Join us on Thursday, November 6, 2025, at 6:30 pm for a conversation with Hennepin History Museum Executive Director, John Crippen and board member and author Debra J Stone. Debra will read briefly from her debut novel, The House on Rondo.

Her novel tells the story of a young girl who reckons with the demolition of a Black Saint Paul neighborhood to make way for the Interstate in the summer of 1963. Young Zenobia takes a stand on behalf of her community, even as the demolition continues. The House on Rondo captures the heartbreak, resistance, and resilience that marks a community sacrificed in the name of progress that never seems to favor Black families and neighborhoods. It also reveals little-known connections between the communities of North Minneapolis and Rondo.

A book signing will follow. The House on Rondo is available for purchase at the museum.

Published in 2025 by the University of Minnesota Press, The House on Rondo has received glowing reviews. Molly Beth Griffin, a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program in writing for children and a teacher at the Loft Literary Center said of it, “A gift to readers who are willing to look their own messy history in the eye and learn from it in order to fight for a better world.”

Debra J Stone is a Jerome Hill Arts Fellow in Literature 2023-25, The Loft Mirrors and Windows Fellow 2023, and a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board grant recipient. Recently, she was at the Storyknife Writing Retreat in Homer, Alaska. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and dog Ruby, an Australian Cattle Dog Red Heeler, Ruby.

Cost: Pay As You Can