Junauda Petrus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, filmmaker |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Notable awards | Coretta Scott King Honor Award (2020) |
| Spouse | Ngowo Nasah |
Junauda Juanita Petrus-Nasah is an American author, filmmaker, performance artist, and "pleasure activist". [1] [2] Her debut novel, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them , was a winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award.
Petrus was born on Dakota land in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [3] [4] [5] She is of Afro-Caribbean descent. [1] Her mother was born in Trinidad and her father in US Virgin Islands and later moved to Minnesota. [6] She was one of four daughters born to her mother and father; her father has a total of eleven children from five mothers. [7]
As a child, Petrus wanted to be an astronaut and enjoyed reading V. C. Andrews, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Anne Rice, and Alice Walker. [4] She came out as gay to her family at age 30 and met her wife, a native of Cameroon, four years later. [7]
Petrus' piece There Are Other Worlds was performed at Intermedia Arts in 2015. [2] [8] She and Erik Ehn co-wrote Queen, which was performed at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in 2016. [9] Queen was partly inspired by Petrus' 2015 poem "Could we please give the police departments to the grandmothers?" [10] This poem was contributed to the anthology How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation by Maureen Johnson, which was released in 2018. [11] A picture book based on the poem, titled Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?, was released in 2023. [12]
Her 2019 novel, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them , [13] is a coming of age story of two 16-year-old queer black girls in Minneapolis. [4] In February 2021, Petrus announced that she was working on a film adaptation of the novel. [14]
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Petrus wrote a short prose piece entitled "Sweetness for George". [15]
Petrus' works incorporate themes such as black diasporic futurism, female friendships, queerness, black community, identity, and healing. [4] [13] [8] She is inspired by her mother, Al Green, nature, and women. [16]
Petrus is an affiliated writer of The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. [17] Along with Erin Sharkey, she co-founded the group Free Black Dirt, a collective of writers and creators who seek to "spark and engage in critical conversations". [2] The group organizes events to showcase original performance and theatre works by emerging artists. [18]
Petrus describes herself as a "pleasure activist"; [19] she claims her art has "healing power" and relates to themes involving desire and pleasure. She has written about her pleasure activist work in Adrienne Maree Brown's book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, [19] which explains pleasure activism as making social justice work "the most pleasurable human experience." [20]
Petrus lives in Minneapolis with her wife, Ngowo Nasah, and family. [1] [21]
Petrus was recognized as a City Pages Twin Cities artist of the year in 2016. [10]
In 2020, Petrus received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for The Stars and the Blackness Between Them . [22]
Petrus has also been awarded several fellowships. [23]
Saint Paul is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center of Minnesota's government. The Minnesota State Capitol and the state government offices all sit on a hill close to the city's downtown district. One of the oldest cities in Minnesota, Saint Paul has several historic neighborhoods and landmarks, such as the Summit Avenue Neighborhood, the James J. Hill House, and the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Like the adjacent city of Minneapolis, Saint Paul is known for its cold, snowy winters and humid summers.
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The Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States is located approximately three miles south of downtown and is bordered by East Lake Street to the north, Cedar Avenue to the east, East 38th Street to the south, and Chicago Avenue to the west. Its namesake is the city's Powderhorn Park facility in the northwestern part of the neighborhood around Powderhorn Lake, which contains playing fields, playgrounds and a park building that hosts community education classes ranging from pottery to yoga. In winter, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board sets up a portable warming house and the lake is used for ice skating.
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre is a puppet company and nonprofit organization from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company has written and performed scores of full-length puppet plays, performed throughout the US, Canada, Korea, and Haiti and toured the Mississippi River from end to end. The theatre is best known for sponsoring the annual May Day Parade and Ceremony that is seen by as many as 50,000 people each year.
Minneapolis, officially the City of Minneapolis, is a city in the state of Minnesota and the county seat of Hennepin County. With a population of 429,954, it is the state's most populous city as of the 2020 census. It occupies both banks of the Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with 3.69 million residents. Minneapolis is built on an artesian aquifer on flat terrain, and is known for cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. Nicknamed the "City of Lakes", Minneapolis is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks, and waterfalls. The city's public park system is connected by the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.
Elise Matthesen is an American essayist, journalist, poet, and fiction writer, an award-winning maker of art jewelry and a long time bisexual rights activist. For 13 years she was the companion of the late John M. Ford, until his death in September 2006. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is a member of the First Universalist Church there.
Yara Sayeh Shahidi is an American actress and producer. She began her career as a child, appearing in the films Imagine That (2009), Butter (2011) and Alex Cross (2012).
Sharon Bridgforth is an American writer working in theater.
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Nekima Valdez Levy Armstrong is an American lawyer and social justice activist. She was president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP from 2015 to 2016. She has led a variety of organizations that focus on issues of racial equality and disparity in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.
Frances Cranmer Greenman was an American portrait painter, critic and columnist.
Laurie Dorothea Carlos was an American actress and avant-garde performance artist, playwright and theater director. She was also known for her work mentoring emerging artists in the theater.
Jayanthi Kyle is an American gospel and soul singer/songwriter based in Minneapolis, Minnesota who uses music, song, and storytelling to empower both youth and adults alike. Kyle has been active in more than 11 bands in her career, including Black Audience, Jayanthi Kyle and the Crybabies, Romantica, Gospel Machine, Davis Bain Band, Passed Presents, Give Get Sistet, Miss Pennie's Microphone, and The Blacker The Berry Arts Collective.
Andrea Jenkins is an American politician, writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. She is known for being the first Black openly transgender woman elected to public office in the United States, since January 2018 on the Minneapolis City Council and as the council's president from January 2022 to January 2024.
BECAUSE is an annual, national conference for the bisexual community and other bi+ people that takes place in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. It was founded in 1992. It has been organized by the Bisexual Organizing Project since 1999. The conference is "dedicated to building an empowered bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, and unlabeled (bi+) community." It is the longest-running and largest conference for bi+ people in the United States.
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them is an American young adult fiction book by Junauda Petrus. It was released on September 17, 2019, by Dutton Books, and tells the story of two teenage girls who build a relationship, as one acclimates to life in Minneapolis after moving from Trinidad, and the other battles an illness. The Stars and the Blackness Between Them received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award.
Dua Saleh is a Sudanese-American singer and actor based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their debut EP Nūr was released in January 2019 by the Against Giants record label to critical acclaim, with their second, Rosetta, released in June the following year.
Alondra Cano is an American politician, activist, and former member of the Minneapolis City Council from the 9th Ward.
Black Visions Collective (BLVC) is an American nonprofit organization for Black liberation based in Minnesota, founded in December 2017. The group intersects with transgender and LGBTQ communities. Active in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, BLVC has been involved in Black Lives Matter protests. It has lobbied for part of the Minneapolis Police Department budget to be diverted to programs that support people experiencing youth homelessness, opioid dependency, and mental health issues.
Akeena Bronson, known professionally as DJ Keezy, is a DJ from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A refreshing homage to the power of intergenerational relationships and potent alternative to policing.
How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life?
She has received the MN State Arts Board Cultural Community Partnership, the Givens Foundation Writer's Mentorship, The Playwrights' Center Many Voices Fellowship, and the Jerome Travel and Study Grant.