East Side Freedom Library

HISTORY DAY MENTORING! - Every Saturday morning from 10am-12pm
2026-02-21 10:00 - 12:00, 2026-02-14 10:00 - 12:00, 2026-02-07 10:00 - 12:00, 2026-01-31 10:00 - 12:00, 2026-01-24 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
National History Day Mentoring Returns to ESFL!
We’re excited to launch this year’s ESFL National History Day Mentoring Project!

Our first session was Saturday, December 6, and will continue every Saturday morning from 10AM–12PM throughout the season through April 2026.

This year’s National History Day theme is: REVOLUTION, REACTION, AND REFORM IN HISTORY
As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, students are invited to explore how revolutions spark reactions, how reactions inspire reforms, and how each moment sets off the next, just like a line of falling dominoes.
Are you or your students passionate about racial justice, labor activism, women’s rights, immigrant history, GLBTQ+ movements, environmental activism, or other powerful stories of change?
Do they want to create performances, documentaries, exhibits, websites, or research papers?
Send them to the East Side Freedom Library!
Here they’ll find:

Rich research resources (books, art, music, archival material)
Connections for oral histories
Experienced mentors who have supported local students for over 10 years
And our results? Last year, three ESFL-mentored students won first or second place at Nationals!
STARTING THIS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6 – THEN EVERY SATURDAY MORNING, 10AM–NOON
East Side Freedom Library

Students are encouraged to make an appointment by emailing Peter Rachleff (American History professor at Macalester College for 30 years and coordinator of the ESFL mentor team): peter@eastsidefreedomlibrary.org
After their first session, students are welcome to return anytime to use ESFL resources. Menors will be available for in-person or remote one-on-one support.

Screening: SALT OF THE EARTH, as part of the Reel Stories: Labor in Film Series
2026-02-19 18:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
UPCOMING EVENT AT ESFL, Thursday, February 19th at 6pm

Screening: SALT OF THE EARTH

This film will be screened for free as part of our Reel Stories:
Labor in Film series, presented in collaboration with East Side Freedom Library and the ESFL Labor Advisory Committee.

February 19th, 6:00pm
East Side Freedom Library
1105 Greenbrier Street, St Paul

“Proudly, deeply, defiantly humanistic,”
-Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy

Salt of the Earth is an extraordinary film — extraordinary in the story it tells of Mexican zinc miners and their families who engage in an historic strike in post-WWII Arizona, and extraordinary in its very making, with a creative team consisting of blacklisted Hollywood writers, directors, and actors, and a cast in which many of the characters are played by actual participants in the strike.

The film is so extraordinary that we will have TWO terrific scholar-activists introduce it and lead our discussion afterwards. Both of them have conducted research and published studies that center communities of color here in the Twin Cities. One is Rahsaan Mahadeo, Assistant Professor of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of “Funk the Clock,” a study of race and time, which upends what we think we know and offers new ways to think about the production of knowledge. The other is Jimmy Patiño, Associate Professor of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota. While his first book, “Raza Si, Migra No” focused on Chicano struggles in San Diego, his current work explores solidarity among Chicanos, African Americans, and American Indians here in Minnesota.

Their work, and this film, could not be more timely. Join us to explore how Mexican miners and their families wrote a new chapter in American labor history, and how their story speaks to the challenges we face today.

Synopsis
At New Mexico’s Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacon) helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.

This film is not rated. Parents or guardians are encouraged to consult the IMDB Parents Guide.
This film will be screened in English with English subtitles.

CLASSES: HISTORY & ORGANIZING TACTICS OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT
2026-01-26 18:30 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Taught by Peter Rachleff and Carson Starkey
@ the East Side Freedom Library
Starting on Monday, January 26th
from 6:30-8:30pm

Register through Saint Paul Community Education, but you can also email Peter at: peter@eastsidefreedomlibrary.org

Who's Got The Power? The Resurgence of American Unions
2026-01-24 13:00 - 14:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Join us for an essential conversation about the labor movement’s revival with Dave Kamper, author of “Who’s Got the Power? The Resurgence of American Unions.”

Saturday, January 24, 2026
1-2:30pm
East Side Freedom Library

A Twin Cities resident, veteran labor organizer, and labor historian who has taught at Metro State University and now works at the Economic Policy Institute, Kamper offers a compelling exploration of how American workers emerged from the pandemic with newfound energy and strength.

Through interviews with workers and labor leaders—from Frito-Lay workers in Kansas and teachers in Chicago to Amazon warehouse workers in New York and auto workers in Detroit—he captures the stories of those on the front lines of a new wave of labor activism.

Dave will be joined by a panel of local labor activists who have been part of this resurgence and have read his book. Copies will be available for purchase.

