Welcome to Moving Lives Minnesota
Our PBS Producers' Commitment to Learning Through Story-Sharing
Welcome to Moving Lives Minnesota: Stories of Origin and Immigration (MLMN), an initiative of the six PBS stations of Minnesota. This initiative explores the histories of the many communities who have moved through and to Minnesota.
Together, we create content and experiences unique to our regions to deepen understanding, inspire empathy and build connection.
When we first began listening and sharing stories of origin and immigration, we heard first-person accounts and stories passed down from ancestors. We witnessed storytellers and listeners visibly moved from the experience of sharing stories. This was the change we wanted to make, the energy we wanted to harness and the histories we wanted to tell. This laid the groundwork for the Moving Lives initiative.
We embrace the challenge to listen and learn from each other, considering perceptions of immigration vary across the state, generations and our white-led institutions. We commit to including Indigenous and African American narratives. We reimagined our approach to community engagement because of the pandemic and after the killing of George Floyd. We commit to showing up and building trust in ways that are meaningful to our communities, facing systemic racial injustice. This initiative gives us hope and an opportunity to heal.
Because we currently are unable to connect in person, we developed a user-generated story-sharing project, Dear Minnesota. We invite community members to send handwritten and digital letters along with family pictures and images that represent journeys across borders and time — that illustrate both new and deep connections to our state.
Moving Lives Minnesota provides many more ways to share and experience stories through our broadcast and digital content, educational resources, virtual screenings and story-sharing workshops.
Hundreds of people throughout Minnesota have shaped this initiative by sharing their personal stories, perspectives and expertise — from cultural listeners to community partners, from advisors to colleagues to our audiences. All of our stories contribute to our history. In the coming months, we hope Minnesotans will be moved as they explore, engage and contribute.
As the director of the project, I recognize my white privilege. My father came from a working-class family in England and moved to the U.S. in 1960 to marry my mother. Her family immigrated to Saint Paul from Sweden in the late 1800s. While Swedish was rarely spoken at home and our Scandinavian traditions dwindled, I grew up with an appreciation for world history, cultures, travel and the results of war.
My mother devoted her career to public service. In the early 1980s, she worked with the International Institute of Minnesota, resettling thousands of refugees from Laos. I accompanied my mother when she met the planes arriving at MSP International, made home visits and celebrated Hmong New Year with new Minnesotans. I will never know their lived experiences but it instilled empathy.
Along with our statewide team, I am committed to learning and the critical work of nurturing relationships with our communities. Moving Lives Minnesota: Stories of Origin & Immigration is for all of us to find a deeper understanding in ourselves and in each other, of who we are together as Minnesotans.
