Mixed Remixed Festival 2017 Presenter Highlight: Writer Maria Olsen

Interview for Mixed Remixed Festival 2017

We are lucky to have writer Maria Olsen join us again this year for the Mixed Remixed Festival.  In 2016, Maria participated as a children’s book author.  This year she will speak on a special parenting panel on how to deal with bullying of your multiracial child and having the Race talk.  The panel is scheduled for 3:00pm on June 10, 2017 at the Mixed Remixed Festival, the largest nationwide gathering of mixed-race and multiracial families and people.

What are you?

Half Filipina and half Caucasian (English, Irish, Slavic, French)

What is your mixed experience?

Biracial

What is the most important thing you want people to know about the mixed experience?

For someone like me, who has hovered in the space between cultures, Mixed Remixed is a place where I feel understood and that I belong. No explanation needed. So grateful to have found Mixed Remixed!

Do you remember when you first started thinking about the mixed experience? Was it because of a certain moment or event? Please tell us about that.

As a young child who grew up brown in a sea of white, I always felt other. Kids can be cruel, and I endured the jokes because of my appearance and mother’s ethnicity.

As a young child who grew up brown in a sea of white, I always felt other.
— Maria Leonard Olsen

What was your experience when you attended the Mixed Remixed Festival last year?  Why did you want to come back?

My experience was fabulous. Met amazing people and made friends there that continue to help me both professionally and personally. I recommend it to every mixed person I know.

What are you looking forward to most at the Festival this year?

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The workshops. Such deep thinkers. The festival means so much to me. I fly across the country to be here. It’s so important and I hope it will continue every year. I hope to bring my grandchildren some day!

Caroline Olsen