More Than A Single Story

Writer to Writer: Conversations Between BIPOC Writers- Hawona Sullivan Janzen and Antonio Duke
2024-04-23 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | MN
Join award-winning writers Hawona Sullivan Janzen and Antonio Duke in a conversation on Blackness, history and writing for the stage. As writers, historians, playwrights, actors and scholars, Janzen and Duke believe writing is the only thing that can save us from ourselves. They will discuss their inspirations from the Black spiritual canon derived from Yoruba, Santeria and Voodoo deities and their beliefs in the power of the word. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Writer to Writer is a series featuring conversations between Black, Indigenous writers and writers of color. These public intimate conversations between writers will give an inside look into these writers’ personal experiences as storytellers and creators. The Zoom link to the live online discussion will be emailed to registrants in advance. If you’re new to Zoom, check Getting Started with Zoom.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/W2WApril23
Panelist Bios:
Hawona Sullivan Janzen is a St. Paul-based writer, historian, and social practice artist who believes that art is the only thing that can save us from ourselves. She is currently at work on, “Hoo-shi and the Waters,” the imagined story of the courtship and marriage of her Caribbean great, great grandmother and her Irish great, great grandfather in the mid 1800’s.
Antonio Duke is a Twin Cities based actor and playwright. He’s inspired by myths from the black spiritual canon that derive from the Yoruba, Santeria and Voodoo deities. He has been seen on stages with Blue Barn Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, and many more. He also portrayed John Lewis in the episode “Good Trouble” from The History Channel series “I WAS THERE.”

EMBRACING OUR ROOTS: ROOTED AND RISING Seitu Ken Jones & Soyini Vinelle Guyton in conversation with Anura & Rekhet Si-Asar
2024-04-20 13:00 - 15:00 | Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 21st Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, United States
An African proverb says “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This Embracing our Roots event will focus on two couples: Arts giants Seitu Ken Jones & Soyini Vinelle Guyton with next generation couple, Anura & Rekhet Si-Asar. They will engage in a wide ranging conversation on family, community, and the ways they work and walk together. The conversation will center on couplehood, familyhood and community. They will also speak on how those influences impact their professional work as artists and arts leaders, and how they curate space to build and hold community. The event will include poetry and sharing of some of the art that has beautified, reflected, and uplifted our communities over the years.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/EORapril20
This is an in-person event!
Check out event recordings here:https://bit.ly/MTASSevents
Panelist Bios:
Seitu Ken Jones is a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and maker, and a 4th generation Minnesotan. His 30-year collaboration with his wife Soyini Vinelle Guyton includes co-created sculptural installations that inspire and inform the viewer. Together and separately, they channel the spirit of radical social movements into experiences that foster critical conversations and nurture more just and vibrant communities from the soil up, and how and why they connect with land to connect with known relatives and unknown ancestors. Seitu has created over 40 public artworks across America, while Soyini’s poetry and prose has been published in collections for over 25 years. In collaboration with two other artists, Seitu and Soyini co-founded Frogtown Park and Farm, a 5.5-acre urban farm and 6-acre park in Saint Paul. Frogtown Farm epitomizes their belief that food, greenspace, nature, and trees should be accessible in all neighborhoods.
Anura and Rekhet Si-Asar are the co-founders of the Imhotep Science Academy and Initiatives, an African-centered K-8 educational STEM program that has existed for over 24 years. While in graduate school at the University of Minnesota, they founded Papyrus Publishing Inc., one of Minnesota’s first Black publishing organizations. Together, they were part of the that founded In Black Ink with a mission to develop publishing arts opportunities for African Heritage writers. Anura is an educator, publisher, and firefighter, and Rekhet is a recently retired School Psychologist who now leads In Black Ink as its Executive Director. Their work together has spanned several decades during which they have engaged and consulted with communities and organizations to change the academic and literary landscapes for Black children here in Minnesota. Usually you will see them and their children together, fulfilling their believe that community work is family work.

EMBRACING OUR ROOTS: ROOTED AND RISING A conversation with Elder Amoke Kubat and Elder-in-the-Making, Wisdom Young (Mawusi)
2024-03-30 13:00 - 15:00 | Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 21st Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, United States
Join artists, educators, activists, and mothers, elder Amoke Kubat and elder-in-the-making, Wisdom Young (Mawusi) as they share, build, and heal about their journeys as Black girls, women, and mothers in America. They will discuss how time, place, family, and historic/current events have shaped their identities and their work. They will reflect on the seeds they were given
through generations, the seeds they are currently tending, and most importantly, the seeds they are sowing.
Embracing Our Roots: Rooted and Rising is a conversation series that reaches back into the history of Minnesota’s African American arts community to pass this knowledge along to the new generation of ascending leaders. The series features Elders and Culture Bearers who engage 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, In Black Ink, and The Givens Collection of African American Literature. Funded by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/EORregisterMAR30
*This is an in-person event!*
Amoke Kubat is a HeARTIST and Spiritual Culture Bearer, who is curious about self, the natural world, and the Sacred. She reclaims an African Indigenous Spiritual sensibility to reconnect herself and Black people to Earth and Water, as a practice for holistic wellness. Amoke is the creator of YO MAMA’s The Art of Mothering Workshops and YO MAMA’s
House Cooperative. Self-taught, she uses weaving, doll making, clay, and writing essays, short stories, poems, and plays, to continue to define herself and hold a position of wellness in an America sick with inequalities and inequities. Her plays, “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN & Well Intentioned White Girl”, “Old Good Kit Kat and Good Old Kit Kat”, and “Opera of Memories” speak to this. Her current works in progress explore the impact of extreme political disparities in urban and relational ecological living, activism for aging and disabilities for black women, and the medical gaslighting of Black women’s bodies.
Wisdom Young (Mawusi) is an artist, educator, activist, and mother of 3 divine children ranging in age from 7-24. She is co-founder and Executive Director of Black, Bold, and Brilliant, a north Minneapolis-based organization that inspires and empowers Black youth and families to tap into their purpose to shape a better community. Her many awards include a 2022 Wayfinder fellowship and a 2022 Creative Community Leadership Institute Fellowship. As an artist, she has directed and performed in numerous performances including Beyond the Box-MN Fringe Festival and Hennepin County Library Juneteenth. In 2020, her poetry is published in the A Moment Of Silence anthology. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in African American studies from the University of MN, and a Women in Business Leadership certificate from Ecornell University. She has been an educator at Harvest Best Academy since 2004 and is a certified yoga instructor at 612 Jungle.

