It mandated a shift in how American history is portrayed in federal institutions, with a goal of eliminating “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology.”

Instead, according to the executive order, the focus should be on a more “patriotic” narrative. And to ensure that happens, funding was cut for anything that “degrades shared American values” or “divides Americans by race.”

This order applied largely to federal institutions, like the Smithsonian museums and the National Parks System.

But here in Minnesota, the funding restrictions and shifts in ideology were felt immediately. History museum directors and curators — the people who collect and keep Minnesota history — were alarmed at what might be coming their way.

So what happened? Were their fears realized?

North Star Journey Live went to Mankato to find out. At the annual conference for the Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums, Angela Davis hosted a live discussion to talk about the ramifications of the federal order in Minnesota.

Guests:

• Jessica Potter, executive director of the Blue Earth County Historical Society
• Dave Nichols, executive director of the Rice County Historical Society
• Mai Vang Huizel, founder and director of the Hmong Museum
• Kyle Ward, director of the social studies education program at Minnesota State University Mankato

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Faith leaders showed up. Churches became distribution hubs for food and diapers. Nonprofits organized ride shares and distributed rent money. Clergy mobilized to protest, sing, champion and, in some cases, face arrest. “Our faith compels us,” was the common refrain.

“Operation Metro Surge” is over now. But churches, mosques, synagogues and faith-based nonprofits say their work is just ramping up.

A group of faith leaders joined MPR News host Angela Davis for a North Star Journey Live event at our studios in downtown St. Paul on Thursday, March 26, to talk about what they experienced on the front lines of the immigration enforcement surge and how their faith both compelled and comforted them. They also shared gifts from their own faith traditions to help Minnesotans process our collective moral injury.

Guests:

• JaNaé Bates Imari is a minister and the co-executive director of ISAIAH, a multi-racial, multi-faith, nonpartisan coalition of faith communities in Minnesota.
• Rev. Hierald Osorto is senior pastor of St. Paul's-San Pablo Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, a multicultural, multilingual, inclusive Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation.
• Rabbi Arielle Lekach Rosenberg is lead rabbi at Shir Tikvah Synagogue, a reform congregation in south Minneapolis.
• Imam Mowlid Ali serves as an imam and youth counselor at Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis.

Subscribe to MPR News with Angela Davis on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Korean adoptees worldwide were left reeling, including here in Minnesota, home to the largest population of Korean adoptees in the U.S. Many had already wrestled with questions of identity and racial and cultural belonging. Now even the small bits of information they had about their past could no longer be trusted.

How are Korean adoptees who call Minnesota home responding to this foundational earthquake? Earlier this month, MPR News’ North Star Journey Live project hosted a gathering of adoptees who are deeply invested in the search for truth about their origin stories at Arbeiter Brewing in Minneapolis.

Moderated by Twin Cities PBS reporter Kaomi Lee, who is herself an adoptee, the panel shared their personal histories and how the work they do today is moving the narrative forward.

Guests:

• Kaomi Lee is a reporter at Twin Cities PBS. She is also the host of Adapted, one of the longest running Korean adoptee podcasts.
• Ami Nafzger has been working on behalf of Korean adoptees for decades as the founder of the Korean-based GOAL (Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link) and the newer Minnesota-based Adoptee Hub.
• Matt McNiff is the board president and director at Camp Choson, one of many Korean culture camps started in the Upper Midwest in response to the wave of adoptions from Korea.
• Cam Lee Small is a licensed clinical therapist who specializes in adoption literacy, working both here in the Twin Cities and online. He’s also the author of “The Adoptee’s Journey.”
• Mary Niedermeyer is the CEO of Communities Advancing Prosperity for Immigrants, also known as CAPI, a Minnesota-based nonprofit.

Correction (Dec. 2, 2025): An earlier version of this story had an incomplete title for CAPI. The story has been updated.

Find a resource guide to learn more about this topic at MPRnews.org.

“This is like a smell of my childhood,” Mendez says.

Mendez occasionally pours some beer on the chicken, making it sizzle and smoke, tempering the flames caused by fat dripping on coals. 

“My grandpa, when he taught my dad this recipe, said it has to be Budweiser,” Mendez says. 

Mendez muses that perhaps their grandfather preferred it because it was a rice beer, instead of wheat, and maybe that gave the chicken a unique flavor.

“For a while, they were calling it ‘Budweiser America,’” Mendez continues. “It's interesting to think about my family's legacy to America and what that looks and felt like for them, because my grandpa was an immigrant and a civil rights activist.”

‘Chefs that don't get their flowers’

Artists Diana Albrecht and Ryan Stopera join Mendez at their south Minneapolis home as they cook their grandfather’s “Drunk Chicken.” It’s one of 12 recipes featured in Albrecht and Stopera’s new cookbook, “Back of House: Recipes from the Caretakers of Our Communities.”

“Back of House” is different from the typical cookbook.

There are recipes, yes, but Albrecht and Stopera also filled the book with the stories, portraits and documentary photos of the Minnesota people and communities behind the food, from steamed fish and apple stew to tongbaechu kimchi and mulawah flat bread.

The chefs featured, who range from at-home to working chefs, are from the diasporas of Mexico, South Korea, Armenia, Ghana, China and beyond.

The book “celebrates a lot of chefs that don't get their flowers, that aren't as visible as celebrity chefs, and that feels really special right now,” Stopera says. 

Many of them "are grandmas and aunties that literally supported the backbone of their family for generations based off the food that they made,” Albrecht says.

Albrecht and Stopera began working on the book with the help of a Waterers grant a few years ago, before Albecht relocated from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. The inspiration came partly from Albrecht’s explorations into her own heritage.

“I am a Korean adoptee,” she says. “I grew up not knowing anything about Korean culture, and so for me, food was a really easy way in to learn about Korean culture.”

Albrecht wanted to expand on her experience — to learn more about food and identity — and took the idea for a book to Stopera, who was running the former cafe at the Northeast Minneapolis arts organization Public Functionary.

“Running a cafe for three years just deepened my appreciation for chefs and folks who feed their community,” Stopera says. “It was just an easy response to Diana like, ‘Let's do it.’”

Together they photographed and interviewed the chefs at home with their families and friends, and Albrecht designed the book cover to cover. 

Turning memory into record

Albrecht says she discovered that so many of the recipes have been passed down orally.

“It’s all up in their head, and it’s never been archived, it’s never been written down,” she says. “Oral tradition is very important, but I think in this time, everything gets lost on the internet or lost in our beautiful, beautiful brains, and to have something that is tangible, written down, to preserve, to cherish — I'm learning the value and importance of that.”

Stopera says the process of creating the book became a lesson in understanding community. 

“I've been thinking a lot about third spaces and the need for them, and just the need to gather in person,” he says. ”To spend nearly two years having really beautiful conversations with people about ancestry and culture and history, it made me more present and reminded me that the village can take care of each other.”

Mendez knew they wanted to participate to help highlight how immigrant communities have shaped American food.

“Especially right now in America, this project specifically feels really, really important, because people who look like me, people who look like us, are being pulled over and legally allowed to be racially profiled, being taken away,” Mendez says.

“A lot of these people, especially the people that my grandpa was working with, himself included, were people who just wanted a job and they wanted more opportunities and a place to have kids and let them not have to labor in the fields.”

'Drunk Chicken' for community

Mendez’s grandfather, Salvador Sanchez Sr. was born in Northern Mexico and, as a young adult, moved to Milwaukee for work.

There, Sanchez co-founded the Latin American Union for Civil Rights, one of the first migrant farm worker labor unions in Wisconsin, and organized marches and protests for the Obreros Unidos (United Workers) movement.

He died in 2024, while the book was in process. 

“Drunk Chicken” calls for marinating bone-in skin-on chicken thighs in a mixture of chopped white onion, Adobo seasoning, soy sauce, and, as the book states, “Budweiser [no substitutes].” 

The book also advises, “Like a lot of cultures based in oral traditions, this is a passed-down recipe with no specific amount of each ingredient. Measure with your heart.”

Mendez says it became the family’s Sunday after-church staple, but their grandfather originally created “Drunk Chicken” to feed his community. 

“This is a legacy recipe, because it's something that was developed because you can feed a lot of people with not a lot of ingredients, quite honestly, for not a lot of money at these camps for laborers,” Mendez says. 

Stopera pulls some of the new cookbooks out of a box, fresh off the printer. It’s the first time Mendez and Albrecht have seen them. They tear up. 

“The idea that people could be making his recipe feels so good because it's continuing that legacy of him, like feeding people, working hard and providing for their community,” Mendez says. “That's what this was all about.”

Albrecht and Stopera host a release celebration for “Back of House” Nov. 8 at Bar Brava in Minneapolis. There will be a book signing at Public Functionary on Nov. 14.

Correction (Nov. 8, 2025): A previous version of this story misattributed a quote. It has been corrected.

But not today. Thanks to soaring tuition costs and weighty student loans, many people are questioning the value of college. A 2025 Pew Research poll found that only one in four U.S. adults says it’s “extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree” to get a well-paying job.

And many young Americans — including Black, Latino and Indigenous students — contend they can build solid careers without seeking further education. In a 2025 survey by New America, a majority of young Americans agreed “there are lots of well-paying, stable jobs that people can find with only a high school diploma or GED.”

So is college still worth it — especially when it comes to low-income or first-generation students?

MPR News’ North Star Journey Live project teamed up with Sahan Journal Community Conversations in October to host a panel discussing the pros and cons of higher education. They also discussed other burgeoning post-secondary options, like trade schools, apprenticeships and becoming an entrepreneur.

Guests:

• Frida Torres Macal is the founder of That Social Invite, an independent social media marketer focused on helping women-owned businesses and professionals grow.
• Marquan Harper is a sophomore at the University of St. Thomas, where he is double majoring in Digital Media Arts and Marketing Management. He’s also the founder of Ador Hospitality, a Midwest-based hospitality group dedicated to enhancing the nightlife experience for young adults aged 18-24.
• Jalayah Johnson is enrolled at the Finishing Trades Institute of the Upper Midwest as a second-year glazer apprentice for the Empire House.
• Ali Osman is a high school counselor at South High School in Minneapolis.
• Jessica Yang is the senior implementation manager at the Get Ready GEAR UP Minnesota program administered through the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. 

Guests:

• Junauda Petrus is the poet laureate for the city of Minneapolis. She is an author, playwright, filmmaker and co-founder of the experimental artist collective, Free Black Dirt. She is the author of the Coretta Scott King Award-winning young adult novel, “The Stars and the Blackness Between Them,” and the children’s book, “Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” 
• Tish Jones is a poet, performer and educator in St. Paul. She’s also the founder and executive director of TruArtSpeaks. 

Twitch is the protagonist. He’s bright orange, with big cartoon eyes and very cute.

“He’s a little campfire flame, and he represents the kid in all of us who sees the world with curious eyes and has lots of questions,” Casillas Aguirre says.

Then there’s his best friend and mentor, Mystic Weenie, an ancient hot dog.

“He’s about 5,000 years old, has a lot of wisdom, has seen a lot of things.” 

Joining them is the easy-going Pablo. “A little Mexican snail who travels the world with his little knapsack full of snacks,” Casillas Aguirre says. “He wants to learn about different cultures, different ways of life, and his motto is, ‘Slow your roll.’”

There’s a talking brain, Dr. Lola the Axolotl and many more. They go on healing journeys together, riding a rainbow of emotions and learning mindfulness. Now, they are on view at the Northfield Arts Guild for Casilla Aguirre’s first solo show, “U are the Universe (Eres El Universo),” a bilingual all-ages immersive exhibition about mental health. 

How art became a lifeline

The gallery is filled with more than 70 comics, animations and sculptures that employ both English and Spanish, including a medicine cabinet with fake prescriptions for meditation (meditación), laughter (risa), fresh air (aire fresco) and cat cuddles (abraza un gato). 

In a series of comics, Twitch advises on the different kinds of meditation (sound, breath, walking and more). A comic guide explains “How the body responds to stress/Cómo responde el cuerpo al estrés” with cartoons of a howling amygdala (amígdala) and dancing adrenal glands (glándulas suprarrenales).

The exhibition is inspired by Casillas Aguirre’s own challenges with mental health. When the pandemic hit, he began to struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and hallucinations.

“I didn’t grow up talking about mental health at home, so I didn’t have any resources or tools that I could lean on,” he says.

He saw doctors and therapists, and started meditating and drawing.

“I took refuge in art, which is something that I’ve done all of my life, as a little kid,” Casillas Aguirre says. “Between meditating and just practicing self-care and drawing my feelings, I found a new purpose, my art found new purpose, and that was to communicate about mental health.”

Casillas Aguirre has a background in conservation biology and was the executive director at Sharing Our Roots, a nonprofit regenerative agriculture farm outside of Northfield, but he decided to become a full-time artist.

“A lot of my art is geared towards youth, because I'm trying to create the resources that I didn't have growing up in hopes that the kids of today will grow up to be happy, healthy adults tomorrow,” Casillas Aguirre says.

He has done art sessions with students at Bridgewater Elementary and has a partnership with the Northfield Public Library, where some of his murals are on view in the children’s section. The library also has copies of his children’s book featuring Twitch and Mystic Weenie: “Where Did the Anxiety Go?”, which is also published in Spanish, Somali and Swahili.

Looking at mental health from a Latino perspective

The artist’s work is also geared towards the Latino community. Angelica Linder, the library outreach manager who does bilingual programming, says Casillas Aguirre is bringing awareness to an important issue.

“Our community, we are not taught how to express our feelings. You just tough it up and move on and then that's it,” Linder says.

She likes Casillas Aguirre’s colorful artwork because it makes mental health discussions more approachable and positive. She calls it a “combination of his heritage, the mental health aspect, bringing awareness to some strong issues in our community, and all through art without feeling sad after looking at it.”

Casillas Aguirre was born in Tijuana, Mexico, but he spent most of his life in Northfield. 

At the gallery, he stands in front of one of his posters. It features a little cartoon figure wearing an Aztec headdress surrounded by thought bubbles in English and Spanish. For the piece, Casillas Aguirre interviewed people in the local Latino communities about their anxieties and used their responses, anonymously.

“Looking at mental health from a Latino perspective, there are a lot of things that Latinos are stressed out from that the white community may or may not relate to,” he says. “I was undocumented growing up and have been a citizen for about eight years. There are a lot of these things that I can relate to.”

The thought bubbles include concerns about going to the doctor without an interpreter, running out of food, childcare, making rent payments and racism.

“There’s one that says ‘ICE immigration officials took my friend yesterday. What’s going to happen to her kids?’” Casillas Aguirre says. “That, as we know with the current administration, is happening more and more. Latinos don’t feel safe, they don’t feel welcome.”

In his experience, Casillas Aguirre says there’s still a stigma about discussing mental health in the Latino community, which has been heightened by the political climate. He hopes his art can be a catalyst.

“A lot of people suffer from anxiety, stress, etcetera, and once we start talking about it more, I really think that that can lead to individual healing and collective healing for entire communities,” Casillas Aguirre says.

He points to another poster with community responses. It’s titled “Why don’t we talk about mental health?/¿Por qué no hablamos de la salud mental?”

One thought bubble says it’s because society tells them to “keep it together,” others say it’s generational: Their parents didn’t talk about it, so they don’t either.

Casillas Aguirre points to Twitch calling out from the bottom of the poster.

“Twitch says: Friends, let’s be brave and talk about mental health more at home with our kids and within our communities,” he reads. “If we can allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to be honest with ourselves, to keep our hearts open, we can find healing together. Everyone deserves happiness, including you.”

 “U are the Universe (Eres El Universo)” closes at the Northfield Arts Guild Aug. 2. In September, the show will travel to Mercado Local in Northfield. The show will then be on view April 13 through June 13, 2026 at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault.

Sometimes it starts with a small business. Sometimes, with a personal passion — and sometimes, with a gym. 

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Dalton Outlaw — someone who combined all three. He’s an entrepreneur, a boxer and a community leader based in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul. 

Guest:

• Dalton Outlaw is an entrepreneur, boxer and community leader based in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the founder and owner of Element Gym, a fitness facility that combines boxing, fitness, and community engagement. 

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

“I love making the quilts, and it's just something that I appreciate,” Leith Minkel said.

When they are not at home in their personal sewing rooms, the two utilize the Lower Sioux Cultural Incubator, a community center that provides a variety of cultural classes, activities and space to use.

The quilting studio is lined with several sewing machines. Thread, scissors and other supplies can be found in small plastic bins. The space has two large tables for laying fabrics across, rather than on the floor.

‘At least I got her with me’ 

Leith Minkel first learned to sew in high school, but she didn’t start making star quilts until the mid-1990s. She says she only needed to be shown twice before she started working independently. 

“I started teaching it. I taught a few women around here that are still doing it, and I'm glad they are, because I don't want that lost. I want to keep that going,” she said. “That's why I got her [Minkel-Johnson] going.” 

For Minkel-Johnson, a seamstress in her 60’s, she says she never imagined herself making quilts. She finally said ‘yes’ five years ago after many years of her mother asking to teach her. 

“I never wanted her to teach me how, because I thought, if she teaches me that, what else can she teach me? You know, that was the last thing that I could think of that I wanted to learn from my mother,” she said. “[I] didn't realize it was going to bring us closer together and to spend more time together.” 

Leith Minkel says it didn’t take long for her daughter to catch on to the sewing patterns, just like herself.   

Minkel-Johnson says she enjoys working closely with her mother. Quilting keeps them busy and active with fulfilling order requests or traveling to various powwows together with a table and chairs in tow.

“We don't make a lot of money making these quilts. It's more [about] having your little fingerprint on something that's going to be out there,” said Minkel-Johnson, “I'm enjoying it. I love doing it with mom.”

Even though the two are neighbors, Minkel-Johnson says the quilts bring them together. Outside of their shared love for quilting, she says it’s rare that they see one another.  

“We're so busy trying to get our quilts done. We'll call each other, ‘Okay, what are you doing? How far are you?’” she said.  

Leith Minkel shares in those sentiments that she loves being able to share a special bond with her daughter over star quilts.  

“It's nice because, at least I got her with me,” Leith Minkel said. 

‘It’s an honor’ 

Birthdays, graduations, weddings or funerals are events in one’s life that may call for a gift of a star quilt or blanket.  

“When you're making it, you're thinking of who you're making it for,” Leith Minkel said.  

She recently began working on a star quilt for a baby, choosing fabric from children’s cartoons, and pink fabric for a base color. Star quilts can be created in a variety of sizes and colors, depending on the recipient’s age or interests.  

However, one thing consistent within the designs of the quilts is the signature diamond-shaped star with eight points.  

“The Natives, they came from the Star Nation,” Leith Minkel explains. 

While holding a quilt with her mother — showcasing a star as its centerpiece with vivid colors of the medicine wheel: yellow, red, black and white — Minkel-Johnson shares what she had been taught about star quilts. She points to the Seven Fire Councils, an alliance of the varying groups of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota people. The two make their star quilts with this in mind — the points on the quilt represent each of the seven. 

“And the eighth is for the person who made the star,” she said.  

To both, a star quilt represents honor.  

“I always feel that it's an honor to give the quilt to them, and I can just feel the honor it is for somebody that's receiving one that we made,” Minkel-Johnson said.  

Recently, they made about 50 star quilts for this year’s graduates in the Lower Sioux Indian Community. They also make star quilts upon request for those outside of their community, including graduates living in the Twin Cities area.  

Leith Minkel says she can make a full quilt within two days.  

“It's something that I'll probably do till the day I'm gone,” Leith Minkel said.

Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities. 

Guests:

• Daniel Bergin is a filmmaker, executive producer and director of history at Twin Cities PBS, where he was hired more than 30 years ago as a production assistant. He has won more than 20 regional Emmy Awards for his films covering diverse topics rooted in Minnesota history, including “Jim Crow of the North,” “North Star: Minnesota’s Black Pioneers,” and “Out North: MNLGBTQ History.” 
• Lea B. Olsen is a veteran TV analyst covering her 15th season with the Minnesota Lynx and is a sideline reporter for the Minnesota Timberwolves. She also covers both the boys’ and girls’ state high school basketball tournaments. Beyond the court, Lea is a professional speaker and the founder of Rethink the Win — a platform that challenges athletes, coaches and parents to see sports as a powerful tool for growth, connection and lifelong impact.

Check out Angela’s previous Power Pair conversations.  

Do you know a Power Pair?

We’d love to hear your ideas for Power Pairs to interview. Send us your suggestions.

Enrollment is up a bit this year, but the small increase follows years of decline. The district faces a budget shortfall, has already made deep cuts and plans to ask voters this fall to approve a tax increase to support schools.  

At the same time, student performance is stuck where it was before the pandemic and proposals from President Donald Trump and from Republicans in Congress would reduce support for public education.   

MPR News host Angela Davis talks about the challenges facing public education with St. Paul’s new superintendent, Stacie Stanley.  

Guest:

• Stacie Stanley is the superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools, the second largest school district in Minnesota. Prior to joining the district in May, she served three years as the superintendent of Edina Public Schools, as associate superintendent in Eden Prairie Schools and on the leadership team in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District. She’s been a classroom teacher, curriculum math specialist and a principal. She graduated from St. Paul’s Central High School.

But for the Black community in Minneapolis, Floyd’s murder was just a chapter in a much longer story.

Long before 2020, people had been organizing, creating and demanding change.

Certainly, in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death and Chauvin’s 2021 conviction, progress was made. Businesses and institutions promised to invest in racial equity, to develop new community practices, to reckon with systems of harm.

But in the neighborhood where Floyd lived and died, has that change taken root?

That was the question at the center of a North Star Journey Live event hosted by MPR News host Angela Davis earlier this month. On May 6, a cross section of Black community leaders came together at Pillsbury House Theatre to talk about real change, deep healing and defiant hope. The conversation was candid, often surprising and ultimately inspiring.

Panelists:

• Angela Harrelson, George Floyd’s aunt and registered nurse
• Anthony Taylor, community development lead for the Cultural Wellness Center and outdoor educator-activist
• Jeanelle Austin, founder of the Racial Agency Initiative and a board member for the George Floyd Global Memorial
• Jerome Richardson, cofounder of the youth-led Minnesota Teen Activists
• Signe Harriday, artistic producing director at Pillsbury House + Theatre and lead local organizer for the Million Artist Movement
• Tabitha Montgomery, executive director of the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association

Special guests:

• Junauda Petrus, creative activist and current poet laureate for Minneapolis
• Elder Atum Azzahir, founder and executive director of the Cultural Wellness Center

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What happens when they finally return? How do they rebuild their lives during this complex and often precarious transition?

That was the topic at a collaborative Sahan Community Live and North Star Journey Live event recorded on April 24 at the St. Paul Neighborhood Network.

Co-hosted by MPR News senior editor Brandt Williams and Sahan Journal digital producer Alberto Villafan, formerly incarcerated Minnesotans shared first-hand stories of what makes reentry such a difficult process. Community leaders and reentry advocates also shared what helps and what holds back people as they exit incarceration and reintegrate into their community.

Guests:

• Antonio Williams is the founder and executive director of T.O.N.E. U.P., a grassroots organization dedicated to empowering formerly incarcerated individuals.
• Rea Smith is the Women’s Services Project Coordinator of the Behavioral Health Division at the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
• Erick Washington is the co-founder of the Kingsmen Project.
• James Becker is the assistant federal defender and federal defender representative in the District of Minnesota Reentry Court program.
• David Riley is an addictions counselor at RS Eden, a Minneapolis-based organization that offers treatment for drug addictions, housing assistance and reentry support.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Medaria Arradondo, the retired Minneapolis police chief, about his book, “Chief Rondo: Securing Justice for the Murder of George Floyd.”

Guest:

• Medaria Arradondo is the former police chief for the city of Minneapolis. He is president and CEO of Optimus Sui Consulting and he serves on the Board of Commissioners for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. He is also a member of the executive board of the Fentanyl Free Communities Foundation. And he is co-author of the new book, “Chief Rondo: Securing Justice for the Murder of George Floyd.”

If you’re Alex West Steinman, you create your own workplace.  

In 2017, West Steinman left a career in advertising and communications and joined three colleagues to found The Coven.

Eight years later, The Coven has two coworking sites in the Twin Cities and another five franchise locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Along with desk space and professional development, the coworking network provides an inclusive community that lifts up its members.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks to Alex West Steinman about her entrepreneurial journey and how to create workplaces that are welcoming.    

This conversation was made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

There, the St. Paul Saints and the St. Paul Colored Gophers — two of the city’s historic baseball teams — played at the Pillbox, sometimes called the “Downtown Ball Park,” a popular venue almost laughably small for baseball.

"It was a tiny ballpark,” said Stew Thornley, a local baseball historian who’s seeking approval this year for a plaque to commemorate the Pillbox and its history in St. Paul.

"Even if you hit a ball over the fence, right down the line, it was worth only two bases,” he said. “There were another set of poles out to left and right center field. You had to get it more to center field and over the fence for it to be considered a home run."

Home plate faced northwest, at what would be the site of the state Capitol, which was completed in 1905, two years after the Pillbox opened.

While the Saints history is well-known, historians say the Colored Gophers were key to the history of Black baseball in Minnesota and across the country. They played a decade before the formation of the Negro Leagues.

"They are probably one of the greatest baseball teams, white or Black, in Minnesota history,” said Frank White, who wrote a book about Black baseball history in Minnesota. "And in terms of Black baseball, they are, for sure, the team.” 

