Saint Paul Almanac

Mar 28, 2012: Tou SaiKo Lee presents "Stories from O.G.s" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:19:14 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce the fifth in its 2011–2012 season of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams, which celebrate the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city.

The "Stories from O.G.s: Honoring the O.riginal G.eneration" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. This presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Tou SaiKo Lee, features Fresh Traditions (Tou SaiKo Lee and Grandma Youa Chang), Chilli Lor, Abdi Phenomenal, and Louis Alemayehu. RSVP on Facebook

About "Stories from O.G.s: Honoring the O.riginal G.eneration"

"Stories from O.G.s" is a dynamic, cross-cultural, cross-generational evening of youth honoring elders' stories and passing them on through music, songs, hip hop, and spoken word poetry. Youth and Elder artists with roots from all over the world collaborate to express the connections we have and to immortalize these stories. This show is dedicated to the memory of Deborah Torraine, who had always requested to see Grandma Youa Chang perform.

About the Performers

"Fresh Traditions" (Tou SaiKo Lee and Grandma Youa Chang)

Event curator Tou SaiKo Lee believes in building an influential movement within the Hmong community through the arts. He is a spoken word artist, mentor, and hip hop activist. A mentor for youth at schools and community centers across the country, he speaks about issues that include human rights, diversity, racism, gang violence, and arts for social change. Tou SaiKo Lee is the co-founder of “The H Project,” a compilation music CD inspired by the Hmong people who suffered human rights violations in the jungles of Laos. On occasion, Tou teams up with his grandmother, Youa Chang—who does the traditional Hmong art of kwv txiaj (Hmong poetry chanting)—to perform as the duo “Fresh Traditions.”

Chilli (Chia Lor)

Chilli (Chia Lor) graduated with honors from St. Paul Central High School. She is a community organizer currently attending St. Catherine University and using her spoken word for social justice. As a poet, hip hop artist, and b-girl, Chilli has a vision of changing the lives of youth and women through performing arts.

Louis Alemayehu

Louis Alemayehu, a Minnesota poet, is a product of the Chicago Black Arts Movement. He became rooted in Minnesota to connect with his Anishinabe roots. Alemayehu is the director of the poetry-jazz ensemble Ancestor Energy and the winner of an Urban Griot Award in 2009.

Abdifatah Farah Ali (Abdi Phenomenal)

Abdifatah Farah Ali (Abdi Phenomenal) is a spoken word artist, teaching artist, actor, and community activist. He is a student at St. Cloud State University currently studying clinical psychology. Abdi is dedicated to impacting literacy and youth leadership through the art of spoken word to restore peace back in Somalia.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Now in its sixth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. Available in full color for the first time and—another first—includes gorgeous, hand-drawn, poster-size, pull-out maps of the City of Saint Paul and Downtown!

The 2012 Almanac features 129 stories and 180+ photos. Contributors include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org.

The 2012 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $17.95 online (including S&H) at www.saintpaulalmanac.org and is available for $14.95 in independent and mainstream bookstores everywhere, as well as at libraries and coffee houses throughout the city.

Saint Paul Almanac's generous partners and sponsors include the City of Saint Paul's Cultural STAR program, McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), Lowertown Future Fund, Saint Paul Foundation, Mardag Foundation, F.R. Bigelow, Minnesota Humanities Center, Traveler's Employee Arts and Diversity Committee, Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, SPPS, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Black Dog Café, Clouds in Water Zen Center, Twin Cities Daily Planet, and KFAI.

Location & Directions

The "Stories from O.G.s" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. RSVP on Facebook

Carnival

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:29:24 +0000

1986 Saint Paul Winter Carnival ice palace, taken from Cherokee Heights (Photo: Axel)

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.

The photo stopped my heart. The ice castle lit up the night like a neon rainbow. The air around the castle glowed brilliant colors, and the blocks of ice were impossibly beautiful, translucent, and heavy as God. This was nothing short of a winter masterpiece. The frozen palace promised wonderful possibilities and magical thinking.

Plus, it was surrounded by clean, soft, fresh snow. I made up my mind then and there: I had to live in Saint Paul, because any city that would build a sparkling ice castle every year was definitely the place I would want to claim as home.

Fifteen years later, I am still here. And though our city most definitely does not build a pretty ice palace yearly, it does not matter. It does not matter.
Susan Solomon is the editor/cartoonist of Sleet Magazine, an online literary journal.

Sleigh Ride

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:33:51 +0000

(Photo: Rudy Arnold)

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, who’s decked out in her brown velvet cape my mother made. She has a shoebox for a sleigh and away we go to a magic winter land—over huge hills we ride, snow dancing in our faces.

“Time to come in!” my mother calls.

Always too soon.
Gerri Patterson was born in Saint Paul and has lived here for most of her life. She loves cooking, traveling, taking photos of interesting places, and eating good food; she also loves theater and writing. Wine is a plus.

Thirty Degrees Below Zero

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:26:27 +0000

(Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

I like the cold so brisk and fresh

it cuts through clothes

and crimps nose hair. I like

the winter mornings, dark at first

giving way to crystallized trees and pastel

sunrises. I like waking up

under six heaped blankets so deep I crawl out

of the mattress depression. The creep

of traffic and grumble of weather

is the Minnesota song. I feel the pinpricks

on my spine, the attention of every hair follicle

to tasteless air.

Holding on to morning in winter

with mittened hands, I like to greet

the day that steals

my breath.

Mary Wlodarski is a native of Minnesota, and a lover of nature and all things animal. She lives in Oak Grove with her husband, three horses, and miniature daschund. She is working on her MFA at Hamline University in Saint Paul while teaching high school English in Andover.

A Nostalgic Zephyr: William Hoffman on the Old Jewish West Side

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:22:46 +0000

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.

William Hoffman, Those Were The Days (T. S. Denison and Company, 1957); pages 26–27, 29–31.

(Image courtesy Minnesota Historical Society)

Do you remember the blacksmith shop on Texas Street where the mighty smithy, Mr. Reznick, labored diligently with peddlers’ wagons and sturdy steeds? This was Texas Street: an impossible morass of mud after each rain. It was so bad that Chaim Greenstein (Peg Green’s brother) wrote to the old Daily News asking for airplane service from State Street to his home at 320 Texas. There were other neighbors who felt the same way: The Senenskys, Blumstiens, Chases, Macarofskys, Hirschorns, Hoffmans, Gransbergs, Dietzes, Rosenblums, Lynches, Zuckers, Skroopkas, and others I may have forgotten at the moment. But today, most of these families have left long since and Helen Gransberg Turner (“Hawtkeh”), with her own family, reigns as queen of a shrinking dominion.

To live on State Street, which was paved and had sewers and running water, was the Mecca and dream of my mother. It was not her own comfort she was concerned about, but rather that of her daughters. How would any eligible suitor in his right mind ever get down so far as the end of Texas Street to court her daughters? “Gott zu danken” (thank heaven), however, all was not lost, for the tennis courts were across the street on the Minnetonka playground, and my mother took advantage of the terrain to bait the trap. Most of the “Castle Garden” dandies in their white slacks came down often to play tennis and my mother made full use of her homemade root beer to lure the unsuspecting. Who could resist the cold foaming drink? Finally, it was “Shloymie” Solomon who asked my sister Annie for her hand. What a potent brew that was, full of yeast and probably the forerunner of today’s atomic bomb. …

Harriet Island, known to us as “Bading House,” provided good swimming in the Mississippi River and the best picnic spot. There were cages with animals, slides, and sand boxes. For a hot shower or “vaneh” (bath) we went to the Wilder Public Baths for the weekly “Shabus” (Sabbath) clean-up—towel and soap for one penny. I would have written that even today one old patriarch makes the trip over the Robert Street bridge every Friday with a change of underwear bundled under his arm but now he is gone too.

Oh, that first delicatessen store, Levoonehs (Lebanon) on Fairfield. Do your nostrils quiver with the mixed, intriguing smells of herring, “shmookfleish,” Russian candies, halvah, and pickles? Can’t you see coming out from the back room, portly and genial, “Mr. Levooneh,” father of the Stacker boys and proprietor of the store? He also sold us our “chedar” writing tablets, “gragers” (noise makers) for Purim, and monkey nuts. And on one side on top of the glass counter were stacks of Jewish newspapers: Der Tag, Morgen Journal, and the Forvitz. …

Take hold of my hand and walk along with me. The day is clear, the sun bright, and there is a nostalgic zephyr which whispers softly of the promise along this winding path. This is the little world of our beloved West Side, and who can blame others who wish to claim it, too, for their own. We invite them also, and even those who are reluctant because for some reason or other, in the length and depth of their lives, have once wished to disclaim their childhood and the legacy of their parents.

Patrick Coleman is the Minnesota Historical Society acquisitions librarian. He was honored with the prestigious Kay Sexton Award at the twenty-first annual Minnesota Book Awards gala, serves on the board of Coffee House Press, and is a longtime member of the Ampersand Club and the Manuscript Society. He writes the 150 Best Minnesota Books Blog, highlighting books that are important to the intellectual life and identity of the state. Due to his work, the MHS library is one of the preeminent research libraries in the nation.

Feb 13, 2012: Alexander Wanna presents "Poetry & Comedy" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:24:14 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce the fourth in its 2011–2012 season of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams, which celebrate the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city.

The "Poetry & Comedy" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, February 13th, 2012 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. This presentation of the eclectic series, presented by Alexander Wanna, features Marlene Moxness and Andrew Cahak.

RSVP on Facebook

About "Poetry & Comedy"

Alexander Wanna

For as long as I can remember, poetry and comedy have both shared a large chunk of my brain. In turns, I have occupied the majority of my waking hours with thoughts of stanzas and sestinas, of punch lines and premises — perhaps a fair explanation for my general solitude.What is surprising when I look back is how little these two art forms have come in contact with each other in my life. While both work in that particularly stressful conceit of seeming to require precision and scarcity of language, both are more than happy to allow rambling, trailing language to shine through. Both pay particular attention to rhythm and pattern, and require a dual line of thought toward content and vocal presentation when read aloud. (Other connections, such as the preponderous amount of practitioners of both arts who suffer from alcoholism, are probably coincidental. Probably.)

It is such a pleasure, then, for me to pull from both worlds for my Lowertown Reading Jam. In "Poetry and Comedy," we will be pulling from both the Twin Cities stand-up comedy and poetry scenes (with some crossover of the two) to hopefully gain a further understanding as to why we drop our brows to laugh, raise our noses to appreciate verse, whether or not we really do those things, whether I am simply in the business of building and tearing down straw men, and, I don't know, maybe we'll all get high-fives out of it.

About the Performers

Marlene Moxness

Alexander Wanna is a man about town in these here Twin Cities. He has been published in the University of Minnesota's Ivory Tower and the Saint Paul Almanac.Currently you can see him cutting up bread for you at a local grocery store. Less embarrassingly, you can see him performing stand-up all around the Twin Cities (he does not get paid for this). He lives in South Minneapolis.

Marlene Moxness is a writer, stand-up comic, and trivia hostess from Minneapolis. She earned her B.A. in English at the University of Minnesota. Her work has appeared in the Albion Review and numerous times in the Ivory Tower. Villanelles make her think of sinister mustaches.

Andrew Cahak

Andrew Cahak was born in central Wisconsin and lived in suburban Iowa. He went to college (full time) and had a job (full time) and wrote and made art (part time). In the present: Andrew Cahak lives in Minneapolis, works (full time), and continues to write, perform stand-up comedy, and make art (part time [unfortunately]). In the future: Andrew Cahak may live in different places. He hopes to have a job (part time, if necessary) and will continue to write and make art (full time, if possible).

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Location & Directions

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Happy New Year from the Pig's Eye Post!

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:01:52 +0000

Welcome to the first Pig's Eye Post of 2012! We hope you've already got your copy of the trusty 2012 Saint Paul Almanac, grab one here if not.

This evening, Monday, January 9th, we are excited to present our first 2012 event, a Lowertown Reading Jam presented by writer, teacher, and performance poet Wendy Brown-Báez. The "Yours Truly" reading jam presents personal stories and collaborative poems, a reflection of what it means to be young, vibrant, determined, curious, and wise.

The "Yours Truly" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The next reading jam in our series takes place on February 13th, and is curated by Alexander Wanna.

From the Saint Paul Almanac's Saint Paul Calendar

On January 10th, there will be another monthly "Beaker & Brush" discussion between representatives of the local scientific and artistic communities. Through observing nature, scientists and artists can learn much that influences their research and art. From the aesthetically pleasing to sustainable design, join Janna Schneider and Curt McNamara for a discussion about Biomimicry as they explore the ingenuity inherent in nature, on January 10th at 6:30pm. Read More.

Ongoing, the Children's Museum presents Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites, which brings children and adults into the world of seven beloved picture books. From the gardens of The Tale of Peter Rabbit to the urban snowscape of The Snowy Day and the tropical island of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Storyland engages visitors in early literature adventures. In the exhibit's immersive environments designed for children from birth through eight years old, families discover that it is never too early to develop a love of reading. Read More.

A Prairie Home Companion returns to The Fitzgerald Theater for a run of six winter shows starting on Saturday, January 14th at 4:45 p.m. Join Garrison Keillor, and the whole Prairie Home gang for two hours of live radio fun. Ticket information.

For more listings of events in Saint Paul, MN, visit our calendar and get our listings directly in your calendar software (iCal format).

New writing from the Almanac

Gayla Ellis's story of her mother's work on the Radio Crew for the B-24 bomber plane known as the Liberator takes us back to the days of World War II in Saint Paul.

Michael Teffera's poem, Sunday Morning, tells a tale of cultural confusion. Michael is originally from Ethiopia and moved to Saint Paul in 2006.

Rich Broderick lives in Saint Paul and teaches journalism at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and gives us In The Dead Of Winter.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

The 2012 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $17.95 online (including S&H) at www.saintpaulalmanac.org, and is available for $14.95 in independent and mainstream bookstores everywhere, as well as at libraries and coffee houses throughout the city.

Saturday Morning

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:44:09 +0000

(Photo: Henry Jackson)

It was around 9:55 a.m. I was waiting for the library to open.

I saw a cute Ethiopian girl coming toward me. She had dark brown skin, short hair, and a pretty baby face.

“What time is it?” She asked me. Her English accent was very good.

“Five to ten,” I said.

“Oh, five minutes more,” she said, and she stood beside me.

“You know, you have a familiar face. By the way, what is your name?” I asked.

“My name is Queen,” she replied.

“My name is King,” I said with a smile.

“You are kidding! What is your real name?” she asked.

“My name is Michael, and my friends call me Micky. So where are you from, anyway?” I asked.

“Here,” she said.

“No, I mean not where you live, but where did you come from?” I asked.

“Does it really matter where I am from?”

“Sorry. Do you speak Amharic?” I asked her.

“What are you talking about?” she said in scorn.

Then I realized my thinking was wrong, She was African American.

“Oh, my mistake,” I said with broken sound.

“Excuse me, I want to go,” she said, and she went inside the library.

I followed her in slowly.

Michael Teffera is originally from Ethiopia and moved to Saint Paul on August 31, 2006. He graduated from Metro State University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and is currently working at U.S. Bank as an accounting specialist. His hobbies include bike riding, writing short stories and poems, and watching movies.

The Dead of Winter

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:09:08 +0000

(Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

We speak of it
as though it were a place,
a battlefield strewn
with corpses,
a burial ground
of shattered statues
hooded with snow.
We picture something
grainy, gray-and-white,
crow-like figures
hunching inside capes,
frost working its claw
into the heart of trees.
In this zone we hear
an echo, a dread voice
that chills words to zero.
Over on the dark shore
branches snap like bones.
Scurrying across the ice,
we wait for the crack,
never looking down
into the depths, so close
but a lifetime away,
the final holding tank
of those we couldn’t
hope to save.

Rich Broderick lives in Saint Paul and teaches journalism at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. Rich is a writer, poet, and social activist.

Radio Crew

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:30:54 +0000

Ione’s cousin, Elaine, and Ione, dressed in her work coveralls. (Photo courtesy Gayla Ellis)

Although I live in Minneapolis, I have a strong connection to Saint Paul. When I worked as a legal secretary in downtown Saint Paul, I could see across the Mississippi from my twenty-second-floor window to where my mother, Ione, worked in 1943 during World War II: Holman Field.

Born in Spicer, Minnesota, Ione moved to Minneapolis in her early twenties. During the war, she had a long commute from North Minneapolis to her job in Saint Paul: A bus took her to downtown Minneapolis, then a streetcar brought her to downtown Saint Paul, and a shuttle carried her across the Robert Street Bridge to the Northwest Airlines Modification Center, where she worked on a radio crew for the B-24 bomber plane known as the Liberator.

Designed by Consolidated Aircraft Company of San Diego, and mass produced by contractors like Ford Motor Company in Willow River, Michigan, over 18,000 Liberators were built from 1940 to 1945. The government contracted private companies like Northwest Airlines for final work. Ione’s crew added radios, communications, and lights, then routed and clamped cables. A petite and agile twenty-year-old, Ione did whatever job needed doing, including work in narrow spaces, like under the cockpit.