Writer to Writer with Mélina Mangal and Sarah Warren
2024-01-31 18:30 - 20:00 | MN
Join children’s authors Mélina Mangal and Sarah Warren in an online conversation about why they write for children, how their biracial backgrounds influence their work, and the challenges and joys of writing fiction and nonfiction. Q&A session to follow.
Register Here:https://bit.ly/w2wjan2024
Writer to Writer is a series featuring conversations between Black, Indigenous writers and writers of color. These public intimate conversations between writers will give an inside look into these writers’ personal experiences as storytellers and creators. The Zoom link to the live online discussion will be emailed to registrants in advance. If you’re new to Zoom, check Getting Started with Zoom.
Speaker Bios
Mélina Mangal writes picture books, biographies, and short stories that focus on connections with nature and culture. She is the author of The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, winner of the Carter G. Woodson Award, Jayden’s Impossible Garden, named One of the Best Children’s Books of the Year by Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature, and the sequel, Jayden’s Secret Ingredient. Her latest YA short story appears in Boundless: Twenty Voices Celebrating Multicultural and Multiracial Identities. Mélina also works as a school library media teacher in Minneapolis, spreading book love daily.
Sarah Warren is a former preschool teacher who loves to share stories about cool women who use their everyday powers to change the world. Her picture books include Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers, Beyoncé: Shine Your Light, Charlotte and the Nutcracker: The True Story of a Girl Who Made Ballet History (written with Charlotte Nebres), A Spectacular Birdie, Stacey Abrams: Lift Every Voice, and Everything a Drum. Sarah cohosts community picture book exhibits at the Midtown Farmers Market and the Minneapolis/St Paul airport. Sarah’s family lives in Minneapolis with their dog, Bruce Valentine.

Our Stories Ourselves Writing Workshop: Sherrie Fernandez-Williams
2023-11-14 17:30 - 19:30 | North Regional Library, 1315 Lowry Ave N., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55411, United States
Description: Throughout our lives, we grieve many sorrows – a world in crisis, a chronic illness, a loss of a job, a dream, a loved one – and search for the words to tell our stories and find meaning, understanding and healing. In this two-session writing workshop, we will be brave and gentle with ourselves as we listen and learn in community, and use writing prompts to
write/share our stories and experiences. Led by Sherrie Fernandez-Williams. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/NR11214
Sherrie Fernandez-Williams earned her MFA in Writing from Hamline University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently a 2021-2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. She is author of Soft: A Memoir, and has published poems in journals. Her book of poems, Goddess of the Whole Self was recently published by Finishing Line Press.

National Novel Writing Month series with Anika Fajardo: Writing Life
2023-11-11 13:00 - 15:00 | Plymouth Library, 15700 36th Ave. N., Plymouth, MN, 55446, United States
Write a novel in a month? Yes! That’s the goal of National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo, as it’s called, comes around every November, and the challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Prepare to take on the challenge by participating in this 3-session workshop. In session 2, brainstorm and outline plot ideas, create characters, and consider overall tone and arc. Led by writer Anika Fajardo
Register Here: https://bit.ly/NaNoWriMo2023
Attendance at all three sessions encouraged but not required. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Oct. 21: Claiming Your Voice
Oct. 28: Plot, Characters and Arc
Nov. 4: Writing Life

Our Stories Ourselves Writing Workshop: Sherrie Fernandez-Williams
2023-11-02 17:30 - 19:30 | North Regional Library, 1315 Lowry Ave N., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55411, United States
Throughout our lives, we grieve many sorrows – a world in crisis, a chronic illness, a loss of a job, a dream, a loved one – and search for the words to tell our stories and find meaning, understanding and healing. In this two-session writing workshop, we will be brave and gentle with ourselves as we listen and learn in community, and use writing prompts to write/share our stories and experiences. Led by Sherrie Fernandez-Williams. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/NR11214
Sherrie Fernandez-Williams earned her MFA in Writing from Hamline University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently a 2021-2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. She is author of Soft: A Memoir, and has published poems in journals. Her book of poems, Goddess of the Whole Self was recently published by Finishing Line Press.

National Novel Writing Month series with Anika Fajardo: Plot, Characters and Arc
2023-10-28 13:00 - 15:00 | Plymouth Library, 15700 36th Ave. N., Plymouth, MN, 55446, United States

CANCELLED-Our stories Ourselves Writing Workshop: Melissa Olson
2023-10-25 17:30 - 19:30 | Franklin Library, 1314 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55404
UNFORTUNATELY THESE EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Anishinaabe poet Gerald Vizenor writes, “Survivance is an act of presence, the continuance of Native stories, not a mere reaction, or a survivable name. Native survivance stories are a renunciation of dominance, tragedy, and victimry.” In keeping with Vizenor’s survivance, we will conceptualize nurturance as a creative exercise of balancing grief with writing that nurtures and respects the process of grieving and the uncertainty we experience. We will collectively read several poems and short essays, and
individually write in response to prompts on the topics of grief, grieving, recovery, and resolution. Participation in both sessions recommended but not required. Led by Melissa Olson (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe). Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/FR101926
Melissa Olson (she/hers) is a journalist, community archivist, and an essayist. Her award winning audio documentary, Stolen Childhoods, was produced by KFAI community radio. She is a contributor to We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis To the World (University of MN Press 2021). She is an enrolled member of Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

