East Side Freedom Library

On July 14 this year, the Hiroshima High Court delivered a stunning  victory to aging sufferers of “black rain” fallout from the atomic bomb:  it recognized them as “A-bomb affected people,” or hibakusha. Why  should this be a matter of interest to residents of the Twin Cities?  Minneapolis and Nagasaki have been sister cities since 1955. Minnesota’s  two nuclear power plants, Monticello and Prairie Island, including a  nuclear waste storage facility, are near the Twin Cities. The High Court  decision provides a key to connecting the dots of the nuclear age, from  Trinity to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marshall Islands, test sites and  nuclear facilities the world over, as well as Three Mile Island,  Chernobyl, and Fukushima. In other words, the Hiroshima decision  challenges the firewall erected to keep apart atomic weapons and “atoms  for peace.”  

With this court case as a starting point, Norma Field and Yuki Miyamoto  will explore the political, economic, environmental, and gendered  aspects of the nuclear age, including its colonial legacy.  

Norma Field is Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Professor Emerita of  the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations at the  University of Chicago. For a number of years, she taught a course titled  “From Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Beyond.” Her most recent book, with  Heather Bowen-Stryk, is For Dignity, Justice, and Revolution: An  Anthology of Japanese Proletarian Literature. She has pursued the  Fukushima nuclear disaster since its inception and, together with Yuki  Miyamoto, maintains the Atomic Age blog. Her most recent  Fukushima-related publication is This Will Still Be True Tomorrow:  “Fukushima Ain’t Got the Time for Olympic Games”: Two Texts on Nuclear  Disaster and Pandemic. She is currently working on a book on Fukushima.  

Yuki Miyamoto is a Professor of ethics in the Department of Religious  Studies at DePaul University where she teaches nuclear ethics,  environmental ethics, nuclear discourses in the US and Japan. She has  published monographs, Beyond the Mushroom Cloud (2011), Naze genbaku ga  aku dewa nainoka (The narrative divergence in nuclear discourse) (2020),  and A World Otherwise: Environmental Praxis in Minamata (2021), and  several articles, focusing on gender (ex. “In the Light of Hiroshima”  and “Gendered Bodies in Tokusatsu”). Her current work is to examine the  construction of postwar nuclear discourse in Japan and discrimination against the atomic bomb sufferers in Japan. She has taken DePaul students to Hiroshima and Nagasaki since 2005 on the biannual study abroad program.

For more information and to see the video: https://youtu.be/hP09jlpnqeI

The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a presentation by Dr. Chris Mato Nunpa, The Great Evil: Christianity, The Bible, and the Native American Genocide.

In this account of the history between Indigenous Peoples and the United States government, readers learn the role the bible played in the perpetration of genocide, massive land theft, and the religious suppression and criminalization of Native ceremonies and spirituality. Chris Mato Nunpa, a Dakota man, discusses this dishonorable and darker side of American history that is rarely studied, if at all. Out of a number of rationales used to justify the killing of Native Peoples and theft of their lands, the author emphasizes the role of a biblical rationale, including the “chosen people” idea, the “promised land” notion, and the genocidal commands of the Old Testament God. Mato Nunpa’s experience with fundamentalist and evangelical missionaries when he was growing up, his studies in Indigenous Nations history at the University of Minnesota, and his affiliation with the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) were three important factors in his motivation for writing this book.

Chris Mato Nunpa, Ph.D is a former Associate Professor of Indigenous Nations & Dakota Studies at Southwest Minnesota State University. Professor Mato Nunpa holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus, with the Collateral Field for the Ph.D. in American Indian Studies. He also studied theology at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois.

Dr. Chris Mato Nunpa is a Wahpetunwan (“Dwellers In The Leaves,” or Wahpeton) Dakota from the Pezihuta Zizi Otunwe, “Yellow Medicine Community” (BIA name, Upper Sioux Community), in southwestern Minnesota.

View the video here: https://youtu.be/_KV8F5azq64

The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a discussion of the new book, Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress, featuring author Ranae Hanson and discussants Sarah Degner-Riveros, Chelsea DeArmond, and Sam Grant.

Watershed explores the lands of northeastern Minnesota where Hanson's parents cleared land and built a house by a lake. As a young person in those woods, Hanson learned an abbreviated history of the land—one that largely left out Indigenous neighbors. “The fur trappers left cabins; the lumbermen, tree stumps; the Finns, grandmothers on swamp farms; the Englishmen, mine shafts; the miners, company towns. All of us came from somewhere else. None of us belonged.”

As an exchange student in Europe, during the Vietnam War, Hanson explains: “I discovered, to my surprise, that some people found my life interesting. My new friends had never been in a canoe, did not know how to knead bread, had not built a fire or slept in a tent.” As a graduate student in Ohio, Hanson “began to see the woods where I had grown up as an outsider would. I had thought we were living a real-time regular life, that eating from the woods was what people did. […] We had been part of nature.” Hanson raised two children on her own, taught at three colleges while pursuing a doctorate, and began to notice how quickly the earth was shifting. “In the summer of 1989, the rains did not come. When I drove north, I noticed that the pines on the southern edge of the boreal forest were dying.” She noted that tent caterpillars ate the early birch and poplar leaves four years in a row. Drinking water from the lakes was no longer safe.

