November 15, 2015, Sunday - As Curated By: More than a Single Story at The Loft

Time: 2:30pm

Location: The Loft Literary Center, at Open Book (Performance Hall), 1011 Washington Ave

As Curated By: More than a Single Story

A series of Sunday afternoon panel discussions with Black women writers from across the diaspora.

Black writers often get lumped together as though there is only one voice from which they speak. In a powerful TED talk, Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie points out that there is never a single story. She says “It is vital to listen to the multiple stories of a person or a place, to truly engage and gain an objective and in-depth understanding of a subject being written about.”

In this series, writer Carolyn Holbrook will facilitate conversations with African American, Caribbean, and African women writers on the many voices and stories of Black women writers. Some discussion topics will include identity, the canon, and publishing.

This final discussion in the series will feature five African writers: Kari Mugo, Nimo H. Farah, Julia Nekessa Opoti, Adaobi Okolue, and Lula S. Saleh.

Carolyn Holbrook is a writer, educator, and long-time advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her passion for providing grassroots accessibility to the literary arts inspired her to create SASE: The Write Place in 1993. She led the organization until 2006, when she spearheaded its merger with Intermedia Arts. In 2005, she designed the Givens Foundation for African American Literature’s writers-in-the-schools program. In 2010, she was awarded the MN Book Awards Kay Sexton Award for long-standing dedication and outstanding work in fostering books, reading, and literary activity in Minnesota. Her book,Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journeys: How the St. Paul Companies Leadership Initiatives in Neighborhoods Program Changed Lives and Communities was published in 2013 and 2015. She is currently at work on a collection of personal essays. She teaches creative writing and composition at Hamline University and Minneapolis Community & Technical College.

Kari Mugo is a queer writer who was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and spent her formative years in the Midwest. She is a self-proclaimed Third Culture Kid, trying to find the balance in 3. Her writing focuses on identity, and creating visibility around marginalized experiences. When not mulling too deeply over things, she is making lists out of her lists. Kari is a contributor for Mshale Newspaper and Matador Network. Her work has also appeared, or will be featured on Autostraddle.com, Bitch Magazine, CurveMag.com, MnArtists.org, The Toast, and Racialicious.com. You can follow her on Twitter @the_warm_fruit.

Nimo H. Farah is an artist and activist who uses language to express things she finds too confusing. Her current undertaking is to develop her skills as an orator while blending Somali and English. She thinks herself charming and hilarious in the Somali language, but rarely does that humor translate into English. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Water~Stone Review,  the Saint Paul Almanac, and the Loft Inroads chapter book. As a storyteller she has shared her words at the Black Dog Café, the Loft, and Pillsbury House. She co-founded SALLI (Somali Arts Language & Leadership Institute), a nonprofit organization promoting art and literature in the Somali community. She is a 2014 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellow and a 2014 Bush Fellow and a recipient of  2015 Intermedia Arts VERVE grant.

Julia Nekessa Opoti is a communication and media practitioner working to create voice channels for some of Minnesota's most pressing political issues. Her work in media promotes the articulation by grassroots voices of often unheard perspectives on minority and immigrant life in Minnesota, particularly the Twin Cities. Her work explores such subjects as class, migration, education, sexuality, identity, and belonging from the immigrant and diaspora perspectives. Her work includes video production, research, and work in media as a publisher, editor, and journalist. She has recently begun to explore writing personal essays on migration, identity and family history. She produces and hosts "Reflections of New Minnesotans" a weekly talk show on AM 950.

Adaobi Okolue is a Nigerian-born writer, visual and performance artist, and creative producer who crafts stories and produces work that challenges the way we view ourselves and reveals the truths, brilliance, and ideas of the people we choose not to see. Adaobi is also the publisher at the Twin Cities Daily Planet, and has been a contributing artist to MaMa mOsAic for the past two years—where she was featured in the critically-acclaimed Blacker the Berry ensemble and exhibit at Intermedia Arts. Adaobi is a Givens Foundation Black Writers Collaborative alum, and holds a bachelor’s degree in strategic communications-public relations and African/African American Studies from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 
         
Lula S. Saleh is a writer, poet, singer, and storyteller. Her work explores healing, trauma, diaspora, notions of home, and identity. She was a 2014 fellow in the Givens Foundation for African American Writers’ Collaborative Retreat mentoring program.

This event is free and open to the public.