Production went on twenty-four hours a day, and each crew had to rotate shifts every two weeks (8 a.m.–4 p.m., 4 p.m.–midnight, midnight–8 a.m.). After work, she rode home on the shuttle, streetcar, and bus, often falling asleep on the last leg of her trip; the driver would wake her at her stop. A fellow worker acquired a car, and after that she rode with him, a great relief after months of public transportation. One night, she realized he had forgotten her. The plant gate was locked, she couldn’t return to the building, and she had missed the shuttle. Ione had to walk alone across the bridge in the dark to get downtown to catch the streetcar back, which was scary for her. That man didn’t forget again.

After Ione had worked almost a year, Northwest management discovered that she was four months pregnant and they took her off the crew. The only other work available to her was in administrative offices as a secretary, but she didn’t want clerical work; she was a competent mechanical laborer. She didn’t find another job until after my brother Bruce was born. She was hired at a clock factory to make cardboard boxes but soon proved her ability and moved into clock assembly.

Three million women had worked in the defense industry.

Three million women had worked in the defense industry. After the war, men replaced women in the workforce. It would be years before women would again be hired for those kinds of jobs.

When her husband returned from the war, Ione struggled with his abuse and alcoholism until she finally divorced him. She had witnessed the effects her father’s drinking had on her mother and family. After the war, she met Joe, a World War II veteran and a switchman on the Northern Pacific Railway. They married in 1948, raised Bruce, and had four children together, including me. Ione spent the next part of her life as a mother of five and a homemaker in Fridley.

Ione carries a certain pride from those days. She moved from small town to big city and also changed her life. She gained confidence in her ability to do skilled labor. She still learns as much as she can, reads avidly, and stays interested in new ideas and adventures. She was the family photographer, and recently we have been sorting and scanning her photos. New stories and old have emerged as we’ve gone through them, which brought forth these memories of Saint Paul. At eighty-eight, Ione continues to inspire me with her stories of survival during challenging times.

Ione standing by a Holman Field sign later in the day, after the above story was read by Gayla at a 2012 Saint Paul Almanac reading event at Jerabek's New Bohemian Cafe. (Photo courtesy Gayla Ellis)

Gayla Ellis—photographer, writer, editor, performer, and publisher—is a Minneapolis resident who was a legal secretary in downtown St. Paul for many years and prefers that city’s scene to downtown Minneapolis.

Jan 9, 2012: Wendy Brown-Báez presents "Yours Truly" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:45:30 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce its first 2012 event—the third in its 2011–2012 season of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams which celebrate the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city.

The "Yours Truly" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, January 9th, 2012 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. This presentation of the eclectic series, presented by Wendy Brown-Báez, features Mai Vang, Tyler Marie Arends, Angela Ken, Chaunesty Perkings, Michael Liljedahl, and English teacher Jennifer Plum.

About "Yours Truly"

Mai Vang, Tyler Marie Arends, Angela Ken, Chaunesty Perkings, and Michael Liljedahl

Language is one way we can explore the unknown, delve into our inner depths, articulate the stories that make us who we are, share our past and our memories, and affirm our hopes for the future. Someone once said, "Stories are the shortest bridge between two people." Using poems as guideposts, we launched into writing our own narratives that span between our contemporary technologically driven world and the beauty of poetic expression from poets of diverse backgrounds. We found places where we intersect, where we resonate, where we are uniquely individual, where we long to be heard.

Face to Face Academy is a charter school that enables students who have fallen behind in traditional settings to work toward graduation. Our after-school writing group wrote about home and dangerous neighborhoods, happy and struggling families, the joys and challenges of parenting, how to make the world a better place, sorrows and disappointments, our dreams and our blessings. "Yours Truly" presents our personal stories and collaborative poems, a reflection of what it means to be young, vibrant, determined, curious, and wise.

The "Yours Truly" Reading Jam sees the return of Saint Paul painter Ta-Coumba Aiken, our new-artist-in-residence. Ta-Coumba is the force behind some of Minnesota’s most beloved and acclaimed public artworks, including the Jax/Gillette Children’s Hospital mural, the Minneapolis Central Library’s tile fireplace, and the north side’s Pilot City murals project.

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Introducing the performers

Wendy Brown-Báez

Wendy Brown-Báez is a writer, teacher, performance poet, and installation artist. She has published poetry and prose in numerous literary journals and is the author of Ceremonies of the Spirit (Plain View Press) and Transparencies of Light (Finishing Line Press). Wendy has performed from Minneapolis to Mexico in bars, cabarets, cafés, galleries, bookstores, and cultural centers. She is the creator of Writing Circles for Healing and received 2008 and 2009 McKnight grants to teach writing workshops, which is how she met the staff of Face to Face Academy and became the after-school writing instructor. The grant enabled the students to create an art installation featuring a spoken-word CD that was installed at the school, at Altered Esthetics Gallery, at Mid-town Global Market, and was a part of Night On the Street. The writing workshop at Face to Face helps her keep her finger on the pulse of what young people are thinking and their responses to the world. Their resiliency and honesty never cease to amaze her. www.wendybrownbaez.com

Tyler Marie Arends is a native of Saint Paul and a graduate of Face to Face. She hopes to go on to college and major in law or medicine. In her spare time she likes to sing, write, and spend time with family and friends. She joined the speech club because she likes to act. She believes that writing has helped her to cope with all her struggles in life.

Angela Ken is a native of Saint Paul and has four brothers. She anticipates graduating in 2014 from Face to Face. Her goal is to fix cars and be her own boss. She says, “In life when your car breaks down and there is no one to help, I want to know I can fix it myself. Everyone needs a car mechanic and I want to be able to help people. Everyone in life has complications.” Angela likes hip hop and R& B and says, “I like to listen to music to help sort out my thoughts. Writing is important to me so that I can learn more about my life and improve my future.”

Michael Liljedahl lives in Saint Paul and will have graduated from Face to Face in December. His interest in life is to study gemology and become a jeweler. He particularly enjoys hands-on activities as a way to learn. He volunteers with Second Harvest, as he likes to help those who have even less than he has.

Chaunesty Perkings intends to graduate in June 2012. She plans on going to college to study journalism and pre-law with the goal of attending law school. Being a lawyer is her main dream, since arguing and debating are her rush-giving passions. She says, “At the end of the day, you need people to fight for you and to win.” She spends her free time writing, dancing, drawing, and photographing.

Mai Vang grew up in a traditional Hmong family. Although her parents wanted a good education for her, when she got to high school, things started to crumble. She got pregnant at almost 17 and her relationship with the baby’s father fell apart as he became abusive. She took the steps to protect herself and her son, got a job, and went back to school. She says she doesn’t regret the past: “It all got me to where I’m at now.” She will graduate this December.

Jennifer Plum

Jennifer Plum has been teaching English at Face to Face Academy in Saint Paul for twelve years. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and was inspired to become a teacher by one of her own high school teachers. He introduced her to Kerouac and D. H. Lawrence. She read On the Road when she was sixteen years old and decided that the “mad ones” were the people for her! The Eastside school community changed her life. She developed a career in charter schools, met her husband, fell in love, got a promotion as the Academic Director, had a baby girl, and found her voice. Working with youth through literature and creative writing continues to reveal to her the secrets of the universe.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Get directions

The "Yours Truly" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, January 9th, 2012, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. RSVP on Facebook

Get Directions →

Thank you from the Saint Paul Almanac!

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:01:31 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac thanks you for your involvement in our commitment to sharing diverse stories about our wonderful city.

Thank you for sending in your writing, attending readings, and financially supporting us. It's because of you that we are thriving!

Kimberly Nightingale
Executive Director, Saint Paul Almanac

Dec 14: Join Tata Diego for a ride on the Almanac Train!

Saint Paul Almanac — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:21:57 +0000

A Last-Chance Writing Workshop for 2013 Almanac Submissions

Diego Vázquez at a Community Editors meeting

Come and hear some great advice and get hands-on help with finalizing your poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writing for publication in the 2013 edition of the Saint Paul Almanac.

Our deadline for submissions for the 2013 Almanac is December 15th, but if you come to our workshop, we'll give you another two weeks to mop your vowels, iron your nouns, and polish your prepositions—before submitting your finished work to the Almanac by December 31st.

The "conductor" of our "Almanac Train" (chuckle) is Diego Vázquez, who has been a visiting Writer in the Schools for many years. His novels include Growing Through the Ugly and Border Town with the UFO Sky (forthcoming).

Vázquez is regarded as the founder of Poetry Slam in Minnesota. As a community editor for the Saint Paul Almanac, Vázquez is constantly searching for new authors, young and old, to publish.

In 2008 he was selected as a Saint Paul Everyday Sidewalks poet. Vázquez is featured on the acclaimed Equilibrium/Loft CD, Nation of Immigrants.

Location & Directions

December 14th, 2011. 6-8pm. Free. RSVP on Facebook.
Room 208, Neighborhood House at Wellstone Center
179 Robie Street East, Saint Paul, MN 55107
Free attached parking ramp

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Dec 12, 2011: Nimo Farah presents "Nomadic Expressions" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:47:15 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce the second of its 2011–2012 series of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams, celebrating the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city.

The "Nomadic Expressions" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, December 12th, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. This presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Nimo Farah, features readings by Louis Alemayehu, Nahid Khan, Jake Virden, IBé, Marisa Carr, Abdifatah Farah Ali, Adrienne Maiers, and Hersi.

The "Nomadic Expressions" Lowertown Reading Jam is a symbolic night of refuge for artists converging from many different walks of life. We ask WHO ARE YOU? and the artists acquaint us with the incredible stories they carry. They are creative, courageous custodians of tradition. They are educators and organizers who help us reflect on the question WHO ARE WE?

"Nomadic Expressionists" are offshoots from diverse cultures whose inspiration comes from across the world, permeating generations and surviving struggles of varying proportions. With their audacity, Nomadic Expressionists take us on a journey through metaphors of native languages and stories from birth places, and share ideas tackling things essential to our shared world. Nomadic Expressionists challenge our minds to be smarter and our hearts to grow wider.

Thank you to our artist-in-residence Lara Hanson for her fine work at previous Almanac events, capturing the energy of the events in beautiful paintings! The "Nomadic Expressions" reading jam introduces St. Paul painter Ta-Coumba Aiken as our new-artist-in-residence. Ta-Coumba is the force behind some of Minnesota’s most beloved and acclaimed public artworks, including the Jax/Gillette Children’s Hospital mural, the Minneapolis Central Library’s tile fireplace, and the north side’s Pilot City murals project. Welcome Ta-Coumba!

RSVP on Facebook

Introducing the performers

Nimo Farah

Nimo H. Farah was a community editor for the 2012 Saint Paul Almanac and loves the stories written and shared by everyday people. She recently began writing and has had poems and a short story published in the Water~Stone Review literary journal and the Saint Paul Almanac. An aspiring storyteller, Farah has shared her words at previous Lowertown Reading Jams, at Equilibrium: Spoken Work at the Loft, and at the Late Nite Seriesat the Pillsbury House Theater.

Nahid Khan writes poetry and short stories when the inspiration strikes, and is a member of a writer's group for people with family roots in the Arab and Muslim worlds. She is a Ph.D. candidate majoring in mass communication at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, with graduate minors in religious studies and museum studies. Her research focuses on news coverage of American Muslims.

Jake Virden is a writer, performer, organizer, and aspiring educator. Performing in the Twin Cities as a poet and MC for six years has provided Jake the opportunity to share space with amazing people from all walks of life. Jake's passion is participating in popular education as a means of understanding the problems facing our communities and envisioning pathways toward people power.

IBé is an award-winning spoken word poet who enjoys writing prose as much as he likes writing poetry—all because he likes putting words to those things he finds so hard to say. He is not the only resident of The Middle of the Atlantic, but sometimes “it feels like it," he says.

Marisa Carr is a poet, performer, musician, and interdisciplinary artist. She grew up in Milwaukee, but lives in Minneapolis.

Adrienne Maiers is back living in Minneapolis after spending time earlier this year in Nigeria. She is currently collaborating with the Yonic Arts Collective; continuing her daily yoga practice; teaching kiddos dance, music, and health; and studying anatomy. She is a human being and a citizen of the world.

Hersi has served in the U.S. military for 4 years, traveled to 22 different countries, and learned to speak three different languages. He is a performance poet, mentor, and University of Minnesota student.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

The 2012 Almanac features 129 stories and 180+ photos. Contributors include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2013 Almanac have until December 15th, 2011, to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org.

Get directions

The "Nomadic Expressions" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, December 12th, 2011, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. RSVP on Facebook

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Nov 16th is "Give To The Max Day": Support your Hometown Almanac!

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:13:51 +0000

What if you could help the Saint Paul Almanac win $1000 just by giving $10? On November 16, Give to the Max Day, you can. Make a donation now by clicking on the GiveMN.org graphic:

Last year, more than 42,000 donors logged on to GiveMN.org and gave over $10 million to Minnesota charities in 24 hours during Give to the Max Day. Together, we have the power to raise millions of dollars for thousands of nonprofits. The Saint Paul Almanac, with GiveMN.org—a first-of-its-kind giving website for nonprofits in Minnesota—is working to create a stronger nonprofit community for Minnesota.

GiveMN.org's online giving platform allows you to easily find organizations that match your giving goals, support them through secure credit or debit card donations, receive automated tax deductible receipts through email, and conveniently track and record your donations in a single online location. You can now also fundraise for your favorite causes—like us!—on GiveMN by creating a fundraiser page.

Why give on November 16th?

In addition to GiveMN.org's 24 "Golden Tickets"—$1,000 prize grants given randomly every hour—one $10,000 "Grand Golden Ticket" will be randomly given at 11:59 p.m. on November 16, 2011.

Why give to the Saint Paul Almanac?

At the Saint Paul Almanac, we know we all do better when we know each other. Our goal is to use storytelling to help everyone in Saint Paul become friends and neighbors—one big block club of Saint Paulites who understand and support each other in good and difficult times.

Arcata Press organizes the Saint Paul Almanac as a people's meeting space for sharing the stories of our community through our annual book, public readings, a community editor mentorship program, and other activities that showcase and honor local, diverse voices and artists.

We publish work of nationally acclaimed local writers like Gordon Parks and Garrison Keillor alongside emerging writers' work and writing from new immigrant, student, elder, and other communities.

In our partnership with the Saint Paul Public Schools, 2,000 students receive Almanacs as part of their social studies curriculum, and we sponsor an annual student writing contest for grades 5–12 as well.

Our goal is to work mutually with St. Paul communities to support a diverse, connected, and engaged city of people centered around local literature and art.

On November 16th, join others on GiveMN.org and support the Saint Paul Almanac!

Raise money online for Arcata Press dba Saint Paul Almanac

Your story wanted for the 2013 Almanac -- Deadline: December 15th, 2011

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:24:34 +0000

What is YOUR Saint Paul? The Saint Paul Almanac wants to know!

The Saint Paul Almanac is a people’s meeting space for sharing the life of our city—a literary campfire around which our vibrant community gathers to share a unique mixture of stories, history, events, and art. Come join our celebration of Saint Paul!

We are looking for untold stories of Saint Paul: the funny, the embarrassing, the reflective, the sad, and the sweet. Do you have a story to tell? The best stories often come from your own experience.

The 2012 Saint Paul Almanac included stories about telepathic monkeys at the Como golf course, visiting the Pig’s Eye Island city dump, how the Skyline Towers got the name "Titanic Tower," and observing wildlife on the West Side. Other typical contributions have included profiles of Saint Paul people and characters, memories of historical events, family recipes, and reviews and stories about venues, restaurants, and other places people love.

Submitted stories and poems should be 600 words or less
Submit writing by December 15, 2011
There is payment for all accepted pieces

Your story or poem will be published alongside authors such as Garrison Keillor, Katrina Vandenberg, Carol Connolly, J. Otis Powell!, and Patricia Kirkpatrick.

A board of 21 community editors evaluate stories and edit them, and all decisions are made democratically. Everyone is strongly encouraged to write—the unpublished, the professional, and everyone in-between!

If you make your living by writing or if you just like telling a story now and again, we want to hear from you.

Visit our submissions page for more information.

Share Your Memories of Deb Torraine

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:23:13 +0000

Deborah Torraine

Deborah Torraine volunteered for the Saint Paul Almanac as a community editor; hosted two Lowertown Reading Jam events (see videos below); authored short stories for publication; and, in February 2011, took on a new role as Director of Community Engagement.

In June 2011, Deb tragically passed away, leaving behind bereaved friends and family, but also leaving behind a community very aware that they were blessed to know her and deeply grateful for her gifts to them.

In the comments section at the bottom of this page, please share your memories of our sister... Deb Torraine.

OCT 23: Our Sweet Potato Sister: Celebrating the life and writings of Deb Torraine

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:58:19 +0000

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 from 6:30–8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) SteppingStone Theater, 55 Victoria Street North, St. Paul, MN 55104

Free event with dessert reception afterward, featuring performances by many local artists including:

Ananya Dance Theater

OBIE award winning actress Laurie Carlos

Louis Alemayehu of Ancestor Energy

Musician, songwriter Larry Long

Excerpts from the writings of Deb Torraine

This colorful and entertaining mosaic of short stories, poetry, and spoken word set to music, dance and photography will reflect on the life and work of Deborah Torraine, writer, artist, playwright, educator and grassroots activist. Deb passed away suddenly on June 10, leaving a rich legacy of art and activism.

