Lanesboro Arts presents “Disrupting the Binding: Building Anti-Racist Culture,” a series of free community workshops led by artists Ben Weaver with Strong Buffalo (Sisseton Wapeton Dakota), Walken Schweigert and Laura LaBlanc. This four-part series will take place on October 9th, 10th, 15th, and 16th at the Gazebo in Sylvan Park.

This workshop invites community members into an emergent and  circular space to contextualize and better understand the systemic and pervasive nature of racism. Our facilitators will work with community members using music, poetry and storytelling 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. The first two workshops will be led by Ben Weaver with Walken Schweigert and for the last two workshops, we will welcome Strong Buffalo and Laura LaBlanc along with Weaver.

This work is lifelong and ongoing, thus we invite both new and past participants to join us. We also ask if you are considering joining us that you attend all four of the workshops. Disrupting the Binding is capped at 15 participants. Registration is free, but required to participate. Participants can register at the link on this page to reserve your place.

Workshop 1: Sunday, October 9th, 1-4 pm (Led by Ben Weaver, Walken Schweigert)

Workshop 2: Monday, October 10th, 6-8 pm (Led by Ben Weaver, Walken Schweigert)

Workshop 3: Saturday, October 15th, 10 am-1pm (Led by Ben Weaver, Strong Buffalo, Laura LaBlanc)

Workshop 4 – Capstone: Sunday October 16th, 10 am – 1 pm (Lead by Ben Weaver, Strong Buffalo, Laura LaBlanc)

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.

Strong Buffalo, T.F. LaBlanc, is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, and a decorated Vietnam veteran. He has been writing poetry before there was anything called American Indian poetry, starting last century. His words, translated in more than 17 languages, 3 published books, 8 CD’s, along with lectures and performances contribute to a world where we use creativity and options other than war, racism, classism, and exploitation to solve the problems that we all share, by just being alive.

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.

Laura LaBlanc’s lifework is to awaken, renew and restore human relationships. She sees the deep challenges we face to shift to a society that promotes balance, shared leadership, reconciliation and true partnership. She values the opportunity to hear real stories and touch lives along the way. With over 30 years of community leadership, and founder of FullThought, LLC, she is continually honing skills to elicit and bring together the genius of diverse ideas, cultures and life experiences. As a mother, stepmother and grandmother, she is committed to work that improves the world in which all our children grow, develop and come of age.

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.