We Are Meant to Rise Event (Private)

| Private Event |

In this private class, writers will talk about We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice From Minneapolis to the World at Concordia College Fargo-Moorhead.

Panelists:

Carolyn Holbrook is a writer, educator, and an advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her memoir, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (Minnesota 2020), won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. She is founder and director of the Twin Cities-based conversation series, More Than a Single Story, and is co-editor with David Mura of the anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World published by University of MN Press with More Than a Single Story (Minnesota 2021). She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center and other community venues, and at Hamline University, where she won the exemplary teacher award in 2014.

Alexs Pate is president and CEO of Innocent Technologies and the creator of the Innocent Classroom. He has written five novels, a children’s book, and a work of nonfiction, and he has curated several literary anthologies. His latest book is The Innocent Classroom: Dismantling Racial Bias for Children of Color.  He won the Kay Sexton Award from the Minnesota Book Awards and the Friends of the St. Paul Public Libraries in 2021.

Mona Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux nation. She is the author of four books of fiction: The Grass Dancer (winner of the 1995 PEN/Hemingway award), Roofwalker, Sacred Wilderness, and the forthcoming novel, A Council of Dolls. Her fellowships include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship. Her short stories and essays have been widely published in journals, magazines, and anthologies. She lives in Saint Paul where she is currently working on a new novel titled, The Year of Fury. Her short stories and essays have been widely published in journals, magazines and anthologies. Her fellowships include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, Loft McKnight Fellowship for 2015-16, and Native Arts and Cultures Fellowship for 2016-17. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has made her home in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Kevin Yang is a Hmong American multidisciplinary artist from the Twin Cities, Minnesota with a focus on spoken word poetry and documentary filmmaking. He currently works at Twin Cities PBS and is a board member with Street Stops and Mountain Tops. He finds most of his artistic inspiration unraveling his Hmong American experience with others.