Starting in 1907, the St. Paul Colored Gophers wrapped up a four-year run with a 380-89-2 record — winning more than 80 percent of their games — under legendary team owner Phil “Daddy” Reid, according to the Center for Negro League Baseball Research.

Reid sought the fastest ball players he could find from around the country and paid them. The result was dominance, White said. The team beat the Saints in a 1907 unofficial state championship. 

In a series that was called the Black World Series by some, the Colored Gophers hosted Chicago’s Leland Giants, one of the best Black baseball teams in the country, for a five-game series at the Pillbox, with Minnesota winning the series three games to two.

Among the notable players on the Gophers were "Steel Arm” Johnny Taylor, William "Big Bill" Bill Gatewood and Bobby Marshall, who had played football for the Minnesota Gophers. Marshall happened to be one of the most famed Minnesota athletes at the time.

Telling ‘the hidden history of Black baseball’

After the 1910 season, Bobby Marshall bought the St. Paul Gophers. The team changed its name to the Twin Cities Gophers. The ballpark on Lexington Avenue near University Avenue became more popular and the Pillbox soon closed. It's such a distant memory that it has been forgotten by most.

But not by Thornley. He has applied to put up a memorial plaque next to the Minnesota Department of Health laboratory where the park once stood.

"It's got greater significance than just to somebody like me who loves baseball, loves the old ballparks,” he said.

“The chance to tell the story, the story of baseball, the story of the ballpark, but especially with the hidden history of Black baseball … many people here in Minnesota have been digging that history out and telling those stories. And this is one more way to do that,” Thornley said.

He and others have worked to get plaques up at other baseball sites around the Twin Cities. But the application for the Pillbox site is more time-consuming than most. 

That’s because it sits on the Capitol complex and has to go through the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board. On top of that, it is the first application received since the board created a new multistep application procedure.

The new process was put into place after the Christopher Columbus statue outside the Capitol was torn down by protesters in June 2020. The new process was put into place to make sure there is ample opportunity for public input on things being added or removed to the Capitol grounds. 

The staff at the Capitol architectural board say the application process for the marker for the Pillbox could take six to eight months, or longer.

"It's definitely a more involved process,” said Tina Chimuzu, a planning fellow at the CAAPB. She says the board considers many factors in applications, including whether it has public support.

“Documented public support for the artwork, and the artwork has to have lasting statewide significance for Minnesotans,” she said. “And then the artwork has to be respectful of the diversity of Minnesotans. And then, does viewing the artwork provide a rich experience to broaden the understanding of Minnesota-shared history, heritage and culture?"

Erik Cedarleaf Dahl, executive secretary for the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, said the team works to confirm and fact-check everything in the application. The goal is to learn as much as possible about it in their own research. 

"With limited space on the Capitol Mall, we want to make sure that what we're putting there is totally accurate, especially if you're going to go through this,” he said. “To ask taxpayers dollars to spend this time on this … we want to make sure that it is accurate and the process is effective."

Public input on the application for the Pillbox field plaque is open until May 5.

If all goes as planned, the plaque could be up this fall, although it still has several more fences to clear.

Dozens of international students have had their visas cancelled, birthright citizenship is being challenged and non-citizens — including those with authorization to work in the U.S. — have been removed quickly from the country without a court hearing. 

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Gloria Contreras Edin, an immigration attorney who has been has been following changes in immigration policy for years. They will talk about Gloria’s journey, what inspired her to pursue law and what she’s seeing on the ground as policies change.  

 Guests:

• Gloria Contreras Edin is an immigration attorney in St. Paul who has represented clients from more than 25 countries. She is also an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.  

Here is a list of resources that were mentioned during the show:

• The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
• The Advocates for Human Rights
• The International Institute of Minnesota

As a result, health care and community leaders promised to renew their efforts to help all Minnesotans get access to quality, affordable care. 

Five years later, how’s that going?

North Star Journey Live, a event series from MPR News, took that question to Mandy’s Coffee & Cafe in Red Wing on March 26 to get an honest assessment from community leaders who are doing the work every day.

MPR News host Angela Davis talked with a county public health leader and the founder of a nonprofit clinic that’s stepped into many of Minnesota’s health care gaps.

Together, they paint a picture of how health equity in rural communities has gotten better — and how they now fear it could get worse.

Guests:

• Julie Malyon is the executive director and founder of CARE Clinic.
• Kristin Johnson is the deputy director of Goodhue County Health and Human Services.

“The lyrics are just showing you what it means,” says Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, the group’s leader. The style is similar to what you might have heard in Somalia before the civil war.

“It is this lugubrious, lamentation [of] love not returned.”

Yusuf and the small outfit — called Ardaa — are rehearsing for an upcoming concert, “Meet You at the Crossroads.” The concert is co-produced by the University of St. Thomas’ Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies and the Cultural Fluency Initiative.

“This is really about the life of the city. There are more cultural groups in the Twin Cities than ever,” said David Jordan Harris, who works with the Jay Phillips Center and curated the concert. “Yet, do we know each other? How do we learn about each other? And you know, no better method than our musical traditions.” 

“Meet You at the Crossroads” will bring together Somali blues and songs inspired by Black gospel music. The idea came from a previous experiment Harris developed with Beck Lee, who runs the Cultural Fluency Initiative. 

“We did sort of a proof of concept concert salon a little while ago where we where we juxtaposed Sephardic music and Somali music,” Lee said. “It was just interesting to be able to experience those two musical cultures and juxtaposition and talk about it.”

This time, Lee and Harris invited Yusuf to lead the Somali music, and JD Steele to bring the Black soul repertoire.

“I love cross-cultural, cross-genre projects, because I've been doing them my entire career,” said Steele, known for his long career in the performing arts, and as a member of the well known family band, The Steeles. 

“Combining multicultural communities, it just excites me.”

Steele will perform with his own band and the MacPhail Community Youth Choir, which he directs. Steele and Yusuf are also collaborating on a new song that the youth choir will sing at the concert.

During rehearsal with the choir, Yusuf said it had been a long time since he’d taken part in something like it.

“The last one that I was [in], was in Somalia,” Yusuf said, adding praise for Steele’s work with the choir. “Seriously, you can see the master in hand.”

As the performances approach, Steele said the goal is simple: to leave people feeling better than when they arrived.

“Because right now, the need for uplifting, encouragement and inspiration is very palpable in our communities. So you know that's our responsibility as artists — is to uplift and inspire and encourage,” Steele said. 

The first concert takes place April 6 at the University of St. Thomas, launching the school’s Culture of Encounter Ideas Festival. Another performance is set for April 27 at St. John’s University in Collegeville.

Correction (April 4, 2025): This story has been updated with the correct name of the concert series.

Correction (April 23, 2025): This story originally misspelled the name of the music group, Ardaa. The story has been updated.

As a young adult, he says his mother had a dream where he worked with birchbark.  

“My mom, kind of, not scolded, but warned me of the cultural significance of birchbark and not to be wasting it, because it's sacred,” he said.  

He creates wall hangings and baskets, with scenes and images of nature. Kruse has even made birchbark cradles with colorful Ojibwe floral designs. 

Kruse says birchbark has always been used to tell stories. A prominent figure in several of his pieces is the Thunderbird, a spiritual figure in Ojibwe culture. He depicts the Thunderbird, using birchbark of various tones, surrounded by florals to show the changing of seasons. 

“When Native Americans hear the first thunder and lightning coming, they understand that it's the change of season — spring, flowers and rain. So, everything, instead of frozen ground, frozen tundra, everything starts growing,” Kruse said.  

Melissa Fowler is a birchbark artist from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She began working with birchbark 14 years ago after becoming more involved in learning cultural traditions.  

She fears that working with birchbark could become a lost artform someday.  

Fowler has created elaborate pieces, including contemporary ones. She hopes to inspire younger people with pieces, such as earrings and a crossbody handbag. 

“I know that we don’t preserve our food in it [birchbark] anymore but maybe wearing it as an adornment is something that really excites people and makes people feel good about themselves as a way to push that forward into our contemporary society,” Fowler said.  

Kruse shares those sentiments. He says he doesn’t know many other people who work with birchbark. Alongside his work as an artist, he shares the knowledge of birchbark with those wanting to learn. 

“I’m trying to teach a better way about the birch and the forest, the water and the rice, different things I promote them things because it's important,” Kruse said. “I’m not going to be here, but these children, and the children’s children are going to be here.” 

According to Fowler, the Ojibwe word for birchbark is “wiigwaas.” She says the wiigwaas and birch tree are referred to as the tree of life, an important part of the survival of Ojibwe people.  

“We would use birchbark on a daily basis, from gathering to preserving our food and water, our canoes, our shelter.  We'd use it for medicine. We'd even use it to record our teachings and stories on birchbark scrolls,” she said.  

Not a single piece of bark goes to waste either. Kruse says he uses leftover pieces to create smaller artworks or to make baskets.  

“I learned that even the most smallest birchbark can be used to make a nice little piece of art,” Kruse said. “So, we try not to waste nothing.” 

He says learning about culture and participating in traditional crafts gives people strength.  

“It brings hope, and it gives you better strength, because you're actually doing some work in whether it's small, big, medium." 

Fowler currently has an exhibit at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, titled, “Endazhi-Dabendaagoziyaan - The Place Where I Belong.” She says her artwork will be at the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center in Duluth in August.  

Kruse’s artworks are featured in various collections and locations, including but not limited to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the Science Museum of Minnesota and Minnesota Historical Society in downtown St. Paul and the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post in Onamia.  

There’s a restaurant, a cafe, retail shops, a halal market, a health clinic — all started by East African immigrants who now call St. Cloud home.

This busy hub is the heart of the recently arrived immigrant community in St. Cloud. Bashir, executive director of the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization, said it challenges stereotypes of immigrants as a drain on the community.

“This neighborhood is a testament to the contrary — that immigrants come here and do make the new communities better, economically, socially and culturally,” Bashir said. “And that’s what we also intend to continue.”

St. Cloud-based CAIRO provides services and support to immigrants and refugees, including education, health programs and workforce training. Those efforts have expanded to include helping address the shortage of housing in St. Cloud, one of multiple local efforts led by people of color.

CAIRO bought the nearly 4-acre property on 33rd Avenue and Third Street North last year. It plans a mixed-use development with commercial, office and event space, and 70 rental apartments. 

“We came to realize that housing anchors everything,” Bashir said. “It is the foundation to human development. It is the foundation to community progress. Without a roof over your head, children will not be able to go to school. You will not be healthy. You will not be prospering economically.”

The project is named Iskufilan Village. The Somali word means sufficient, whole or complete.

Its supporters envision a thriving community hub that fosters a sense of belonging, with local businesses and essential services conveniently close by.

Most of the 70 apartments will have three or four bedrooms. Bashir said that space is crucial for larger immigrant families that often include six or more people, compared to the U.S. average of 2.5.

“We hear of moms that tend to hide their pregnancies, sometimes out of fear of growing out of their current apartment, or getting kicked out by a landlord,” he said. “I have heard stories of a family living in two adjacent apartments because one apartment is not (large) enough for them.”   

The housing will be open to anyone, not restricted to immigrants or any certain demographics.

Bashir said the project is driven by a belief in East African culture of a collective responsibility to solve problems.

“It is led by the community,” he said. “It’s coming from the community, because we have that lived experience.”

At least 10 percent of the units will be designated as affordable, and the rest targeted toward middle-income working residents. Nearly half of St. Cloud’s renters are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

CAIRO is putting together the private financing for the project. They're also asking the Legislature for $5 million in state funds.

At a recent Senate housing committee meeting, Farhiya Iman spoke in favor of the project. She’s an educator and social worker who’s lived in St. Cloud for 20 years.

Iman said she frequently sees families working full time, but still unable to find affordable housing.

“Housing isn’t just about walls and roof. It’s about stability. It’s about dignity. It’s about opportunity,” she said. “And for far too many families in St. Cloud, that opportunity does not exist.”

St. Cloud’s need for apartments is just the start. A recent study estimated the city needs 17,000 new housing units over the next 15 years.

Mayor Jake Anderson, who took office in January, said the city also needs single-family homes, senior housing and low-income housing. 

Without adequate housing, it’s difficult for the city to attract new businesses, and it risks losing workers and talent to other places, Anderson said.

“If you’re not adding housing and then families are beginning to expand, they’re going to move,” he said. “So you may see migration out of the city to either other cities in the region or other regional centers.”

Another St. Cloud group wants to make the dream of home ownership a reality for more people.

Dreamliner Estates LLC was founded by three community leaders of color who come from different professional backgrounds: public transit, community engagement and finance.

“We see the struggles when it comes to underrepresented communities, people of color and we see the struggles, how hard it is for them to even attain housing,” said co-founder Ryan Daniel, who is also CEO of St. Cloud Metro Bus, the city’s transit service.

Owning a home is important for families to build generational wealth, Daniel said. But statistically, home ownership rates in St. Cloud are lower for people of color.

Daniel’s partners are Eunice Adjei and Emmanuel Oppong. The siblings are originally from Ghana, West Africa, and have both lived in St. Cloud for more than a decade.

Adjei is director of multicultural services for St. Cloud Financial Credit Union. She said the application process often deters people in underserved communities from buying a home.

“We really want to make sure that they understand all the rules when it comes to housing, so that that wouldn’t deter them from being part of the solution,” Adjei said.

Dreamliner Estates secured a $3.4 million state grant from Minnesota Housing for the first phase. Daniel said they hope to complete four homes on St. Cloud’s south side by the end of the year. Eventually, they plan to build a total of 34 homes.

The plan calls for twin homes, each with four bedrooms, to accommodate large families or several generations living together, which is common in collectivist cultures.

“Some demographics prefer to have not just Mom, Dad and kids,” said Oppong, who also serves as the city’s community engagement director. “They want to have Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandad, nephews and cousins all living closely.”

An Islamic prohibition on paying or earning interest can make it challenging for Muslims to buy a home. Adjei said St. Cloud Financial Credit Union, Stearns Bank and other area lending institutions currently provide or plan to offer Sharia-compliant alternatives to traditional mortgages.

Both organizations say they know their projects are only a first step toward meeting the community's housing shortage.

“Like they say, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step,” Bashir said. “This is that one step.”

The Native American Community Development Institute, or NACDI, has been busy collecting sap from neighborhood trees in recent weeks for the purpose of sugar bushing.

Sugar bushing is the process of collecting and boiling down sap into syrup or even pure sugar. 

Gloria Iacono works with NACDI as the Four Sisters Urban Farm manager. She is leading the project this spring.  

“You go into hibernation in the winter and then you get that nice, like, first spring day, and it’s just something that you can gather around. It’s a practice that you can build community around,” Iacono said.

She has had the support of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, since it’s the first time NACDI is leading an urban sugar bush.  

Forest Hunt is a plant scientist with the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute and is a direct descendent of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. They say sugar bushing is a springtime tradition in Native communities. 

“It has been happening in Woodland Native tribes for over a millennium,” Hunt said.  

NACDI has been collecting sap from Center School, Bii Di Gain elder housing, and South High School, where a demonstration was held. Hunt showed students how to properly identify when a tree can be tapped and how to tap a tree.  

“You can always tell that it’s time to tap when the snow starts to melt and when you start to see little patches of dirt or dead grass. That's around when you should start tapping your maples,” Hunt explained. 

Hunt then drilled a small hole into the tree before using a hammer to lightly tap a metal spile, like a spout, in the rest of the way until water-like sap began to drip out. 

Several stepped up to try the sap straight from the source after being invited by Hunt. The taste? They say it was sweet.  

Iacono has been boiling the sap into syrup right at the organization’s urban farm in East Phillips. Community members were invited to watch the process of how sap turns into syrup. 

 “We have a steel drum, with the top cut off, that fits pans in the top. And you build a fire within the drum, and then that boils the sap,” Iacono said. She says five gallons of sap will boil down to about a mason jar’s worth of syrup.  

At one community boil, Turtle Mountain Band member Tyra Payer demonstrated how to turn maple syrup into candies. They say although they tap trees outside of the metro, there is cultural value to be had in urban sugar bushing. 

“There are teachings that only happen at this time of year,” they said. “The teachings that we have around maple, and making maple sugar and what our community looks like and how we support each other.”  

Hunt says maple syrup has been a significant food historically alongside wild rice.  

“It’s really important for us to continue practicing these traditions, because it allows us to continue to have that, that sense of self, that sovereignty that we really need,” Hunt said.  

With the amount of sap that the community has collected over the course of a few weeks, Iacono says they will produce about one gallon of pure maple syrup. The syrup will be distributed to those who helped collect the sap.

Correction (March 20, 2025):  A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Forest Hunt's affiliation. The story has been updated.

Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery, located just southeast of downtown, is now considered part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The new designation comes after the discovery of three African American Freedom Seekers and one African American abolitionist buried there.

“I just feel like I’m the spokesman, and I’m very happy to do it,” said St. Paul native and genealogist Elyse Hill on Friday's Morning Edition.

Hill specializes in African American genealogy and said the process of unearthing this history was difficult. Many stories of enslaved people are passed down orally and, when their stories are written, it’s rare to find them preserved, she said.

“It takes a lot of digging, many hours of searching,” Hill said. “It’s not easy.”

Hill’s research provided “the basis” for the National Park Service Designation, according to a press release from cemetery board president Susan Hunter Weir. Hill spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about her work and the freedom seekers buried in the cemetery.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Click on the player above to hear the conversation.

One of the formerly enslaved people buried at Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery is Hester Patterson. She seemed like a very interesting person.

Yes, she was. She was an enslaved individual in Mississippi, and there was a Minnesota unit during the Civil War down in that part of Mississippi, and apparently Hester had become a cook for one of the officers of that unit.

He ultimately facilitated her escaping from slavery, sending her up to Minnesota, where she later lived with that family, cooked for that family.

How hard is it to find information about folks like Hester Patterson?

It can be very challenging, because you’d like to have — as much as possible — documented sources. You know, of course, we have a lot of oral histories, but to be able to get documented sources can be a challenge.

Some events were documented, and those that were, where do they end up? Where do you find them? It takes a lot of digging, many hours of searching and and, yes, it’s a challenge. It’s not easy.

I did not know much at all about William Goodridge. I know he was an abolitionist, but I did not know he was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. How did he wind up buried in this little south Minneapolis cemetery?

He was actually a formerly enslaved person. He was freed by his owner and as an apprentice under his former owner, he learned different business-type activities.

He ended up being a successful businessman that owned some railcars, and he would use his railcars to move enslaved people from one city to another in Pennsylvania. But ultimately, what happened to him was his businesses went bad.

The Fugitive Slave Act came into place, so William moved to Minnesota. He had a daughter who was living in Minneapolis. She and her husband were also abolitionists, and he lived with them and then passed away and was buried in the cemetery.

What spurs you to do this work?

I just kind of feel like I’m kind of the spokesman for individuals such as Hester and William and so many of these other formerly enslaved persons in telling their story. They didn’t have the opportunity to.

And I just feel like to get the story out about them and what they went through and what their lives were like, versus just having a title “escaped slave” or “U.S. colored troop soldier” — to put a name to that, and also to put information about their lives to that — I’m very happy to do it.

You can find upcoming Pioneer & Soldiers Cemetery events and learn more about African American genealogy here.

In the 1800s, immigrants to our region primarily came from Scandinavia and Germany. More recently, major populations have come to Minnesota from Laos, Somalia, Mexico, Liberia, Ecuador, Afghanistan and India. In fact, almost 500,000 people who live in Minnesota today were born outside of the United States.

But behind the where is also a why. And over time, those narratives can get lost if not recorded.

That’s why MPR News, together with Sahan Journal, presented a collaborative North Star Journey Live and Sahan Community Live conversation at St. Paul Neighborhood Network on Feb. 20. Hosted by immigration reporters Sarah Thamer and Katelyn Vue, this in-person event focused on how immigrant communities in Minnesota preserve their histories and pass them on to new generations. Panelists shared their own arrival stories and tips for recording your own family’s journey.

You can listen to and watch more immigrant and refugee stories at the Minnesota Historical Society’s Becoming Minnesotan online archive and the Immigrant History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Panelists:

• Diego Guaman is the interim director of Movimiento Comunitario Minnesota and cofounder of the Aztec dance group Kalpulli Tlaloctecuhtli.
• Julie Vang is program manager at Green Card Voices — a nonprofit that uses storytelling to build community connections between immigrants and their neighbors.
• Marian Hassan is an educator and author helping to preserve Somali oral histories.
• Saengmany Ratsabout is an independent scholar and community advocate who studies Southeast Asian history and is helping to document the history of the Lao diaspora. He’s also one of the founders of the Immigrant Stories project at the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Since August, Muslim deli Holy Land in northeast Minneapolis has been prepping for an influx of customers. The deli has imported more than 26 kinds of dates from at least eight different countries.

Majdi Wadi is the CEO of Holy Land. He joined MPR News host Nina Moini in studio to talk about Ramadan and preparations for the holiday.

Guest:

• Junauda Petrus is the recently appointed Poet Laureate for the city of Minneapolis. She is an author, playwright, filmmaker and co-founder of the experimental artist collective, Free Black Dirt. She is the author of the Coretta Scott King Award- winning young adult novel, “The Stars and the Blackness Between Them,” and the children’s book, “Can We Please Give the Police to the Grandmothers?” 

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

But less than a quarter of these sites in Minnesota remain standing today. Most of the state’s Green Book sites were in the Twin Cities and many were demolished to make way for the construction of I35-W and I-94.

Nieeta Presley is a native of the historic Rondo neighborhood, which was one of those demolished by highway construction. She published research on Rondo Green Book sites with the Ramsey County Historical Society and joins MPR News host Nina Moini to share what she found.

Many were citizens.

Those camps closed a few years later and those who were detained resettled around the country.

Vinicius Taguchi, president of the local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, said he sees parallels between this troubling history and the present.

Particularly, the rhetoric used by the current Trump administration.

“[During World War II] there was a lot of scapegoating and wartime hysteria,” Taguchi said. “That some people have to be kept on a registry, potentially needing to be locked away, if necessary. That’s very frightening language for us.”

The Minnesota chapter was founded in 1946 and has worked for decades to raise awareness about what the Japanese American community experienced to prevent history from repeating itself.

As the group marks 83 years since Executive Order 9066, Taguchi believes this work is as urgent than ever.

“If your rights can be taken away with the flick of a pen, are they truly rights or are they privileges? That’s something we need to be aware of, and that’s something we need to fight for — to secure rights for the strongest and the weakest among us.”

For the full interview with Taguchi, use the audio player above.

Route 1 Farm's executive director Marcus Carpenter joined Minnesota Now to talk about the project.

Southern Minnesota

Gibbs Elementary School, Rochester

Gibbs Elementary School in Rochester is named after George W. Gibbs Jr., the first known Black person to set foot in Antarctica.

Gibbs was serving in the U.S. Navy when he sailed to the continent as a member of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s third expedition.

In January 1940, after almost 40 days at sea on the U.S.S. Bear, he was the first person to step off the ship.

Gibbs moved to Rochester and became a civil rights activist and small business owner. 

He spent almost 20 years working at IBM, co-founded the Rochester Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, and founded an employment agency he operated until 1999.

— Alex Haddon, radio reporter intern

Underground Railroad

Although not much is known about Minnesota’s role in the Underground Railroad due to its secrecy, the Rushford Area Historical Society believes the city was part of the network to help enslaved people to freedom. The area was home to abolitionists at the time and is about 16 miles from the Mississippi River, an escape route north to Canada.

Secret rooms have been discovered in at least three homes in Rushford, which are all currently private residences. One home was built in 1859 for abolitionists George and Harriet Stevens and is thought to be a safe house in the 1860s.

In a different house, a secret room was found downstairs after the flood of 2007. It’s an 18-room, two-story house built in 1861 for Roswell and George Valentine. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

A third home was built in 1867 for Miles Carpenter, an early Rushford banker, and is also thought to be a safe house.

The Rushford Area Historical Society also believes limestone caves were used to hide people escaping to freedom.

— Lisa Ryan, editor

Central Minnesota

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Minneapolis

As the oldest Black-owned newspaper and one of the longest standing family-owned newspapers in the country, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder is a point of pride in the Twin Cities.

The paper was started in August 1934 by civil rights activist Cecil E. Newman with a split publication: the Minneapolis Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder. In its first issue, Newman made a prediction and promise to readers, writing, “We feel sure St. Paul and Minneapolis will have real champions of the Race.”

Today, Newman’s granddaughter Tracey Williams-Dillard serves as the CEO and publisher for MSR and continues the paper that has been a trusted news source in the Black community for almost a century.

As a weekly paper, MSR has tackled topics like local Ku Klux Klan activities, Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Movement, Minneapolis’ first Black woman mayor, and George Floyd’s murder. 

In 2015, its building at 3744 4th Ave. in Minneapolis became a state historic landmark.

— Kyra Miles, early education reporter

Penumbra Theatre, St. Paul

Founded in 1976, Penumbra Theatre was created by Lou Bellamy. Over the years, Penumbra has had the distinction of being the only Black professional theater in Minnesota. The name Penumbra means “half-light” or “partial eclipse.” It was founded using a Comprehensive Employment Training Act grant from the federal government. 

Its first production, Steve Carter’s “Eden,” explored diversity of ethnicities within the African American community. In a 1977 interview with MPR News, Bellamy described the theater as being inadvertently political, with its focus on giving Black actors opportunities to perform at the professional level.  

“The roles that you generally see — and it’s because of the people who choose the shows — are waiters, butlers, things that if not debilitating, at least are not allowing them to show the extent of their capability,” Bellamy said.

