FDLTCC hosting author reading and music event

Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College is hosting “Reclaiming the Narrative: An Evening of Story, Song, and The Arts,” featuring a book reading and signing by an award-winning author plus a rap music performance on Friday, Feb. 15, starting at 3 p.m. in the Amphitheater & Commons on campus. The unique literary and music event features author Terese Marie Mailhot and rap artist Thomas X.

The event is free and open to the public.

Terese Marie Mailhot, author of the celebrated memoir “Heart Berries,” graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts with a master’s of fine arts degree in fiction. Mailhot’s work has appeared in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Times, Carve Magazine, The Offing, The Toast, Yellow Medicine Review, and elsewhere. The recipient of several fellowships — SWAIA Discovery Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, Writing by Writers Fellowship, and the Elk Writer’s Workshop Fellowship — she was recently named the Tecumseh Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University; she resides in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Thomas Barrett (aka Thomas X) has lived on the Red Lake reservation his whole life. He is a survivor of the 2005 Red Lake High School shooting and credits his family, culture, and hip-hop music for helping him overcome drug and alcohol addiction that resulted from the trauma. He holds an associate of arts degree from Bemidji State University and has worked for his tribe in several capacities. As a rap artist, Barrett hopes to help instill pride in the Red Lake people, combining modern day Red Lake culture, history, and Ojibwe language in his music. Barrett uses hip-hop as a tool to teach young people about their identity as Anishinaabe people. He’s most known for getting real with his lyrics without leaving a negative vibe.

Schedule of Events

3 p.m. Opening ceremony/the Oshkii Giizhik Singers

3:30 p.m. Thomas X

4:30 p.m. Local stories

5:30 p.m. Terese Marie Mailhot reading

6:30 p.m. Book signing

7:15 p.m. Closing ceremony

Contact Darci Schummer at [email protected] or Roxanne DeLille at [email protected] for more information.