Our Stories, Ourselves Panel Conversation
2023-10-24 18:00 - 19:45 | North Regional Library, 1315 Lowry Ave N., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55411, United States
Panelists Janice Bad Moccasin (Crow Creek Hunkpati Dakota), Marian Hassan, Kinshasha Kambui, and Billy Lor will discuss how we carry personal and collective trauma, grief and losses, including those experienced over the last few years. Panelists with share how their cultures, beliefs and community help them remain engaged in life and the transition towards hope and healing. Moderated by Carolyn Holbrook. Opening poem read by Diane Wilson. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register Here: https://bit.ly/Oct24panel

PANELIST BIOS
Janice Bad Moccasin, a Crow Creek Hunkpati Dakota enrolled tribal member resides in Shakopee, MN. Her educational background in Psychology and mentorship in community healing has been in Healing and Grief work that she contributes to her tribal communities. Navigating in an uncommon role and practice of a Winyan woman of spiritual leadership of carrying forward Dakota traditional tribal burials practices and beliefs. Also provides end of life spiritual care and support to many Native American families. “Her love for the people has been earned thru the rites of deep listening, knowing where compassion comes from within, and being a consistent healer in supporting families and community.” Janice strives for balance in her life of a spiritual advisor and practices as a Muay Thai MMA combat athlete.
Marian Hassan is an empowering educator and children’s picture book author. As an educator, Marian advises, mentors, and trains many folks about early childhood education, family literacy, program development, evaluation, and coaching. Lately, she has been speaking to dual-language families and teachers about the importance of the home language in developing a second
language. As a writer, her love of literature began at an early age listening to relatives tell tales, a natural backdrop of the rich oral culture of her native Somalia. She is the editor of Crossroads,An Anthology of Resilience and Hope by Young Somali Writers, and author of the soon to be published The ABC’s of Peace, A Somali Lullaby, Bright Star Blue Sky and Dhegdheer: A Scary Somali Folktale. Marian a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Mass Communication, and has done graduate work in Elementary and K-8 education.
Kinshasha Kambui is the owner of Wellness Paradigm, a holistic wellness center dedicated to community healing. Kambui’s work fosters a safe environment that facilitates spiritual, physical, mental and emotional wellness. Kinshasha is a licensed massage therapist and colon hydrotherapist. She holds a Masters Degree in Counseling. She facilitates individual and
community healing and wellness consultations. Kambui has a lifetime commitment to health and wellness. She has produced, hosted and engineered a health program (Health Notes: From the Hearts of a Natural Woman) on KFAI community radio for over thirty years.
Tub Ntxawg Billy Lauj is a Master Hmoob shaman with a wealth of experience in holistic healing and cultural consulting. With over a decade of experience, Billy has performed hundreds of ceremonies in the United States, as well as assisted Hmoob communities in France, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Billy has been invited to keynote and give numerous workshops on Hmong culture and beliefs, as well as on cultural practices and cultural competency. Billy has also served on multiple advisory boards and consulted on films about Hmong culture and beliefs. In addition to his work in shamanism, Billy also teaches classes on Hmong culture, and beliefs and is a content creator on their social media platform called “Hey Billy” where they educate on
Hmong traumas, culture, art, and spirituality.

OPENING POET:
Diane Wilson is a Dakota writer and educator who has published four award-winning books as well as numerous essays. Her novel, The Seed Keeper, received the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for Fiction. She also published a memoir, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past, that won a 2006 Minnesota Book Award and was selected for the 2012 One Minneapolis One Read program. Her nonfiction book, Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life, received the Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado. Wilson’s middle-grade biography, Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector, was an Honor selection for the 2022 American Indian Youth Literature Award. She is a co-author of a 2022 picture book—Where We Come From. Her essays have been featured in many publications, including We Are Meant to Rise; Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; and A Good Time for the Truth. Wilson is a Mdewakanton descendent, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation.
MODERATOR:
Carolyn Holbrook is Artistic/Executive Director of More Than a Single Story. She is a writer, educator, and an advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her memoir, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (Minn2020), won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. She is co-editor with David Mura of the anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (Minn & More Than a Single Story 2021), and is co-author with Arleta Little of MN civil rights icon, Dr. Josie R. Johnson’s memoir, Hope In the Struggle (Minn 2019). She has been the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships and awards including the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award in 2010, and was a 50 over 50 honoree in 2017. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center and other community venues, and at Hamline University, where she won the Exemplary Teacher award in 2014.

National Novel Writing Month series with Anika Fajardo: Claiming your voice
2023-10-21 13:00 - 15:00 | Plymouth Library, 15700 36th Ave. N., Plymouth, MN, 55446, United States

Writer to Writer: Sun Yung Shin and Shannon Gibney
2023-10-04 18:00 - 19:45 | Plymouth Library, 15700 36th Ave. N., Plymouth, MN, 55446, United States
Join writers, activists, collaborators, and friends, Sun Yung Shin and Shannon Gibney in a conversation about how they bridge distances between artistic genres, cultural and racial groups, historically marginalized communities, spirituality, and liberatory activism. They will also discuss how others might bridge these gaps. Q&A session to follow.
Register here: https://bit.ly/w2wfall2023
Sun Yung Shin (she/they) is the editor of A Good Time for Truth: Race in Minnesota and two other anthologies of essays. She is also the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Wet Hex, a 2022 finalist for a Minnesota Book Award.
Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color (Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), and Dream Country (Dutton, 2018) young adult novels that won Minnesota Book Awards in 2016 and 2019. Her most recent novel, The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be, explores themes of transracial adoption through speculative memoir (Dutton, 2023).

Our Stories, Ourselves: If Money Was No Object
2023-08-21 18:00 - 2023-08-24 19:00 | Rondo Community Library, 461 Dale St N, St. Paul, MN, 55103, United States
In this four-part writing workshop, parents and children will embark on a journey of creativity
and imagination. Using prompts and exercises to inspire their writing, participants will explore
what they would wish for and what their world would look like if money was not a concern.
Whether participants are experienced writers or just starting out, this series offers an opportunity
for parents and children to explore their creativity together, connect with others, and bring their
shared imaginations to life. This class is appropriate for families with children entering grade 3
and up.
About the instructor:
Suleiman Adan is an organizer, educator, writer, and DEI trainer. He is
HR manager at Research in Action, a Black-owned community education research firm. He is
also a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, studying Education Psychology. He
coordinates a food pantry in Saint Anthony, MN on the weekends, and teaches at Northwest
Islamic Community Center where he works with students of all ages on learning the Arabic
Language, learning the Quran both in Arabic and English, and interfaith dialogue. Suleiman has
also been manager of a tutoring company for the last decade on increasing literacy and
proficiency in math and science and instilling the love of reading and writing in BIPOC youth in
south Minneapolis. He is published in We are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from
Minneapolis to the World.

