The Good Ole Days All Over Again

January 21, 2016

Hi there! Everyone talks about the good old days—how they used to be—what a difference from today. Remember when gas was 25¢ a gallon? And cigarettes 26¢ a box with a 1¢ tax? Wow!

Fire on Pig’s Eye Island

January 19, 2016

Pig’s Eye Island owes its name to a nineteenth-century trader, Pig’s Eye Parrant, who sold liquor and guns along the Mississippi’s watery highway.

Cheesehead

January 15, 2016

Conceived, born, and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin—that’s me, Paul Vincent Bartlett, a (displaced) cheesehead. And not of your typical Wisconsin lineage.

From the Beginning: Forums, Theater, and Music

January 12, 2016

I grew up in the Dale-Selby neighborhood of Saint Paul. To be more exact, we lived in the upstairs of a duplex just off the corner of Dayton and St. Albans, one block from Dale and one block from Selby.

Art by Maya Rose

Mears Park

By Martin Devaney ● January 8, 2016

Where I first put my arm around you. Clad in red coats and autumn hats, we walked from the Farmers’ Market, bags of basil in hand, then arm in arm. The dog waited.

The Sweet Potato Lady (Deborah Torraine)

January 5, 2016

When I see sweet potatoes, I often think of Deborah Torraine. Deb was a community organizer in the Twin Cities. She always referred to herself as a cultural worker; she was a mentor to new and emerging artists, and the Director of Community Engagement for the Saint Paul Almanac.

Wokiksuye

January 1, 2016

Driving back from the reservation, I cross a small bridge into Saint Paul. I feel the troubled waters. I think of my grandfather’s people,the Dakota. I think of how they lived by the water, how they made fire by the water.

Contribute to the Saint Paul Almanac

December 29, 2015

Dear Almanac Reader, I need you to do something right now, before the end of the year. Take a moment and make a contribution to the work of the Almanac.

TWISP | This Week In Saint Paul: Monday, December 28th, 2015 – Sunday, January 3rd, 2016

December 27, 2015

I want to share a few of those important things with you this week, as well as an important note to our faithful readers over the past two years. We are changing more than just our calendars. We are going through some changes here at TWISP, and we want to keep you with us as we transform the new year and ourselves.

TWISP | This Week In Saint Paul: Monday, December 21st – Sunday, December 27th, 2015

December 20, 2015

A brief taste of winter was scooped into our season’s palate for a moment last week. It was good to feel this check of reality in today’s atmosphere where reality is such an easy casualty of insane ambition and a pervasive willingness to accept entertainment as fact. It is no irony that the past month’s weather reminds us of the discourse of the airwaves.

“Makato Wokiksuye” Dakota Writers Speak to Presence

December 19, 2015

On the 153rd anniversary of the largest mass execution in the history of the United States, the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men in Mankato for their role in the U.S. Dakota War, contemporary Dakota writers speak to Presence.