Memories of a Boy Becoming a Man
By Robert Tilsen, Noah Tilsen ● 2019
as interviewed by Noah Tilsen I was born in January 1925. My father and mother, Edward and Esther Tilsen, thought it would be too difficult to get a doctor in
I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
By Deborah Cooper ● 2019
AT ELEVEN YEARS OLD, my dad, Jack, came to a bitterly cold Saint Paul. His stepfather had been appointed pastor of St. James AME Church, on the corner of Dale
Art by Sara Endalew
Wiigwaasabak
By Marcie Rendon ● 2019
Our ancestors dreamt your future The iron rail, Angus cows slumbering in shorn prairie The buffalo remembered only on the metal That buys and sells on the grain exchange There
More Champagne?
By Will Tinkham ● 2019
Her orphanage sat innocently in the middle of Washington Street, just above the Upper Landing docks of the Mississippi, with the Bucket of Blood Saloon at one end of the
The Bazooka Bubble Gum Fraud
By Louis DiSanto ● 2019
When I turned ten in April of 1958, I thought I was pretty wise to the ways of the world, especially when it came to adults, girls, trading marbles and
Baseball on Griggs Street
By Gloria Burgess Levin ● 2019
Griggs Street runs south to north through several Saint Paul neighborhoods. But in the Como Park area, it is only one block long. During the late 1950s, this was a
Letter to the Lady Who Fell
2015
I'm sorry you fell Tuesday night, a little after 8 p.m. I hope you're okay. Your husband looked mighty upset when you fell.
TWISP | This Week In Saint Paul: Monday, October 12th – Sunday, October 18th, 2015
2015
There is no rest for the wonderful. The fall has been busy and maybe you think you need a break, but when you realize that Saint Paul is not sleepy enough, you might be willing to miss some rest yourself. The ball of culture keeps rolling this week with a ton of happenings in Saint Paul.
What’s in a Name?
2015
“All over (America), Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand, and the wonder is not that so many are ruined—but that so many survive!”
JAMES BALDWIN 1955
Booker Taliaferro Washington and Me
2014
Booker Taliaferro Washington, born in approximately 1856, was enslaved in Virginia on a plantation. The young Booker yearned to learn to read and to serve. After slavery was abolished, Washington went to school and became an educator. In 1881, as the principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, he transformed the campus from a rundown building to an educational institution offering thirty-eight trades. His first book, Up From Slavery, tells his story and is highly acknowledged today. Washington also authored thirteen other books.
What’s in a Name?
2014
Growing up as young Black men in Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, we learned a lot from the generation of Black men who preceded us. We, like they before us, were simply known as “the Rondo boys.” Rondo was where we learned to survive, to grow and develop—it was where we learned the value of our extended family membership, where we fell in love and got our hearts broken. It was also where we learned what’s in a name.
Empty Promise
2014
The world is filled with empty promises. It’s like when you tell a person you love them, and they say it back, but after that y’all never speak again...