Multiracial Family Man

Ep. 62: Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum loves to laugh. She also loves purple. She loves her husband, her family, her congregation (Shir Hadash -- http://www.shirmke.com/) and Milwaukee. In fact, if you talk with Rabbi Berenbaum for more than 3 seconds, you will realize that she's filled with love, laughter, terrific listening skills, and, as she puts it "a love of text."

Starting out as the only child of Black Southern Baptists (including a father who was blind), Rabbi Berenbaum slowly but surely found her true spiritual home in Judaism. Along the way, she had a front seat at the intersection of race, racism and religion, giving her valuable insights into how different groups of people see the World and helping her develop and refine tremendous powers of empathy.

Listen, as Rabbi Berenbaum describes her own conversion to her childhood, her conversion to Judaism, her views on and personal experiences with racism, and her views and thoughts on the challenges facing Judaism in the 21st Century.

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

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. 61: Michelle Beller is a multiracial former Ironman Triathlete-turned-writer who is now pursuing work that is deeply personal.

Her book The Trouble With Virginia is a historical novel based on the true story of Michelle's great-great grandmother, Virginia, who was the daughter of a prosperous White plantation owner and his common-law wife who was herself a multiracial slave. It is a captivating story.

In addition, Michelle is a vocal advocate for women's rights especially in the effort to end violence against women. Listen as Michelle tells Alex how this issue and the issue of race are inextricably linked.

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

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. 60: Veda Stamps was born in Los Angeles, California but grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. In her late teens, she moved to Fresno, California where she attended Fresno State’s undergraduate and graduate programs. Veda spent time in Washington, DC where she served as a legislative aide and speech writer to Congressman Harold Ford, JR. Missing sunny California, she moved back to Fresno and created The Ramsay Group, LLC a community planning consulting firm.

She currently lives in Valencia, California with her husband, two daughters and three little dogs.

”Flexible Wings” is her first published novel, partly inspired by her daughter’s experience on a new neighborhood swim team. It is a contemporary middle-grade novel which explores the lives of military children. The book delves into themes of sports, community, and volunteerism as a way to support families through difficult times.

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

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. 59: Mike Brown is a comic who grew up in Harlem, NY. A Black man with Jamaican and Cuban roots, Mike has been taking the New York comedy scene by storm with his

He was named one of Rooftop Comedy's Comics to Watch, Caroline's Best of New Talent and a semi-finalist in NY Funniest Stand Up competition presented by JetBlue. Along with featuring at various comedy festivals (New York Comedy Festival, The San Francisco Sketchfest, The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival), he's appeared on TruTV, Oxygen, Bravo, E!, and Adult Swim.

Mike Brown regularly hosts/co-produces comedy shows throughout New York: BIG Pony Show FREE show Mondays at 8p on the Lower East Side (87 Ludlow St), Machine Gun Funk at New York Comedy Club, and COMEDY OUTLIERS a monthly standup comedy showcase featured in The New York Times, AM New York, Time Out NY, NY1, and NY Daily News. He also hosts the COMEDY OUTLIERS podcast available on iTunes. He also is the creator and star of a new webseries called Can't Stop, Won't Stop.

Mike is married to a White woman from Australia, and on this episode of the podcast, he discusses with Alex what it's like to be a Black man in America as well as his thoughts and insights about visiting his in-laws in rural Australia.

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

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. 58: Naomi Kissiedu-Green is a Ghanaian, born in the UK, who now resides in Australia. This former model who appeared on Austrailia's Project Runway is married to a White Australian, and she is the mother of 3 children, a beauty entrepreneur (operating the Shea Purity line - http://www.sheapurity.bigcartel.com/). She also is the author of The Colourful Life children's books series, which focus on issues confronted by multiracial children and an author of children’s books (http://www.bookdepository.com/publishers/Naomi-Kissiedu-Green).

Listen, as as Alex speaks with Naomi about her life and her work.

