SPECIAL EPISODE: Fire, Healing, and CMRSA: 2026 Critical Mixed Race Studies Association Conference in UCLA

MESSAGE ME HERE!Dr. Shawna Gann travels from Washington, DC to UCLA for the 2026 Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA) Conference, themed Critical Healing. Before the first keynote, a grounding experience at the Fowler Museum’s Fire and Kinship exhibit reframes the weekend through an unexpected through line: fire as renewal, not destruction.Across two workshops (Resonant Voices and Fault Lines and Bridges) and hallway conversations with scholars, artists, organizers, and first-time attendees, Shawna explores how mixed race experiences illuminate both personal inheritance and institutional architecture. From stories of ancestry, assimilation, and microaggressions to insights on systems, belonging, and community as oxygen, this episode asks what it means to heal without denying heat, and to steward the burn instead of fearing it.In This Episode • Traveling to UCLA for CMRSA 2026 (Critical Healing) • Jackie Robinson’s legacy at UCLA and the pressure of integration • Fowler Museum: Fire and Kinship as a frame for healing and renewal • Resonant Voices: four interviews on lineage, identity, and lived experience • Fault Lines and Bridges: a World Café on conditional belonging and structural shifts • “Healing within inherited systems of power” and the turn toward institutions • Hallway energy: why CMRSA feels different, and why community matters • Closing reflections from LAX: carrying the fire without burning downFeatured Voices (as heard in this episode) • Hedy Tripp (Resonant Voices) • Galia Recinos (Resonant Voices) • Jessica LeCap (Resonant Voices) • Alicia del Prado (Resonant Voices) • Steve Castro (session excerpt) • Aeriel Ashlee (session excerpt) • Dakota Duffy (Mixed Alumni Association at UCLA) • Chandra Waring • Deja Goodwin • Wendy Ashley and Nolan Krueger • Jordan Adams • Joy DuVivreOrganizations and Places Mentioned • Critical Mixed Race Studies Association (CMRSA) • Fowler Museum at UCLA • Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC) • Resonant Voices &  Fault Lines and Bridges (True Culture Coaching & Consulting)If this is your first time with OTC, check out  EPISODE 1: START HERE for more background on the show. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram!Our True Colors is powered by The Culture Crucible. Go to THE HUB to learn more!Consider joining the Critical Mixed Race Studies Association!