Elaine Klaassen
Spirit and Conscience, columns by Elaine Klaassen
Elaine started at Southside Pride in 1996 selling ads, maintaining the religion calendar and writing articles that eventually became a column called Spirit and Conscience.
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN On Saturday, April 12, dozens of citizens — most of whom are affiliated with Christian denominations or with other faith groups — walked from the nature center at 49th Ave. N. in North Minneapolis, down the Mississippi River to Bdote, the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN In the March issue of Southside Pride, Ed Felien, the owner, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the newspaper, wrote this: “We have mourned the unfair and untimely death of George Floyd for almost five years. Perhaps it’s time now to celebrate his life. He worked security for local night…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN On Saturday, April 12, 2025, Christians, Christian-lineage people and allies of other faiths are invited to join a Lenten Pilgrimage of lament and protest against the ongoing injustice of Israel’s military occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, and the United States’ support for the bombing and…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN You don’t usually think of a boxer as a lovable guy, but in the case of Mark Connor, you do. I can say without hesitation that he is, indeed, a lovable pugilist. I worked with this dreamer, idealist, melancholy soul at Southside Pride and Pulse of the…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN When I was in my 20s I often talked about how important it was for people to write about their lives and their thoughts, and how much it would expand one’s consciousness to read about the inner life, observations and experiences of others. It seems that more…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN The book of John Karrigan’s Powderhorn Birdwatch columns is finally in print. Those who never read Birdwatch in the newspaper and fans alike can now read John’s original take on life in its many forms while enjoying an enchanting visual book. John Karrigan lived on 15th Avenue…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I’ve started going to two writing groups that have sprung up in our neighborhood. I go every time because I love words, language and people and that’s what these groups are about. I consider myself quite limited when it comes to imagination and since I wrote factual…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Steve Floyd (not related to George Floyd) has been taking Black youth from South Minneapolis on trips to Africa since the early ’90s. Floyd feels that traveling to Africa is one thing that really works to help them heal from the effects of slavery throughout their history.…
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BY CAM GORDON The rent control debate is heating up. With the city’s rent stabilization workgroup completing its work in December, it now falls to the City Council to approve a policy and draft an ordinance if we are to have rent stabilization in Minneapolis. On Dec. 13, the 25-member…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Steve Floyd is a man with a heart for others. He has raised four children—the fifth is still under his supervision; he nurtures dozens of other youth through the Agape Movement and through his work as a mental health counselor at Change, Inc.; he makes award-winning photographs;…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I met Marquise Bowie at George Floyd Square in February of 2021 on a day commemorating the assassination of Malcolm X. I introduced myself because he was wearing an Agape hoodie, which identified him as belonging to the group I had wanted to write about for a…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Disco T was a well-known DJ in Minneapolis. He died of brain cancer on Dec. 31, 2021. At his memorial event, on his birthday, Feb. 19, everyone spoke of him as a legend, an icon. He was beloved and admired. I knew him by his given name…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN “The Times They Are A-changin’ ” is ever true. Sunday, Sept. 12, was a “bittersweet” morning, said Bethany’s Pastor Jeffrey Schulz at the final worship service of Seward neighborhood’s Bethany Lutheran Church. An ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) congregation at 25th and Franklin Avenues, it was…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Remember a few years back when Twin Cities Nonviolent partnered with individuals and peace organizations to create 10 Days Free from Violence in the Twin Cities? It was in the fall. The initiative wasn’t so huge the first year, but the next year, in 2019, hundreds of…
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BY ELAINE KLAASSEN The day before Easter, 2021, I went to George Floyd Square to meet with Marquise Bowie, a member of Agape, and Marcia Sanoden, a “make-the-world-a-better-place” reader of Southside Pride, to talk about her offer to volunteer at Agape and what that might encompass. But we didn’t sit…
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