Deb Torraine was an award-winning short story author. Her most recent short story appeared in the 2010 Saint Paul Almanac. Among Deb’s body of work are two popular plays she wrote for Steppingstone Theater, The Black Snowman, based on the book by Phil Mendez and Ruby! The Story of Ruby Bridges. Ross Willits of Steppingstone Theater notes, “Deb and her work have touched the lives of countless children and families, and our community is richer for having her in it. Hers was a presence of strength and joy, and we will miss her terribly.”

Deb’s environmental and community activism was as integral to her life as was her art. Most recently Deb served as the community engagement coordinator for Saint Paul Almanac. Deb, herself an urban farmer growing culturally specific foods, was passionate about feeding people. She was a Board Officer for AfroEco, a collaborative of African American artists, scholars, professionals and advocates. She partnered with EJAM (Environmental Justice Advocates of MN) as a Wellstone Fellow to bring environmental education into an inner-city middle school.

Location of the Celebration

SteppingStone Theatre
55 Victoria Street North
St. Paul, MN 55104
www.steppingstonetheatre.org

Parking: Plenty of free parking in the William Mitchell College lot across the street south of the theatre. The lot is on the corner of Victoria and Summit with an entrance from Victoria. Ignore the “permit parking only” signs, as SteppingStone has arranged free parking for us during this event.

Donations will be accepted for the Deb Torraine Scholarship Fund for Young Adults

Drop by or mail a check to:
Associated Bank
RE: Deb Torraine Scholarship Fund for Young Adults
176 Snelling Avenue N
Saint Paul, MN 55104
More info: (651) 646-8681

For More Information

“Friends of Deb Torraine” open group page on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/234506926565843/ (Feel free to join for updates)

Our Sweet Potato Sister: Celebrating the Life of Deb Torraine
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110839505691199 (Facebook event page)

RSVP: At Facebook event page above or email Blake at wildokra@gmail.com — Questions? Call Blake at 612-382-3591.

Nov 14th, 2011: Lowertown Reading Jam: J. Otis Powell! presents "Duende and the Sound of Soul"

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:00:30 +0000

So, then, the Duende is a force not a labour, a struggle not a thought. I heard an old maestro of the guitar say: ‘The duende is not in the throat: the duende surges up, inside, from the soles of the feet.’ Meaning, it’s not a question of skill, but of a style that’s truly alive: meaning, it’s in the veins: meaning, it’s of the most ancient culture of immediate creation." — García Lorca

Introduction by J. Otis Powell!

"I’ve been ruminating on duende for nearly a year pondering it's place in my cultural heritage and identity. Duende and the Sound of Soul is a way of inviting other artists into my exploration. A tall elegant griot advised, “let it hang like it’s got nowhere better to be. Push meaning to an upper register where falsetto is aspiration and reaching is creative process.” As a way of searching for duende in literature, I make words growl so the reader knows what it is to be fierce. I make them whisper softly, gently before they cry ugly and bare pain. True blues isn’t news but baritone notes from a tenor horn can move ancestors. Fire is needed more than light so orange lilies scream at the Sun; that’s duende. A flower is a lovesome thing when it screams because it carries dark stories from wounded souls. Artists learn craft so that we can be instruments for ghosts to sing through."

The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce the first of its 2011–2012 series of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams, celebrating the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city. The November 14th presentation of the eclectic series, curated by J. Otis Powell!, features readings by eight writers—Louis Alemayehu, e.g. bailey, Andrea Jenkins, Tom Kanthak, Leah Nelson, Alexs Pate, Katherine Pehrson and J. Otis Powell!.

The "Duende and the Sound of Soul" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, November 14th, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul.

Introducing the performers

J. Otis Powell!

Writer, performance artist, mentor, curator, consultant, Open Space Technology facilitator and arts administrator. J. Otis was a founding producer of Write On Radio! while working at The Loft Literary Center. He has received the Loft Creative Nonfiction Award, Jerome Mid-Career Artist Grants, Jerome Travel and Study Grant and Intermedia Arts’ Interdisciplinary McKnight Fellowship. In 2009 the MN Spoken Word Association awarded Mr. Powell! their Urban Griot Innovator Award and inducted him into the MN Spoken Word Association’s Hall Of Fame. Powell! is also a founding curator for Bridges—a performance arts program with Pangea World Theater. His poetry, essays and articles have appeared in two books of his original work: Theology (Traffic Street Press) and My Tongue Has No Bone (Porter Publishing) and numerous anthologies, newspapers and magazines. His writing was included recently in: Barefoot In The Mountains, Views From The Loft and his work will be featured in an upcoming anthology of poems from Downstairs Press. As of this biography he was recording a new CD project titled BALM! with TruRuts/Speak Easy Records.

Alexs D. Pate

Alexs D. Pate's debut novel Losing Absalom received a Minnesota Book Award and was named Best First Novel by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Other novels include the New York Times best-seller Amistad: The Novel; Finding Makeba; The Multicultiboho Sideshow, winner of a 2000 Minnesota Book Award; and West of Rehoboth. His newest book In the Heart of the Beat: The Poetry of Rap was released in January of 2010 and received critical praise. Pate’s first memoir, The Past is Perfect: Memoir of a Father/Son Reunion (working title) will be published in 2011. The book is about the struggles of reconnecting with his estranged son and entering into the world of memoir writing. Pate is Assistant Professor of African-American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Louis Alemayehu

Born in Chicago of African and Native heritage, Louis Alemayehu developed his poetic skills and musical sensibilities as a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s. From 1973 to 1976 he lived in the middle of Chicago’s Black Arts Movement in a creative and activist community that included Haki Madhubuti, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carolyn Rodgers, Sonia Sanchez, Phil Koran and a cadre of men and women who constituted the legendary artists collective known as the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, or the AACM. Louis believes that poetry is a tool for healing; his performances, lyrical twinings of jazz, chant, poetry and song, are art-as-ritual, often performed ceremonially. He has performed for the past 30 years with his seminal poetry-jazz ensemble, Ancestor Energy, a band of master improvisational musicians and composers that has included Carei Thomas, David Wright, Donald Washington, Gary Schulte and Mick LaBriola.

e.g. bailey

Multidisciplinary artist e.g. bailey is an award winning spoken word artist, poet, theatre artist, filmmaker, and producer. He recently released his debut album, American Afrikan, which debuted on the CMJ Hip Hop Charts. Born in Saclepea, Liberia, he is a founder of several foundational entities in the local and national community including Tru Ruts Endeavors; Sirius B, male performance collective; Arkology, spoken word and music collective; the National Spoken Word Coalition, and more. e. g. is a winner of the Hughes Knight Diop Poetry Award and several of his poems have been published in Solid Ground, the millennial issue of Drumvoices Revue, and Warpland, a publication by the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for creative writing. He was a co-founder and co-producer of Write On Radio!, an award winning weekly literary radio program on KFAI Fresh Air Radio, where he is currently an on-air personality for the Tehuti (Divine Speech) spoken word and hip hop show on Sunday nights (www.kfai.org).

Andrea Jenkins

Andrea is an award-winning poet, writer and performance artist. Her work has appeared in several publications and she regularly performs throughout the Twin Cities and the United States and Canada. She was recently named a Bush Fellow in 2011 and won the Playwright's Center's Many Voices Fellowship. She also is a Verve Spoken Word Grant recipient and Pillsbury House Naked Stages grant winner. She was also in the Inaugural class of the Givens Foundation Black Writers Retreat studying with Amiri Baraka and J. Otis Powell! Andrea holds a MFA in Poetry from Hamline University.

Leah Nelson

Leah is a Zimbabwean dancer, choreographer, actor, producer and director with a passion for organizing for social change through the arts. She first came to the United States at age 17 when she was chosen to represent Zimbabwe at the International Choreographer's Workshop at the prestigious American Dance Festival, eventually graduating with a BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
She has performed and taught nationally and internationally in venues like Brooklyn Academy of Music, Zellerbach Theater (Brussels), PS122, Carleton Dance Festival, (Brazil); and the Zanzibar International Film Festival (East Africa). She was a 2002 Fellow of the Intermedia Arts Institute of Cultural Development, a recipient of a McKnight Fellowship for Dancers (2002) and a Bush Fellowship for Choreography (2004). She has consulted and produced programming for major performing venues like the Walker Art Center. In 2003 she curated Hip-Hop Moves: Heroes and Innovators; and in 2006 she was commissioned to create "Requiem for a Homegirl" for the Momentum series at the Southern Theater and co-produced Hip-Hop Hooray!—a Target First Free Saturday event that included various Hip-Hop elements. She is a co-founder of 'B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop held at Intermedia Arts and Minnesota Spoken Word Association.

Introducing the musicians

Tom Kanthak

Tom has been involved with music for dance for over 30 years, as a composer, dance musician, choreographer, dancer and performer. He began his classical music training at the age of six with piano, and today plays a variety of instruments. He is also a trained modern dancer, having studied with Hanya Holm, Nancy Hauser, Claudia Gitelman, Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, and many others. Kanthak is on special assignment for Perpich Center for Arts Education in American Indian Aesthetics, Sensory Aesthetics, Indigenous Aesthetics, Dance Composition and Improvisation, Dance Musician and Composer. Tom received an MA from Ohio State University in Music Education; in 2006 he was in a Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teaching Program. In addition Mr. Kanthak was awarded a SURDNA Foundation teaching Fellowship to LaGuardia School for the Performing Arts in New York City by the Jerome Foundation.

Katherine Pehrson

Katherine Pehrson believes that the Renaissance never ended. An instrumentalist, vocalist, writer, student, actor, educator, commentator, conjurer of food, and real- live Mother. Kate’s scholastic background was grounded in the arts, history and education. She holds a B.A. from St. Olaf College, and an M.A.T. from the University of St. Thomas. Katherine’s training began in the Suzuki method, and continued with classical instruction in violin, piano, and voice. Her work includes two self-produced music albums and many collaborative efforts in live theater, film, screenplays, choral and orchestral works, poetry and spoken word performances and anthologies, and artist residencies in schools. She has collaborated with artist/poet mentor/friend J. Otis Powell! on numerous projects, including the upcoming CD release BALM! Katherine is currently musically influenced by Global and American roots music and is a lead vocalist and fiddle player in a local band. She lives in the suburbs with her husband and two daughters.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

The 2012 Almanac features 129 stories and 180+ photos. These contributors include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2013 Almanac have until December 15th, 2011 to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org

The 2011 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $17.95 online (including S&H) at www.saintpaulalmanac.org, and is available for $14.95 in independent and mainstream bookstores everywhere, as well as at libraries and coffee houses throughout the City.

Saint Paul Almanac generous partners and sponsors include the City of Saint Paul's Cultural STAR program, McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), Lowertown Future Fund, Saint Paul Foundation, Mardag Foundation, F.R. Bigelow, Minnesota Humanities Center, Traveler's Employee Arts and Diversity Committee, Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, SPPS, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Black Dog Café, Clouds in Water Zen Center, Twin Cities Daily Planet and KFAI.

The “Duende and the Sound of Soul” Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, November 14th, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul.

Get directions

Get Directions →

Saint Paul Almanac Readings, coming to a coffee bar near you...

Saint Paul Almanac — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:41:33 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac Readings series takes place from September to November 2011, in coffee bars around the city, featuring writers who were published in the 2012 Saint Paul Almanac reading their poems and stories. Events are free and all ages. Copies of the new 2012 Saint Paul Almanac will be available for purchase at the readings.

Thursday Sept. 22, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Ginkgo Coffeehouse
721 Snelling Ave. N.
651.645.2647
www.ginkgocoffee.com

Thursday Sept. 29, 2011 — 6:30 p.m

Fresh Grounds
1362 Seventh St. W.
651.224.2348
www.freshgroundscoffee.com

Saturday Oct. 1, 2011 — 1:00 p.m.

Polly’s Coffee Cove
1382 Payne Ave.
651.771.5531

Thursday Oct. 6, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Cahoots Coffee Bar
1562 Selby Ave.
Saint Paul, MN 55104
651.644-6778

Thursday Oct. 13, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Common Good Books
165 Western Ave. N.
651.225.8989
www.commongoodbooks.com

Saturday Oct. 15, 2011 — 12:00 p.m.

Grumpy Steve’s Coffee
215 Wabasha St. S.
651.224.1191
www.wabashastreetcaves.com

Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Mad Hatter Coffee Cafe and Teahouse
945 Seventh St. W.
651.227.2511

Thursday, Oct 20, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Golden Thyme Coffee Cafe
921 Selby Ave.
651.645.1340

Thursday Nov. 3, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

The EDGE Coffee House
2399 University Ave. West
651.641.1656

Saturday Nov. 5, 2011 — 1:00 p.m.  

Jerabek’s New Bohemian Coffeehouse and Bakery
63 Winifred St. West
651.228.1245
www.jerabeks.com

Thursday Nov. 10, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Amore Coffee
879 Smith Ave. S.
651.330.0570
www.amorecoffee.com

Thursday Nov 17, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Claddagh Coffee
459 7th St. W.
651.600.3400

2012 Almanac book release events in September: Fundraiser (8th) & Party (15th)

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:43:29 +0000

2012 Saint Paul Almanac Fundraiser

Thursday, Sept. 8, 6:30-8 p.m., AZ Gallery, 308 Prince Street, Lowertown.
Readers: Poet Laureate Carol Connolly, Nimo Farah, Kofi Bobby Hickman and Patrick Coleman. Free book, hors d'oeuvres, wine. Help build our literary campfire! Suggested contributions: Match $50, Log $100, Flame $250, Smore $500. RSVP via Facebook.

2012 Saint Paul Almanac Release Party

Thursday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. at Black Dog Cafe, Clouds in Water Zen Center, and AZ Gallery, 308 Prince Street, Lowertown. Free.
Readers: Poet Laureate Carol Connolly, Kofi Bobby Hickman, Patrick Coleman with Molly Culligan, Michael Teffera, Saymoukda Vongsa, Sharon M. Day, and Louis Alemayehu. RSVP via Facebook.

Learn more about the 2012 Almanac

2012 edition of Saint Paul Almanac to launch in September (August 3rd, 2011)

Download the poster

http://saintpaulalmanac.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2012-launch-eventsposter-v3.jpg

Map & Directions

Get Directions →

2012 edition of Saint Paul Almanac to launch in September

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:57:59 +0000

Cover of the 2012 Saint Paul Almanac, a detail from "Lowertown Saint Paul" by Tammy Ortegon.

This September will see the launch of the 2012 Saint Paul Almanac—the well-seasoned sixth edition of the indispensable guide book to Minnesota’s capital city and Saint Paul’s unique and eclectic community storytelling hub of record! Check launch events here (September 8th and 15th).

This year, the 416-page, 180+ photo 2012 Saint Paul Almanac is available in full color for the first time and—another first—includes gorgeous, hand-drawn, poster-size, pull-out maps of the City of Saint Paul and Downtown!

Our unparalleled Saint Paul City Guide offers up-to-date listings for Art Galleries, Bookstores, Museums, Libraries, Historical Sites and Tours, Parks and Nature Reserves, Bars and Restaurants, Coffee Houses and Tea Shops, Deli Grocers and Food Co-ops, and Music, Dance, Theater and Performing Arts venues.

Detail from Roberta Avidor's hand-drawn map of Downtown Saint Paul.

Sample datebook page

Our Saint Paul Calendar—which includes a handy datebook where you can write your appointments and notes—includes listings for Saint Paul’s festivals, parades, exhibitions, and events. Both our City Guide and our Calendar have companion online versions available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org.

The Saint Paul Almanac is a literary campfire around which the diverse Saint Paul community gathers to share their stories. An experiment in democratic publishing, the 2012 Almanac brought together a multigenerational team of 18 volunteer community editors to blind select from 400 submissions the 129 stories, poems, and recipes chosen to appear in the coming edition.

Every story has a unique, individual voice which, when combined with other stories in the Saint Paul Almanac, becomes a chorus encompassing all the energy of Saint Paul today. High school students’ work appears alongside writing by grandparents, and first-time writers appear next to Saint Paul literary greats such as Garrison Keillor and Max Shulman.

Sample story page from the 2012 Almanac.

The 2012 Almanac includes stories about telepathic monkeys at the Como golf course, visiting the Pig’s Eye Island city dump, how the Skyline Towers got the name Titanic Tower, and wildlife on the West Side. Also included are personal portraits of Saint Paul people by Media Mike Hazard; classic Saint Paul stories selected by Patrick Coleman, Steve Trimble, and Anura Si-Asar; and a reflection by Joe Nathan on how Saint Paulite Bill Wilson has influenced the city.

The 2012 Almanac also features poems by Martin Devaney, Katrina Vandenburg, J. Otis Powell!, Garrison Keillor, Phebe Hanson, Saymoukda Vongsay, Jim Moore, David Vu, Chia Lor, Sharon M. Day, Patricia Kirkpatrick, Carol Connolly, Ethna McKiernan, John Minczeski, Elena Cisneros, Jill Breckenridge, Diego Vázquez, Greg Watson, Mary Kay Rummel, Patricia Cummings, Evelyn Klein, Linda Back McKay—and more!

The 2012 Saint Paul Almanac is a reliable companion for the endless exploration of new delights in our beautiful city, and a wonderful gift—packed full of thoughtfulness that will keep on counting all through the year!

The 2012 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $17.95 online at saintpaulalmanac.org (including S&H) and will be available in independent and mainstream bookstores—including Common Good Books, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com—after September 10, 2011 for $14.95.

