This event is co-sponsored by the Minnesota Humanities Center and Department of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota.

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Patti Kameya | Antonio Duke | Chavonn Williams Shen | Rebecca Nichloson | Ty Chapman | Rebecca Song

The Kaleidoscope Project is a three-part creative writing and intercultural discourse experience developed and facilitated by creative writer/interdisciplinary artist Rebecca Nichloson. This is the second cohort of writers who identify as African American and writers who identify as Asian American were selected to reflect on how solidarity between these two communities can be fully realized through narrative, deep intercultural exchange, and an in-depth understanding of the historical trauma both communities have experienced in the Twin Cities and across the country, as well as the present racism and disenfranchisement exacerbated by the pandemic.

The project consisted of two Generative Virtual Workshops where the writers were asked to participate in a private virtual workshop led by Rebecca Nichloson. The workshop was originally conceived to allow participants to discuss their experiences with creating during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as it relates to story. A week before the first workshop, the world witness the George Floyd murder, and the conversation changed. What results is a group of writers who are speaking powerfully into this momentous time.

Readers:

Patti Kameya was born in Newport Beach before it became “the OC.” She forages wild plants and treats historical amnesia in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Dakota homeland. Her work has appeared in The Saint Paul Almanac (2019), the University of Minnesota Asian American Studies Program Journal (2021), and “This Was 2020” by the Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project (2021).

Ty Chapman is a Twin Cities based author, poet, puppeteer, and playwright of Nigerian and European descent. He has been creating art with social justice themes for many years, and is passionate about creating art that speaks to the Black experience in America. His recent accomplishments include creating a one-man shadow puppet and marionette show for Puppet Lab, and publishing poems through SOFTBLOW and Oyster River Pages. Currently he is focused on crafting his debut book of poems, teaching writing through The Loft Literary Center & Little Inklings, and publishing his trove of picture book manuscripts. His debut picture book SARAH RISING is set to release in May 2022, through Beaming Books.

Antonio Duke strives to be an unrestricted conduit for the spirits he conjures in his theatrical practice. For him performance is an act of spiritual manifestation rooted in an ancient practice of Afrocentric storytelling. He follows in the tradition of the griot, West African oral storytellers who are blessed with the task of being the keepers of their community’s histories.

Chavonn Williams Shen was a first runner-up for The Los Angeles Review Flash Fiction Contest and a Best of the Net Award finalist. She was also a Pushcart Prize nominee, a winner of the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series and a fellow with the Givens Foundation for African American Literature. She earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing from Hamline University. A Tin House and VONA workshop alum, her writing has appeared in: Diode, Anomaly, Yemassee, Cosmonauts Avenue, and others. When she’s not teaching with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, she can be found in her house obsessing over her plants.

Rebecca Beibei Song has parts made in China and Canada and assembled in the United States, but her heart runs more like the rhythmic, puttering engine of a Cuban vintage salvage. She graduated with a BA in International Relations from Carleton College before trying her hand at anti-racism organizing and creative writing, then spent one year in Cuba at the prestigious Instituto Superior de Arte studying Afrocuban folkloric dance. She is an aspiring artist of a discipline yet to be determined, and is a lifelong learner of languages, political science, creative writing, and Cuban dance and music. Whatever she decides to delve into, she brings all her heart and embodied experience as a formerly undocumented Asian American woman and investigates through the lenses of critical race and feminist theory and intersectional identities. She firmly believes that in critical analysis and our imagination, we inhabit the ability to create a better future for all.

Rebecca Nichloson (She/Her) is a creative writer, singer/songwriter, playwright and theatre maker. She is the author of numerous creative works, including Mara, Queen of the World (an acapella musical), The Wild, Bold Enlightenment of Velvet the Mistress, Cooking With Keisha (or Anatomy of Pie), and Jill, Jack & the Martian Lady, among others. She holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University, an M.A. in English Literature, and a B.A. in Business Administration. She was also the recipient of a 2020 Commission from the Cedar Cultural Center for which she created Multicolored Musings: Jewels of Love, Loss, & Triumph and received a 2020 honorable mention from the McKnight Foundation (Spoken Word). www.RebeccaNichloson.com.

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