Age: 44
Residence: Southern California
Occupation: Writer, Festival Founder, Podcaster, and author of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
When I did the interview for Black, White, Other I was very aware that I was likely in a certain phase of my identity development—I hadn’t learned how to be comfortable in my own skin. Thank goodness I don’t share those same views on counseling a friend dating interracially. Now 20 years later, the thing that vexed me so, the thing that made me feel a lot of shame and conflict—my Afro-Viking identity—is what I talk about most through my writing and my work as a founder of the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival and the Mixed Chicks Chat podcast. And the funny thing is: the fact that I feel free to identify myself in this very complicated way frees other people to be as complicated as they are as well. I think yes, the society changed, but I changed as well. I finally gave voice to all of my experience. In response to the “What are you?” question, I learned how to say: I am a story!