By Mary Ann Grossman | February 2, 2020
HARLEM RENAISSANCE: Literary Lights reading series celebrates Black History Month by honoring the Harlem Renaissance, with writers Hawona Sullivan-Janzen, Brenda Brown Bell, James Bernard Short, A. Rafael Johnson, Mary Moore Easter and Clarence White. Hosted by Donna Isaac on behalf of Cracked Walnut. 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9; Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.
LITERATURE LOVERS’ NIGHT OUT: With guest readers Paul Yoon (“Run Me to the Earth”) and Kiley Reid (“Such a Fun Age”). 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, Community Thread, 2300 W. Orleans St., Stillwater, presented by Valley Bookseller, $15; 7 p.m. Feb. 7, Trinity Episcopal Church, 322 Second St., Excelsior, presented by Excelsior Bay Books. $20. Tickets for Excelsior event at bit.ly/2tojTt9.
EVA MOREIMI: Daughter of Holocaust survivors tells of her parent’s forced labor in World War II and the hundreds of recipes her mother gathered, at risk to her own life, from other starving women prisoners of the Nazis as they recalled happier times. Free. 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4; ModernWell, 2909 S. Wayzata Blvd., Mpls. RSVP required at modernwell.com
YICHIRO ONISHI: Professor in Asian-American and African-American & African Studies departments at the University of Minnesota discusses his book “Transpacific Antiracism,” now in paperback, which explores the processes out of which social movements in Black America, Japan and Okinawa formed Afro-Asian solidarities against white supremacy in the 20th century. 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6; East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul.
RADICAL VULNERABILITY: Richa Nagar, University of Minnesota professor and author of “Hungry Translations: Relearning the World through Radical Vulnerability,” is joined by commentators Elizabeth Sumida Huaman and Ajay Skaria in examination of how scholars and teachers working the Global North ethically participate in producing knowledge in ways that connect across different meanings of struggle, hunger, hope and the good life. 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8; East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul.
KATHLEEN WEST: Minnesota educator launches her debut novel “Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes,” about what happens when a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum, a helicopter mom goes viral on social media and the two women at odds find themselves in similar predicaments having to battle back from certain social ruin. In conversation with Gretchen Anthony, author of the novel “Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners.” 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4; Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.