Diversity : Featured Stories
Jay Walljasper Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, June 19, 2013
It's been an article of faith since Central Corridor light rail (Green Line) construction began that, despite all the disruption and traffic chaos of the building stage, the line would eventually become a magnet for local entrepreneurs. That scenario appears to be playing out; here are three entrepreneurial ventures that were lured to the line by light rail's promise.
Dan Heilman Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The young entrepreneur's Royal Bangkok Restaurant is just one of the Vong family businesses at 315 University Avenue--a building that enshrines the enterprise and hope of a clan whose patriarch fled Cambodia in the wake of the Khmer Rouge.
Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The onetime marketing professional made a career u-turn when he discovered how gardening--and cooking and eating healthy produce right from the soil--could change lives. Now his nonprofit startup helps inner-city newcomers to gardening make healthy foods part of their lives.
Caroline Hooper Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The achievement gap between white and black students in Minnesota is real, and a cause for concern. But a Minneapolis schoolteacher adds nuance to the debate by pointing out that black students in Minnesota public schools are doing better than black students nationally.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Governor Mark Dayton signed Minnesota's law legalizing gay marriage on a bright, clear day that broke temperature records. The theme of the outdoor signing ceremony was love, just as love had been a major theme of the campaign to get the law passed. Where else might we use this big word?
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, May 08, 2013
The local office of the Chicago-based Women's Business Development Center gives majority-women-owned ventures here support and connections they might not otherwise have--as long as they can pass a rigorous qualifying process. It's women helping women to shatter the glass ceiling.
Bill Kelley Wednesday, May 08, 2013
The May Day Parade and Festival is our Mardi Gras--a heartfelt explosion of color, music, art, fun, and earth-friendliness after the weariness of long winters. Bill Kelley caught the parade action last Sunday in the Powderhorn neighborhood as Minneapolitans dressed up and rocked out to say goodbye to the cold.
Bill Kelley Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Images from a concert of ecstatic music in three traditions: Hindu Indian, Islamic and Christian Persian, and Sephardic Jewish, played and sung by some of our most accomplished local world musicians. The setting? Minnesota's Hindu temple. The purpose? To bring hearts and minds together. The result? Joyful catharsis after a terrible week.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, April 17, 2013
This week: A new incarnation for what may be the only pan-African restaurant in the Twin Cities--and a fan of West African cuisine has a delicious lunch of Jolof rice and chicken.
Camille LeFevre Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Consolidating its position as a laboratory for cutting-edge design thinking, the University of Minnesota's College of Design hosted the first Public Interest Design Week. Its climax was an awards show that displayed ingenious design-driven solutions to the dilemmas of poverty and ill health in America and around the world.
Jay Walljasper Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Art lives in the Twin Cities--and not just in the tonier parts of town. Thanks to initiatives like Twin Cities LISC's Building Sustainable Communities program, art and artists are taking major roles in helping some of our most challenged inner-city communities thrive.
Tom Niemisto Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Last Wednesday, some 150 Minnesota Muslims got together to share concerns and hopes with their legislators at the ninth Annual Muslim Day at the Capitol, organized by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. Here's a video look at the event, from our friends at Minnesota 2020.
Anna Pratt Wednesday, March 20, 2013
It's weathered industry exoduses and foreclosure--but now the proud old East Side Saint Paul neighborhood is home to a hot new bar/restaurant, Ward 6, that's both a sign of, and a force in, a wider renewal.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Once the exclusive province of privileged young white men heading for law degrees, debate is flourishing in inner-city schools here, thanks to the Minnesota Urban Debate League. The disciplined, demanding, and fun "mind sport" is helping kids of color and of lower income develop study and thinking skills--and get into college.
