cast

0:03:15.169,0:03:21.909
somebody who is representative of the
system that the lighter you are, the

0:03:21.909,0:03:26.139
closer you are to white, the more
attractive you are, the more acceptable

0:03:26.139,0:03:30.849
you are, the more you can sell tickets – it
just is wrong. Obviously I don’t know

0:03:30.849,0:03:36.150
Nina Simone personally, but her family
has spoken out against it and it’s just

0:03:36.150,0:03:41.930
a really unfortunate situation, and it
just felt like an insensitive response.

0:03:41.930,0:03:48.060
I think for me, one of the most
heartbreaking things about racism is a

0:03:48.060,0:03:55.099
lack of sensitivity, and Nina Simone
herself couldn’t have wouldn’t have been

0:03:55.099,0:04:00.310
cast or paid the amount of money
that Zoe Saldana got paid, like not even

0:04:00.310,0:04:06.790
today. It was just really unfortunate and
I support Zoe Saldana in other roles, and

0:04:06.790,0:04:11.540
the work she does, she’s a great actor –
but this was a bad choice and a painful

0:04:11.540,0:04:12.160
one

0:04:12.160,0:04:19.019
and insensitive. Let’s all be more
sensitive to each other. I published a

0:04:19.019,0:04:24.600
Q&A session with my very good friend
Tanya McRae this week on “Presidential
Mixedness” check that out, it’s under the
One Drop of Love playlist here on the

0:04:30.000,0:04:35.460
channel. I backed a Kickstarter project.
Check it out in the links. So this young

0:04:35.460,0:04:41.490
woman Nijla Mu’min – I hope I’m saying
her last name correctly – Nijla Mu’min – and

0:04:41.490,0:04:47.500
homegirl works, like she’s making her own
opportunities and she’s already raised

0:04:47.500,0:04:52.090
lots of funds for the movie, but YOU can
help out too. We talk about the

0:04:52.090,0:04:57.310
problems, here is a solution. When a
filmmaker is sharing their own story,

0:04:57.310,0:05:03.940
most importantly she’s telling her truth,
telling her story – and not letting

0:05:03.940,0:05:08.660
somebody else tell it for her. So please
back her project called Jinn and there

0:05:08.660,0:05:14.060
are links to that below, or if you don’t
have the funds, then please share it and

0:05:14.060,0:05:16.590
encourage your friends and family to
support it.

0:05:16.590,0:05:21.740
OK this was week two of my new job Head of
Equity and Inclusion of Pearl Street

0:05:21.740,0:05:27.790
Productions, and this was a good week.
So I had a good phone call with Matt an

0:05:27.790,0:05:32.830
Ben and got approval on the things that
I laid out, that I want to get done in this

0:05:32.830,0:05:37.320
first year. And I’ll talk about that a
little bit more because one of the

0:05:37.320,0:05:41.000
things that I want to do is make our
commitment to equity and inclusion

0:05:41.000,0:05:46.260
transparent to everybody, so one of the
things I’m working on is giving us an

0:05:46.260,0:05:50.820
online presence that is specifically
about this commitment we’re making and

0:05:50.820,0:05:55.030
so we’ll have a place where people can go – it
is not about being congratulated or

0:05:55.030,0:05:58.770
rewarded for the work, but, I
want there to be a place where people

0:05:58.770,0:06:02.070
can go and look at our numbers and look
at our data and say,

0:06:02.070,0:06:06.350
“You’re not doing very well in this area,”
or “Hey this is great!” I had a couple of

0:06:06.350,0:06:11.330
good phone calls with friends to
initiate some other things that I want to

0:06:11.330,0:06:15.870
get done and also I made a list of
festivals and conferences that I want to

0:06:15.870,0:06:19.700
attend, so of course I’ll vlog a
little bit from those conferences and

0:06:19.700,0:06:24.190
events. And I’m so excited about the job. I feel really good about it and I feel like I’m

0:06:24.190,0:06:25.960
gonna get some good things done.

0:06:25.960,0:06:31.160
Alright you all, this was another This
Week as an Artist – thanks for watching.

0:06:31.160,0:06:36.030
Share it if you like it, subscribe to the
channel or give a thumbs up if you like

0:06:36.030,0:06:36.440
it,

0:06:36.440,0:06:45.290
add comments if you want to, and you…YOU…
you keep doing your good work.

