Kip Fulbeck

Kip Fulbeck is a pioneering artist, spoken word performer, author, and filmmaker exploring multiracial identity. He has been featured on CNN, MTV, The Today Show, and PBS, and has performed and exhibited in over twenty countries and throughout the U.S.

He is the author of several books including Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids, Part Asian, 100% Hapa and Permanence: Tattoo Portraits, as well as the director of a dozen short films including Banana Split and Lilo & Me.

Part poet, part comedian, and part pop culture critic, Fulbeck moves past “diversity” as a conversation only about race, instead inspiring audiences to tackle the larger questions of who we are as individuals, how we define ourselves, and how we engage with those around us. Audiences worldwide describe him as inspirational, motivational, and eye opening.

Fulbeck is a professor of Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award and has been named an Outstanding Faculty Member five times.

In recognition for his work promoting multiracial awareness, he was awarded the inaugural Loving Prize at the 2009 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival and also named a Cultural Pioneer at Harvard University. In 2014, he was named a local hero by Southern California’s KCET public broadcasting service and also received the Community Builder Award at Vancouver’s Hapa-palooza Festival.

From the lectern, Fulbeck can cover a variety of topics ranging from identity, race and diversity to tattooing and tattoo cultures to finding your voice through personal narrative.

A complete overachiever, he is also an avid surfer, guitar player, ocean lifeguard, pug enthusiast, and the 2011 Masters Swimming National Champion in the 50 freestyle.