What's In A Name OR "How to say: Your story is important & you're welcome here"

What's in a name?  

So much meaning, including a sense of belonging.  

And it's also just a conglomeration of sounds smooshed together.  In a particular sequence, yes.  One that has been developed over time and shifted in changed in different times and contexts.  One that continues to evolve today and into tomorrow based on what we knew then and what we will learn in the future.   

Biracial & Rural was a phrase we started using to refer to the experience of living in a pre-dominantly white rural space as a person whose ancestry was from two different continents.  In 2019 we applied that phrase  to title an autobiographical transdisciplinary performance art piece of Conie's story.  

By 2020, we realized that one person's story could not encapsulate the breadth of experiences possible in that phrase, Biracial & Rural (BnR).  It took until the end of 2020 to be able to articulate that BnR was a community of care and storytelling space and that Conie's story in that was called Freeing Refrains.  

This year, 2021, we're realizing the limitations of using Biracial.  With a conversation partner from Midwest Mixed, we realized the wide net we were hoping to spread using Biracial might be more deterrent as some folks see themselves as multi-ethnic or mixed.  It is a complexity that needs space to unfold and real relationship to feel the inclusion.  

And begs the questions:  How wide do you want to fling the net?  And will you change the name?