Making Ourselves at Home with Comedic Stories
Make yourself at home with creative storytelling! Join Asian American artists Jamie Kalakaru-Mava and Patti Kameya for comedic stories of food, artmaking, and intergenerational trauma that join—or tangle!—us. Learn how comedy helps you speak your truth, even in polite company. And try for a fun prize in an Asian and Asian American culture quiz.
- Jamie (Schumacher) Kalakaru‑Mava is a Polish/Sri‑Lankan American visual artist, author, and curator who explores identity, culture, and belonging through both writing and visual practice. A Loft Mirrors and Windows Fellow and multiple State Arts Board and Regional Arts Council grants recipient, Jamie is the author of It’s Never Going to Work (2018), Butterflies and Tall Bikes (2021), and Half a World Away (2024). She has presented several solo exhibitions including Mask Theory (2006), Half a World Away (2024), and Unraveling (2025), and her public art can be seen throughout the Twin Cities metro. Originally from Los Angeles, Jamie is now a rooted Minnesota creative, working at the intersection of art, culture, and economic development. In her job as a program officer at LISC Twin Cities, she supports creative and cultural districts across the metro. Jamie also teaches graduate students in the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing and Professional Studies and Arts and Cultural Leadership Program, and serves as a Creative Placemaking Commissioner for the City of Bloomington.
- Patti Kameya writes, edits, forages wild plants, and treats historical amnesia in the Dakota homeland of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her writing appears in North Dakota Quarterly (2022), This Was 2020 by the Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project (2021), and elsewhere. In February 2025 she turned her passion for discussing Minnesota history and identity toward developing comedy material for Funny Asian Women Kollective’s three-day tour of rural Minnesota.
- Supported by the Office of Intercultural Life (OIL), Carleton College.
Date: May 6, 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 5:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Weitz 236 (Carleton)
