March & April Cook County Community Read: The Seed Keeper Discussion & Potluck

March & April Cook County Community Read: The Seed Keeper Discussion & Potluck
March 15 | 5:30-7:30 | FREE | At CCHE or join Zoom

There is a power in the stories we read–to connect us with experiences beyond our own. Besides being a relaxing hobby, reading can create space for self-reflection and can also give us an effective way to have real conversations with our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.

Join the community in reading The Seed Keeper in March & April. We hope that this community read series will equip and inspire our community, both adults and youth, to imagine and create a more inclusive and equitable world. When we as a community read together, we become part of something bigger than ourselves.

Join us for an in-person or zoom group book discussion and potluck at Cook County Higher Education. This Community Read is a book club that everyone in the community is welcome to attend!

Book Details:
"The Seed Keeper follows three generations of Dakota women and their struggles to preserve their way of life. The voice of Rosalie Iron Wing is one you won't forget."

This riveting storyline stretches back to Rosalie’s great-great-grandmother "Marie Blackbird in 1862 and then follows the main character Rosalie Iron Wing through the decades to 2002.""The Seed Keeper asserts that much of the past does not go away, but continues to exist in the present

"Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakh ta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato--where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited.

On a winter's day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron--women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools."

Weaving together the voices of indelible women spanning several generations, "The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors."
"In her Author’s Note, Diane Wilson writes that the book was inspired by a story she’d heard while participating in the Dakhota Commemorative March, a 150-mile walk to honor the Dakhota people who were forcibly removed from Minnesota in 1863 in the aftermath of the US-Dakhota War. The women on that original march had little time to prepare for their removal but knew they would have to find a way to feed their families in whatever place they were being sent, so they sewed seeds into the hems of their skirts and hid more in their pockets."

Diane Wilson’s debut novel was the winner of the 2022 Minnesota Book Award in the Novel & Short Story category. 

"I’ve never felt so profoundly and deeply moved by a book rooted in history. Wilson’s writing is like a seed planted, nurtured, then yielding a harvest of insight and understanding." 

This book was a top seller for Drury Lane Books in 2022. Many store browsers were drawn to the stunning cover which features original beadwork by Standing Rock Dakota artist, Holly Young. The book was produced by Milkweed Editions, a small indie press in Minneapolis.

Event Outline:

• Zoom - 6:10-6:15 pm Welcome, 6:15-7:15 pm Small Group Discussion with zoom attendees, 7:15-7:30 pm Large Group Discussion with zoom and in-person attendees
• In Person at CCHE - 5:30-6:10 pm Potluck and Table Top Discussions, 6:10-6:15 pm Welcome, 6:15-7:15 pm Small Group Discussion, 7:15-7:30 pm Large Group Discussion with zoom and in-person attendees. Please bring a dish to share during the potluck.

Book Group Facilitator:  
Gwen Danfelt is the manager and book buyer at Drury Lane Books and has participated in book clubs for over 20 years. She has a degree in Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature from the University of Minnesota and has facilitated several local book clubs. When she's not working, canoeing, hiking, or hanging out with her 7-year-old, she's usually reading! 

Partners: Drury Lane Books, Grand Marais Public Library, North House Folk School, CARE, and Cook County Higher Education.

Cook County Community Read 2022-2023 program will include a series of fiction and non-fiction, with new topics and materials provided in the Early Fall, Late Fall, Winter, Spring, and Early Summer.

Check out local book purchasing/lending options:

• Looking for a local option for purchasing? Check out Drury Lane Books including Audio Books https://drurylanebooks.indielite.org/
• Looking for a lending option? Check out Grand Marais Public Library and its book network. https://www.grandmaraislibrary.org/