February 7, 2014, Friday - Mentor Series: Mark Anthony Rolo at The Loft

Time: 7:00pm

Location: The Loft, Performance Hall, 1011 Washington Avenue South

Mentor Series: Mark Anthony Rolo
 
The 2013-2014 Loft Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose presents nonfiction mentor Mark Anthony Rolo reading along with program participants Toni Halleen (fiction) and Welcome Jerde (nonfiction).
 
Mark Anthony Rolo is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He teaches at the White Earth Tribal and Community College. His memoir, My Mother Is Now Earth, is  nominated for a 2012 Minnesota Book Award. He is also the author of the novel The Wonder Bull and an anthology of plays, What’s an Indian Woman To Do and Other Plays. He has worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. His plays have been performed in the Twin Cities, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Los Angeles.
 
Toni Halleen is a writer, speaker and lawyer based in Minneapolis. She teaches interactive communication skills workshops to legal professionals using techniques of improv comedy. Toni is also an award-winning playwright and composer. Her play, Soulless, Bloodsucking Lawyers: A Musical! was voted Best Selling Show and Best Musical at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Toni writes and performs music about lawyers and public affairs, as seen on T.V. and at private events. She helps run her husband’s law firm, enjoys time at the lake with her family and has been in a book club for 25 years.
 
Welcome Jerde publishes a column in The Southwest Journal and studies writing at the Loft and at week-long residencies (Split Rock Program, Madeline Island School of the Arts). Her greatest challenge centers on completing a memoir on loss, grief, and renewal.  In addition to her writing interests, she manages two small non-profit groups: Service Works…Changing the World One Month as a Time, offering monthly service projects, and Books for Bassodawish, helping support a secondary school in northern Tanzania through fund raising and guided service trips to the village. She has an MBA in Marketing and a BA in Theater from the University of Minnesota. She’s employed at Broders’ restaurants where she provides marketing support. Welcome lives with her husband, daughter, two cats, and a Mexican dog in Minneapolis.