New beginnings: RAWI’s 5th national gathering with Mizna

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September 18th through 20th brought the 5th National RAWI (Radius of Arab Writers, Inc.) Conference to Minneapolis. RAWI partnered with local nonprofit Mizna, an organization that promotes contemporary expressions of Arab American culture through the publication of Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America and the production of the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival. The conference included panels often hosted by academic scholars of Arab American literature, and theater, writing workshops, and performances.Although Mizna had attended and tabled at past conferences, this was the first time they were involved in hosting and organizing the conference. “We played a big role in the on-the-ground logistics and locations,” says Lana Barkawi, the executive and artistic director of Mizna. Some of the other local art organizations involved as hospitality sponsors were The Loft Literary Center, Open Book, the McKnight Foundation, as well as some of the local Arab American businesses in town.Special guests included Mohja Kahf, Mustafa Bayoumi, Fady Joudah, and Marilyn Hacker. Continue Reading

For Twin Cities readers, book fair trumps the state fair!

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For some among us the iconic Minnesota State Fair should eschew the politicians, dump the Skyride, douse the corndogs and replace it all with a tasteful gathering of bibliophiles, Minnesota writers, readings, book talks, exchanges of bon mots among the literati. That’s why we have the Twin Cities Book Festival, the ultimate antidote to the State Fair. Continue Reading

A snapshot of tribal libraries: 40-89 percent do not have broadband access!

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The first 6 months of the year I spent time every month on the Fond du Lac reservation – specifically at the tribal center in Cloquet. There’s a library in the tribal center – with computers and good broadband. And once I month I was in the building providing some kind of Internet/computer training. Turns out FdL is top of the class when compared to other tribal libraries. Continue Reading

Clive Geraghty: Great Irish actor at the Irish Fair of Minnesota

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Clive Geraghty, one of Ireland’s finest actors, will be bringing his self-authored script A Celebration of Seamus Heaney to the Irish Fair as an Ouroboros Theatre, Ireland, production. His presentation will evoke the spirit of the great Irish poet and world famous Nobel Laureate who passed away in August, 2013.Mr. Geraghty was involved with the Abbey theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre, from 1962 to 2005 offering thousands of performances in hundreds of plays. Some of the highlights from his extraordinary career include playing the roles of Charlie (1985) and later Da (2006 Irish national tour) in different productions of Hugh Leonard’s autobiographical comic masterpiece, Da; playing Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (directed by Joe Dowling currently the Guthrie Theater’s Artistic Director); presenting Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s scorching The Iceman Cometh; portraying the terrifying Irish patriarch in Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark, and appearing in six different productions of O’Casey’s towering portrait of Dublin city and its denizens in 1916, The Plough and the Stars. He won the Best Actor award in the early 1980s for his portrait of the concentration camp martyr, Maximilian Kolbe in Kolbe.Mr. Geraghty was also a director for two years with the Abbey and one of its shareholders for a quarter of a century. His reminiscences, anecdotes, and stories evoke the huge camaraderie and spirit of Ireland’s most important theatre. Continue Reading

‘My Brother Adam’: Children’s book written to help ‘tear down the walls of prejudice’ against mental illness

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Mental health has always been, at the least, a touchy subject among African Americans. As powerfully as it can impact lives, it doesn’t help to ignore or, still worse, pass judgment on people who suffer mental problems. Accordingly, Linda and Nneka Onyilofor with illustrator Aaron Gilmore have created a remarkable children’s book, My Brother Adam: A journey with schizophrenia (Radiant Heart Press) that can help adults as well as kids gain a constructive outlook on the subject.

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Book review: Keystones of the Stone Arch Bridge

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Two Minnesota icons that I hold most dear are the Minneapolis neighborhood where the Mississippi River pours over St. Anthony Falls and runs along St. Anthony Main, and the candy that rolls out of Pearson’s in St. Paul. When The Minnesota History Center folks sent me a copy of Carolyn Ruff’s “Keystones of the Stone Arch Bridge” I spent many delicious hours delving into both. Summer is beginning to wane and the kids have another month before school starts: August is the perfect month to grab a Nut Roll and explore Minneapolis history. Continue Reading