Whether you’re deeply involved in labor organizing or simply curious about the seismic changes reshaping American work today, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

MATEWAN Free Screening + discussion
2026-01-15 18:00 - 21:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Sometimes we need to look back at history to find strength to continue the struggles for justice we are currently facing. Along with our siblings at Trilingua Cinema, we invite you this Thursday, January 15th at 6pm for a free screening at ESFL of the epic film MATEWAN.
This film will be screened for free as part of our Reel Stories: Labor in Film series, presented in collaboration with East Side Freedom Library and the ESFL Labor Advisory Committee.
January 15th, 6:00pm
East Side Freedom Library
1105 Greenbrier Street, St Paul
“It makes history sing,”
-Michael Willmington, The Los Angeles Times
Start your new year with a free labor film series. TriLingua Cinema brings three landmark films to the East Side Freedom
Library, each illuminating the struggles, victories, and everyday courage of working people. Each film will be introduced by a local scholar-activist who will also lead a post-film conversation.
Starring James Earl Jones, “Matewan” is a dramatic film about the early 1920s mine wars in West Virginia. Leading the discussion of the film will be Gary Kaunonen, the Education and Program Manager at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. He is the author of three terrific books about immigrant iron and copper miners in the early 20th century, and he is also a documentary filmmaker. His “Northern Minnesota’s Labor Wars” looks at strikes in 1916 and 1917 and their significance to World War I-era repression and deportations. We can count on Gary to help us tie the West Virginia labor story to our own Minnesota history, and to put the past challenges faced by immigrant workers in conversation with those of our present moment.
Synopsis
IT TAKES MORE THAN GUNS TO KILL A MAN.
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, “Matewan” celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named “Few Clothes” Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan’s vested interests so that justice and workers’ rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.
This film is rated PG-13. Parents or guardians are encouraged to consult the IMDB Parents Guide.
This film will be screened in English with English subtitles.

Public Reading of new writing by Refugee Writers Cohort, mentored by award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang!
2025-12-03 18:00 - 20:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Public Reading of new writing by Refugee Writers Cohort, mentored by award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang
Wednesday, December 3rd, from 6-8pm at the East Side Freedom Library
Over the past seven months, a group of seven writers—Minnesota’s first-ever Refugee Writers Cohort—have been gathering monthly at ESFL to develop new work under the mentorship of award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang. We now invite you to join us in celebrating their voices and hearing the powerful writing they have created. The event will including a reading and a Q & A with the writers.
We will have light refreshments.
ESFL is a wheelchair accessible space.

“This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.”

REMINISCING RONDO: A Community Archiving & Art Collaging Event
2025-11-29 13:00 - 16:00 | Golden Thyme Cafe, 856 Selby Ave, St Paul, MN
ESFL’s Community Digital Repository (CDR) Team has been collaborating for some time to make this event happen. CDR Director, Michaela Day, will be there that day facilitating an Art and Archives Collage workshop!

REMINISCING RONDO: A Community Archiving & Art Collaging Event
Location: Golden Thyme Cafe, 856 Selby Ave St. Paul

“Celebrate History, Art, and Memory in the Heart of Rondo”
Join us for hands-on community archiving event featuring student collage art inspired by Black entrepreneur — abolitionist in 1850s Saint Paul.
Bring in family photos to preserve digitally. Free printing and scanning for family documents is available.
Create an archival collage that tells YOUR story.

UNION: documentary about union campaign by Amazon workers! - Film screening for Give to the Max Day
2025-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Union
November 20th, 7:00pm
East Side Freedom Library
1105 Greenbrier Street,
St Paul, MN 55106
FREE SCREENING, RESERVE YOUR SPOT HERE:
Join us for a celebration of solidarity and storytelling and a special screening of the film UNION on Thursday, November 20th, at The East Side Freedom Library.
Synopsis
Through intimate cinema vérité, UNION chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Led by the charismatic but underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The odds are stacked against them, as the group finds itself up against a tech industry giant with unlimited resources, without major support from national unions or politicians, and while navigating internal divisions within their own ranks. Filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing document the struggle from day one, offering a gripping human drama about the fight for power and dignity in today’s globalized economic landscape.
This film is not rated but should be appropriate for youth 14 and over. Parents or guardians are encouraged to use their own discretion.
This film will be screened in English with English subtitles.
Trailer
Event hosted in conjunction with our dear friends of TriLingua Cinema:

