Lanesboro Arts presents “Disrupting the Binding: Building Anti-Racist Culture”, a series of free community workshops with poet and musician Ben Weaver on October 2nd, 3rd, 10th and 11th.
Through these workshops, community members and Weaver will engage in creativity, compassion and care through dialogue, holding space, sharing history, and imagining the future while healing from the past. While white privilege is present in rural America, these conversations will invite community members to get curious about rural communities and how their strengths can be used to support and reach the place where healing and growth can begin. This will be done through discussion of ancestor history, discussing the process of reparations with the land, gaining an understanding of whiteness and our systemic bonds to it, as well as understanding colonizer mindset and privilege.
The workshops will spark dialogue on these topics with music and story woven in. Participants will join in activities such as writing, music, conversation, photo sharing, making affirmation books, and more.
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.
Workshop 1: Sat, Oct 2, 10 am – 1 pm
Workshop 2: Sun, Oct 3, 10 am – 1 pm
Workshop 3: Sun, Oct 10, 10 am – 1 pm
Capstone Shareback: Mon, Oct 11, 6 – 8 pm
Location: Gateway Park
This series is free but registration is required and is capped at 15 participants. Registration includes all four events.
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.