Our Stories Ourselves- Still Here: Together Through The Storm
PANELISTS
Suleiman Adan is a first-generation Somali American community leader, educator, chaplain, and advocate whose work spans faith, civil rights, higher education, prison chaplaincy, and community organizing. He serves in leadership roles dedicated to supporting families, strengthening communities, and advancing justice across Minnesota. As a husband and father, Suleiman brings both professional experience and lived perspective to conversations about navigating the challenges of recent years from racial reckoning and the pandemic to immigration enforcement and community resilience. He believes that every person and every community deserves to be seen in their full humanity, because no individual or community can ever be defined by a single story.
Kahlil and Felicia Permenter are high school sweethearts from the Washington, DC metro area. They have been married for 18 years and are the proud parents of 3 children. In 2020 they moved with their family from Arizona to the Twin Cities. Kahlil is an Air Force veteran turned chiropractor, and Felicia is an ICU nurse turned Integrative Nurse Practitioner. In 2024 after
completing their graduate programs they partnered with a colleague to open Right Spot Wellness, an integrative care and chiropractic clinic located in Roseville. They are passionate about serving their community through providing high quality, holistic care for the whole person. Collectively their philosophy is that wellness can be fun, and joy brings healing.
Longtime residents of South Minneapolis, Xavier and Tina Tavera have spent more than two decades raising their two children in the community. They share a deep passion for the arts that permeates every aspect of their careers, community engagement, and creative practices. Both are established artists in their own right who regularly collaborate on creative projects. Rooted in a shared commitment to education and social justice, community advocacy is a central theme in their involvement and creative work.Currently, Xavier serves as a photography professor at Carleton College while Tina works as a consultant for Public Art for the City of Minneapolis and is director of the non-profit Serpentina Arts.
Mee Yang and Sebastian Sae-Mua. Mee is an aspiring writer and realtor. She grew up in Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota in 2012. Mee serves the Hmong community as a realtor often explaining the home buying process in Hmong and helping families purchase their next home. Sebastian works for Ramsey County and grew up in Thailand. He came to the United States as an international student in 2011 where they met during Thanksgiving. They married in 2012. Sebastian serves the Hmong community as a qeej player playing the traditional six reed bamboo instrument at traditional Hmong ceremonies. Mee and Sebastian live in Minnesota with their five children. They petitioned for Sebastian’s mother from Thailand and she also lives with
them.
MODERATORS
Makayla Overton and Jaquane Williams met during Makayla's senior year at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA. In 2025, Makayla decided to move back home to Minnesota, and Jaquane, happily followed. Since the relocation to Minnesota, Jaquane has been continuing his work in the electrical field as a Electromechanical Technician, and Makayla is currently serving
the community as a Case Manager Supervisor at The Bridge for Youth. Both of them have been happy to be in Minnesota and excited to continue to grow their community.
OPENING POET
Ashley E. Wynter is a writer, editor, curator, and community organizer living in Saint Paul. Invested in the transformative power of storytelling, Wynter is also poetry mentor and program coordinator for More Than a Single Story’s emerging black writers program. Her award-winning poetry has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Loft Mentor Series, the
Carolyn Moore Writers Residency, the Tofte Lake Center National Emerging Artist Residency, and most recently, a 2025-28 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. Wynter’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in the Black Warrior Review, Torch Literary Arts, The Florida Review, New Millenium, and elsewhere. Her poetry and visual art collaboration, “I Too, Am America,” was
exhibited at the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery in 2026