In Watershed, Hanson asks: What if we tended to an ailing ecosystem just as we care for ourselves in the throes of a medical condition? She offers a work that is at once a memoir of illness and health, a contemplation of the surrounding natural world in distress, and a reflection on how these come together in opportunities for health.

Join Ranae Hanson for a conversation with three people who have read her book—Augsburg University Spanish-language professor Sarah Degner-Riveros, SP350 East Side activist Chelsea DeArmond, and MN350 Executive Director Sam Grant. There will be time for you to ask questions as well, via Zoom or Facebook.

View the video here: https://youtu.be/UcCEs_4j6uQ

Join us for a special event about the intersection of sports, activism,  and equity with special guests Dave Zirin and Mi’Chael Wright. This  event is a fundraiser for the East Side Freedom Library to support our  equity work in community.  

About Dave: Named one of UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World,”  Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine  as their first sportswriter in 150 years. Winner of Sport In Society and  Northeastern University School of Journalism’s ‘Excellence in Sports  Journalism’ award, Zirin is also the host of the Edge of Sports podcast.  He has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States,” by  Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM  Magazine and the Progressive. Dave is a graduate of Macalester College  in Saint Paul.  

About Mi’Chael: Mi’Chael N. Wright is a PhD student in the Dept. of Sociology at the  University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her primary research focuses on  sociology of media, sociology of mental health, collective memory and  trauma, and identity. She is specifically interested in how digital  communities, which can be simultaneously encouraging and hostile,  constitute the identity development of Black and Brown adolescent girls.  Mi’Chael is also interested in digital sociology, a sub-discipline of  sociology that highlights the role of digital media in everyday life and  its contribution to social relationships. Mi’Chael is a former Division  I athlete who organized taking a knee in 2016 and has much to share  from that experience.  

About the new book, The Kaepernick Effect Riveting and inspiring first-person stories of how “taking a knee”  triggered an awakening in sports, from the celebrated sportswriter.  “The Kaepernick Effect reveals that Colin Kaepernick’s story is bigger  than one athlete. With profiles of courage that leap off the page, Zirin  uncovers a whole national movement of citizen-athletes fighting for  racial justice.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of  Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist.  

In 2016, amid an epidemic of police shootings of African Americans, the  celebrated NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a series of quiet  protests on the field, refusing to stand during the U.S. national  anthem. By “taking a knee,” Kaepernick bravely joined a long tradition  of American athletes making powerful political statements. This time,  however, Kaepernick’s simple act spread like wildfire throughout  American society, becoming the preeminent symbol of resistance to  America’s persistent racial inequality.

View the video: https://youtu.be/OYt8aLPnebk

The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a presentation of Brains  Explained, a new book by Alie and Micah Caldwell!  

Curious about how billions of neurons make up your consciousness? How  anxiety hijacks your body? Whether AI will replace your therapist? Learn  about this witty, enlightening book, presented live by the brilliant  neuroscientist and clinical therapist duo, neuroscientist Alie Caldwell  and clinical therapist Micah Caldwell. In 2015 they created the YouTube  channel "Neuro Transmissions" with a singular mission in mind: explain  the brain . . . simply!  

This book scrutinizes the sometimes-dubious history of brain science  from a modern perspective, wanders through explanations about how your  senses trick you into believing some wild things, speculates about  whether we'll be able to upload our consciousness to the Matrix, and so  much more. Brains Explained is sure to be one of the most cherished  popular science titles on your bookshelf for years to come bookshelf,  and this evening 's conversation is sure to be unforgettable.

View the video: https://youtu.be/0PFyE36a5hQ

The East Side Freedom Library and  the Ramsey County Historical Society invite you to our monthly “History  Revealed” program featuring Greg Poferl and his memoir, Turning Points:  Never Give Up On Anyone, Especially Yourself.

We  are especially excited about this opportunity to provide our  communities with a unique vantage point into our shared history, while  also providing an example about the value of self-reflection. Greg  Poferl has been a committed and generous individual, dedicated to  fostering social justice from the workrooms of the U.S. Postal Service  and the classrooms of Cretin-Derham Hall High School to protests at the  School of the Americas and support for the struggles of workers and  farmers in Central America. Greg has been integral to the development of  the East Side Freedom Library, from cleaning our bathrooms and  thwarting squirrels and raccoons on our roof to mentoring middle and  high school students in National History Day projects.