Book talk with labor activist and author Jaz Brisack - "Get on the Job and Organize: Standing Up for a Better Workplace and a Better World"
2025-11-06 19:00 - 21:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Labor activist and author Jaz Brisack will lead a discussion about their new book, Get on the Job and Organize: Standing Up for a Better Workplace and a Better World. Jaz, a former Starbucks worker from Buffalo, NY, will be presenting the key ideas in their book and they will be in conversation with a panel of local labor organizers.
We will have copies of the book on hand for sale.
Additionally, Jaz will be leading a daylong workshop on internal organizing on Saturday, November 8, at the Carpenters Hall in St. Paul. For more info, please reach out to Carson Starkey at cstarkey@ncsrcc.org.
Reviews of Jaz’s book:
“Jaz has too much hometraining to rename this book, but this is not only a how-to change the world book, it is a percussive, necessary ‘why we must change the world’ book written by an activist who can write their ass off. Mandatory reading for humans in need of a literary elixir.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
“In the last few years, especially after the pandemic, one of the most inspiring things we’ve witnessed is the rise of the labor movement in America. All across the country, workers have been standing up and fighting back against the unprecedented levels of corporate greed that have been taking place. I appreciate Jaz’s contributions in this book, which help us all better understand the aims and goals for a resurgent trade union movement and how workers all over the country can join in solidarity with it.” —Senator Bernie Sanders
“This book is a love letter to labor organizing, at once earnest and hard-nosed. Brisack takes us inside Starbucks Workers United, offering an in-depth look at what a worker-led campaign can look like–the ups and downs, headaches and heartbreaks. Their devotion shows on every page, as do practical calculations of power and strategy. The labor movement could use 1000 more just like them.” —Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won’t Love You Back and From the Ashes
More on the book here: https://jazbrisack.com/book/

Anti-Fascist Button Making Workshop with Buttons of the Left founder, Isaac Silver
2025-10-24 18:00 - 20:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Friday, October 24th from 6:00-8:00pm at the East Side Freedom Library

Join us at ESFL for a hands-on button-making workshop! Create your own Anti-Fascist button and explore examples from the Buttons of the Left archive, which document struggles for peace, justice, and equality. All supplies provided, no registration necessary.

BUTTONS OF THE LEFT is an archive and educational project focused on the ephemeral materials used to educate, agitate and organize for progressive change. We collect and preserve buttons as important artifacts of working class history, share the context and meaning behind each item, and curate topical exhibits and presentations to connect with students, workers, and the public

LABOR CONVENING: Ending Slavery in Minnesota
2025-10-21 18:00 - 20:00 | United Labor Centre, 312 Central Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55414, United States
Important to note ** Event co-sponsored by ESFL but held at United Labor Centre**
LABOR CONVENING: ENDING SLAVERY IN MINNESOTA
Did you know that we have legal slavery in Minnesota, with incarcerated people forced to work for $0.25 and hour — this is a labor issue, a justice issue, and one the labor movement can take a lead on! Join us.

Book Talk & Art Happening: In Search of the Purple Desert (graphic novel launch!)
2025-10-18 17:00 - 19:00 | Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55406, United States
**Important note: this event is happening in person at MOON PALACE BOOKS in MINNEAPOLIS**

Please join us on Saturday, October 18th from 5:00pm – 7:00pm for a book talk and art happening with author Avigdor Edminster, in collaboration with the East Side Freedom Library.

ESFL staff member Camila Leiva will moderate this event!

**This is an in-person event, and masks are required in the store.**
For years Red Coyote and the Floating One have run from humans and scrounged for food in a hostile city. Their sole comfort has been the stories they scavenged from trash bins and abandoned buildings–the adventures of “The Purple Desert Gang.” In desperation, Red decides to look for the gang and their desert, so beautiful and full of wonder. Their search brings Red to a place and people both familiar and mysterious.
In Search of the Purple Desert…or Stories that Become Us embodies the transformational power of art and stories. It illuminates the potential we all have to make other worlds possible.
https://www.insearchofthepurpledesert.com/

Book Discussion with pre-eminent scholar Marcus Rediker: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE HISTORY OF THE RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY?
2025-10-06 19:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
East Side Freedom Library
Monday, October 6, 2025, 7pm
Join historian Marcus Rediker, author of the new book, FREEDOM SHIP: THE UNCHARTED HISTORY OF ESCAPING SLAVERY BY SEA, for a conversation about the many ways that enslaved men and women, and their accomplices, resisted slavery in the United States, and how this is relevant to our understanding of the ways workers can organize — and are organizing — today.

As many as 100,000 enslaved people fled successfully from the horrors of bondage in the antebellum South, finding safe harbor along a network of passageways across North America now known as the Underground Railroad. Yet imagery of fugitives ushered clandestinely from safe house to safe house fails to capture the full breadth of these harrowing journeys: many escapes took place not by land but by sea.
Deeply researched and grippingly told, Freedom Ship offers a groundbreaking new look into the secret world of stowaways and the vessels that carried them to freedom across the North and into Canada. Sprawling through the intricate riverways of the Carolinas to the banks of the Chesapeake Bay to Boston’s harbors, these tales illuminate the little-known stories of freedom seekers who turned their sights to the sea—among them the legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, one of the Underground Railroad’s most famous architects.
Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. His “histories from below,” including The Slave Ship: A Human History, have won numerous awards, and have been translated into nineteen languages worldwide. His books include Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age; Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Pirates and the Anglo-American World; Many Middle Passages: Forced Migrations and the Making of the Modern World, and The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (with Peter Linebaugh). He has produced a film, Ghosts of Amistad, with director Tony Buba, and written a play, The Return of Benjamin Lay, with playwright Naomi Wallace. The Freedom Ship is Marcus’ new book, just published.