Story making Through Sound and Motion
2023-06-20 17:45 - 19:45 | Hosmer Library, 347 E 36th St, Mineapolis, 55408, United States
In this two-day workshop, experiment with sound, writing and movement to get in
touch with the feelings and sensations that arise within our bodies when we listen to and connect
with other people and their stories. Individual and shared exercises will be inspired by text from
“Solito” by Javier Zamora. This program is funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register Here
Facilitators:
Miré Regulus is a writer, performance artist, public artist, community builder and parent. She works the ‘transformative intersection’ through where her work is sited; through poetry and non-linear, rich, poetical prose; through community participation; and by exploring how body+movement+gesture hold what we know. She works at how we form engaged community and the unique ways we figure out how to take care of each other. One of the Artistic Directors of Poetry for People, she lives and works at the intersection of the BIPOC, queer, political, food-focused and artistic communities seeking to build a more equitable and embodied world.
Mankwe Ndosi is a Culture Worker and Musician. She uses creative and embodied practices to reconnect and sturdy our relationships with our soul, our people, our legacies, and the earth. Mankwe is focused on forgotten and marginalized plants, people, and ways of knowing. Her work is aimed at creativity and healing through the interconnection and liberation of our personal, social, and terrastral structures, practices, and mythologies. She is crafting sonic and soil experiences for transformation and liberation connecting the elecro-magnetics of internal landscapes with the power of the earth.

Writing to Transform Trauma: A Weekend Intensive for Black Writers & Artists
2023-06-02 17:00 - 2023-06-04 17:30 | MN
It is no secret that the historic and continuing violence on Black bodies has left many feeling hopelessness, fatigue, fear, and uncertainty.
After eight years of engaging Minnesota BIPOC writers and arts activists in public conversations to explore issues their work addresses through readings, panels, open conversations, and community-based writing workshops to explore issues of importance to them, More Than a Single Story is excited to announce its first weekend intensive for Black writers and artists.
Artists go to their creativity to heal in times of great stress. In this weekend intensive, we will engage thirty Black writers and other artists in a weekend of generative workshops. This process will open new awarenesses and expand participants’ emotional resources to help them respond to trauma.
The workshops will be led by four Black writers who will work collaboratively with other artists to deepen participants’ artistic expression with an eye toward healing both recent and long-standing trauma. By the end of the weekend, participants will have more tools to enhance their healing journeys.
For details on the workshops and writers, CLICK HERE.
Application
Due to limited space, we can only accept 30 participants. Eligibility include Minnesota writers, and other artists who are interested in developing their writing practice as a way toward healing trauma.
DEADLINE: April 10, 2023
Selected participants will be notified by May 10, 2023

“This work is funded in part by the Minnesota Humanities Center with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.”

Embracing Our Roots: Asian American Women Artistic Leaders
2023-05-21 16:00 - 17:30 | MN
We are collaborating with Theater Mu to host this Embracing Our Roots conversation with multidisciplinary artist Meghan Kreidler (actor, singer of Kiss the Tiger) will chat with trailblazers Lily Tung Crystal (Theater Mu), Ananya Chatterjee (Ananya Dance Theatre), and Lana Barkawi (MIZNA) about their experiences being Asian American women leaders in the arts.
This will be the closing plenary of the AAPI Generations Conference.
More info to come.
Reserve a free ticket here.

Writer to Writer: Carlyle Brown and David Grant
2023-03-28 18:30 - 20:00 | MN
| Virtual Event |
Writer to Writer is a series featuring conversations between BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) writers.
Join playwrights and screenwriters Carlyle Brown and David Grant in a conversation about how they see Black artists in theater and film doing powerful and necessary work that responds to our current socio-political moment – not just here, but around the world. What do they see going on around us that takes them to a dark and pessimistic place? Conversely, what do they see that gives them hope? How is their own work responding to the world as they see it at this moment? What personal passion project is closest to their hearts right now, and why? Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
REGISTER HERE

ABOUT
Carlyle Brown is a playwright/performer, curator and artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company based in Minneapolis.
David Grant has written plays for the Science Museum of Minnesota, Minnesota Historical Society, Mixed Blood Theatre, VocalEssence and the History Theatre.

Building MN's Powerful Arts Community: How We Got Here
2023-03-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Loft Literary Center, 1101 Washington Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55415, United States
OUR STORIES, OURSELVES: CONVERSATIONS WITH COMMUNITY
How does community start? And how does it germinate in order to empower people and authentic voices? How do you build on the movements that came before you? Join the Loft and More Than a Single Story for a panel of seasoned BIPOC writers and arts activists who will share the trials and triumphs they faced while building the powerful arts community we are all benefitting from today.
Panelists: Daniel Pierce Bergin, Juanita Corbine Espinosa, Kathryn Haddad, Alberto Justiniano, and David Mura.
Moderator: Vickie Benson.
Opening Poem: Louis Alemayehu.
Price: $10 for the public, $5 for Loft members
A More Than a Single Story Panel Conversation in partnership with The Loft Literary Center
Register here.

