
By Matt Jackson
The first time I met the Bird Man at Dunn Brothers about three years ago, he introduced himself as Mark, but he added that if I wanted to, I could call him Smooth. I wondered why Mark, somewhere in his forties, with a daily scruff, a casual concern for his hairstyle, and an everyday outfit of jeans with a workman's jacket, was called Smooth.


By Susan Solomon
I was a young Philadelphian, freshly divorced, and looking for a new city in which to start my new life. I was tired of rat-filled alleys and dirty heaps of black snow that lined the streets like piles of coal. At a library, I happened upon a travel magazine. And on those glossy, full-color pages, I spotted a picture of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.

By Gerri Patterson
Homemade snow pants of thick wool, ice caked on my jacket sleeves and on my mittens: I head out with my best friend, Rita doll...

By Mary Wlodarski
I like the cold so brisk and fresh
it cuts through clothes
and crimps nose hair...

By Patrick Coleman
It is difficult to choose from Bill Hoffman’s writings because they are all so compelling. Street by street and door by door and character by character he documented an important piece of Saint Paul—Jewish life on the West Side flats—that no longer exists. Hoffman should be required reading for recent immigrants and for those who have forgotten that their families were once immigrants.

By Keng Lee
I am a Hmong boy who lives to eat rice.
I wonder how much rice can feed the world.
I hear the sound of Mama packing the rice from the “vab”
I see the steam from the freshly cooked rice that makes my mouth water...

1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • african american • ancestors • artists • baseball • Como Park • Como Zoo • events • fiction • Fort Snelling • History • hmong • immigration • irish • latino • lowertown • lowertown reading jam • memories • minneapolis • Mississippi River • music venues • parks • People • Places • poetry • police • recipe • saint paul saints • snow • somali • sports • summer • swede hollow • transportation • video • weather • west side • winter • winter carnival • women • writers • youth