The 2012 Saint Paul Almanac team

A Saint Paul Almanac community editors meeting at the Black Dog cafe in Lowertown, St. Paul

Saint Paul Almanac publisher, Kimberly Nightingale. (Photo: Bill Kelley)

Publisher and managing editor: Kimberly Nightingale
Community editors: Daunell (Nam) Barnwell, Maya Beecham, Mary Davini, Nimo Farah, Pamela R. Fletcher, Shaquan Foster, Andrew Hall, Barbara Haselbeck, Charlotte Kazlauskas, Patricia Kirkpatrick, Jewel Hill Mayer, Marianne McNamara, Arthur Nguyen, Sandra Opokua, Jennifer Syverson, Diego Vázquez Jr., Mai Yang Xiong, and Pa Yong Xiong
Copy editors: Sharon Parker, Jan Zita-Grover, Lucy Vilankulu
Cover art: “Lowertown Saint Paul” by Tammy Ortegon
Cover designer: Ellen Dahl
Designer and typesetter: Donna Burch
History facts researcher: Steve Trimble
Proofreader: Sally Heuer
Saint Paul city and downtown maps: Roberta Avidor

Book details

416 pages, 5 3/16 x 8 inches, 180+ photos, full color, two-sided 18.75 x 15-inch color map. ISBN: 978-0-9772651-8-3. $14.95.

Saint Paul Almanac is a subsidiary of Arcata Press, a nonprofit publisher.

Contact

Kimberly Nightingale, Publisher
Saint Paul Almanac
275 East Fourth St., Suite 735
Saint Paul, MN 55101
www.saintpaulalmanac.org
kimberly@saintpaulalmanac.org

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July 11th, 2011 Lowertown Reading Jam: Tata Diego Slams Again!

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:59:21 +0000

Q. When is a Jam a Slam?

A. When it’s the first ever Poetry/Story Slam with prizes from the Saint Paul Almanac and the last Lowertown Reading Jam of the second year of the series.

Diego Vázquez Jr., the founder of SlamMN

JUNE 21, 2011. SAINT PAUL, MN – Diego Vázquez Jr., the founder of SlamMN, will host a slam competition for the first time in ten years on Monday, July 11, 2011 as the final Lowertown Reading Jam of the 2010–2011 season. Join friends and fans of the Saint Paul Almanac from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street (across the street from the Saint Paul Farmers’ Market), and slam in any genre with Poetry Slam rules (3-minute limit per round).

Open to the first 15 slammers to sign up at the door (sign-up sheet opens at 7:00 p.m.). First Prize $150; Second Prize $75; Third Prize $50; and of course – all slammers receive applause and recognition! Five judges will be randomly selected from the audience.

Diego Vázquez Jr., slam-master and founder of the first and longest running Poetry Slam in Minnesota, will host a slam for the first time in more than ten years. It all started at Kieran’s Irish Pub back in 1995, and eventually, Diego led two Minnesota poetry slam teams to compete at the National Poetry Slam. In 1998 the team, comprising poets Loren Niemi, Bao Phi, Patrick McKinnon, Kate Peterson, and Diego Vázquez, competed in Austin, Texas. The following year they competed in Chicago, IL. Vazquez left the poetry slam scene in 2000 after securing Minneapolis as the site for the 2002 National Poetry Slam. He has been a visiting Writer in the Schools for many years. His novels include Growing through the Ugly and Border Town Sky. A community editor for the Saint Paul Almanac since 2008, he is constantly searching for new stories to publish. He is proud to have his poetry permanently cemented into the pavement as part of Saint Paul’s Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk.

A Slam for the Almanac of it…

Deborah Torraine

The July 11 Slam will be in honor of Deborah Torraine, recently the Community Engagement Director for the Saint Paul Almanac who died tragically and unexpectedly on June 10.

The Almanac has been hosting the monthly Lowertown Reading Jams since October 2009 to excited audiences who spread the word about their powerful, shared experiences. The Jams provide an opportunity to explore and bridge the cultural and social breadth of the city of Saint Paul throughout the year. Each Jam is produced and hosted by a well-known writer or spoken word artist. Saint Paul “performance drawing” artist Lara Hanson interprets the readings using Japanese ink brushes. All Reading Jams are American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted.

The entire 2010–2011 season of Lowertown Reading Jams has been presented at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, a popular Saint Paul venue for spoken word artists, and a co-sponsor of the series. This year the Jams have been curated by the following creative writers and agents for social change: Deborah Torraine, Tish Jones, Matthew Rucker, May Lee-Yang, Tou SaiKo Lee, Carol Connolly, Marcie Rendon, Desdamona, Melvin Giles, and Diego Vázquez, Jr.

 About the Saint Paul Almanac

Now in its fifth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. The 2011 Almanac features 129 works by 118 writers. These writers include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org

The 2011 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $11.95 online at www.saintpaulalmanac.org, and is available in independent and mainstream bookstores everywhere, as well as at libraries and coffee houses throughout the city.

Saint Paul Almanac activities are made possible, in part, by funds provided by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council from an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature. Sponsors and partner organizations include the Black Dog Café and Wine Bar, the City of Saint Paul and Saint Paul STAR Program, Clouds in Water Zen Center, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, KFAI Radio, The Lowertown Future Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation, The Saint Paul Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Travelers Arts & Diversity Grant, and Twin Cities Daily Planet.

From the Saint Paul Almanac: Remembering Deborah Torraine

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:56:51 +0000

Deborah Torraine

It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you that Deborah Torraine died last Friday night at United Hospital during emergency heart surgery.

Deborah had volunteered for the Saint Paul Almanac as a community editor, hosted reading events, authored short stories for publication and, in February 2011, took on a new role as Director of Community Engagement.

The graduate of University of California Santa Cruz had received training via the Wellstone Fellowship for Social Justice and did graduate coursework at Metropolitan State University in Developing Community. Deborah's work as a community liaison, prior to joining the Almanac, provided her with diverse professional affiliations that included organizations like Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation, Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, AfroEco, the arts community and the Somali and Southeast Asian communities.

Deborah was a writer, artist, and grassroots activist who supported so many important causes connected to the land, art, culture, and a good quality of life for all people. She often called herself a "cultural worker" and described the role as "working together in community to get important work done."

We are going to dedicate this Monday's Lowertown Reading Jam at 7 p.m. at the Black Dog Cafe to Deborah Torraine.

Deborah was very loved and will be dearly missed. She was an incredible force for good in the world.

The Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), featured Deborah Torraine in an April 2011 profile:

Another Crossing

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 20:20:50 +0000

The Crowne Plaza Hotel at 11 East Kellogg Boulevard in downtown Saint Paul. (Photo: Dan Tilsnen)

Vera’s death was just last December, and I am missing her on this May evening, as our forty-third anniversary approaches. I need time and space by myself, to think. A view of the Mississippi River twisting and turning sharply, as I am right now, would set the tone. A drink and something good to eat would be nice—a martini, a very good steak, a favorite after-dinner drink.

The car almost drives itself across the Wabasha Bridge to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where Vera and I often sat together at the Carousel Restaurant on the top floor, chatting like magpies, holding hands, teasingly rubbing knees under the table. She loved the twenty-two-story ride in the glassed-in elevator to the top, which I take tonight, to dine alone there for the first time in years.

From my lofty perch, I see empty barges riding high toward Minneapolis, full ones coming back, hunkered down in the water by their loads of grain. At sunset, city lights flicker on and wink flirtatiously, enticing people to come out and have fun—wherever their spirits take them.

I’m missing my partner tonight, but as I gaze down at the constant river, I realize that the feeling is different than it used to be. It’s not the desperate lonely of before; it is a tranquil lonely, a contented lonely, as if I am ready to accept that Vera is gone.

I finish a Drambuie, spellbound by the High Bridge, watching white headlights of cars coming across, red taillights going. A peace settles over me like the warm, comforting embrace of my childhood patchwork quilt. I am alone, but it’s okay. Tonight, I, too, am crossing a bridge, on a sometimes-bumpy road to my new life.

W. F. (Bill) Cento is either a glutton for punishment or a very slow learner. He came from a nice warm place in the South to a place where his automobile battery froze at least fifteen times during his first winter here in 1963. AAA threatened to revoke his membership. That should have been hint enough, but he’s still here nearly fifty years later.

A Little Brown Bird

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:20:03 +0000

(Photo: Juan Tello/Flickr Creative Commons)

A Little Brown Bird
Just landed on my windowsill.
Thought about coming in.
Bent her head, looked around. Looked
at my string of paper butterflies,
looked at me, then out
at the tree, flew to a branch.
Made the branch dance.
The leaves went crazy.
My heart did too.
A little brown bird.
Did all that.

Julia Klatt Singer writes poetry and short stories, and is a coauthor of Twelve Branches: Stories from St. Paul (Coffee House Press). She works as a visiting writer in the schools through COMPAS, and hasn’t found a river yet that she doesn’t want to cross.

Bird photo courtesy of Juan Tello. Browse Juan's photostream on Flickr.

School Bus Bullies, Superheroes, and Why I Remember the Kitchen

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:24:29 +0000

(Photo: Rosa Say/Flickr Creative Commons)

On a warm afternoon in late May, a long yellow Saint Paul school bus huffs and puffs down the street, full of noisy kids on their way home from school—kids full of high spirits because it’s warm again and summer is approaching fast; high spirits because soon school will be out.

I am six years old, scrawny and loud-mouthed, almost seven. I have one friend on the bus and his name is Andrew McKinley: McKinley like the president, McKinley like the mountain. He’s a best friend, one who shares his peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich with me at lunchtime—we have an unbreakable bond. We enjoy the bus ride home together, talking about cartoons and superheroes.

They say every school has a bully. I don’t know if that’s true, but our school has a bully. A big, mean kid with a bowl cut and a scar running down his cheek. He rides my bus to and from school every day. Every day, the loud voice of the backseat tyrant is heard over all the others. Laughter is silenced with a flick of his wrist. His name is Joe. No last name, just Joe.

On this warm afternoon in late May, Joe is picking on Andrew, calling him names, slapping him with the sharp metal edge of a ruler (a particularly nasty and popular weapon of bullies), pulling his hair. I say, “Cut it out,” and the bully’s eyes turn to me. I know those eyes. Cold, dead eyes. I’ve had trouble with him before, and I’ve seen those eyes turn black like a shark’s—like a shark going in for the kill. No words are spoken.

Joe tackles me, beating my small stomach and fragile rib cage. My head pounds repeatedly against the bus window behind me. My nose is bleeding and I’m crying, unable to hold it back. I’m six years old. I’m scrawny. I have a big mouth.

My cheeks are red and my head is throbbing. The bus doesn’t seem so loud anymore. The curious and eager faces of the other children watch from their seats, standing to get a better look. Pity on some of the faces, shock on others. Relief on most, as they are happy it isn’t them underneath the furious fists of Joe. The beating stops suddenly, and Joe is again at the back of the bus, sitting on his throne, in his rightful place. Children move out of the way for him, and I start to wish I had done the same. The children respect him, and I wonder why I don’t. He leaves me defeated, vanquished, finished. Bleeding at the front of the bus.

Andrew looks out the window. He watches trees and houses roll by. He doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t even blink. My best friend. He ignores me. He respects Joe. He isn’t President McKinley. He isn’t Mount McKinley anymore.

I’m still crying as I step off the bus at my stop, and the bastard bus driver hasn’t even noticed. He smiles and waves and tells me, “See you tomorrow.”

Andrew doesn’t look at me as the bus pulls away.

I run all the way home, bursting into the kitchen, out of breath, with red cheeks and wet eyes. The Ninja Turtles backpack slides off my hunched shoulders, and I let it hit the ground.

I feel safe in my mother’s kitchen, surrounded by shelves of tie-dye Tupperware and secondhand china; the smells of hot soup, baked bread, and scrambled eggs; the smell of sweets hidden on the top shelf. Here, my mother is queen. Here, where I sit every day after school and enjoy a snack, I nurse my bloody nose, I catch my breath, I wipe my tears.

I’m no longer crying as my mother comes into the kitchen to ask how my day was. I’m not crying, but she can tell something is wrong. She asks, “What happened? What happened to your face?”

I shake my head. I don’t answer.

I get a hug and a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. This bond is unbreakable. My mother is an angel, a Power Ranger, a superhero who knows how to make me a sandwich and who always has a cold glass of milk to wash it down. I am untouchable here in the kitchen, far from the school-bus tyrant, far from Joe.

Sitting in the warm kitchen with my mother and the familiar sights and smells, safe and happy, this is a feeling I won’t forget through the many years to come, through the many Joes and Andrews I will meet.

I see Andrew the next morning on the school bus. He gives me a Capri-Sun and a Fruit Roll-Up and we make peace. Best friends again. And then I say, “Hey, Andrew. My mom’s cooler than you.” The cool morning in late May feels calm. I can hear Joe in the back. I can hear the laughter and yells of all the other kids, excited because it’s almost summer vacation, excited because soon school will be out. And I’m excited too.

Years later, as my mother lies on a sterilized white bed in a hospital room that smells like medication and chloroform, I think about that day. The large, monstrous hospital that looms, intimidating, casting long shadows over the streets, has swallowed me whole, and I have a lot of time to think.

The warm afternoon in late May is shut out from this hospital room with its plastic flowers, strange smells, and no excitement. No excitement because it’s almost summer—no excitement, because she’s been in that bed for over three months, surrounded by strange machines that beep beep when something goes wrong.
It’s 2004. I’m not six years old anymore, I’m sixteen, almost seventeen.

Every day I come to the hospital, and the doctors offer no good news. You’d think they didn’t care. They don’t even seem to notice. They say they’ll talk to me soon. They say the same thing as I leave, running home.

My mother no longer reigns in the kitchen. No more peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches when I come home from school. Now it’s my turn to take care of her, although there is no way I can succeed. I am no angel. I am no Power Ranger.

I think about that day, and the bully Joe. My mom is being bullied now, by Leukemia—no last name, just Leukemia.

I say, “Cut it out.” But the bully ignores me. I am no superhero.

I think about that day, and I remember the loud-mouthed first-grader who thought he could stand up for his friend. I think about the loud-mouthed six-year-old that ran home to the safety of the kitchen. I think about the queen of the kitchen, the superhero who makes sandwiches and makes the world okay. I think about the Tupperware and the china and those comforting smells.

I think about today, and I wish I had the strength of a thousand Joes. I wish President McKinley would bring me a Fruit Roll-Up and a juice box. I wish I had the strength of a million peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. I wish my mother could run back to the kitchen where a hug and a snack will make everything okay.

Adrian Schramm is a German-speaking English major who has been writing and illustrating since the day his mother handed him his first crayon. He also spends his free time reading, cooking, and indulging in his true love: cinema. Recently graduated from Hamline University, Adrian is now on the hunt for fame and fortune, or whatever the economy allows.

Photo of school bus courtesy Rosa Say. For more photos by Rosa, browse her Photostream on Flickr.

My Mother's Garden

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:08:53 +0000

Tiffany’s mother Sy's garden in 2010 (Photo: Tiffany Lee)

Her garden, growing on Germain Street, needed just as much as a baby, every bit of her attention, love, and care. We moved so many times. The house on Germain was the fourth we moved into, but not the last.

The backyard of this house was a bit narrow and long and even had a little hill that led to a small woodsy area. Almost every day from spring until early fall, my mother came home to her garden ready to care for it. She threw on her black short-sleeved shirt, navy blue shorts, size five black Old Navy sandals, and a pair of yellow rubber gloves. She grabbed her square small chair decorated with lines crossing one another—showing the scratch marks and rust that have come along with it for the past years—and placed it in front of her garden, which was guarded by a two-inch-tall plastic wall to keep the soil from rolling away.

Her crops began on the right side of the yard. Tomato vines—the fruit gradually turning from yellow green to a firm, ripe, and bright red—weaved through the latticework of tall branches and sticks that my mother set to keep the vines from tangling on the ground. Next to the tomatoes grew beautifully bundled vibrant green onions and cilantro, then tall rows of lemongrass behind the cilantro. The greens included bok choy and cabbage heads, chicken herbs, and fish herbs for boiling.

My mother stood in front of each section for a couple of minutes to water it. I always noticed the satisfied look that it left on her face. The bright beaming sun sent its heat onto the vegetables, which led to them needing more water. My mother always stood there patiently; it was her way of meditating in complete relaxation after a long day of work. From the beginning of planting her garden, she had already chosen what she wanted to grow. She knew what vegetables we liked to eat, so I didn’t have to make any requests. Sometimes she grew vegetables we weren’t familiar with, but we were always willing to try something new. “It’s always nice,” she said, “to have new varieties of vegetables.”

We never complained; we did not need to depend on the flea market. But as winter approached, the garden suffocated under a heavy coat of snow. Later that year, we left the house on Germain and continued our lives in a new one. She again made a garden, planted her vegetables, let winter come to lay its coat on it, moved again, and continued. Her garden was our “home”—every time we moved, the one thing that never changed was the garden; it was always there in our backyard, guarded by a two-inch tall plastic wall to keep the soil from rolling away. She always told me to remember that having a garden “isn’t for your pleasure. It’s to make sure that your family will be able to have vegetables to eat with your meat so that it doesn’t taste so plain. So invest in your garden for as long as you can. It also saves you a lot of money!”