Penumbra has had a number of company members that are recognizable, both locally and nationally. Perhaps its most famous alumnus is playwright August Wilson, who developed some of his earliest plays at Penumbra. In a 2023 interview, Bellamy noted that the character Levee in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was influenced by his brother Terry’s portrayal in early readings. 

In 2021, under the direction of Lou’s daughter Sarah Bellamy, the theater received a $5 million grant to build on its work in racial equality. 

— Jacob Aloi, arts reporter and newscaster

Arthur and Edith Lee House, Minneapolis

In June 1931, Arthur and Edith Lee, a Black couple, purchased the modest craftsman-style home in Minneapolis’ Field neighborhood and moved into the predominantly white neighborhood with their young daughter, Mary.

Several years earlier, property owners in the area signed a contract with the neighborhood association to not sell or rent their homes to anyone who wasn’t white.

When the Lees moved in, community members tried to force them out.

Their home became the site of an urban riot in July 1931, when an angry mob of 4,000 white people gathered in their yard and spilled out onto the street, demanding the family leave the neighborhood.

A U.S. postal worker, World War I veteran and NAACP member, Arthur Lee said he had a “right to establish a home” in the neighborhood of his choosing.

Many individuals and organizations came to the family’s defense, including local and national chapters of the NAACP and the prominent civil rights attorney, Lena Olive Smith. (see Lena O. Smith House below)

The Lees stayed in their home until the fall of 1933. According to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, the family slept in the basement because of safety concerns, and their daughter Mary was escorted to kindergarten by the police.

The Arthur and Edith Lee House became a designated historic property in Minneapolis in 2014.

The Lee protests remain some of the largest and most widely publicized race-related demonstrations in Minnesota’s history. The city of Minneapolis’ local historic landmark designation similarly finds the Arthur and Edith Lee House to be associated “with broad patterns of social history, particularly in regard to African American history in Minneapolis, race relations and historical trends of housing discrimination.”

— Erica Zurek, senior health reporter

George Floyd Square, Minneapolis

On May 25, 2020, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd outside of a convenience store at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue on the south side of Minneapolis. 

The community transformed the intersection into a memorial and protest site. It’s also become a point of contention over how to remember Floyd’s murder and the protest movement that started here. 

Local protesters maintain that the site should be community-led, until the city meets a list of demands for justice. For a year after Floyd’s murder, protesters kept the streets closed to traffic; city workers took down the barricades in 2021. 

Now, the city is locked in an ongoing debate over the square's future. City officials say the streets are overdue for reconstruction. They're pushing for a plan to rebuild the intersection, supported by some local residents and businesses on the block. But local activists, who still maintain the ongoing protest, say it's too soon for the city to take a role in the street design. Instead, they say they want the city to invest in neighborhood services, like housing and substance abuse programs.

— Estelle Timar-Wilcox, general assignment reporter

Hiawatha Golf Course, Minneapolis

At a time when African American golfers were barred from participating in white-only tournaments and golf courses, the Hiawatha Golf Course became a popular gathering spot for Black golfers.

The course opened in 1934 in south Minneapolis, and was the spot, a few years later, where African American golfer James “Jimmie” Slemmons created what’s now the Upper Midwest Bronze Amateur Memorial — a tournament that welcomed Black golfers.

Despite being a popular course for African Americans, the Hiawatha Golf Course clubhouse barred non-white golfers from entering. That is until 1952, when that rule ended, largely because of the efforts of golf legend and trailblazer Solomon Hughes Sr.

“Hughes was an excellent golfer, recognized nationwide, yet still could not golf at white golf courses, which is why Hiawatha golf course is so important to us,” said Greg McMoore, a long-time south Minneapolis resident and historian.

Although once only allowed to play with the United Golfer’s Association, a league formed by Black golfers, Hughes was among the first Black golfers to tee off in a PGA event at the 1952 St. Paul Open.

In 2022, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board officially named the clubhouse the Solomon Hughes Clubhouse. The golf course was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

— Cari Spencer, reporter

Lena O. Smith House, Minneapolis

Civil rights leader and trailblazing attorney Lena O. Smith lived in this Minneapolis home on 3905 Fifth Ave. S. While working in real estate, Smith witnessed up close the discriminatory practices that excluded Black families from certain neighborhoods of the city. She took that experience to law school and in 1921 became the first Black woman to practice law in the state of Minnesota.

As an attorney, Smith took on several high-profile cases fighting segregation and defending the rights of Black residents of Minneapolis. She worked to desegregate spaces in the city including the Pantages Theatre and protected a Black family from a campaign to oust them from their home in a mostly white neighborhood of south Minneapolis. (see Arthur and Edith Lee House, above)

Smith founded the Minneapolis Urban League and led the local chapter of the NAACP as its first woman president. She worked inside and outside of the courtroom to advance civil rights until her death in 1966. Her home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 

— Alanna Elder, producer

‘Spiral for Justice’ memorial, St. Paul

On the south lawn of the State Capitol grounds is the ‘Spiral for Justice’ memorial for Roy Wilkins.

Wilkins, who grew up in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, was a civil rights leader. He worked in various roles at the NAACP from 1931 to1977, leading the organization for 22 years.

The memorial has 46 elements that are positioned in a spiral, getting higher and higher as they extend out from the middle and out beyond two walls that surround the main parts of the sculpture.

Each element represents a year of his work at the NAACP, and the elements breaking through the wall represent progress breaking through barriers of racial inequality. The memorial, designed by sculptor Curtis Patterson, was dedicated in 1995.

— Peter Cox, reporter

Clarence Wigington, St. Paul

The Highland Park Water Tower was designed by Clarence “Cap” Wigington, the first African American municipal architect in the United States.

Wigington designed or supervised the creation of over 130 buildings throughout his decades-long career, with most located in St. Paul and designed during his tenure at the city architect’s office between 1915 and 1949.

He designed a number of city projects including fire stations and park buildings, as well as ice palaces for the St. Paul Winter Carnival. (He also designed my old stomping grounds, Chelsea Heights Elementary School, and an addition to my alma mater Murray Middle School.)

Some of his other landmark structures include the Harriet Island Pavilion (since renamed after him), Roy Wilkins auditorium and the Holman Field Administration building at the St. Paul Downtown Airport.

The Highland Park Water Tower, built in 1928, is one of three Wigington structures listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The others are the Harriet Island Pavilion and the Holman Field Administration building.

— Feven Gerezgiher, reporter and producer

Northern Minnesota

Statue of Tuskegee Airman Joe Gomer, Duluth

A statue in the Duluth International Airport terminal honors a Minnesotan who was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

Joe Gomer was among the country’s first Black fighter pilots, flying 68 combat missions in Europe. He and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen were tasked with protecting bombers from German fighters. The unit’s success helped the push to end segregation in the U.S. military.

Gomer stayed in the military after the war and later worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Minnesota. He lived in Duluth for 50 years and stayed active into his 90s. The Duluth News Tribune reported that Gomer shared the history of the Tuskegee Airmen and talked about the importance of education with school groups.

Veterans’ groups in Duluth worked to raise money for the statue to honor Gomer’s service to his country; it was dedicated at the airport in 2012, on Gomer’s 92nd birthday. Gomer died the following year at age 93; he was Minnesota’s last living Tuskegee Airman.

— Andrew Krueger, editor

Hattie Mosley, Hibbing

In 1905, 23-year-old Hattie Mosley moved from Decatur, Ill., to the up-and-coming mining town of Hibbing, Minn. Twelve years prior, the town was established by a German miner. 

At the time, 50 percent of Hibbing residents were born in a foreign country. Yet Mosley, a Black woman, remained a minority, as it was still uncommon for Black people to live in northern Minnesota as long-term residents. This is according to history expert Aaron Brown, who was featured in an Almanac interview with Twin Cities Public Television about the resident. 

Mosley came to Hibbing as a widow, and did not have any children. She spent the next 30 years as a single woman caring for the mining town as its residents faced the Spanish Flu, the effects of World War I and other daily ailments. She often volunteered in poor immigrant communities and checked in on the sick, using her homemade cough syrup and homemade remedies to nurse most of the town back to health.

She was known to help with the worst cases other medical professionals wouldn’t dare to touch, including the most severe quarantined cases of the Spanish Flu. Because of this, she is described as a heroine and often called the Florence Nightingale of Hibbing, according to Brown.

She died in 1938 and is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery. The beloved nurse and midwife’s obituary said her greatest joy in life was helping those who could not afford care. 

“Her acts of charity, so freely given, numbered a legion and among the poor her death will be keenly felt,” read her obituary in the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Mosley was elected to the Hibbing Historical Society’s Hall of Service and Achievement a decade ago.

— Sam Stroozas, digital producer

St. Mark AME, Duluth

St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church is in the Central Hillside area of Duluth. The church was built in 1900 and was added to the National Register in 1991.

W. E. B. DuBois spoke at St. Mark in 1921 before a gathering of the Duluth chapter of the NAACP, which had recently been founded after the lynching of three Black men in downtown Duluth. DuBois founded the national organization in 1909.

— Regina Medina, reporter

Fort Pembina, near present-day Pembina, N.D.

Pierre Bonga and his family are well known in Minnesota’s early Black history, before it was even a state. His son George Bonga was one of the first Black people born in what later became the state of Minnesota, according to MNopedia.

George was born in the Northwest Territory around 1802, near present-day Duluth. His mother was Ojibwe, as were the two women he married in his lifetime. George was a guide and translator for negotiations with the Ojibwe for Territorial Governor Lewis Cass.

While the Bonga family has connections to many locations in present-day Minnesota and the Great Lakes region, they spent time in Fort Pembina, according to the University of North Dakota. Pierre Bonga was also a trapper and interpreter. He primarily worked near the Red River, as well as near Lake Superior. He died in 1831, in what is now Minnesota.

— Lisa Ryan, editor

Guest:

• Tony Sanneh is a retired professional soccer player and the founder and CEO of The Sanneh Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul that aims to create positive social change through soccer, education and health.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. 

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

Through the Minnesota Historical Society and the state Legislature, the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul and the Hmong Studies Journal received a grant of nearly $25,000 to publish a special issue of the journal that will commemorate 50 years of Hmong people residing and contributing to life in Minnesota.

It may be the first scholarly book collection to be solely dedicated to the range of Hmong experiences in Minnesota.

Txongpao Lee is the executive director of the Hmong Cultural Center. Mark Pfeifer is the director of programs at the Hmong Cultural Center and the co-editor of the Hmong Studies Journal. Lee and Pfeifer joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the importance of marking 50 years of Hmong people in Minnesota with a book.

Minnesota high school debate coach and wedding photographer Celisia Stanton noticed many wildly popular true crime podcasts seemed to ignore some of the systemic issues plaguing the criminal justice system, mainly when it’s related to race. Stanton learned firsthand what the “justice” in “criminal justice” really meant when, in the middle of the pandemic she became the victim of a huge financial scheme that defrauded her of tens of thousands of dollars.

Her podcast, “Truer Crime” aims to tackle some of the systemic issues related to race, victims and sexuality in the criminal justice system. The second season launched on Monday.

Stanton joined Minnesota Now to talk about the podcast’s success and the season two launch party, which is 7 p.m. on Thursday at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis.

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  Traducción Léelo en español
  
  
  

A coalition of Minnesota Latino organizations called the Minnesota Latino Leadership Alliance held a press conference at the capitol Jan. 14. The group was advocating for initiatives for the upcoming legislative session, one of which is the proposed Minnesota Latino Museum, which would be a center for Latino arts, culture and heritage.

“We are looking to build the first museum that is focused on the Latino community in the upper Midwest,” executive director Aaron Johnson-Ortiz said.

The museum, which has existed as an organization for several years, has launched a $20 million capital campaign to build and operate a physical space. The proposed location is the West Side Flats area of Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul.

“Since at least 1928 there’s a historical record of people on the West Side wanting a Mexican and Latino Cultural Center,” Johnson-Ortiz said. “So this request goes back at least 100 years, and so we know that this work has been ongoing from multiple generations.”

Jessica Lopez Lyman, an assistant professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota and a longtime advocate for the museum, also spoke. 

“We are excited for this museum to serve our entire state, to be a space to display, learn, teach and exchange ideas about our arts and culture,” Lopez Lyman said. She added that the museum would be in the historic St. Paul neighborhood “where the first Mexican immigrants established a barrio over a century ago, and later Chicano, Puerto Rican Boricua and other Latine people migrated to build community.”

Lopez Lyman said that the museum has been a dream of hers since she was a kid, noting, however, that the community seeded the idea long before she was born, pointing to Luis Garzón, the first Latino person to permanently relocate to Minnesota in 1886.

Garzón, who is now buried in the Minneapolis Lakewood Cemetery, was an artist and musician who lived in the West Side Flats.

“He created a store that functioned as a community center. People came to not only purchase dulces or ingredients they couldn't find anywhere else,” Lopez said, “But they also came for convivencia, to feel connected, to coexist with others after a long day on the railroad or working in the fields or cleaning houses. Garzón’s space, due to the people who interacted with it, became a space for arts and culture.”

Johnson-Ortiz said the museum efforts began around 2015 with the local artist group (Neo)Muralismos de México. They have hosted mural and art-making events and workshops around the state, from Duluth to Worthington.

The museum building “is something that will likely take a couple years to develop, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be doing activities and exhibits and public art,” said Johnson-Ortiz. 

In 2022, the museum group led the creation of the State Capitol’s first-ever ofrenda, or a traditional altar for the Mexican celebration of Día de los Muertos. He said this prompted Gov. Tim Walz to officially recognize Day of the Dead in Minnesota. Johnson-Ortiz, who is also a co-founder of the national group Mexican Cultural Arts Alliance, said that Minnesota is likely the first state to have done this.

Johnson-Ortiz predicts if they meet their fundraising goals, the museum will open in 2029.

In October 2023, Minnesota Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul, stated her support for the museum at a press conference for National Latinx Heritage Month. 

“Latino artists have made significant contributions to Minnesota’s art and culture, but their work is often underrepresented in museums and galleries,” Pérez-Vega said in a statement. “We must establish Minnesota’s first Museum of Latino Arts to fill this gap and give Latino artists the recognition they deserve. Pa’Lante siempre!” 

In January 2024, Pérez-Vega sponsored a bill that would earmark $10 million to acquire property, design and construct the museum. Johnson-Ortiz said the museum secured $6.425 million in the proposed 2024 infrastructure package, but the bill failed to pass.

He expects the museum bill will be reintroduced this session once the power struggle in the Legislature between Republicans and Democrats is resolved.

Johnson-Ortiz, who is also an artist and muralist, said there are approximately 25 Latino-focused museums in the U.S. At last count in 2014, the Institute of Museum and Library Services estimated that there are 35,000 active museums in the U.S.  

According to census data, the Latino population is Minnesota’s third-largest demographic group. It has grown by more than 200,000 people in the last 25 years. 

“We feel that we’re not just behind in terms of culture representation, but radically behind,” said Johnson-Ortiz. “We’re behind the white community, and behind most communities of color in the United States. We feel that it’s time now to give voice to this, to tell our stories and to be part of the broader conversation in Minnesota about arts and culture, about history and how we fit in as a community with the broader society.”

In February, the museum will announce its most ambitious programming yet, a months-long public art exhibition along the Mississippi in St. Paul.

Correction (Jan. 22, 2025): An earlier version of this story misidentified Jessica Lopez Lyman. The story has been updated.

Rondo Double Dutch is the brainchild of Mercedes Yarbrough, an educator who wanted to bring Double Dutch to a new generation in her community. She joined up with Jelahn Prentiss, who goes by Coach Twist, to expand her vision for the program.

Rondo Double Dutch now includes a class at 825 Arts in St. Paul as well as a team that participates in events around the metro. They are booked Monday for Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration in south Minneapolis.

Mizz Mercedez and Jelahn Prentiss joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the event and their passion for getting people of all ages on their feet.

Just as remarkable: This group also makes up the youngest and most racially diverse council since St. Paul incorporated in 1854. Six of its seven members are women of color. All are 40 or younger.

On Jan. 9, 2025 — exactly one year to the day that the council was inducted — MPR News host Angela Davis hosted a North Star Journey Live conversation with all seven St. Paul council members. They reflected on their groundbreaking first year in office and what it’s like to be a woman in politics today. They also talked about how they work together, despite differences, and how they are facing the upcoming political headwinds.

St. Paul City Council:

• Council member Anika Bowie, Ward 1
• Council member Rebecca Noecker, Ward 2
• Council member Saura Jost, Ward 3
• Council president Mitra Jalali, Ward 4
• Council vice president Hwa Jeong Kim, Ward 5
• Council member Nelsie Yang, Ward 6
• Council member Cheniqua Johnson, Ward 7

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Jones has several book launch events coming up, including one Jan. 11 in downtown Minneapolis and another Jan. 18 in Duluth.

MPR News host Nina Moini talks with two people who are part of the family business that spans four generations: Becca Kvasnik, the granddaughter of Cecil and Faye Leventhal, Cecil’s founders, and Becca’s daughter, Evana Hershkowitz.

To see photos of the family and their restaurant, visit mprnews.org.

After 40 years, the Minnesota gospel group is wrapping up their run of Christmas concerts. Siblings J.D., Fred, Jearlyn, Jevetta and Billy Steele have brought their joyful holiday harmonies to Minnesota audiences since 1984 and plan to do so one last time at the Pantages Theatre Saturday and Sunday.

The Steeles are an integral part of the Minnesota sound and have recorded and performed with Prince, Donald Fagen, Morgan Freeman and others throughout their career. The family traveled the world in the acclaimed musical The Gospel at Colonus and contributed to several soundtracks.

Jevetta Steele takes a break from rehearsals to talk with MPR News host Nina Moini about the band’s final Christmas shows.

Rachel Hardeman is a professor at the University of Minnesota whose research is used nationally to show how racism affects health. Her work illuminates the disparities between the experiences of Black mothers during pregnancy and childbirth and their white peers. This year, she was named one of TIME’s 2024 most influential people in the world.

Simone Hardeman-Jones has spent most of her career in education policy, including four years at the federal level working in former President Barack Obama’s administration. Now she heads GreenLight Fund Twin Cities, which is changing how philanthropy can better listen to communities to identify unsolved problems and introduce solutions.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the two sisters about their work and how they support each other as part of our MPR News Power Pairs series.

Do you know a Power Pair?

We’d love to hear your ideas for Power Pairs to interview in 2025. We’re talking with prominent Minnesotans who you may know of separately but who reveal something new when we sit them down together. Maybe they’re married or siblings or best friends. They could be business partners or a parent/adult child dynamic duo.

Check out previous previous Power Pair conversations.

And, send us your suggestions for Power Pairs.

Guests:

• Rachel R. Hardeman is a professor in the Division of Health Policy & Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. She is also the Blue Cross endowed professor of health and racial equity and the founding director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity. She serves on an advisory committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control.

• Simone Hardeman-Jones became the founding executive director of GreenLight Fund Twin Cities in 2020. Her previous work focused on education policy. She was a national director of policy and partnerships at the nonprofit Educators for Excellence and served as a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education in the Obama administration. Simone also worked as a policy advisor to two U.S. senators, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

  
  

 Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.    

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

Angeline Dukes, an assistant professor in neuroscience at the University of Minnesota was named in the category of Social Impact. Dukes founded the organization Black In Neuro, which empowers Black scholars in neuroscience-related fields. She joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the honor and her work.

But do they feel like they belong?

That was the topic of discussion at the North Star Journey Live conversation recorded in Moorhead, Minn., on Nov. 21. MPR News senior reporter Sarah Thamer traveled to Concordia College for the international student potluck to talk with people who are dedicated to making the Fargo-Moorhead area welcoming.

The founder of the Fargo Moorhead International Potluck shared how food can be used as a bridge to cross cultures. Community leaders who work with the growing immigrant population in northwest Minnesota agreed that simple things like being able to find spices to replicate food from home goes a long way to making newcomers feel seen.

A trio of international students studying at Concordia also shared their experiences and offered advice on how to cultivate belonging amidst diversity. Pro tip: Don’t be afraid of discomfort. It’s a necessary part of the process.

Guests:

• Peter Schott is the founder of the Fargo-Moorhead International Potluck.
• Fowzia Adde is the executive director of the Immigrant Development Center in Moorhead.
• Zoë Absey is a board member at the New American Consortium for the Fargo-Moorhead region.
• Siam Shimul, Timea Vrabcova and Alecious Togbah are international students studying at Concordia College.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

In “My Dear Loving Sisters: Tea and Stories from an Audacious Life,” Fatoun Ali lays out how she survived poverty and abuse to raise four children and start a nonprofit. Ali created the piece in a workbook format, with strategies and questions for overcoming all kinds of challenges.

Her nonprofit, Somali Youth and Family Development Center, turns 15 this year and has a gala on Wednesday to celebrate. Fatoun Ali joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini in the MPR News studio for a conversation about her work and life.

Well, for almost that long, the Pohlads also have had a private family foundation. It gives away millions of dollars every year to nonprofit organizations around the Twin Cities.

In recent years the foundation has focused on two priorities — giving money to ease the housing crisis and address racial inequality. One of the foundation’s goals is to increase the number of Black homeowners.

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the president of the Pohlad Family Foundation, Susan Bass Roberts, about how and where the Pohlads give away their money and about her own career in corporate and community philanthropy,

We want to hear from you, too.

What questions do you have about the Pohlad Family Foundation or about how foundations give away their money?

Call us during the 9 a.m. hour at 651-227-6000 or 800-242-2828.

Guest:

• Susan Bass Roberts was named president of the Pohlad Family Foundation in 2024, after joining the foundation in 2016 and serving as its vice president and executive director. She previously served as executive director of the Best Buy Foundation, vice president of communications and community relations for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and director of community affairs and philanthropy for Limited Brands, Inc.

May Lee-Yang and Nicole M. Smith are the organizers behind the project. Lee-Yang is a performer and educator and Smith is the founder and CEO of Neuvo Soul productions. They joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about FRONDO.

He remembers seeing a group head to the backroom and begging his father to let him sneak a glimpse. 

“It was all in fun,” he reminisced with a laugh. “They were back there cooking soul food, playing cards and having a good time in the backroom.”

Now 71, McMoore carries vibrant memories of the southside with him each day — scenes from when it was a bustling and tight-knit middle class African American community. His brain is such a warehouse of southside knowledge he was recruited to help preserve the city’s African American history. 

“I’m viewed as an elder now,” McMoore said. “And there aren’t very many of us left to be able to talk about what was here.”

Through May 2025, he’ll be part of the African American Heritage Work Group — a 15-person advisory board guiding the city in efforts to research and document sites of significance, ultimately narrowing in on three to nominate to the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s a group with artists, educators and historians from the northside to the southside, including familiar names like documentarian Daniel Bergin and health advocate Beverly Propes.

Each member brings their own passion to the table, and for McMoore that’s serving as a voice for the southside, where his family has called home for over a century.

A child of the 50s, McMoore is among the eldest in the group. His family escaped slavery in Virginia, making their new home in Hastings between 1865 and 1870 — one of the first Black families to settle in the area. In 1912, his grandmother moved to south Minneapolis after graduating high school, and his family has been here ever since.

For McMoore, honoring history is more than just marking spots with remembrance.

“I’m always thinking about where we came from as developing an understanding of where we’re going to go,” he said. “You have to know where you came from if you want to talk about who you are and how you can move forward with it.”

The hub of the southside community

On a crisp fall day, McMoore pointed out some of those roots, starting with the former hub that had it all: the intersection at 38th Street and Fourth Avenue. Though he calls that intersection a flyover street now, he can quickly recall how it used to buzz. 

“When you came into this community, especially when you went across 38th Street, you know, there was something in the air,” he said. “You felt that you belonged to something, and it was a sense of strength and vitality.”

Between the 1930s and 1970s, more than 20 Black-owned businesses stood tall along the corridor. One of the earlier gems was Dreamland Café. That was the social club opened in 1937 by Anthony B. Cassius, a civil rights activist and the first Black man to obtain a liquor license in Minneapolis.

Cassius’s bars were some of the first integrated spaces in the city and few places where African Americans could safely gather and socialize. 

Another Cassius-stamped staple — the Nacirema Club (that’s American spelled backwards) — was a couple streets over. It’s a church now, but McMoore amusedly remembers his father ushering him in when he came of age. Both Dreamland and the Nacirema, as well as Cassius’s house, are on the heritage group’s research list. 

Most of the iconic landmarks at the intersection of 38th and 4th are now gone, but still standing is the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, the Black-owned newspaper which recently celebrated its 90th year. A bright blue mural covers the brick, decorated with notable names and portraits, from Cecil Newman to Norma Jean Williams. 

“You can go along [the mural] and all of us, all the families, we all knew each other, too,” McMoore said. “In many ways, it’s the families that drove this community and protected it.”

‘It feels like I’m driving through my living room’

As McMoore got in his white “retro Chevy,” driving beyond the intersection, the power of southside names was apparent. He pointed out their old homes. Willie Mays, baseball legend. Lena O. Smith, Minnesota’s first African American woman lawyer.

The Bowman house, where Earl Bowman, the first Black president at a Minnesota community college, resided; and the Hughes home, where the trailblazing golfer Solomon Hughes Sr. and legal scholars lived. 

Then, McMoore approached a bridge over I-35W. He looked down at the trail of cars, rushing 60 miles per hour over concrete — once green lawns in the old predominantly African American community.

“Whenever I head to downtown Minneapolis on the freeway, I know exactly where the house was, and it feels like I’m driving through my living room,” he said. “Many folks talk about 94 going through St. Paul and destroying Rondo, but over here it was 35 going through South Minneapolis, and it dismantled our community.”

