Rootless: Why Reclaiming Culture Makes Us Better People (Via Zoom)

October 17, 24, 6:30pm-8:00pm (Central Time)

$21 preregistered/prepaid (Total cost for the two-part series.)

Registration Deadline: October 13 (Zoom links will be emailed to you prior to each session.)  Event postponed and will be rescheduled in the winter/spring.

How does someone living in post-emigration culture in America find meaning and belonging when original roots are severed? Who are we now, whether the roots were cut last week or a hundred years ago? Does it matter? For many, the delicate dance of becoming American has meant burying grief, language, and cultural practices.

Using narrative, image, essay, poetry, and cultural exercises, participants will learn new ways to reclaim culture for personal growth and more authentic community connections based on love, respect, and new ways of finding common ground.

This two-session workshop will explore reasons to reclaim culture as well as practical exercises. A sharing circle will be included to present reclaimed narratives and images to strengthen these reconnected roots. This workshop is suitable and welcoming to people of all cultural backgrounds.

Jill Johnson is a community cultural image and narrative worker who explores the meaning of Nordic oral tradition and emigration culture. She is currently at work on a collection of essays on cultural meaning and belonging and is on the third and final image and narrative installation cycle about personal cultural grief, meaning, and belonging.

Johnson has been a cultural worker throughout her career. She was on the staff of Concordia College Swedish Adult Language Village, the Nordic Culture Clubs, and the Scandinavian Hjemkomst Festival. She was the founder and executive director of the Nordic Arts Alliance, and was the curator at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center. She worked with education and cultural arts for the Latina/x women’s and children’s organization Mujeres Unidas/Women United in Moorhead, MN. She has presented numerous exhibitions and workshops and has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, regional arts councils, the Swedish Council of America, and multi-year scholarships to the Uppsala International Summer Session in Sweden. Much of her folkways studies have been undertaken in Sweden and Denmark.

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