A Stranger’s Opinion of St. Paul
2014
Harriet E. Bishop is a name familiar to anyone interested in the history of Saint Paul. Born in Vermont, Bishop came to Minnesota in 1847 and here achieved many firsts—Saint Paul’s first teacher, founder of the first Sunday school in Minnesota, first leader of the women’s suffrage movement, and a driving force behind several social movements. She was well known in the city’s literary circles and wrote about Minnesota and Saint Paul, though her writings often include language that today would be considered racist, revealing attitudes toward Native Americans common to the era but whose effects are still felt to this day.
This Week in Saint Paul: Monday, March 24–Sunday, March 30, 2014
2014
The calendar on my kitchen wall claimed that spring had sprung last week, but Minnesota still predictably holds out. As a kid, and even now as an adult, I didn't understand the connection of the equinox (nor that Pennsylvanian hedgehog) to any change in season. As a kid, I wasn't sure if the groundhog myth was about adding six weeks or six months to winter. Hey, I was growing up in Minnesota! Anything is possible.
Bald-headed Men and Sundays
2014
My boys viewed their mid-1980s births in the old Midway Hospital on University between Porky’s and Ax-Man as an embarrassment, a slight their Saint Paul mom had designed to punish them by withholding the polished corridors of HCMC in their own hometown...
March 27, 2014 – Soul Sounds Open Mic presents “Words on Womyn”
2014
Tonight is a night of true celebration! Tonight, we honor the womyn in our lives—those who teach us, those who taught us, those challenge us, those who birthed us, and those who spit fire on the mic and make our jaws drop! Bring all of your favorite material by womyn writers or bring an ode to womyn, a womyn, or just bring yourself in the spirit of honoring these beautiful souls. We can't wait to see you!
Slow Boats and Fast Water
2014
Early in the morning on June 21, 2007, my son Cullen encountered a rowing scull, crewed by five young women in the Saint Paul Harbor and pinned by a heavy current of the Mississippi River. This crew team had misjudged the current and was trapped against the Padelford wharf barge.
Tornado
2014
Just beyond the hem of the lake’s blue skirt
the sky turned suddenly jaundiced,
a weighted stillness, not quite your own, descended, and even the black pine
and birch hovered motionless
in a calm that bore no calm at all.
Danger Days
2014
Back in the old danger days,
when we were kids, we stood
on the front seat of the Chevy Impala—no seat belts to hold us back,
our mother’s arm the only thing between us and the dashboard
Skeleton of a Nation
2014
jagged rocks dusted red bleed rose water from ancient springs who was baptized here saved and sustained by sacrificial land...
This Week in Saint Paul: Monday, March 17–Sunday, March 23, 2014
2014
Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you have ever seen the sea of faces at Saint Paul's St. Patrick's Day parade, maybe you wonder, like I do, why March 17 is not a government holiday in Saint Paul. With all the crowds, as there should be in our city, my biggest question is whether the mayor will take out his bagpipes.
Wafers
2014
My father and I used to go door-to-door delivering wafers in a tiny gold case. I imagined my father gave me this job to make me feel special when all of the older kids went to school. When they disappeared behind the doors of St. Mark’s School with their starched uniforms and shiny pencil cases, I felt left out. As a remedy, my father quickly got me started in the business of delivering communion to neighborhood elders...
A Little Rock
2014
A rock on the ground, next to the rock a tree, on the tree is a bird, its feathers like the river...
This Week in Saint Paul: Monday, March 10–Sunday, March 16, 2014
2014
Last week, I checked out three movies from the library. I did not watch any of them. I am guilty of depriving the rest of the world of these copies of movies, but I have an excuse: I went outside. I saw things. I met with people who are doing things. I saw people—people not unlike the folks our stories celebrate each week. Whether I was meeting in Lowertown or Rondo, or working in my neighborhood, it felt great, likely at least in part due to the improving weather. It will grow even warmer this week, and some of the art will be even hotter! We have a few ideas to turn up the temperature.