Embracing Our Roots: Robin Hickman & Shvonne Johnson

|  VIRTUAL EVENT  |

Elder Robin Hickman Winfield and Shvonne Johnson will discuss Robin’s many years creating and directing programs in the Twin Cities and nationally that uplift, inspire and empower our young people, including Soulful Dolls, an exclusive collection of dolls she styles and designs that represent significant elders in our community. They will also discuss Shvonne’s inspiring work as an educator, author, public speaker and a healer in need of healing through relationships, Community and her walk with Christ.

Embracing Our Roots is a conversation series that reaches back into the history of Minnesota’s African American arts community. The purpose is to pass this knowledge along to the new generation that is now ascending as leaders in our African American arts community. The series features Elders and Culture Bearers engaging with young leaders to discuss significant milestones in Minnesota’s Black arts history, and the impact that the artists and movements have had on our present day capacity to survive the storms and keep creating. Embracing our Roots is a collaboration with More Than a Single Story and In Black Ink.

Register now.

ABOUT

ROBIN HICKMAN WINFIELD is the Founder and Creative Director/Artist at A Celebration
of Soulful Dolls, the director of Taking our Place Centerstage and Organizational Strategist at
the Ordway Center for Performing Arts, and founder and CEO/Executive Producer at SoulTouch
Productions. Robin is known in the Twin Cities and nationally for her many years of “Don’t
Believe the Hype,” an education and outreach program for BIPOC youth whose aim was to
empower them by creating media and using media as a vehicle to invoke discussion in the
community. Robin created Elder’s Doll Collection, an exclusive line of dolls that represent
significant elders in the community. She has curated several exhibits of the dolls with hopes of
bridging the generations where youth can learn about and see their elders represented in very
detailed, beautiful doll form.

SHVONNE L. JOHNSON is Executive Director of Pimento Relief services and was a K-12
educator for 17 years. She is the author of a book of poems, Release: A Journey of My Soul. She
is an author, poet, University instructor, former dean, a speaker, and an activist who teaches on
race, education and society. She has taught at Metropolitan State University in the Urban
Teacher program, and at St. Catherine University, and has spoken to numerous groups across the
country. Using all the gifts that God has given her, she reaches deep into the roots of our ancestry
and our consciousness, to touch the most tender part of us. She extends a steady and capable
hand to help us explore who we truly are and what we can become, for ourselves and for each
other. She acknowledges that she is a Healer in need of Healing through relationships,
Community and her walk with Christ.