Featuring Susan Kiyo Ito, Shannon Gibney, and Lee.
REGISTER for the event HERE.
Grab a snack and favorite beverage, turn on your computer, and sit back to enjoy a beautiful hour of BIPOC adoptee voices, community, and Palestinian solidarity. Join us for the kickoff event for our monthly fundraiser reading series to help three families survive the genocide in Gaza. There will be seven readings!
Date: Thursday, July 31st
Time: 6–7pm PST
Cost: Minimum $5
Format: Virtual
The Zoom link will be sent a few days before the event; closed captions will be enabled. This will NOT be recorded or distributed.
AUTHORS
Shannon Gibney (she/her) is a writer, educator, and activist. She is author of several books, including The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption, which received a Michael L. Printz Honor and a Minnesota Book Award; See No Color and Dream Country, both winners of Minnesota Book Awards; Where We Come From (co-authored), winner of the 2023 Carter G. Woodson Award; Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight, and We Miss You, George Floyd (published in November). A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, Gibney teaches at Minneapolis College, where she was named Educator of the Year in 2023. She lives with her two children in Minneapolis.
Lee Herrick is the California Poet Laureate. He is the author of In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected Poems (Gunpowder Press, 2024) and three other books of poems, including Scar and Flower. His writing appears widely, in Here: Poems for the Planet, with an introduction by the Dalai Lama; Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, with an introduction by Common; and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, among others. Born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted to the United States at ten months, he lives and teaches in Fresno, California.
Susan Kiyo Ito is the author of the memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, published by the Ohio State University Press. It was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award, shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize for International Literature, and named a best book of 2023 by the Library Journal. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Hyphen, Literary Mama, Catapult,The Bellevue Literary Review, Agni, Guernica, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and Blue Mountain Center. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater. She teaches at the Mills College campus of Northeastern University.
***You can buy their books at the BIPOC Adoptees online bookshop.***
MEET THE FAMILIES
Tamara Abu Dayer and the Abu Dayer Family: The Abu Dayers are from Jabalia, a densely populated refugee camp in northern Gaza that has been destroyed. They have been displaced numerous times during the genocide, and thier large family has been separated to various locations. Over the past year, Tamara has become one of our closest dearest friends. To learn more about Tamara and life under occupation, here is a zine that Lisa MM Butler made to illustrate Tamara’s experience. Also, read Joon Ae’s essay, “A Debt of Gratitude” that connects Korean adoption to Palestine. Click HERE for her main fundraising page and consider setting up automatic monthly donations for sustained support.
Alaa Abu Shammalh is also from Jabalia. Alaa is Tamara’s brother-in-law, married to her oldest sister, Mandi. Alaa was separated from his pregnant wife and young son when they were medically evacuated out of Gaza just before Israel closed the Rafah border well over a year ago. He has never met his youngest son, who was born in October. Alaa has been displaced over and over. He needs money to survive, and has depleted his fundraising account that was intended to be for reuniting with his family. Learn more about Alaa at his GoFundMe page.
Nida is a 23-year-old student turned breadwinner for her family. Their home was bombed. Her father was taken hostage by the Israeli occupation and has yet to be released. Her mother and the rest of her family suffer from chronic health conditions. They do not have enough money for a tent. Her family relies on the support of others outside of Gaza to survive. Check out this zine that Lisa made to help amplify Nida’s story! Here is Nida’s main fundraiser page.
SAVE THESE DATES
We have a whole line up of great authors for you, including folks like: KE Garland, Nicole Chung, Melissa Guida-Richards, Cam Lee Small, Mila Konomos, Katelyn Durst Rivas, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Cam McCafferty, Michael Hoyt, Alice Stephens, Kit Myers, and more! (All the following events take place online from 3-4pm PST/6-7 EST)
Sun, August 31st
Sun, September 28
Sun, October 26
Sun, November 30
Sun, January 25
Sun, February 22
HOSTS
Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka and Lisa MM Butler
Contact Joon Ae with questions at joonae@ajumamaworkshop.com