December 10, 2019, Tuesday - "My Mighty Journey" Author and Illustrator Talk at Mill City Museum

Time: 7p

Location: Mill City Museum, 704 S 2nd Street

"My Mighty Journey" Author and Illustrator Talk

Join Gaylord Schanilec, John Coy, and members of the My Mighty Journey team including Ernie Whitehead and Diane Wilson for a behind-the-scenes look at the artistry and research behind this spectacular book! 

Stunning letterpress prints by the internationally-acclaimed artist Gaylord Schanilec illustrate John Coy’s poetic narrative of the Mississippi’s only major waterfall. Over twelve thousand years of erosion, this waterfall gradually moved upstream—witnessing changes in the landscape, in the people who lived nearby, and the different ways they used its water for their livelihoods.

My Mighty Journey, crafted by award-winning writer John Coy, brings to life the geology, history, and people, told from the waterfall’s perspective. Enhancing this dramatic story are stunning images created by internationally acclaimed artist Gaylord Schanilec using materials collected along the riverbank. These illustrations show the progression of the waterfall—eventually known as St. Anthony Falls—as it moved fifteen miles upriver from present-day St. Paul to its current location in downtown Minneapolis.

Such colossal change surprises many people today, but in this telling the waterfall takes the long view—after all Europeans and their descendants have resided here for less than three percent of the time people have lived in the place now known as Minnesota. My Mighty Journey helps readers realize that most of us are newcomers and that there is so much to learn about the waterfall, the land, the people who’ve been here, and our relationship to them.