Frank Waln is an award-winning Sicangu Lakota hip-hop artist and music producer from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. He is one of the authors featured in American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures, the Elmhurst Public Library’s 2022 One Book, One Elmhurst selection.

Waln, who currently calls Chicago home, will give an Author Talk at Elmhurst University at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 28, in the Frick Center, Founders Lounge. Admission is free but registration is required, at elmlib.org/OneBook. The talk is presented with the Elmhurst Public Library and Friends of the Elmhurst Public Library.

Waln travels the world telling his story through performance, and discusses how to express culture through music. With the aid of his guitar and Native flutes, he shares reflections on growing up on a reservation, the strong women who raised him, finding our truth, and reconnecting to our roots.

American Like Me (2019), by award-winning actress and political activist America Ferrera, is a collection of first-person accounts from prominent figures—actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists and writers—about growing up as immigrants, descendants of immigrants, or indigenous people struggling to establish a sense of self and find belonging.

Waln’s talk is part of the Fall 2022 Cultural Season speaker series at Elmhurst University. As the University celebrates its most ambitious fundraising campaign in institutional history, this year’s Cultural Season theme—The Legacy We Leave: Doing Well, Doing Good, Investing in the Future—highlights philanthropic impact, and building a culture of generosity and hope.

For questions and more information, email [email protected].