We  are thrilled that he has written a memoir which provides insight into  the history of St. Paul from the 1950s to the present while also  providing us with a model of living a life rich with commitment, from  his family, union, and community, to the world. The ESFL family has been  fortunate to rely on Greg, and now we are delighted to celebrate his  memoir and share it with our wider communities. ESFL published Turning  Points, and we are happy to provide copies to you at $15 each.

Turning  Points reflects on kids at play and growing up in St. Paul in the 1950s  and 1960s, and it moves on to stories about military service, labor  struggles and strikes, directing youth in social justice theater  projects, peace and justice actions, a sentence in federal prison,  teaching social studies, and experiencing the overwhelming love of  family. Please join Greg as he shares this book and his journey with us.

For more Information and to view the video: https://youtu.be/gZhVqWH_OEY

The  East Side Freedom Library invites you to A Book Launch Virtual Event with Christine Stark and her new book, Carnival Lights, and Mona Susan Power and her new book, A Council of Dolls.

Chris Stark is an award-winning writer, organizer, and researcher with Ojibwe, Cherokee, and European ancestry. Her first novel, Nickels: A  Tale of Dissociation, was a Lambda Literary Finalist. Blending fiction and fact, Carnival Lights ranges from reverie to nightmare and back  again in a lyrical yet unflinching story of an Ojibwe family’s struggle to hold onto their land, their culture, and each other. Carnival Lights is a timely book for a country in need of deep healing.

Mona Susan Power is a Yanktonai Dakota author of four books of fiction, The Grass Dancer (awarded the PEN/Hemingway Prize), Sacred Wilderness, Roofwalker, and the recently completed novel, A Council of Dolls. A  Council of Dolls tells the story of three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women and their dolls–allies manifested during times of great challenge, highlighting how generational trauma develops and persists,  especially as a result of the horrors of the Indian Boarding School system.

View the video here: https://youtu.be/mfvB2SR8Hl4

An interdisciplinary group of St.  Catherine University faculty, staff, and students have partnered with  the Mapping Prejudice project to learn more about the history of housing  inequality and race in Ramsey County during the twentieth century.

Dr.  Rachel Neiwert, associate professor of history, and Dr. Kristine West,  associate professor of economics will share what they have been learning  about this history in our community.

View the video here: https://youtu.be/Cni3zlxU_7E

The East Side Freedom Library and the Ramsey County Historical Society  invite invite you to join us for this very special History Revealed  program with Karlos K. Hill, author of the new book, The 1921 Tulsa Race  Massacre: A Photographic History, on the centennial of the event in  Tulsa, OK.  On the evening of May 31, 1921, and in the early morning hours of June  1, several thousand white citizens and authorities violently attacked  the African American Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the  course of some twelve hours of mob violence, white Tulsans reduced one  of the nation’s most prosperous black communities to rubble and killed  an estimated 300 people, mostly African Americans. This richly  illustrated volume, featuring more than 175 photographs, along with oral  testimonies, shines a new spotlight on the race massacre from the  vantage point of its victims and survivors.  

Historian and Black Studies professor Karlos K. Hill presents a range of  photographs taken before, during, and after the massacre, mostly by  white photographers. Some of the images are published here for the first  time. Comparing these photographs to those taken elsewhere in the  United States of lynchings, the author makes a powerful case for terming  the 1921 outbreak not a riot but a massacre. White civilians, in many  cases assisted or condoned by local and state law enforcement,  perpetuated a systematic and coordinated attack on Black Tulsans and  their property.  

Despite all the violence and devastation, black Tulsans rebuilt the  Greenwood District brick by brick. By the mid-twentieth century,  Greenwood had reached a new zenith, with nearly 250 Black-owned and  Black-operated businesses. Today the citizens of Greenwood, with support  from the broader community, continue to work diligently to revive the  neighborhood once known as “Black Wall Street.” As a result, Hill  asserts, the most important legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre is the  grit and resilience of the Black survivors of racist violence.  T

he 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History offers a  perspective largely missing from other accounts. At once captivating and  disturbing, it will embolden readers to confront the uncomfortable  legacy of racial violence in U.S. history.  

Karlos K. Hill is Associate Professor and Chair of the Clara Luper  Department of African and African American Studies at the University of  Oklahoma and the author of Beyond the Rope: The Impact of Lynching on  Black Culture and Memory.

View the video here: https://youtu.be/SFanvpd_eYw

A panel of local independent journalists in conversation with Julian Assange’s father and brother.

John and Gabriel Shipton, the father and brother of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, are on a nationwide tour to advocate for the release of the journalist, who has been detained in Britain since 2012, and for the Biden administration to drop the U.S. Government’s extradition efforts. The U.S. tour is sponsored by the Courage Foundation (couragefound.org) which supports whistleblowers and other truth-tellers “who risk life or liberty to make significant contributions to the historical record.”

We will convene a panel of independent journalists who have been engaged in telling the stories of struggles for racial and economic justice. The panel will include Petros Haile, Sheila Reagan, and Cirien Saadeh.

View the video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/5TNUoLpGD40