On April 12th, we shared our story at District 287 school board meeting .  There were a lot of board members and guests who really enjoyed learning about us.  South Education Center (SEC) from Intermediate District 287 and  Unrestricted Interest played a critical role in our transformation journey.   We are huge fans of their support!!!  Special Kudos to our school principal Jayne Tiedemann,  our classroom teacher Kathryn Bastiansen and staff,  our art teacher Sandra Shetka, our poetry teacher Chris Martin from Unrestricted Interest.

Thursday, March 29, 2018, 6:30 pm
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis

As a special precursor to National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month, the Autism Society of Minnesota and Rain Taxi invite you to a special evening with and about a remarkable young poet named DJ Savarase. Our program, which celebrates the publication of Savarese’s chapbook A Doorknob for an Eye and the feature film Deej, will include a screening of the film and a Q&A session with DJ himself. Chapbooks and DVDs will be available for purchase. Don’t miss this opportunity to redefine “normal” and to see “what the ideal of full inclusion requires but also what it can accomplish.”

We are pleased to announce that the work of two Minnesota poets with autism will also be presented at this event! Mark Eati, a non-verbal autistic, is a joyful and savvy poet whose work addresses many disability topics. Max Eati is an adventurous writer who is using poetry to heal his heart and also to reach the hearts of other individuals with autism. Mark and Max are siblings with autism who maintain the blog Grow Our Joy to share their inner thoughts and progress with as wide an audience as possible.

Series directed by Angela Pelster, Featuring Guests Chris Martin, Mark Eati and Kathryn Bastiensen

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

March: Chris Martin showing “Wretches & Jabberers” in conversation with Mark Eati and Kathryn Bastiansen.

Chris Martin is the author of The Falling Down Dance (Coffee House, 2015), winner of the 2016 Midwest Independent Booksellers Choice Award; Becoming Weather (Coffee House, 2011); and American Music (Copper Canyon, 2007) chosen by C. D. Wright for the Hayden Carruth Award. He’s been a writer-in-residence at the Minnesota History Center’s Gale Library, a Bartos Fellow at United World College, a reader-in-residence at the South Minneapolis Society Library, and is the recent recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Minnesota State Arts Board. In 2015 he co-founded Unrestricted Interest, a consultancy and writing program dedicated to transforming the lives of kids and adults on the autism spectrum through poetry and song. He also co-edits Unrestricted Editions, dedicated to transforming poetry and song though the voices of those with autism. He now co-edits Society Editions, a publishing concern at the intersection of politics and poetics.

Mark Eati is a joyful and savvy writer on many disability topics and also a poet who has deep expressive abilities. No one can tell from her writings that she is a non-verbal autistic that cannot even tie her own shoes. Mark is currently at Intermediate District 287 and a student of poetry with Unrestricted Interest. Her first chapbook of poems will be published this spring by Unrestricted Interest

Katie Bastiansen is a Special Education Teacher with Intermediate District 287 who works with young adults, 18-21 years old, with Developmental Cognitive Disabilities or Severely Multiply Impaired. Many of her students have one or more additional disabilities such as: Speech/Language, Autism, Physical Impairment, Other Health Disability, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Vision Impairment, and/or Emotional/Behavior Disorder. Katie’s mission is to prepare students for success in adult life. Her passion is to maximize the learning potential of each one of her students, especially in the area of communication. She holds a bachelor’s degree and teacher licensure in Elementary and Special Education from Minnesota State University Mankato and a M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning from St. Mary’s University of MN.