PANELISTS
Daniel Pierce Bergin creates media that explores people, places, and the past through restorative storytelling. The Twin Cities PBS Executive Producer has won 20 regional Emmy for productions including Jim Crow of the North, Lost Twin Cities V, and Make it OK: Mental Illness & Stigma. His documentary With Impunity: Men & Gender Violence was named ‘Best Documentary of 2012’ by Mpls/St. Paul Magazine. The Minneapolis native and University of Minnesota graduate has served as a director on the boards of several community media organizations. Daniel has been an adjunct instructor and lectured and presented in countless schools, colleges, and community settings. He has been recognized as a MN State Arts Board Fellow, a City Pages Artist of the Year, and was awarded a Bush Leadership Fellowship for his work in community media.
Juanita G. Corbine Espinosa is an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota with blood lines that connect to the Ojibwe of Lac Courte Oreilles in Wisconsin and Turtle Mountain Ojibwe in North Dakota. Since the mid-1970’s, she has been leading and participating in activities that build community and understanding in tribal communities in South Dakota and in the Twin Cities. As an artist, model and media artist, her work supports the cultural ways of her people. In 2019, she was invited to greet all at the opening of Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. Currently, Juanita is continuing her work as a dedicated community organizer at the University of Minnesota-Department of Medicine Northern Range Satellite Center. She coordinates with 10 institutions across the US focused on American Indian research.
Kathryn Haddad (she/her) is a writer, teacher, speaker, and community organizer whose work explores contemporary Southwest Asian/North African (SWANA) experiences. She has worked extensively with Pangea World Theater and she cofounded Mizna where she served as artistic/executive director for 12 years. Currently, she is artistic/executive director of New Arab American Theater Works. Her awards include a Bush Leadership Fellowship, Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellowships, and MN State Arts Board awards. She won the 2018 MN Book Awards Kay Sexton award, a 2022 McKnight Culture Bearer Fellowship, and was a 2022 50 over 50 honoree. Her last full production, Zafira and the Resistance was at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio in 2019. Her play Zafira the Olive Oil Warrior appears in the 2018 anthology, Contemporary Plays by Women of Color, edited by Roberta Uno.
Alberto Justiniano is the founder and Artistic Director of Teatro del Pueblo. He curates Teatro’s Political Theater series and the Latino/Asian Fusion series with Pangea World Theater. He has been active as a director, playwright, screenwriter and independent producer for both film and theater. His community-based work has integrated the creation of art by community members in ways that engage participants in social justice issues. He has led and participated in a number of cross cultural artistic and social projects to engage diverse communities building bridges of understanding. His honors include the 1993 Many Voices Residency Award, St Paul Companies 1994 Leadership and Arts Award, 2009 Francisco Rosales community award, the 2012 Target Community Award and the 2013 Pangea social Justice award. He is a proud member of the Twin Cities Theaters of Color Coalition and the National Latinx commons.
David Mura’s latest book is The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths & Our American Narratives. He’s the author of two memoirs, Turning Japanese, and Where the Body Meets Memory, and a book on creative writing, A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity and Narrative Craft in Writing. He’s also co-editor with Carolyn Holbrook of We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice From Minneapolis to the World. He co-produced, wrote and narrated the Emmy winning TPT documentary, Armed With Language, about Japanese American Military Intelligence Service soldiers during WWII. He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, and won the MN Book Awards Kay Sexton award in 2019.

Carolyn Holbrook has nurtured writers and readers for over 40 years; as founder of Whittier Writers Workshop (1981-1989), as the first person of color to serve in a leadership position as Program Director at The Loft (1989-1993), founder of SASE: The Write Place (1993-2006), and now at More Than A Single Story which she launched in 2015 as a space that engages BIPOC writers and arts activists in public conversations that explore issues their work addresses. Her essay collection, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (Minn2020), won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. She is co-author with Arleta Little of Dr. Josie R. Johnson’s memoir, Hope In the Struggle (Minn 2019) and co-editor with David Mura of the anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award in 2010 and she was a 2017 50 over 50 honoree.
MODERATOR
After spending the last 30 years in arts grantmaking, Vickie Benson is now a certified professional coach (www.vickiebenson.com). During her time at the McKnight Foundation, she was instrumental in co-creating coalitions and practices that center on racial equity in grantmaking. She is a past president of Grantmakers in the Arts board of directors and was a leader in the ArtPlace America initiative, a collaboration of 14 national and regional foundations focused on creative placemaking. Before joining McKnight, she was vice president of the Jerome Foundation in St. Paul, program director at Chamber Music America in New York City, and senior program specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. She holds a BA in arts administration from Metropolitan State University, and an MA in nonprofit management from the Hamline University Graduate School of Management. She studied music at the University of Minnesota as an undergrad. She also holds professional certification with the International Coach Federation and as an Intercultural Development Inventory administrator. She has a background as a folk singer and guitar player.
OPENING POET
Louis Alemayehu is a writer, educator, administrator, poet, father, grandfather, great grandfather, performer, and activist of African and Native American heritage. He emerged as a poet during the Black Arts Movement in the early 1970s with mentoring from poet & essayist Haki Mahdubuti and his spiritual mother, the Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer winning poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. He is a cofounder of the Minneapolis-based Native Arts Circle and also of the award-winning poetry/jazz ensemble Ancestor Energy, which connects music with spoken word for healing. He is the recipient of many honors and awards including an award from the Process Work Institute of Portland Oregon & Zurich Switzerland which recognized him as its first World Work Elder. Today Alemayehu is founding Elder of the BIPOC majority Wild Path Collective that recently received the 90-acre Lily Springs Farm in Osceola Wisconsin from the Nina Utne. This intergenerational multicultural collective is guided by Indigenous values and practices, the challenge of the 21st century.

Writing Workshop: If Money Was No Object
2023-03-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
| Virtual Event |
What would you wish for if money was no object? What would your world look like if money was no object? Whether you write in poetry, prose, or not at all, we invite you to this workshop. Using prompts for inspiration, we will blend fiction with non fiction as we bend the world to dream about the possibilities that freedom from financial woes would hold.
Our Stories, Ourselves Writing Workshop in Partnership with The Friends of the St. Paul Library
REGISTER HERE

FACILITATOR:
Suleiman Adan is an organizer, educator, writer and DEI trainer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is HR manager at Research in Action, a Black-owned community education research firm. Suleiman is also a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, studying Education Psychology. He coordinates a food pantry in Saint Anthony, MN on the weekends, and teaches at Northwest Islamic Community Center where he works with students of all ages on learning the Arabic Language, learning the Quran both in Arabic and English, and interfaith dialogue. Suleiman has also been managing a tutoring company for the last decade on increasing literacy and proficiency in math and science, and instilling the love of reading and writing in BIPOC youth in south Minneapolis.

