Multiracial Family Man

Ep. 240: Staceyann Chin is a multiracial (Black and Chinese) Jamaican who immigrated to the United States in the 1990s. She has been an "out poet and political activist" since 1998. She has performed at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, in one-woman shows Off-Broadway, acted in Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, and performed in both the stage and film versions of Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States and starred in the Tony nominated, Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 239: Ritu Chandra is a stand-up comedian. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she left home at 18 and has lived all over the United States since then. Never feeling like she fit in anywhere, she quickly realized humor was a way to get along with others.​​

Ritu currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, son and dog. She loves all three of them but never at the same time—someone is always in first place, usually the dog. Her comedy is based on her life experiences, which continue to grow stranger by the day. Ritu brings her sarcastic observations and relatable humor to such topics as motherhood, marriage, aging, suburban life and much more.

Ritu has been seen on NBC's The Today Show and heard on Compound Media's Burning Bridges and the Mornin!!! show. She performs regularly at Stand Up NY (New York City), Gotham Comedy Club (New York City) and Stress Factory (New Brunswick, NJ). She has also performed in at The Laugh Factory (Chicago, IL), The Set Up (San Francisco, CA) and Bonkerz Comedy Club (Maryland). You can also hear her on the new hit podcast Why Bother? with Ritu and Ken.

For more on Ritu, please visit her website at: https://www.rituchandra.com/

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of

Two Sisters Writing and PublishingIntro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 238: The original Obama, FAITH ADIELE is the author of The Nigerian-Nordic Girl's Guide To Lady Problems and Meeting Faith: The Thai Forest of a Black Buddhist Nun, which won the PEN Open Book Award. She is also writer/narrator/subject of My Journey Home, a PBS documentary film about growing up Nordic-American and then traveling to Nigeria as an adult, co-editor of the international anthology Coming of Age Around the World, and senior editor at Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. Named as one of Marie Claire's "5 Women to Learn From" and educated at Harvard University, the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Adiele is Associate Professor of Creative Nonfiction at California College of the Arts and Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program faculty. A member of San Francisco Writers' Grotto and The Ruby, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, runs African Book Club, and lectures around the world. She is completing Twins, an epic family memoir completing the story begun in the PBS film. Visit her at http://adiele.com and@meetingfaith.

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 237: Jill Barletti is a multicultural mom, who founded Snowflake Stories, a series of personalized books dedicated to addressing the realities and needs of children within multiracial and multicultural families.

Listen as Jill describes how she became bilingual in Spanish, building her own multicultural family and how and why she founded Snowflake Stories.

For more on Jill and Snowflake Stories, please check the website: https://www.snowflakestories.com/

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 236: Writer, performer and designer Deborah Gregory is the award-winning author of "The Cheetah Girls" novel series (Disney Publishing Worldwide). The 22-book series (16 books written by Deborah Gregory plus 6 movie tie-in books including "The Cheetah Girls Supa Star Scrapbook," "Cheetah Girls 2 X0X0 Postcard Book" and "Cheetah Girls Cheetah Chatter: A Dictionary of Growl-licious Lingo") is about five talented teens who form a singing group and make their dreams come true in the jiggy jungle. The Disney Channel original movie produced in conjunction with Whitney Houston, "The Cheetah Girls" –based on the book series–airs this summer and stars Raven Symone, Adrienne and Kiely from 3LW as well as Lynn Whitfield. Deborah Gregory serves as a co-producer on the film project. The soundtrack album will be available on Disney's Hollywood Records. In 2001, the series was chosen at the Blackboard Children's Book of the Year.

Gregory is also an NABJ award-winning contributing writer for ESSENCE magazine since 1992. Her work has also appeared in VIBE, MORE, Heart & Soul, Entertainment Weekly, US magazines. Her pop culture column, THE DIVA DIARIES, appears in GRACE magazine, the national fashion and lifestyle "reality" publication targeted at multi-cultural women. She is currently writing an adult novel as well as developing a one-woman show "LEOPARD LIVES" –a coming of age story about a foster child growing up in the New York City foster care system of which Gregory is also a survivor. She has performed segments of her work-in-progress one-woman show at the Women of Color Festival, winning the festival's Best Comedy Award for 2001; Dixon Place, Caroline's Comedy Club and Solo Arts Festival.

Ms. Gregory has also contributed to several books including, "Men of Color: Fashion, Mission, Fundamentals," (Artisan Publishing); "Body and Soul, SoulStyle: Black Women Redefining the Color Fashion," "Essence Total Makeover Book," "50 Most Influential People." She also contributed to photographer Marc Baptiste's book of nudes, Beautiful" (Rizzoli/Universe Publishing) as well as posed for the famed fashion photographer. The pictures are provocative and include a host of celebrities who also posed nude including Stacey Dash, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Williams, Beverly Johnson, LisaRaye. 25 percent of the proceeds will go to photographer Mfon Essien's breast cancer organization set up upon her untimely death.

This year, Deborah Gregory also launched her company, CHEETAHRAMA, offering her original designs including hand-crafted decoupage art cases and hair accessories. CHEETAHRAMA mirror compacts, pillboxes, business card holders, cigarette cases and vanity cases which are sold at stores nationwide including the Studio Museum of Harlem gift shop.

Ms. Gregory received her A.A.S. from Fashion Institute of TEchnology, then received a Bachelor of Science from Empire State University in 1986. She currently lives in New York City with her pooch Cappuccino who poses as the Cheetah Girls mascot Toto.