Tiffany Lee is a sixteen-year-old student at Como Park Senior High School. She enjoys reading and writing when she can. Watching TV is part of her daily routine. She likes to try new things.

Gordon Parks Recalling 1920s Rondo

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:04:13 +0000

Gordon Parks (Photo: Rose Sprott)

Gordon Parks was an acclaimed artist who confronted poverty and racism with such creative grace that he became an internationally admired cultural icon long before his death in 2006 at age ninety-three. An accomplished photographer, writer, composer, musician, and film producer and director, Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, and later moved to Saint Paul, where he spent his formative years. His memoir, A Choice of Weapons, which describes his experiences from 1928 through 1944, was first published in 1966 and reissued in 1986 and 2010 by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

In the excerpt that follows, Parks brings an outsider’s perspective to the experience of being African American in Minnesota. He is seventeen years old and living in Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood.
...

Neither were these new friends as militant as we back there had been [Fort Scott, KS]. The lack of racial conflict here made the difference. Minnesota Negroes were given more, so they had less to fight for. Negro and white boys fought now and then in the Twin Cities, but the fights never amounted to much. Some Negro boys dated white girls without any major outcry. . . . One night a white man approached a group of us at the corner of Dale and Rondo, our favorite hangout. He quietly asked us where he might find a nice-looking colored girl.

We all looked at each other solemnly for a few seconds, then Leroy Lazenberry, a tall, bespectacled boy, shook his head regretfully. “Well, sir,” he said with disappointment in his voice, “we’re terribly sorry, but we just don’t know where to find you any colored girls”—a long regretful pause and more shaking of the head.

“But I tell you,” he went on, his face brightening up (the man suddenly more hopeful), “we know where we can get you several nice-looking white girls—without any trouble.” The man flushed and took off hurriedly without another word. And we, our insides nearly bursting, could hardly wait until he was gone before breaking into laughter.

We weren’t subtle with restaurants that used to burn our hamburgers, over-salt them and serve our drinks in unwashed glasses. The White Castle chain was probably the most notorious for this; but after ten of us dumped our sandwiches on the floor one night and doused them with water, the practice stopped, at least at that restaurant.

There were exceptions, but Minnesota Negroes seemed apathetic about the lynching, burning and murdering of black people in the South. The tragedy taking place down there might just as well have been on another planet. And they didn’t press vigorously for rights in their own communities.
...
One Negro newspaper existed, the Minneapolis Spokesman–St. Paul Recorder. It had a small voice and a small Negro circulation. Its publisher, Cecil Newman, was as militant as the climate would allow—but the climate wasn’t allowing much. My young friends didn’t talk about these conditions very often. They seemed at times content with their lot. Or perhaps they were just awaiting the right voice or situation to jolt them into action. Even I, who only a few months before had faced starvation, had all but forgotten the frightful winter. Contentment was the word now, in the pleasant summer of 1929.

June burned into July. And July burned into August. By September I had saved a little money, received a two-dollar raise and fallen deeper in love; and on the ninth day of that same month I enrolled at Central High School. Working evenings and weekends at the club . . .

On the fifteenth of October, I asked Sally if she would marry me. She only blushed, laughed and explained, “Why . . . I must finish high school before thinking about such things.” I felt a little crushed; but she hadn’t refused outright. Furthermore, common sense warned me to finish high school too, before taking on a wife. I opened a savings account, anticipating the day, a year later, when we both would graduate.

—Gordon Parks, A Choice of Weapons, (HarperCollins, 1966) 52–54

Gordon Parks (1912–2006) was a photographer, filmmaker, writer, and poet who blazed an incredible path of artistic brilliance. He was born in Kansas and moved to Saint Paul at fifteen years old. After working as a porter, against all odds he made a name for himself as a fashion photographer in Saint Paul and later became a photographer and reporter for Life magazine, famous for his gritty photo essays about the grinding effects of poverty in the U.S. and abroad. He wrote several books, poetry, and screenplays. He wrote and directed The Learning Tree (1969) and Shaft (1971). His work won numerous awards.

Anura Si-Asar was born and raised in the historic Rondo community of Saint Paul. He is the copublisher of Papyrus Publishing Inc. with his wife, Rekhet. He coordinates the Imhotep Science Initiatives, an African youth development program at the Cultural Wellness Center. Anura is also a firefighter for the City of Minneapolis.

June 13th, 2011 Lowertown Reading Jam: Melvin Giles presents "Sowing the Seeds of Peace"

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 28 May 2011 04:13:55 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. On Monday, June 13, the Jam will be hosted and curated by urban farmer and peace activist, Melvin Giles. Centered around themes of gardening, feeding the hungry, peace and social justice, the evening, entitled “Sowing the Seeds of Peace,” will feature readings and spoken word performances by several community members from throughout the Twin Cities.

This Reading Jam is dedicated to the memory of the Almanac's Director of Community Engagement, Deborah Torraine, who passed away on the night of June 10th.

This penultimate Reading Jam of the 2010-2011 season takes place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street, located across the street from the Saint Paul Farmer’s Market. The evening includes solo presentations by a cast of gifted and talented multi-cultural artists including (but not limited to):

Melvin Giles

MELVIN GILES - Melvin Giles is a Peacemaker. He describes himself as a compassionate, cheerful, anti-racist, peaceful love warrior. He serves as a regional Peace Representative for the World Peace Prayer Society and sits on the board of World Citizen, Inc. Giles' passions include promoting the International Peace Pole, and working and playing in gardens and urban farms. He is a member of AfroEco and is on the leadership team of Minnesota Food & Justice Alliance. He is featured in the book The Compassionate Rebel. Giles walks the path of reconciliation, liberation, and human transformation. He is also known as the Peace Bubble Man.

ANDY DRISCOLL - A broadcast media journalist, content producer, writer/commentator and political and communications consultant, Driscoll produces and co-hosts TruthToTell, a weekly public affairs discussion program on KFAI Radio, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and periodically on local television and online video journalism sites. He appears, too, as co-host/engineer for KFAI’s American Indian public affairs program, First Person Radio.

NINA RASMUNSEN - Nina Rasmunsen has been writing and performing spoken word for two years. Her work focuses on issues of social justice, politics and self-reflection. Greatly indebted to the many mentors who have taken the time to challenge her and help foster her development, she is also forever thankful to her mother who has taught her what true love, passion and wisdom look like in the fight for racial and gender equality.

MUSTAFA AHMEDU SUNDIATA – A chef and baker for 25 years, Mustafa Ahmedu Sundiata, is also a food justice activist. For six years he has managed NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center’s Community Food Shelf, in the heart of North Minneapolis’ food desert. As the coordinator of the North Side Healthy Eating Project – a North side community collaborative of 25-30 partners he advises with Homegrown Minneapolis as they try to establish Minneapolis’s first Food Policy council. He believes that there is enough of everything for everybody and has a great passion for food and an even greater passion for getting food to those who do not have access to it.

Additional artists are in the works for “Sowing the Seeds of Peace” – please visit the Saint Paul Almanac’s website at www.saintpaulalmanac.org for updates and more information as the event date approaches.

The entire 2010-2011 season of Lowertown Reading Jams has been presented at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, a popular Saint Paul venue for spoken word artists, and a co-sponsor of the series. The Jams are curated by the following creative writers and agents for social change:

Oct. 11, 2010 - Deborah Torraine
Nov. 8, 2010 - Tish Jones
Dec. 13, 2010 - Matthew Rucker
Jan. 10, 2011 - May Lee-Yang
Feb. 14, 2011 - Tou SaiKo Lee
Mar. 14, 2011 - Carol Connolly
Apr. 11, 2011 - Marcie Rendon
May 9, 2011 - Desdamona
June 13, 2011 - Melvin Giles
July 11, 2011 - Diego Vázquez, Jr. SEASON FINALE!

 About the Saint Paul Almanac

Now in its fifth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. The 2011 Almanac features 129 works by 118 writers. These writers include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2012 Almanac have until March 1, 2011 to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org

Saint Paul Almanac activities are made possible, in part, by funds provided by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council from an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature. Sponsors and partner organizations include the Black Dog Café and Wine Bar, the City of Saint Paul and Saint Paul STAR Program, Clouds in Water Zen Center, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, KFAI Radio, The Lowertown Future Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Travelers Arts & Diversity Grant, and Twin Cities Daily Planet.

Pig's Eye Post Spring Edition: Things to do Outside | New and Closing Exhibits

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:12:07 +0000

City Paper A-List: The Almanac's Lowertown Reading Jams

Melvin Giles

City Paper A-Listed the recent Lowertown Reading Jam curated by Desdamona and had this to say about the Saint Paul Almanac's live reading events:

Although the Saint Paul Almanac publishes only yearly, the organization stays active between issues by maintaining its interactive website and putting together cool events, like the Lowertown Reading Jams. Each month, the happening is hosted by a different author of note, who is joined by other up-and-coming artists.... Authors scheduled in coming months include Melvin Giles (June 13) and Diego Vázquez Jr. (July 11).

We'll be publishing more information about the coming Melvin Giles reading jam later this week. Watch this space!

Things To Do Outside: See the city from a fresh perspective!

(Photo: Sharyn Morrow/Flickr Creative Commons)

If you've never done it, you owe yourself a trip on a Mississippi riverboat in St. Paul, MN. Padelford Riverboats offer a calendar of sightseeing and meal-oriented cruises at http://www.riverrides.com/pages/public/calendar.html

Things To Do Outside: Free "Music in the Parks" series

The summer-long series features more than 100 performances by local musicians hosted in Parks throughout the City, including a new noon-time concert feature that boasts a series of performances at Raspberry Island. All the music performances are free, and a variety of genres are featured throughout the summer including; orchestra, blues/jazz, 50’s doo-wop and popular music.

May 2011 "Music in the Parks" Calendar

All May shows listed above take place at the Como Lakeside Pavilion, apart from the May 31st show at Mears Park

Find Como Lakeside Pavilion on Google Maps.

For more information about Music in the Parks, including the full May-September Schedule, see http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=1357

Brand New Exhibit: "Underwear: A Brief History"

Munsingwear Vintage Advertising

The Minnesota Historical Society is currently holding a Spring-Fall exhibit, titled "Underwear: A Brief History". The exhibit is more than a wintery collection of Minnesotan long johns and thermal bras and invites visitors to:

See the kinds of underpinnings worn by generations past, from Victorian flappers to 1970s modsters. The Minnesota Historical Society holds in its collection the business records, including product samples, of Munsingwear, Inc. View items from the collection including photos, advertisements and clothing like the union suit, women's undergarments made by Vassarette, and men's briefs with the "kangaroo pouch."

Ongoing to Sept. 11, 2011. For more information, visit www.minnesotahistorycenter.org

Last Chance Exhibit: Last month of spectacular woodturning pieces

Jim Christiansen's "Seeing...Feelingly"

"There is nothing more sincere and authentic than the curious roadside monuments people erect to commemorate the death of a loved one... Plastic flowers, a partially burned candle in a broken whiskey bottle, a teddy bear with one arm torn off and perhaps an illegible photograph wrapped in a torn baggie, come together, as a sacred monument. Replacing marble and bronze, the bric-a-brac of the modern world can represent our most sacred and profound feelings. As in the highway memorials, the objects represented by the images in this work become a means to access and experience the flow of my own life with some feeling and understanding." — Jim Christiansen

The exhibit in the Landmark Center's Gallery of Wood Art is sponsored by the
American Association of Woodturners, who note "The artists in this international invitational exhibit are professionals, most with work in respected museum and private collections. Their work is rooted by their connection to their medium; woodturning at this level requires deep practical knowledge of tools, techniques and an amazing diversity of woods, as well as artistic talent and dedication to the creative process."

Through June 19th. For more information, visit www.galleryofwoodart.org

Our events calendar is stocked full of ideas of things to do every day:

http://saintpaulalmanac.org/saint-paul-calendar/

Mississippi riverboat and ticket photo courtesy Sharyn Morrow. Browse Sharyn's photostream on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/

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Too Big for My Skin

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:13:56 +0000

Desdamona

My momma never told a lie, she couldn’t when the truth was clear
Through stretch marks and crow’s feet, the truth is what she told me
Not through words, but through the curve of her hips
The gleam in her eyes . . . the memories on her lips
She is so beautiful, that her skin can’t even keep her concealed
She is so beautiful, that in her early days
she carried another life inside her, manifested the fire
Sending her existence higher
She has tracks on her breasts, stretched and pressed
from days when there was no time to rest
And she gave birth to my dreams, unselfishly
Because hers she could not see
She never told me how to live, she showed me
She showed me the moon, sun and stars in her belly
She showed me the dirt on the soles of her feet
Cracked and worn into painfully beautiful designs
Marking her travels . . . and mine
My spirit, dances in her eyes
And no matter how far I try to run, there inside I will reside
And when she flies, part of me will die
Lifeline stretched like the marks on belly and breast
And I will strive to survive with the rest
Imitating her breath
Rhythms resumed inside heart head and womb and she whispers to me in my dreams
that things aren’t always what they seem
She tells me that I am things I cannot conceive
She tells me that my hips could never be too big
And that those stretch marks don’t mean a thing
She says, that’s just your flesh trying to sing!
She says, don’t ever let someone try to take what is within
And if they tell you you’re too big for a woman
Tell them you’re just too big for your skin
Tell them, a body, just can’t hold all this beauty
Tell them, they only wish they had hills and valleys like the Earth
They can criticize, but they will never give birth
to the love that rests in your breast
They will never see the life in your hands
And you can never expect them to understand
Too big for your skin she says, too big for this Earth
Too big for anyone to ever determine your worth
Lips like peaches, plump nectar sweet
When your belly shakes with laughter it sends earthquakes and tremors
Keeping time with your heart beat, arms like ivy
Twisting, taking it all into your hands
Fingertips like matches, setting flames to all you touch
They may try to call you a witch
Because they cannot grasp the magic you possess
They cannot even begin to imagine the tenderness of your caress
Your memory, expands past what your eyes can see
And you can use this knowledge to set you free
You, are, too, big, for, your, skin
Not too skinny, too fat, too ugly, too pretty
Too white, too black
She says
You, are too big for your skin
And honey, there ain’t one thing bad about that

Desdamona is an international award-winning artist who has taken her distinctive lyrics, sound, and artistic stylings to audiences from Minnesota to Hawaii, from Puerto Rico to Germany, gracing some of hip-hop and poetry’s most illustrious stages.

A Normal Wet Rainy Day in Saint Paul

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:56:48 +0000

Rainy Downtown Saint Paul as seen from across Kellogg Bridge. (Photo: Punchup/Flickr Creative Commons)

I hold out my hand and feel the soft tapping of raindrops on my palm. They are cool and don’t seem to care where they end up. I take out my umbrella and hold it up so I don’t get wet.

It is fall. The wind starts up, and I am glad I wore my sweatshirt and rain poncho. The rain starts coming down harder now, and my patrol flag flaps madly as if trying to escape my grasp.

There don’t seem to be kids coming. I’m glad. I must look like a giant pumpkin, with my orange patrol poncho fanning out in a wide circle around me.

As the wind tugs on my umbrella harder, I decide to close it up and put it in my backpack. I huddle against the tree as I watch for the rest of the patrols to come so we can head in for school. But I don’t see the familiar bright orange contrast in the bleak gray that hovers around like a blanket.

I sit down this time, grateful for the huge poncho so my pants don’t get wet from the cold ground. I huddle down and wait for the shouts that signal that the other patrols are rounding the corner.

Unfortunately, we still have to patrol in this weather. Only if there is lightning do we head in, but, nope, no thunder and no lightning. Finally I see them, I laugh softly; we must all look like giant pumpkins. I run over to my friends, and we talk as we head in, and in the end I’m wet, I’m cold, but I’m happy to be here in Saint Paul. My home.

Frances Fuller attends Saint Paul Public Schools. She is in seventh grade.

Rainy view across Kellogg Bridge to Downtown courtesy of Punchup. Browse Punchup's photostream on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/punchup/

Remembering Katie McWatt through Arthurs' Words

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:32:30 +0000

Katie McWatt (Photo: Arthur McWatt)

Arthur McWatt is the author of Crusaders for Justice: A Chronicle of Protest by Agitators, Advocates and Activists in their Struggle for Civil and Human Rights in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1802-1985. He is a historian of the African American experience in Saint Paul, and a retired and widely respected history teacher, who worked in the Saint Paul public school system for more than three decades. In his book, he articulates a moving and informative narrative of history that spans over a century, locally and nationally. In the book, McWatt tells about his wife, Katie McWatt, who was a pillar in the Civil Rights Movement in Saint Paul. She passed away April 19, 2010, at the age of seventy-nine.

...

Katie McWatt was about thirty-three years old when she ran for Saint Paul City Council: In March 1964, civil rights activists Reverend Denzil Carty, Kwame McDonald, and Alpha Adkins convinced Katie McWatt to run for a seat on the St. Paul City Council. There had never been an African-American on the Council in the history of the City. Her experience as an advocate for improved educational opportunities, the hiring of more African-American school staff, lobbyist for non-discrimination in housing, employment of African-Americans in the building trades and a dedication to social justice were critical issues for McWatt.

She had the support of the local neighborhood organizations, the North Central Voters League, and was endorsed by the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL). Her grounding in government process came from her period working with the St. Paul League of Women Voters. She helped organize for the group and also encouraged them to place human rights on their agenda.