Writing Workshop: Comparing Arabic and English Poetry
2023-02-11 14:00 - 16:00 | Rondo Community Library, 461 Dale St N, St. Paul, MN, 55103, United States
In this workshop, participants will learn more about Arabic poetry compared to western poetry, and how writing poems is viewed in both cultures. We will use comparative works to illustrate and illuminate the fundamental basic differences between Arabic and English poetry. Recommendations for Arabic poets, and the possibilities of ‘translation’ and translating poetry between the two languages will be offered.
Our Stories, Ourselves Writing Workshop in Partnership with The Friends of the St. Paul Library

FACILITATOR:
Soliman Soliman was born in Sudan to a Nubian tribe called Sultan’s Stone. He grew up in Cairo, Egypt, a city of ten to twelve million people that is rich in diversity with folks with different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures and traditions. By the age of 16, he had been to four countries. He was influenced by African/Arabic traditions, Japanese anime and eastern cultures. These personal experiences and moments helped develop a curiosity in him to navigate between cultures, norms, social landscapes, societies and to exhibit these intersections through different mediums of art. Mainly, Poetry, painting, photography, and haircutting. These mediums aid him to grasp the movements, diverse cultures, traditions, and translate them to a common denominator.

Conversations with Community | The Responsible Children of Immigrants
2023-01-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Rondo Community Library, 461 Dale St N, St. Paul, MN, 55103, United States
Register here to attend virtually.
Please join writers and storytellers of East African descent in this engaging conversation about the struggles of young professionals who are children of immigrants: how they grapple with managing ongoing financial problems, relating to parents who have not experienced class movement, and having to provide for relatives back in their home country, while also struggling with their own financial obligations here in America.
This event takes place both in-person and virtually. You can register for either option above.
A More Than a Single Story Panel Conversation in partnership with The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. This panel is a part of the Our Stories, Ourselves: Conversations with Community series.

PANELISTS
Ayaan Adan is a UX designer, author, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where she earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology. Her design philosophy centers a human-centered approach that values collaboration and quality. Ayaan is an avid writer and storyteller. Her newest book, Daughters of Arraweelo: Stories of Somali Women was published by MN Historical Society Press in February 2022. She curates a blog and is working on her second book. As an advocate for privacy, civil liberties, and accessibility, she is committed to making a positive impact in the lives of others through storytelling.
Salma Ahmed is a community organizer and storyteller. Originally from Minneapolis, Salma has 8+ years of experience with community organizing in regards to racial justice, Islamophobia, and restorative justice. Salma is the co-founder ans executive director of REDACT: a Muslim-led organization that supports our incarcerated community through letter writing, mutual aid, advocacy, and re-entry. REDACT also works to support Muslims unfairly targeted and prosecuted by the racist and Islamophobic policies of the war on terror. Salma holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology of law, criminology, and deviance from the University of Minnesota and is working toward pursuing a JD to further strengthen her advocacy efforts.
Marian Gass is a 1st-grade teacher at Alice Smith Elementary. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health and Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Hamline University and Master’s in Education, also from Hamline. She is in her third year teaching in the Hopkins School District after two years teaching early childhood education. She has a true passion for working with our youngest learners! Helping each child progress in all areas of their development—academic, social, language, and motor—is a challenge that she is honored to accept daily. She strives to create a community of learners and help shape the next generation.
Soliman Soliman was born in Sudan to a Nubian tribe called Sultan’s Stone. He grew up in Cairo, Egypt, a city of ten to twelve million people that is rich in diversity with folks with different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures and traditions. By the age of 16, he had been to four countries. He was influenced by African/Arabic traditions, Japanese anime and eastern cultures. These personal experiences and moments helped develop a curiosity in him to navigate between cultures, norms, social landscapes, societies and to exhibit these intersections through different mediums of art. Mainly, Poetry, painting, photography, and haircutting. These mediums aid him to grasp the movements, diverse cultures, traditions, and translate them to a common denominator.
MODERATOR:
Suleiman Adan is an organizer, educator, writer and DEI trainer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is HR manager at Research in Action, a Black-owned community education research firm. Suleiman is also a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, studying Education Psychology. He coordinates a food pantry in Saint Anthony, MN on the weekends, and teaches at Northwest Islamic Community Center where he works with students of all ages on learning the Arabic Language, learning the Quran both in Arabic and English, and interfaith dialogue. Suleiman has also been managing a tutoring company for the last decade on increasing literacy and proficiency in math and science, and instilling the love of reading and writing in BIPOC youth in south Minneapolis.

Writer to Writer: Michael Kleber Diggs & Heid Erdrich
2023-01-17 18:30 - 20:00 | MN
Join poets, writers and creative writing teachers, Michael Kleber Diggs and Heid E. Erdrich in a
wide ranging conversation on assumptions that are often made about their childhoods and
cultural experiences. They will talk about how they write around audience expectations of what
their upbringings must have been like, how they live as adults and their relationship to
community and economic class. Or they might get caught up in talking about how they make
poems.
This discussion is hosted in partnership with Hennepin County Libraries.
REGISTER HERE!

ABOUT
Michael Kleber-Diggs (KLEE-burr digs) (he / him / his) is a poet, essayist, literary critic, and
arts educator. His debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions 2021), won the
Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, the 2022
Balcones Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. His poems and
essays appear in numerous journals and anthologies. Michael is married to Karen Kleber-Diggs,
a tropical horticulturist and orchid specialist. Karen and Michael have a daughter who is
pursuing a BFA in Dance Performance at SUNY Purchase.
Heid E. Erdrich authored six collections of poetry and a nonfiction Indigenous foods book. Her
honors include a National Poetry Series award, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship,
Loft-McKnight Fellowship, Minnesota State Arts Board grants, and two Minnesota Book
Awards. Heid edited the anthology New Poets of Native Nations. Her recent poetry collection,
Little Big Bully, won the Balcones Prize for 2020. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota
with a German American father, an Ojibwe-Metis mother, and six siblings. She is enrolled at
Turtle Mountain. Heid works as an independent scholar and curator.
Writer to Writer is a collaboration with More Than a Single Story and Hennepin County Library.
Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Finding the Story Within the Story
2022-12-13 18:00 - 20:00 | MN
| Virtual Writing Workshop |

In storytelling, the heart of the story may emerge unexpectedly during the writing process. Learn how to find the heart of your story through the examination of three different pieces of work by food writer Mecca Bos: a podcast, blog post and a longer form article.
Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register here!