Freaks (1932) — special screening with Dan Chaon
2025-10-03 19:00 - 21:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Event hosted at the EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY, in collaboration with our dear friends of TriLingua Cinema.
Tod Browning’s notorious 1932 film Freaks remains one of the most unsettling and radical movies Hollywood ever produced. Banned for decades, the film shocked audiences with its depiction of circus performers whose community, bonds, and dignity stand in stark contrast to the cruelty and greed of the so-called “normal” world.
On Friday, October 3 at 7:00 PM at the East Side Freedom Library, join Dan Chaon—National Book Award–finalist and author of the new novel One of Us—for an introduction and post-screening discussion exploring the film’s historical context and its disturbing relevance today.
When Freaks was released, the American eugenics movement was in full swing: laws permitting forced sterilizations were on the books in dozens of states, and the rhetoric of “fitness” and “purity” was considered mainstream science. Nearly a century later, those ideas echo again in our political and cultural landscape, whether in debates over disability rights, reproductive autonomy, or the rhetoric of Silicon Valley elites who imagine a world engineered for the “genetically superior.” The resurgence of eugenic thinking on the American right—couched in the language of efficiency, meritocracy, and bio-optimization—makes Browning’s strange, defiant vision more urgent than ever.
This film is Not Rated. Parents or guardians are encouraged to consult the IMDB Parents’ guide here.
This film will be screened in English with English subtitles.
Trailer

Panel Discussion: THE FIGHT FOR MORE TIME - A CAMPAIGN THAT CAN REVITALIZE OUR UNIONS
2025-09-27 13:00 - 15:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Join us for a panel discussion featuring MAPE activists, and take part in a conversation
about how we can make our unions stronger while fighting for more time for ourselves.
This past year, members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) launched an
internal campaign to educate and organize members about the possibilities of seeking a 32 hour work
week. They organized a union committee and collaborated with a network of advocates beyond MAPE
called “WorkFourMN.” In mere months, they inspired 2500 rank-and-file state workers to sign a petition
advocating for a 32 hour work week, drawing many into becoming union members, and participated in
conversations, meetings, and co-dreaming about how all Minnesotans can have more time outside of work.
While MAPE did not win a 32 hour work week in their 2025 negotiations, there is much that workers and unions can learn from their experience.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH 1-3PM @ The East Side Freedom Library
There is a wheelchair accessible entrance with an elevator for those that may need it.

Cracked Walnut Presents: "Expressions!" and Writers for Democratic Action (Jarvenpa, Hasse, Kysar, Kleber-Diggs, Isaac)
2025-09-18 19:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Cracked Walnut Presents: “Expressions!” and Writers for Democratic Action
Featuring Diane Jarvenpa, Margaret Hasse, Kathryn Kysar, Michael Kleber-Diggs and Donna Isaac
Thursday, September 18, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul, MN 55106
The East Side Freedom Library is thrilled to host the latest installment of this year’s Cracked Walnut Poetry Festival, “Expressions!” Poets/writers from Writers for Democratic Action will read works speaking out on political, social, and cultural occurrences in our country.
Bios
Diane Jarvenpa is the author of six books of poetry. She has received The Midwest Independent Publishers Association Award and Artist Initiative grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She is a teaching artist with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project MN and the East Side Arts Council. As a singer- songwriter she performs and records under the name Diane Jarvi.
Margaret Hasse was among the remarkable generation of Minnesota poets who came of age in the 1970s and & 1980s. Her first book, Stars Above, Stars Below, was published by New Rivers in 1984, Press, followed by In a Sheep’s Eye, Darling, Milkweed Editions. Forty years and many publications later, including five with Nodin Press, Margaret’s most recent book, Belongings, was released in 2024. Her poems are a rich tapestry of “belonging” that extend from cherished personal memories outward into a skein of relationships and concerns, including poems about the current assault on American democracy.
Kathryn Kysar is the 2025 winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s George Garrett Award for Outstanding Service to Literature and recipient of a 2024 Creative Individual Minnesota State Arts Board grant. Her poetry books include Dark Lake and Pretend the World, and she edited Riding Shotgun: Women Write about Their Mothers, and she has published recently in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Sequestrum, Slag Glass City, and The Under Review. She teaches creative writing at the Loft Literary Center and Anoka-Ramsey Community College.
Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, literary critic, and arts educator. He is the author of My Weight in Water, a memoir about his complicated relationship with lap swimming (forthcoming with Spiegel & Grau, 2026). Michael’s debut poetry collection, Worldly Things, won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and was published by Milkweed Editions in 2021. His poems and essays often explore themes of intimacy, community, empathy, and grace, practices he believes are simultaneously distinct and interdependent. Michael is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Literature, and he teaches creative writing at Hamline University and Augsburg University and through the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. (photo by Martin Diggs)
Poet Donna Isaac is a teaching artist and organizer of community readings and workshops; she taught full-time for 40 years. Published work includes Footfalls (Pocahontas Press); Tommy (Red Dragonfly Press); Holy Comforter (Red Bird Chapbooks); Persistence of Vision (Finishing Line Press), In the Tilling (Finishing Line Press), and writing work in over fifty literary journals. <donnaisaacpoet.com>