Agata Miszczyk Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Both St. Paul and Minneapolis have committed themselves to making their downtowns more residential, with major projects to develop the infrastructure a genuine residential neighborhood requires. But, says Minnesota 2020 fellow Agata Miszczyk, an emphasis on rental units and luxury buildings is holding back the vitality that the downtowns need.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 27, 2013
This week: A greeting card in a coffee shop sends me to a Minneapolis West Bank memorial that recalls a beloved, vanished building and honors the history and traditions of generations of West Bankers.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 20, 2013
In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: A multi-everything hip-hop/spoken word extravaganza organized by our coolest Lao-American diva and sponsored by the lovable Saint Paul Almanac.
Camille LeFevre Wednesday, February 06, 2013
When globetrotting dancers and choreographers Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands, formerly of the Alvin Ailey company, decided to establish a new kind of multicultural dance school in Saint Paul, they knew where they wanted it to be: along the Central Corridor in the heart of the city.
Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Despite some women-led startups, high tech here, as elsewhere, is still more or less drowning in testosterone. But some strong local initiatives are pointing the way toward more opportunities for women to get their geek on.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, January 16, 2013
In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: Thanks to the cooks-with-a-conscience at Eat for Equity, you've got a chance to share a meal, and a cause, with famed activist (and Green Party vice-presidential candidate) Winona La Duke.
Jay Walljasper Wednesday, January 16, 2013
A pair of determined nonprofits, Minneapolis' Urban Homeworks and Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services in Saint Paul, begin by fixing up damaged, foreclosed, and derelict houses--and then go on to help strengthen the surrounding neighborhoods in many other ways.
Minnesota 2020 Wednesday, January 09, 2013
From our friends at Minnesota 2020, a video about how immigrants and their needs and preferences are helping Minnesota farmers develop new crops and new markets.
Jay Walljasper Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Jay Walljasper checks in with British urbanist Charles Landry, who recaps his experience touring the Twin Cities, meeting a wide array of local urban changemakers, and applying his principles of city vitality to our reality. And Landry draws some conclusions about how our towns can thrive in the coming decades.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, December 12, 2012
In this first of an occasional series of interviews with young movers and shakers in the Twin Cities, we talk with John Larsen, an architect whose personal giving, and family foundation, support deeply held personal values rooted in personal experiences. For Larsen, philanthropy needs to explore options beyond writing checks--like new partnerships with government.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, December 12, 2012
In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: Papaya salad, purple rice, or pho with your pizza?
Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Saint Paul's WomenVenture helps woman-run startups get off the ground with a potent mix of feminist spirit, microlending, and business incubation. But as its clients testify, it's the group's commitment to ongoing support that sets it apart.
Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The education innovators behind this charter school are hoping to create a 21st-century fusion of classroom and digital space, where kids' fascination with technology helps them learn--at their own pace.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, November 14, 2012
In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: You've got a chance on Monday to peek into the laboratories of advanced bio-researchers at the University of Minnesota, as guests of the U's union of GLBTQ scientists.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, October 31, 2012
With 150,000 immigrants and refugees from Africa living within its borders, Minnesota's ties to the continent are growing. Some nonprofits here are leading the way toward a new model for helping Africa develop, replacing the top-down aid mentality with models of mutuality, transparency, and--most of all--face-to-face friendship.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, October 31, 2012
In A Line or Two, I share some of my enthusiasms and discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities. Call it an editor's note as blog entry. This week: At an upcoming potluck and community meeting, you can get to know a unique arts-based activist group in Saint Paul's Frogtown.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, October 10, 2012
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: The ever-deeper Minnesota-China connection, over breakfast.
Jacie Knight Wednesday, October 03, 2012
The founder and artistic director of Youth Performance Company reflects on what she's learned from the kids she works with about the real source of the "bullying epidemic" in our schools--and why she commissioned a musical theater piece to deal with it.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, September 26, 2012
The Dakota War of 1862, the survival of Native languages, Minneapolis' urban Indian heartland--these were the challenging themes that a group of young Native filmmakers took up this summer at an innovative media institute dedicated to reconnecting them with their roots.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The president and the research/policy director of the local think tank Growth and Justice are "business-oriented progressives." In the face of dogma to the contrary, they dare to assert that there's an unbreakable link between economic fairness and economic growth. And they're bringing that spirit to the most compelling economic issue of all: jobs.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, August 08, 2012
With a new school year approaching, we take a look at three unique programs that show how Minnesota has become a "thought leader" in developing--and funding--positive alternatives for youth.
