More Than A Single Story

We Are Meant to Rise Event
2022-10-12 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | MN
Carolyn is visiting Dayton’s Bluff Book Club to speak about We Are Meant to Rise. This event is open to those living in the Dayton’s Bluff area.

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.

We Are Meant to Rise Event (Private)
2022-10-07 10:00 - 11:00 | MN
| Private Event |
A panel discussion about anthology We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World for the British American Partnership.

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 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.
David Mura is a poet, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, critic, and playwright. He is author of The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself (forthcoming November 2022), A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity, and Narrative Craft in Writing and the memoirs Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality, and Identity. He is coeditor, with Carolyn Holbrook, of We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (Minnesota, 2021). He lives in Minneapolis.
Diane Wilson (Dakota) is a writer, speaker, and educator, who has published two award-winning books, a middle-grade biography, as well as essays in numerous publications. Her new novel, The Seed Keeper won the MN Book Award in novel and short story. Her memoir, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past won a 2006 Minnesota Book Award and was selected for the 2012 One Minneapolis One Read program. Her 2011 nonfiction book, Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life was awarded the 2012 Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado. Her essays have appeared in many anthologies. Wilson received numerous fellowships and awards. In 2018, she was awarded a 50 Over 50 Award. She is the former Executive Director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Wilson is a Mdewakanton descendent, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation.

Writer to Writer: Writing Strong Characters
2022-09-29 18:00 - 20:00 | Nokomis Library, 5100 34th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, 55417, United States
Whether you are writing a short story or a novel, a memoir or even a poem, your characters need to be full and round. Marcie Rendon (White Earth Nation) will provide writing exercises to create and develop strong, memorable characters. We will share our work and engage in a brief Q&A about the business of writing. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
REGISTER HERE

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Marcie Rendon, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, is an author, playwright, poet and freelance writer. Also a community arts activist, Rendon supports other native artists/writers/creators to pursue their art, and is a speaker for colleges and community groups on Native issues, leadership and writing.

Writer to Writer: Writing to Tell a Story
2022-09-21 17:00 - 19:00 | Franklin Library, 1314 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55404
Dakota and Diné Documentary Producer, Leya Hale, will share her process for developing story structures and character narratives for non-fiction documentary storytelling. The workshop will be followed by a Q&A. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
This writing workshop is part of the Writer to Writer series.
REGISTER HERE

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR:
Leya Hale comes from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Diné Nations. She makes her home in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her companion and children. She is a producer for Twin Cities PBS and is best known for her first feature documentary “The People’s Protectors,” a Vision Maker Media grant production and winner of the 2019 Upper Midwest Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural Documentary.

Writer to Writer: Marcie Rendon & Leya Hale
2022-09-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
Writer to Writer is a series featuring conversations between BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) writers.
Join author and playwright, Marcie Rendon (White Earth Nation) and documentary producer Leya Hale (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Diné Nations) in a conversation on their writing and their lives. They will also discuss issues that affect their Indigenous communities such as generational trauma, reclaiming Indigenous cultures and languages, murdered and missing Native people and more. Collaborator: More Than a Single Story. This program is funded by money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

REGISTER HERE

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Marcie Rendon, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, is an author, playwright, poet and freelance writer. Also a community arts activist, Rendon supports other native artists/writers/creators to pursue their art, and is a speaker for colleges and community groups on Native issues, leadership and writing.
Leya Hale comes from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Diné Nations. She makes her home in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her companion and children. She is a producer for Twin Cities PBS and is best known for her first feature documentary “The People’s Protectors,” a Vision Maker Media grant production and winner of the 2019 Upper Midwest Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural Documentary.
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.

We Are Meant to Rise Reading & Panel
2022-09-11 14:00 - 16:00 | Jewish Family Services, 1633 West 7th Street, Saint Paul, MN, 55102, United States
Jewish Family Service of St. Paul (JFS) invites the public to join the unveiling and
dedication of The Bruce Goodman Read in Color Little Free Library at on Sunday, September 11
at 2:00 p.m. The library, built by Highland Park residents Mike and Mary Link, brings diverse
books to Little Free Library book-sharing boxes that provide perspectives on racism and social
justice; celebrate BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized voices; and incorporate experiences
from all identities for all readers.
After the structure is unveiled, writers Carolyn Holbrook, Tess Montgomery and Kevin Yang
will read selections from We Are Meant to Rise, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Anthology Reading: We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World
2022-08-30 19:30 - 21:30 | MN
Soul Bone Literary Festival 2022 will host a reading of the anthology We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura. Our readers tonight are Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, Ahmad Qais Munhazim, Diane Wilson, and Sun Yung Shin. Carolyn Holbrook will introduce and curated this evening for us.
Register here.

