Overview

Amid the White smiles of Minnesota Nice and the Minnesota Paradox--the insidious racism of an ostensibly inclusive place to live--what do you do? If you're Taiyon J. Coleman, you write. In Traveling without Moving, Coleman shares intimate essays from her life: her childhood in Chicago--growing up in poverty with four siblings and a single mother--and the empowering decision to leave her first marriage. She writes about being the only Black student in a prestigious and predominantly White creative writing program, about institutional racism and implicit bias in writing instruction, about the violent legacies of racism in the US housing market, about the maternal health disparities seen across the country and their implication in her own miscarriage. She explores what it means to write her story and that of her family--an act at once a responsibility and a privilege--bringing forth the inherent contradictions between American ideals and Black reality. Using a powerful blend of perspectives that move between a first-person lens of lived experience and a wider-ranging critique of US culture, policy, and academia, Coleman's writing evinces how a Black woman in America is always on the run, always Harriet Tubman, traveling with her babies in tow, seeking safety, desperate to survive, thrive, and finally find freedom.

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Taiyon J. Coleman is a poet, writer, and educator whose work has been anthologized widely. A Cave Canem and VONA fellow, she is a 2017 recipient of a McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship in Creative Prose and is one of twelve emerging children's writers of color selected as a recipient of the 2018-2019 Mirrors and Windows Fellowship funded by the Loft Literary Center and the Jerome Foundation in Minnesota. She is associate professor of English and women's studies at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Keyonni James is a well-read, self-proclaimed bibliophile with a love for historical and literary fiction, and a fetish for women's health. She unwittingly sweeps listeners along a narrative journey with her smooth and inviting sound. Her vocal dexterity keeps the listener wondering if it's the same person behind the mic, as she imbues each character and genre with a vocal quality and personality specific to the author's intent. Her personality is as light and warm as her gorgeous smile. Keyonni has formally trained and coached with leading industry narrators, and coaches and has trained at the Michigan Actors Studio. She is a fierce advocate and leader for diverse voices in audiobooks and is the creator of Voices of Color in Audiobooks (VOCA). Keyonni has an undergraduate degree in women's studies and international development and therefore she has a very keen understanding and affinity for women's and feminist studies and issues. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh and is very comfortable narrating work with medical and scientific terminology; these two degrees intersect in her love of women's and maternal child health advocacy. Keyonni was a study abroad student in India, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, where she lived, working on issues around HIV/AIDS and development. She lives in Michigan and enjoys hanging out on any of the Great Lakes during the summer as well as RVing. When she's not working or narrating you will find her trying to get in some leisurely reading!

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