Riverside
Metrowide Holiday Guide—from the goofy to the sublime

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Once again, and maybe even more so, the Twin Cities is heaving with winter-themed, holiday-ized markets, activities and cultural flowerings to enhance your mood and social standing as the days darken. As usual, we will focus on both grand traditions and iconoclastic takedowns, and privilege the…
Prophets and Losses

By Tony Bouza Erica, telling me a friend of ours—educated and sophisticated—had consulted a psychic, set me to thinking—after overcoming nausea. Psychics are clever scoundrels, preying upon our gullibility using their study of human nature. They observe the external (appearance, body language, etc.) and exploit our hopes and dreams. With…
Courageous heARTS

BY DORIS OVERBY On a stroll down a stretch of emerging 38th Street businesses this August, I stepped into Courageous heARTS, a youth-led nonprofit art studio at 2235 E. 38th St., and discovered teen artists selling their work during their organization’s summer “Show and Sell Pop-Up” art sale. Nothing inspires…
Where do we park?
Listening to Commissioner Conley

BY AMY BLUMENSHINE County Commissioners Angela Conley and Irene Fernando, a new “Squad” of women of color, are pushing the county to seriously step up to address the needs of the public. The Hennepin County Board, made up of seven commissioners, approves the second largest government budget in the state.…
Crime is up in South Minneapolis and neighbors seek solutions from the city
The double cross in Syria
Dinkytown: Still Positively 4th Street

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE 1 Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command. Dinkytown is the University of Minnesota, and the Dinkytown experience is quintessentially the student experience. Even if, like me, you first experienced Dinkytown as a fully grown adult almost a decade away from your own college…
Notes from the desk of peace activist Polly Mann (b. Nov. 19, 1919)

Affordable Housing Something has to be done about the ever-increasing gap between the poor and rich, especially as it relates to the availability of affordable housing for those who need it. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that in no state in the union can a full-time worker earning…
Frankenstein: Two Centuries

Presented by Ghoulish Delights Performed by The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society celebrates two hundred years of Frankenstein with two original stories inspired by Mary Shelley’s iconic tale, each written and performed in the style of a classic radio series, including commercials, live music…
Do we need more cops?
New thoughts on the case for lidding
Pangea World Theater creates profoundly global space

BY LAURA HALL Meena Natarajan, the artistic and executive director of Pangea World Theater, greeted me warmly outside their offices on Lake Street. She then guided me to the neighboring coffee and tea shop where we spent the next hour discussing Pangea’s ambitious artistic mission: a mission, as stated on…