Writing Workshop | Home & Exile: Novels Without Fiction
2022-07-30 10:00 - 12:00 | Ridgedale Library, 12601 Ridgedale Dr, Minnetonka, 55305, United States
| In-person Writing Workshop |
Novels without Fiction is how Spanish writer, Javier Cercas, describes his stories; books in which reporting and narrative go hand in hand. It is a style that includes dialogue and character development, and makes literary non-fiction come alive for many readers. Please bring your chosen topic to share. It can be drawn from a historical event, your personal or family history, or a combination of both. We will examine how to develop the topic with your readers in ways that help them understand and care along with you.
This writing workshop is part of our Our Stories, Ourselves: Home & Exile series. Check the calendar to see what else we have coming up.
Hennepin County Libraries is our partner for this event. Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

CLICK TO REGISTER

Tessa Bridal was born and raised in Uruguay, a third generation descendent of a resilient and courageous Irish woman who boarded a ship she had been informed was sailing for Boston. Her ancestor’s story is told in Bridal’s second novel, River of Painted Birds, published in English and Spanish (Río de los pajaros pintados). Her first novel, The Tree of Red Stars won the Milkweed National Prize for Fiction and the Friends of American Writers annual award. Bridal has also authored two works of nonfiction on the use of live theatre in museums, and is the recipient of the American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums) Educators Award for Excellence. Her latest book is The Dark Side of Memory: Uruguay’s Disappeared Children and the Families that Never Stopped Searching.

We Are Meant to Rise (Minnesota Writers Series)
2022-06-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Minnesota Humanities Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) for readings and an interactive round table discussion around the book, “We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World,” which was published by University of Minnesota Press with More Than a Single Story.
The book’s editors, Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura, will be joined by contributors Anika Fajardo, Samantha Sencer-Mura, Suleiman Adan, and Tess Montgomery, to discuss the heavy task of writing about the past few years as writers of color, from COVID-19 and the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes to the community’s response to the murder of George Floyd. The panel, which includes two sets of family members, will also discuss how we talk about trauma and share stories generationally. Audience members will be invited to join in on the conversation at various points in the evening.
This event is part of the MHC’s new Minnesota Writers Series, which amplifies recent publications from Minnesota authors, and is being co-sponsored by Saint Paul Almanac.
This event is free but registration is required.
Register here!

African Americans Rooted & Rising: T. Mychael Rambo & Jasmine McBride
2022-06-14 08:00 - 17:00 | Zoom
| Virtual Event |

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 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.
On Tuesday June 14, 2022, up and coming journalist, podcaster and spoken word artist, Jasmine McBride will join Emmy award winning actor, vocalist and educator, T. Mychael Rambo in a conversation about Mr. Rambo’s celebrated career here in Minnesota and beyond. They will also reflect on Ms. McBride’s growing career, and much more.
Embracing our Roots: African Americans Rooted and Rising is a collaboration with More Than a Single Story, Black Table Arts and In Black Ink.

Register here

BIOS
T. Mychael Rambo is a Regional Emmy Award winning actor, and vocalist. Whether acting with theaters like the Guthrie, Penumbra, Illusion, Ten Thousand Things, Minnesota Opera, the Ordway, and numerous others; or sharing his vocal stylings at local jazz clubs like the Dakota or Crooners; T. Mychael has made an indelible mark on the Twin Cities’ arts community. He has shared his performance talents nationally and internationally. Adding to his credits, he has done local and national television commercials, feature films, HBO mini-series, and other television programming. T. Mychael is also an accomplished arts educator, affiliate professor at the University of Minnesota (of 20 years), as well as a highly sought-after public speaker and committed community organizer.
Jasmine McBride, a dynamic and passionate storyteller, is an up-and-coming community leader from the Twin Cities of Minnesota. After traveling across the country consulting educators on education reform and turning to community journalism in the Twin Cities, Jasmine loves to explore social intersections through public engagement, community organizing, and art. Jasmine has paved her way into the worlds of journalism, film, podcasting and radio, and spoken word, working to travel the world and capture social intersections that rethink politics and societal norms.

Writing Workshop | Home & Exile: Mastering Your Memoir
2022-05-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
| Virtual Writing Workshop |

Everyone has a story to tell. But how can we tell captivating stories about real people? Whether you’re writing your own memoir or want to document a family history, you need to know what idea or message you want to convey to a reader. Once you’ve tackled the big picture, you can focus on the journey of writing. We will draw on the works of a diverse group of writers to help inform us on how to craft and layer our stories. In this workshop, writers can expect to learn how to find their ‘big picture’ ideas, organize story details, and sculpt drafts to manuscript-ready. Our objective is to arm writers with the tools required to write compelling creative non-fiction stories.
This writing workshop is part of our Our Stories, Ourselves: Home & Exile series. Check the calendar to see what else we have coming up.
Hennepin County Libraries is our partner for this event. Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

CLICK TO REGISTER

About the Facilitator
Ayaan Adan is an author, award-winning user experience designer, and community organizer. Her newest book, Daughters of Arraweelo: Stories of Somali Women was released by MN Historical Society Press in February 2022. She has been featured in Teen Vogue, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Twin Cities Daily Planet. Ayaan is an advocate for privacy, civil liberties, and accessibility. She is committed to making a positive impact in the lives of others through storytelling, design thinking, and community organizing.

