More and more people are questioning their identity and looking to discover their heritage. We're asking, "Who am I?" and we chase that question with, "Where do I belong and to whom?"

With the increase of platforms like Ancestry.com, answers no longer die with the dead.

Tonight, we live in a space that questions existing truths about definitions of identity and creates new ones.

In this episode we sit down with award-winning actor, producer, podcast host and educator, Fanshen Cox. 

This week:

• Enjoy a White Negroni and share the drink's history and the proper way to mix one. 
• Yvonne shares her experience on the set of Lucky, Harry Dean Stanton’s last film. 
• Discover the history of Lagralane. 
• Jason and Yvonne discuss how they identify and the complexities of holding multiple identities.
• Jason and Yvonne dive into what prompted them to start their separate journeys to learn more about their individual cultural identity and the ways they presusuded their history.   
• Yvonne reflects on the American perception of ethnicity and the limitations of the structure. 
• Fanshen answers the question, “If we are all an equation, how do we solve for identity?” 
• Fanshen talks about the idea of race and how that plays out in the world. 
• Jason reflects on his experience of representing the enslaved and the slave owners as a biracial male. 
• Fanshen shares her experience with other people wanting her to “pass” as white.
• Fanshen talks about racial pride and how that internal struggle plays out when you identify as more than one. 
• Fanshen, Yvonne, and Jason discuss the important concept of white people digging into their own history to be true allies. 
• Fanshen explains that black is a culture and how it encompasses so many things besides race. 

Cocktail: White Negroni

Recipe

• 1.5oz Gin
• 1 ounce Dolin Blanc Vermouth
• 3/4 oz Suze or Cocchi Americano
• Served on the rocks

History & Meaning

The Negroni was invented by an Italian, Count Negroni, but in 2001 it got a little British put on it, by bartender Wayne Collins, while in France. Collins created the White Negroni. It’s half Italian, half Brit! Thus it is multiethnic, like Jason and Yvonne. 

About Fanshen Cox

Fanshen Cox is the creator of the award-winning one-woman show One Drop of Love, exploring the intersections of race, class, gender, history and identity. Fanshen also facilitates workshops and delivers keynotes on using narrative in empathy-building, exploring historical context, and how the construction of race affects our closest relationships.

War, marriage, and opportunity are just some of the reasons we might uproot our entire lives from one homestead to another. And while there are incredible opportunities that come with leaving all that we know and love behind, there can also be immense violence and loss -- be it to culture, identity, or life. What is at stake for those who try to assimilate into a brand new world? 

In episode two of Lagralane Spirits, The Violence of Migration, we tell our own migration stories and explore what our roots mean to our past, present, and future. We dig into this joy and pain with guest Natividad Lagramada Huff, also affectionately known as “Mama Nattie.”

This week: 

• Enjoy a Sazerac and share this recipe’s origins 
• Yvonne asks, “What gets lost in migration?”
• Yvonne dives into the importance of language in her biracial household 
• Yvonne shares with Jason how war played a part in how her parents met 
• Jason poses a question, “Our complete identity cannot be wrapped up in our name, so does that make us other?”
• Jason shares his thoughts on the current racial climate in America and how we are going through a reconstruction era again where we’re finding out more information about the meaning of race in our country 
• Jason and Yvonne talk to Mama Nattie, Yvonne’s mother, about her migration story from the Philippines  to The United States 
• Mamma Nattie explains to  Yvonne that when she moved to America, she didn’t have many people to speak Tagalog with and how that affected her using the language at home, and why it wasn’t taught to her children.
• Mamma Nattie tells Yvonne and Jason, “Wherever you guys are I’ll be home."

Cocktail: Sazerac

Recipe

• 1.5 oz of Cognac or Rye Whiskey
• 1.4 oz Absinthe 
• 1 Sugar Cube
• 3 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters

History & Meaning

The Sazerac was invented in 1838 by Antoine Amedie Peychaud. Peychaud was a Creole apothecary who immigrated to New Orleans from the West Indies. This drink was invented in the same year the forced migration of the Trail of Tears took place. Peychaud was living in New Orleans during the Slave Trade, which forcibly migrated and sold millions of West African people to slave trading ports all over the New World, including a port in New Orleans.

In this 3-part series to Episode 3, we deep dive into three very different adoption stories to explore the topic of biological identity and origin. In Part 1, Jason reveals a major find, a truth to his own adoption story that perhaps would have gone undiscovered if not for Ancestry.com. This find led Jason and Yvonne to a soulful and identity-searching discussion with Hank and Sueann Fortener of Adopt Together, an organization that helps families come to be.   

This week:

• From the lens of what it means to adopt, we’ll discuss identity and origins from generation to generation
• Jason tells Yvonne the story of how he paid the Department of Human Services in Nebraska $17 for information on his adoption while on a road trip to a show in Chicago
• Jason discusses how his adoption story and his DNA journey lead him to explore family members he never knew; people from Louisiana, Scotland, South Carolina, South Georgia, and even a few Germans in Russia (Volga Germans)
• Jason discusses what it means to be a Black man, and an adopted man, in America 
• Jason and Yvonne speak to Hank and Sueann Fortener about their non-profit Adopt Together.
• Adopt Together is a donation organization that has helped 6500 families raise $25 million in 10 years 
• Sueann discusses not being American enough in America and not being Korean enough in Korea 
• Sueann and Yvonne discuss the complexities of multi-ethnic subcultures and their racial standards 
• Hank discusses how at seven years old his parents approached him about how he felt about them becoming foster parents 
• Hank discusses how his own family took on foster kids after he and his wife could no longer have kids biologically  

Cocktail: Whiskey Old Fashioned

Recipe

• 2 oz of George Dickel Rye Whiskey
• Three teaspoons of simple syrup 
• Several dashes of bitters 
• A couple of splashes of water 

History & Meaning

The Old Fashioned :

Before the 1860s, cocktails in America tended to be some mixture of spirit (often cognac), water, sugar, and bitters. After the 1860s and into the 1870s, other liquors like absinthe were being introduced to bars. 

But a generation of drinkers wanted something more classic, so they would ask for something their grandfather would drink. They would say, “Make me something old-fashioned.” And the name stuck.

We, Jason and Yvonne Lee, husband and wife, father and mother, actors, producers, and explorers of identity, would like to invite you to a real talk meeting of the minds over reverent cocktails. 

This season we are exposing the roots of our identities, and by doing so we are hoping you’ll take some time to think about your own. From cultural connections to the authors of history, from biological origins to the families we create, we are digging deep into who makes us who we are and what makes us who we are. 

You’ll be hearing from some extraordinary guests including notable actors, producers, and award-winning writers. 

We will be honoring the word “symposium” with some delicious cocktails. Symposium comes from the Greek word sympinein which means to drink together. We’ll be chatting and drinking with some extraordinary guests including notable actors, producers, and award-winning writers. And each episode will feature a spirit-based cocktail, with a recipe you can make at home so you can join us. 

Enjoy responsibly.