Milkweed Presents: Art and Activism During Times of Conflict

Join us for the our monthly reading and panel discussion event series Milkweed Presents, hosted by Worldly Things author Michael Kleber-Diggs! Michael will lead readings and a conversation on the topic of art and activism during times of global and civil conflict with special guest speakers Sun Yung Shin and Michael Torres.

Enjoy a social hour and book-signing in our brick-and-mortar indie bookstore Milkweed Books beginning at 5 p.m., followed by the reading and conversation in the Open Book Performance Hall beginning at 6 p.m.

About the authors:

Michael Kleber-Diggs (KLEE-burr digs) (he/him/his) is a poet, essayist, arts educator and literary critic based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His work often considers themes of intimacy, community, and empathy, concepts he argues are different but also related and interdependent. Michael's debut poetry collection, Worldly Things was published by Milkweed Editions in 2021. His poem "Canine Superpowers" appears in You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón and also published by Milkweed Editions. His essay "There Was a Tremendous Softness" is included in A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (Milkweed Editions 2023). Michael is currently working on a memoir about his complicated relationship with lap swimming called My Weight in Water (forthcoming Spring 2025), and he's started to put a few poems into the same blue folder under the working title Second Book of Poems, but he suspects that title will change.

Sun Yung Shin writes poems, essays, nonfiction, and also books for children and young readers. Her most recent books are The Wet Hex and Where We Come From. She is a community-based teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, the Loft Literary Center, and elsewhere. She has several forthcoming books in 2024 including a collaborative book of poetry with Vi Khi Nao with Ricochet Press, and books in 2025 include a picture book about Detroit-based revolutionaries Grace Lee Boggs & James Boggs, and a nonfiction book with Black Lawrence Press. She lives in Minneapolis with her family. More at sunyungshin.com.

Michael Torres was born and brought up in Pomona, California where he spent his adolescence as a graffiti artist. His debut collection of poems, An Incomplete List of Names (Beacon Press, 2020) was selected by Raquel Salas Rivera for the National Poetry Series and named one of NPR’s Books We Love, 2020. Currently he’s an Associate Professor in the MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Visit him at: michaeltorreswriter.com

Milkweed Presents is a monthly event series featuring Milkweed authors as curators of conversation with local writers and community organizers on a topic of their choosing. These events are held in-person at Open Book.

Our Spring 2024 slate of Milkweed Presents includes:

February 14: Erin Sharkey

April 3: Claire Wahmanholm

May 2: Diane Wilson

May 23: Michael Kleber-Diggs

June 5: Beth Dooley

Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. We believe that literature has the potential to change the way we see the world. Learn more at milkweed.org.