Our Stories, Ourselves: Home & Exile
2022-05-22 14:00 - 15:30 | Zoom
| Virtual event |

Immigrants and refugees often come to the United States because they were traumatized in their homeland and many end up in Minnesota. Sometimes they were uprooted overnight and find themselves in a land that is strange to them. How do they make new lives for themselves in this new land? Though they are able to make homes out of necessity, do they ever really find home?
In this More Than a Single Story conversation, Carolyn Holbrook will engage with Somali author, Ayaan Adan, Uruguayan author Tessa Bridal, genderqueer Afghani writer and professor of Global Studies, Ahmad Qais Munhazim, and Hmong community leader, Terri Thao in a discussion on what home and exile means to them.
Check the calendar to see what else we have coming up. This discussion is part of our Our Story, Ourselves series. It is followed by two writing workshops. Check our calendar for more info.
Hennepin County Libraries is our partner for this event. Funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

CLICK TO REGISTER

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Panelist Bios

Ayaan Adan is an author, award-winning user experience designer, and community organizer. Her newest book, Daughters of Arraweelo: Stories of Somali Women was released by MN Historical Society Press in February 2022. She has been featured in Teen Vogue, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Twin Cities Daily Planet. Ayaan is an advocate for privacy, civil liberties, and accessibility. She is committed to making a positive impact in the lives of others through storytelling, design thinking, and community organizing.
Tessa Bridal was born and raised in Uruguay, a third generation descendent of a resilient and courageous Irish woman who boarded a ship she had been informed was sailing for Boston. Her ancestor’s story is told in Bridal’s second novel, River of Painted Birds, published in English and Spanish (Río de los pajaros pintados). Her first novel, The Tree of Red Stars won the Milkweed National Prize for Fiction and the Friends of American Writers annual award. Bridal has also authored two works of nonfiction on the use of live theatre in museums, and is the recipient of the American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums) Educators Award for Excellence. Her newest book is The Dark Side of Memory: Uruguay’s Disappeared Children and the Families that Never Stopped Searching.
Ahmad Qais Munhazim, a genderqueer Afghan, Muslim and perpetually displaced, is an assistant professor of global studies at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. As an interdisciplinary scholar, de/colonial ethnographer and community activist, Munhazim’s work troubles borders of academia, activism and art while exploring everyday experiences of migration and war in the lives of queer and trans Afghans. Currently, Munhazim is preparing their book manuscript based on a de/colonial ethnography of queer and trans Afghans in Afghanistan and Afghan refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers in the United States. Munhazim has published articles, poetry and non-fictions in the Journal of Narrative Politics, Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research, The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics, Antipode, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, Queer Voices: Poetry, Prose and Pride and the Conversation. Munhazim, born and raised in Afghanistan and exiled currently in Philadelphia, holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota.
Terri Thao is passionate about building power with community. She is currently a program director of the local giving and opportunities program at the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. Terri has spent her professional career in the fields of community economic development, community building, leadership development, and philanthropy. She also teaches classes on leadership and advocacy at Metropolitan State University. She serves on the boards of the F.R. Bigelow Foundation and Minnesota Housing. She obtained her Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees from the University of Minnesota. She loves to read in her spare time.

Embracing Our Roots: Asian Rennaissance
2022-05-19 19:00 - 20:30 | MN
We are excited to announce a new strand in our Embracing Our Roots series: Asian Americans Rooted & Rising! For our first event in this sub-series, we have Asian Rennaissance:
On Thursday, May 19th More Than a Single Story and the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) invite you to join us for a virtual intergenerational conversation between Asian Minnesotan artists David Mura, Katie Hae Leo and Julia Gay as they honor the 30th anniversary of the Asian American Renaissance and discuss how our history of arts organizing has shaped the current landscape of AAPI movement in Minnesota. Why was the Asian American Renaissance so significant for our community and what should we be dreaming up next?
With the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, sharing knowledge intergenerationally is more important than ever. Embracing our Roots: Asian Americans Rooted and Rising reaches back into the rich history of Asian American social justice movements in Minnesota in order to pass this knowledge on to the new generation ascending as leaders. The series features Asian elders in conversation with young leaders to discuss significant milestones in Minnesota’s Asian history and the impact that the artists and the movements have had on our present day capacity to survive the storms and keep creating.
This event in Embracing Our Roots: Asian Americans Rooted and Rising is a partnership between More Than a Single Story and the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL)

REGISTER HERE!

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ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

David Mura’s latest book is on creative writing and race, A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity & Narrative Craft in Writing. With essayist Carolyn Holbrook, Mura is co-editor of an anthology of Minnesota BIPOC writers, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World. His next book is The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself, a collection of essays contrasting historical and fiction narratives by white Americans and African Americans, appearing fall 2022.
In 2021, for Twin Cities Public Television, Mura co-produced, wrote and narrated the documentary, Armed With Language, about the Japanese American linguists who served in the Military Intelligence Service during WWII. Armed With Language won a 2021 Upper Midwest Emmy.
A Sansei or third generation Japanese American, Mura has written two memoirs: Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei , which won a 1991 Josephine Miles Book Award from the Oakland PEN and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity . His novel Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, the John Gardner Fiction Prize and Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award.
Mura’s latest collection of poetry is The Last Incantations. His second, The Colors of Desire, won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library, and his first After We Lost Our Way was a National Poetry Contest winner.

Katie Hae Leo (she/her) was born in Bucheon, South Korea and raised in Indiana. Her creative work explores the multiple intersections between the adopted body and notions of race, gender, place, home, and (dis)ability. Her poetry and essays have appeared in journals such as Asian American Literary Review, Kartika Review, and Water~Stone Review. She has performed in venues such as Theater Mu, Dreamland Arts, Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia), Phoenix Art Museum, and University of Regina (Canada). Her awards include the James Wright Prize for Poetry, a Gesell Award for nonfiction, and a Spark Leadership Award from the Coalition of Asian American Leaders. Katie is currently working on a young adult novel, initially supported by a Mirrors and Windows Fellowship for Indigenous writers and writers of color working in youth genres, from The Loft Literary Center. She is honored to be part of this conversation.
www.katiehaeleo.com

Julia Gay (she/they) is an artist and community organizer committed to uplifting the intersections of justice, healing and the arts. She is currently the Communications & Marketing Manager for the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) and the host of their newly released MinneAsianStories Podcast.
Outside of the office, Julia is a dancer, playwright and stand-up comedian. She was a dancer with professional company Ananya Dance Theatre from 2016-2021 and is currently a steering committee member for the Network of Politicized Adoptees. In October 2019, Julia produced her one-woman show, Motherlanded, exploring her personal narrative as a Chinese adoptee. Learn more about her artistic work at www.juliagay.com.