Join us for our annual Labor Solidarity Picnic!
2025-09-06 13:00 - 16:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
At the East Side Freedom Library
Please join us for a celebration of workers making history, from newly unionized locals to those winning first contracts.
Hear from:

AFSCME locals at the MN Historical Society & Science Museum,
Macalester College staff & student workers,
University of Minnesota workers,

… and more!

Great food and refreshments with Bernie & Mike on the grill!
Live music!
Information tables!
Kids’ games!

Book Event: Nordic Socialism by Pelle Dragsted in Conversation with Gary Kaunonen
2025-08-10 19:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Book Event: Nordic Socialism by Pelle Dragsted, with Gary Kaunonen
Sunday, August 10, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library
1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul., MN 55106
This event is free and open to everyone. Registration requested: Sign up HERE!
Join us as the East Side Freedom Library welcomes author and Danish parliament member Pelle Dragsted to discuss his book Nordic Socialism: The Path Toward a Democratic Economy. He will be in conversation with scholar and award-winning author Gary Kaunonen.
In recent years, the Nordic countries have been the envy of the world for their economic success, institutional stability, and consistently high levels of social happiness. But are they socialist? Several prominent members of the American right think so. They may find a surprising ally in Pelle Dragsted, a member of the Danish parliament and the leader of the socialist political party Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance). In Dragsted’s studied conclusion, Denmark and the rest of the Nordic countries are indeed already socialist, but only in part. The dangers faced by Norden come from the unhealthy encroachment of capitalism.
Joining Dragsted will be Gary Kaunonen, author of Flames of Discontent: The 1916 Iron Ore Strike, which chronicles the labor activism in the early 20th century Iron Range, largely catalyzed by Finnish immigrants.
Pelle Dragsted is the leader of the Enhedslisten party in Denmark and a representative in the Folketing. He is the author of Nordisk Socialisme: På vej mod en demokratisk økonomi, which was first published in Danish to great acclaim.
Gary Kaunonen, Ph.D., is a historian of culture, labor, and immigration and a documentary filmmaker. His work includes the 2018 Hognander Minnesota History Award winner, Flames of Discontent: A History of the 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike, and two award-winning books about Michigan, Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country and Community in Conflict: A Working-class History of the 1913–14 Michigan Copper Strike and the Italian Hall Tragedy. Kaunonen’s documentary “Northern Minnesota’s Labor Wars” looks at strikes in 1916 and 1917 and their significance to World War I–era political deportations and repression.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE FOR THE CAUSE OF SOLIDARITY!
Registration requested: Sign up HERE!

Black August: Letter Writing to Honor Revolutionary Prisoner's Movement
2025-08-10 15:00 - 17:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
Black August: Letter Writing to Honor Revolutionary Prisoner’s Movement
Sunday 8/10: Easy Side Freedom Library (1105 Greenbrier St, St Paul) at 3:00 p.m.

We’re hosting letter writing to political prisoners at the East Side Freedom Library!

Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation in commemorating Black August! We’re rolling out a series of events this month to honor the revolutionary prisoner’s movement borne out of the Black Liberation struggle in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

We’ll also discuss some of the history of mass incarceration and political prisoners in the United States, as well as the fightback that has endured across generations.
Black August is honored every year to commemorate the fallen freedom fighters of the Black Liberation Movement, to call for the release of political prisoners in the United States, to condemn the oppressive conditions of U.S. prisons, and to emphasize the continued importance of the Black Liberation struggle. In short, the principles of Black August are: “study, fast, train, fight.”

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE!