McWatt attended numerous coffee parties; door knocked in every ward and had volunteers staff the Katie For Council office located at the intersection of University and Rice Street. McWatt proved to be an excellent campaigner with a good command of the issues, extraordinary energy and a good memory for names and faces. Her husband Arthur and four children Timothy, Stacy, Christopher and Lynn supported her during this busy period.

McWatt's primary campaign showed that she captured 74 percent of Summit University, 84 percent of her precinct and 32 percent of the City. She became the first African-American to win a St. Paul City Council Primary and her name was placed on the general election ballot. She made a very strong showing and received 38,487 votes in the at-large citywide election; but she lost by less than 2000 votes. (p. 170)

Kathleen (Katie) Curry McWatt was born in Minneapolis to parents Mr. and Mrs. James Howard Curry (Helen Brady). Her sister Jean was eight years older. She graduated from the Minneapolis public schools. She went to the University of Minnesota where she earned her B.A. in Speech and went to the University of North Dakota for additional education in Counseling and Guidance. Her parents were born in Minnesota. Her mother was in the first graduating class from the newly built Minneapolis Central High School in 1914. Her father was a member of a large African American family who were born and raised in Hastings, Minnesota. He moved to Minneapolis, after graduating from Hastings High School, to become an automobile mechanic. He was the secretary of the African American chapter of the Masonic Lodge and an early member of St. Peter's AME Church. (p. 184)

From: Crusaders for Justice: A Chronicle of Protest by Agitators, Advocates and Activists in their Struggle for Civil and Human Rights in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1802-1985 by Arthur McWatt (Papyrus Publishing Inc.: Brooklyn Park, Minn., 2009)

Avian Celebrities on Como Lake

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:27:41 +0000

Loons in Minnesota. (Photo: Steve Wall/Flickr Creative Commons)

We were halfway around Como Lake when I heard it—the long mournful three-tone whistle-cry that grew in volume. I stopped. What is that? What is that? I know that sound. But it was utterly out of context, and I had to think to place it.

The bird called again. I stopped Doug and made him take out his earbuds. (He was listening to American Music Club on his iPod.) Doug, I hear a loon!

Como Lake is a small, urban lake. It is popular with mallards and wood ducks, herons and geese, and the occasional bald eagle. Not loons. Loons are shy northern waterbirds that we are sometimes lucky enough to hear when we’re Up North. They are not birds you commonly see, or hear, in the middle of a Saint Paul neighborhood.

Of course, Doug thought I was delusional. But there it was again, and this time he heard it too: aaaa oooooo ooooooooooo.

And then I saw them, out in the middle of the lake: By golly, a flock of about a half-dozen loons.

That April morning was gray and lightly foggy. The loons, we learned from other loon-watchers in the neighborhood, had flown in two days before, to pause on their way north for the spring migration. Floating among them were some mergansers and a few eared grebes—funny, herky-jerky birds with patches of orange on their oddly round heads. The usual ducks and Canada geese also populated the water. They were all bobbing on our little neighborhood lake, the newcomers and the regulars—the loons’ sharp profiles and white chests unmistakable amid the mallards and geese.

In late afternoon, we visited the lake again. The loons were still calling. By now, dozens of people had gathered along the shore, watching.

People knelt in the cattails, aiming long lenses at the water. People stopped at the edge of the path, binoculars pressed to their eyes. Others clustered in small groups and simply stared. One woman raised her cell phone and snapped a shot.

Cars stopped in the middle of the road so that the drivers could gawk. A guy behind the wheel of a green minivan peered through binoculars he held with one hand while chatting on a cell phone he held in the other. I’m watching it right now! It’s on the east side of the lake!

Loons live their entire lives on the water. They never come to shore; they cannot walk on land. They need lakes of a certain size in order to take off, run-skimming across the water a good distance before taking flight, and they have been known to get stuck on small lakes that don’t have enough room for their taxiing.

They stay mostly in the middle of the lake; they don’t hang around in the weeds the way the mallards do. So with only a pocket-sized digital point-and-shoot, my pictures weren’t very good. But they were a reminder, later, of the wonderful guests in our neighborhood that weekend.

Sunday turned warm and summery. In early evening, in seventy-degree sunshine, we walked down to the lake again. But the water was empty. The North had called, and the loons and grebes had moved on.

Laurie Hertzel is the books editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and has been a Saint Paul resident for nearly fifteen years. The University of Minnesota Press published her memoir, News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist, in September 2010.

Minnesotan loon photo courtesy of Steve Wall. Please browse Steve's Flickr photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewall/

Last chance to see the Spring Saint Paul Art Crawl; Almanac a finalist in the 21st Annual Midwest Book Awards!; New writing from Terry Ford, Karina Strom, and Captain Bob Deck

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 18:42:57 +0000

Saturday and Sunday: Last chance to see the Spring Saint Paul Art Crawl!

An accordian player at an event during the Saint Paul Art Crawl. (Photo: Nigel Parry)

Don't let rain stop play! It only happens a couple of times a year (next one in Fall) and where else can you see art by over 325 resident, guest and gallery artists? And, in such beautiful and historic buildings? And, best of all, it's free! Come and visit with the artists and performers who have made this grassroots event into such a success. Art lovers of all ages are invited to visit artists' working spaces to view a wide range of art and the historic architecture of Saint Paul. Special events, music and more, as well as always-surprising unexpected entertainments add to the weekend's ambiance.

Remaining days: April 30th — Saturday afternoon, noon-8 pm; May 1st — Sunday, noon-5 pm. For more information see www.stpaulartcrawl.org

Check out more events in our Saint Paul Calendar at www.saintpaulalmanac.org/saint-paul-calendar/

The 2011 Almanac is a finalist in the Travel and Reference categories of the 21st Annual Midwest Book Awards!

The Midwest Independent Book Publishers Association (MIPA) has announced finalists for the 21st Annual Midwest Book Awards. Entries included a record 213 titles from publishers in the 12-state Midwest region. Books were reviewed by judges for excellence in 36 categories.

Browse the list of nominees here. Winners will be announced at the awards event:
When: Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Place: Bloomington Arts Center, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington, MN

Reservations are required to attend the awards event. IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND, YOU MUST RSVP to Karen Walhof, chair: kwalhof@gmail.com

New writing from Terry Ford, Karina Strom, and Captain Bob Deck

Angels in the Skyway

By Terry Ford, April 30, 2011
In April 2009, my wife and I lost our house, then I decided to be homeless, and being depressed didn’t help things. This was a year from hell. Then I met some angels in the skyway of downtown Saint Paul. I did research and found out about the Dorothy Day Center. I stayed there at night, and I met some people I liked. Lindsley was someone I could talk to about religion and baseball—he was the first person to give me hope that things would get better. It was there that I learned a lot about people like myself who are homeless. I got to see that a lot of them are pretty caring people and very intelligent. They’re people just like you and me.

Rachel’s Trees

By Karina Strom, April 30, 2011
One of my favorite places in Saint Paul is Rachel’s Trees. Rachel’s Trees is a memorial to my sister who passed away a few days after birth. The trees are a small part of Como Park, but they are beautiful. They bloom white buds in the spring. They are only about five feet tall, but they are very important to me. Usually my mom, dad, and I go down to see the trees on my birthday.

High Water

By Captain Bob Deck, April 30, 2011
A grizzled old towboat mate of twenty-six named Steamboat Bill explained the dangers of working in high water to me in very simple, very direct terms. “Rule number-one is: Don’t fall in! If you fall in, you’re dead. It’s that simple. The current will drag you under and you’ll drown!” He told me this from the deck of a barge moored in South Saint Paul in the spring of 1975, when the Mississippi River was rising fast. Years later I watched as another young deckhand learned this lesson.

UPCOMING ALMANAC EVENTS: May 9th Lowertown Reading Jam: Desdamona presents “Silence and the Sound”

The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The May 9th presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Desdamona, features readings by four spoken word performers living in Minnesota. The “Silence and the Sound” Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, May 9th, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul.

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Angels in the Skyway

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:56:31 +0000

Waiting in the Skyways. (Photo courtesy: Sharon Mollerus/Flickr Creative Commons)

In April 2009, my wife and I lost our house, then I decided to be homeless, and being depressed didn’t help things. This was a year from hell. Then I met some angels in the skyway of downtown Saint Paul.

I did research and found out about the Dorothy Day Center. I stayed there at night, and I met some people I liked. Lindsley was someone I could talk to about religion and baseball—he was the first person to give me hope that things would get better. It was there that I learned a lot about people like myself who are homeless. I got to see that a lot of them are pretty caring people and very intelligent. They’re people just like you and me.

Then I found a place called City Passport for people age fifty and better. The manager, Renee, has a laugh you just can’t miss. Deb, the nurse, helps with health issues, and Trenton and I talk a lot about baseball. I enjoy talking, visiting, and doing fun things with the music group, the theater group, and the trivia group, which James leads. I also volunteer once a week leading a trivia group at the Apollo Drop-in Center, which is just south of I-94 on Dale Street.

4th Street Skyway in Saint Paul. (Photo: Kevin T. Houle/Flickr Creative Commons)

I started having coffee at Caribou Coffee in the skyway. Charlie, the owner, is a great guy. I’ve also gotten to know Britta, whom I have great talks with; Marcia, who has given me books to read; Olivia, to whom I gave the book Olivia, and who just had a baby girl in March; Jackie, who has started to work there again; Harvest, who got her name because she was born on Thanksgiving; Starr, whose smile brightens my day; and Chris, whom I love to talk with about sports. At the other Caribou Coffee, which Lexi ran, they have used my trivia questions.

I go to the Saint Paul Central Library just about every day because I like to read—I have gone there ever since I was a little kid. In fact, I enjoy reading now more than ever. I think it’s fun that when you read a good one, you pass it on, and you let someone else read it.

If I hadn’t gone to City Passport and Caribou Coffee, I would probably still be depressed and not wanting to do anything with my life. Now, I want to get involved in theater, do more writing, and keep looking for a job. I found that there are angels who live and work in downtown Saint Paul.

Terry Ford has lived in Saint Paul since 1972. His passions are the movies, baseball, and reading books. He has enjoyed writing for years, enjoys life, and learning new things. Terry is active in the City Passport program for adults “fifty and better” and is currently acting in two plays with the Passport Players. Terry attends readings and other performances by his Passport friends.

Skyway photos courtesy of Kevin T. Houle and Sharon Mollerus. Browse Kevin's photostream and Sharon's photostream on Flickr.

Rachel’s Trees

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:31:08 +0000

Rachel’s Trees at Como Park (Photo: Daniel Tilsen)

One of my favorite places in Saint Paul is Rachel’s Trees. Rachel’s Trees is a memorial to my sister who passed away a few days after birth. The trees are a small part of Como Park, but they are beautiful. They bloom white buds in the spring. They are only about five feet tall, but they are very important to me.

Usually my mom, dad, and I go down to see the trees on my birthday. The reason we go down on my birthday is because it was her birthday too. She was my identical twin.

If you ever want to see my sister’s peaceful memorial, it is just across the street from the Como Conservatory. That is one of my favorite places in Saint Paul.

Karina Strom is in sixth grade. Karina loves to dance and takes classes at MYDT dance; she has been dancing for about eight years. She also loves to act, travel, and go to new places. Karina is very glad her piece about her sister’s memorial, “Rachel’s Trees,” is in the Saint Paul Almanac.

High Water

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:19:30 +0000

Pig’s Eye Bridge from southbound towboat Paul Lambert (Photo: Captain Bob Deck)

A grizzled old towboat mate of twenty-six named Steamboat Bill explained the dangers of working in high water to me in very simple, very direct terms. “Rule number-one is: Don’t fall in! If you fall in, you’re dead. It’s that simple. The current will drag you under and you’ll drown!” He told me this from the deck of a barge moored in South Saint Paul in the spring of 1975, when the Mississippi River was rising fast.

Years later I watched as another young deckhand learned this lesson. It was spring of 1992 when he slipped on an icy deck and went into the swirling frigid water under the Lafayette Street Bridge. Two of us were right behind him, and we dropped to our knees and looked into the dark water but could see nothing. A second later, a gloved hand shot up, and we grabbed him before the current could carry him away. In seconds, we dragged him into the galley and deposited the sputtering kid on the deck next to an electric heater. He sat there blinking a few seconds before he could stutter, “Th-the da-damn cu-cu-current t-t-took my nu-nu-nu-new Sorrels right off my f-f-feet.”

The flood of 1993 was a time of learning for river man and animal alike. In the early morning hours of June 23, the river rose high enough to shut down railroad bridge operations, cover Shepard Road, and swallow up Harriet and Pig’s Eye islands. Then, half the barges fleeted in South Saint Paul broke loose. It took several boats to chase and round them up before they could collide with the other fleets and 494 bridge and cause some real catastrophe.

I later spoke with a deckhand who saw the breakaway. His boat was holding four loads that had hit the far bank when they broke loose. He pointed at a bare tree stump on the bank. It was about eight feet across and looked to have been torn apart. “That big cottonwood tree just exploded when the barges hit it!” he said.

One boat was released from cleanup to return to the wharf barge in Pig’s Eye Lake and retrieve those of us who would work the day shift. Four crews crowded onto the Lois E as she headed back out to the river to finish securing a couple dozen barges. The high water had created some new hazards as the current had increased. There is a shifting sandbar across the river from the old packing houses where the current is dammed, causing a series of rapids or standing waves with crests as high as five feet.

I watched from the port window of Lois E’s pilothouse as the pilot guided the boat through the first of the waves. The square bow dipped down and sank underwater before wallowing free of the river. As the boat pushed toward the next wave, we spotted two adult deer swimming frantically with the current. We watched helplessly as the pair of deer tried vainly to swim through the waves to get to us. They must have been desperate to think our noisy towboat would save them. When they were just a few feet away, they turned together and swam downstream away from the boat. Fatigue must have won out, because they disappeared between the waves and we never saw them again.

We walked the barges, surveying the broken rigging, and someone heard a mewing sound from the island, which had become completely submerged. The current swirled around the trees many feet over what had been solid ground days earlier.

In between the trees, a fawn struggled to stay above water. In response to our coaxing, it swam to the edge of the barge, but then panicked and swam around the upper end and out into the main channel. Worried that it would meet the same fate as its parents, we turned the boat loose, and the pilot guided us down close to the startled fawn. I held one of the deckhands by his belt and lowered him down as he scooped the fawn out of the river.

While the orphaned critter wandered about the galley, we made another round of the fleet and managed to free a family of ducks caught between two of the barges. It took a little effort with a broomstick to nudge them up and out of the space to where their wings could spread enough to get away from us. Sometime during the early afternoon, a U of M agriculture team came to pick up the fawn at our wharf barge in Pig’s Eye Lake.

After the flood. Emil Hartman, one of the deckhands who survived falling overboard, standing in front of Brian Brezinka in barge fleet along Pig’s Eye Island

Later that day, my brother Doyle, who was the mate on another boat, was training in a green deckhand. His boat was faced up on the upstream end of a group of loaded barges. It was time to remove the long, heavy wires that hold the boat to the barges. Doyle was strong and knew the technique and quickly threw one of the wires onto the hook on the bow of the boat.

“Don’t do that by yourself!” he yelled as the new kid set about to lifting the other side wire from the timberhead on the barge. It was a warning that was ignored or came too late. As soon as the wire was in his hands, he leaned back and fell onto his rear as the wire pulled him over the end of the barge and into the wicked current. By the time Doyle got to him, he had lost his grip on the edge of the barge and was about to slip under the fleet to drown for sure. Doyle dove along the deck, somehow managing to hang over the end of the barge and reach down just in time to snag the kid’s wrist before the current could suck him under the barges. He managed to pull the greenie out of the river and dragged him onto the barge. As they both slumped there catching their breath, Doyle said to him, “What did I tell you? Don’t fall in the damn river! If you do, you’re dead.”

Captain Bob Deck grew up on numerous Air Force bases, landing in Saint Paul during high school. He worked on the Mississippi River towboats for 25 years. Now he divides his time between writing about his adventures on the Mississippi River, piloting the Padelford Packet boats, and substitute teaching for Saint Paul Public Schools.

May 9th Lowertown Reading Jam: Desdamona presents "Silence and the Sound"

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:25:32 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The May 9th presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Desdamona, features readings by four spoken word performers living in Minnesota.

The "Silence and the Sound" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, May 9th, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The Jams will continue on the second Monday of each month through July.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

Desdamona

Desdamona has been performing in the Twin Cities since 1997. She has toured the US and overseas presenting her music and poetry and has released 3 full-length recording projects. She is currently working on a collaboration with beat box partner, Carnage the Executioner and a solo project that she hopes to release within the year. To find out more, visit http://thedesdamona.wordpress.com and find Desdamona @www.myspace.com/desdamona or on iTunes!

Marie Chanté

Chicago native Marie Chanté learned early on that stories are powerful and whether heard or unheard, everyone has one. As a child, her voice was sometimes hushed, but she knew writing would save her life. As an adult she stands on the stronger side of vulnerability and shares her joy of storytelling with all who will listen, through Spoken Word Poetry. She now lives in the Twin Cities with her three sons.