0:06:45.290,0:06:51.200
Tell us if you need support, tell us what
you’re up to. Yeah. Kick BUTT. GO Women’s

0:06:51.200,0:06:55.390
History Month! If you’re a woman,
celebrate yourself, Sister! If you’re a

0:06:55.390,0:07:00.600
man, celebrate a woman BIG time. Let her
know how important she is. Let her know

0:07:00.600,0:07:05.140
that you support her, and don’t just say
it DO it. All right you all, have a

0:07:05.140,0:07:09.090
wonderful, wonderful week and I’ll talk
to you next week. Bye!

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One Drop of Love Q&A: Presidential “Mixedness”


TRANSCRIPT:

TANYA: I have a question in terms of the understanding of what being “biracial” is. And now that it is “presidential” (laughs) and people in this country see a person in power who is of mixed race, what have you seen in terms of the different concept of what being biracial is now compared to when you were growing up, and people not really knowing what “mixed” meant?

FANSHEN: I have to say I’ve kind of come full circle. So you saw some of my identity search and conclusions growing up, and then for a while I was very involved in the mixed community, and proud of being mixed, and I started to see that there was this issue of privilege in that community too, that wasn’t being recognized, and it’s problematic.

One of the things we would do a lot is complain about being asked “What are you?” well, the truth is, that’s a privilege. Because when someone asks you that, they want to be relieved by finding out that you’ve got some white in you, right? And they want to determine where they’re going to put you on a hierarchy. And so I’m more careful about what being mixed means.

Some people that I work with, we have a non-profit called Mixed Roots Stories, and we want to encourage the personal narratives, but within a critical framework. So: understanding history, understanding privilege, understanding that this is all part of an evolutionary process and that if we’re not about doing some good, dismantling of some racism, then that’s not cool. And President Obama publicly stated that on the Census he chose African American. That’s how the world treats him. That’s how he’s seen, and he’s proud of it. So – the biracial folks, and mixed folks, I’m like, ‘yeah, yeah, cool, but just don’t let that determine that you have decided now that you are exclusive of, or better than.

One Drop of Love is a multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class, gender, justice and LOVE.
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Direction by Carol Banker
Q&A Host Patti Lewis
Camera by Katie Walker http://bit.ly/1FSOtea
Music by Carol Doom
Editing and logo graphics by Alex Regalado http://bit.ly/1Lh73wE in association with SarafinaProductions http://bit.ly/1OkzzQD
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This Week as an Artivist 2/27/16: New Job, Self Care, Mixedness, The Mountaintop, Black Girl Movement Conference


TRANSCRIPT:

0:00:00.000,0:00:04.960
Good morning Artivists! What’s up you all? It’s a little bit late because my birthday

0:00:04.960,0:00:10.530
was on Friday and so I didn’t make a
video on Friday or – usually I make them

0:00:10.530,0:00:16.260
on Friday nights and then I upload them
on Saturday, but I was relaxing with my

0:00:16.260,0:00:22.460
husband, so I am uploading this one today on Sunday. But it’s still “This Week as an

0:00:22.460,0:00:25.180
Artivist” I’m still gonna go through
everything I did this week. So first of

0:00:25.180,0:00:31.910
all: I started my job on Monday – my brand
new job – and I am Head of Equity and

0:00:31.910,0:00:36.559
Inclusion for Pearl Street Productions.
Pearl Street is the production company

0:00:36.559,0:00:42.230
owned by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It’s
going to be an interesting ride y’all. The good

0:00:42.230,0:00:46.829
news is I’ve known Matt and Ben since we
were – let’s see…I met Matt when I was

0:00:46.829,0:00:52.989
about nine years old, so the good news is
they know me, they know my politics, they know my

0:00:52.989,0:00:59.750
passions, they know what I stand for and
they’ve agreed to bring me on in this

0:00:59.750,0:01:04.250
position to help make change in the
entertainment industry. I’m glad you’re

0:01:04.250,0:01:10.799
coming along for this ride with us and
I’ll keep these videos going and let you

0:01:10.799,0:01:14.090
know how it goes. Speaking of which,
literally the day that I signed my

0:01:14.090,0:01:18.840
contract this came out. If you haven’t
read this study it’s incredibly

0:01:18.840,0:01:22.710
important if you’re in the
entertainment industry or interested in

0:01:22.710,0:01:29.290
being in the entertainment industry. It is breaking down – with clear data –

0:01:29.290,0:01:40.079
the numbers of women, women over 40, LGBTQ
representations, representations by race

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/ ethnicity and it’s really well done,
very clear. What I really appreciate

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is that at the end they provide a bullet
list for solutions.

0:01:53.310,0:02:00.119
That’s really going to be helpful to
me – here we go – “Solutions for Change” and

0:02:00.119,0:02:05.789
that’s awesome because it’s important to
talk about the disparities and the

0:02:05.789,0:02:09.259
problems, but it’s also important to talk
about what we’re gonna do to change that.