Writer to Writer: Ed Bok Lee & Kevin Yang
2022-05-04 19:00 - 20:30 | MN
Join writers Ed Bok Lee and Kevin Yang in a conversation about their writing, lives and mutual admiration. Lee and Yang will reflect on their identities as Asian American artists living in Minnesota and creating art for themselves vs. creating art for their communities and explore writing in different languages.
REGISTER HERE

ABOUT THE WRITERS
Ed Bok Lee is the author of three books of poetry, which have received the American Book Award, Asian American Literary Award (Members’ Choice), Minnesota Book Award, and PEN/Open Book Award. He is also the co-translator of Smiling in an Old Photograph: poems by Kim Ki-taek (OHM Editions, 2022). Lee attended kindergarten in Seoul, South Korea and is part-time faculty in Fine Arts at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. www.edboklee.com
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.

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.

Reading and Panel: We Are Meant to Rise (TruArtSpeaks)
2022-04-30 12:00 - 14:00 | MN
TruArtSpeaks will co-host this We Are Meant to Rise reading and panel with writers Douglas Kearney, Arleta Little, Sun Yung Shin, Michael Torres and Kevin Yang.

REGISTER HERE

Reading & Panel: We Are Meant to Rise (Common Ground)
2022-04-24 14:30 - 16:30 | MN
Common Ground Meditation Center co-hosts this reading and panel discussion of We Are Meant to Rise.
In this significant collection, Indigenous writers and writers of color bear witness to one of the most unsettling years in the history of the United States. Essays and poems vividly reflect and comment on the traumas we endured in 2020, beginning with the arrival of the COVID-19pandemic crisis, deepened by the blatant murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the uprisings that immersed our city into the epicenter of passionate, worldwide demands for justice. We Are Meant to Rise lifts up the astonishing variety of BIPOC writers in Minnesota. In inspired and incisive writing these contributors speak unvarnished truths not only to the original and pernicious racism threaded through the American experience but also to the deeply personal, in essays about family, loss, food culture, economic security, and mental health.Their call and response is united here to rise and be heard.

REGISTER HERE

Here are the readers for this book event:

Arleta M. Little is the current Board Chair of Common Ground. Arleta joined the Loft Literary Center as executive director in late 2021. Prior, Arleta spent eight years directing the McKnight Artist Fellowships, a nearly $3M program providing unrestricted support for artists and culture bearers across 15 creative disciplines in Minnesota; before that, she served as the executive director of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, working for more than 15 years as an organizational development consultant providing strategic planning, program evaluation, and grant writing services to Minnesota organizations. Her essay “Life and Death in the North Star State,” published in Water-Stone Review Vol. 24, was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her work is included in We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World; This Was 2020: Minnesotans Write About Pandemics and Social Justice in a Historic Year; and Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota. She also collaborated on writing and publishing Josie R. Johnson’s memoir, Hope in the Struggle.
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).
Ricardo Levins Morales is a Puerto Rican artist and organizer based in Minneapolis. He uses his art as a form of political medicine to support individual and collective healing from the injuries and ongoing reality of oppression.
Mona Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux nation, and the author of four books of fiction: The Grass Dancer (winner of a PEN/Hemingway award), Roofwalker, Sacred Wilderness, and the forthcoming novel, A Council of Dolls. Her fellowships include a James Michener Fellowship, Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, and Native Arts and Cultures Fellowship. She lives in Saint Paul, MN, where she’s currently at work on a new novel titled, The Year of Fury.
신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin (she/they) is a Korean-born writer and is author of four books of poems: The Wet Hex (forthcoming in June 2022); Unbearable Splendor (Minnesota Book Award winner); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (Asian American Literary Award). They are the editor of three prose anthologies: What We Hunger For: Refugee & Immigrant Stories about Food & Family; A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota; (co-editor of) Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. And they are also the author of two illustrated books for children: Cooper’s Lesson (bilingual Korean/English) and the (co-author of) forthcoming Where We Come From co-written by Diane Wilson, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy and illustrated by Dion MBD. They are a 2022 MacDowell Fellow. Please find their author self sunyungshin.com. @sunyungshin on FB, IG, and Twitter.

Reading & Panel: We Are Meant to Rise (MCTC)
2022-04-14 12:00 - 13:30 | MN
The MCTC School of Liberal Arts and Cultures and Student Life invites you to attend a virtual reading and panel discussion featuring editors and writers from the book We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World. The event is free and open to the public.
The virtual event will highlight the compelling work We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, a significant collection featuring Indigenous writers and writers of color who bear witness to one of the most unsettling years in the history of the United States. Essays and poems vividly reflect and comment on the traumas we endured in 2020, beginning with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, deepened by the blatant murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the uprisings that immersed our city into the epicenter of passionate, worldwide demands for justice.

Join by zoom here.

