BY ELAINE KLAASSEN I think about my white privilege. First of all, both my maternal and paternal grandparents OWNED farms in southwestern Minnesota, that is, they were in control of land that was stolen, but if they ever had a passing thought about it, it probably went something like this:…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Thirteen years ago, within a period of 18 months, Mary Bergerson’s losses were more than anyone could imagine. Her mom died of brain cancer, her soldier husband took his own life, her youngest brother died suddenly, her step-children were taken away because her disability eliminated her right…
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN Many years ago a little piano student of mine wanted to play a scary Halloween song. When we couldn’t find anything he liked, I wrote him a simple piece about the howling wind, the gusting, cracking wind, a windy Halloween night, when the trees groan and rattle…
Best Buy just opened a Teen Tech Center at Hope Community, 611 E. Franklin, for teens ages 13 to18. Young women attending the center can participate in the Career Pathway program sponsored by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, which offers post-high school career readiness help, including internships and mentorship. The…
BY ED FELIEN At 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 6, your neighborhood DFLers will gather to elect delegates to the Legislative District 62 Convention on March 10. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to endorse a candidate to serve our community in the Minnesota Legislature. Call the DFL for precinct locations: 651-293-1200…
BY ED FELIEN “America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.” –Oscar Wilde And the Minneapolis Police Department seems to want the worst of both of those worlds. Our police officers seem to kill our citizens with barbaric indifference, and the administration creates…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Valentine’s Day will soon be upon us. This day can be a boon to restaurants offering date night specials, confectioners and bakers due to the association with sweet things, florists, obviously, and greeting card makers and sellers. The last category will find new ways to depict…
CUPID/EROS Oh! Erato, Muse of poetry of love Inspire me today! I supplicate you. For I aspire to wrote for him for HIM… HE… CUPID, The son of Venus,Goddess of beauty, And of Mercury, the cunning messenger of Gods. I implore you, oh Muse, Guide my pen, to write a…
BY ED FELIEN From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs, Ye who love the haunts of Nature, Love the sunshine of the meadow, Love the shadow of the forest, Love the wind…
I am sitting here in South Minneapolis on the darkest day of the year, Dec. 21, Winter Solstice. I am depressed and sad but not because of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The darkness represents an ignorance that is invading our city and our state (not to mention the country) right now.…
BY TONY BOUZA Haunted by the word and frustrated by the lack of an excuse to use it. Then along came our senator to the rescue. Al Franken is a great guy. Amazing career. Shoved Norm Coleman out of public life. SNL. A book with a title to die for—about…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The George and Dragon 813 W. 50th St., Mpls. 55419 612-208-1047 http://www.ganddpub.com/ This isn’t really eating for England. This is eating in a vain attempt to assuage my mounting “homesickness” for British food, which is the presenting symptom of my general homesickness for England. Now don’t…
BY ED FELIEN “Dear landlord Please don’t put a price on my soul” –Bob Dylan, 1967 In 1974 the vacancy rate for rental housing in Minneapolis was 3%. Rents had gone up 35% on the West Bank in the city-supported Cedar-Riverside Towers and 15% around Loring Park. Poor people were…
BY ED FELIEN What is this guy thinking? Raj Bunnag makes monsters come alive and leap off the page at you, and he uses pen and ink, black on white printmaking and wood block carvings to create a horror that seems lurking behind the public manners of everyday life. The…
BY POLLY MANN The New York Times headline of Dec. 14 read, “The Pentagon Is Not a Sacred Cow.” Of course it isn’t, and our readers know it and so do we, but for the Times to acknowledge that is like finding a shoveled path to navigate after a winter…
