Lanesboro Arts presents the free capstone event for “Disrupting the Binding: Building Anti-Racist Culture,” on Sunday, November 5th from 6:00 – 7:00 pm at the St. Mane Theatre with visiting artists Ben Weaver, Carolyn Holbrook, and Walken Schweigert. This open-to-the-public capstone performance and group share-back is the culmination of a three-part free community workshop series that took place on September 9th, October 8th, and November 5th at the St. Mane Theatre.

This capstone event will feature a combination of music and readings from the three visiting artists, as well as a collaborative reading from workshop participants. Using poetry, music, and storytelling, this workshop series prompts participants to explore the necessary healing that precedes our ability to truly imagine and create a new culture that does not perpetuate the existing structural harms.

Ben Weaver is a poet, songwriter, athlete, letterpress printer/book maker, and public speaker whose experiences make him uniquely qualified to connect residents with natural spaces, find ways to give back through outreach with seniors and students, and build community through storytelling and exchange that help awaken greater reciprocity between people and the land. The songs and poems Weaver writes/performs work to dispel illusions of division.

Carolyn Holbrook is a writer, educator, and an advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her memoir, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify (Minn 2020), won the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. She is founder and director of the Twin Cities-based conversation series, More Than a Single Story, and is co-editor with David Mura of the anthology, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World published by University of MN Press with More Than a Single Story (Minn2021). She is also co-author with Arleta Little of Dr. Josie Johnson’s memoir, Hope In the Struggle (Minn 2019). She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships. She won the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award in 2010 and was a 50 over 50 honoree in 2016. She teaches at the Loft Literary Center and other community venues, and at Hamline University, where she won the exemplary teacher award in 2014. She is the mother of 5, grandmother of 8 and great grandmother of 2.

Walken Schweigert (he/him) is a queer/transgender actor, musician, composer and director from St. Paul, MN. A 2019 Jerome Foundation Fellow, he is a 2009 graduate of the Dell’ Arte International School for Physical Theatre, and a 2006 graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts Education (Theatre Major). Currently, he performs with the poetic-folk band Buffalo Weavers (Saint Paul, MN) and the Occult-inspired, baroque-horror, Detroit-based band CRUNE. He is also the Founder/Co-Artistic Director of Open Flame Theatre, which just premiered his newest opera, >The Garden>, at Philadelphia Community Farm (September 2021) thanks in part to a JFund Award from the American Composers Forum.<

This series is supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board through a grant provided from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.