Supplemental Resources for "A Good Time for the Truth"
Overview
A Good Time for the Truth explores race and intersectionality in Minnesota. Published in 2016, it experienced a resurgence after the murder of George Floyd. The authors, all from Minnesota, write personal memoirs about how race in Minnesota has affected their lives. The book provides a lot of great material for freshman composition courses. Plus, it is, quite simply, a book that everyone must read.
General resources for "A Good Time for the Truth"
The following resources are useful for any section of "A Good Time for the Truth" (GTFTT).
- We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World: GTFTT was written a few years before George Floyd's murder. This anthology, from many of the same GTFTT contributors, is a reaction to George Floyd's murder. There are also new contributors in this anthology, including Louise Erdrich.
- "One Book, One Minnesota": This Youtube author panel, below, features seven of the book contributors: Sun Yung Shin, Taiyon Coleman, Shannon Gibney, David Lawrence Grant Carolyn Holbrook, IBe, and Andrea Jenkins.
Shannon Gibney
Shannon Gibney's "Fear of a Black Mother" is the first chapter in the anthology. The title is a word play on the two separate meanings suggested by fear of. She writes about her fears for her black son and also about how others fear her, as a black mother. It is a powerful read. The following resources will add depth and perspective for teachers and students interested in delving further into the topic.
- Shannon Gibney This is Shannon's home page. She provides a carefully curated collection of her work, ranging from teaching at a community college, race, pregnancy loss and grief, adoption, and LIberian immigrants.
Shannon Gibney Interview | The Loft Literary Center Shannon talks about what was going on in her life when she wrote "Fear of a Black Mother". She also discusses her identity as a "mixed black transracially adopted woman" and how that impacts her writing. She also provides insights into how the writing process for women might be different than the writing process for men.
Shannon Gibney on Youtube: Shannon talks about her experience as a transracial adoptee in this podcast that is specifically targeted for the adoptee audience. Her quote setting up the talk is that "there is loss inhererent in in taking a child from their first family and grafting them into another." She comments that adoption is a very "layered set of relationships."
Carolyn Holbrook
In "Say What?", Carolyn tells a compelling anecdote from her young adult life that shows racism is not merely limited to perceptions of people's skin color. The anecdote has a rather shocking ending.
- Carolyn Holbook's home page: Carolyn provides us with a rich panoply of her personal life, writing, and community work here.
- In "The Life you LIve is the Legacy You Leave" (below), Carolyn discusses how our legacies are not the possessions and money we leave behind but rather the impact we have on others that they then pass down to subsequent generations.
Andrea Jenkins
In "The Price We Pay: How Race and Gender Identity Converge", Andrea Jenkins weaves a tight narrative exploring how her family's poverty, her trans gender identity, and her African-American heritage converge. It is a powerful essay.
- Minneapolis Ward 8 profile: Andrea is the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to public office in the United States.
- Tetter Transgender Oral History Project: Andrea curated these interviews from 2019 to 2021. In the interviews, trans people share their stories, experience, and wisdom.
- In Why I Wear Purple", below, Andrea talks about coming of age through her own trans childhood and adolescence. She also dismantles the transgender panic defense legal argument.
- In "Storied", below, Andrea reflects on the gains that the LGBT community has made since Stonewall and what still remains to be done.
Sherry Quan Lee
A Chinese father. A black mother. Raised in "south Scandinavian Minneapolis". In "Discomfort Zone", Sherry talks about coming to terms with her intersectional heritages. She writes that "most black people identify me as black; most Asians identify me as Asian. White people don't have a clue."
- Sherry Quan Lee's blog: Sherry provides a comprehensive overview of all her written work in this up-to-date blog.
- Minneapolis Interview Project (MIP): You can find Sherry's interview here. Look under the interview tab. She describes her growing awareness of herself as a mixed-race person through high school and her early professional career. She also describes her work as a political activist. The purpose of the MIP is to provide "life stories through a social justice lens".
- In "Sherry Quan Lee at the Loft" (below), Sherry reads from one of her more famous works.
Bao Phi
In "Brutal", Bao Phi pushes back against the stereotype that Asians are the good immigrants and that they don't experience racism or police brutality. His commentary aptly fits the essay title.
Bao Phi's home page: In addition to his essay in A Good Time for the Truth, Bao is primarily a spoken-word poet. His homepage, although slightly outdated, does provide useful links to listen to and watch some of his featured performances. You can also find his "Friends of Bao" Facebook page here, which is up-to-date.
Broken English: A brief performance piece. Bao reads a poem about his mother, who is a refugee, and her struggles to correct a cashier error at a greenhouse.
Mouse: Another brief performance piece. Bao reflects on a midnight mouse, its lack of concern about his struggles, and what that means.
The Nguyens: A four-minute poem about the struggles and triumphs, of Vietnamese people in the United States.
Kao Kalia Yang
In "A Good Time for the Truth", Kao talks about her racially mixed marriage. She is Hmong, and her partner is white. They have a strong relationship, but it is complex in ways that same-race marriages aren't. One of the most interesting facets of her essay is her discussion on how her experience of racism in the world has changed. When she was single, of course, she experienced racism. Now that she is in public with her white partner she experiences racism less often, but the tenor of that racism has a different quality.
- The impossible happens every day in the life of a refugee: In this compelling fifteen-minute Youtube memoir, Kao recounts her family's struggles to escape the war in Laos, survive the refugee camp in Thailand, and settle in the United States.
- The power in sharing our stories: In this seventeen-minute Youtube talk, Kao discusses how stories gave her, as a young girl, hope in the Thai refugee camp. She also discusses how, as a young girl here in the United States, she was a "selective mute". She decided that, if people here in the United States didn't lsten to her mom and dad's newcomer English, the world wouldn't listen to her either. So, school was very difficult for her.
- Kao Kalia Yang brings Hmong Storytelling to the American Canon: In this six-minute Youtube video, Kao talks the power of stories and how, as a writer, she "calms our hearts when we're not looking so that our hearts do not flutter and fly away". She also talks about how important the BookMobile was to her as a girl growing up in Minnesota.