Bill Kelley Wednesday, July 25, 2012
It's Saint Paul's--and Minnesota's--biggest celebration of African American life, commemorating the Rondo neighborhood, which was largely bulldozed away to make room for Interstate 94 in the 1960s. This year, lensman Bill Kelley followed all the festivities.
Susan Klemond Wednesday, July 11, 2012
On some long-vacant land behind their Central Corridor high school, a group of students and their supporters envision a multi-use greenspace that would be a focal point for the neighborhood--and could be unique in the nation.
Camille LeFevre Wednesday, June 13, 2012
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.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, June 13, 2012
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.
Bill Kelley Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Managing Photographer Bill Kelley talked to some friends, checked in with some experts, and wandered the city a bit on his own to find the local street art that appealed to him the most. Herewith, his images of art meant to make you stop, look, have a startle reaction, and then continue on your way, energized.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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.
Camille LeFevre Wednesday, May 16, 2012
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.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, May 16, 2012
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: Laurie and I explore a Ramsey County regional park that's very rural--and very urban.
Julie Kendrick Wednesday, April 18, 2012
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."
Bill Kelley Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Saint Paul's Selby Avenue is the home of some celebrated and beloved local institutions. But for this issue, lensman Bill Kelley took portraits of Selby Avenue places that may be a bit below your radar unless you know the street well--plus some cool new businesses that have popped up in recent months. It's our effort to show how one of the Saintly City's most attractive, even genteel, streets is also one of its most dynamic and diverse.
Nancy Crotti Wednesday, April 11, 2012
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.
Susan Klemond Wednesday, April 04, 2012
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.
Izak Leon and Adam Jacobs Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Izak Leon and Adam Jacobs' video "Dinkytown: Food Music Books" is a a lively look at the semi-legendary neighborhood of cafes, bars, clubs, and bookstores adjacent to the University of Minnesota campus. The two Perpich Center for Arts Education students portray a neighborhood that's moving toward the mainstream while still holding on to many of the values of its countercultural past.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, March 21, 2012
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 cabaret showcase that will bring together some of the city's A-list avant-garde performers in what promise to be gorgeously twisted takes on our politico-sexual status quo.
Dan Heilman Wednesday, March 14, 2012
When the economic downturn derailed plans for a U of M North Minneapolis campus, university and civic visionaries created a unique alternative: a Northside research and outreach center that's the hub for a whole galaxy of town-gown partnerships in economic development and social betterment.
Camille LeFevre Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Native American trail, gaudy entertainment district, forge of gay consciousness, showcase of the arts: Minneapolis' Hennepin Avenue has been all of these and more. Recently, historians, urbanists, and the public gathered to explore the avenue's colorful history as part of the city's initiative to shape its future.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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: Carlyle Brown's American Family opens at Saint Paul's Park Square Theatre in mid-March. It's the nationally acclaimed, locally based playwright's first attempt to explore the black experience through a white central character. And it will also mark Brown's first appearance onstage at Park Square.
Islamic Resource Group of Minnesota Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Muslim Minnesotans range from immigrants to American-born men and women with Mideastern, African, or Asian ancestry to converts with a "Lake Wobegon" background. This film, produced by the Islamic Resource Group of Minnesota, puts very human and very recognizable faces on Minnesota's diverse and growing Muslim community.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 01, 2012
In A Line or Two, I'll be sharing some of my discoveries as I make my way around the Twin Cities--an intriguing upcoming event, a great restaurant meal, a new art gallery, a conversation with a forward thinker, or a web site you should know about. Call it an editor's-note-as-blog-entry. (And I take the photos--Bill Kelley is guiltless.) This time: a return to the marvelous, and still undiscovered, restaurant Filfillah, where you get the lunch your mom made for you if you grew up in Ankara.