Movie Night Out! TriLingua Presents "Despicable Me 4"
2025-08-05 20:30 - 22:00 | MN
Movie Night Out! TriLingua Presents “Despicable Me 4”
Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 8:30 p.m.
1105 Greenbrier Street Paul, MN 55106
After all the Night Out celebrations, join TriLingua Cinema and the rest of the East Side Freedom Library crew for a FREE OUTDOOR SCREENING of Despicable Me 4 on the ESFL lawn!
We’ll be grilling up some popcorn and popping hot dogs on the ESFL lawn!
Synopsis
The fourth outing for the popular Despicable franchise sees Gru, Lucy, and their girls facing off against Maxime Le Mal, Gru’s old high school classmate who now possesses the power of a half human, half cockroach supervillain.
This film is rated PG and runs for 134 minutes. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to consult Common Sense Media for more information.
This film will be screened in English with English subtitles.
Trailer

BOOK RELEASE! Said Shaiye for ARE YOU BORG NOW? with Douglas Kearney
2025-06-30 19:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
BOOK RELEASE! Said Shaiye for ARE YOU BORG NOW? in conversation with Douglas Kearney
Monday, June 30, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED
Join us at the East Side Freedom Library for a book release reading and conversation with noted author Said Shaiye and award-winning poet Douglas Kearney.
Are You Borg Now? by Said Shaiye (NOEMI Press) is an Afrofuturist memoir returns in a second edition with a new introduction by Douglas Kearney. Said Shaiye’s cross-genre work blends nonfiction and poetry in an experimental interview the author conducts with his younger self, rejecting the conventions of memoir and what
is expected of who writes them, specifically when that writer is an immigrant. Are You Borg Now? ciphers with trauma through a poetics of refusal via hard and beautiful language. Finding vigor in Islam and mirrors in Star Trek: Voyager, Shaiye shifts achingly between memory and improvisation.
Said Shaiye is an Autistic + ADHD Somali Writer, Photographer & Filmmaker. He was a 2024 MacDowell Fellow & won a Minnesota State Arts Grant to lead a BIPOC Neurodivergent Writing Workshop. He was nominated for a 2024 Pushcart Prize by Indiana Review for his essay “Sneak a Uzi on the Island in my Army Jacket lining.” His first edition of Are You Borg Now?, was a 2022 Minnesota Book Award Finalist in Creative Nonfiction & Memoir.
He has published poetry & prose in Indiana Review, Texas Review, Obsidian, Brittle Paper, Pithead Chapel, 580 Split, and elsewhere.
He is a writing professor in Minneapolis.
“Why should one write? This is the question that pervades Said Shaiye’s experimental approach to memoir in Are You Borg Now? This book offers many different kinds of answers to such a question, answers that involve facing the effects of trauma and violence with courage, honesty, and a willingness to risk vulnerability. One reason to write is to call forth a voice in solidarity with others who suffer. Shaiye is a writer who transforms the pain of alienation into beautifully lyric writing and from that writing springs a profound faith that one is never really alone.” -Kathryn Nuernberger, author of The Witch of Eye

Douglas Kearney has published nine books ranging from poetry to essays. In 2023, Optic Subwoof, a collection of his Bagley Wright lectures, won the Poetry Foundation’s Pegasus Prize for Poetry Criticism and the CLMP Firecracker Award for Creative Nonfiction. His seventh, Sho, (Wave Books) is a Griffin Poetry Prize and Minnesota Book Award winner and a National Book Award, Pen America, and Kingsley Tufts Award finalist. Kearney teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities where he is a McKnight Presidential Fellow.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE FOR THE CAUSE OF SOLIDARITY

ART LAB FINAL SHOWCASE: MAPPING OUR HOUSING FAMILY TREES
2025-06-22 13:00 - 14:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
ART LAB FINAL SHOWCASE: MAPPING OUR HOUSING FAMILY TREES
Sunday, June 22, 1 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
Paint. Draw. Type. Map. Sing. Act. Glam. Listen. Share.
Join us for an interactive, community empowered art lab showcase. The East Side Freedom Library Art Lab artists will bring their installations showcasing their work and inviting everyone in the community, your community, to join in artmaking, storytelling, story mapping and more.

Artists Sophie Wang, Sterling Miller, Marcia Rowe and Lis Sundberg will engage you in art, stories and history. Paint, print, draw, type, zine, and write with our story map of Saint Paul and beyond!