About the speakers:

Moderator David Mura, editor, is the author of a new book A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity and Narrative Craft in Writing. He is the author of two memoirs, Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei, which won the Oakland PEN Josephine Miles Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and Where the Body Meets Memory.

Pamela Fletcher Bush, contributor, is CEO and publisher of Arcata Press | Saint Paul Almanac and professor emerita of English (Saint Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota). She is a widely published writer in various genres and has won literary awards and fellowships for creative nonfiction, arts criticism and poetry. Fletcher Bush has lectured in Oxford, England; Accra, Ghana; Toronto, Canada and Mexico.

Shannon Gibney, contributor, 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. She is a Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow. She is co-editor of What God Is Honored Here? Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss by and for Native Women and Women of Color (Minnesota, 2019), and her new novel, Botched, explores themes of transracial adoption through speculative memoir (Dutton, 2023).

Ricardo Levins Morales, contributor, is a Puerto Rican artist and organizer based in Minneapolis. He uses his art as a form of political medicine to support individual and collective healing from the injuries and ongoing reality of oppression.

Melissa Olson, contributor, is an Indigenous person of mixed Anishinaabe and Euro-American heritage, a tribal citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. For several years, Melissa has worked as a writer and producer of Independent Public Media having served as the co-managing editor of the MinneCulture program at KFAI Fresh Air Radio. In the spring of 2022, Melissa will contribute to Minnesota Public Radio’s North Star Journey project. Melissa lives in Minneapolis.

Diane Wilson, contributor, is an award-winning Dakota author of a recently published novel, The Seed Keeper; a memoir, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past; a non-fiction collection, Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life; and a middle-grade biography Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector. 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. She has received numerous grants, including a 2013 Bush Fellowship, and the 2018 AARP/Pollen 50 Over 50 Community Leadership award. Wilson is enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation.

TEDx Concordia College: Carolyn Holbrook
2022-04-09 12:30 - 17:00 | Barry Auditorium, 901 8th Street S, Moorhead, Minnesota, 56562
GET A TICKET
More Than A Single Story’s founder Carolyn Holbrook will be giving a TEDxConcordia talk!
Around the theme LEGACY – Generational impact portraying the influence of human potential. Since the pandemic started, we have realized tomorrow is not promised. What would be our legacy right now, if there was no tomorrow? Does everyone have equal opportunities and access to resources to establish their legacy? What is the definition of legacy, and is it the same for everybody? Has the definition of legacy evolved as everything else in our daily lives is changing? What do you think?
Speakers include: Carolyn Holbrook, Dr. William J. Craft, Kumba N. Glay, Tracy Lysne, Francis Martinson, Chelsea Masikati, Elham Nasratullah, Amanda Pieters and Mukai Selekwa.
This TEDxConcordia event will take place at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
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Tickets are $35 for the general public and $15 for students.
GET A TICKET
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SCHEDULE:
12:30 p.m. – Registration and Social
1-1:15 p.m. – Opening Address
1:15-1:45 p.m. – 2 Speakers
1:45-2 p.m. – TED Video
2-2:30 p.m. – 2 Speakers
2:30-3 p.m. – Refreshments
3-3:10 p.m. – Performance
3:10-3:40 p.m. – 2 Speakers
3:40-3:50 p.m. – TED Video
3:50-4:20 p.m. – 2 Speakers
4:20-4:30 p.m. – Closing Address
4:30-5 p.m. – Closing Social
ABOUT TED:

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. TED Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and more. TEDx, supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self-organized TED-style events around the world, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

TEDxConcordiaCollege is an independently organized TED half-day event with an audience of a hundred guests. We want to bring the spirit of TED to Concordia and the Fargo-Moorhead area through our theme, LEGACY. Our goal is to bring together bright minds to give talks that are idea-focused and speak on legacy from different perspectives, to foster learning, inspiration, and wonder, and provoke conversations that matter in our community.

MnWE Plenary: We Are Meant to Rise
2022-04-07 10:30 - 12:00 | MN
Do you believe stories frame identities, infuse the texts we explore, and inspire our students’ and our own writing? Join Kevin Lindsey as he hosts a conversation with Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura about their new anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World. This brilliant and rich gathering of voices on the American experience of this past year and beyond, from Indigenous writers and writers of color from Minnesota, not only provides valued witness to our present but also speaks to our collective future. This collection of stories is an ideal lens to focus pressing themes central to this year’s conference. Their conversation will include how dominant cultural narratives about race, gender, or class impact teaching and relationships with students, how educators navigate these dominant narratives, and how educators may question and resist persistent cultural narratives that reproduce inequality in the classroom.
“For readers, this anthology of Minnesota writers of color and Indigenous writers will serve many things. A presentation of the growing diversity of Minnesota and of the many voices great within us. A series of lens on the American experience. A bouquet of wordsmiths and thinkers, memorialists and novelists, poets and activists.” ~ David Mura

REGISTER HERE

About the speakers:
Kevin Lindsey, who joined the Minnesota Humanities Center as CEO in June of 2019, is a widely-respected advocate and lawyer with a wealth of experience in public policy and education reform. A proven change-maker, Kevin’s career has focused on finding solutions to complex issues for institutions, both internally and externally. He has a passion for inclusion for all, building a stronger democracy, and leveraging the power of personal stories. Kevin has held numerous governmental and nonprofit positions such as board chair and interim executive director of Walker West Music Academy and, most recently, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights from 2011 to 2019. He also was honored by his alma mater in 2017 with the Iowa Law Review Distinguished Alumni Award and recognized as a “50 Over 50 disruptor honoree” by AARP Minnesota and Pollen 2018.