Elizabeth Millard Wednesday, December 14, 2011
For hopeful food entrepreneurs, it can be a long, hard road from cooking a tasty treat to creating a viable business around it. That's where the North Side's innovative food-business incubator comes in.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Often, says Concordia University economist and biz-school dean Bruce Corrie, our minority and immigrant communities are seen solely through the "problem" lens. Their struggles are real, but their contributions to our prosperity and potential for growth are greater than most majority Minnesotans realize. And Corrie's got the figures to prove it.
Jay Walljasper Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Most of us in the Twin Cities are aware that we've become a great town for bicycling in recent years, but urbanist and author Jay Walljasper--an avid biker for decades--has been digging into the trend to find out the what and the why behind it. In this adaptation of an article he wrote for Bikes Belong, he fills in the story and gives us some impressive facts about the sheer scale and promise of our new two-wheel era.
Elissa Cedarleaf Dahl Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Muralist, public-school teacher, and MCAD professor Elissa Cedarleaf Dahl has a big idea for Minneapolis: a mural program that would engage at-risk kids, create beautiful public art all over the city, and celebrate our neighborhoods and the people who live in them.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, August 17, 2011
A conversation with Julia Freeman and Hillary Rodgers of the Organizing Apprenticeship Program. Through its Education Equity Organizing Collaborative, the OAP has entered into a pathbreaking partnership with the State of Minnesota. Its goal: close the widely publicized "achievement gap" by making sure equal treatment of all students is state policy.
Tristan Pollock Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The budget debate and state government shutdown have underlined Minnesota's needs and the difficulties of meeting them. Tristan Pollock, a young social entrepreneur and writer, visits the Engaged Philanthropy Conference and suggests what the philanthropic community needs to do in these tough days.
greenforall.org Wednesday, June 15, 2011
"Environmental justice is the new civil rights movement," says a young woman in this video, created by the organization Green for All. The video, posted last month, highlights a number of green jobs efforts in the Twin Cities that marry sustainability and social justice.
Michelle Bruch Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Poet, musician, diversity consultant, and reality-show star Mohammed Bilal rapped about the "real world" of race when he keynoted an awards ceremony in Saint Paul last week. The talk was about justice, and the awards went to five Minnesotans who have worked hard--and hopefully--for it in our community.
Bill Kelley Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The stretch of Minneapolis' Central Avenue Northeast that runs from around 18th Avenue to a little past Lowry is a colorful collage of immigrant businesses: Hispanic, Arab, Afghan, Indian, Southeast Asian. Bill Kelley's images capture a neighborhood that feels both faraway and very close to home.
Susan Klemond Wednesday, March 09, 2011
In colloquial Italian, the word spunto means a creative idea. Italy has given the world more than its share of spunti in art, architecture, music, design, and more--and five years ago some adoptive Twin Citians got a spunto of their own: to create a place that celebrates all things Italian. Today the Italian Cultural Center teaches language, sponsors film showings, collaborates with art and opera venues--and it's just getting started.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
When James Garrett Jr., Nathan Johnson, and Erick Goodlow formed an architectural firm, they vowed to do more than create attractive buildings. The three Saint Paulites knew the city and its needs from the ground up, and they wanted to make an impact on the whole urban fabric. Via their company, 4RM+ULA, they're bringing a holistic design sense to some of the highest-profile projects in the Twin Cities--including the Central Corridor.
Jon Spayde Wednesday, February 09, 2011
At first glance, The Saint Paul Almanac is a handy week-planner full of local information. Dig a little deeper and you discover founder/publisher Kimberly Nightingale's vision: a place where stories from every corner of the city, and every ethnic community, come together. But there's more: Nightingale sees the Almanac as a tool for transforming the way Americans learn about each other. And people around the country think she's on to something.