Sophie Wang: My primary artistic practice is the creation of comic zines that take a critical power-informed lens to dominant science and technology. I began making these comics when I co-founded an activist collective at the intersection of science and social justice called Free Radicals and wanted to use my ability to draw in service of the work. I came to this work originally out of a deep sense of responsibility to make conversations critiquing the imperialist, objectivist, universalist nature of dominant western science more accessible, and to engage more people in envisioning what more liberatory forms of science, knowledge-making, and epistemology have, do, and could look like.
Sterling Miller: Social Justice is informing my art by pressuring me create work that speaks to the needs of Black folks. I, like many others, know that to identify as Black is grounds for political warfare. I know that highlighting Black revolutionaries in performance art acts as a catalyst to inspire Artists and Audiences alike. When we get to see the Assata Shakur’s story on stage we are enthralled by her iconic nature and her ability to achieve the unthinkable. In works that took place after this I have always tried to center Black/African-American narratives and cultural practices.
Lis Sundberg: I have been interested in the intersections between art and social justice for a long time because art is a powerful and accessible way to engage people in social justice. Art extends topics of social justice to a wider audience and allows representation through a range of mediums. I am interested in participatory art because it creates opportunities for people to have a meaningful experience while contributing their stories to the piece. The art I create is informed by my history of participation in social justice movements.
Marcia Rowe: Social justice informs my art through my lived, academic, and professional experiences. It creates innovation, niche experiences, cultural knowledge, and growth of connection between myself and a diverse audience. My academic background centers intersecting visual arts with sociology practices, visual and qualitative research, design studies, and community engagement experiences.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND VERY OPEN TO EVERYONE!

9th Annual Union Job & Resource Fair
2025-06-12 13:00 - 18:00 | The Electrical Industry Building, 1330 Conway Street, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Join us for our 9th Annual Union Job and Resource Fair, held at the Electrical Industry Building, 1330 Conway Street, Thursday, June 12 from 1:00 to 6:00 PM on Saint Paul’s East Side.
Our goal is to connect individuals in our community with potential employers and local resources to create pathways towards a union career. We will have onsite interviewing, hiring, assistance with resume writing, apprenticeship program information, community resources – including expungement services.
Our unions, training programs and employers have career opportunities throughout the entire metro area! Whether you are just starting out, looking for your first job or a seasoned worker looking to land into a new career with thriving pay and benefits, we have opportunities for all.

Participating Employers & Organizations:

Anchor Glass Container Corporation
Boilermakers Local #647
City of Saint Paul Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity (HREEO)
City of Saint Paul Public Works
Finishing Trades Institute of the Upper Midwest
IATSE Local 13
IBEW Local Union 23
IBEW Local Union 110
Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis
Labor Education Service, UMN
Laborers Local 563 LiUNA
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development / CareerForce
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Minnesota RETAIN
Minnesota Training Partnership
Monarch Healthcare Management
North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC)
Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy
Roofers & Waterproofers Union Local 96
Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
St Paul Pipefitters JATC
St. Paul Plumbers 34
United State Postal Service
Wright Tree Service

Sponsored by:

AFL-CIO Community Services
City of Saint Paul
East Side Freedom Library
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW Local 110
Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation
St. Paul Building Trades
St. Paul Federal Credit Union
UFCW Local 1189

MN Book Award Series: Novel & Short Story Winner Mubanga Kalimamukwento
2025-06-05 19:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
MN Book Award Series: Fiction Winner Mubanga Kalimamukwento
Thursday, June 5, 2025, 7 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED
Join the East Side Freedom Library as we welcome the 2025 winner of the Minnesota Book Award in the Novel & Short Story category, Mubanga Kalimamukwento. Acclaimed by many critics for her the brilliant poetics of her astonishing prose, Mubanga has spun her words into a litany of awards and recognition. She will be at ESFL on June 5 to read from her Minnesota top honors work Obligations to the Wounded and other works.
Mubanga Kalimamukwento was born in Lusaka, Zambia. Her creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in adda, Aster(ix), Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, The Ex-Puritan, Menelique, on Netflix, and elsewhere, and her editorial work can be found or is forthcoming in Shenandoah, the Water~Stone Review, Doek! Literary Magazine and Safundi. She founded Ubwali Literary Magazine and co-founded the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop. When she’s not writing or editing, Mubanga serves as a Mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She is a PhD student in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota (Twin-Cities), where she is also an Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) Scholar. Mubanga lives in Minnesota with her husband and their two children.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN FOR THE CAUSE OF SOLIDARITY!
REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED

MN Book Award Series: Under Turbulent Skies - a reading and reflection by Kao Kalia Yang
2025-05-22 19:00 - 20:30 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
MN Book Award Series: Under Turbulent Skies – a reading and reflection by Kao Kalia Yang
Thursday, May 22, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED
On April 22nd of this year, Kao Kalia Yang accomplished something no other person has in the history of the Minnesota Book Awards. She took home three top honors in one year! We are stunned but not surprised. We have long been honored to have her as a friend and frequent presenter at the East Side Freedom Library and again welcome her as we celebrate. This recognition is apt for the rich voice and astute consciousness she has shared over the years, geographies and important dialogs.
Kalia won the prize for:

