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About the Book
Sweet Burden of Crossing details the story of two college students in the 1980s as they take a journey that surfaces their intergenerational trauma and the capacity they must build to grow in their awareness. The story highlights how Chris, the white narrator, awakens to the lived experiences of Blacks in the United States, as she grapples with her father’s early death in the Civil Rights Movement. The story surfaces many thresholds that remain relevant today as we learn to move beyond our comfort zone to access deeper perspectives that free us to live more authentically.
Author Kate Towle received Sweet Potato Comfort Pie’s 2022 Batter That Matters award
At Sweet Potato Comfort Pie’s 8th Annual MLK Holiday of Service, Kate Towle received the “Batters that Matters” Award as a community connector. She was honored for her strong commitment to community, family, and Sweet Potato Comfort Pie’s mission to advance racial justice and equity using the powerful Black cultural food tradition of making and delivering sweet potato pies; facilitating story-circle dialogues; and building multicultural alliances/relationships and youth/elder mentorships that deepen commitment to racial justice work. She coined the phrase "keeping our eyes on the pies."
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Readers’ Quotes
One of the greatest gifts of the arts is to humanize the other. That is what Kate Towle's beautiful novel Sweet Burden of Crossing does. It takes us "behind the eyes" of two friends of different races in a world that treats them differently. It helps readers imagine a new way of being humans-in-community, not as one versus another, but as "one another," facing injustice together and seeking the common good.
—Brian McLaren, activist and author of Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It
“Experiences of life are forged through the profound bond between Chris and Rikki, two diverse characters in Kate Towle’s Sweet Burden of Crossing. At first awkward and uncomfortable, a casual acquaintance turns into a union of strength and deep friendship spanning decades as models of courage and honesty develop through transparency and understanding. As Ms. Towle delves into many societal questions concerning race relations in a remarkably timely narrative, one can glean valuable insights into how to break the cycle of fear and prejudice.”
https://swwordfiesta.org/best-books-we-read-in-2020/
“The race relations in our country today are more volatile than ever. As a Black man who has experienced the injustice in the criminal system firsthand, the trial scene in this book was especially personal for me. I understood. With the help of people who stand up and share their stories, we have hope of moving forward for a better future.”
—Dorsey Howard, author of One Way, No Left Turn
"Kate Towle has written a book about struggle, race, and ultimately, about hope. This novel models what can be done with story: how we can communicate with each other across borders and differences by telling a tale. She weaves together the lives of two young women, one white, one Black, into an important portrayal of what it takes to truly confront our prejudices and become an activist for racial justice. By presenting Chris as a complex character who makes mistakes and keeps on working to change and understand, as well as wrestle with her own personal tragedy, Towle has given us a work of nuance and force. She also gives us, her readers, encouragement, in our own journeys toward activism and advocacy in eliminating white supremacy in all its guises."
—Julie Landsman, author of A White Teacher Talks about Race
The Author
Kate Towle has worked with schools and organizations to foster best practices for engaging youth in the challenges of our times. Her model for intercultural and intergenerational youth engagement won the St. Paul Foundation’s 2011 Facing Race Idea Challenge. She now works actively with communities and organizations to explore the intersection of racial equity and educating for peace. Ms. Towle is one of the founding organizers of the community-building model Sweet Potato Comfort Pie®, and was editor of the Sweet Potato Comfort Pie Guide. She believes that we can cross a new threshold to humanity by exploring together how to build our individual and collective muscle to break down systemic injustice. Kate lives in Minneapolis, the heart of our collective dream for liberation.
Past Events:
Click Dish & Dance to register for our event.
Sweet Burden of Crossing" Book Talk & Discussion with Kate Towle, Nobles County Library, 407 12th Street, #2, Worthington, MN. Click Nobles County Library for more information.
Iowa Reading
Sweet Burden of Crossing is a book about interracial friendship and offers a model for exploring our feelings about race and breaking down barriers of injustice.
I enjoy hosting dialogues about the themes in Sweet Burden of Crossing and have talked with students and groups through the following events and venues: The University of St. Thomas Student Diversity and Inclusion Services, the Minnesota Women’s Congress, Breck School’s MLK Day 2021; DeLaSalle High School Social Justice Week; Dakota County Technical College: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northfield; St. Paul Ballet; Loyola Spirituality Center; the Maquoketa Public Library; and book clubs across the country.
If you would like me to speak to your group or facilitate a dialogue about any of these themes, please send me a message via my Contact Form.
“Kate’s presentation and facilitation made for a great library program. It was interesting and informative, but maybe most importantly it provided an opportunity for candid and meaningful conversation.”
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