Cole “Inky” Sarar

Cole “Inky” Sarar writes lush, dense poetry exploring the themes of the body, feminism, science, and setting. She has been doing spoken word for a few years now, and has represented Minneapolis at the Women of the World poetry slam in 2009 and 2011, and was on the Punch Out Poetry national slam team in 2010. Inky has a thing for bicycles and citrus fruit. For more information, visit www.inktea.com

Laura Yurich

Laura Yurich began expressing herself through reading and writing at the early age of four. To date she writes poetry and journalistic pieces that reflect changes and struggles of daily life from a rather optimistic level. Born, raised, and residing in Minnesota, Laura has a degree in media arts and works in music licensing. For more information, visit www.laurayurich.com

ABOUT THE LOWERTOWN READING JAMS

The Almanac has been hosting the monthly Lowertown Reading Jams since October 2009, and they have been steadily gaining in popularity as excited audiences spread the word about their powerful, shared experiences. The Jams provide an opportunity to explore and bridge the cultural and social breadth of the city of Saint Paul throughout the year. Each Jam is produced and hosted by a well-known writer or spoken word artist. All Reading Jams are American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted. Saint Paul “performance drawing” artist Lara Hanson interprets the readings using Japanese ink brushes: http://larahanson.com

The entire 2010–2011 season of Lowertown Reading Jams will be presented at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, a popular Saint Paul venue for spoken word artists, and a co-sponsor of the series. The Jams are curated by the following creative writers and agents for social change:

Oct. 11, 2010 – Deborah Torraine
Nov. 8, 2010 – Tish Jones
Dec. 13, 2010 – Matthew Rucker
Jan. 10, 2011 – May Lee-Yang
Feb. 21, 2011 – Tou SaiKo Lee
Mar. 14, 2011 – Carol Connolly
Apr. 11, 2011 – Marcie Rendon
May 9, 2011 – Desdamona
June 13, 2011 – Melvin Giles
July 11, 2011 – Diego Vázquez, Jr.
About the Saint Paul Almanac

Now in its fifth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. The 2011 Almanac features 129 works by 118 writers. These writers include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2012 Almanac have until March 1, 2011 to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org.

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Seventh Place: Saint Paul's Window on The World

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:14:56 +0000

Hmong stall owners on Seventh Place during a summer farmers' market (Photo: Dan Tilsen)

Downtown Saint Paul is rarely accused of being exotic. But hidden right in its midst is a thriving, bustling microcosm of the great wide world. I’m talking about Seventh Place.

Only one block long, Seventh Place is Saint Paul’s answer to European pedestrian-only city centers. From the golden entry archway facing St. Peter Street to the frequent bustle of the Wabasha pedestrian crossing, the patterned brick underfoot lifts its denizens out of the workaday world and transports them to an old city square in Nordic Europe, or on days when the farmers’ market is in session, to Southeast Asia.

Even on nonmarket days, the Place offers a panoply of diversions. During Winter Carnival, the Great Waters brew pub puts out an elegant ice throne (I’ve heard that drinks are free if you down them while seated there, but I’ve never seen anyone brave it), and some years they feature a complete ice bar and side tables with chairs.

In warm weather, your mood can’t help but rise as the laughter and conversation from the dueling patios of Great Waters and Wild Tymes draws you down the street, past the stone slab of the Hamm’s Bear monument (even just glancing at it sets the tones of “From the land of sky blue waters” running through my head), to savor the always offbeat displays in the front window of the Artist Mercantile. You walk past the playbills for Park Square Theatre (during spring lunchtimes, swarms of middle schoolers pour onto the brickwork), the huddled smokers in the alley, the pigeon feeders slumped on wooden benches tending to their “pets.” The music of buskers accompanies you along the way—the Dylan devotee, the blues harp player, occasional students from McNally Smith College of Music—while the smell of baking bread wafts from Jimmy John’s and Bruegger’s Bagels. Finally, you pass the hot dog man, with his oldies station blaring and his beach umbrella spread wide above his wares.

Near the Wabasha end of Seventh Place, a perplexing mural decorates the side of Walgreens, showing central Saint Paul landmarks—but all out of place, as if the city planners had decided to scramble their toys and try out a new configuration. Gone are signs for a recording studio that never quite happened (for months, that sign was enough to inspire excitement at what might be coming next), and a mythical art supply store that was created for the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Jingle All the Way.

But there’s nothing like those Thursday (and sometimes Tuesday) farmers’ markets, when the whole street is ablaze with color—some from the enticing flower stall (which always seems to do a thriving business), and most from the tempting, delicious-looking displays of local vegetables. (Is that really food? It looks like art.) Most of the vendors are Hmong American, their stalls operated by family members of all ages. It’s a communal scene, one I’ve seen many times in the Hmong homelands (and elsewhere) in Southeast Asia. The old grandmother resting in the shade, the toddler content to wave an asparagus stalk in the air, the teenagers who’ve made sure they’re styling right even during work hours, and, under it all, the industriousness and tight-knit sense of family that so characterizes Hmong culture. I don’t always need vegetables, but my spirit never fails to be lifted by strolling past the displays, immersing myself in a vibrant, clustered community life that draws Saint Paulites of every age and background together, even if only for the length of a city block.

Though I tend to scoff at the conceit, I must admit that the sign above the defunct Palace Theatre advertising a long-closed Brave New Workshop show still says it well: “Minnesota, It’s Not Just For Lutherans Anymore.”

Daniel Gabriel’s new short story collection, Tales From The Tinker’s Dam, has nothing to do with Saint Paul. Though he has worked for COMPAS for over 20 years—both as roster artist and as director for the Arts Education and Arts in Health Care programs—he denies any conflict of interest.

The Farmers' Market

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:04:04 +0000

(Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

Buying vegetables,
Sniffing flowers sweet as honey,
Begging for donuts.

Near glass jars of jam,
My feet hit the ground in front of
Bright red strawberries.

Stall owners call out.
Beans, hanging like strings, float.
Crisp squash lies waiting.

Brown potatoes sit.
Piles of spinach start to wilt.
The Farmers’ Market ends.

I was six years old,
Skipping through the stalls,
A donut finally in hand.

Olivia Berven attends Saint Paul Public Schools. She is in seventh grade.

Benediction

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:17:41 +0000

Selby Avenue in Spring (Photo: Teresa Boardman/Flickr CC)

The sweet smell of lilacs
drifts over the city like a blessing.
Yesterday was winter,
today blooms radiant spring.
Cafe tables unfurl up and down Selby Avenue,
an old man shares a croissant with his dog,
joggers and tubs of pansies claim the sidewalk.
Sunshine glints off the cross on the cathedral,
fracturing golden light into tiny pieces of glory.

Marianne McNamara has strong favorable biases toward mysteries, ice cream, sidewalks, Italian food, watching snow fall . . . and writing. Her hard drive is full of works in progress; some she’ll finish sooner and some later. She never deletes anything. Marianne has been writing poetry for about fifteen years. Her work has appeared in Lake Country Journal, Talking Stick, County Lines, and Dust and Fire.

Selby Ave in Spring photo courtesy of Teresa Boardman. Browse Teresa's photostream on Flickr.

Porky's serves its last burger; The Almanac's Carol Connolly receives 2011 Kay Sexton Award; Mark your calendars for the Spring Saint Paul Art Crawl

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:04:48 +0000

Porky's serves its last burger

A crowd lines up during Porky's, at 1890 University Avenue in St. Paul, during the drive-in's penultimate day, April 2nd, 2011. (Photo: Punchup/Flickr Creative Commons)

Since 1953, Porky's has been the Twin Cities' classic drive-in restaurant, the arena for more than a few mating rituals of members of the Saint Paul species. The restaurant served its last burger on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011.

Nora Truelson, who owned Porky's with her son, began working as a waitress in the restaurant in 1957 before becoming owner Ray Truelson's girlfriend, and later his wife and business partner. Truelson passed away in 1994.

The red-and-white checkered building that houses the drive-in restaurant and two of its signs are being moved from University Avenue, by new owner Steve Bauer, to his historic tourist village near Hastings, MN, the Little Log House Pioneer Village, where the Porky's shell will become part of Bauer's collection of more than 50 historical buildings including several late 1800s and early 1900s structures.

KARE 11 reports that "The restaurant's iconic neon sign of a pig in a top hat was not part of the sale. The Truelsons have put the sign in storage amidst reports they will use it for a new food concession at the Minnesota State Fair."

Local media has been full of stories of Porky's final customers, people who have come from all over the city to relive memories and say goodbye to the iconic location. On April 1st, the Star Tribune wrote:

Russ and Evelyn Rau ordered burgers, onion rings and a strawberry malt to share -- just as they've done since 1959.

"When you get older, so many things from your past seem to disappear," said Evelyn, 69, who would still swing by with Russ whenever possible from their home in Inver Grove Heights.

At another table sat Jim Alexander, who grew up in St. Paul and now lives in Shoreview. He said he proposed to his wife along the back fence.

They are still together.

Photos courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.

The Almanac's Carol Connolly receives Kay Sexton Award at 23rd annual Minnesota Book Awards

Almanac partner, Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library announced the winners of the 23rd annual Minnesota Book Awards. The annual program is a project of The Friends, in consortium with the Saint Paul Public Library and the City of Saint Paul.

Carol Connolly, 2011 Winner of the Kay Sexton Award

At the Book Awards gala on April 16th, Saint Paul Almanac board member and Saint Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly received the previously announced Kay Sexton Award, for her lifelong contributions to Minnesota’s literary community. In the words of Carolyn Holbrook, 2010 winner of the Kay Sexton Award,

“Carol’s commitment to literature spans several decades and cuts across the many invisible lines that tend to divide us: age, race, economics, political affiliation, gender and sexual orientation.”

Connolly works tirelessly for the betterment of the literary community and the community at large. She is committed to supporting other writers, exposing readers to diverse literary voices, and bringing poetry to the streets. The Award is sponsored by Common Good Books.

Mark your calendars for the Spring Saint Paul Art Crawl!

Spring 2011 Saint Paul Art Crawl poster competition winner: Kevan Willington, “Meadowlark Rose” oil painting

April 29th – Friday evening, 6-10 pm.
April 30th – Saturday afternoon, noon-8 pm.
May 1st – Sunday, noon-5 pm.

Where else can you see art by over 325 resident, guest and gallery artists? And, in such beautiful and historic buildings? And, best of all, it’s free! Come and visit with the artists and performers who have made this grassroots event into such a success. Art lovers of all ages are invited to visit artists’ working spaces to view a wide range of art and the historic architecture of Saint Paul. Special events, music and more, as well as always-surprising unexpected entertainments add to the weekend’s ambiance.

This Spring will be the 31st Saint Paul Art Crawl! One of the largest events of its type in the Twin Cities and the country, the St. Paul Art Crawl is a self-guided tour of over 325 artists' studios and galleries in more than 27 buildings in St. Paul neighborhoods. The Art Crawl continues to be based in Lowertown and downtown St. Paul, but is now extending all the way up to University Avenue/Raymond Avenue, to Grand Avenue, and to Harriet Island and other locations which house artists. Details on artists, buildings and special events are available.

For more information visit www.stpaulartcrawl.org and to browse more events from our Saint Paul Calendar, visit www.saintpaulalmanac.org/saint-paul-calendar/

New writing from Daniel Gabriel, Olivia Berven, and Marianne McNamara

2011 Saint Paul Almanac contributors welcome the change of seasons:

Daniel Gabriel writes about Seventh Place: Saint Paul’s Window on The World.
Seventh-grader Olivia Berven remembers her first visit to The Farmers' Market.
Marianne McNamara welcomes spring in with a Benediction.

SUPPORT YOUR HOMETOWN ALMANAC

The Almanac needs your support!

Apr 11th, 2011 Lowertown Reading Jam: Marcie R. Rendon presents Anishinabe and Lakota Poets

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:48:01 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The April presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Marcie R. Rendon, features readings by three native poets and performers living in Minnesota.

The Anishinabe and Lakota Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, April 11th, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The Jams will continue on the second Monday of each month through July.

About the performers

Marcie R. Rendon

Marcie R. Rendon, White Earth Anishinabe, is a mother, grandmother, writer, and sometimes performance artist. Her poetry is in numerous anthologies, including: Saint Paul Almanac 2010; Traces in Blood, Bone and Stone; and in Poetry International – Ahani: Indigenous American Poetry. She has collaborated on four choral songs with international Mohican composer, Brent Michael Davids who resides in Saint Paul. Her script, Rough Face Girl, was the premier production for the American Indian Repertory Theater in Lawrence, Kansas, 2008. A former recipient of the Loft’s Inroads Writers of Color Award for Native Americans she is a l998/99 recipient of the Saint Paul Company’s LIN (Leadership In Neighborhoods) Grant to "create a viable Native presence in the Twin Cities theater community."

Sharon Day, Ojibwe - Bois Forte Enrollee. An artist and musician, she has spent 46 years as a Saint Paulite.

Marisa Carr is a poet, performer, musician and visual artist. She grew up in Milwaukee, WI, but currently lives and works in Minneapolis. She was one of 8 fellows selected to participate in The Loft’s Inroads for Native Writers program, and has been featured as a performer in various venues around the Twin Cities, including the award-winning Equilibrium spoken word series, as well as in Johannesburg, South Africa. Marisa is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe. She is 23 years old.

Click for enlargement

About the Lowertown Reading Jams

Oct. 11, 2010 - Deborah Torraine
Nov. 8, 2010 - Tish Jones
Dec. 13, 2010 - Matthew Rucker
Jan. 10, 2011 - May Lee-Yang
Feb. 21, 2011 - Tou SaiKo Lee
Mar. 14, 2011 - Carol Connolly
Apr. 11, 2011 - Marcie Rendon
May 9, 2011 - Desdamona
June 13, 2011 - Melvin Giles
July 11, 2011 - Diego Vázquez, Jr.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Now in its fifth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. The 2011 Almanac features 129 works by 118 writers. These writers include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2012 Almanac have until March 1, 2011 to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org.

New faces at the Almanac; Flooding in Saint Paul... then and now; New writing from Patricia Cummings, Tim Nolan, Marianne McNamara and Wendy Brown-Báez

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:32:50 +0000

New faces and organizational growth for Arcata Press, publishers of the Saint Paul Almanac

Arcata Press, publisher of the Saint Paul Almanac, is pleased to announce the recent hiring of three new staff members to assist in community engagement, fundraising and sponsorship development. We welcome David Unowsky, Deborah Torraine and Robert Smaller, Jr., who are joining us to expand our program outreach, despite the continuing economic challenges common to many nonprofit organizations.

L-R: David Unowsky, Deborah Torraine and Robert Smaller, Jr.

To learn more about our new faces, visit this page.

The Saint Paul Almanac now has a Lowertown office, overlooking the Farmers' Market, at 275 Fourth Street! More on that in our next blog!

Flooding in Saint Paul—Then and now

One of the downsides of living by the beautiful Mississippi River is having to deal with floods during the rainy seasons. The Minnesota Historical Society has an amazing collection of images from past floods.

Images of the interruption of transport networks from a 1966 flood. (Photos: MHS)

Can the Almanac resist captioning that top right photo, "Flood planes"? Probably not!

Top: Kellogg Boulevard in Lowertown, St. Paul, looking east during flood, 1965 (Minnesota Historical Society). Flood forecast graphic from the National Weather Service. Tip of the hat to Nathan Buttleman

As you can see from the above National Weather Service flood preparation graph, the Mississippi river is currently just over 18.5 feet high, with a current predicted crest of over 19 feet. Here are the various "Flood Impacts" designations for different water levels in Saint Paul.
14 feet - Minor Flood Stage
14 feet - Water Street Closed
14 feet - Lilydale Park area begins to become submerged
17 feet - Major Flood Stage
17 feet - Secondary flood walls are deployed at St. Paul airport
17.5 feet - Harriet Island begins to become submerged
18 feet - Shepard / Warner Road may become impassable

Top: Teenagers build dikes in Stillwater. (Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society)
Bottom: Charlie, who lives on the first floor of the Tilsner Building in Lowertown, St. Paul, demonstrates his sandbagging technique in back of the artists' cooperative. (Courtesy James Ramsay)

New writing from Patricia Cummings, Tim Nolan, Marianne McNamara and Wendy Brown-Báez

World War II—The Home Front in Highland Park

By Patricia Cummings
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, I was three years old. Two years later, my silver-haired father, Verne Cummings, was drafted into the Army. He was thirty-five and the father of two. After basic training, Dad was assigned to Special Troops, Headquarters Company, 8th Infantry Division, and spent the next two years in Europe. Dad always said he was assigned to Special Troops because he knew how to run a movie projector. Even though he had never finished high school, Dad was quickly promoted. After the German surrender, Sergeant Cummings led his squad to liberate one of the concentration camps.

Cold Night

By Tim Nolan
My feet are cold—the car
is cold—the car sounds
like a bucket of bolts
Rolling down a hill—
it’s so cold that my breath
falls like ice from the roof…

In Nomine Patris

By Marianne McNamara
The year was 1933: FDR had just succeeded Herbert Hoover in the White House, the first episode of The Lone Ranger aired on the radio, Fay Wray co-starred with a giant mechanical gorilla in King Kong, and the chocolate chip cookie had just been invented. The young boy hurried alone through the freezing darkness on his way to Assumption, the old German church on West Seventh Street, where he served daily Mass. It was still very early, barely five o’clock.

