Yes, it is possible.
Someone posted a quest in the tutorial zone where hailing the NPC allows you to choose what race you want to be. On my server, I use Arias. once the charm is received, he will offer to change your race using the permarace command.
Alternately, if you run your own server, you can just target yourself and type in chat #permarace (whatever-race)
without the parentheses. Your race is found on the race table
http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=RaceList
However, you will only be able to pick races with which you can begin. For example, making your race vampire won't work because there is no character customization for those models, such as faces, hair colors, clothing, etc.
So you could make an ogre warrior and change him to gnome. You can also bypass class restrictions that way. I made a human monk and changed first to gnome, then to ogre.