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

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. 57: Vanessa Bell is a Latina of Cuban ancestry, raised in Los Angeles. She is married to a Black man and has two biracial kids. She also is the creator of desumama.com (http://www.desumama.com/) a multiracial motherhood website, dedicated to exploring issues of concern to multiracial families.

Listen, as as Alex speaks with Vanessa about her journey.

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

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. 56: Swirl Nation (http://www.swirlnationblog.com/) is the lovechild of four female friends who share the common bond of living multiracial and multiethnic lives.

On Swirl Nation they explore topics that resonate with the co-founders, Jen, Jenn, Amal & Kourtney. They have had so many conversations in their private lives about their journeys of relationships and raising children; they decided they wanted to share that with other like-minded individuals.

One key feature of the blog is weekly featured posts that celebrate amazing multiracial and multiethnic families across the United States (and maybe even around the world)! Their hope is that these profiles will inspire and create a bond between families. Reading the profiles can also be a great way to ignite a conversation in your own household about culture, traditions, and how you want to raise your own children.

Additionally they all share posts on other topics that are passion points for us as individuals like education, fashion, beauty, cooking, and more! No topics are off limits.

They welcome ideas, collaborators and comments, and they thank you for visiting their community!

Listen, as as Alex speaks with them about their individual and collective journeys.

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

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. 55: Liana Maneese was born in 1984 in Goiânia, Goiás Brazil. She was adopted when she was 1 and aised in a Black community in Pittsburgh PA by two White Parents.

Growing up, she saw herself only as adopted and not as an orphan. She finally had to face the reality that in order to be found, you have to first be lost. Without any Afro-Latino community to latch onto, her voice and identity were lost in translation in a world that did not look like her, talk like her, or think like her. This is when the quest for true liberation started, when she began to acknowledge who she was and to begin the slow but crucial process of loving herself. She knew that she needed to redirect her efforts to telling her own story and recovering her own voice.

To Liana, being Afro-Brazilian testifies to the enormous resistance of the African slaves that had to endure and overcome a cultural force that meant to strip them of their identity, heritage, and humanity. She seeks to use her work as an act of her own resistance by refusing to be voiceless in a larger conversation on race in the U.S. as well as right here in Pittsburgh. Her life speaks to the suffering that displacement, poverty, and identity politics can cause.

At the age of 15, Liana started RedTape Productions, now known as RedTape Design, of Pittsburgh, with her partners Michael Tanzer and Darby Kaighin-Shields. With their love of hip hop as its basis, RedTape engaged, motivated and inspired thousands of young people. Through this philosophy of hip hop and activism, RedTape helped provoke political, cultural, and social awareness by hosting events for some of the most influential artists of the day. Some of the notable names include Atmosphere, Virtuoso, and J-Live. RedTape was also hired as Pittsburgh’s crew for MTV’s Rock The Vote! in 2000 when she was still in high school and not yet old enough to vote. Maneese went on to attend college at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, in Downtown Los Angeles, and continued to cultivate her diverse interests by working on urban development projects in downtown LA. After graduating with honors from FIDM, she became the Project Manager for a branding firm at Hollywood’s own Starmen Design Group. She served as a Service Leader for an educational and cultural enrichment program, and was a Guyasuta Fellow on Public Policy in 2010. In addition Maneese dedicated 1900+ hours of her time to serving her community that same year and continues to donate 800+ hours every year. During this time she also completed a degree in Cultural Studies from Chatham University and graduated with honors and recently became one of Pittsburgh's FAB 40 in 2012.

Currently, she is working on Adopting Identity, which facilitates conversations on race, gender and class intersectionality with those who may not have been exposed to or had a safe space to explore their own questions. Our intentions are to give people the language and compassion to love each other and not simply seek to tolerate those different than us. Specifically, our goal is to give voice to adoptees’ and biracial people and facilitate the conversations necessary to support their families and communities. Www.adoptingidentity.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