About the Instructor
MECCA BOS has been a Twin Cities based journalist and chef for more than 20 years. In these dual roles, she has become known as one of the leading local voices for marginalized voices in the food community and has championed and uplifted the stories of people of color, women, elders, and immigrant communities, putting focus and spotlight on stories that the mainstream media may have traditionally overlooked or ignored. Mecca has been the dining critic of Twin Cities Metro and City Pages. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, Taste, VICE, Paste, Travel + Leisure, Midwest Living, and many other publications. She is a regular contributor to Minnesota Public Radio, and is producing her own audio documentary work, Hidden Black Foodways. Through the BIPOC Foodways Alliance, Mecca, Sean Sherman, and their community of allies plan to dismantle white supremacy using food as a tool. Based in the Twin Cities and around the world, BIPOC Foodways Alliance is dedicated to the documentation, examination, and promotion of the foodways of all BIPOC communities in the United States. Visit her website at www.meccaboswrites.com

Writing Personal Food Narratives
2022-12-10 13:00 - 15:00 | Microsoft Teams
| Virtual Writing Workshop |
Learn how to use all your senses to write compelling stories about experiences with food. Draw from personal experiences to write expressively and paint a picture for your readers that place them at the table with you.
Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register here!

About the Instructor
NATALIA MENDEZ (they/them) is a queer, Chicanx writer and photographer living in Minneapolis. Finding connections to their roots and with others through food has been a habit throughout their life. They can also be found around the Twin Cities on two wheels (bicycle or motorcycle) when they're not writing about food, entertainment, the outdoors, or experiences on the margins. Their work is published regularly on their blog with The Current. You can also find their work on Racketmn.com, Eater Twin Cities, Seward Coop’s website and more. You can find their work at www.bynataliamendez.com.

One Book | One Minnesota: We Are Meant to Rise
2022-12-07 19:00 - 20:30 | MN
| Virtual Event |

One Book | One Minnesota is a statewide book club that invites Minnesotans of all ages to read a common title and come together virtually to enjoy, reflect and discuss. For Fall 2022, the book featured is our anthology We Are Meant to Rise!
Through their local libraries, Minnesotans will be invited to read the featured book selection and will have access to author videos, reading guides, and virtual book club discussions. All Minnesotans will be invited to participate in a statewide virtual discussion with the author.
Books will be available on multiple platforms. Readers can access the ebook for free on Ebooks Minnesota during the season. Hard copies of the books are available through independent stores across the state, as well as public libraries as physical distancing allows. Information on alternate formats can be found below.
Register here!

One Book | One Minnesota is presented by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, as the Minnesota Center for the Book, in partnership with State Library Services and sponsored by Spire Credit Union.

Our Stories, Ourselves: Food in Cultural Celebrations
2022-12-06 18:30 - 20:00 | MN
| VIRTUAL EVENT |

Despite the challenges of the last few years, our communities have always found reasons to celebrate. Join notable chefs and food writers Sean Sherman, Yia Vang, Mecca Bos and Natalia Mendez in a conversation about their communities and the historical and contemporary ways food serves as a backdrop for cultural celebrations.
Moderator: Tess Montgomery.
Opening poem: Zenobia L. Silas Carson.
Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Register here!

