Better Things 5x5 Reading & Open Mic (May 2026)

Flyer with text reading: “Better Things - a 5x5 reading for social change - the reading everybody will be talking about the next day. Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Avenue, May 5th, 2026, 7 pm.” Small photos of each of five readers, labeled by name: Jennifer Landretti, Sana Wazwaz, Andre Anderson, Armand McCoy, Sabrin Nur.

5 x 5 Reading + Open Mic

This event took place on Tuesday, May 5th, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books, and featured Jennifer Landretti, Sana Wazwaz, Andre Anderson, Armand McCoy, and Sabrin Nur.

After the main reading, there was a short break for refreshments, followed by an open mic period. This reading, and the open mic afterward, were hosted by Davi Gray and Erin Sharkey; both reading and open mic featured ASL interpretation.

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 was 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.

Jennifer Marysia Landretti (she/her) writes poetry and essays. Her themes are nature, place, and spirit—and in recent years, gender, which has served as a vector to explore the former three. Over the years her work has appeared in various literary publications, most regularly Orion magazine.

Photograph of Jennifer Landretti, a white woman with medium-short graying brown hair. In this photo, she's wearing a blue sleeveless top, a blue gaiter around her neck, and dark sunglasses, and is standing in dunes behind an ocean shore.

Photograph of Sana Wazwaz, a young Palestinian American woman with light brown skin. In this photo, she is wearing a purple hijab and a white top, smiling at the camera against a gray background.

Sana Wazwaz (she/her) is a Palestinian American writer and theater artist. Her work appears in Black Warrior Review, Water~Stone Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Ghassan Kanafani Anthology, Overtly Lit, and has been featured at the Colorado College Fine Arts Center’s Muslim Futurism exhibit. Sana is a two-time member of New Arab American Theater Works’ National Playwright Incubator Program. Her work has been nominated for Best American Essay 2025, and was a finalist in Palestinian Youth Movement’s 2021 Ghassan Kanafani Arts Competition, and Black Warrior Review’s 2025 Creative Nonfiction Contest. She holds a BA in English (creative writing concentration) from Augsburg University. sanawazwaz.com

Andre Anderson (he/him) is a justice‑impacted educator, writer, and graduate student whose work explores belonging, reentry, and the power of narrative to reshape public understanding. He serves as a Graduate Assistant in Metro State University’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, supporting campus wide initiatives that advance equity and student success. Andre’s writing has appeared in Minnesota Reformer, Haute Dish, and the Prison Education Project. A long‑distance runner who once trained on a tiny patch of concrete inside MCF–Lino Lakes, he brings themes of endurance, transformation, and community into his storytelling.

Photograph of Andre Anderson, a white man with dark brown hair. In this photo he is wearing a wide smile, short hair, a short beard and mustache with sprinkles of gray, and a black T-shirt. He stands, arms slightly akimbo, in front of a blurred background.

Photograph of Armand McCoy, a young Black man with medium-brown skin, short hair, and a short beard and mustache. In this photo he's wearing a light tan coat over a white T-shirt, a bandanna around his forehead, a ring on his middle finger, and a necklace. He's sitting in a vehicle and has a neutral expression.

Armand McCoy (they/them), from Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a multidisciplinary artist whose passions intersect Holistic Healing, Black Liberation, and Environmental Justice. They have been studying healing modalities from all over the world, with a current focus on traditional plant medicines from the “Americas” and biochemistry. Owner of Path Maker Herbs LLC, Armand provides wellness consultations where clients receive protocols & custom herbal blends to help transition into lifestyles more compatible with their spirit, body, and mind. Armand ties in the human connection with land, ancestors, culture, music, martial arts, food, and more, to further their holistic paradigm strategies for wellness and decolonization.
Armand has experience practicing a variety of martial arts since age 5. They’ve been writing lyrics and poetry since the age of 5, composing music across a wide range of genres since 14, and doing plant-based food pop-ups and catering since 19.
Armand’s current projects include writing several books, studying Chen Style Tai Chi, and deepening their connection to the land, water, plants and mushrooms of planet Earth through intentional land stewardship of a 40 acre farm in Wisconsin.
A seeker of life’s most valuable truths, Armand has taken time to cultivate awareness for the nuance and complexities of the human experience. Their life’s work and perspective makes them an essential member of any team or project involving healing, decolonization, empowerment, and justice.

Sabrin Nur (they/them) is an artist based in Minneapolis since 2014, currently serving in their second year of AmeriCorps national service, coaching and mentoring high school students on their postsecondary plans. Nur’s artistic practice weaves through many mediums, and they have worked with grassroots arts and cultural organizations in the Twin Cities, planning, hosting, coordinating and curating exhibits and events. Rooted in Somali and Yemeni lineages, their work bridges voices of nomads, mystics, and merchants with those of contemporary diasporic communities.

Photograph of Sabrin Nur, a young Black person with dark skin and short black hair. In this photo, they have a wide smile and are wearing pearl necklaces and earrings and a purple garment with a purple head covering and a striped cloth over their left shoulder. Behind them are what look like blue stars on a black background, with a constellation tracing barely visible.

Erin Sharkey (she/they) is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the editor of A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (Milkweed Editions ’23). Erin is a founding co-op member of the Fields at Rootsprings, a retreat and respite space in central MN, and co-founder, with Junauda Petrus, of an experimental arts collective called Free Black Dirt. She is the producer of film projects, including Small Business Revolution, which explored challenges and opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Sharkey has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, VONA/Voices, the Givens Foundation, Penumbra Theatre, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History, Black Visions, Headwaters Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation. She has an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and was a teacher for several years with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

Photograph of Davi Gray, a white trans nonbinary woman with gray eyes. In this picture she is wearing pink hair, a jeweled stud in her right nostril, and a black shirt. She's standing in front of a blurred wood background and staring off to camera right.

Davi Gray (she/they) is a queer, trans, nonbinary poet, writer, performer, artist, producer, activist, and abolitionist. They live in Minneapolis (Bde Óta Othúŋwe), within Mni Sóta Makoce, unceded lands of the Dakota and Ojibwe. Her work has been published in Poetry, Water~Stone Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Rogue Agent, and elsewhere, and her first poetry collection, This Body, This Fruit, a finalist for the 2025 Louise Bogan Award, will be published in February 2027 by Trio House Press. She is a recipient of 2025 and 2026 Arts Experiences grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and can often be found performing around the Twin Cities. You can learn more about her work, including upcoming events, at davigray.com.

Louise Waakaa'igan is an Ojibwe woman; in this photo, she has mid-length brown hair, a dark blue hoodie, and is touching a tree.

Louise Waakaa’igan (she/her) is an enrolled member at Odaawaa-Zaaga’iganiing in northern Wisconsin. Her first chapbook, This Is Where (Aquarius Press), was published in 2020. She is also the first-place winner of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop’s Broadside Competition (2016). Louise’s work has been previously published in PEN America, 21 Mythologies, The Moon Magazine, Night Colors, 27th Letter, Words in Gray Scale, and Doors Adjacent. She is ready to publish her second collection.

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.

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.

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

The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them. You can learn more about its mission, volunteer to help, and sign up for the newsletter at reentrylab.org.

* 5×5 format inspired by the 555 Reads series, developed by Elizabeth R. Tannen.

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