Freeway construction in the 60s wiped out homes where over 80 percent of the Twin Cities Black population lived, destroying the opportunity to build wealth. To this day, the racial homeownership gap in Minneapolis remains one of the highest in the nation.

“Things like that aren’t just coincidental,” McMoore said, a hard glint to his eye. 

In his neighborhood, the freeway trench marked the start of a shift, as families were displaced and residents east and west were literally divided. The community’s vitality dulled as pressures from crime rose, then took another turn when Central High School — the neighborhood’s castle-like “pride and joy” on the hill — was demolished in the 80s. 

With the local high school gone —  a place that produced the likes of Prince, the city’s first Black mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and the state’s first Black woman judge Pamela Alexander — more families left.

Marking history as a guide

But McMoore, who spent some years working in D.C. and South America, has always come back. He said the community in which he grew up — the foundation for his values, his home —doesn’t have to remain a still life from the past. 

He says it’s a guide to what makes communities livable, of how strength can be found in getting to know your neighbors and looking out for one another. 

“We have to learn from the past and how all of us can come together to revitalize the neighborhood,” he said. “And it starts with things like the cultural corridor, understanding the history of it, and honoring the history with markers.”

There’s more for people to learn from one another, he said, in order to collaborate and create together. There’s more work to be done there, too, he said.

On the steps of the Sabathani Community Center, McMoore punctuates his southside tour: “So let’s do something about that.”

The learning curve is steep. But eventually, someone pushes through to a new level and becomes the first in their community to achieve a goal. Maybe they become the first in their family to graduate from college, or the first to start a small business. Maybe they are the first to purchase farmland or the first to publish a book that integrates their culture into the American story.

On Oct. 17, MPR News’ North Star Journey Live partnered with Sahan Journal to host a conversation about firsts. What do these trailblazers from immigrant communities have in common? What are the unique rewards and challenges that come with being the first to embark on a new journey?

The celebration was hosted by MPR News’ Nina Moini, who herself is the first American journalist in her immigrant family, and Sahan Journal digital producer Alberto Gomez.

Panelists included Chenue Her, the first Hmong man to become a TV news anchor; Rodrigo Cala, who is the first in his family to buy a farm in the U.S.; Michael Vang, one of the first Hmong soccer players to play professionally in the U.S.; Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, the first person under age 26 to win a seat in the Minnesota Senate; Remona Htoo, one of the first Karen children’s book authors in the U.S.; and Abenezer Merdassa, an Ethiopian-American comic who found his way into the stand-up world thanks to procrastinating his finals.

It follows an evolving, countrywide trend after the National Audubon Society leadership voted down removing the association with John James Audubon from its name last year. Born in 1785, Audubon was a groundbreaking artist, naturalist and ornithologist whose work is still widely used today, but was funded by the slave trade. He’s also accused of plagiarism, academic fraud and other “despicable things,” the society says.

“The name might not have been a barrier for the current members, but as an organization that wants to grow and really serve the birds and protect the habitat, we needed to incorporate more people into the organization,” Latina photographer Monica Bryand, who joined the St. Paul Bird Alliance’s board about a year ago and identifies as queer, told MPR News. “In Minnesota, with the growing number of BIPOC and LGBTQ folks, we needed something different… [to] grow the organization.”

Currently its co-chair, Bryand has served on the alliance’s conservation committee for a decade. But it took the National Audubon Society rejecting a name change and a nudge from St. Paul’s chapter president for her to accept a spot on the board and to be part of a local solution.

President Greg Burnes “knew and understood that it was more than just a name change, that we had to work inside the organization to make it more welcoming and inclusive, and I wanted to be in there. And if I wanted this, I needed to be in it with them,” Bryand said.

Black, Native and queer people have long felt like there was no place in such societies or out in nature for them, according to Bryand. A birder now for more than 20 years, she long felt like she didn’t see herself reflected in the organization. Six years ago, she decided to change that and create a safe space for people of color and LGBTQ+ people with the Urban Bird Collective. The group helps these communities get out and explore nature while redefining who is considered an expert in birding and conservation.

“And what I tell people, what I tell outdoor organizations — and organizations like Audubon — is that while I created this space, BIPOC and LGBT folks shouldn't need to find me. They might not find the Urban Bird Collective, and they shouldn't have to,” Bryand said. Organizations like nature centers and Audubon “have all the resources. And I want BIPOC folks to feel comfortable and welcomed in all of those spaces.”

Meanwhile, there’s an effort underway by the American Ornithological Society to change the names of bird species associated with people, racism and colonialism. That, too, has gotten pushback similar to that experienced by Audubon.

Bryand believes it’s a step in the right direction. She also hopes those who didn't support a societal name change understand why some members wanted it and are willing to learn why, thus opening the door for more people of various backgrounds and demographics to be welcomed into organizations like the St. Paul Bird Alliance.

That idea is at the heart of the Bush Fellowship.

Every year, up to 30 people across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and in 23 Native nations receive this prestigious fellowship from the Bush Foundation, along with grants of up to $150,000 to pursue their own personal and professional development.

The application for next year’s cohort is open through Oct. 15.

On Monday, MPR News host Angela Davis talked with three Bush Fellows about their work and how deepening a connection to their own culture is helping them make Minnesota a better place.

Guests:

• Irma Márquez Trapero is a 2024 Bush Fellow and co-founder and CEO of LatinoLEAD, a nonprofit organization that is working to advance Latino Minnesotans into positions of leadership through advocacy and professional development. 
• Michelle Goose is a 2024 Bush Fellow and an Ojibwe language instructor and faculty program coordinator for American Indian Studies at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet. She is also a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.
• Vayong Moua is a 2020 Bush Fellow. He is the director of racial and health equity and advocacy at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.  

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

The Minnesota-based family foundation grants approximately $100 million dollars every year and is focused on advancing climate action and racial equity — two deeply connected issues.

Find out what’s driving the foundation’s priorities, how Allen shifted from working on education policy to climate change and racial justice and how she aims to center people who are farthest from power.

She was inspired to do good in the world by a father who emigrated from Panama to become a college math professor and by her mother who was one of the real-life “Hidden Figures,” the Black women mathematicians who helped develop the U.S. space program.

After studying ecology and biology at Princeton, she worked for a nature conservation nonprofit organization and as a U.S. Senate staffer. Then, she decided she could have a bigger impact from within corporate America.

Today, she’s CEO of The Honest Company, which sells baby, skincare, bath and beauty products. And she’s one of the first Afro-Latina chief executives of a publicly traded company. Before that, she was a vice president at Amazon and spent more than two decades at General Mills, rising to division president of its natural and organic business.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Vernón about the experiences that shaped her and what it means to be a corporate leader while staying true to yourself.

Guest:

• Carla Vernón has been CEO of The Honest Company since January 2023. She previously spent two years as the vice president of Consumables Categories at Amazon. Before that, she spent more than two decades in various leadership positions at General Mills, most recently serving as the operating unit president of the Natural and Organic Division. She holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton and a master’s degree in business administration from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.

This show was previously scheduled to air in July, but was rescheduled due to breaking news.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

Bernadette Anderson Way now runs along Russell Avenue North between Plymouth Avenue North and 12th Avenue North.

Anderson, who died in 2003, lived in the 1200 block of Russell.

The block was blocked off from traffic on Friday for an event celebrating her life with family friends, and other community leaders.

Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion said she also helped many local musicians when they were younger.

“Her contributions are those that you enjoy right now today, when you think in terms of the greatness of Prince or even Andre Cymone, or the greatness of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis,” Champion said. “When you think of that Minneapolis music sound, she was like the grandmother right, or the mother.”

Anderson is musician Andre Cymone’s mother, and Prince lived in her Russell Avenue house for a period of time in the mid-1970s.

Champion said she is also the mother of the civil rights movement in Minneapolis. 

The civil rights leaders that often were covered by the mainstream outlets were men: Ron Edwards, Mahmoud El-Kati and Spike Moss. Anderson was well known in the community, but she didn’t get much news coverage.

Moss spoke to the gathered crowd.

“I know no soldier like Bernadette from day one,” he said. Anderson thought those in the fight were out of their minds and needed to stop, Moss recalled.

“I said to Bernadette, ‘Come on one march, one time, and maybe that’ll change your mind. And when Bernadette stood up that first time, she never stopped fighting for you,” he said.

Her activism was profound.

“The door opened for Black teachers, Black principals, all the different things we fought for, to drive that bus, to be police, to be firefighters, everything you could think of fighting over working on the freeway,” Moss told the crowd.

“This woman stood up for you, step by step, every time we turned around, she'd be one of the first to come and stand up on behalf of our people.”

Moss himself was honored in July when the city renamed part of Plymouth Avenue north, Spike Moss Way. During his speech when he was honored, he said Anderson had also mentored him. 

Anderson’s family gathered for the block part and each relative stood out. They each wore “Queen Bernie” t-shirts featuring a black-and-white picture of the honoree.

Bernadette Anderson’s third born — Patricia Anderson — said her mother empowered women in the community through her mother’s YWCA programs.

“My mother embodied the epitome of what the village mentality is, should be, and I pray continues on. We need more of the Bernadette Andersons,” she said.

Anderson’s grandson Cymon Payne and his wife Chandra were also at the celebration.

Chandra remembers the soul food every Sunday at her house. Everybody was fed.

“I’m asking my husband, shouldn’t we give her some money? No, she had it. She had it all,” Chandra Payne said. Anderson was “just showing love with her cooking. She could throw down.”

The two papers merged about 25 years ago. And last month, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder celebrated its 90th anniversary. It’s the longest running Black-owned and family-owned news outlet in the state.

Guests:

Tracey Williams-Dillard is publisher and CEO of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, founded in 1934 by Cecil E. Newman. She is the granddaughter of the late Cecil and Launa Newman.

Al Brown is the assignment editor at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Cornbread is now 97 years old, which means he’s been playing his beloved piano at gigs all over the Twin Cities for more than 70 years.

Music journalist Andrea Swensson recently released a book chronicling Cornbread’s remarkable life. “Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs and Salvation of Cornbread Harris” recounts Minnesota music history — like what happened when Cornbread’s band, the Augie Garcia Quintet, opened for Elvis, and how Cornbread’s musical stylings helped create the Minneapolis Sound.

But it also touches on a more personal story: Cornbread’s reunification with son and music producer Jimmy Jam after decades years of estrangement, which was largely made possible by Swensson as she researched her book and became a fixture in Cornbread’s life.

Don’t miss the fun, the stories and the music from this North Star Journey Live conversation, recorded Monday, Aug. 26, with Cornbread, Swensson and special guests at the Minnesota State Fair. And if you want more Cornbread, check out the “Anthology“ of essential Cornbread hits that Swensson put together, in both digital and vinyl form.

Guests:

• Cornbread Harris is a legendary musician, whose career spans more than 70 years in the Minnesota music scene. He still plays a weekly gig at Palmer’s Bar each Sunday night.
• Andrea Swensson is a journalist with a passion for music. Formerly a DJ at MPR’s The Current, these days Swensson hosts the official Prince podcast, does deep dives into the Minneapolis music scene and writes books. Her latest is “Deeper Blues: The Life, Songs and Salvation of Cornbread Harris.”
• Jayanthi Rajasa is multidisciplinary artist and archivist songstress in the Twin Cities.

North Star Journey Live (formerly known as In Focus) is a live event series and reoccurring topic on MPR News with Angela Davis centered around what Minnesota’s diverse communities need to thrive.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation

Behind them in a classroom at the Dunwoody College of Technology, large windows frame the Minneapolis cityscape — a sampling of building types through the ages, from the early 20th-century Basilica of St. Mary to the IDS skyscraper built in 1973.

“It’s my first time doing something in architectural-related study,” says Dominic Stewart of Burnsville.

“I’m excited to get that hands-on experience,” says Carsyn Johnson of Elk River.

They are here for the weeklong Indigenous Design Camp, the first camp of its kind in the U.S. The goal is to teach Indigenous teens about career options in architecture and design, a field where Native Americans are underrepresented.

Indigenous architects

Two of the founders of the new camp — architects and friends Mike Laverdure and Sam Olbekson — estimate that there are only about 30 Indigenous architects total in the U.S.

Laverdure is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and a partner at DSGW Architects as well as the president of First American Design Studio. Olbekson is a citizen of the White Earth Nation and founded the firm Full Circle Indigenous Planning and Design. They are the only two practicing Native architects in Minnesota. 

“The need for creating a space for kids to become designers, Indigenous designers, is great,” says Laverdure, who has wanted to start this camp for years. “Representation matters for these kids to see us as architects and designers. A lot of us who grew up in reservations or urban Indigenous communities only see a few career types.”

“This is the first time anyone has ever done this in the U.S.,” Olbekson adds. “It’s the right time for Indigenous communities, tribal communities, nonprofits, to really take a self-initiated approach to design, to hire architects to understand the value and the importance of designing and operating a project from an Indigenous lens.”

The campers

The campers are Indigenous teens ages 14-18 from the metro area. They will be constructing architectural models all week. Campers will also tour the University of Minnesota School of Architecture and local architecture firms.

They will also visit the American Indian Cultural Corridor on Franklin Avenue, where both Laverdure and Olbekson have designed buildings, as well as another Olbekson project, the recently completed expansion of the Red Lake Nation College downtown.

Olbekson says, “to actually go and see [the buildings] and see the impact that they’re having on the community, not only as individual buildings, but how they’re forming an identity for the American Indian Cultural Corridor and how these projects are supporting education, economic development, community building, cultural development, and youth and elder spaces, I think is going to be a great way for them to understand the impact of what design, urban design, interiors, landscape, can have on creating a healthy, Indigenous urban community.”

The camp began Monday morning with a welcome from Laverdure, Olbekson and University of Minnesota assistant architecture professor Jessica Garcia Fritz, a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Fritz also helped start the camp.

“If you think about your home reservations, or your urban communities, you think about all the buildings that are there,” Laverdure told the class, “Ninety-nine percent of all the buildings built that Indigenous people sit in are not designed by indigenous designers. They’re designed by other people who don’t have a stake in the game, who don’t really have a connection to that community.”

Laverdure continued, “When you have Indigenous designers be a part of that process, what happens is that those buildings have a special kind of connection to the communities and that makes those buildings extra special.”

Indigenous architecture, past and present

Next came a presentation on Indigenous architecture, past and present, by Tammy Eagle Bull, who did a video call from her home in Arizona. Eagle Bull is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. In 1994, she became the first Native woman in the U.S. to become a licensed architect. 

Camper Carsyn Johnson says this fact caught her by surprise.

“I was surprised about it, though, a little disappointed, because I feel like as a society, we should move further ahead a little bit,” Johnson says.

For the remainder of the first day of camp, Jessica Garcia Fritz guided campers in a design exercise to create their sleep space or bedroom.

First, they taped 10 by 10-foot squares on the classroom floor to help them visualize the scale. Then they sketched blueprints of their bedrooms. Finally, they cut and scored cardboard to build shoebox-size models. As the week progresses, the campers will join their models to create collective spaces as well as design larger communal spaces as a group.

“One of the things Tammy Eagle Bull had said this morning was, ‘I wish that a camp like this had existed when I was young.’ I think that’s the sentiment among many of us,” Garcia Fritz says.

”Part of the motivation behind this is to be able to show Indigenous high school students what those pathways are, to bring them into the environments so that we can have more representation. I think that many of us can maybe speak to the fact that we may have been the only Indigenous people in our classes at the time. Our instructors probably didn’t know how to work within what we may have wanted to do. I think that’s changing.”

Garcia Fritz, Laverdure and Olbekson hope this camp is the first of many. One of the goals is to expand the camp to greater Minnesota.

“Right now, it’s in the Twin Cities, but there are so many Indigenous communities regionally, up north and even in other states that could really benefit from this,” Olbekson says. 

“Long term, we want to create a space where five to 10 years from now, we’ve got 10, 15, 20, Native designers that are out there and being a force for change,” Laverdure says.

The camp ends Friday when campers present their final architectural models.

When Plymouth Avenue erupted in turmoil in the late 1960s, Moss was there to decry the racial oppression and discrimination that sparked the flames. Moss was also heavily involved with The Way and an alternative school called The City Inc., two organizations on and near Plymouth Avenue that helped improve the lives of African Americans. 

On Tuesday, Moss was back on the avenue in front of 400 people on hand to watch the city honor Moss by renaming a stretch of Plymouth Avenue as “Spike Moss Way.” 

“I need to publicly say thank you for everybody that stood up with me; everybody that marched with me; everybody that’s fought side by side with me,” Moss said. 

Speaking from a covered stage located not far from where The Way once stood — a site which is now the 4th Precinct Police Station — Moss singled out a few people who helped him throughout his life. 

He gave credit to his cousin, Richard Harris, who traveled from Davenport, Iowa, for being “the first person that directed me as a little boy.”

Harris and Moss spent summers together in Missouri when they were youngsters.

“No matter what I did, he told me what was right and what was wrong. He never let me make any mistakes,” Moss said.

When Moss moved to Minneapolis, he would find new mentors like boxing coach Ray Wells. He told Moss’ mother he would train and take care of her son.

Wells didn’t just train Moss to box, he taught Moss valuable life lessons, namely, no smoking, no drinking, no drugs. 

“I have lived that life that Ray Wells gave me,” Moss said of his days protesting on the streets. “When I started marching, he would always take the right side of my shoulder to protect me, and he would physically protect me. And he did that my whole life.”

Artists, activists, elected officials and close friends took to the stage to honor Moss.

Most highlighted how Moss served the community and inspired its members. That list included northsiders such as Terry Lewis who would go on to co-found Flyte Tyme Studios with Jimmy “Jam” Harris; musician Andre Cymone whose mother Bernadette Anderson not only took in Cymone’s bandmate Prince but also mentored Moss and other young activists.  

“I’m telling you that Spike Moss was the leader, the valiant, brave brother that inspired me and a whole generation,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Your Minnesota president of the Minnesota Senate is Bobby Joe Champion, a disciple of Spike Moss. Your Minnesota attorney general grew up listening to Spike Moss.”

While Moss spoke out against discriminatory police practices, Ellison said, Moss also criticized community violence.

“So Spike has always been ready to call everybody to account, the government, our own community, everybody,” he said. “He’s calling us all to be better all the time.”

Ellison thanked Moss for everything he’s done for the community.

“This whole community owes you a debt of gratitude. This nation owes you a debt. This world owes you a debt,” he said.

The attorney general had one last anecdote. 

“I was in London, England, talking about the George Floyd case, and somebody asked me, ‘How is Spike Moss doing?’” Ellison said. “That’s a true story.” 

The city doesn’t usually name streets after people who are still alive — but the city council made an exception and approved the application submitted by Council Member Jeremiah Ellison.

“We were able to get it done for Spike now so he can see it,” said Moss’ close friend Tyrone Terrill, president of the African American Leadership Council. 

Terrill said efforts by Sen. Bobby Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, Council Member Ellison, Mayor Jacob Frey and others made the street renaming possible.

Spike Moss Way is located between Newton and Lyndale Avenues along Plymouth Avenue.

Moss began his advocacy for civil rights in the 1960s and over the decades has focused on violence prevention, including brokering a truce between gang members in the 1990s. He’s pushed successfully for Metro Transit to hire Black bus drivers. 

“This is a bigger victory for the community than [it] is for Spike,” Terrill said. “What it does say to our young people is we should respect Plymouth Avenue even more now.”

The community’s youth need to understand Moss’ personal sacrifice to serve all people, he said.

“When you have these jobs as community leaders, community activists, as nationalists, it takes away from your family, from your wife, from your children,” Terrill said. He credited Moss’ wife Sharron.

“Many times you should be home, but when somebody calls and says, ‘I need help,’ then you go.” 

Moss told the people gathered Tuesday that love was his guide.

“To this community, everything I did for you was love. I love my people. I often say in my speeches, ‘I love my people.’ I love you when you’re up, I love you when you’re down,” Moss said. “I might not love all that you do, but you can damn sure bet I love my people.” 

“All I’ll say is uffdah,” Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said.

“A lot of the crop in Minnesota didn’t get planted [yet]. We’ll get some of the final acreage here later this month … this week is going to kind of put a nail in the coffin for some of the farmers who are trying to get in,” Petersen said Thursday.

Marcus Carpenter, founder of Route 1 — an organization working for greater racial and ethnic diversity in farming — agrees.

“It has been a tough season,” Carpenter said. Among the several hundred farmers involved in Route 1, many have had their crops washed out.

“When you have farmers of color who have very little acreage to deal with in the beginning, having an entire washout can be detrimental for them, both economically … and from a community perspective.”

Overall, the median Minnesota net income for farms was $44,719 last year — down more than 76 percent from 2022, according to data and analysis from the farm financial database FINBIN and the University of Minnesota Extension.

Carpenter said farmers of color in the state make somewhere around $20,000 annually and are challenged by limited access to finances and market entry.

Delayed planting also contributes to food access and availability and health equity, according to Carpenter.

One in four Black Minnesota households experiences food insecurity, according to Second Harvest Heartland — that’s compared to 4 percent of white households.

“Farmers of color most of the time are not only growing for their families, but they’re growing for their communities,” he said.

Farming and climate change

Addressing climate change, Petersen says, has been a top priority for the Walz administration.

“As we see these extremes … really, a lot of it comes down to soil and so we’ve been working very hard on soil health,” he said.

To support cover crop usage, conservative tillage equipment and other methods of cultivating and maintaining rich soil, the state Legislature has prioritized funding loans for farmers.

State grants, Petersen says, are popular too. The state also partners with the USDA for outreach.

“We see farmers adapting quickly to soil health practices and also showing good profitability on those,” Petersen explained. “There’s a lot going on, but it almost has to” with a changing landscape.

Route 1, too, prioritizes education, especially around soil health, Carpenter said. The organization also supports green infrastructure like rainwater collection and cover cropping and is actively finding ways to feed communities despite climate change.

“As we’re dealing with the elements outside, we’re also teaching practices of sustainable farming on the inside that can have an impact on these emerging farming communities, Black and brown communities,” he said.

Earlier this year, Route 1 acquired the first Black-owned freight farm in Minnesota, KARE 11 reported. The modular, hydroponic farm inside a shipping container can grow more than 200 pounds of produce per week, year-round.

Learn more about Route 1’s community-supported agriculture, hyperlocal produce production, emerging farmer programs and more on their website, route1mn.org.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke to the executive director of V3 Sports, Malik Rucker, and Ayanna Rakhu, who planned all of the swimming programming.

But in other ways, Hawkins’ experience was unique. His family was Black in a mostly white suburb, part of the “integration generation.” He found community both with his peers at North St. Paul High School and at the barbershop he frequented in the Rondo area of St. Paul. And his parents, especially his dad, could be volatile, wrestling with the effects of intergenerational trauma that had roots in Alabama, where Hawkins’ father grew up.

Reconciling those two truths led Hawkins to dive into his family’s history. The result is his new podcast, What Happened in Alabama? It’s an honest look at what 400 years of unaddressed trauma can do in individuals, in families, in communities. It’s also a nuanced narrative of Hawkins’ own life. How could the father he idolized also be violent? How could he break the cycle of trauma so that future generations would know their history and be able to heal from it?

Hawkins lives in New York now, but he came home to Minnesota in May to talk with MPR News host Angela Davis about his journey for a special North Star Journey Live. On stage at the Minnesota History Center the night of May 22, before a crowd of several hundred people, they discussed the significance of exploring family history and intergenerational trauma, highlighting the lasting impact of Jim Crow on America and the power of truth-telling as we seek to understand our past and break cycles of trauma.

You can listen to What Happened in Alabama? wherever you get your podcasts. Hawkins is also the author of the forthcoming book, “Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free,” which is available for preorder now.

It marks the date on June 19, 1865, when enslaved Black Americans in Texas finally learned of their freedom, after the Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation.  

The day became a federal holiday in 2021, but Americans are still grappling with how to commemorate it.  

MPR News guest host Nina Moini talks with Kevin Lindsey, CEO of the Minnesota Humanities Center, about what the nonprofit organization is doing to mark Juneteenth and how better understanding the past can help address injustice today.  

Guests:  

• Kevin Lindsey was hired as CEO of the Minnesota Humanities Center in 2019 after serving almost eight years as commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. He’s also worked as an attorney in private practice and in the Ramsey County attorney’s office. 

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

Twin Cities theater company Teatro del Pueblo’s adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” goes beyond changing the location and period.  

Called “Romeo and Juliet: Love in a Time of Hate,” the show has been rewritten to include characters speaking Spanish and performing spoken word poetry — and centers Latin American culture.  

“We thought that, you know, the main thing is to take Shakespeare, tweak it, but maintain that beautiful language,” said co-director and co-adapter Alberto Justiniano.

The new play adds elements to Shakespeare’s tragedy, including examining the treatment of the working class and the range of ideologies within Latino communities.  

“One of the things that I was hoping to bring is that connection between the Spanish and the Shakespeare,” said co-director Harry Waters Jr.  

The play began with a treatment by Justiniano and was then workshopped over a number of years through a method called “devised theater,” where a core group of artists gave their input and changes.

That spirit of collaboration has extended into the rehearsal room.  

“I’ve always opened up that opportunity for actors to give us an unfettered, and, you know, uncensored reactions and their ideas. And then we sort of flesh them out and see which ones can actually work to help the story,” Waters added.  

The play still features famous moments, including Romeo and Juliet’s chance encounter at a party hosted by Juliet’s parents and the couple’s secret wedding. This production also includes new moments and characters, including a fast-talking narrator named Santi, inspired by southern California cholo culture.  