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. 54: Ayanna Dookie is a comic and a very funny woman. This native Trinidadian (who is half Black an half Indian) thought she was on her way to becoming an engineer. But, somewhere along the way she gotten bitten by the comedy bug. A decade later, after transitioning from her degrees in Applied Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering you can find her performing comedy all over NYC, which she now calls home, and, indeed, all over the country. She has opened for Tommy Davidson at the DC Improv, was a finalist in the New York Underground Comedy Festival Emerging Comics Competition, appeared on Comcast-on-Demand, and helped Magooby’s Joke House earn the record of having The Longest Continuous Stand-Up Comedy Show in the World. You can reach her on Twitter at: @ADookie

Listen, as Ayanna shares with Alex her story about being one of the few Trinis in her school in Prince George's County, Maryland, about what it's like to be Black and Indian, about becoming a Black-Indian member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and about her transition from engineering to comedy. Also, hear her share the story of her ongoing battle with Lupus, a debilitating autoimmune disease.

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

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. 53: LaVera Crawley and Alec MacLeod are an interracial couple. LaVera is a African-American doctor, who grew up in Cincinnati, received her undergraduate and medical degrees at Historically Black Colleges, worked on a Navajo reservation as a M.D., and now serves as a Palliative Care Chaplain.

In the field of medicine and ethics, LaVera is internationally known for her work on health disparities for palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care. She served as an expert on racial, ethnic, and cultural issues for the 2004 NIH State-of-the-Science of EOL Care Consensus Conference; was commissioned by the California Healthcare Foundation to conduct an in-depth summary of EOL health care delivery for California’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, and racially diverse population; and served a 3-year appointment as an ethics advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was honored with the Soros Faculty Scholars Award for the Open Society Institute's Project on Death in America in 1999-2001, The Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2003-2008, and the Stanford University Faculty Fellows Award in 2007.

After a 16+ year career at Stanford as an empirical bioethicist, LaVera Crawley embarked on a new career in the art of spiritual companionship, bringing together her work in medicine, ethics, social justice, teaching, research, and public health with her longstanding interest in spirituality. After completing her clinical pastoral education (CPE) in chaplaincy, she began serving in her current role as a Palliative Care Chaplain at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. She is also in training to become an Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) Certified Supervisor.

Inspired by the Schwartz Center’s Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program for Healthcare Providers, LaVera’s goal as a Chaplain Supervisor is to create and implement a CPE Fellows Program for physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and other healthcare professionals to enhance provider skills and competencies in addressing the spiritual, existential, and religious needs of patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses.

Her husband, Alec MacLeod, is a White man of Dutch an English extraction, who grew up in rural, upstate New York,lec MacLeod is a Professor in Undergraduate Studies. He received his undergraduate education at Hampshire College where he studied philosophy and fine arts. Alec also holds a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Stanford University (1983) and has studied information science at the University of California at Berkeley.

His primary areas of preparation are in the studio arts, art theory and information science. He is a practicing visual artist whose work has been exhibited nationally. Additionally, his work in the area of cultural studies includes the visual culture of the internet (especially implicit assumptions in the design of graphical user interfaces), representations of "the Other" in U.S. colloquial English, and visual explorations of theories of perception.

As an educator, Alec has used participatory collaborative methods of inquiry to explore the ways in which pedagogical approaches can assist learners in examining and changing their assumptions about race and ethnicity. He has trained as a multicultural trainer at Equity Institute and Visions, Inc. A member of a research collective, the European-American Collaborative Challenging Whiteness, he has participated in an inquiry into white identity and ways in which white people can become more aware of their identity and its implications. The group has presented its work at educational conferences and recently authored an article entitled "White on White: Communicating about Race and White Privilege with Critical Humility" in Understanding & Dismantling Privilege: the Journal of the White Privilege Conference.

Alec has over twenty-five years of experience as a facilitator of learning in higher education as a classroom teacher and as an administrator. He was a member of the design team for the undergraduate cohort based degree completion program and the inaugural director of that program. In addition to his interdisciplinary courses in the Undergraduate program, Alec teaches courses in visual thinking, creativity, and visual culture.

Listen as LaVera and Alec speak with Alex about their marriage, their careers, and their views on race and diversity.

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

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/