Carolyn Holbrook is a writer, educator, and longtime advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her memoir in essays, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (U of M Press, 2020), won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for memoir and nonfiction, and was an honoree for the 2021 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award in Biography & Memoir. She is a co-author, with Arleta Little, of Minnesota civil rights icon Dr. Josie R. Johnson’s memoir, Hope in the Struggle. She is co-editor with David Mura of an anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (U of M Press, forthcoming this November). Her personal essays have been published widely, most recently in A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota and Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (both from MN Historical Society Press). Her work is supported by the MN State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. She was a “50 Over 50” honoree (AARP/Pollen Midwest). She was the first person of color to serve in a leadership capacity at the Loft Literary Center, and the first person of color to win the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award for significant contributions to and leadership in Minnesota’s literary community. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center and other community venues, and at Hamline University, where she won the Exemplary Teacher award in 2014. She is the Director of More Than a Single Story, which she founded in 2015. She is the mother of five, grandmother of eight, and great grandmother of two.
“Art and writing have kept me alive. When a student leaves my class, I want them to know and believe that their voice is important. I want them to learn not only from me and the pieces we read; I also want them to learn from other writers. To do this, I bring writers into the classroom to talk with them about their writing and their writing practices.” ~ Carolyn Holbrook

David Mura is a writer, memoirist, poet, and performance artist who brings a unique perspective to our multi-racial and multi-cultural society. A third-generation Japanese-American, he has written intimately about his life as a man of color and the connections between race, sexuality, and history. In public appearances interweaving poetry, performance, and personal testament, he provides powerful insights into the racial issues facing America today.
Mura’s memoirs, poems, essays, plays, and performances have won wide critical praise and numerous awards. Their topics range from contemporary Japan to the legacy of the internment camps and the history of Japanese Americans to critical explorations of an increasingly diverse America. He gives presentations at educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations throughout the country.

'We Are Meant to Rise' Panel Reading and Discussion (Hamline)
2022-04-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Facebook Live
Please join Hamline faculty Carolyn Holbrook, Sun Yung Shin and Erin Sharkey, and Hamline graduate Kevin Yang as they share their writing from the powerful new anthology, “We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World” (University of Minnesota Press), a brilliant and rich gathering of voices on the American experience of this past year and beyond, from Indigenous writers and writers of color from Minnesota. Their essays and poems vividly reflect the traumas we endured in 2020, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, deepened by the murder of George Floyd. This work bears witness to one of the most unsettling years in U.S. history.
Join by Facebook Live
Event hosted by Hamline University English Department, the Creative Writing Programs at Hamline University and “More Than a Single Story.”

Embracing Our Roots: Genesia Williams in conversation with Mary Moore Easter
2022-03-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
After the uprisings for George Floyd and Daunte Wright, sharing knowledge inter-generationally is more important than ever. Join us for monthly conversations where young arts leaders will join our elders and culture bearers in conversation about their histories of significant milestones in Minnesota’s Black literary history.
On Thursday, March 17, 2022, poet, graphic designer and social change leader, Genesia Williams will join poet and dancer/choreographer, Mary Moore Easter in a conversation about Mary Moore Easter’s long career – first as the founder of Carleton College’s dance program, and about her transition to poetry, the four books of poetry she has published, and much more.

REGISTER HERE

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Mary Moore Easter, a 2020 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Cave Canem Alumni Fellow, is the author of four poetry books: Free Papers: poems inspired by the testimony of Eliza Winston, a Mississippi slave freed in Minnesota in 1860 ( 2021); The Body of the World (Minnesota Book Award in Poetry Finalist, (2019), Walking from Origins, and From the Flutes of Our Bones (2020). Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she was also Founder and Director of Carleton College’s dance program. Easter remembers a long dance career in Minnesota as a much-honored independent dancer/choreographer. Her poems have been individually published in Poetry, Water~Stone and Prairie Schooner and many others.
Genesia Williams is a creative social change leader. She is the owner and principal of Genesia Doing Things – a design and strategy firm focused on solutions for nonprofits, small businesses, artists and individuals. She hails the South Side of Chicago and is a grandchild of the Great Migration. Firmly rooted in the history, culture, and Black-centered identity given to her from her hometown, she carries this perspective forward in her Twin Cities based communications work.
Genesia is a writer, designer, village member, auntie and aspiring elder who uses her work to help people on the journey to own their narratives and claim their power.

Embracing our Roots is a partnership with More Than a Single Story, Black Table Arts and In Black Ink.

Winter Reads: We Are Meant to Rise Panel Discussion
2022-02-22 18:30 - 20:30 | Zoom
Carolyn Holbrook, Ed Bok Lee, and Alexs Pate will read from and discuss their writing in the powerful new book, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (University of Minnesota Press, 2021). This collection features Indigenous writers and writers of color discussing racism in Minnesota, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and after the murder of George Floyd.Join us virtually as we hear from these powerful voices about their writing and experiences.

Co-Hosted by Ramsey County Library

Register here.

Buy the book here.

