Completely Mixed Up anthology explores mixed heritage identities

While at one point in time, children of interracial relationships were a rarity, that's radically changed in cities like Vancouver and multicultural countries like Canada, where it's become common—even the norm.

An ever-growing body of work addresses issues related to mixed heritage identities, and the latest addition is a compilation from the past 15 years.

Brandy Liên Worrall-Soriano has been busy producing a series of chapbooks addressing the subject since 2000 which she has assembled together in Completely Mixed Up: Mixed Heritage North American Writing and Art. The anthology features 75 contributors who explore mixed Asian North American identity through fiction, non-fiction, poetry, recipes, visual art, photography, and more.

The series originally launched in 2007 at Centre A and the centre is celebrating the completion of the anthology.

On Thursday (November 19) from 7 to 9 p.m., Centre A (229 East Georgia Street) and publisher Rabbit Fool Press will present an evening of readings, performances, and film screenings. And admission is free.

Contributors to the collection who will give readings include filmmaker and writer Pia Massie, writer and educator Mark Nakada, and multimedia artists Chloe and Mylo Worrall Yu.

Actor and playwright Tricia Collins will perform part of her one-woman play, Gravity, about Chinese workers in Guyana, and landscape architect and scholar Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon will talk about invasive plants.

Filmmaker and Hapa-palooza co-founder Jeff Chiba Stearns' animated short film "What Are You Anyways?" and an introduction to his forthcoming documentary Mixed Match, about the need for multiethnic bone marrow and blood cell donors, will also be included. 

For more details about the event, visit the Centre A website.