0:02:09.259,0:02:12.360
So I’ll be using this quite a bit in my
new job.

0:02:12.360,0:02:17.550
Also this week I had a meeting for Mixed
Roots Stories – the LA site committee for

0:02:17.550,0:02:20.459
the Critical Mixed Race Studies
conference. So Critical Mixed Race

0:02:20.459,0:02:27.870
Studies is a nonprofit that really
encourages the academic study and a

0:02:27.870,0:02:32.930
critical lens on mixedness. If
you don’t know me well, this is really

0:02:32.930,0:02:41.080
important to me that we absolutely
acknowledge who we are as mixed folks. So

0:02:41.080,0:02:48.500
my mom is White. She identifies as
Cherokee, Danish and Blackfoot Indian. My

0:02:48.500,0:02:55.980
dad is Jamaican – he’s Black, and I’m mixed
and I’m Black and I’ve got White in me

0:02:55.980,0:03:01.239
and I think that’s an
important experience to talk about, but

0:03:01.239,0:03:07.670
with a critical, ’cause I think
sometimes when we talk about it we don’t

0:03:07.670,0:03:13.980
see how we see ourselves only in our own
personal bubble – and it’s important to

0:03:13.980,0:03:18.840
understand the context of race and
culture and the things that have

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happened in this country (if that’s where
you’re living) and across the world that

0:03:23.940,0:03:27.769
affect the choices we make around
identity. So anyway: the Critical

0:03:27.769,0:03:35.130
Mixed Race Studies conference is going
to be in in LA in 2017, and the

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nonprofit that I co-direct called
Mixed Roots Stories is doing the arts

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and cultural programming for the
Critical Mixed Race Studies conference.

0:03:45.019,0:03:51.400
2017 in February. I’ll talk about it
a lot as it comes up – so we had an LA

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site committee meeting on Monday at USC,
and it was great. We’re starting to talk

0:03:56.340,0:04:00.299
about who should be invited, Keynote
speakers, how can we really spread the

0:04:00.299,0:04:04.740
word and get the word out more about the
conference. So if you…check it out, there

0:04:04.740,0:04:09.050
are links there if you’re interested, if you want
to hear more about it, let me know and we

0:04:09.050,0:04:13.030
will bring you on board – we’re looking for
volunteers, we’re looking for people who

0:04:13.030,0:04:16.820
are excited about it and I’ll tell you
more later. OK I want to talk a little

0:04:16.820,0:04:23.670
bit about self-care, because I’m not
great at it, but I intend to be, and

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I think it’s important. For me

0:04:27.230,0:04:36.730
self-care is nutrition, exercise and
spiritual health, and so I started at a gym

0:04:36.730,0:04:44.440
Last Monday. Well, I definitely hurt myself

0:04:44.440,0:04:49.890
after the first couple of days, and then
had to take a few days off, but it’s great

0:04:49.890,0:04:53.520
and it’s a women’s gym and I really
appreciate that everyone really

0:04:53.520,0:04:58.290
kind of pushes each other. It’s called
Pink Iron here, if you’re in LA check it out and then

0:04:58.290,0:05:04.660
also I’ve got this thing where ok during
the week I am eating healthy meals which

0:05:04.660,0:05:12.060
for me a good balance for me are: a good
amount of protein, lots of vegetables,

0:05:12.060,0:05:19.130
and a tiny bit of grains – a tiny bit of
carbs, so that’s gonna be during

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the week. And then on the weekend I let
myself enjoy myself so I’ll get a mocha,

0:05:23.940,0:05:28.020
which I try not to drink a lot of
caffeine, will get a mocha, have a glass

0:05:28.020,0:05:32.120
of wine, some sweets and enjoy myself.
Chocolate. Chocolate is always a good

0:05:32.120,0:05:37.540
thing. So anyways SELF CARE. What do you
do for self care? I’d love to hear. OK you

0:05:37.540,0:05:41.050
know I like to go see theater as much as
possible,

0:05:41.050,0:05:48.090
and I saw The Mountaintop. It’s playing
at the Matrix theater until April 10 here

0:05:48.090,0:05:53.330
in LA. So if you’re in LA please go see
it. It’s by Katori Hall. It takes place

0:05:53.330,0:06:00.039
the last evening before Martin Luther
King Junior is assassinated, and he gets

0:06:00.039,0:06:05.560
a visit from a woman – I can’t tell you
much more about it to not spoil it, but

