""First and foremost, I identify as a poet and a writer, and being in this job didn't really allow me to focus as much time and energy as I wanted on my creative life, and so I wanted to get back to that while I still had some mental acuity and passion and abilities," she told Minneapolis Public Radio."
""Since that time, there has been a visible decline in my mobility and my physical way of navigating and negotiating the world," she said."
"Jenkins came to the council after work with the University of Minnesota on a transgender oral history project, with the school's Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies. She attended UM as an undergrad and went on to earn two master's degrees: an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and an MS in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University. She was also a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government."
Andrea Jenkins, a 64-year-old Chicago native, is retiring from public office to return to her creative work as a poet and writer and to address health concerns. Jenkins became the first out Black and trans official elected to public office in the United States when she joined the Minneapolis City Council nine years ago. She received a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2017, and the degenerative disease has caused a visible decline in mobility and physical navigation. Jenkins came to the council after collaborating on a transgender oral history project at the University of Minnesota and holds advanced degrees in creative writing and community economic development.
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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