“The language is a combination from the old Bard ... But there’s also free verse, and then there’s spoken word,” Justiniano said.  

The idea of “Love in a Time of Hate” came about nearly six years ago, when Teatro Del Pueblo discovered there was interest in Shakespeare among Latino actors in the Twin Cities. At first, Justiniano was perplexed.  

“But it got me thinking, what if we were to take Shakespeare and make it our own?”

The show is a collaborative effort with the Minnesota Chapter of the Bach Society, which will provide music for the show. Marco Real-d’Arbellas is the associate artistic director of the Society and has overseen finding compositions for the play.

“It’s kind of going through the centuries and just picking up and finding these connections with London, Italy and Latin America,” said Real-d’Arbellas.

Taking music that spans centuries and styles, including opera and Latin American folk music, Real-d’Arbellas is mixing both old and new music to engage audiences.

“It’s just a real nice mashup of music and languages, which I think would really help the action of the play.” 

The show’s setting is the future, with dystopian themes, in the city of Nogales on the border of the United States and Mexico. It is ambiguous as to which country it takes place in, however. The cast features a supermajority of Latinos.

“There’s a couple of people that this is their first time being on stage,” Waters said of the cast.

“What I was truly struck with at the first read-through, is that there was a roomful of brown people in the Twin Cities, who had never all worked together before.”

Abigail Chagolla plays Juliet’s nurse in “Romeo and Juliet: Love in a Time of Hate.” The show is an opportunity for her to play a character who, like herself, is Latina.  

“I’ve only had, like, three other opportunities where I actually got to play a Latina woman,” Chagolla said. She adds that being in a show that is so heavily Latino has been beautiful — both because of the shared experiences of the cast, but also the differences.

“Latinidad, it’s a spectrum, right? Like, not everybody comes from the same sort of background. And so it’s not a monolith. And being able to get different types of experiences in the room and then have those experiences used in the show is very beautiful.” 

Rosalia Iowanes and Justleen Ponun, two teens employed by the program, have set up the volleyball net in the gym. Some students play barefoot. The sport is immensely popular in the Micronesian community.

Justleen explained the volleyball connection.

“Most of us would say it’s our favorite sport because some of us grew up playing volleyball and yeah, volleyball is also like a favorite sport back in Micronesia,” she said. 

Justleen’s family moved from Micronesia to Milan. However, Justleen was born in Willmar, 43 miles east of town.

Her family is not alone. 

From Micronesia to Milan

Families have been relocating from the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean to this southwest Minnesota town for more than 20 years. The small but steady stream of Micronesians arriving in this rural town, founded in the 19th Century by Norwegian immigrants, is a big change, explained program director Ann Thompson.

The Micronesian community has boosted Milan’s once declining population and brought a new energy to town, she added. Their presence has boosted the economy and infused youth into an aging populace. 

“Milan went from the oldest community in Chippewa County, oldest average age … a little bit of diversity, but not much to being the youngest community, growing population and really diverse,” Thompson said. “It’s a big change.”

Thompson said longtime residents have realized over time there are benefits to having an immigrant community in Milan: More kids in schools and more kids to clothe and feed.

According to data from the 2020 U.S. Census, Micronesians made up 57 percent of Milan’s population of 428. The town’s numbers peaked in the 1940 census with 624 residents and trended downward until it hit its lowest number, 326, in 2000.

Between 2000 and 2020, Milan’s population grew by 31 percent, according to census data. 

Micronesia is a region of about 2,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The region also includes the island nation of the Federated States of Micronesia, which is nearly 7,000 miles away from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Chuuk is one of the country’s four states. Romanum is an island in Chuuk. And almost every person of Micronesian descent living in Milan, is from Romanum.

How did Micronesians know about Milan, whose motto is “Norwegian Capital U.S.A.”? The connection begins with former Milan area resident, Erik Thompson, who served in the Peace Corps in Chuuk.  

Thompson continued his Micronesian friendships after he left service. One of them visited Thompson in Milan. Thompson’s friend later decided to settle in Milan with his family. 

Milan is roughly the same size as their island, Romanum, Erik Thompson told MPR News in 2010.

“He thought he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the size of the place, and that I could speak his language so I could help him make a transition,” Thompson said of one of his friends from Romanum. “But he said he also wanted to bring his family over so kids could get a good education.”

Afterward, others from Romanum moved to Milan as well.

An agreement between Micronesia and the U.S. allows for citizens from both countries to work and travel freely between the two nations. 

Community cohesion can be noisy

Ann Thompson says there were challenges for residents and newcomers.

For example, Micronesians play music in the town park which might be too loud for some residents. They, in turn, may decline to directly ask for the music to be lowered, Thompson said, because of what she calls ‘Minnesota passive aggressiveness.’

“There’s angst,” Thompson said.

Erika Raymond, the co-owner of E and J Micronesian Mart on Main street, says the park is packed every day with Micronesians.

She says community members like to meet up at the park to play volleyball or basketball and they bring speakers to play music.

“Some people just want peace and quiet but we’re there every day making noises, but that’s just how we are,” Raymond said. “We’re a community that loves to hang around everyday. We’re just very family-oriented. Not all of us are related. But if you’re from somewhere and you come in and look, you’d think we’re all related.”

‘That’s what I love about Milan’

In 2007, Ann Thompson said a group of concerned citizens formed a nonprofit called the Greater Milan Initiative. The nonprofit paid $1 to the Lac qui Parle Valley School District for the former K-12 school which had been closed since 1990.

The initiative manages the building and offers programs such as the kids club and a 4-H club. The WIC Clinic and other social service providers come by regularly to serve residents. The school district provides the funding for the kids club, Thompson said.  

“They see this as a kind of an extra support group for the kids, kind of reinforcing what they’re learning at school,” she said. “They have choices. They can play in the gym, or they can do art. We’ve been doing a lot of art exploration. We’re working on this movie. That was their idea.”

Nelisa Raymond is from Romanum. She’s married and has a daughter in high school. She also works for the Appleton Milan Elementary School. Raymond remembers the day she arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

“I came in April. And it’s still cold over here. But there’s no snow on the ground. So I open the door from the airport. It’s like, whoa, it’s cold and it’s sunny,” Raymond said. “So I went back inside and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’”

Erika Raymond said she is torn about returning to Romanum. She wants to return, but she has four children, ages 8 to 15, to think about.

“As I’m getting older and older, I prefer back home. But then I have my kids so that’s why we’re here. I want them to get a good education,” she said. Raymond hopes they finish college and secure good jobs.

Still, there’s something about Milan.

“It’s a peaceful town. It’s not crowded. And you feel safe with your kids roaming around town, and we feel safe,” Raymond said. “Yeah, that’s what I love about Milan.”

Correction (May 29, 2024): An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated who paid Lac qui Parle Valley School District for the school building. The story has been updated.

A few dozen folks throw little bean bags into holes in rows of glossy wooden boards. They chat and fist bump and update scores on digital tablets. Kids occasionally run weaving through the boards, sometimes squirreling away bags from their parents.

This definitely has strengthened our community.

Dia Lee

“Picturing my life without cornhole before this,” Dia Lee says, “I didn’t know any of these people. I didn’t know anybody from this club or in this Hmong cornhole community, so this definitely has strengthened our community.”

Lee started playing two years ago and is now one of the top players in the state, along with her husband, Houa Xiong. 

“You always need somewhere to feel like, ‘Oh, this is my house.’ Where you’re comfortable and where you’re used to playing every week,” Houa Xiong says of the Hmong Cornhole club. “I think it’s important because you want to belong somewhere.” 

A handful of cornhole players in the Twin Cities Hmong community — Alan Lee, Kou Xiong, Sue Moua, Ger Vang and Toua Xiong — started the club on Labor Day in 2021. With about 120 players, Hmong Cornhole is now the largest cornhole club in the state.

Many of the club members clock at least 15 hours a week playing cornhole. Hmong Cornhole hosts weekly events, fundraisers and raffles, both at the Minneapolis armory, as well as the one in St. Paul near the capitol.

Sometimes they play at Unison, a Southeast Asian restaurant in Maplewood. On Memorial Day, they will host a tournament at Kingston Park in Cottage Grove for the 4th annual Hmong Memorial Sports Fest and Street Fair. Another tournament will be June 29-30 at the Hmong International Freedom Festival — what Alan Lee calls the “Hmong Olympics.”

“It’s crazy how it came to be,” co-founder Toua Xiong says. “We never thought that we would take it this far.”

The reach goes beyond Minnesota, too.

“It really started off as just a little tiny gathering of individuals that suddenly sparked a nationwide growth in the Hmong community,” says co-founder Alan Lee.

Alan Lee says after they founded their club, other Hmong Cornhole groups popped up in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Oklahoma, California and the Carolinas — all states with large Hmong populations.

“For the community to boom like that in such a short time is phenomenal,” Alan Lee says.

Alan Lee says they started a club so the Hmong community could compete on an even playing field as cornhole is a predominantly white sport. 

“Genetically speaking, we’re not as tall, we’re not as fast, we’re not built,” Alan Lee says.

Dia Lee and Houa Xiong say the Hmong community is very competitive. Many Hmong Cornhole players say the sport took off in the Hmong community because it’s a mental game first: Success relies on technique, strategy and repetition.

Alan Lee says they soon learned that it was already an even playing field.

“When we actually started playing, we go, ‘Nah, it’s not a race thing, it’s not a genetic thing,’” Alan Lee recalls. “Anybody could play, anybody could win in this game. All because you have longer arms, that doesn’t make you a better player, all because you’re taller, that doesn’t make you a better player.”

So Hmong Cornhole opened up and welcomed everyone to play, no matter their background. And players from all over the state flocked in, wanting to play with them.

“The Hmong community felt empowered by everybody else that has been playing for so long, that all of a sudden it just spread,” Alan Lee says.

Jim Bruce, who is not Hmong, is one of the folks who wanted to play with the Hmong Cornhole club. Alan Lee calls him the “OG of Cornhole.” Bruce has been playing for 14 years.

“They have raised the bar exponentially for all of us that have been playing for a long time,” Bruce says. “The majority of their high-level players are in the top 5 percent of all the players in Minnesota now.” 

Bruce says it’s been a boon to the community.

“I feel like I’ve known them for years,” Bruce says. ”We just have a common bond of, you know, cornhole.”

At the armories, Bruce says there are always kids running around, spouses checking in, and support for community businesses whether through fundraisers or popups.

We just have a common bond of, you know, cornhole.

Jim Bruce

Alan Lee says they play at the armories because he’s a Chief Warrant Officer 2 with the National Guard, where he’s served for 20 years, so he was able to secure the space. Lee was first introduced to cornhole by a roommate in 2007 during his first deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“We played overseas so much that when I got home, I actually went and bought a $40 set from Target,” Alan Lee says.

“The Minneapolis armory has a lot of history with the Hmong community as well,” he adds. In the Nineties, he says this was the site where many Hmong Minnesotans, including himself, came to pick up gifts from Toys for Tots. 

“A lot of the members from Hmong Cornhole really love the fact that this has come full circle of like childhood, hanging out here, now to actually throwing bags here,” he says.

At the St. Paul armory on Friday night, May 10, the club is hosting a fundraiser for a member of the local Hmong community, Dani Adele, who is competing for the 2024 Miss Minnesota USA. The vendor Yaoson is selling what they describe as a “Hmong salsa” with whole pickles in it.

Dia Lee, who is now one of the club administrators, is throwing bags. Cornhole, she says, has strengthened ties between the Hmong community and greater community, too.

“It expands your horizon, definitely,” she says. “I would have never imagined myself going to so many bars or VFWs, or just so many cornhole tournaments that I would have never been to and interacting with so many people and creating new relationships.”

Dia Lee encourages everyone to come play with them. 

“You don’t have to be Hmong to be part of our family, we’re accepting of everybody,” Dia Lee says.” The Minnesota cornhole community in general — It’s a great community.”

Correction (May 24, 2024): An earlier version of the story had an incorrect date. The article has been updated.

In a new podcast, Hawkins uncovers his family history, his father’s painful nightmares and the long-lasting impacts of Jim Crow far beyond segregation.

What Happened in Alabama? is a long-form limited series podcast about the intergenerational ripple effect of slavery and his efforts to heal.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Hawkins about the podcast, out May 15.

And join MPR News for a free event Wednesday, May 22 as Angela Davis and Lee Hawkins explore the topic of intergenerational trauma in the Black community at a North Star Journey Live event: Ending cycles of trauma in Black America. Get your tickets at MPRevents.org.

Cultures around the world celebrate this special time in different ways. This Mother’s Day, we explore how three cultures focus on the mother during postpartum recovery and how their foods reflect wisdom and lessons passed down the generations.

Mexico: ‘I feel like my grandmother is with me again’

On an early March afternoon, chef Alexia Pettersen cooked in her client Allison Alexander’s kitchen in St. Paul. Pettersen is also a doula. In that double role, she prepared dozens of freezer meals ahead of the due date for Alexander’s second child.  

The two women cooked traditional recipes Pettersen and her mother learned from her abuela, her grandmother. She remembers when she was a girl when her abuela would visit their south metro home from Mexico. 

“And every day she was in the kitchen making food, and my mother learned from my grandmother so she can make these foods for my dad and our family,” Pettersen said. “I learned a lot of that from her, but it was also learning a lot from my grandmother and she passed away just before we got married and had kids. So all of this just reminds me of her in so many beautiful ways.”

Now she passes on that legacy to a new generation of mothers.

“I think there is a little bit of that grandmother or mother’s touch that we all have in one way or the other that makes food just taste better,” Pettersen said. “So even if we try to recreate some of these recipes, it may not always taste the same because it was created with love by someone else.”

Pettersen started her business Hola Postpartum in 2017. She makes meals in her clients homes to make sure they’re well-nourished, because as she put it “moms are really good at caring for other people before they start caring for themselves.”

On this day, Alexander learned about staples of Mexican cuisine she had never tried.  She watched as Petterson chopped nopales or cactus pads for risotto. The doula said they are good for rehydration and essential for post-pregnancy.  

This time, Alexander feels more prepared for postpartum recovery with Pettersen as her doula. She said people underestimate the importance of good nutrition.

“Everything from going to the bathroom, to sleeping, to your mood, to emotions… even when you think of postpartum depression,” she said. “I think that nutrition plays a huge role and how we’re taking care of our bodies, and that’s why I think what Alexia is doing is so amazing to support moms at every stage of the process.”

Just weeks after this freezer-filling session, Alexander welcomed her newborn into the family on March 27. 

Pettersen said her own postpartum recovery left her feeling isolated.  In Mexico, usually the women in her family would come and support the new mother during labor and after. But she was in Minnesota and most of her family still lived in Mexico, making travel plans difficult and expensive. 

However she remained connected to her roots, and her abuela, through the food she ate.

She remembers eating caldos, broths with floating bones. Also dishes of chiles and vegetables, barley horchata, sopas, albondigas, tacos and more. She said they helped her heal physically and emotionally. 

“It was like this continuation of this generation that feels sometimes a little lost being kind of in Minnesota, and not having all my family around me all the time,” she said. “In that way, and having that culture, and it’s a part of who I am that I miss often.”

Across the metro in Minnetonka, two other of Pettersen’s clients — Claire Lukens and Lukas Carlson — are adjusting to the arrival of their newborn son, Crosby. During Lukens’ first pregnancy, she suffered from postpartum anxiety and didn’t focus on her own wellbeing.  

Pettersen prepared meals to help Lukens recover her strength and keep her family fed. It is support Lukens doesn’t take lightly. 

“Being able to benefit from the generations, centuries of wisdom that has been passed down is really humbling and having a baby, there’s something very basic and primal that makes you feel connected to all the moms that have come before you and that’s really humbling as well,” she said. 

And cooking these meals and sharing them with her clients still powers Pettersen in other ways.  

“Every time I’m able to make these foods for my clients, I just feel like my grandmother is with me again,” she says. “This food is just as healing to me to make in their homes because it’s like this continuation of this family tradition.”

Hmong: ‘What do you want to pass onto them?’

In Inver Grove Heights, a hot pot bubbled on the stove in Juechee Yang’s kitchen. She started with cornish hens, seasoned with lime leaves, and lemongrass frozen from last summer’s harvest.  She was recovering after giving birth to her new daughter in February. 

While cooking the soup, Yang flipped through the pages of a book on Hmong herbs written by her aunt. 

“Ko taw os liab, which translates to ‘red-duck feet,’” she reads aloud. “And this one just kind of helps apparently to regain strength and endurance and works on menstrual and liver disorders, and increases appetite in people with no energy. It purifies the body to expel and have a clear full flow to gain uterus muscle strength.”

Before her daughter’s arrival, Yang prepared by freezing bags of chicken meat so she could cook them quickly in soup with steamed rice.

The Hmong tradition is to eat this same meal every day for the first month after giving birth. It’s known as the “chicken diet” to the Hmong people. It’s a holistic soup recipe made from herbs and fresh young chicken that’s been passed down through the generations.  It’s considered the epitome of home cooking and a comfort dish.

There’s no formal recipe or standard measurements, Yang said. Even though chicken soup with Hmong herbs is well-known within the Hmong community, it can be different even among families. Some prefer the taste of fresh chicken slaughtered and dressed that morning. Others like the convenience of going to the grocery store and picking up frozen cornish hens. 

Yang says there are more than 30 herbs used to add flavor to the soup. She prefers those known as white duck feet, red duck feet, Hmong shrub and, perhaps her favorite, Flick plant. 

“This one, I kind of eat,” she adds. “You can eat these or just let it soak into the liquid as well. But this one, I don’t mind eating. It’s really good.”

While she cooked, Yang said this knowledge of postpartum care is important to pass down to new generations of Hmong who are growing up in America. As a new mother she thinks about it often. 

“As my daughter, way way down the line when she gets older, when she does have children, I would want her to follow the same diet or purification” she said. “How to eat, what to eat and how to treat her body when she gives birth.” 

Eating the same food every day for a month can feel overbearing, Yang says. But, she learned it’s an unspoken love language that comes from a place of care. She now makes this soup often for her children. 

“Sharing your love,” she adds. “Sharing that love that you have for your family. Sharing your love that you have [and] going above and beyond. Not being stingy about your love and sharing it equally among everyone.”

Dakota and Ojibwe: ‘Letting them love up on me’

At a doula gathering at the Division of Indian Work in Minneapolis a big pot of whitefish bone broth which simmered on the stove for several hours. 

“After you filet your fish and freeze them, take those bones and make fish bone broth,” said Linda Black Elk of the North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems Educational Programming and Community Outreach. “It has tons of collagen, which is great for muscles and bones and great for like if you are pregnant and you have morning sickness. Bone broth should be a regular thing that you sip on because you’re getting hydrated and you’re getting all the nutrients you need.”

Black Elk stressed the importance of adding vinegar to the white fish to break down the bones and release that collagen. She added celery, onions, carrots, salt, pepper, bay leaves and garlic into the simmering soup. 

Luke Black Elk of the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation walked the doulas through his cooking process, telling them the broths they make are both healthy and sustainable as it teaches them to use all food.

“One of the things I like to do is to char the vegetables before I put them in. It just adds a little depth of flavor to everything. You can also char the bones a little bit if you want to. We didn't do that this time, but I've done that with beef bones before, buffalo bones,” Luke added, “And then you just boil it. But you can just use the scraps that people don't want, most people would just throw away, you can just throw them into a big pot and let them boil.”

Linda showed a jar of calendula flowers and other spices around. She said while some consider spices as just adding flavor, for Indigenous people they add medicinal properties. 

“Staghorn sumac has amazing medicine and is so good with fish because it has this citrusy, lemony flavor to it which pairs really well with fish, and the other thing we’re going to add is a little bit of calendula flower,” she says. “Let’s say you’re pregnant and you constantly have acid reflux, you can make bone broth specifically designed to help with your acid reflux and indigestion. This fish broth is going to be so beautiful because it’s going to coat your esophagus and your whole digestive system in medicine and it’s so calming.”

Ninde Doula Project Coordinator Valentina Zaragoza remembers eating these medicinal bone broths during her postpartum recovery. During her first pregnancy she struggled with depression and mastitis. 

“We’re connected to the land,” she says. “For each tribe, or each region, there’s specific plants that grow in each area that match our DNA. It’s intended for us that’s the perfect thing, that’s what it’s made for. That’s what it’s intended for. I think about bone broth, what we talked about today and the vegetables and how important it is for that collagen for women and during postpartum and how we feel, it’s very important.”

An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe in North Dakota, Zaragoza said family and community made all the difference in her motherhood journey, especially her most recent birth. She felt better prepared this time around. 

“Really, just kind of allowing people to love up on me,” she said. “There’s something in soup that’s so comforting. Also with teas, and just like liquids in general, like those kinds of things that I didn’t pay enough attention to early on, that was the difference this time around.”

Zaragoza supports doulas bringing back traditional concepts of interconnection and community. The Division of Indian Work hosts workshops so doulas can learn how to make medicinal bone broths and teas to better support their clients. 

“Feeding someone, that's a way that we took care of each other,” she said. “I think across all cultures you did those things. You had respect and honor for your elders, and your women, and your children. As doulas, we get to step into those roles, take care of other women, families, and these babies and nourish them through food, care or just letting them rest.”

And it shows expressions of love can come in so many forms, including as sopas, tacos, chicken soup and bone broth.

Take a closer look at how these dishes are made

• Chayote, chickpea and carrot guisado over farro
  
• Chicken Soup with Hmong Herbs
  
• White Fish Bone Broth
  

Chayote, chickpea and carrot guisado over farro

Chayote is a staple in Mexican cuisine. In this postpartum guisado (aka stew), chayotes are used for their antioxidants to reduce postpartum inflammation, high in vitamin C for wound healing and boosting immunity, high in fiber to aid the postpartum “go” and high in folate to support baby’s brain development as well as reduce the occurrence of postpartum mood disorders.

Paired with chickpeas, a well known lactogenic legume, and farro for protein, more fiber and folate, and lots of trace minerals to support the healing postpartum body. 

Ingredients

• Chopped onion
• Grated ginger
• Minced garlic
• Carrots
• Red bell peppers
• Chayote or “mirliton squash”
• Diced can tomatoes
• Smoked paprika
• Ground cumin
• Ancho chili powder
• Ground cinnamon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Lemon juice
• 2 14 oz cans of chickpeas
• Fresh chopped cilantro
• Farro
• Bone broth

Instructions

Cook the farro in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker by mixing the farro and broth. Set it to 7 minutes on high pressure, and allow it to naturally release for seven minutes before quick release. Store in container and in the fridge to be served with stew. 

In the same pressure cooker, combine onion, ginger, garlic, carrots, bell pepper, tomatoes, broth, spices and chickpeas. Stir and combine. Lock the lid in place and set it to 6 minutes of high pressure. Quick or natural release, then open when pressure subsides. 

Using the saute function, stir in the lemon juice and cilantro and add salt and pepper for taste. 

Recipe provided by Alexia Pettersen, chef, doula and owner of Hola Postpartum. Check out her website for more recipes here. 

Chicken Soup with Hmong Herbs

This holistic soup is something that many in the Hmong community hold near and dear to their heart as a comforting dish. Juechee Yang says depending on accessibility and convenience, some prefer to butcher chickens themselves, but she opts to go to the grocery store to pick up some cornish hens. 

There’s more than 30 types of herbs that can be used depending on the need, but Yang says she prefers three focusing on postpartum recovery. It’s a recipe many in the community grow up eating and learning from their elders. For about a month, this meal is what the new mother eats in recovery. 

Ingredients

• Chicken 
• Water
• Lemongrass
• Lime Leaves
• Salt/Black Pepper 
• Hmong Herbs—(For Postpartum, Yang uses “white duck feet” (ko taw os dawg), “red duck feet” ( ko taw os liab), Hmong shrub (suv ntism), and Flick plant (ntiv)
• Steamed rice

Instructions

First, boil the chicken in a pot of water. Then, scoop out impurities from the water once it starts boiling before reboiling the meat. Put in lemongrass and lime leaves. The chicken then boils for another 15 to 20 minutes on medium heat. Salt and black pepper are added to taste. 

Herbs are added and then stirred in on low heat for two to three minutes. Once finished, serve over steamed rice and enjoy. 

Recipe provided by Juechee Yang

White Fish Bone Broth

Linda and Luke Black Elk taught doulas at the Division of Indian Work bone broth recipes to help support their clients going through pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery. These medicinal soups are filled with protein, collagen, nutrients and hydrate the body. 

Luke said vinegar is one of the most important ingredients to add in the bone broth to help break down the collagen in the bones, which will help the skin, hair and nails. It’ll also help aid acid reflux and digestion. 

The dish has an abundance of collagen—which is good for muscles and bones—and if someone is pregnant and has morning sickness, Linda says bone broth “should be a regular thing to sip on” for hydration. 

“You’re getting all of the nutrients that you need,” she adds. 

Ingredients

• White fish (Any)
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Garlic
• Bay Leaves
• Mushroom Powder
• Apple Cider Vinegar 
• Salt/Black Pepper to taste
• Thyme
• Staghorn Sumac
• Calendula Flower

Instructions

Any white fish can be used. Sear the fish in a pan for five minutes with some olive oil. Add some water and other ingredients. Cover and simmer for several hours. Apple cider vinegar is very important to help break down the bones. 

There’s staghorn sumac that has a citrusy lemon flavor which pairs well with fish, and another with calendula flower which helps with acid reflux for pregnancy. If you want to add some extra flavor into the broth, charring the vegetables and the bones is also a good option. 