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About the panelists:

ALEXS PATE is a writer, novelist, Founder of Constructing the Innocent Classroom, and the President and CEO of Innocent Technologies, LLC, a company he founded to end educational disparities by closing the relationship gap between educators and students of color. Alexs is the author of five novels, including Amistad which was commissioned by Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks/SKG and based on the screenplay by David Franzoni, which became a New York Times Bestseller. His other novels are Losing Absalom, Finding Makeba, The Multicultiboho Sideshow, and West of Rehoboth.

ED BOK LEE is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, Mitochondrial Night (Coffee House Press, 2019). Lee is the son of North and South Korean emigrants—his mother originally a refugee from what is now North Korea; his father was raised during the Japanese colonial period and Korean War in what is now South Korea. Honors include an American Book Award, a Minnesota Book Award, an Asian American Literary Award (Members’ Choice), and a PEN/Open Book Award.

CAROLYN HOLBROOK is a writer, educator, and longtime advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her memoir in essays, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (U of M Press, 2020) won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for memoir and nonfiction, and was an honoree for the 2021 Society of Midland Authors Literary Award in Biography & Memoir. She is a co-author with Arleta Little of MN civil rights icon, Dr. Josie R. Johnson’s memoir, Hope In the Struggle. Her personal essays have been published widely, most recently in A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota and Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (both from MNHS Press). She is the Director of More Than a Single Story, which she founded in 2015.

More Than A Single Story: Place
2022-02-20 14:00 - 15:30 | Zoom
The Loft continues its collaboration with More Than A Single Story with a discussion centered around place. What does location—the block, the protest site, and so forth—have to do with art? And what can art do in those spaces? This panel brings together a diverse panel of artist activists who engage with art making in community space: Mark Tilsen, Tou Saiko Lee, Seitu Jones, and Angela Two Stars.
This event is co-sponsored by The Loft Literary Center.
Tickets:
$10.00 Regular
$5.00 Loft Member
$0.00 Pay What You Can
Register here.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Tou SaiK Lee is a rhyme writer who flows over drum loops, a poet loralette appointed by O.G.s of community organizing in St. Paul. Lee was the Multicultural Movement Builder for the Frogtown Neighborhood Association connecting underrepresented communities to resources and leadership opportunities. He collaborated with Karen and Karenni refugees to create a gang and substance abuse prevention program for Southeast Asian youth called AYO (Asian Youth Outreach).
Angela Two Stars is a public artist and curator. She is the director of All My Relations Arts, a project of the Native American Community Development Institute in Minneapolis, MN. Angela is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and received her BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design. Angela’s public art commissions include; Zaniya Yutokce at Bde Maka Ska, and Okciyapi at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, as well as additional works within the Twin Cities.
Seitu K Jones is a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and maker based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Working between the arts and public spheres, Jones channels the spirit of radical social movements into experiences that foster critical conversations and nurture more just and vibrant communities from the soil up. He is recognized as a dynamic collaborator and a creative force for civic engagement.
Mark K. Tilsen is an Oglala Lakota Poet Educator from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He comes from activist families long steeped in the struggle for liberation for all people and the long term survival of the Lakota Nation. At Standing Rock he stepped into the role of a direct action trainer and police liaison. Those stories have been compiled into a book of poems titled It Ain’t Over Until We’re Smoking Cigars on the Drillpad. During the pandemic Tilsen has worked with Camp Mniluzahan providing shelter for unhoused relatives in on Lakota land near Rapid City SD.

Embracing Our Roots: John Wright and Brittany Delaney
2022-02-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
After the uprisings for George Floyd and Daunte Wright, sharing knowledge inter-generationally is more important than ever. Join us for monthly conversations where young arts leaders will join our elders and culture bearers in conversation about their histories of significant milestones in Minnesota’s Black literary history,
On Thursday, February 17, 2022, Spoken Word Artist/Arts Educator, Brittany Delaney will join Distinguished Professor Emeritus John S. Wright in a conversation about Dr. Wright’s storied career at the U of M beginning with his leadership of the Morrill Hall takeover in 1969 when he was an undergrad – the event that led to the founding of the African American Studies program. They will also discuss his role in the acquisition of The Givens Collection of African Literature which holds over 10,000 books, magazines, and pamphlets by or about African Americans, and the performative history of the traveling multimedia “Langston Hughes Project — Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz” that he created and toured the country with beginning in the 1990s.

Register Here.

ABOUT THE FEATURED WRITERS:

John S. Wright is Morse-Amoco Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of African American & African Studies and English at the University of Minnesota. When he was a graduating senior and member of the Afro-American Action Committee at the U of M, he wrote the Seven Demands that led to the 1969 Morrill Hall Takeover, the founding of the University’s Department of Afro-American & African Studies and its Martin Luther King Program, which he subsequently administered from 1971-73. He was twice appointed a Research Associate at Harvard’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute (1982 & 1991); and joined its Working Group on Black Intellectual History from 1991-93. In 1991 he served as Scholar in Residence at the Schomburg Research Center in Harlem. Wright spearheaded the acquisition of the Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature and Life in 1985, and served as its Faculty Scholar while leading Givens Collection teacher training seminars and community outreach projects for two decades. His artistic work includes the multimedia “Langston Hughes Project — Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz” that he created and began touring in the 1990s.
Brittany Delaney is a Spoken Word Artist/Arts Educator born and raised in Minnesota. She has been performing on the scene for 18 years after getting her start in Slam Poetry. Brittany has participated in Spoken Word groups such as The Minnesota Spoken Word Association, Quest for the Voice, Brave New Voices (HBO),Teens Rock the Mic and various Slam organizations. She’s facilitated poetry workshops in university-based establishments across the country and is currently contracting as a Curriculum Consultant for various school districts across the United States. She continues doing residencies, diversity training, and tours. Her focus is promoting literacy, inclusion, and safe space learning environments through culturally responsive (and responsible) curriculum and practices.
Embracing our Roots is a partnership with More Than a Single Story, Black Table Arts and In Black Ink.

