Dear Sisters, Brother, and Kin,
We are unabashed in our mission—”to inspire solidarity, work for justice, and advocate for equity for all.” Our collections (now at 30,000 books, musical recordings, movies, and material objects) and our programs have been put together with this mission in mind. We are excited that the first half of September will feature several programs which place our quest to inspire solidarity at the center of our work.
In collaboration with art galleries, district councils, business organizations, and small businesses on Payne Avenue we are curating and hosting the “Solidarity Street Gallery 2022: Resilient Generations“, highlighting our Southeast Asian neighbors. In addition to hosting visual artists, ESFL will convene musical and poetry reading events on Friday, September 9, beginning at 5pm. This will also provide a preview of our collaboration with the American Composers Forum on the National Endowments for the Arts’ “Big Read” program. We will be convening a series of programs, beginning with the “Solidarity Street Gallery,” which will center on the new book, THE BEST WE CAN DO, by Thi Bui.
Our attention to solidarity will receive a specifically labor focus on Saturday, September 10, when, amidst the Solidarity Street Gallery celebration, we will convene our second annual “Labor Solidarity Picnic.” In addition to good food provided by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 and prepared by retired UFCW activists Mike Dreyer and Bernie Hesse, attendees will hear music by Charlie Maguire and will get updates on such key local labor issues as the Minnesota Nurses’ Association’s pending strike of hospitals across the state, the campaign by the Carpenters’ Union and immigrant labor organizations to put a stop to wage theft, and the ongoing campaigns by Starbucks and Amazon workers to unionize.
There will also be a special treat, a photography and oral history exhibit about Polish immigration to Minnesota in the 1980s, titled “Faces of Solidarity.” Curated by the Minnesota Polish Medical Society and featuring beautiful photographs taken by Grzegorz Litynski, this exhibit downstairs at ESFL will open to the public on Saturday, September 10, and will remain available for the remainder of September. On three weekends, ESFL will assemble panels from diverse immigrant communities who will discuss their own reasons for emigrating and the challenges they have faced in resettlement in Minnesota. We also hope to convene a conversation about the uses of photography and oral history as means to share stories and build empathy, leading to solidarity.
As you will see in this newsletter, ESFL is hosting other exciting programs in September. Please read the newsletter (or sign up here if you haven’t already!), visit our website, and explore our Facebook and Instagram pages. And join us to attend our events and, together, build solidarity.
Love and Solidarity,
Beth and Peter