Recipe provided by Linda and Luke Black Elk 

The happy chatter of excited visitors filled a large rotunda inside the center as executive director Mary LaGarde walked through the crowd to greet guests at a soft opening held last Thursday. 

“It’s just really exciting for all of us — for community and just for everyone who has been involved in the project all along,” said LaGarde. 

The center’s renovation cost $32.5 million and is the result of a decade-long process to bring people back into the center. 

Located on East Franklin Avenue in south Minneapolis, the center provides social services to the urban Native community and has served as a central gathering place — a place for boxing matches, basketball tournaments, powwows, conferences and more. 

Over the years, the building showed signs of aging. Water dripping through the roof had become a steady stream inside the center the year before renovation. 

Through a series of community listening sessions, LaGarde and her staff acknowledged the center was underutilized and needed repairs, so they began planning the organization’s future.

At the soft opening, elected leaders, civic leaders and community supporters applauded Mary LaGarde for her work in securing the necessary funding for the renovation. The center’s board of directors and staff honored LaGarde with a star quilt for her dedication and leadership.  

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was among the elected leaders who honored LaGarde’s work. 

“This long-awaited grand opening sets the bar where it should rightfully and always be, because we are worthy and deserving of capital investments,” said Flanagan.  

The expansion added 20,000 square feet to the building, for a total of over 66,000 square feet. The organization also expects the building to support 10,000 visitors a year, according to a fact sheet released by a spokesperson for the center.

The heart of the community 

Architect Sam Olbekson said he was a 4-year-old kid living in the neighborhood when he attended the center’s first grand opening in 1975. 

Today, Olbekson serves as chair of the organization’s board of directors. As an architect working in collaboration with several partners, he helped to redesign the building to reflect the community’s cultural identity. 

Just before the community gathered in a conference room for the afternoon’s program, Olbekson stood inside the center’s large, drum-shaped rotunda. He spoke to MPR News about how the rotunda’s design speaks to the community’s cultural identity. 

“It’s intended purpose is to be the heart of the facility where people gather. It’s off the new main entry. Every public space from the building opens up from the space.” 

He said all the center’s public spaces, including the new café, the gymnasium and fitness center, the art gallery and meeting spaces and conference rooms are all visible from the rotunda. 

The center welcomes visitors through a main entrance through glass doors and a large bank of windows. The rotunda, along with other features, opens up to the street and, according to Olbekson, is intended to assert an urban Native American presence on Franklin Avenue. 

“We put this as a prominent form on the outside of the building too. This curved space has its expression on the outside,” said Olbekson. “So, people know the space is here, and it’s for them, and they’re welcome.”  

There is also an emphasis on activities for youth and elders. The gym, along with a new teen tech center, will be used by youth for recreation and learning. Overlooking the gym is a new dining area for elders who eat lunch together daily at the center. 

The refurbished gym is dedicated to the memory of the late Frances “Frannie” Fairbanks, the center’s former director. A plaque dedicated to Fairbanks is mounted on the wall. 

‘A real modern feel to it’ 

Charlie Stately is the owner of Woodland’s Crafts and has operated his arts business for more than four decades. He began working for the original owner of the shop at age 21. Stately has now moved into his new location in the renovated center, in a space double the size of his original shop. 

“I am thinking about if we got more space, more things we can offer, more artists we can include. The gallery is right there. We have a door to the gallery,” said Stately. “People will be saying, ‘I am looking forward for this or that.’ That’s how we operate, we listen to our customers.” 

Bruce Savage, one of Stately’s long-time vendors, dropped in as Stately’s new shop was reopening. 

Savage said the newly renovated building speaks to the importance of the center to the future of the community — both local and national. 

“For some reason, we fixate on old architectural structures within Indian Country, but this building has a real modern feel to it,” said Savage.  

The Minneapolis American Indian Center opens Wednesday to the entire community during the kickoff to Minnesota’s American Indian Month. 

“When I found Mizna, that’s when I unlocked this portal into this beautiful world of Arab Americans and of stories from countries that I longed to know deeper,” Awadallah said. 

The choreographer and dancer is half white, half Palestinian and grew up in South Dakota. 

She’s one of the many artists who say they’ve found a place of belonging and cultural connection through Mizna.

Kathy Haddad and Saleh Abudayyeh founded Mizna in the late ‘90s as a platform for contemporary literature, film, art and cultural production — highlighting the work of Arab, Southwest Asian and North African, or SWANA artists.

Its cornerstone event is the annual Arab Film Festival. 

As the organization marks its 25th anniversary in the Twin Cities, Haddad looks back on what motivated her to start it all. 

“I wanted to see stories about our experience, about my experience. I read, and was inspired by Asian American writers, African American writers and lots of writers. And I didn’t see any Arab American writers,” Haddad said.

Mizna Executive and Artistic director Lana Barkawi is Palestinian and joined the organization in 2011. She says the organization has played a critical role in connecting creatives to their cultural identity.

“The things that motivated the establishment of the organization still hold true today that we exist in a cultural context that marginalizes us and really, you know, boxes us into stereotyped ideas of who we are,” Barkawi said. 

Since its founding, Mizna, the Arabic word for ‘a desert cloud that holds the promise of rain,’ has featured more than a thousand Arab and SWANA writers in its literary journal both locally and internationally. 

One of those writers is Marlin M. Jenkins — a half Lebanese, half Black writer and high school English teacher who’s been published by Mizna.

“I think Mizna has really helped me find that I think there’s a lot of what I have learned about myself and about the world of what it means to be from Southwest Asia that wasn’t able to come from my immediate family. A lot of that comes through the arts, especially through writing and poetry,” Jenkins said. 

Awadallah says she was visiting family in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala in the occupied West Bank in October but had to leave and come back to the U.S. 

She says she feels her body is still in her ancestral land. A recent performance for Mizna helped connect her to the part of herself that’s still in Palestine. 

“My body started coming back and my voice started coming back and I was held by the Mizna community and so many others, the room was so full of people who are just ready, you know, to sob and to let the feelings be real together,” Awadallah said.

Barkawi says times have been exceptionally tough for the organization and its artists. 

“Well, you know, we’re marking our anniversary, and it feels difficult to be in a very celebratory mood because we’re witnessing a shattering and grotesque cruelty in Gaza,” she said.

Her hope is that she no longer feels the need to emphasize a heightened importance of the organization’s work. 

“We’re more than our traumas, we’re more than the portrayals of us,” Barkawi said.

She says the goal is to reclaim narratives and tell stories without always responding to tragedy, and to create an unburdened place for artists to create work on their own terms. 

She pushed past gender and racial barriers as a Black woman to become a research chemist in the 1960s, contributing to NASA’s moon landing. She went on to become a college dean, university president and a philanthropist and a vice president of a major corporation.  

Earlier this week, she was honored at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota with a reception and celebration of her recent biography, “Find a Trail or Blaze One.”  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Minnesota trailblazer Reatha Clark King about her life.

Guest:  

Reatha Clark King worked as a research chemist for the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. In the 1960s. She moved to Minnesota to become president of Metropolitan State University from 1977 to 1988. She was a vice president of General Mills Corporation and president and executive director of the General Mills Foundation until she retired in 2002. Her biography “Find a Trail or Blaze One” was published in 2021.  

Recently, I joined about a dozen people gathered for kimjang at a house in south Minneapolis. Unlike traditional kimjang, most of the participants were complete strangers, albeit with a shared interest in kimchi. 

We rolled up our sleeves, pulled on gloves and got to work on the 14 cabbages at our disposal. 

The process is labor-intensive: we tore each cabbage in half and salted them all. Then we set them aside to let the salt draw the water out of the leaves.  

Next, we chopped vegetables and mixed them into the seasonings. And, of course, the fun part is done by hand. I could feel the heat from the thick spicy paste seep through my gloves as I churned the aromatic mixture in  the bowl. 

To Koreans, kimjang represents the spirit to survive tough times. You make yourself resilient. 

Neighbors would make kimchi together then store it for  the long harsh winter ahead. Without this preserved food, they wouldn’t survive. Nowadays, kimjang is usually a family affair. Of course, Kimchi is available in Minnesota grocery stores. But it can get pricey. 

Our south Minneapolis kimjang host was Douglas Choi. He started making his own kimchi as an experiment during the COVID-19 years. Post-pandemic, he wanted to get to know his community. He decided to ask strangers via social media to come to his house and make kimchi together.

Choi, 39, said newer generations are putting their own spin on some Korean traditions, including kimjang. 

“You get to form new contexts around that practice, and hold onto some of the things, but it just evolves,” he said. “I’m happy that had happened. And, I’m happy that we were able to kind of get that to work and I’m excited to sort of see where this goes.”

While I make kimchi, I think of my family: Halmoni, my grandma, and Umma, my mom, made kimchi together in big metal bowls, just like the ones in this south Minneapolis home. They’d feed my brother and me pieces straight from the bowl. 

I find it comforting making this dish with complete strangers new to kimjang.  

Everyone in the room has their own reasons for taking part. 

Vaughn Powell came with her friend, Alicia Jackson. Powell finds the communal act rejuvenating. 

“I was excited to see what it was like because I do a lot of cooking on my own, but I do it by myself as my own meditative process,” Powell, 32, said. “So, I was interested to see what it would be like to do that with other people. That’s not something that I’ve experienced before.”

Standing by her side, Jackson, 36, said kimchi and other fermented foods sometimes get a bad rap. 

“But, I think that age does something really, really inspiring to food,” she said. “Transforming it from what it was to what it could be. And I’m a big, big fan of what that becomes.”

Across the room, Tony Muras-Scherber, 32, helps another group make kimchi. He and his brother are Korean adoptees. 

Making kimchi, Muras-Scherber said, is an act of reconnection. Plus, he loves the taste. 

“It kind of brings us a little bit more close to our culture and our heritage,” he said. “Doing these types of things, making Korean food and trying different Korean dishes that we normally would not have here in Minnesota and the Midwest.”

After a couple of hours the salted cabbage is limp and ready for seasoning. Powell washes every leaf under running water to remove the remaining salt. Then we coat each one with the spicy seasonings.

Finally we squash the precious, multi-colored mush into the kimchi jars, and seal them.

Everyone takes a moment to admire the swirling hues of red and orange in the freshly-made kimchi, with Choi comparing it to “the whole galaxy.”

The next part of the process is to let it ferment in the fridge for a couple of weeks. 

I find out later that there may have been a mishap. We possibly put too much salt in the kimchi. But, I’m hoping that I can still use it for some dishes later this month. So, fingers crossed. 

Meanwhile, Choi is considering another kimjang in the future. 

That relationship can grow into a real partnership and friendship — and a positive support system pushing each other to be better and do better.

Our next Power Pair is a good example of that transition: Mother-daughter duo Rose McGee and Roslyn Harmon.

It’s part of our new series on the show about prominent Minnesotans you may know about individually, but who also have a close relationship.

Guests:

Rose McGee is President and Founder of the Sweet Potato Comfort Pie organization, which brings people together for hope, healing and dialogue around race. She’s also a facilitator, author and recent Bush Fellow.

Roslyn Harmon is the mayor of Golden Valley — the first Black person to hold that position. She is also an educator, counselor and ordained pastor.

Central is the oldest high school in Minnesota, founded in 1866. Known for strong academics, it was one of the first schools in the state to offer an international baccalaureate diploma program.

Its graduates, including Ayers’ classmate St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, have gone on to be prominent leaders in business, education, sports and politics.  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Ayers about returning to lead her alma mater, her vision for the school and what it’s like to follow in the footsteps of longtime Central High School principal Mary Mackbee, who retired in 2019.

Guest:  

• Cherise Ayers was named principal of Central High School in St. Paul in 2022. She graduated from Central in 1997 and holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Spelman College and a master’s degree in secondary education and teaching from Brown University. A lifelong educator, she’s worked as a middle and high school English teacher in Georgia and Minnesota, as dean of students for Richfield Public Schools, as an assistant principal in St. Paul Public Schools and as an equity supervisor and interim principal for the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

The Minnesota Department of Education is still working on a final framework to guide curriculum. But some districts aren’t waiting.

In 2022, both St. Paul and Minneapolis public schools added ethnic studies as a high school class required for graduation. Other districts have had ethnic studies style classes in place for even longer.

On March 18, MPR News gathered teachers and students already participating in ethnic studies and asked them to share their experiences, with the goal of imaging the future as ethnic studies is incorporated into schools across the state.

What does ethnic studies really mean? Is it a thinly veiled attempt to introduce critical race theory, as critics contend? How do students react to hard conversations about race and absent narratives? And could this be one way to close the education gap between white students and students of color?

MPR News host Angela Davis hosts this special North Star Journey Live conversation, recorded live at Roseville Area High School.

Guests:

• Kong Vang, teacher at Washington Technology High School
• Alycia Monserrate, teacher at Exploration High School
• Natalia Benjamin, director of Multilingual Learning at Rochester Public Schools
• Marlee Mfalingundi, teacher at Roseville Area High School
• James Dawolo, teacher at Roseville Area High School
• Amy Westland, social studies department lead and teacher at Roseville Area High School
• JaLayla McCoy, student at Exploration High School
• Jackie Le, student at Great River School
• Ethan Vue, PSEO student at Spring Lake Park High School
• Evelyn Sagor, student at Roseville Area High School
• Madisen Lo, student at Roseville Area High School

Modern and compact, its unassuming exterior belies its power: it’s one of the most successful programs of its kind in the nation.

“Summit has been a part of building just about all the stadiums in the Twin Cities,” said Leroy West, president and CEO of Summit Academy.

There are several certification programs here, like a typical trade school. Summit offers courses for careers in construction, health care and IT, as well as a GED preparation program. A new financial services program launches on March 25.

West said their focus is on training people who are unemployed and underemployed, and providing them with skills to make a living wage. Many students are living below the poverty line before they come to school: The average household income of enrolled students is under $21,000.

“At Summit, our mantra, we believe the best social service program in the world is a career,” West said.

West said Summit is responsive to the needs of its chosen community of low-income people. That means offering programs at no cost, and that last 20 weeks — not multiple years like many schools and colleges.

“The students that are attending Summit just don't have two years or four years to wait. They need money today,” West said. “And employers need workers today.”

Summit relies on a combination of grants, donations and financial aid to cover the cost of attendance for students.

The debt-free learning promise and the shorter program length were major factors for Barbara Rankin, a St. Paul mother balancing homework and housework, as she sought to pivot away from exhausting and low-paying warehouse jobs.

Rankin is studying to become a medical administrative assistant. She calls the shift “a game changer.”

“I’m just looking forward to like graduate and get me a career, not a job. I want a career. Something that’s going to last,” she said.

Origins in the Civil Rights Movement

Summit Academy OIC was born out of the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1958, Rev. Leon Howard Sullivan launched a “selective patronage” campaign in Philadelphia, encouraging African Americans to boycott businesses that wouldn’t hire them. The boycott helped open thousands of jobs for African Americans.

To meet new demand, in 1964, Sullivan created a job training program to train these new workers, naming them Opportunity Industrialization Centers, or OICs.

The OIC model was later replicated in other cities, including the Twin Cities in 1967.

Louis King is president and CEO of the national network, OIC of America. He said at their most, there were 150 OICs across the nation. Today, 25 affiliates remain in existence – and Summit Academy is the largest.

“Summit’s outcomes, high graduation rates, placement rates, and wages — the success speaks for itself,” said King. Prior to the role, he led Summit from 1995 to 2021.

OICs expanded their mission beyond Black communities to serve poor people of all backgrounds, reflecting a changing America, according to King. In 2023, 78 percent of Summit Academy students were people of color.

King said credits Summit’s success to strong relationships with donors and employers in the region, in addition to its public policy advocacy.

With its HIRE Minnesota campaign, Summit pushed to eliminate racial disparities in the construction industry. Their coalition successfully lobbied the state to raise hiring goals for people of color on construction projects.

“There’s a lot of talk about, how do we close these gaps? How do we make sure that access to workforce development and careers is more equitable? Summit Academy OIC just answers that question over and over and over again,” said Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan. 

Flanagan pointed to the similar American Indian OIC, based in south Minneapolis, as another culturally specific program with high success.

“Occupational instructional centers are just incredibly important … They’re an incredibly important part of our economy and our future workforce,” she said.

By and for Minneapolis

Daelen White knew he wanted to become an electrician straight out of high school, but math — a key skill — wasn’t his strong suit.

Summit offered an opportunity to work towards his goal, a pre-apprenticeship certificate, while he worked on his math. There, he improved thanks to more support and individualized attention from instructors.

“They encourage you even though sometimes you might be frustrated with the problem,” White said. “They actually care.”

“This is the first actual school that I felt comfortable with,” said Darnell Williams, 21, a carpentry student. He moved from Chicago to attend Summit Academy OIC after a cousin told him it is a great program.

“I feel like they got the open-door policy. That’s kind of new to me. Where you can just walk into someone’s room and if you have a problem with something or you need help with anything, you can ask that. That’s not really an option at other places,” Williams said.

Another element that distinguishes an OIC from other trade schools is that it’s operated by the community it’s in. North Minneapolis is its DNA. A Best Buy Teen Tech Center in Summit’s main campus offers an after-school resource for area teens. Instructors rallied to help clear debris after a destructive tornado hit the area in 2011.

It’s a different approach. It means representing students and caring about their whole well-being, according to school officials and instructors. Students come from a range of backgrounds — they may be pursuing a career change or impacted by the criminal-justice system.

“The biggest thing that I have noticed is actually getting them acclimated with school, because some of them have been out of school for years, maybe decades, and just getting them acclimated with that, building confidence,” said Bernie Randle, an instructor at Summit.

Randle said his job includes teaching students how to study or manage their lives outside of school.

“It’s family oriented,” Randle said. “You’re worried about and your focus is on this person becoming a better person.”

Serving 1,000 students a year

Summit recently added a new virtual reality lab to its main campus, which sits along Olson Memorial Highway, just outside downtown Minneapolis and off I-94. The financial services program is housed in a satellite location about a mile north on Penn and Plymouth Avenues.

The school has made headlines for adapting programming to address labor shortages. Last year, Summit launched job training in food manufacturing.

“If there’s a demand out there in the future workforce, we want to be that catalyst to connect the community to those opportunities,” president West said. “That’s why we’re here.”

People can sign up at any time, with sessions starting throughout the year. There are in person, hybrid, and online learning options. West said success is measured by job placement. Over 3,300 students have been placed in full-time work aligned with their studies in the last 10 years.

He recalls when Summit had under 200 students a year — now there are more than 1,000 every year. His hope is to double the number of students served. He also wants to better track if people pursue further education opportunities.

Sherling Yang had been interested in a career in IT but was unsure if it was a good fit. Summit offered an attainable way to transition from working in retail.

“It’s hard because retail you really just live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “And with everything cost-wise being on the rise, inflation, it’s time to chase stability.”

In her last weeks of her program, Yang feels prepared for an entry-level job in the field, and looks forward to pursuing college after.

“I wanted a low-cost to no-cost way to learn and get into that field,” Yang said. “And that’s what Summit offered.”

Flags from around the world hanging above the aisles move slightly in the HVAC breeze — Kuwait dances with China, Singapore and Ethiopia overlook the produce aisle. 

It’s only fitting for the biggest international grocery store in both North and South Dakota: the Asian and American Supermarket. It’s celebrating just over one year at its new location.

The Fargo, N.D., shop moved in January 2023, swapping out its small-but-longstanding warehouse for a high-ceilinged, expansive store — a 13,000-square-foot increase (imagine two Circle K convenience stores versus six.) 

Sure, the change has meant a 30 percent increase in customers and a new deli space, co-owner John Huynh said. But the A&A Supermarket’s success goes beyond the numbers. 

‘Really, really, really important’ 

The area’s diverse community convenes at the market, located at 1425 Main Ave., about a mile and a half from the Red River on the city’s east side.

“This place is not only a place for people to come to buy groceries. It means a lot to provide to the community, especially our culture,” said Huynh, who runs the supermarket with his sister Sarah. “We get a chance to see people, you know, from our community, meet new people from different cultures and then bring all of them together.” 

It hasn’t always been like this. Decades ago, Huynh lived in Pelican Rapids and more recently in Minneapolis. 

“Whenever we [came] to Fargo, we [didn’t] see a lot of people from a different culture at all,” he said, adding he moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area in 2016 to join his sister at the market. What he found surprised him. 

“I said, ‘Wow … Fargo-Moorhead [is] changing right now.’ We see a lot of people moving here,” Huynh said. 

Between 2000 and 2019, North Dakota and South Dakota both experienced a rapid increase in the Asian American population, said Minnesota State University Moorhead marketing professor Hyun Sang An. He said businesses such as A&A are integral to that change. 

“The international grocery stores, especially Asian grocery stores or African grocery stores … play a role to attract more ethnic minorities into this area,” An said.

Economically speaking, An said having a major, growing international business can draw people to an isolated metro area such as Fargo-Moorhead. And it keeps residents shopping locally rather than traveling to Canada or the Twin Cities for grocery needs — and more. 

Just ask Fargo resident Shayna Karuman, who is Singaporean and Malaysian-American.

“Having the ingredients and like, the supplies available to cook the same food as I want to my culture is really, really, really important,” she said. “That allows me to connect with my mom and my parents a lot deeper.”

“Even though I am far away from where they live in California, I can still try and get close to my culture by replicating the recipes that their parents have taught them,” she said.

Before the market expanded, Karuman said she would pack her bags full of food while visiting family on the West Coast or stock up with a seven hour round trip drive to Minneapolis. 

“That way I wouldn’t have to just eat some American food, which I enjoy but doesn’t necessarily reach my cultural needs,” Karuman said. “If something was purchased nearby [it] also allowed me to host potluck and welcome friends over, Asian-American people, and try new recipes.”

At the store, supervisor Clara Madrangcher hums a little tune, interspersing the melody with the crinkle of chicken feet flavored Lays bags. Arranging the shelves, she said she feels at home.

She pointed to her brother pushed a rack of products through the produce section. Madrangcher’s husband works there, too.

“All three of us,” she said. “We love the store. We’re like family in the store.” 

From global to local

A&A Supermarket manager Paul Tann, who is Huynh’s brother-in-law, said the market, along with a few smaller stores in the area such as Lotus Blossom International Market, has been an important hub for meeting global ingredient needs.

What started as mostly Asian products has grown to countless more, he said: “We have the Korean products, we have Middle East, we have the Chinese, the Indian, Philippine,” he gestures widely to a swath of goodies. 

Tann, who has been with the market since its inception at its smaller store in 1996, laughed as he led a tour of the impressive tea, coffee and drink options from around the world: Vietnamese coffee, boba tea, sugar cane juice. 

“There’s so many different types,” he said. 

It’s something frequent customer Kim Palomero appreciates about A&A. The Fargoan shops there at least once a week. 

“It makes the transition and adaptation — especially the weather — of the newcomers easier,” said Palomero, who is Filipino-American. 

“This supermarket also brings in curiosity to the local community of the Fargo-Moorhead area to adventure and explore our gastronomic culture, which strengthens a better understanding towards our new Filipino-Americans and other communities in the area.” 

Holding a plastic grocery bag of okra and pastillas de ube at the market, Palomero said A&A is as close as he can get to Filipino restaurants. There are none in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

So he cooks. 

In the market, he pulls up a video on his phone of his Fargo-Moorhead Filipino friends, congregating around food from A&A.  

“I still long for my real home in Southeast Asia,” he said. “One way to relieve the homesickness is to have a hot meal coming from your home country.”  

There really is no place like home, he said. Especially when it tastes like it.

“You can listen to music nowadays without ever touching a CD, a record, or a tape,” said Brokenrope, who is Sicangu Lakota. “It’s just so digital and ubiquitous all the time. But to hold the physical thing and then to see yourself represented in that, and to see your community, your people, your family represented in that, I think that’s just so important for us.” 

A self-described shaggy-haired kid, Justis Brokenrope started collecting vinyl records near his hometown in rural Nebraska. As a young musician, he played in punk and metal bands touring the U.S. and Europe.

He was in a record store in Providence, R.I., about ten years ago where he found a compilation record consisting of Indigenous North American music, and inspiration struck. 

“I’ve heard a lot of powwow music and ceremonial music. But then to know that there were these artists back then, pre-social media, internet, everything, obviously, just in their really, sometimes small and very isolated communities,” explained Brokenrope.

“They got a guitar somewhere or traded something for a guitar, and then their music was documented by something like the [Canadian Broadcast Corporation]. And so those records exist. And then that was just like, mind blowing to me,” said Brokenrope. 

Now, an entire wall of Brokenrope’s Minneapolis apartment is dedicated to his record collection. Some of that music is being heard again for the first time. And he says he’s collecting for more than the sake of collecting. He wants to re-introduce the music he’s found back to Indigenous communities. 

“A lot of people obviously don’t have the time to go dig through a bunch of thrift stores in the Southwest,” said Brokenrope. 

When he finds those rare records, he posts them to social media. Curated music sets go to YouTube, and photos of album covers are posted to his Instagram page, Wathéča Records. For him, accessibility is a way to build community around music.  

He estimates he has a collection of about 300 records by Indigenous artists from various genres— mostly country, folk, rock from the 1960s through the late 80s. 

“These records can have life again and reach the people that maybe forgot about them or lost their copy. Or those folks who made them have journeyed on, but their kids are still around and remember their dad or mom playing guitar and singing.” 

Brokenrope says for him artists like Buddy Red Bow, a Lakota country singer who was recording in the 1970s, is one example of the kind connection a person can make through listening. 

