creative leadership : Buzz

St. Paul resident Nicholas David has been named one of the top 12 contestants on NBC's reality TV show The Voice.

It’s quite a feat because “Getting onto The Voice means you have to rely solely on (wait for it...) your voice while a team of celeb judges decides whether or not they'll turn their chair around and offer you a spot on their team,” a City Pages story reads.

His recent performance on the show of Barry White's “You're the First, the Last, My Only” is described as "raspy, passionate, and unique."

David doesn’t fit the “usual pop-star mold,” the story goes on to say. “When most of the other singers on the show merely gush about how crazy and amazing it feels to be on The Voice's stage David talks about inspiration, his 'gal' and his kids,” it states.

Livability.com, which profiles the best places across the country to live and visit, has an entry about Minneapolis.

The site characterizes Minneapolis as “a center for business, arts and professional sports,” with Fortune 500 companies, a strong theater scene, and the Twins, Timberwolves, and Vikings. Forbes has also named it as one of the safest cities nationwide, it adds.

The city’s workforce and parks are also highlighted on the website, while local landmarks are featured in the photo gallery.

“With so much to offer, Minneapolis has received numerous accolades,” the entry reads.

St. Paul is a finalist for the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, rising above a pool of over 300 entries.

The competition is about inspiring “American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life,” a prepared statement from the city reads.

The city's entry was an idea to make the city’s permit review and license process accessible online.

“Permit St. Paul,” as it’s called, aims to improve customer service and results and make government more transparent, while also keeping costs down, the statement reads.  

The city is up against 19 others across the country for the $5 million grand prize and $1 million runner-up awards.
 

Recently, Outside magazine featured Minneapolis as a top biking city.

“Cold winters can’t cramp the style of Minneapolis cyclists. Quite the opposite, in fact. This tight-knit community of bicyclists is the envy of many in the North American cycling crowd,” it states.

The article cites places like One on One Bicycle Studio as gathering places for cyclists, along with Open Streets outdoor events that shut down certain intersections, celebrating the car-free lifestyle. The piece also calls attention to other bike-themed events, including brewery tours, bike messenger races, and more.

Dedicated bike lanes and trails throughout the city, along with a bike-sharing program, contribute to making the city ideal for cycling, says Outside.

On Oct. 24, the FBI recognized a nonprofit called Ka Joog, which works with local Somalis, for its community leadership efforts, according to the Pioneer Press.
 
A handful of years ago, young Somalis made headlines related to gang violence and “the news that dozens of young men were secretly recruited and returning to their war-torn homeland to fight alongside a terrorist group,” the story states.
 
Two young Somali men, Mohamed Farah and his brother, Abdifatah Farah, along with a number of their friends “vowed to do something to keep their peers from falling prey to gangs and radical teachings,” it goes on to say.
 
Ka Joog, which has been going since 2007, has created mentorship programs and other activities to give young Somalis access to education, music, and the arts,  “while speaking out against the violence and radicalization that has claimed too many of them in recent years.”
 
 

 

Harvard’s Ash Center, which gives out “Bright Awards” for innovative government initiatives, recently recognized a couple of St. Paul programs, according to Minnpost.

Of 600 entries, 111 programs were given awards.

St. Paul’s initiative, called “Replicating the Blueprint for Safety,” is a comprehensive interagency guide for dealing with domestic violence-related criminal cases. It stood out, as did the “Residential Life-Safety Inspection Program,” which is about keeping residential properties safe, the article states.  

Hennepin County’s “Results Only” program was also honored. The county has “increased employee productivity and morale, attracted quality applicants, and reduced costs,” through the program, which gives workers a significant amount of control over their work and evaluates them on clearly defined results, according to the article.

Political magazine In These Times noted the 10th anniversary of the death of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash on October 25, 2002.
 
The publication provides a profile of Wellstone and his work, with writer Peter Dreier first recalling that the senator's "fiery speeches and dogged campaigning for progressive reform earned him the title 'the conscience of the Senate.'"
 
The rest of the story details Wellstone's path from professor to politician, and all the controversy he encountered at each stop on his career trajectory. As well as a lengthy, comprehensive overview of Wellstone's major achievements, the profile is also a tribute to a politician whose life touched the lives of many others.