For more on her, please see: http://www.cheetahrama.com/bio/

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 235: Rorri Geller-Mohamed created U Power Change for families who are navigating some super challenging stuff. She used her professional background as a therapist to develop U Power Change but raising a multiracial family is also very personal to her. Having grown up in a multiracial family that was formed through adoption when her Mexican-American brother joined her family and now as a white mom raising children in a multiracial, multicultural, and multifaith family, after marrying her husband who is Guyanese, she is extremely passionate about helping our children to feel supported in their identity and thrive.

Professionally, she's been doing this work for over 15 years with youth, parents, and families in a variety of school, community, and clinical settings. For her, it always goes beyond just working with families, as she sees it as a necessity to advocate for racial and social justice often by working with leadership and organizations to create systemic change.

Her dream is that the next generation can thrive in a safe, equitable, and inclusive world. As a white person, she also believes it is part of her responsibility to reach out, support, and organize to bring more white people into anti-racism and racial equity work. She received her Masters degree in Social Work from Columbia University and have post graduate training in family therapy from the Ackerman Institute.

For more on Rorri, please visit - https://upowerchange.com/about/

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 234: Dr. Rainier Spencer is a leading scholar of critical mixed-race theory. He has authored three books (Reproducing Race: The Paradox of Generation Mix, Lynne Rienner, 2011; Challenging Multiracial Identity, Lynne Rienner, 2006; and Spurious Issues: Race and Multiracial Identity Politics in the United States, Westview, 1999), as well as numerous anthology chapters in this field of study. He has been interviewed by and has provided commentary for the New York Times, has appeared on both American and Canadian television to discuss mixed-race identity, and is a featured speaker in the documentary film Multiracial Identity (Abacus Productions, 2010). He is the founder and director of the Afro-American Studies Program at UNLV. Dr. Spencer's interdisciplinary teaching interests include Afro-American history and popular culture, American slavery, philosophies of racism and racial intolerance, Afro-American literature, and mixed-race identity.

For more on Dr. Spencer, please see: https://www.unlv.edu/people/rainier-spencer

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 233: Susan Graham is the White mother of two biracial children whose father is Black. She is also the author of Born Biracial: How One Mother Took on Race in America. It is the true story of how she brought an invisible population to the forefront and started the multiracial movement. She started a simple advocacy group and turned it into a national civil rights movement. Along the way, her personal life was suffering. The emotional story of her marriage to a CNN News anchor, being a mother to biracial children, divorce, and remarriage are interwoven in her life's story. This is the one story every interracial family should read.

Susan is also the co-founder and Executive Director of Project RACE, which advocates for multiracial children, multiracial adults, and their families primarily through multiracial education and community awareness. It does not advocate for racial classifications, but is committed to the appropriate inclusion of multiracial people on any forms that require racial identification. It supports policies that make a positive impact on people of multiracial heritage at local, state, and national levels.

Listen as Susan talks to Alex about Multiracial identity, the 2020 census, bone marrow donor registry, and her new book.

For more on Susan and Project RACE, please visit the website: http://www.projectrace.com/

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 232: Tanya Katerí Hernández, is the Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, where she teaches Anti-Discrimination Law, Comparative Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory, The Science of Implicit Bias and the Law: New Pathways to Social Justice, and Trusts & Wills. She received her A.B. from Brown University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Note Topics Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Professor Hernández, is an internationally recognized comparative race law expert and Fulbright Scholar who has visited at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, in Paris and the University of the West Indies Law School, in Trinidad. She has previously served as a Law and Public Policy Affairs Fellow at Princeton University, a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University; a Faculty Fellow at the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and as a Scholar in Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Professor Hernández is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the American Law Institute, and the Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación. Hispanic Business Magazine selected her as one of its annual 100 Most Influential Hispanics. Professor Hernández serves on the editorial boards of the Revista Brasileira de Direito e Justiça/Brazilian Journal of Law and Justice, and the Latino Studies Journal published by Palgrave-Macmillian Press. Professor Hernández's scholarly interest is in the study of comparative race relations and anti-discrimination law, and her work in that area has been published in numerous university law reviews like Cornell, Harvard, N.Y.U., U.C. Berkeley, Yale and in news outlets like the New York Times, among other publications including her books Racial Subordination in Latin America: The Role of the State, Customary Law and the New Civil Rights Response (including Spanish and Portuguese translation editions) and Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Law: Racial Discrimination. Her most recent publication is the book Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination https://multiracialsandcivilrights.wordpress.com/. For more on Professor Hernandez or to view her c.v., please see: https://www.fordham.edu/info/23144/tanya_hernandez

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ep. 231: Spirit Tawfiq is a self-proclaimed "Social Justice Passionista" and storyteller dedicated to serving as a bridge between the Civil Rights Movement and the powerful freedom train engineered by the courageous and passionate young people of today.

Spirit was born and raised in Canada and moved to the U.S. after high school. Her father is white and mother is black. They met in college in Illinois in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and left the U.S. in opposition to the Vietnam War. Growing up in Canada, Spirit was unaware that her own mother Minnijean Brown Trickey was one of the Little Rock Nine who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957 in the U.S.

Upon learning her mother's story, she became invigorated and dedicated to keep this powerful story alive and serve as an intergenerational bridge between the Civil Rights Movement and courageous young people today.

She recently launched her own podcast, Roots of the Spirit - a platform to have honest conversations about identity, "race," racism and social justice.

Listen as Spirit describes her mother's unique place in history and Spirit's own efforts to pass on the baton of the fight for civil rights and social justice.

For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic

To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST

Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing

Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/