Anna Pratt Wednesday, February 02, 2011
John Hoff, aka Johnny Northside, blogs about North Minneapolis with passion and personality. He believes the neighborhood is headed "someplace amazing," and he's helping it get there with stories about its pleasures and problems. And he's inspired others to join the cyber-conversation, co-creating one of the most vibrant civic blogospheres in town.
Dan Heilman Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Franklin Avenue east of Hiawatha in Minneapolis used to be best known for bars and blight. Today, though, the area is blooming with Native enterprise as an American Indian Cultural Corridor takes shape. Culture and art are major drivers of the neighborhood's renaissance--an art gallery is one of the anchors, and there are new tribal and company offices and apartments too--and plans call for a brand-new mixed-use building and a Native-owned hotel. The biggest change, though, is a new sense of cohesion and pride at street level.
Molly Priesmeyer Wednesday, December 01, 2010
In North Minneapolis, there's an arts center that's been tapping into, and amplifying, the energy of African-American youth culture for fifteen years. Juxtaposition Arts is a place where neighborhood kids fired up by hip-hop turn street savvy into beauty and visual excitement through art and design. "Juxta" has collaborated with the likes of the Walker Art Center and the Guthrie Theater, but its heart has always been in its neighborhood; and now, with a planned $8.2- million expansion, it's primed to be a major player in the cities' art scene as it amps up its impact on the North Side.
Bill Kelley Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Our photographer, Bill Kelley, took a leisurely trip from Maryland Avenue to Selby Avenue on Dale Street, making images of the many faces of this great old Saint Paul street: the well-loved neighborhood institution called Conny's Creamy Cone, a place to get Cambodian DVDs, the ambitious new Frogtown Square development, Big Daddy's Barbecue--and a gigantic sunflower too. Join him on one of the city's most diverse and soulful thoroughfares.
Alyssa Ford Wednesday, October 20, 2010
El Nuevo Rodeo is a a large, cheerful Mexican restaurant on Lake Street. It's also a gigantic, pretty sensational dance club upstairs, drawing huge crowds to hear the biggest names in Latin music, from Mexican banda and norteño groups to pop and salsa superstars. For co-founder and owner Maya Santamaria, a music promoter who used to be an anthropologist, it's also a cultural and community center for the whole local Latino population--straight and gay--and a symbol of Latino entrepreneurship and enterprise in the Cities.
Susan Klemond Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Guitarist Daíthí Sproule, a globe-trotting member of the Celtic supergroup Altan and one of the true giants of traditional Irish music, lives not in Dublin or New York but on Saint Paul's West Side--along with a growing community of musicians who play Irish music locally and nationally, and who love the fact that their close-knit neighborhood gives them plenty of chances to get together and jam.
Meleah Maynard Wednesday, August 18, 2010
It's hard for 25-year-old Zuhur Ahmed to find some time for herself. Wherever she goes in the Twin Cities Somali community, from malls to workplaces to coffee shops, people have something to say to her. Her issue-oriented call-in show on community radio station KFAI is an open forum for what concerns Somalis here--immigration, family issues, crime, gangs, drugs. And what she's learned has convinced her to continue helping people displaced by global unrest and chronicling their lives.
Laine Bergeson Wednesday, June 30, 2010
North Minneapolis--NoMi--has had its share of hard times, crime, and social dislocation over the years. But neighborhood advocate Joel Breeggemann is sick of one-sided portrayals of the neighborhood. He and other Northsiders know it as a friendly, green, increasingly trendy "small town in the city" where neighbors are joining together to make things better--and word has been getting out. Scores of first-time homeowners have been drawn into the neighborhood by Breeggemann's Get to NoMi Home Buyers Tours, which celebrate the North Side while showcasing some amazingly affordable houses.