Children’s Literature: The Rock in My Throat by Kao Kalia Yang; illustrated by Jiemei Lin (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group)
Middle Grade Literature: The Diamond Explorer by Kao Kalia Yang (Dutton Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House)
Memoir & Creative Nonfiction: Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother’s Life by Kao Kalia Yang (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)

In addition, Kalia is part of this year’s Book Awards winner in the Anthology category, a book co-edited by ESLF board member Michelle Filkins, Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces.
Where the Rivers Part
“There are moments of poignant beauty. There are also humiliations. Tswb is small and brown; her English is not good. In America, she is easily overlooked. In this exceptional book, Yang shows what a mistake it is to underestimate her: ‘I wanted to claim the legacy of the woman I come from, the women who had to define for themselves what it meant to live in a world where luck was not on your side.’ She has done so with deep feeling and grace.” —BookPage (starred review)
The Diamond Explorer
Award winning author Kao Kalia Yang stuns with middle-grade debut about a Hmong American boy’s struggle to find a place
for himself in America and in the world of his ancestors.
“Yang has crafted a layered, profoundly moving musing on grief, connection (and lack thereof), and identity…a true gem.” –Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW; “[A] richly wrought tale about a boy coming into his own.” –Publishers Weekly
The Rock in My Throat
Having seen the poor treatment her parents received when making their best efforts at speaking English, she no longer speaks at school. Kalia feels as though a rock has become lodged in her throat, and it grows heavier each day. Although the narrative is somber, it is also infused with moments of beauty, love, and hope.–Lerner Publishing
Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong-American writer. She is the author of the adult memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, The Song Poet, and Somewhere in the Unknown World. Yang is also the author of the children’s books A Map Into the World, The Shared Room, The Most Beautiful Thing, and Yang Warriors. Yang is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, and her work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA literary awards, the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize, the American Library Association, Kirkus Best Books of the Year, the Heartland Bookseller’s Award, and garnered seven Minnesota Book Awards. The East Side Freedom Library is housed in the building of her childhood public library. Kao Kalia Yang lives in Minnesota with her family, and teaches and speaks across the nation.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE!
REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED

MN Book Award Series: "Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces" with Michelle Filkins
2025-05-15 19:00 | East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St, Saint Paul, MN, 55106
MN Book Award Series: Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces with Michelle Filkins, joined by Sha Cage, Maureen Aiken, Leslie Adrienne Miller, Suzanne Nielsen and Patricia Cumbie.
Thursday, May 15, 7:00 p.m.
East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, MN 55106
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED
The East Side Freedom Library is fortunate to have on our board of directors editor, librarian and writer Michelle Filkins. Join us for a conversation on the collection recognized as a Minnesota Book Award finalist, Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces. Michelle will be on hand along with some of the contributors to the collection.
Locker Room Talk, gives us insight into the epic and ordinary moments that happen when women are together. Subverting the traditional idea of “locker room talk,” this collection illuminates the conversations women share with family, friends, and strangers, whether at the sinks of a nightclub ladies’ room, on a bus heading to the Women’s March, or in the kitchen of an elder relative. Cumulatively, they reveal the myriad ways women care for themselves, each other, their communities, and our world.
Michelle Filkins is a founding editor of Spout Press and a contributing author to The Evolution of Human Cooperation and Community Development (Lexington Books, 2021) and Creating a Transformational Community: The Fundamentals of Stewardship Activities (Lexington Books, 2017). She is a Little Free Library steward and one of the Daunte Wright Memorial caretakers. Currently she is a professor and reference and instruction librarian at Metro State University in Saint Paul.
Sha Cage is a renaissance artist who writes, directs and acts in theater and film. She has been called a change-maker and one of the leading artists of her generation. Sha is one of the premier actors, artists and culture makers in the Twin Cities whose work has been recognized globally.
Maureen Aitken’s short-story collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls (SEMO Press), won the Nilsen Prize, the top Foreword Review INDIE Prize (General Fiction, Gold Winner), and ranked in the Kirkus Best Indie Books of 2019. She is a Minnesota Book Award finalist and a Pushcart Prize nominee.
Leslie Adrienne Miller’s collections of poetry include Y, The Resurrection Trade, and Eat Quite Everything You See from Graywolf Press, and Yesterday Had a Man In It, Ungodliness and Staying Up For Love from Carnegie Mellon University Press.
Patricia Cumbie’s short stories and essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Her writing has been supported by The Loft Literary Center’s Fiction Mentor Series, a nSASE/Jerome Fellowship, a Loft Career Initiative Grant, and a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship.
Suzanne Nielsen (she/her) is a lifelong resident of St. Paul, Minnesota. She is an East Sider who teaches writing at Metropolitan State University. Her latest poetry collection, Face Up, was published in March 2022.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE FOR THE CAUSE OF SOLIDARITY!
REGISTRATION REQUESTED
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