Anthology Reading: We Are Meant to Rise
2022-02-15 19:30 - 21:30 | Zoom
The Soul Bone Literary Festival is hosting a reading of the anthology We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, edited by Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura. This reading will feature Anika Fajardo, Ezekiel Joubert III, Mary Moore Easter, and Mona Susan Power. Carolyn Holbrook will introduce.
REGISTER HERE.
The anthology We Are Meant to Rise is a brilliant and rich gathering of diverse Minnesota voices on the American experience of this past year and beyond. In this book, Indigenous writers and writers of color bear witness to one of the most unsettling years in U.S. history. Essays and poems vividly reflect the traumas we endured in 2020, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, deepened by the blatant murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the uprisings that immersed our city into the epicenter of worldwide demands for justice.
“A powerful and passionate take on a fraught moment.” —Publishers Weekly

Co-hosted by Maharishi International University.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Writing Love Letters to Ourselves
2022-01-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Virtual Event
This workshop is about writing love letters to ourselves. We need healing. We invite people to acknowledge and show love and understanding to themselves.

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Lao writer. CNN’s “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell called her work “revolutionary.” She’s the author of the children’s book WHEN EVERYTHING WAS EVERYTHING and is best known for her award-winning play KUNG FU ZOMBIES VS CANNIBALS. Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (NY), Theater Mu (MN), Lower Depth Theater (LA), Asian Improv Arts (IL), and elsewhere. Saymoukda is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Theater Mu, a McKnight Foundation Fellow in Community-Engaged Practice Art, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in playwriting, and serves on the City of Saint Paul’s Cultural STAR Board. www.refugenius.net

This writing workshop is a part of the In the Eye of the Beholder series which includes an intergenerational conversation about American beauty standards and how they impact women of color. It also includes another writing workshop. Check the More Than A Single Story page for updates.

This event is a collaboration between More than a Single Story and St. Paul Library.

REGISTER here.

Embracing Our Roots
2022-01-19 18:00 | MN
This event has been cancelled for the month of January. Please stay tuned for more information about February’s Embracing Our Roots conversation with two Black writers.

Embracing Our Roots is a conversation with Black writers. In the Spirit of Sankofa, this speaker series reaches back into the history of the Black literary arts in Minnesota in order to pass this knowledge on to the new generation of ascending as leaders in our Black literary arts. The series features Black Literary Elders and Culture Bearers who will discuss significant milestones in Minnesota’s Black literary history, and will engage audience members in conversation around the impact that both the writers and the movements have had on our present day capacity to survive the storms and keep creating.
The series will run from September 2021-February 22. Speakers will include Louis Alemayehu, Pamela Fletcher Bush, Carolyn Holbrook, Arleta Little and Ellena Schoop, Alexs Pate, and John Wright. The program will culminate with a tour of the Givens Collection of African American Literature based at the University of Minnesota.

This series is made possible with the partnership with Black Table Arts and In Black Ink.

History Revealed: We Are Meant to Rise
2022-01-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
History Revealed is a panel discussion of We Are Meant to Rise in the East Side Freedom Library and the Ramsey County Historical Society’s new series “Making Minnesota” which will explore the often untold stories, histories and experiences of the immigrant, African American and Indigenous communities that make up our most diverse county.
Editors Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura will be joined by authors Suleiman Adan, Marcie Rendon and Kevin Yang, who will share their perspectives on the events of the past year, from the Covid pandemic to the murder of George Floyd, to the world-wide demands for racial justice, and how those recent experiences tie into past histories.
Register here!
Learn more about the book.

Exploring Beauty with Cento Poems
2022-01-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
In the Cento form, lines from different sources stand next to each other to create new narratives. Because this exercise forces participants to focus closely on their favorite lines from various poems, it helps them understand how the individual parts relate to the whole. In this workshop, we will work with multiple poems to create our own Cento poems on the themes of loving our beautiful selves.

REGISTER HERE.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Valerie Deus is a poet, film programmer and radio show host of Haitian descent. Her work has been featured in Minnesota Women’s Press, The Brooklyn Rail, Midway, the St. Paul Almanac, The BeZine, A Garden of Black Joy anthology and Under Purple Skies: A Minneapolis Anthology her most recent essay is featured in What We Hunger For- Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family edited by Sun Yung Shin published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. When she’s not writing, she is the host of Project 35, a local low-fi radio show on KRSM radio. She curates FilmNorth’s Cinema Lounge and is the Shorts Programmer for the Provincetown International Film Festival.

In the Eye of the Beholder: An Intergenerational Conversation
2021-12-12 14:00 - 16:00 | Sun Ray Library, 2105 Wilson Ave, St. Paul, MN, MN, United States
Join us for an In the Eye of the Beholder event at Sun Ray Library in St. Paul, on December 12, 2021. This event features Carolyn Holbrook, Najah Davis, Saymoukda Vongsay, Buranh Johnson, Nubia Esparza, and Isa Sanchez-Esparza.
Register for this event at: https://forms.gle/4rYbFpY41T3ucJxB7
