Brad 26 October 2009
Mix-d: uk exhibition has new home in Leicester
Our photographic exhibition exploring mixed race identity is running until December 31 in the city’s New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.
The life studies are accompanied by brief descriptions from the 48 individuals of their self-identified racial type. These range from “Irish Monserattian” to “Kenyan/Pakistani/British”.
“Mix-d: uk. A Look at Mixed-Race Identities” premiered in Manchester, the home of the Multiple Heritage Project, and then moved on to various venues in London.
The exhibition is designed to mirror Multiple Heritage’s methodology. Without making judgements, without making overly involved comments and without any over-celebration, the photographs capture the real and varying faces of the mixed-race experience in the UK today.
One recent visitor commented: “This is a subject rarely spoken about with any degree of balance or depth. For people who want to explore mixed-race, from a personal or theoretical view, they will find that each picture is worth a thousand words of research and explanation.”
If you’re interested, go and explore mixed race lives for yourself.
Thank you to Leicester and New Walk, particularly Tara Munroe and Nick Gordon, for extending the hand of hospitality. Thank you for bringing the mixed-race debate inside and into the light.
http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/exhibitionspage1/mix-duk/
Brad 16 October 2009
We hope you like the new website.
It reflects our journey from a seed of an idea, to the foundation of the Multiple Heritage Project in 2006, through the emergence of the idea of Mix-d: in 2007, to something that is today attracting interest from people worldwide.
This blog post is a stock take of where we are up to and a brief look forwards.
We have always worked on two fronts: the psychological and the sociological. By this we mean we consider the lived experiences and identities of mixed race people – but we look further out into the broader social assumptions and debates that make mixed race an issue in the first place.
Multiple Heritage is a good term. It acknowledges the strength and beauty of being able to draw on diverse and interesting strands of ancestry and geography. We are not losing Multiple Heritage from our descriptive toolbox. It remains as our umbrella term and as the title of our fast developing research arm.
But somehow we noticed that it failed to capture the full resonance of mixed race experiences. So Mix-d: (pronounced “mixed”) was born.
Mix-d: carries the sense of a unique brand through its hyphen and indicates with its colon that experiences of mixed race people are always emerging, both with current generations and with as yet undefined new generations of Mix-d: people to come.
In this sense Mix-d: as a working term sits very comfortably with the youth facing work which has gathered dramatic momentum over the last two years through a series of workshops, seminars, conferences and a growing resource of written and multi-media materials.
This work continues and will broaden, increasingly involving parents, peer support groups, specialist support of professionals and involvement with multi-agency networks.
We are increasingly receiving inquiries from individuals, research bodies and support organisations on an international basis.
The other key recent development is the volume and depth of the research activity feeding into and out of our activities.
Because of this we are shortly establishing The Multiple Heritage Research Arm, which we intend to become the leading journal location on Mix-d: related research and commentary.
We hope we have never been lacking in our acknowledgement of the help and support of others – but it never hurts to say it again: thanks to everyone who has contributed to bringing Mix-d: to this stage.
admin 13 October 2009
When I set up The Multiple Heritage Project in 2006 I simply wanted to have a voice and document my personal journey through this subject. Nearly 4 years later and we are still in business.
I have been amazingly privileged to listen to and hear from hundreds of people from mixed-race backgrounds. They have taught me is mix-d is something you feel or you don’t. Some have shared, some have similar and some have completely different experiences of being mix-d:
There isn’t a ready made ‘mix-d’ identity to step into its more about a process of discovery. Mix-d: has been a long time in the making and massively influenced by the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people. This is my gift back to all of you who have been part of the journey so far.
Welcome to Mix-d: Our new website. An opportunity to share, learn, confirm and discover more about the mixed-race experience in 2009. The mixed-race discussion has been handed back to its owners and a new dialog can begin…join in.
Everyone is welcome.