 Myron Medcalf shares his reflections on the 2025 season of the Mary Ann Key Book Club. (YouTube: 05:23 duration.)
 Originally recorded April 23, 2025: The Mary Ann Key Book Club hosts a conversation between Myron Medcalf and Junauda Petrus. (YouTube: 1hr 13min.)
 Minneapolis Central Library welcomed 101 community members to the live author event on April 23, with 140 more joining the livestream.
“This was one of the best author dialogues I have watched. I read her book when it first came out and now I have to go back and read it. I'm very much looking forward to her forthcoming title. Thank you so much for this presentation. I enjoy a conversation style presentation.”
“WONDERFUL conversation. Love this book and Junauda. I really appreciate that our library system is standing firmly behind our freedom to read and protecting access to books by and about BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people and history and experiences. Thank you!!!”
Myron and Junauda continued the conversation at Teen Lit Con, a Twin Cities literary event where authors, teens, and fun collide.
 “When you ban a book, you’re erasing a story and important lesson or even a section of history. Which risks us repeating our mistakes and not learning how to empathize with people who have different lives and stories from us.”
“Struggles, experiences and options are silenced when books are banned.”
Teen Lit Con Reader Recommendations: Book recommendations from teens at Teen Lit Con 2025.
Quatrefoil Library is the second oldest circulating LGBTQIA+ library in the United States and has been a vibrant cultural hub and gathering space for the LGBTQIA+ community in Minneapolis and St. Paul since its founding in 1986.
Twin Cities Pride is an organization that seeks to empower every LGBTQ+ person to live as their true self and envisions a future where all LGBTQ+ people are valued and celebrated for who they are.
Mapping Prejudice Project and the History of Racial Covenants
Thursday, May 29, 6-7pm
North Regional Library
Racial covenants historically shaped housing policies and practices and laid the groundwork for systemic racial inequality over the past century. Learn more about them, how to identify them in the housing record, and how to advocate for change. Collaborator: The Mapping Prejudice Project. Learn more and register.
Literary Voices Redefining LGBTQ+ and HIV Storytelling: George M. Johnson and Michael Lee
Thursday, June 12, 6-8pm
Minneapolis Central Library
Join acclaimed authors George M. Johnson and Michael Lee for an engaging discussion on the transformative power of literature in the HIV movement. This event will explore how HIV, queer, and BIPOC narratives have historically influenced public perception, advocacy, and policy. Collaborator: Midwest HIV Workforce Development Resource Center. Learn more and register.
About the Mary Ann Key Book Club
The book club was inspired by a Star Tribune column written by Myron Medcalf – the great-great-great-grandson of Mary Ann Key.
“I’m honored to partner with Hennepin County Library to launch the Mary Ann Key Book Club, named after the matriarch of my family, who was enslaved in Georgia in the 1850s. Purchased for $1,000 at the age of 14, Mary Ann Key persevered. Her body was in bondage, but slavery never stole the freedom of her heart, mind and soul. This book club is about focusing on the truths of the past, our challenges in the present and the possibilities of the future…”
– Myron Medcalf
This program is supported by Friends of the Hennepin County Library. Their generous financial support is helping to provide greater access to print and eBook copies of the featured books. Media partner: Star Tribune.
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