0:06:05.560,0:06:12.509
the woman – the character is incredible. I
think she’s one of the strongest, most

0:06:12.509,0:06:20.120
complex and beautifully developed Black
women in theater – who’s specifically

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written as a Black woman – and this woman:
Danielle Truitt plays Ca’Mae and she’s just

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incredible and Larry Bates is also great. He
plays Martin Luther King Jr. Without

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question, though, Daniel Truitt steals
the show. This production is also

0:06:37.259,0:06:40.940
directed by Roger Guenvere Smith. There were not enough people in the

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theater when we went, so PLEASE go see
this. Support them. Spread the word. If

0:06:46.069,0:06:50.000
you’re not in LA, see if anybody’s doing
this show. They’re doing it at the

0:06:50.000,0:06:53.490
Matrix for Black History Month – you don’t
need to only see it on Black History Month,

0:06:53.490,0:06:59.969
you should see it anytime. It’s so good. Oh
my gosh! April 7 through 9, 2016 I’m

0:06:59.969,0:07:04.270
looking at my phone ’cause I want to
read this to you. There is the Black Girl Movement Conference in New York. It’s
being held at Columbia University – which

0:07:10.250,0:07:15.240
is my school!!! I went to Teachers College – yayyy! So, “Black Girl Movement – a national

0:07:15.240,0:07:19.569
conference is a three-day gathering at
Columbia University in New York City to

0:07:19.569,0:07:24.750
focus on Black girls, cis, queer and
trans girls in the United States.

0:07:24.750,0:07:32.990
Bringing together, artists, activists – ARTIVISTS! –
educators, policymakers and Black girl

0:07:32.990,0:07:37.029
leaders themselves. This first national
conference on Black girls seeks to

0:07:37.029,0:07:42.520
address the disadvantages that Black
girls in the United States face while

0:07:42.520,0:07:47.139
creating the political will to publicly
acknowledge their achievements,

0:07:47.139,0:07:52.420
contributions and leadership.” Alright I
know you can read yourselves, but I just…

0:07:52.420,0:07:58.730
I read that and I get excited every time I
read that. So links for everything down

0:07:58.730,0:08:04.590
below. What are your goals? What’s going
on? What have you achieved as Artivists?

0:08:04.590,0:08:11.230
Keep up this great, great, incredible, important
work we do – and wish me luck on this new job.

0:08:11.230,0:08:18.420
and on staying in shape – staying FIT and I’ll talk
to you next week. Bye bye.

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One Drop of Love Testimonial: Ashley – one story DOES make a difference


TRANSCRIPT:

CHANDRA: One of the best parts about the post-show conversations is when people feel compelled to share their own stories. In this clip, Ashley shares what it’s like for her as a Black female traveling through the Dominican Republic.

ASHLEY: One of the things that really resonated with me was the dynamic with race in other cultures. As a Black individual I’ve had the experience to go live in the Dominican Republic and there’s this racial dynamic between Haitians and Dominicans and oftentimes I was cussed out in four languages, by Haitians – they were telling me I’m denying my Haitian roots. The Dominican family I lived with, they had problems with my braids because those were identified as Haitian. Especially as a Black American you go on these journeys to really figure out who you are because you DO have so many people trying to tell you who you are – or what it means to be Black, or what it means to be this and, you think – well I had the perception that if I go overseas, I’ll be able to connect more, and I’ll be able to just be me, and it won’t have to be about race or how dark I am or how I sound and, just hearing that my experience wasn’t the only experience like that. That it really didn’t matter, like I didn’t find that oneness, that wholeness that I was expecting to find. I found more divisions. And hearing that in the story, it was sad.

Because I’m actually a Youth Pastor at an all-White church (laughs). At an all-White church. I never share that story. I always kind of tread on light water because I always have this feeling that…I know that my being here is a great thing, but it ruffles some feathers as well. And it’s like you never know when you’re put in these environments how you’re supposed to be. What’s uncomfortable? What’s not comfortable enough? What’s too, what’s saying too much? How bold can I be? Our congregation is older, white individuals, it’s a highly conservative church and things that are just uncomfortable? We don’t really do.

PATTI: And that’s the show. Like, if it’s uncomfortable…

ASHLEY: You just gotta deal with it yourself. You’re uncomfortable within yourself because you can’t find any comfort talking about it. But, with this show I appreciate it because you realize how many people have similar stories. Even if it’s just a little part of her story resonates with someone else, you realize that, OK. I’m not uncomfortable by myself. People ARE talking about this. And…one story DOES make a difference. The stories are never the same but the themes are always recurring. It’s human nature.

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