Several local breweries fared well at the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo.

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal states that the festival is “considered one of the most prestigious worldwide competitions for brewers.”  

St. Paul’s Summit Brewing Co. received a silver medal in the Bohemian-Style Pilsener category for its Summit Pilsener, the Journal reports.

Fitger’s Brewhouse in Duluth, which is planning a Minneapolis location, achieved a bronze medal in the American-Style Sour Ale category, with its Fitger’s Framboise, and the Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery got a bronze medal in the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition, according to the Journal.  

Active.com includes Minneapolis and St. Paul as number eight in its list of the top 10 running places across the country.

“Aside from ample places to train and races to run, spirited running communities add color and support the local traditions that make certain cities ideal for runners,” the website reads.

The website cites events and infrastructure such as the Twin Cities Marathon, “called the most beautiful urban marathon in the U.S.,” a 50-mile city trail system, and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway, and its home to the elite distance running-focused Team USA, coached by Dennis Barker.

New York City was named as the top running destination.

The local foodie website Heavy Table recently started a taproom directory for Minneapolis and St. Paul, which it plans to update regularly.

Ever since the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill in 2011 that “allows for brewers to operate an on-sale establishment on their brewing premises,” new brewing ventures have emerged all over the place, many of which include taprooms.

Dangerous Man Brewing, Indeed Brewing and 612Brew even make up a Northeast “Brew District,” the directory states.

It also includes listings for taprooms to come.

A short video on the TC Daily Planet website titled “Art Saves Lives,” from DJM film company with the help of Art Institutes International Minnesota and the Waite House, documents the making of a local youth-driven mural project.

The mini-documentary shows how a blank wall was transformed, going from the beginning of the project to the mural’s unveiling. The video also includes interviews with young artists and the project’s facilitators. They talk about how the mural beautifies the neighborhood, provides valuable personal and professional training for youth, and builds trust between teenagers and adults.

Recently, Artforum, a national art magazine, included a review of a local art show from Andy DuCett at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis.

The story’s writer, Jay Gabler, is also from the area.

Gabler compares the installation, called, “Why we do this” to a film.

“DuCett has created dozens of distinct spaces and assembled them in an eccentric progression that draws the viewer through the gallery with the promise of a surprise around every corner. His themes are memory and life history—specifically, the memories and history of the thirtysomething Minnesotan man he is,” the piece reads.  

A recent story from the TC Daily Planet tells of a St. Paul resident’s home-crafted K'nex toy, dubbed Clockwork, which “has become a fast internet phenomenon since he released the video of it earlier this month.”

The toy has more than 40,000 pieces of K'nex--a creative construction material--plus eight motors, five lifts, a computer controlled crane and a couple of K'nex balls, according to the story.

It has attracted over a million hits on YouTube and landed on Reddit’s front page.

Its creator, Austin Granger, is quoted in the story, saying, “Every time I make one, I try to go bigger and more complex, and more ambitious than the one that came before it.”

Publishers Weekly recently reported on the Sept. 8 debut of a local literary journal called Revolver.

The new journal publishes a mix of prose, poetry, visual art, photography, and play excerpts, PW states.

Online content will be refreshed every couple of weeks, while a print edition will come out twice a year.

Revolver’s seven founding editors are part of a writing group that began meeting two years ago.  

Esther Porter, a founding editor, explains that the journal came out of their monthly conversations: “We’d go out and close down bars fighting over stories, literature of all kinds. We wanted to have something to show for it.”

Reflecting the group's energy, the journal publishes pieces “that hit the brain like a bullet,” she says.
  



 

Local arts journalist Matt Peiken’s new project, MNuet, is featured in a recent blog post from Knight Arts.

Peiken intends MNuet, which launched on Sept. 4, to be an online hub for statewide classical music coverage.

He wants to create a community around classical music. Furthermore, members of MNuet will help support that.  

"No media organization around here has a staff writer dedicated to covering the classical music beat any more,: says Peiken. "The coverage is all farmed out to freelancers."

While major media outlets broadcast occasional concerts, nobody's reporting on the scene, he says, adding, "You can learn about what the major players are doing, but you don’t get context, and you certainly don’t hear much from individual artists.”