“As someone who works a lot with language to hear him speak or sing a song in Lakota and English and then to hear his dad on the recording as well singing in Lakota or speaking ... it’s just so moving and just a beautiful thing to experience.” 

Translating Analog to Digital 

Collecting vinyl brings Brokenrope into conversation with a lot of fellow record collectors. It’s an opportunity to build a network of people who share his passion. 

On a January evening, Brokenrope met with a fellow Indigenous collector, David McCloud, who is Anishinaabe from Minegoziibe First Nation in northern Manitoba. 

“When somebody asks me, ‘How do you collect Indigenous records?’” said McCloud to Brokenrope. “That’s years and years of building relationships.” 

The two compared notes during their virtual meeting about their shared passion. The conversation included their mutual appreciation for music and much more. Both described years spent digging for vinyl and multiple acts of converting analog music to digital as a method of translation between generations.

They also talk about the ways Indigenous musicians have busted through the myths of Indigenous people as the vanishing American and the ways artists have subverted stereotypes and found self-expression. 

“Our people were supposed to disappear,” said McCloud. “If you look at the history of it, since the possibility of recording began, Indigenous people were there, right up until now.” 

McCloud motioned to his own collection of recordings and shared a piece of wisdom. 

“You never finish. You never know it all. You’re never gonna have it all,” McCloud said. 

DJing in the Dakota language 

On a Friday evening in early March, Brokenrope plays a set of deep cuts inside a St. Paul record store. DJing has become another way Brokenrope shares his love for vinyl.  

Music lovers will recognize Link Wray and His Ray Men covering Dylan’s “Girl from The North Country.” Fellow collectors may know Karen Dalton’s bluesy “Something On Your Mind.”

Lots of people will hum along to popular Redbone refrains. The powwow crowd will sing every single word of Keith Secola’s “NDN Kars.” 

And it’s the dollar bin gems — the stuff lots of people may have heard years ago or may have never heard before — where his collection shines. 

Brokenrope’s collection reflects years of digging for rare vinyl recordings. In his set, A. Paul Ortega’s powerful singing on “Chicago,” Arliene Nofchissey Williams & Carnes Burson performing the bridge on “Go My Son,” and Morris Belknap’s “On That Dusty Road To San Carlos,” give listeners a sense of the themes important to Native musicians over decades.  

While connecting the tunes during his DJ sets, Brokenrope adds another act of translation. 

As an educator, Brokenrope has been a part of a growing language movement to revitalize the Dakota language.  He often DJs his sets in the Dakota language. 

Sharing music of from his collection in Dakota is an invitation to Indigenous people to be in conversation with one another in a digital world. 

“To be able to use my tribe’s language and be able to create more content in it,” he said. “And have that represented more, just felt really in line with the kind of music we’re playing.” 

Zak Amin has worked as a liaison to Kurdish families, and as an English as a second language instructor at Moorhead Public Schools.

This fall he started a new class for Kurdish students to learn about their language, culture and history.

Amin not only teaches Kurdish language to these students, he teaches English as a second language to many of their parents.

He saw a communication barrier that needed to be addressed.

“Kids sometimes have needs they need to express, but the only way they can express it fully is in English, they cannot actually convey the message fully to their parents because their parents English is very limited,” said Amin.

And parents get frustrated trying to rely on a mix of Kurdish and English to talk to their children. That communication struggle was the impetus for this class.

“My main goal was to create a bridge and build a stronger relationship between the parents and the kids,” explained Amin.

Amin came to the U.S. nine years ago. He previously taught school in Kurdistan before serving as a U.S. military translator for eight years.

The class started as an after-school offering, through the Kurdish American Development Organization, which helps connect Kurdish people with community resources.

This fall the Amin began offering the class at the high school.

Represent yourself

During a recent session, eight high schools students listened intently as he discussed Kurdish cuisine.

The students are all Kurdish from 9th through 12th grade and they’ve chosen to take this new elective class.

“Who knows what Biryani is?” Amin asked.

Senior Rayan Salih accurately described the dish as rice mixed with vegetables.

Salih came to the U.S. a decade ago. This class is motivating him to embrace his own identity.

“I feel like no matter what you are, where you’re from, you should always represent yourself because I feel like it’s just right,” he said.

Improving his Kurdish language skills and learning about Kurdish culture and history is also about respecting his elders.

“What your people did, it’s like they did a lot for you to be where you’re at right now,” Salih said. “That’s why I represent my culture and my ethnicity.”

Like many of the students in this class, Salih comes from the Duhok area of Iraq.

Amin said there are three primary languages and many dialects among Kurdish people. Most of the students speak Behdini.

Kurdish is spoken in the homes of 239 families with students in Moorhead schools, according to district officials. It’s the most common language spoken at home in the district, after English.

There are 17 students currently enrolled in this new Kurdish language and culture elective.

Making connections

Ayaah Kakasaif is a ninth grader. She came to the U.S. as a very young child.

Her parents speak Kurdish, but most of her friends speak English and she feels the need to be fluent in both.

“A couple of months ago I went back to Kurdistan and they were all talking, their vocabulary was so well and mine wasn’t. I wanted to talk to them and I wanted to say stuff to them, but I didn’t really know how and I didn’t have the right words," said Kakasaif, explaining why she signed up for this class.

“I wanted to be able to speak to my family more and understand them and feel like I’m actually with them,” she said.

Kakasaif calls the class a gift for Kurdish students.

Moorhead school officials say there are 56 different languages spoken in families with students in the district. Kurdish and Somali are the two most common after English.

High School Principal Josh Haag said this class fits well with the district goal of connecting with an increasingly diverse student body.

“Sometimes there’s that disconnect of ‘nothing that goes on here is what I see when I leave here,’” Haag said.

“It’s the, ‘how is this going to affect me in my life, in my world,’” he said. “I think that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Amin said Kurdish students and parents are excited about the class. He hopes to expand the Kurdish language offerings next year.

And Amin thinks improving communication between parents and students can help him achieve a larger goal.

“Trying to make them more engaged into American society,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to make the parents more adapted to American society and make the kids remember about their culture and identity.”

Want more Fargo-Moorhead news? Check out our local FM page and sign up for our weekday text club:

What else is happening in the Fargo-Moorhead area? Let MPR News know at afelegy@mpr.org. Also, take our Fargo-Moorhead news survey.

According a Pew survey, Americans across party lines say the government is doing a bad job handling the current surge. Congress is locked in a standoff. Earlier this month, it failed to pass a bipartisan bill to increase border security, after Republicans in the House said it was “dead on arrival.” Meanwhile, thousands of migrants — coming from a wide variety of countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Russia and India — are stuck in makeshift camps at the border, waiting to be processed.

The reality of this broken system is not a surprise to Minnesota’s immigrant communities. Many have fought their way through it or are still waiting for action. And all are watching for what happens next.

To get some answers, MPR News, together with Sahan Journal, convened a panel of immigration experts on Feb. 8, at El Colegio High School in Minneapolis.

Hosts Angela Davis and Sahan Journal immigration reporter Hibah Ansari asked them to share stories about Minnesotans caught in the system and how immigrants and refugees to Minnesota are viewing this election year.

Don’t miss this special Sahan Community and North Star Journey Live discussion.

Experts:

• Emilia Gonzalez is the executive director for Unidos MN.
• John Bruning is the supervising litigation attorney at The Advocates for Human Rights.
• Jenny Stohl Powell is the legal director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
• Nasra Ismail is the the U.S. enterprise executive director of Alight.

North Star Journey Live is a live event series and reoccurring topic on MPR News with Angela Davis centered around what Minnesota’s diverse communities need to thrive.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Hardy, a real estate agent and managing broker of an Edina Realty office in south Minneapolis, has high hopes that a new state program aimed at lifting up buyers in historically disadvantaged communities will change that.

“This is unprecedented because it’s going to be over $30,000 somebody can potentially access and potentially layer with other programs to get into a home,” said Hardy, who leads Edina Realty’s diversity efforts and who has been in the industry for almost two decades.

State leaders are putting the finishing touches on a pair of programs, which were approved and funded by last year’s Legislature. Sometime this spring, qualified buyers will be able to access money to help with down payments, which are often a barrier to purchasing.

The $150 million will go toward assistance, including forgivable, zero-interest down payment loan money for what are considered first-generation home buyers and those who lost their home to foreclosure. The new funding is intended to help about 5,000 Minnesota home buyers.

“We really wanted to have a greater opportunity for particularly for low-income folks but also for people of color to have an opportunity to become a homeowner in Minnesota,” said Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, who helped create the program.

There are two similarly named programs — the First-Generation Homebuyer Loan Program and the First-Generation Community Down Payment Assistance Fund. One is capped at $35,000. The other is capped at $32,000.  Those two cannot be combined.

To qualify as a first-generation buyer, recipients and their parents must not have previously owned a home. Those who lost a home to foreclosure are also eligible.

There are also income eligibility requirements.  Both loans are forgivable after corresponding terms are met.

“Unfortunately, Minnesota ranks is one of the worst states for disparities between white homeowners and Black homeowners particularly, and then also even when you look at just BIPOC people — people of color as a whole — they have lower rates of home ownership than white Minnesotans,” Agbaje said.

Minnesota’s Black homeownership rate peaked in 1950. Since then, the gap between Black and white homeownership has widened to nearly 50 percent — almost twice what it was.

Prospective first-generation home buyers can combine this assistance with other aid programs to make the prospect of getting a house even more attainable for eligible participants.

Advocates hope the additional money will start flowing this spring, which is traditionally the busiest time for the housing market.

“We absolutely think this will change lives,” said Geri Theis who sells real estate out of Redwood Falls, in southwestern Minnesota. She is also the president of Minnesota Realtors which represents more than 20,000 real estate agents.

“It’s about reaching the people that don’t understand the benefit of owning a home.” Theis said. “That’s what this program was designed to do. We’re going to use this all over the state of Minnesota. It’s going to be a benefit to every community out there.”

While there will be advertising promoting the first-generation home buyer program, Hardy thinks word of mouth will be a powerful way to spread the word.

“If I have a success story that I can share with my community, more people are going to be curious, more people are going to be interested, more people are going to want to know well how did you do that? Right?” Hardy said. “That’s when you start sharing it and it starts spreading and you see more people come in the market.”

Mary Grack, a home ownership adviser with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership in Mankato, is working with two immigrant families to secure first-generation homeowner funding.

She thinks the first-generation homeowner program will be popular in urban and rural areas. Although the funds are not yet accessible, Grack said there is plenty to do for many potential home buyers right now.

“If anybody is hoping to use this, meeting with a home ownership counselor right now would be a great first step because there’s a lot of people who want to use the funds,” Grack said.

“Maybe their credit score is not in the right place yet to be mortgage-ready,” she added. “They can do steps ahead of time to make sure that they would be ready to use the funds when they become available.”

“I was always afraid of everything outdoors, bugs, birds, squirrels, grass,” she said.

She visited the 106-acre campground on Oak Lake near Watertown as an adult recently as part of a group working to clear brush. Memories of her time at the camp first trickled then flooded her mind during her visit. She said she remembered the time when camp counselors introduced her to the night sky.

“They had us close our eyes walking down out … where the lake is and then have us open our eyes,” Caprini said. “I screamed because I had never seen that many stars in the sky before. Never seen anything like it. Grew up in the city and didn’t do those kinds of things.”

Providing kids the chance to explore the outdoors, listen to the sounds of nature and take a dip in a lake had been a high priority for Phyllis Wheatley. It began summer camp programs in 1932. The mission of “the Wheatley,” as many refer to the center, has always been service to the community. 

And this year, the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center is turning 100 years old and celebrating a century of its mission.

The north Minneapolis center has shifted priorities over the years as society has evolved. 

The center was founded in October 1924 as the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. The building was established to help the growing African American community that was new to Minneapolis.  

It had been spearheaded by the WCA — Woman’s Cooperative Alliance — a community organization that liaised with religious, political and racial groups. During the 1910s, young African American women migrated to Minneapolis to find jobs. There were services to help young, single white women, but none for Black women.

The WCA and other partner social agencies soon realized that all African Americans living in Minneapolis were in need of services, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. The agencies then decided on a settlement house for the growing African American community.

Not only did the Black population grow, so did the organization. It became a social and cultural center offering sports, camping, drum corps, child care, after-school activities and medical services. 

And it became so much more.

Theartrice “T” Williams was its executive director from 1965 to 1972. 

“It was a gathering place. It was a cultural center,” he explained. “It was a convening place for the public and community, and it has been an organizer in the community.”

Williams said during segregation, Phyllis Wheatley was a welcoming and safe space for African Americans. The Wheatley, which changed its name to the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center in 1962, was included in the Green Book, a guide for African Americans traveling across the country.

“When Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway and all those big name entertainers back in the ‘30s and ‘40s, would come to play at venues [in Minneapolis] they couldn't stay in the hotels down there,” Williams said.

University of Minnesota students also stayed at the Wheatley, Williams said. The U of M barred Black students from living in its dormitories. One such student, Carl Stokes, went on to become the first African American elected mayor of a major city in 1967 when voters chose him to lead the city of Cleveland, Ohio. 

The center also has a distinguished role in Prince history. His parents John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw met as musicians at Phyllis Wheatley. Nelson’s jazz group, the Prince Rogers Trio, performed there. He recruited Shaw to sing in the band. 

A camp official says a young Prince also attended Camp Parsons.

In 1956, Katharine Parsons, a board member of the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, helped establish a campsite for the organization, according to a website that lays out the summer camp programs’ histories. Parsons, who was white, bought the land and transferred the property over to the Wheatley. She also funded the camp buildings and amenities early on.

“There were adults that cared enough to bring these inner city kids out, to Never Never Land, basically, you know, the outdoors, who otherwise may not have been able to see it until they were older,” Caprini said. “And provided that experience, an opportunity to, to make a difference.”

Parsons campers, none the wiser, simply enjoyed attending the day camp year after year. In 2001, the Wheatley closed it down due to financial challenges. But they still own the land.

Five years ago, the center and the Minnesota Land Trust signed a conservation easement that preserves 83 acres of the 106-acre camp as natural habitat.

This past spring, state lawmakers set aside $550,000 for the organization to restore the camp. It is unclear when it will reopen.

Over the years, Phyllis Wheatley has expanded its mission to include a wide range of programs and services for children, families and the community as a whole.

The center is expected to name a new executive director this week.

Below the sky’s glow is a couple harvesting wild rice from a canoe. On the lake bottom are the skeletal remains of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

The painting is on public view for the first time as part of the new exhibition “Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Artists and Knowledge Keepers” at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota.

Child is a Northrop Professor of American Studies and former chair of the Departments of American Studies and the Department of American Indian Studies, co-curated the exhibition with gallery director Howard Oransky. 

It features paintings by 29 mid-century and contemporary Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Dakota and Lakota) artists from, or connected to, the region. 

It is the inaugural exhibition of the George Morrison Center for Indigenous Arts, an “interdepartmental study center to support the creation, presentation and interpretation of Indigenous art in all its forms.” 

Child is the founder of the new center, which was sparked by the success of the 2016 Nash gallery exhibition that she curated, “Singing Our History: People and Places of the Red Lake Nation.” 

The center is named in honor of the internationally renowned abstract expressionist, a member of the Grand Portage Ojibwe from Minnesota, who died in 2000. Morrison also taught art at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s and 1980s.

“We tend to think in Minnesota, ‘Oh, George Morrison. He’s like a local guy who’s done well in the art world,’” Child says. “But he’s a very important figure in American abstract expressionism.”

Back in the gallery, Child is focused on that yellow sky. “What I really like about this work, and I wouldn’t have known this unless Jonathan had told me,” Child begins.

She pauses and walks to the opposite gallery wall, which features a string of paintings by the famous mid-century painter Patrick DesJarlait. Like Child and Thunder, DesJarlait was from the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota. DesJarlait is one of their heroes, she says.

In addition to paintings like “Red Lake Fisherman” (also on view), DesJarlait is also famous for his 1950s redesign of the Land O’Lakes maiden, adding an Ojibwe floral pattern to her attire. 

“So Jonathan’s nod to Patrick is the bright butter yellow that he used in this painting,” Child says. 

Over the phone from his Duluth studio, Thunder says Land O’Lakes discontinued DesJarlait’s design, and the maiden, in 2020, soon before he began working on the painting in 2021.

“With the yellow sky in that painting and the two points of land that come together, that’s obviously a nod to the Land O’Lakes butter box,” Thunder says. “From what I understand, the two points of land that come together, they can be seen in Red Lake where the upper and lower Red Lake kind of join.”

That year, Thunder had gone to see the Red Lake vista.

“It was like seeing a cartoon come to life or something,” Thunder says. “It’s very much a tribally significant image with or without the butter maiden.”

Thunder says the painting was also inspired by the time when he and his wife decided to learn how to harvest wild rice around Walker, Minn. In the painting, a pipeline takes the shape of a tentacle reaching into the canoe above the watery grave of Bunyan and Babe.

“At the time, the Line Three protests were happening across Minnesota and I was starting to see some of the division it was creating in the communities there,” Thunder explains. ”You see statues of Paul Bunyan kind of littered throughout the landscape, which is significant of a time when they were coming through clearing forests. Paul Bunyan was the noble face of that cause. In the wake of all that, it’s nice to see that people can still go out and rice and practice those traditional ways.”

Thunder says he’s excited to be placed in the gallery next to DesJarlait, an artist “I’ve seen my whole life.” He adds that, when he was growing up in the Twin Cities, he used to play basketball at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. It was there he discovered the 94-foot-long wood mural “Turning the Feather Around” that Morrison created in 1974 (and which was recently restored and reinstalled).

“That’s a huge development for the campus,” Thunder says of the new center.

“Dreaming Our Futures” is a web of these overt and covert dialogues and relationships between artworks, artists and generations.

On view, of course, are the abstracted rainbow-colored canvases of Morrison himself, as well as the paintings of other blue chip artists such as Dyani White Hawk, Frank Big Bear, Jim Denomie, Oscar Howe and Andrea Carlson.

“This exhibit shows the history of American Indian art, fine art, in the United States and where it’s been in the last half-century, especially with Howe, Morrison and DesJarlait,” Child explains.

“Dreaming Our Futures” acts as an important marker in time, too: Fifty years ago, Morrison, DesJarlait and Howe participated in an exhibition of contemporary Indian painting in Washington, D.C.

Child says that “Dreaming Our Futures” also shows how contemporary artists “have been very influenced by those foundational figures.”

These include artists like Thunder and Dakota artist Holly Young, of Bismarck, N.D. Young uses the mediums of beadwork, quillwork, and ledger art, an art form that originated in cave and hide painting that has evolved to also use parchment and actual historical “ledger” documents as a canvas. 

Young also created the illustration for the cover of “The Seed Keeper,” the 2021 novel by Minnesota Native writer Diane Wilson, the wife of Denomie. Denomie died in 2022. Wilson wrote an essay, “Jim Denomie at Home,” for the exhibition catalog.

Four of Young’s ledger-style watercolor paintings are on view, featuring Native women dressed in a combination of historical regalia and contemporary attire.

“A lot of what I draw is kind of based off of real life,” Young says. “I enjoy the look of the old things, but I’m also living in today’s world as a contemporary artist.”

Young is self-taught. Many of her artist influences — White Hawk, Bobby Wilson, Francis J. Yellow, Thomasina TopBear — have work on display in the same room. 

The ledger art of Yellow, a Minneapolis-based Lakota artist who died in August, hangs right next to Young’s.

“He was also somebody that I looked up to as a ledger artist. His work was very emotional,” Young says. “I always wanted to meet him, and I’ve been in the Minnesota area over the years, but we never crossed paths.”

Flanking the other side of her paintings is a large spray-painted canvas by TopBear. In 2022, Young and TopBear painted a mural together in Young’s hometown of Fort Yates, S.D.

“I really gravitate towards Thomasina’s work,” Young says. “She does a lot of nature-inspired work: Flowers, the prairie and the plant helpers, as I call them, like insects and bugs, things that I really enjoy myself.”

In another room, three paintings by St. Paul figurative painter and muralist Steven Premo, of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, hang facing three surrealist and spiritual paintings by fellow Ojibwe artist Joe Geshick, who died in 2009.

Premo is the husband of Child, and was a good friend of Geshick, she says. Premo inherited Geshick’s easel, which Child says will be on display with a list of artists who have died in recent years. Another Minnesota Native author, Louise Erdrich, will be speaking about Geshick’s art at the gallery on Feb. 4.

“Each of these individuals takes their place in a lineage of Indigenous painters that stretches back centuries,” Oransky, the gallery director and curator writes in his essay, “A Vast Field of Feathers,” for the exhibition catalog. He also points to the Jeffers Petroglyphs, the 7,000-year-old sacred rock carvings Native people made in southwestern Minnesota.

“This exhibition of paintings, like all the exhibitions that came before it and will come after it, beautifully and forcefully demonstrates that the need for drawn and painted images is a universal need,” Oransky writes.

At the end of a gallery tour, Child pauses again, pondering the timing of the exhibition. The pandemic set back its original opening date years.

“We need to show American Indian art every year and all the time,” Child says. ”But thinking as I do, as a historian, I’ve been thinking about the anniversary of American Indian citizenship in the United States 100 years ago.”

President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act on June 2, 1924. Morrison, Howe and DesJarlait were all born years before they were legal citizens of the U.S.

They were working in a different era, Child says. “And that’s why I particularly wanted to include these figures like Oscar Howe, Patrick Desjarlait and George Morrison in the exhibit.” 

There will be “Dreaming Our Futures: Art and American Indian Citizenship, 1924 – 2024” panel discussions Feb. 2 at the Regis Center for Art.

“Dreaming Our Futures” runs through March 16. The opening reception is Feb. 3 at the Regis Center for Art. Speakers include Child, Erdrich, Wilson, Minnesota Museum of Art executive director Kate Beane and Harvard professor Christopher Pexa.

On Feb. 15, Patricia Marroquin Norby, the inaugural associate curator of Native American art at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, will read her catalog essay “Painting Medicine: George Morrison’s Big Water Magic.”

On March 14, artist Fern Cloud will present “The Spirit of My People: Traditional Dakota Hide Painting.”

The project’s total value is $13.4 million. 

It’s the brainchild of Native Sun Community Power Development Executive Director Robert Blake. The idea, he said, was born out of the Line 3 pipeline protests. 

“I thought there’s got to be an easier way. And I said to myself, ‘Hey, electric vehicles are going to become something someday. These electric vehicles are going to become a part of the transition,’” Blake said. “Then I thought to myself, ‘What if Native people could lead the charge against the fossil-fuel companies with an alternative of electric vehicles?’”

Blake saw the program as a way to resist what he calls “the fossil-fuel infrastructure.” He said he also wants to create his own pipeline: a vehicle-charging network from Red Lake to Standing Rock with plans to expand into other tribal nations across the U.S. 

Electric Nation came about when Blake teamed with Joe McNeil, CEO of Sage Development Authority in Fort Yates, North Dakota.

McNeil develops and manages renewable energy sources in his area. He says the program will help place tribes at the forefront of adapting to new modes of transportation. He said it also addresses “barriers for historically under-resourced and underserved rural tribal communities with limited access to EVs.”  

“It’s really building a foundation of access and awareness and education. So that it’s not a foreign technology. I don’t think that economics should dictate a person's access to technology,” McNeil said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happens in a country of capitalists. If you can afford to be in the technology, then you have access to it. And if you can’t, then you’re out. So, I think this was a good way to get our foot in the door.”

McNeil said much as tribal nations banded together to answer Standing Rock’s call to action in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, he’s hopeful those same channels can carry those same groups into becoming leaders in renewable energy.   

“We’re starting off with a relationship with Red Lake to connect tribal nations between Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota as a start. And we hope that it spreads,” McNeil said. “For us, it’s a way of giving back. I think the expertise and the capacity that’s built into our relationships to help other tribal nations if they want to have access to electric vehicle charging stations and electric vehicles, to introduce themselves at their own pace. No one’s forcing anybody to do this.” 

The vehicles will be used by the Standing Rock Renewable Energy Power Authority, Red Lake Fisheries, Red Lake Agriculture Department, Grand River and Prairie Knights casinos.  

Native Sun Community Power Development will also receive an electric SUV.  

The purchases were made possible through a federal cost-sharing program with Electric Nation’s partners: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Power, Otter Tail Power, Xcel Energy and ZEF Energy.   

Native Sun’s Program Director Lisa Daniels said all the vehicles are outfitted with a data-tracking system. 

“We’ll be able to see how far and fast they go, how long their journeys are,” Daniels said. “And with some interviews and some surveys, we’ll be able to help determine if these vehicles are meeting the needs that that the fleet organizations have for their requirements.”     

Electric Nation plans to expand the program into other tribal communities. Once complete Blake says the EV infrastructure will create a Route 66 type travel system through Indian Country.   

“I firmly believe that healing is in the environment. And once we start being right with the environment, I think we’re going to start being right with ourselves and with each other,” Blake said.  

The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on Tuesday morning on the proposal to rename Savage Lake in Little Canada. The lake is two bodies of water, split by I-35E as it runs between St. Paul and I-694.

The Little Canada Historical Society submitted the petition last year to rename the lake Lake Metis. Metis means “mixed” in French. 

The proposed new name reflects the area’s history. 

Curt Loschy, head of the society, said back in the 1830s French Canadian fur traders and Native Americans set up their summer camp on the east side of Savage Lake.

Initially, it was known as “Lac au Sauvages” which means “wild lake” in French. In the late 1800s, when English became the dominant language, the body of water was known as Savage Lake.

