Living on the wind: Carnival de Resistance

BY ELAINE KLAASSENA group of young artists from the Americas (roughly between the ages of 20 and 40) have found companionship, joy and common cause as they work to save the Earth. They are part of a relatively new organization, founded in 2013, called Carnival de Resistance. They convene as…

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Vote November 8

BY ED FELIEN President:  Vote for Hillary.  OK, she’s not Bernie.  I’m not Bernie.  You’re not Bernie.  Bernie says vote for Hillary.  It’s the best chance we’ve got to make some changes that can protect people at the bottom from greedy clowns. Congress: Vote for Keith.  He stood with Bernie. …

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Whither Dinkytown?

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE While the future’s there for anyone to change, still you know, it seems It would be easier sometimes to change the past. –Jackson Browne, “Fountain of Sorrow” In the summer of 2015, after many months of debate, the Minneapolis City Council voted to make an oddly-shaped…

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“Unaccountable” is out in paperback

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Sometimes you want to hide away from all the forces that play and prey upon you. As the imminent election looms over us with a 100-ton shadow, one might want to not even vote and just read the Bible or watch “Star Trek.” Some religious groups don’t…

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Remembering Armistice Day

BY THOMAS DICKINSON, for WAMM In 1918 in the 11th month, on the 11th day at the 11th hour, the armistice for the “War to end all wars” was signed in Compiègne, France. Commemorated as “Armistice Day” in most countries, the name and focus were shifted in the U.S. in…

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FROM WHERE I STAND: BASUG

BY POLLY MANN You won’t find the word in a dictionary as I just coined it. Its roots are BA which stands for “banks” and SUG which stands for “sugar.” You might say it stands for sugary or sweet bankers and that would, in a sense, be true for these…

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Dorothy, after Oz

BY BARNABY DEVITT She came back to her senses.  She woke up.  All her friends were there.  They all worked together on the farm. And Dorothy could see how the world she lived in could be changed into an Emerald City. She needed to follow the Yellow Brick Road. Follow…

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QUEEN OF CUISINE: Vive la France!

BY CARLA WALDEMAR Barbette 1600 W. Lake St. 612-827-5710 barbette.com What was all that ooh-la-la-ing coming my way from street bands and sultry chanteuses on a recent July weekend? Oh, right: the annual Bastille Day celebration at Café Barbette. Good reminder that I hadn’t supped there in ages, and it…

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Occupation of Peavey Park

BY DWIGHT HOBBES Summer 2011 the Minneapolis Police Department struck at the South Minneapolis intersection of Chicago and Franklin. Crack dealers, along with hookers and other junkies, accustomed to complacently setting up camp at the Thrones Plaza entrance to Peavey Park, hardly knew what hit them.  Literally overnight, coordinating undercover work, camera surveillance and snitches, …

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Asking for help

BY CHRISTOPHER HARRISON ELDRIDGE Violet Barnes exemplifies the wide range of people who spend time panhandling in an effort to make ends meet. She lives with her daughter not far from the Lake and Hiawatha intersection, having moved to the cities from South Dakota with her family in hope of…

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Why you should vote ‘Yes’ to more taxes

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Howard Zinn once said “Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” He was talking about trying to affect militarism and foreign policy, after acknowledging that there were times when the margin between…

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NENA sets its ‘sites’ on a community garden

BY STEPHANIE FOX Nokomis East—the Keewaydin, Wenonah, Minnehaha and Morris Park neighborhoods—is one of the few neighborhoods in Minneapolis without a community garden. But that might change, maybe as early as next spring. The Nokomis East Neighborhood Association (NENA) started discussing the possibility of sponsoring an official garden at its…

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Vote November 8

BY ED FELIEN President:  Vote for Hillary.  OK, she’s not Bernie.  I’m not Bernie.  You’re not Bernie.  Bernie says vote for Hillary.  It’s the best chance we’ve got to make some changes that can protect people at the bottom from greedy clowns. Congress: Vote for Keith.  He stood with Bernie. …

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East 42nd Street: the Main Street of ‘Stan-Eric’

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The concept of a virtual town or neighborhood was actually born right here in Minneapolis decades ago with the founding of an online “community” called e-democracy. It seems old-fashioned now, but that’s because it’s so imitated, yet still around. Global now in its reach but much…

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