The East Side Freedom Library & Coffee House Press invite you to join writer and Pen/Fusion finalist Victoria Blanco in a reading and conversation drawn from her manuscript-in-progress about the Raramuri people in Mexico and her residency in the stacks of the East Side Freedom Library.

Minneapolis-based publisher Coffee House Press, through their program In the Stacks, has encouraged interactions between local writers and artists and museums and libraries. This spring, they supported Victoria Blanco in a residency at the East Side Freedom Library. In essays that weave together ethnography, reportage, and memoir, Victoria has been exploring the creative ways that indigenous Raramuri people have responded to the challenges of economic development and dislocation. At the East Side Freedom Library, she has found parallels in the stories and cultural work of newcomers from southeast Asia who have found space here. Please join her for a reading and conversation.