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City Critters in Saint Paul
Wildlife thrives in Saint Paul. This morning, I roused two Red Tailed Hawks feeding on Mouse in my backyard. They flew off over our neighborhood community garden and disappeared beyond the rooftops....
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Eating Philosophy
© Serena Mira Asta/AstaArt.com Waitress walking across the bridge still smell like kitchen. Want to serve you my seven spice butter sauce blueberry eyes freshly baked buns grated parmesan hair. I float...
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Selby Avenue, 1970
© Clifford M. Renshaw/Minnesota Historical SocietyThe Angus Hotel at 165 North Western Avenue, 1971. As a teenager I drove grain trucks, pickup trucks, and Massey Ferguson tractors for farmers in the...
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Going to the Library
Ferdinand Uebel, 1950 Courtesy Minnesota Historical SocietyEarly on, my library card was one of my most precious possessions. This small piece of heavy card stock, about three by four inches, was my...
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Old Rondo
Illustrations © Leann E . Johnson/lea-way.com we were Ferris wheel watchers firefly fighters dollar store cap gun robbers cops and Sunday creased collars private school scholars giving the church...
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The Invitation
Sholom Nursing Home , for Kathy Tonight she asks you to sleep with her. both of you in the bed with siderails, a plastic mattress pad below. She is so happy to have found you, her daughter from the...
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe, leaning in the mercado window, make intercession for the West Side. Mystical rose of yellow, red, and blue, protect those who journey through the corners of George, State, and...
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Letter to the Lady Who Fell
© Leann E. Johnson/lea-way.com Dear Lady Who Fell: 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. I would've been upset...
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Dancing at the Crossroads
Saed Kakish performing Sabeel at the University of St. Thomas© St. Thomas Photo Services/www.stthomas.edu/photo Saint Paul is my chosen home, the place where I feel most deeply that I belong. Now. It...
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Christmas Unplugged
© Tiffany Follett/Tiffbunny on flickr Jenna already has her lights up, of course. I would have mine up, too, except ever since Sam fell into the Grand Canyon, I have been a little behind on things. I...
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Wokiksuye
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...
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The Sweet Potato Lady (Deborah Torraine)
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...
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Mears Park
© Maya Rose/rosiearts@gmail.com 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....
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From the Beginning: Forums, Theater, and Music
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...
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Cheesehead
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Conceived, born, and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin—that’s me, Paul Vincent Bartlett, a (displaced) cheesehead. And not of your typical Wisconsin lineage. Nope. Not one...
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Rondo Oral History: Deborah Gilbreath Montgomery
Oral history is the spoken word in print. Oral histories are personal memories shared from the perspective of the narrator. By means of recorded interviews, oral histories collect spoken memories and...
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Fire on Pig's Eye Island
Matthew at the beach . . .actually his front yard during spring flooding of the Mississippi River in 1946© Mathew Van TassellPig’s Eye Island owes its name to a nineteenth- century trader, Pig’s Eye...
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The Good Ole Days All Over Again
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! But of course young...
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Do We Remember . . . the North Central Voters League?
Old Elks Lodge, 559 Carroll StreetCourtesy Minnesota Historical Society/mnhs.org The “sizzling sixties” stands out as one of the most dramatic seachanging decades in the annals of American political...
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My Second Grade Teacher
Maya in Second GradeCourtesy Maya BeechamI was seven years old, in second grade, and tired on a daily basis. Most mornings I arrived at Highland Elementary School after limited sleep. I was robbed of...
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