Columnists

Regular Columnists

Ed Felien  •  Elaine Klaassen  •  Polly Mann  •  Tony Bouza  •  David Tilsen  •  Debra Keefer Ramage  •  Stephanie Fox  •  Johnny Hazard 

 


Migration (chance)

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Where you are born is the luck of the draw. We don’t choose our birthplace. Why is THIS my home? The rippling grain, the lone tree, the curling creek beds and endless sky. The prairie is my home. Not the desert, not the mountains, not the sea,…

Continue reading

Vulnerable citizens, opportunity for the unscrupulous

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Everybody hopes they will never be jumped, assaulted, robbed, held up, mugged, etc., on the street. But it happens. It’s hard to imagine what gives perpetrators permission to traumatize vulnerable victims, such as the disabled, the elderly, young mothers, unarmed people. At the end of January, Mr.…

Continue reading

Comings and Goings on East 38th Street

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The business and cultural scene along East 38th Street, a personal favorite east-west connector and not just because I live near it, remains lively but in a healthy way. There have been some beloved mainstays that went under—notably Southside Farm Store. I will kind of miss…

Continue reading

District 62A, reconvened: An analysis

BY DAVE TILSEN April 7, at the American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue, there was a large turnout, a very diverse crowd, many East African folks, lots of Native Americans, some Latinos. A friendly crowd, but I sensed an undercurrent of tension. Not racial tension exactly, but partially, political tension.…

Continue reading

The Justine Damond case revisited

BY TONY BOUZA In August and in October 2017, I wrote essays on the Justine Damond shooting in Minneapolis in these pages. I called it murder and criticized the mayor, police chief and prosecutor. The first two are gone—not, I’m confident, as a result, but following a vague chiasma of…

Continue reading

THE DISH: Lunch Around the World (Izakaya, from Japan)

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Zen Box 612-332-3936 602 Washington Ave. S. Minneapolis MN 55415 zenbox.com Before there was Zen Box Izakaya, there was a much smaller lunch place in the Minneapolis skyway called simply Zen Box. They sold Japanese-style lunch to go—bento— which is the Japanese name for a lunchbox—not…

Continue reading

The Children (fear and hope)

BY ELAINE KLAASSEN War is waging and we picture the children, 4 years old, 8, 10, 12. It is dark, they’re hungry. Anything could happen tomorrow. There is nothing to count on. They have to believe that somewhere a great big unseen father, or mother, looks out for them. They…

Continue reading

Historic cemetery on Chicago Avenue

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE In an article about another cemetery, local journalist Andy Sturdevant remarked that in his opinion, “The most profound meeting of public space and private lives is in our cemeteries.” And indeed, it turns out that a major inspiration for noted 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law…

Continue reading