Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) will undertake a significant programming expansion: a public art project featuring the written work of incarcerated writers, adapted into large-scale window decals installed in prominent public places in Minnesota, accompanying audio/video pieces made in collaboration between those writers and other local artists, and a supplementary handbook intended to facilitate community discussion about the intersection of art and incarceration.
Three projects would be supported with this grant:
1 - East Knoll Heritage Village Demonstrations - Not just a pottery demonstration. With 45 years of pottery experience of small and large pottery, they make pots and entertain the visitors with demonstrations. They use a replica of a wooden foot-powered treadle wheel, the kind used in the USA and Europe before before we had electricity.
2 - Wooden Circle Wood Cutting Demonstrations - they work together with the pottery demonstrations.
3 - A performance of a traditional Mexican Band: La Raza de Mexico.
This project is a series of intergenerational events held in the Rondo community allowing folks to come together to share cultural experiences with food, herbs, planting & growing. Participants will access information that's been removed from our communities through collective research, giving us the chance to relearn our cultural wisdom of growing, harvesting, & preparing plants for medicinal purposes. While this project will focus on African American and Black populations, all will be welcome.
