Friday Keynote
Ricardo Levins Morales describes himself as a “healer and trickster organizer disguised as an artist.” His activism has included support work for the Black Panthers and Young Lords to participating in or acting in solidarity with farmers, environmental, labor, racial justice and peace movements. Increasingly he has come to see his art and organizing practices as means to address individual, collective and historical trauma. He co-leads workshops on trauma and resilience for organizers as well as trainings on creative organizing, social justice strategy and sustainable activism, and mentors and supports young activists. He operates, with a crew of co-workers, out of a studio/storefront gallery in south Minneapolis.
Saturday Keynote
신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin, MFA, MAT, is a Korean adoptee and immigrant, born in Seoul and raised in the Chicago area. She is the author of poetry/essay collections Unbearable Splendor (Minnesota Book Award); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (Asian American Literary Award) (all published by Coffee House Press). She is the editor of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota and co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. Her bilingual (Korean/English) illustrated children’s book is Cooper’s Lesson. She teaches creative writing, and is a community cultural worker and facilitator, focusing on ending white supremacy and, with others, building a better world. She is the co-director of Poetry Asylum and is an emerging healing practitioner (biodynamic craniosacral therapy and Reiki). She lives in Minneapolis; more at www.sunyungshin.com.
