The face of America is changing rapidly, and Kip Fulbeck hopes that this change will lead Americans to explore the meaning of racial identity and challenge old ethnic stereotypes.
Fulbeck will offer his insights at the Assembly Series program “What Are You? The Changing Face of America” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, in Graham Chapel.
Fulbeck uses his own multiracial background as a springboard to confront typical opinions about cultural identity and consider how they are formed.
Fulbeck’s mixed racial heritage is Cantonese, English, Irish and Welsh. Through his photographs, writings, art, performance art and filmmaking, he has created a body of work that examines the “Hapa” experience. Hapa is the derogatory Hawaiian word for “half,” as in half Asian or Pacific Islander, but Fulbeck has transformed it into a celebration of mixed identity.
The result is “Part Asian, 100% Hapa,” a book and a traveling exhibition featuring pictures of more than 1,200 persons who answer one question: What are you?
Since its debut at the Japanese American National Museum in 2006, the Hapa exhibition has been displayed throughout the country, and part of it is represented in the Missouri History Museum’s current exhibit, “RACE: Are We So Different?” Fulbeck will make an appearance at the museum immediately following the WUSTL program.
Fulbeck is a professor of art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to his art, he has published three books and has produced more than a dozen films. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of California, San Diego.
Both appearances — at WUSTL and at the history museum — are free and open to the public. For more information, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4620. For information on the race exhibit, visit mohistory.org or call (314) 746-4599.