Claire O’Connor, potter/artist/co-conspirator, was a Minnesota Freedom Rider in 1961, imprisoned for 28 days at Parchman Farm in Mississippi. She returned to Mississippi for Freedom Summer (1964), then in possession of a BA in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota. In the next part of her life, Claire worked with battered women, urban teens, and in community organizing projects. She lived in Canada for 25 years, then returned to Minnesota. She has a studio at the Northern Clay Center, where she also teaches classes.

The closing reception will include participatory discussion, in the direction of envisioning action.

In conjunction with the teapot exhibit, ESFL is sharing two complementary resources:

The first is Larry Olds’ Collection in Popular Education. The late Larry Olds was Minnesota’s leading proponent of Popular Education, a participatory approach to organizing and movement building that connects personal story and shared experience with social analysis and collective action. Larry was a leading member of the North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education and maintained strong relationships with participatory educators in Minnesota and around the world. He founded and edited Popular Education News, an on-line newsletter with a wide global readership and introduced hundreds of local educators and activists to pop-ed principles and practices.

Before his death in the fall of 2016, Larry donated his extensive collection of popular education materials to the East Side Freedom Library. He envisioned a “living collection” that combined exploration of the archives with dialogue, reflection, and action. We are incorporating a sample of Larry’s collection in “Tempests in Tea Pots,” and we encourage participants to spend time exploring the materials. We hope that this series of programs responds to Larry’s vision of a “living collection.”

The second addition are our special rocking chairs.  With generous donations from our guests and participants in our programs, the East Side Freedom Library has curated a beautiful collection of rocking chairs. They are intended to symbolize our connection to the vision of the Highland Folk Center in Tennessee, where labor and civil rights activities have, since the 1930s, used pop-ed techniques to build critical thinking, community, and self-confidence. Most of the time, the rocking chairs provide a space for individuals to read and reflect and for small groups to converse and connect. We are excited to be using the rocking chairs as a critical element of “Tempests in Tea Pots.”