PANELIST BIOS
SEAN SHERMAN, Oglala Lakota, born in Pine Ridge, SD, has been cooking across the US and
the world for the last 30 years. His main culinary focus has been on the revitalization and
awareness of indigenous foods systems in a modern culinary context. In 2014, he opened The
Sioux Chef as a caterer and food educator to the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. In 2015, in
partnership with the Little Earth Community of United Tribes in Minneapolis, he helped design
and open the Tatanka Truck food truck. In 2021, Chef Sean and Dana Thompson opened
Owamni by The Sioux Chef, a modern Indigenous full service kitchen located in North Loop
Minneapolis, featuring the true foods of North America through an Indigenous perspective.
Sean’s vision of modern indigenous foods has garnered many awards including a number of
awards for his cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen (Minn2017), and the prestigious
James Beard award which named Owamni the best new restaurant in the United States in 2022. Learn more at sioux-chef.com
YIA VANG is a trained chef and Beard Foundation award finalist who worked at many top
restaurants in the Twin Cities before opening Union Hmong Kitchen. He has been featured in
The New York Times, National Geographic and Bon Appetit, as well as showcased on PBS,
CNN, The Food Network, Netflix’s Iron Chef: The Quest for an Iron Legend, and more. In
2022, he was a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Midwest award. His
new Minneapolis restaurant concept, Vinai, is named after the refugee camp in Thailand where
he was born. His restaurants create a home for his Hmong cuisine, celebrate his parents’ legacy,
and share the story of his family through food. Union Hmong Kitchen, located in Graze Food
Hall in North Loop Minneapolis, features Hmong culture, stories, rituals, foods and flavors. Vang marries local traditions with those from back home in South and Eastern Asia to bring
Hmong flavors to American palates. Learn more at unionkitchenmn.com
MECCA BOS has been a Twin Cities based journalist and chef for more than 20 years. In these
dual roles, she has become known as one of the leading local voices for marginalized voices in
the food community and has championed and uplifted the stories of people of color, women,
elders, and immigrant communities, putting focus and spotlight on stories that the mainstream
media may have traditionally overlooked or ignored. Mecca has been the dining critic of Twin
Cities Metro and City Pages. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, Taste,
VICE, Paste, Travel + Leisure, Midwest Living, and many other publications. She is a regular
contributor to Minnesota Public Radio, and is producing her own audio documentary work,
“Hidden Black Foodways.” Through the BIPOC Foodways Alliance, Mecca, Sean Sherman, and
their community of allies plan to dismantle white supremacy using food as a tool. Based in the
Twin Cities and around the world, BIPOC Foodways Alliance is dedicated to the documentation,
examination, and promotion of the foodways of all BIPOC communities in the United States.
Learn more at meccaboswrites.com
NATALIA MENDEZ (they/them) is a queer, Chicanx writer and photographer living in
Minneapolis. Finding connections to their roots and with others through food has been a habit
throughout their life. They can also be found around the Twin Cities on two wheels (bicycle or
motorcycle) when they're not writing about food, entertainment, the outdoors, or experiences on
the margins. Their work is published regularly on their blog with The Current. You can also find
their work on Racketmn.com, Eater Twin Cities, Seward Coop’s website and more. You can find
their work at bynataliamendez.com.
Moderator
TESS MONTGOMERY is a young communicator, a visionary and an avid foodie who lives in
Minneapolis. She has been a Digital Marketing Specialist at TPT-Twin Cities PBS and
Marketing and Communications Manager for More Than a Single Story. She was a 2018 Fellow
with the Josie R. Johnson Leadership Academy, a 2017 Fellow with New Sector Academy, and
served as Programming Chair of Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of the Twin Cities.
Tess is passionate about the power of grassroots, community-led organizing. She holds a degree
in Journalism & Mass Communications from Drake University. In 2019, she was named one of
15 up and coming PR and Social Media Marketers to Watch. Her essay, “Financial Trauma in
Communities of Color” was published in MN Women’s Press in 2020 and in We Are Meant to
Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis To the World (Minn2021).
Opening Poet
ZENOBIA L. SILAS-CARSON a writer/teacher/speaker/Minister and senior life coach.
She is a retired teacher who has worked with Special Needs children at Odyssey Charter School
in Brooklyn Park MN. She has also worked as an advocate at Harriet Tubman Women's Center
and Incarnation House in Minneapolis Minnesota. Most recently she held positions at Lang Nelson Associates as an office assistant, activities director and exercise coach for senior women.
and leader of several food programs at Creekside Gables which is a 55+ Senior community in
Brooklyn Park Minnesota. She encourages people as a minister and is involved in sharing
resources for food services through Good in the Hood and CEAP within the NW suburbs of
Hennepin County. A native Chicagoan, Ms. Carson remains involved in writing workshops and
enjoys activities with her children, grands and great grandchildren.

Embracing Our Roots: Robin Hickman & Shvonne Johnson
2022-11-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
| 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.

Parable of the Sower's Lessons & Inspiration: Writing Dystopian Stories of BIPOC Characters in the Era of Climate Change
2022-11-04 14:00 - 16:00 | MN
| In-person writing workshop |
Octavia E. Butler’s classic novel “Parable of the Sower” is revolutionary for centering BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) characters during an apocalypse. We journey with Lauren and her evolving Earthseed community through the challenges of surviving the destruction of their homes and livelihoods. Explore how Butler’s writing of these characters might inform our own work centering fictional BIPOC characters navigating the apocalypse of our time – climate change. Led by Shannon Gibney. This program is funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
This workshop is part of the Mary Ann Key Book Club. Registration is required.
REGISTER HERE!

About the Instructor:
SHANNON GIBNEY is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color (Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), and Dream Country (Dutton, 2018) young adult novels that won Minnesota Book Awards in 2016 and 2019. Gibney is faculty in English at Minneapolis College, where she teaches writing. A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, her new novel, Botched, explores themes of transracial adoption through speculative memoir (Dutton, 2023). Gibney’s other upcoming publications include the picture books Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight (University of Minnesota Press, 2023), and Where We Come From (Lerner, 2022; coauthored), and a YA anthology of stories by adoptees about adoptees, co-edited with Nicole Chung (HarperTeen, 2023).

Afrofuturism: The Search for Black Genius
2022-10-22 13:00 - 15:00 | Webber Park Library, 4440 N Humboldt Ave, Minneapolis, MN, 55412, United States
| In-person writing workshop |
As mainstream media’s interest in sci-fi, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic narratives and stories grows, so does the scrutiny of the lack of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals. The question I always ask when I encounter these pieces of media is: What happened to us? In this interactive workshop, we will examine the role of Afrofuturism in contemporary media in dismantling problematic tropes about Black people. We will discuss Afrofuturist thought and theory and the role of Afrofuturist ideology as integral in our search for Black, Brown, and Indigenous Genius. We will use writing prompts that will help us create worlds in which Black people exist. This program is funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
This workshop is part of the Mary Ann Key Book Club. Registration is required.
REGISTER HERE!

About the Instructor:
STEPHANIE CHRISMON is a Black/biracial, Fat, Queer, Afrofuturist, writer and educator. She presents and writes on topics related to race, sexuality, family karma, social justice, as well as generational theory using pop culture, literature, and art as critical tools in exploring social justice and dismantling oppression. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and a BA in political science from U of M, Morris. Stephanie was a participant in the 2016-2017 Loft Mentor Series and in the 2015 Givens Foundation for African American Literature’s Emerging Writers’ Mentor Program. Her writing has appeared in Water~Stone Review, MN Artists, The Root, Black Girl Nerds, Medium and Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose, and Pride. Her debut novel (under her pen name dc edwards), Bright City, was published in 2017. She is the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consultant for the UW MESA state office via AmeriCorps, and is an independent DEI consultant with Avant Consulting Group and Strategic Diversity Initiatives working with health systems and higher education. She is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. She lives in Saint Paul, MN.

We Are Meant to Rise Event (Private)
2022-10-20 12:00 - 13:00 | MN
| Private Event |
In this private class, writers will talk about We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice From Minneapolis to the World at the Minnesota Transform Project.

ABOUT
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 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. Her essays have appeared in many anthologies, including A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. She won the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award in 2010 and was a 50 over 50 honoree in 2016.
