More Than a Single Story began in 2016 when Carolyn Holbrook used a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant to launch a series of three discussions with women writers of the African diaspora aimed at showing there are different cultures represented by women who could not be simply defined as “Black” writers. Holbrook had worked at the Loft Literary Center, founded SASE: The Write Place to help writers of color, and taught at Hamline University. But she wasn’t sure how More Than a Single Story would go over.
She needn’t have worried. So many people attended the first program they filled the Loft’s auditorium and extra chairs had to be found. Since then MTSS has gained a five-person staff, with Holbrook as executive director, and expanded to include a variety of free panel discussions/public conversations where writers of color discuss issues of importance to them in their own voices and words.
In 2021 the organization published “We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World,” edited by Holbrook and poet David Mura (University of Minnesota Press). The 34 essays in the book, focusing on race and police violence after George Floyd’s murder, are by Twin Cities-based BiPOC writers, most of whom participated in MTSS programs. The theme for this Father’s Day month is Songs for Our Fathers, panel discussions celebrating fatherhood.
The next program is at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at Highland Park library, 1974 Ford Pkwy.
, St. Paul, .