“I’ve never liked the name of savage,” said Rockne Waite, a member of the Little Canada Historical Society. He has been spearheading the effort since he made his first phone call to the public works department in 2010 to find out how the name could be changed.

Waite says he attended city council meetings trying to get the lake changed. 

“And nobody knew how to change the lake names at the time,” he said. 

Waite, who is of Choctaw and Chickasaw ancestry and originally from San Bernardino, Calif., has lived in Little Canada since 1974. 

Waite eventually connected with Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Boulay also works in the geographic names section of the DNR.  

The process to change a geographical feature like a lake, creek, island or mountain begins with a petition. It must have signatures from at least 15 registered voters in the county where the name change is to take place. Boulay recommends getting 25 signatures, just in case any are ruled out.

From beginning to end, the name change paperwork has to go back and forth a couple of times from county to state and finally to the U.S. Board on Geographical Names. If the U.S. board votes to approve the name change, then the name change process is complete.

If that sounds like bureaucracy on steroids, Boulay said there’s a good reason for it.

He said he wants the name to “stick” and not have to be revisited again. 

“And I also want to build a good enough case where the U.S. Board on Geographic Names would accept the name,” he said.

Only one name has been rejected by the board and that was in 1994, before Boulay began in his position.   

Loschy said this is not the first request for a lake name change in Minnesota. 

“The reality is, this whole name change thing, there’s been a lot of name changes to Minnesota lakes that have been insulting to the Native Americans.” 

According to the DNR there have been 121 name changes to geographical features in the state since 1991.

Seventy-one of them have been lake changes. Twenty geographical features originally named after a slur used against Native American women have had their names changed. 

Eight of them were lakes. One lake in Washington County was changed from Halfbreed to Lake Keewahtin.    

A high-profile name change in Minneapolis led to a lawsuit against the DNR. The agency approved the name change of Lake Calhoun to Bde Maka Ska in 2018.

If Lake Metis is approved, Boulay says it will not only be the first Lake Metis in Minnesota, but it will also be the first in the nation.

A sermon to pastors in St. Paul 

Martin Luther King Jr. first came to Minnesota on Jan. 22, 1951, at the request of Clifford Ansgar Nelson, who was serving as head pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul.  

The current pastor, Bradley Schmeling, says he imagines it was a tight fit when 1,400 people came to see the civil rights activist.

“We have a picture of his presence here that hangs right outside of our sanctuary,” Schmeling said. “Knowing our sanctuary, I can’t imagine how that many people crammed into that room to hear him speak at the time.” 

The impact of King’s 1951 sermon, delivered to a crowd attending the Minnesota Pastors Conference, still resonates.

“Lutheranism is the whitest denomination in the country,” Schmeling said. “White supremacy still shaped so much of our experience here in Minnesota.” 

While the congregation is still majority white, Schmeling says King’s legacy has informed the Church’s work in social justice, especially when it comes to reconciliation work with Native communities. 

“If the church isn’t working on this, speaking about it, it’s hard to say that we would be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

A full schedule in Mankato 

King’s next visit to Minnesota was on Nov. 12, 1961, when he delivered multiple speeches in Mankato.

King delivered two sermons at Centenary United Methodist Church, as well as a speech at Mankato West High, focusing on the need to end the notion of superior or inferior races, calling out those using the Christian Bible as justification.

“It’s a strange thing how men often believe things that are evil in context,” King said, according to a transcript from his speech at Mankato West High School. “They go to find some religious and biblical justification for it. And so, they lift things out of context and try to argue or to justify a particular belief that they have.”

MNSU Mankato professor Jameel Haque was involved in a documentary about King’s 1961 visit.  

“A delegation of pastors from Mankato were at a national conference where they met Martin Luther King Jr,” Haque explained. “They were very impressed by him, and they really wanted somebody to come to Mankato to bring a different kind of message.” 

Haque added King’s speech in Mankato came at a time when the Civil Rights Movement was picking up steam.  

“Having this legacy here in town,” Haque said. “It’s a big deal.” 

A lovely April day in St. Paul 

The last known time King visited Minnesota was in 1967. The civil rights leader spoke at the University of Minnesota about his opposition to the Vietnam War. It was a year before he was assassinated.

“As he moved further through the movement, he really did become more radical,” said G. Phillip Shoultz III, who is the Associate Artistic Director of “Vocal Essence” choral group. “Maybe radical is not even the right word — more pointed and direct in expressing opposition to things that he thought were fundamentally wrong.”

Shoultz has curated the University of Minnesota’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration program for six years, and the university’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Shoultz says he takes this time of year to revisit the teachings of King, which he believes are especially important today. Shoultz points to King’s theological belief of the “Beloved Community”.

It is a “world where I can see you and you can see me and we don't have to agree on all issues, but I can hear you, you can hear me,” Shoultz said. “But at the heart, we both want what’s best for each other.” 

Shoultz wonders what role King might have played in current national conversations and in moments of divisiveness.

“I think he would find a way to bridge that gap with his words,” Shoultz said. “Inviting everyone to come in and listen and to consider how we are all complicit in some of the problems that we face.”

Ideally they’d feel like they belong in all these spaces, but that can be tough if you don’t fully understand yourself or your family history.

MPR News host Angela Davis revisits a conversation from last year she had with two Minnesotans of color about their paths to knowing and loving themselves and how to teach that to children. 

They’ve both written children’s books to help kids feel like they belong and have a voice. 

Guests:

• Thuba Nguyen has been an early childhood educator for more than a decade. Her expertise is in anti-bias and anti-racist pedagogy. They’re the author of the children’s book, “My Daddy Tells Me.” She’s now working as the communications specialist for the Minnesota House of Representatives People of Color and Indigenous Caucus and Queer Caucus.

• Anthony Walsh is the author of the “Hockey Is for Everybody” children's book series. He graduated last year with a law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law and works as an engagement specialist with Hennepin County. As an adoptee, he is passionate about expanding rights for adopted people. He is also on the board of directors for Mosaic Hockey Collective and coaches youth hockey.

  
  

  Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

In the past they were predominantly led by white men. Today, they are being overseen by two Native American women.  

For now, Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi is headquartered on the 15th floor of the First National Bank building in downtown St. Paul overlooking the Mississippi River. That will all change once planning and development is complete at a welcoming center to be located near the entrance of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. 

Maggie Lorenz is executive director of Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi. In Dakota the name means “those who care for the dwelling place of the sacred.”

The organization used to be known as the Phalen Creek Project. Lorenz has headed the organization since 2019. 

“Our mission is to engage people to honor and care for our natural places and the sacred sites and cultural value within them,” Lorenz said. “Our programs and our restoration and stewardship programs are really coming from a place of our traditional ecological knowledge and viewing the land and the water as a relative. So, we do a number of things differently than I would say a traditional or mainstream environmental organization might do.” 

Lorenz is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and is also from Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota.

Joining her in reshaping the leadership landscape is Shelley Buck. She’s a citizen and former president of the Prairie Island Indian Community southeast of the metro.  

For the last year Buck has been working two jobs. One as vice president of Prairie Island and the other as president of Owámniyomni Okhódayapi — Dakota for "friends of the falls" — the organization's original name in English.

The organization focuses on protecting and honoring the stretch of the Mississippi in downtown Minneapolis. It’s had different names over the years too: Owamni, St. Anthony Falls, and now may be best known as the site of the Stone Arch Bridge. 

Buck joked, “I have no life. Work is life.” 

Buck and Lorenz have known each other for years. And are two of each other’s biggest supporters.  

“When she [Lorenz] asked me if she should take the position she’s in I’m like, ‘Heck yeah, go for it. I think it’ll be great. If they have the faith in you do it,’” Buck recalled.  

Buck says both organizations shifting toward Native-women led is a redefining moment. 

“Having Indigenous women leading groups like this is really important because for us as Dakota people we’re a matriarch society. Women are the keepers of the family. We’re the life-givers,” Buck said. “And I think I’m a little different than a lot of Dakota women. I have that compassionate side. But I also don’t have a problem bringing out the stronger side”

Lorenz agrees. 

“Both of our organizations prior to having Native leadership had tried to do some tribal engagement. And there were missteps that happened and potential for mistrust to start building because of the different approaches that were taken,” Lorenz said.

“For both Wakan Tipi and Owámniyomni Okhódayapi, the transfer of leadership to Native people, and in my opinion to Native women in particular, really ensured that the projects were going to get the engagement that was needed — make sure that the people whose voices needed to be included, were included.” 

Dana Thompson is an Owámniyomni Okhódayapi board member who is a lineal descendant of the Mdewakanton Dakota.

She’s also the co-founder and former co-owner of Owamni restaurant which sits just yards from the falls in Minneapolis. She sees the change in leadership for both organizations as an important social shift.  

“It’s been extraordinary to watch the transition. And I believe that we’re in a renaissance in our culture right now,” Thompson said. “And people are realizing that more women in leadership is better for so many reasons. You know, empathic leadership, compassion, vulnerability, understanding of sustainability and how all of our actions impact our past and future ancestors.”

Thompson said when Buck agreed to take the position, she was ecstatic. 

“Her leadership experience is so vast and extensive and understanding of tribal politics and national politics and all of the challenges that it takes to navigate through all of these different stakeholders, whether it's the park board, or the city, or the Army Corps of Engineers, or all of the funders that we'll need to get this up and running. She was the right person,” Thompson said.

“And so, when she actually took the job, I literally did a dance."     

When asked how the last year has gone Buck’s eyes lit up. 

“This year has been one of the best years and we’ve been so successful. And it has been so surprising to see the outside community really support our idea and what we’re doing,” Buck said. “It’s like Dana said, it’s almost like a renaissance. You see this total change in people’s minds. And it’s great.” 

Buck said the change in leaderships has been a catalyst for inclusiveness.  

“I do think it’s because people like Maggie and I taking over these kinds of organizations — helping to show them a different way,” Buck said. “And making sure we get the right people at the table to tell the correct story.”

Lorenz said this new-found inclusiveness will be a driving force for years to come. 

"We have a different worldview and a whole different background of experiences and knowledge and expertise that hasn't been tapped into in a real way,” she said.

“And I think that because our climate and our planet is in crisis right now. It is irresponsible to not tap into that kind of really specific knowledge about place and land and water and how we can all better protect these resources and relatives for our future generations.” 

Construction on Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi's 9,000-square-foot interpretive center will begin in 2024 with a public opening planned in 2025. 

“At the front of the store, we're going to have a showcase of travel accessories… your luggages, your backpacks, your pillows, you name it, we're going to have a lot of good stuff to meet your travel needs,” she said. 

Seibure, who is Liberian, has been operating her travel agency Cavalla Travel & Tours out of a tall office building in Brooklyn Center. 

She says for the first time, she’ll have her own store front at Shingle Creek Center where people can easily access her services and products. Seibure says after many years, her business will finally be visible to anyone walking by. 

With the help of the state, various investors and support from city council leaders, the strip mall will provide incubator space that is affordable and appropriate for small and micro businesses. It’s a breakthrough move for women working to open up opportunities in the Minneapolis suburb.

Seibure, who is also part of the Ignite Business Women Investment Group, recalls the many setbacks and challenges she faced while navigating an often complicated and unforgiving system that felt discriminatory. 

“Most of the retail spaces, people don't want to rent to us. Even though it's out in our own city. We are business owners, we're going to pay our rent. But we found out that people probably don't want us to grow as business owners,” Seibure said. “We had the power to do it as business leaders, we just had to stand firm and see what we can do. So the group of ladies, we came together.”

Nelima Sitati Munene, who is originally from Nairobi, Kenya, is the executive director of African Career, Education and Resources, or ACER. The organization will soon be headquartered in the strip mall.  

She, along with the Ignite Business Women Investment Group, purchased the Brooklyn Center strip mall to transform it into what they say will be a model of economic inclusion and innovation. 

Munene said the $5.2 million purchase of the strip mall was inspired by the growth of businesses run by African immigrants in the western Twin Cities suburbs. The strip mall is currently about 60 percent occupied. According to ACER, the businesses currently operating in the strip mall will remain. New businesses are set to open in the spring.

She said the development will allow her and others to continue pushing for policies that uproot economic exclusion and create generational wealth in African diaspora communities.

“We discovered that we have a lot of micro-business owners in our communities. And then we began to look at the spaces in which they operate,” Munene said, noting the businesses were spread out in office buildings, adding to their disconnection from others in the community.

“We made it our mission because we had engaged our communities and had clearly articulated what their dreams and aspirations were around this development, we really wanted to make it a reality for them,” she said.

That reality came into focus when Munene and local entrepreneurs discovered just how critical African immigrants were to the economic life of suburbs, including Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. 

“And when we began to ask people ‘how did they get into business?’ Everybody had very interesting stories — I refinanced my home, I borrowed from my family, my son, you know, cashed out his 401(k) to support me. And so we discovered our businesses were not getting resources.”

Since the early 2000s, the number of African immigrants in Minnesota has increased from almost 35,000 to close to 90,000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development reports the largest number of African immigrants in Minnesota are from eastern Africa, most notably Somalia and Ethiopia; followed by western Africa with 32,500 residents, with the largest numbers from Liberia and Nigeria.

An estimated 4,500 African immigrants from Somalia, Liberia and Nigeria live in the northwest suburbs.

Munene and Seibure say the Brooklyn Center strip mall will be a place for the business owners, by the business owners. 

“The world will be able to see us more, not by the color of our skin, to know that we are business leaders, strong business women with a lot of energy, who really want to do more. So, it's kind of exciting for us,” Seibure said. 

The hallways are lined with colorful paintings by a local artist featuring people in East African dress, with encouraging phrases in both English and Somali.

“A lot of people, when they walk in, they see these pictures and they feel welcome, because it kind of reminds them of their culture,” said Lul Nur, the center’s program director.

Nur and Ali Aden are a husband-and-wife team of licensed mental health counselors. They moved from the Twin Cities more than a year ago to provide culturally specific mental health services mainly for the East African community, which St. Cloud lacked. 

Before the center opened, people were driving to the Twin Cities for services, which disconnected families and hindered them from being involved in their loved ones’ treatment, Aden said.

“We saw a need to bring that service from the cities to here,” he said.

Minnesota has a shortage of mental health providers of color, especially outside of the Twin Cities metro area. In St. Cloud, that means members of the region’s large Somali community can face language and cultural barriers to getting treatment.

Bridge Healing Center began offering mental health counseling in June 2022. It recently added addiction treatment services, with lodging for up to six people.

The couple said their own backgrounds help them relate to their clients. Aden is originally from Somalia and moved to Minnesota in 2007.  Nur was born in Somalia, but raised in Egypt before coming to the U.S. 

Counselors at the center speak Somali, English, Spanish and Arabic. Talking with clients in their native language, instead of through an interpreter, is critical to establishing trust and reducing the risk of a misdiagnosis, Nur said.

“A lot of mental health concepts are Western, so we might not even have a name for it,” she said. “It could really get messed up if the person who was translating doesn’t really understand the word.”

Aden said there’s a need in the St. Cloud area for culturally specific treatment for substance use and addiction. The opioid crisis has hit Minnesota hard, and the Somali community is no exception, he said.

But for many East African families, addiction is taboo and unfamiliar, complicated by religious prohibitions on the use of alcohol and drugs. 

“What’s adding to it is the stigma,” Aden said. “It’s hard for the families to open up and seek services. A lot of times we get a lot of calls — ‘My son is struggling. My daughter is struggling. I don’t know what to do.’”

Some Somali parents still have unhealed trauma from their own past — from fleeing a war-torn country, being separated from loved ones and losing a sense of belonging in a new country.

Hani Jacobson is a community health nurse with St. Cloud-based health care provider CentraCare, which refers patients to Bridge Healing Center. She said some refugees survived traumatic experiences such as war, famine and torture.

“When your whole life has been fight or flight, it becomes part of your normal daily life,” Jacobson said. “So it takes a lot of effort and education, and just letting our community know that it doesn't have to be like this. You don’t have to live in survival mode anymore, and there’s help out there.”

Meanwhile, the younger generation sometimes experience secondary trauma from hearing about those experiences from their parents. And they may feel torn between their Somali and American identities, feeling like they don’t fit in either one, Aden said.

“The parents are not equipped enough to address the current stressors that their kids are going through,” he said. “So the kids will feel isolated. They will feel distant from their parents. They will have less connections.”

That can lead to mental health issues or substance use. Often, the first instinct in East African culture is to keep such struggles within the family until it becomes too much to handle, Aden said.

“It’s very critical to provide education to the families,” he said. “There’s help. There are people you can seek out, and don’t wait until it becomes a crisis.”

In the collectivist Somali culture, a family’s opinion or fear of judgment can be obstacles to getting help, Nur said, but their involvement and support also can help the client succeed. So a lot of their work involves educating families that addiction is a disease that changes how the brain works, she said.

“When they understand that piece, it’s easier for them to be supportive than neglecting the child and saying, ‘You brought this on your own,’ she said. “That mentality needs to change.”

Word of mouth is helping generate more calls from people seeking help. Nur and Aden hope to expand their services and add lodging for women seeking addiction treatment.

Aden said he’s encouraged when he sees clients graduate from treatment, find a job, stay stable and repair broken family relationships.

"That’s what makes success. That’s how we measure it,” he said. “It’s the number of clients who graduate from here, change their life, make an impact on their life and make an impact on their society as well too.”

Steele toured with actor Morgan Freeman on “The Gospel at Colonus,” which landed on Broadway in 1988. He collaborated with Prince during the 1990s. He’s produced, performed and recorded multiple Steeles albums and worked with artists like George Clinton, Mavis Staples, Kim Carnes, Fine Young Cannibals and The Sounds of Blackness.

MPR News host Angela Davis and producer Maja Beckstrom revisit one of their favorite shows from 2023, a conversation last spring with J.D. Steele. It covers his long career, his collaboration with Prince, the healing power of song and his current projects, directing community choirs and inspiring the next generation to sing with soul.

Useful resources

Want to sing with one of the community choirs directed by J.D. Steele? They are free to participate in, don’t require auditions and rehearse together once a week for 90 minutes. Click to find more information about:

• The Mill City Singers.
• The MacPhail Community Youth Choir.
• The Capri Glee! Adult Community Choir.

Guest:

• J.D. Steele is a singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and choir director known for his work with Prince, as part of the J.D. Steele Singers in “The Gospel at Colonus,” in musical theatre and as a member of the Twin Cities-based vocal group The Steeles.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. 

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

The contest was born in December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It became wildly popular — 24,000 entries strong — as a much-needed moment of levity for Minnesotans during a dark, isolated time. Anne Meyer, who works for MnDOT, said the idea came from Scotland, where people have been naming snowplows for years.

MnDOT now has 24 named plows on the road, and while the contest is fun for everyone, it’s also a chance to build cultural awareness.

Christopher Chee, a member of the Diné Nation, works for MnDOT out of Redwood Falls in southwest Minnesota. He lives in the Lower Sioux Indian community where his wife is from, plowing in the winter and doing road maintenance in the summer.

In his previous job as roads director for the Lower Sioux Community, he worked with the city of Redwood Falls, Redwood County, the tribal council and MnDOT to become the first tribal nation in the state to have dual-language road signs welcoming people in Dakota and English. The signs went up in 2016.

During last year’s Name a Snowplow Contest, he wanted to build on his work. He encouraged friends to send in Native language names, and he submitted one in Dakota.

“‘Ičamna’ means ‘snowstorm’ or ‘blizzard,’” Chee said. “And being a snowplow driver, we’re out there in the blizzards, in the snowstorms keeping the roads open, rescuing people if we have to, making way for troopers and paramedics.”

Ičamna made it to the second to last round of the contest but didn't make the final cut. One of his supervisors noticed Chee’s disappointment, and promised to see what he could do.

Sure enough, two weeks later, Chee walked into the breakroom and saw an Ičamna vinyl sticker on the table. Now Chee and his truck partner of three years, Jovi Lund — who is a tribal member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community — drive their plow with pride.

Mike Connor is another driver who helped push for a plow with an Indigenous name: Giiwedin, Ojibwe for “the North Wind.”

“Naming this plow helps with building cultural awareness between the state and tribal entities,” said Connor, a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and a MnDOT driver. “It’s important to show the traditions and language.”

Connor said the state and tribal governments have had a formal relationship, but dubbing the plow with an Indigenous name was a sign of goodwill.

“There’s a lot of policies and procedures between tribes and MnDOT, and it is encouraging to see the engagement with the tribes,” he said.

A second plow in northeast Minnesota bears the name Goonodaabaan. It’s a combination of the Ojibwe words “goon” and “odaabaan,” which translate to “snow,” and “sleigh” or “sled.“

This year’s contest closes at noon on Friday — and submissions have been pouring in. MnDOT staff will select a few dozen from the more than 7,000 entries for the public to vote on in January, Meyer said.

Chee hopes more tribal nations and ethnic groups from around the state will submit names in languages other than English this year. He hopes for at least one truck with an Indigenous name on each of Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations.

“Have another up by Red Lake, have another around Shakopee, have another one at Treasure Island, Upper Sioux, and from there, White Earth,” he said.

Chee said he’s happy that many Indigenous communities are investing in teaching young people their native languages. And, he said, something as simple as a dual language road sign or a name on a snowplow can help with that mission.

Why?

Experts point to the destruction of the middle-class Black neighborhood of Rondo in the 1950s, the sharp racial disparities in education and wealth, and the fact that many Black professionals nationwide are migrating to areas south and west.

But designer and entrepreneur Houston White says another reason is the absence of Black-led, multicultural communities where Black professionals and families can put down roots.

He’s on a mission to change that.

White has already opened a coffee shop and new apartment building in the Camden area, which White calls Camdentown. And his vision is getting high-level support from Minneapolis corporations like Target and U.S. Bank.  

On Tuesday night, MPR News’ Angela Davis hosted an intimate North Star Journey Live event with White and a few of his friends who are helping him make his vision reality.

Click play to hear why White believes a vibrant Black middle class is crucial to Minneapolis being able to attract and retain young, Black professionals, and how Camdentown could be an example of how to close the racial gaps in housing and wealth that plague our state.  

Guests:  

• Houston White is a Minneapolis designer and entrepreneur. His fashion line is sold at Target. He is the founder and energy behind The Get Down Coffee Company, Camdentown Flats and the Be the Change golf tournament. He also hosts the Culturemaking podcast and recently released a book by the same name.  
• Kiera Fernandez is Target’s executive vice president and chief community impact and equity officer. 
• Greg Cunningham is the senior executive vice president and chief diversity officer at U.S. Bank. 
• Assata Gilmore lives in Camdentown Flats. 

North Star Journey Live (formerly known as In Focus) is a live event series and reoccurring topic on MPR News with Angela Davis centered around what Minnesota’s diverse communities need to thrive.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

The parishioners were eager to get a seat for the musical event to celebrate the feast day for Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico.

The band known as Mariachi Estrellas de Minnesota walked down the aisle, playing “Las Mananitas.” The title means “early morning.” As in the Mexican ditty is sung early in the morning at birthdays and celebrations. And every Dec. 12 to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

Church volunteer Jose Luis Mena, who dons a T-shirt featuring the image of Guadalupe clad in a dark teal and gold cloak, reflected on what the day means to him and others.

“These people come here in five in the morning to sing the mananitas, Happy Birthday to Our Lady of Guadalupe,” he said. “And they come in with hope, joys with everything, to give thanks to our mother for one more year … for all the miracles.

“That’s why it's so important for us.” 

The parishioners sang Las Mananitas to a statue of Guadalupe. It looks much like Mena’s T-shirt. Purple tulle and white lights encircled the statue. All of this is surrounded by what looks like long, white tulle drapes. Potted flowers held back the drapes to reveal the saint. At her feet were flowers left by congregants.

Guadalupe appeared four times to two Aztec men outside of Mexico City in Tepeyac Hill. She appeared before Juan Diego two times and once to Diego’s uncle Juan Bernardino sometime in December 1531 (exact dates vary). The Archbishop of Mexico City did not believe Diego’s account and said he needed a sign.

It came in the form of a cloak Diego wore when he went to see archbishop. It revealed an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, similar to the statue and the T-shirt Mena wore.

David Shaw is assistant pastor at the church. 

“It’s deep in their roots of their families, I think and so the significance of today is to bind them to their families and to their nation,” Shaw said. “Probably many people here may have not returned to Mexico for many years … so it’s a hugely significant day in many different ways.”

Mexicans are not the only Latinos celebrating the feast day, Mena said. The church’s Spanish-speaking members are also from Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Venezuela.

Shaw said about half of the 2,500 congregants at the Church of the Assumption are Latino. 

The annual feast day began to be celebrated by the church around the time the Latino community experienced robust growth in Richfield. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latino residents have grown from 1 percent of the city’s population in 1990 to nearly 19 percent.  

Mena said he came to Richfield from Mexico in 1995. Back then, there were 15 or 20 Spanish-speaking congregants. The clergy aimed for more.

“I remember the priests used to just give little pamphlets in Walmart across the street, to invite people to come to do the worship here,” he said. 

As word spread of the Spanish Masses at the church, Latinos from the Twin Cities and Burnsville began to visit it.  

Former Richfield Mayor Maria Medina was the first Latina elected to the office of mayor in the state. She said Richfield is attractive not just to Latinos, but to other communities as well.

Besides, the city’s affordable housing, and convenient location to anywhere, she said, the city offers amenities, services and activities for families.

“Those are some of the reasons that a lot of Latino families have told me that Richfield is a very great place to be,” she said.

The mariachi band wrapped up. Mena tells parishioners that breakfast is waiting: tamales, sweet breads and coffee.