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Mixed and remixed Barack Obama has said that his story of growing up racially mixed couldn't have happened in any other country. Robert Karimi might agree. The Minneapolis-based poet/writer/actor/educator/hip-hopper has made an artistic career out of exploring his own mixed identity:

"There's no Iranian/Guatemalan handbook," Karimi said in an interview last week.

On Saturday, you can catch his acclaimed one-man performance, "Self (The Remix)," at the Playwrights' Center. Karimi tells his own story through a variety of spoken-word and acted pieces while his DJ -- D Double -- provides a mix of music that transports the audience back to the time and places of Karimi's autobiographical journey. You'll hear everything from classical Iranian and Guatemalan music to Tom Jones, the Clash, De La Soul, Prince and N.W.A.

Karimi said the show is based on the theory of "sample consciousness," which borrows hip-hop's sampling motif to say that a person's identity can be culled from a mix of cultural experiences. "When you're exploring issues of culture, people get caught up in 'What are you' and 'Where do you fit in,'" he said. In the show, he provides numerous examples of how others have tried to attach identity onto him. Take his experience as an 8-year-old in Catholic school during the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis in Iran. He remembers being taken out of a class photo that his teachers were planning to send to one of the hostages. "They felt it might be offensive to include me."

The show is intense but also funny. There are pieces such as "Get Down w/yr. Muslim-Catholic Self," in which Karimi comically explains the conundrum of growing up within two vastly different cultures. It's an experience he's obviously come to terms with.

"I choose not to be boxed in," he said. Obama couldn't have said it better. (8 p.m. Sat. 2301 E. Franklin Av., Mpls. $5. 612-332-7481. www.pwcenter.org)

Indian party One of Minneapolis' newest clubs, Soundbar, is a great place to host a party dedicated to the Indian Festival of Colors, also known as Holi. The club's wraparound projection screens will come in handy Saturday when Desi Productions uses them to display a variety of images representing the annual Indian celebration where people are encouraged to "color" their friends and loved ones with tinted powders. There'll be Indian dance music, traditional drumming and food. (8 p.m. Sat., 414 3rd Av. N., Mpls. $5-$8 after 10 p.m. 21 and older. www.desi-productions.com)

TOM HORGEN