An Evening of Somali Storytelling with the Minnesota Humanities Center

Calling all K-12 Educators!

The Minnesota Humanities Center invites you to spend an evening with Said Salah Ahmed – a Somali educator, poet, storyteller, playwright, and filmmaker – on Tuesday, November 14, 2013. In his talk, Ahmed will illustrate the role of storytelling in non-formal and formal classroom settings and will explain how to teach through the art of oral literature and performance. Participants will leave the event with a copy of The Lion’s Share—Qayb Libaax, a DVD copy of the Minnesota Original episode #307 that features Ahmed, and the corresponding educator guides.

Educator, poet, playwright, and filmmaker Said Salah Ahmed fled Somalia during the Civil War and came to the Twin Cities in the early 1990s. He is the founder of the Somali theater group “llays” (which means “light”) for which he wrote Cultural Approach for Human Connection, a play that toured the Midwest to raise awareness of diverse cultures among Americans living in small and semi-rural towns. He wrote The Lion’s Share for the Minnesota Humanities Center’s Somali Bilingual Book Project. This book was the basis for his play The Lion’s Tale: Somali Folktales, which he produced for SteppingStone Theatre. In 2005, Ahmed was the first immigrant to be awarded the Virginia McKnight Binger Award in Human Service, established by the McKnight Foundation.

An Evening with tpt's MN Original is a two-part series of events designed to celebrate and learn from Minnesota's creative community. At each event an artist from Twin Cities Public Television's award-winning weekly series MN Original will engage participants in an interactive discussion reflective of the artist's work.

An Evening with Said Salah Ahmed

Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013

Time: 7-9 p.m.

Location: Minnesota Humanities Center

Cost: $10 per person

Intended Audience: K-12 Educators

For more information or to register, please visit the Minnesota Humanities Center website.