coordination/collaboration : Featured Stories

In the final Talk-It Hennepin forum on the redevelopment of Hennepin Avenue, experts touched on some touchy subjects, like the purpose of public space, who gets to use it and how, the role of memory in placemaking, and how to celebrate diversity without creating ethnic Disneylands.

At the Grassroots and Groundwork anti-poverty conference--held at Mystic Lake Casino, of all places--attendees heard about ingenious ways to build wealth in struggling communities by adapting old-school immigrant self-help tactics to the digital age.

They show up in unlikely places around town--scores of yoga practitioners practicing their poses and tossing charitable contributions into a kitty. It's rogue yoga and grassroots philanthropy, and as it grows in popularity, the three women who started it want to keep it unpredictable.

We check in with the literate, stylistically adventurous singer, rapper, writer, and Doomtree hip-hop collective member to get her take on the Twin Cities as a creative community and a nurturer of bold DIY music.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my discoveries and enthusiasms as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: a preview of what the Walker has in store for its stage.

"Design Thinking" isn't just about planning an object and making an image of it. It's a process of innovation that emphasizes engagement with real human issues--and it's arrived at CoCo, the local coworking space, in an educational initiative aimed at helping tech entrepreneurs and other freelancers open their minds even wider.

In town to talk about the Central Corridor, Hennepin Avenue, and other local nodes of city planning, lauded urbanist Charles Landry called for an approach that integrates the cities' diverse cultures into a rich, essentially artistic, mix--and makes everyone feel appreciated and included.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my discoveries and enthusiasms as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's-note-as-blog-entry. This week: National Bike Month, with its galaxy of two-wheel events and promotions, has the potential to get me out from behind the computer.

The New Orleans-based public artist, known for whimsical, low-tech projects that get people talking about the intersection between their cities and their lives, was here to kick off an inquiry into the  transformation of Hennepin Avenue and the future of our towns.

In A Line or Two, I share some of my discoveries and enthusiasms as I make my way around the Twin Cities--call it an editor's-note-as-blog-entry. This week: Let's get our towns deeper into The City 2.0, the exciting urban-idea initiative promoted by TED.

From books to documentaries to television appearances, Geoffrey Canada has earned accolades as an education reform leader and the head of Harlem Children’s Zone. Last week he was in Minneapolis to speak to a convention of youth and educators involved in the service-learning movement, where he told them "you never know when you'll be needed."

The teeshirts bearing the brand Forgotten are articles of faith as well as articles of clothing. The fledgling company was created to help the Ugandan farmers and cotton spinners who create the shirts and the inner-city Minneapolis teens who screen-print them. Now a major rock tour is set to take Forgotten gear to a new level.

Minnebar, our annual, semi-structured geek get-together, is becoming a tradition and a real force in the local tech community. This year's conference happened on Saturday, April 7--and two experienced tech bloggers gave their views of the confab soon after. Here are some excerpts.

Fueled by ice cream, pizza, and rivers of Red Bull, hundreds of nerds recently gathered at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus to help “good nonprofits with not-so-good websites.”

What do you do when the urban garden you've struggled to create gets sold out from under you? At the recent Community Garden Spring Resource Fair, New York gardening advocate Karen Washington told local growers that if they want their gardens to be really sustainable--i.e., permanent--they'd better get savvy about the political system.