ReEntry Lab

06/22/2026

Desdamona (she/her) is an internationally known Spoken Word & Hip Hop artist who has traveled the US & abroad delivering her seamless mixture of Spoken Word, Hip Hop lyricism and melody to the stage for a dynamic & engaging performance. When she's not on stage she spends her time working in schools, prisons and community centers. Des co-founded B-Girl Be in 2005, a first-of-its-kind celebration of women's contributions to Hip Hop culture, and has been a champion for young & marginalized voices, providing space for artists to hone their skills.
Desdamona has toured France extensively and has been invited to be on numerous French releases ranging from jazz and experimental music to hip hop and electronic styles. She has opened for such acts as Saul Williams, Ursula Rucker, GURU, The Digable Planets and KRS One. In 2014, she was chosen as a lead in a nationally run ad campaign for K-Mart. Des has received multiple MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants, The Verve Grant, A Knight Arts Challenge Grant and received awards from the MN Music Academy and the MN Spoken Word Association.

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Please join us on Tuesday, July 7th, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: Nen G Ramirez, folaṣade, Tony Burgess, Desdamona, and Joe Davis, followed by an open mic.

Both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation.

Light refreshments will be served; masks are required at Moon Palace Books and are available on-site. This is a free event.

Better Things is a series of events sponsored by the ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

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06/20/2026

Tony Burgess (he/him) was a long-standing member of MPWW during 25-plus consecutive years of incarceration, and is a plumber by trade with a BA in Communication Studies and minors in Sociology and Business Management. He is also a graffiti artist, B-boy, practitioner of Wing Chun Gung-Fu for over 35 years, and an advocate for people suffering under incarceration and poverty.

🎤

Please join us on Tuesday, July 7th, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: Nen G Ramirez, folaṣade, Tony Burgess, Desdamona, and Joe Davis, followed by an open mic.

Both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation.

Light refreshments will be served; masks are required at Moon Palace Books and are available on-site. This is a free event.

Better Things is a series of events sponsored by the ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

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06/18/2026

folaṣade (they/she) (b. 1992) is a blackqueer neuro/quirky poet, curator, and organizer concerned with the immediate survival and ongoing liberation of people of the global majority. intuitively guided by her ancestors, folaṣade nurtures a reverence for indigeneity and the erotic within her slow moving body. they have self-published three poetry chapbooks, plus their most recent poetry zine titled the river is a memory (Moody, 2025). their first solo-curated exhibition as i lay changing opened in January 2026, adding to her growing body of co-curated exhibitions and film programs.

folaṣade has additionally published writing with Saint Paul Almanac, Blue Earth Review, The Kitchen, Hair+Nails and MN Women’s Press, and has additional essays, poems, and musings on her substack titled folaṣade’s journal. folaṣade is the curator of The Center For Afrofuturist Studies and is co-curator of Studio AGD. she further stewards a mutual aid project called community tithes. folaṣade was born and raised on ohlone + muwekma lands, currently living on anishinaabe lands with her cat parsley.

🎤

Please join us on Tuesday, July 7th, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: Nen G Ramirez, folaṣade, Tony Burgess, Desdamona, and Joe Davis, followed by an open mic.

Both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation.

Light refreshments will be served; masks are required at Moon Palace Books and are available on-site. This is a free event.

Better Things is a series of events sponsored by the ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

06/16/2026

Nen G Ramirez (they/he) is a nonbinary Chicanx writer from Adrian, Michigan. They are the author of All Women Are Born Wailing (Black Lawrence Press, 2023), which was awarded the 2022 Acentos Book Prize. Ramirez received their MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota, where they currently teach. They also play keys and perform spoken word poetry in Twin Cities emo bands Virginia’s Basement and Cute Intentions. Their writing has been featured in Poem-a-Day, POETRY, Electric Literature, Barrelhouse, and elsewhere.

🎤

Please join us on Tuesday, July 7th, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: Nen G Ramirez, folaṣade, Tony Burgess, Desdamona, and Joe Davis, followed by an open mic.

Both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation.

Light refreshments will be served; masks are required at Moon Palace Books and are available on-site. This is a free event.

Better Things is a series of events sponsored by the ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

05/20/2026

Eemanna (she/her) is a Minneapolis born and based multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. A singer song-writer and rapper spanning across genres of hip hop, alternative and soul, Eemanna is also a ceramicist and podcast producer. She creates and organizes to transform narratives, practice radical imagination and add beauty to the world.

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Please join us on Tuesday, June 2nd, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, for our next 5×5 Reading, featuring five fantastic artists: mk zariel, Antonio Duke, Willard Malebear Jr., Adrien Wright, and Eemanna, followed by an open mic.

Both reading and open mic will feature ASL interpretation.

Light refreshments will be served; masks are required at Moon Palace Books and are available on-site. This is a free event.

Better Things is a series of events sponsored by the ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

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05/20/2026

05/20/2026

IT’S TOMORROW and NOT TO BE MISSED –
OUR GLOBAL POETRY CELEBRATION!

This Wednesday night, join us for the 6th annual Global Poetry Celebration to hear poems in Arabic, Burmese, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Punjabi, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

We're with our friends at Cracked Walnut to present this event as part of the monthly Poets & Pints Series at Sisyphus Brewing in Minneapolis.

The reading begins at 7pm and you won't want to miss a word!
RSVPs are encouraged and there is a suggested $5 donation.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/6th-annual-global-poetry-celebration-tickets-1384620530279

BE THERE!
We look forward to seeing you at 7:00 pm.

05/20/2026

Join us for a virtual public hearing on the proposed 2911 Jail Standards Rule on May 28 at 9 a.m. This is an opportunity to share your feedback, ask questions, and participate in the rulemaking process. Access hearing details and participation instructions on our rulemaking website: https://mn.gov/doc/about/rulemaking/meetings.jsp