Writer, historian, and social practice artist Hawona Sullivan Janzen will invite community members to tell their "250 Stories" to create a collective transportation narrative as artist-in-residence August 5 - September 1, 2024.
Click here for “250 Stories: Lanesboro Takes to the Road” community lawn sign poem map!
Lanesboro Arts is thrilled to welcome Hawona Sullivan Janzen as the Lanesboro Arts Artist in Residence from August 5th to September 1st, 2024.
Each of us – no matter who we are or where we live, have a story about how freeways have affected our lives. During her residency at Lanesboro Arts, Hawona will invite community members to share stories about their experiences and relationships with highways, freeways, and interstates in informal one-on-one interviews, group storytelling sessions, and community story sharing workshops. Whatever your story, Hawona believes it should be preserved and deepened by sharing it with the community in a residency project she is calling “250 Stories: Lanesboro Takes to the Road.”
“250” Stories is an off-shoot of Hawona’s “Freeway Stories” project, a project inviting people across Minnesota to share their stories of and relationship with major roadways. The idea behind the project is to create a series of short poems on yard signs that weave elements from storytelling events in which our Minnesota stories are shared — first in the community that shared them, then across the landscape in excerpts to build a collective transportation narrative. “Freeway Stories” is Hawona’s way of preserving what we often take for granted.
The general public is invited to a series of storytelling workshops and conversations, starting with a Welcome Potluck on August 8th.There will be two opportunities to share your 250 Story one-on-one with Hawona on August 10th and 17th (sign-up sheets will be available at each Residency event). Join Hawona for community story sharing workshops on August 13th, 15th, and 20th! Hawona’s residency will culminate in a 250 Stories Capstone and yard sign walking tour on August 28th.
Residency Events
- Thursday, August 8, 5 – 7 pm: Welcome Potluck the Cottage House Inn Event Room
- Saturday, August 10, 3 – 5 pm: One-on-One Community Conversations at the Lanesboro Public Library (Sign-Up Sheets will be available at each Residency event)
- Tuesday, August 13, 5 – 7 pm: Workshop: Your Story As Our Story at the Sons of Norway Lodge
- Thursday, August 15, 5 – 7 pm: Workshop: Cell Phone Stories on the St. Mane Theatre Parking Lot
- Saturday, August 17, 10 am – 12 pm: One-on-One Community Conversations at the Lanesboro Public Library (Sign-Up Sheets will be available at each Residency event)
- Tuesday, August 20, 5 – 7 pm: Workshop: 250 Lives at the Cottage House Inn Event Room
- Wednesday, August 28th, 5 – 7 pm: Lanesboro Highway 250 Stories Capstone at the Sons of Norway
About Hawona Sullivan Janzen
Hawona Sullivan Janzen is a St. Paul-based writer, historian, and social practice artist who believes that art is the only thing that can save us from ourselves. A 2023 graduate of the University of Minnesota’s MFA program in Interdisciplinary Art and Social Practice, she is a recipient of awards from MRAC, the Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and Minnesota State Arts Board. Her poetry has been read on National Public Radio, featured in Martin Luther King Jr. Park for the “Rondo Family Reunion” project, installed on 100 lawn signs hosted in residents’ front yards for the “Love Letters for the Midway” public art project, and sandblasted into the Dale Street Bridge.
She is author of several works for the stage including: “Hydro’s Phobia” produced at Pillsbury House Theatre in 2020, “Freeway Stories”, a play exploring the full impact on the lives of people with connections to the Rondo community commissioned by MixedBlood Theatre, and “Clean,” a jazz opera performed at the Soap Factory Gallery in Minneapolis.
About the Lanesboro Artist Residency Program
Supported through 2024 by the Jerome Foundation, the Lanesboro Artist Residency Program awards two to three residencies per year to emerging artists with projects that activate the people and places of Lanesboro while instigating positive change. The program’s place-based and community-engaged focus is geared toward emerging artists that are driven to explore ways in which their work can be applied to the community and how Lanesboro’s rural community can inform their work. For more information, visit lanesboroarts.org or call 507-467-2446.
The Lanesboro Artist Residency Program is supported by the Jerome Foundation.