Building a Bridge with Words

By Wendy Brown-Báez
At the writing workshop, I ask the students if they are here because they think writing is important. A couple of them raise their hands. Then I ask if they are taking the workshop because they will receive extra credit, and most of the hands shoot up. I had offered to share my love of language by teaching this workshop at Face to Face Academy, a charter school for homeless youth in crisis, after learning that 70 percent of all teens in foster care end up being homeless for a year or two—foster parents no longer receive help from the government when the child turns eighteen.

SUPPORT YOUR HOMETOWN ALMANAC

The Almanac needs your support!

New faces and organizational growth for Arcata Press, publishers of the Saint Paul Almanac

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:32:36 +0000

The nonprofit publisher welcomes new staffers and expands program outreach despite the continuing economic challenges facing many organizations

Arcata Press, publisher of the Saint Paul Almanac, is pleased to announce the recent hiring of three new staff members to assist in community engagement, fundraising and sponsorship development.

David Unowsky

David Unowsky, founder and former owner of the nationally recognized independent bookstore, Ruminator Books, will join the nonprofit publisher as a contractor focused on raising individual contributions. In 1970, Unowsky opened what was then called the Hungry Mind Bookstore on the Macalester College campus. The store sold mainly textbooks, sweatshirts and mugs to Macalester students and families, but soon developed a reputation for hosting important Minnesota and national authors, providing cultural events and opportunities for students, and keeping a diverse range of writers on its shelves. For more than three decades the store thrived as part of the local literary community in an industry facing significant changes and challenges. Unowsky will bring to the Almanac his literary connections and an enthusiasm for diverse, high quality writing.

Deborah Torraine

Deborah Torraine has volunteered for the Saint Paul Almanac as a community editor, hosted slams and reading events, and authored short stories for publication, but she will now be taking on a new role as Director of Community Engagement. Her prior work as a community liaison provided her with diverse professional affiliations that include organizations like Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation, Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, the arts community and the Somali and Southeast Asian communities. Torraine says she knows the kind of driving passion that is needed to produce the Saint Paul Almanac, “yet, as any ‘change agent’ knows, more than passion is needed to make things run properly.” The graduate of University of California Santa Cruz received training at the Wellstone Fellowship for Social Justice and did graduate coursework at Metropolitan State University in Developing Community. “I am thrilled to be able to offer my skills to the Almanac, and to support the vision of a community-infused tome of memories, visions, ideas and melodies.”

Robert Smaller, Jr.

Robert Smaller, Jr., with more than twenty years of management experience and award-winning performance in sales, comes to the Saint Paul Almanac most recently from Redbird Media and Design – a publisher of neighborhood and community newspapers. A graduate of Augsburg College and former production floor manager for Ford Motor Company, Smaller will be responsible for sponsorship development and ad sales as the publication strives to grow in a challenging economic environment using the “three-legged stool” model of private fundraising and individual book sales, foundation and government grants, and corporate and small business sponsorships.

About the Almanac

Frequently described as “a literary campfire around which the diverse Saint Paul community gathers to share its stories,” the Saint Paul Almanac provides entertainment, photography, maps and listings of events, restaurants, theaters and other cultural venues within a datebook format. By combining the calendar aspects of an almanac with literary stories and poetry, the Almanac encourages readers to use their books and enjoy local literature throughout the year, effectively bringing good writing into the daily life of the city.

Led by managing editor, Kimberly Nightingale, the Saint Paul Almanac mentors a panel of community editors who collect stories in their diverse communities—both written and oral—and together decide which essays and poems to include in the Almanac. This collaborative and democratic approach with a cross-cultural and cross-generational team strengthens the relationship of the Almanac to the community it serves.

The 2011 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $11.95 online at www.saintpaulalmanac.org and is available in independent and mainstream bookstores everywhere, as well as at libraries and coffee houses throughout the City.

About Arcata Press

Incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2005, Arcata Press was created with the goal of bringing the diverse Saint Paul community together by supporting local literary arts through an experiment in democratic publishing. This mission is primarily accomplished through publication of the Saint Paul Almanac, public readings, mentorships, and other activities that showcase and honor local voices. The Arcata Press board of directors is an active board that is stunningly diverse and representative of the communities featured in the Almanac.

World War II—The Home Front in Highland Park

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:43:03 +0000

Patsy & Marylin (Photo: Patricia Cummings)

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, I was three years old. Two years later, my silver-haired father, Verne Cummings, was drafted into the Army. He was thirty-five and the father of two.

After basic training, Dad was assigned to Special Troops, Headquarters Company, 8th Infantry Division, and spent the next two years in Europe. Dad always said he was assigned to Special Troops because he knew how to run a movie projector. Even though he had never finished high school, Dad was quickly promoted. After the German surrender, Sergeant Cummings led his squad to liberate one of the concentration camps. After they had seen the camp, the GIs marched the town’s mayor and his cronies back there to see the horror of it firsthand. I remember Dad saying with disgust, “They all claimed they didn’t know. How could they not know!”

One time when Dad came home on leave, he brought matching rabbit fur jackets for my little sister, Marilyn, and me. Mother didn’t let us wear those jackets too often because they shed terribly, but the softness of the fur lingers in my memory. Another time, our next-door neighbor took dozens of photos of us with Dad in his uniform. Those black-and-white photos still exist and help me remember the few war stories Dad told us, but the stories of our life on the home front in Saint Paul are the ones I remember most.

While Dad was gone, we stayed in the little stucco house in Highland Park. Mother’s job was “to keep the home fires burning,” and that’s what she did. To supplement her allotment check, Mother moved Marilyn’s crib into my bedroom, and the three of us slept there so she could rent out the front bedroom. I remember only one renter—Rose, a small, pretty blond with a sunny smile. Rose’s husband, Sammy, was a naval officer in the Pacific. Rose was pregnant, and when she went into labor, Mother, who prided herself on always being in control, helped Rose out to the garage and into our car. And then Mother drove right through the closed garage door. Somehow, she managed to drive to the hospital, and both Rose and her new baby were fine.

When our water heater stopped working, Mother had to buy a new one. It was the first time she had ever made such a big purchase, and she was very proud when the new heater started producing hot water. By the end of the war, Mother had figured out how to singlehandedly run every aspect of our household. This made for some understandable tension when Dad came home expecting to resume his husbandly dominance, accepted as the norm back then.

During the war, everything was rationed. We had red tokens for meat, stamps for sugar and flour, coupons for gas. Mother did her shopping at Fort Snelling, where we bought groceries at the commissary, and drugstore items at the PX. We saved everything for the war effort—tinfoil from gum wrappers, bacon grease, newspapers, metal. Even rags. We had a victory garden in the vacant lot next door where we grew vegetables in impeccably straight, weed-free rows. Mother wasn’t happy with our neighbor Bea who shared this garden space because Bea just threw in a bunch of squash and watermelon seeds and let them grow wild.

Although Minnesota is in the middle of the continent, we often heard air raid sirens, warning that some far-flying enemy planes planned to drop bombs on us. The federal munitions plant in New Brighton could be a target, after all. Once, in the middle of the night, I woke to the sound of loud rapping on the front door. A civilian air raid warden stood there, chastising Mother, who had fallen asleep on the sofa with the lights on. Our little house had created a security breach.

When the war in Europe was over, our war on the home front was over, too. We drove out to Fort Snelling to meet Dad’s troop train, but soon learned that it was going to be delayed for hours, so we went back home, and Mother put us to bed. In the middle of the night, the bedroom door opened, the light went on, and Dad was standing there in his uniform. I jumped up on the bed, trying to get to him, got tangled in the sheets, and fell down before he caught me up in a huge hug. Dad was home for good, and our family was complete again. I had just turned seven.

Patricia Cummings grew up in Saint Paul. She graduated from the College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) and did what women of her generation were supposed to do—got married and had three children. Eventually, Pat went back to work and made a career in philanthropy for twenty-five years. Now retired, Pat spends many happy hours at her computer, writing prose and poetry.

Cold Night

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:48:52 +0000

Winter street scene, St. Paul, circa 1955. (Photo: Minnesota Historical Society)

My feet are cold—the car
is cold—the car sounds
like a bucket of bolts
Rolling down a hill—
it’s so cold that my breath
falls like ice from the roof
And the dog tip-toes
on the sidewalk—and the lake
seems to breathe deeply
Just as it freezes solid—
and the crisp snow under the tires
sounds like brown paper bags
Crumpled in a garbage can—
everything is cold—even the stars—
they crack—in the dark blue—

Tim Nolan is a lawyer and poet in Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and three kids. His poems have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, and on The Writer’s Almanac. Tim’s first book, The Sound of It (New Rivers Press, 2008), was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award.

In Nomine Patris

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:36:23 +0000

Assumption Church at 51 West Seventh Street in downtown Saint Paul (Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

The year was 1933: FDR had just succeeded Herbert Hoover in the White House, the first episode of The Lone Ranger aired on the radio, Fay Wray co-starred with a giant mechanical gorilla in King Kong, and the chocolate chip cookie had just been invented.

The young boy hurried alone through the freezing darkness on his way to Assumption, the old German church on West Seventh Street, where he served daily Mass. It was still very early, barely five o’clock. Sometimes the boy would stop at Davidson’s Restaurant, breaking his communion fast because he was hungry and there was never enough to eat at home.

Bobbie, the grumpy old woman who worked in the kitchen, would sneak him two hot doughnuts. He’d put them in his pockets and wrap his cold hands around their fragrant warmth. If she was in a good mood, Bobbie would have a steaming cup of cocoa ready for him. He’d gulp the sweet, hot liquid, enjoying the heat as it went to his belly.

Marianne’s father, Ray Lepsche (left), and his older brother, Dick (right), play in their yard on Geranium Avenue around 1929. (Photo: Marianne McNamara)

Donning his black cassock and white surplice, the boy diligently lit the altar tapers, holding the long-handled wick and stretching his short arms to reach the tallest candles. The old priest he served was strict and demanding. If the boy wasn’t fast enough when Father handed him the ceremonial hat with the woolly tuft on top, the priest would throw it on the floor. Then the frightened child would scramble to pick it up and put it carefully in its rightful place.

The boy was expected to recite the Latin responses in a loud, clear voice, and received a fierce glare if he forgot or stumbled over a phrase: In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. And yet, in spite of this, the boy was filled with love for God and all things spiritual. He would leave the holy place with an indefinable yearning for this saintly existence. For a time, the boy dreamed of being a priest, but then he discovered girls and chose a different path. In 1946, he married my mother.

My dad used his many talents over the years to help boys of all ages as a probation officer, friend, mentor, and coach. In return, he was greatly loved and respected by generations of youth. Dad passed away in 2005, but his memory lives on.

Marianne McNamara has strong favorable biases toward mysteries, ice cream, sidewalks, Italian food, watching snow fall... and writing. Her hard drive is full of works in progress; some she’ll finish sooner and some later. She never deletes anything. Marianne has been writing poetry for about fifteen years. Her work has appeared in Lake Country Journal, Talking Stick, County Lines, and Dust and Fire.

Building a Bridge with Words

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:55:16 +0000

Students at Face to Face Academy Writing Workshop (Photo: Carole Mannheim)

At the writing workshop, I ask the students if they are here because they think writing is important. A couple of them raise their hands. Then I ask if they are taking the workshop because they will receive extra credit, and most of the hands shoot up.

I had offered to share my love of language by teaching this workshop at Face to Face Academy, a charter school for homeless youth in crisis, after learning that 70 percent of all teens in foster care end up being homeless for a year or two—foster parents no longer receive help from the government when the child turns eighteen. Homeless might mean sleeping on a friend’s couch, not necessarily on the street, but when I think about my own teenage years—a time of opportunity and optimism for the future, not uncertainty as to where I might spend the night—I want to do something concrete to reach out to teens whose lives are in upheaval, to build a bridge between myself and them, to demonstrate that others do care.

Located at 1165 Arcade Street, Face to Face is a lighthouse on the shoals of broken families, domestic violence, unstable homes, and trouble with authorities—places where words are cheap and promises broken.

Even though I trust the writing process, I am always surprised at how much we accomplish. We read and discuss a poem briefly, then use a line or concept from it to jump-start spontaneous associations. Just keep writing, I tell them.

My students come back week after week. Each time they want to know how many weeks are left, but each week, they show up, even if they haven’t attended school that day.

We write about places we call home, what we will never forget, what makes us happy, our hopes and dreams.

I am a relative newcomer to the Twin Cities, and I had heard that for such a cold place, there is a warm heart. I find it here, at the edge where despair and hope meet, where a teen learns strength, learns to be responsible for his or her choices, learns that life may not be fair but you can ask for, and get, a second chance.

At the end of the workshop, I ask them to write on a slip of paper what they have learned. “What if I didn’t learn anything?” a student asks—the one with perfect attendance. “Then write what you accomplished,” I suggest. She shrugs. “I showed up.” I chuckle; but really, for a teen in crisis, that is an accomplishment. Not to mention the lovely poem that she hands in. Yes. We showed up. For eight weeks. For the sake of words.

Wendy Brown-Báez is a poet, teacher, spoken word artist, whose CD is titled Longing for Home, and author of a new collection of poems, Ceremonies of the Spirit. Wendy also established In the Shelter of Words, a special project at the Face to Face Academy charter school in Saint Paul.

Mar 14th, 2011: Lowertown Reading Jam: St. Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly presents Six Fine Irish Performers

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 01:17:50 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, the March presentation of the eclectic series, curated by Carol Connolly, features readings by six of the finest poets and performers of Irish descent working in Minnesota today.

The all-Irish Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, March 14, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The Jams will continue on the second Monday of each month through July.

About the performers

Saint Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly

CAROL CONNOLLY is Saint Paul’s Poet Laureate, appointed by Mayor Chris Coleman. She will emcee and read from her new book All This and More (Nodin Press). Connolly writes the “Hearsay” column for Minnesota Lawyer and was recently named the 2011 recipient of the Minnesota Book Awards’ Kay Sexton Award in recognition of her long-standing dedication and outstanding work in fostering books, reading, and literary activity in Minnesota.

KEVIN FITZPATRICK, poet and author of Down on the Corner and Rush Hour (Midwest Villages and Voices), and Greatest Hits 1975 to 2000 (Pudding House Press), is a founder and was editor of the Lake Street Review, a highly regarded literary magazine, now extinct. Widely published in literary magazines and anthologies, his poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac.

TED KING, at 50, started writing beat and dada poems and presenting them as part of an improvisational jazz group. His Word Jazz CD is Close to the Cool. He has performed in many venues including The Loring Bar, 7th Street Entry, Kitty Kat Klub, the Varsity Theatre, and more. One critic said of his work, “It’s like Charlie Parker and the Dalai Lama steal a car and run over Leonard Cohen.”

BRIAN LAIDLAW, poet and folksinger, is from San Francisco. His lyrics have appeared in American Songwriter Magazine, and his poems appeared or are forthcoming in New American Writing, FIELD, Quarter After Eight, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He was the recipient of the 2009 Gesell Award for Poetry and a finalist for the 2010 Loft Mentor Series. Laidlaw is completing an MFA in poetry at the University of Minnesota. He teaches songwriting at McNally Smith College of Music.

ETHNA McKIERNAN, poet, whose book The One Who Swears You Can’t Start Over, from Salmon Publishing in County Clare, Ireland, follows her Minnesota Book Award nominated Caravan (Midwest Villages and Voices), is widely published in anthologies here and in Ireland. Her new book, Sky Thick with Fireflies, also from Salmon, is set for October release.

MARY KAY RUMMEL, poet, will read from her new book, Sometimes What’s Left is Singing (Blue Light Press). Earlier collections include Love in the End (Bright Hill Press), Illuminations (Cherry Grove Collections), Green Journey; Red Bird (Loonfeather Press), Long Journey Into North (Juniper Press) and This Body She’s Entered - a Minnesota Voices Award winner from New Rivers Press. Rummel is a University of Duluth professor emeritus, and teaches at California State University, Channel Islands. Her poems trace a woman’s passionate search for illumination, which began with her personal exploration of the Book of Kells.

About the Lowertown Reading Jams

Click for enlargement

The entire 2010-2011 season of Lowertown Reading Jams will be presented at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, a popular Saint Paul venue for spoken word artists, and a co-sponsor of the series. The Jams are curated by the following creative writers and agents for social change:

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Now in its fifth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. The 2011 Almanac features 129 works by 118 writers. These writers include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2012 Almanac have until March 1, 2011 to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org.

Poetry you can stomp on; Upcoming LRJs; New writing from Gordy Palzer, Deb Pleasants and Diane Wilson

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 02:23:23 +0000

Poetry you can stomp on?

Here at the Saint Paul Almanac, we clearly value the written word, but there's definitely a time when it's good to walk all over it, scuff it, and jump around on top of it! For the fourth year running, the City of Saint Paul and Public Art Saint Paul have announced the St. Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest.

Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk: A Project by Marcus Young and Friends, Saint Paul Public Works, and Public Art Saint Paul with Contributions from Saint Paul Poets

The contest is open March 15 through April 17, 2011 and accepts short poems from Saint Paul residents of all ages. Winning poems will be inscribed in sidewalks as part of the City’s annual Sidewalk Replacement program and winning poets receive a cash award.

Past winners have included Saint Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly, and other published Almanac writers including Margaret Hasse, Diego Vázquez, Jr., and Patricia Kirkpatrick. The project's lead artist is Marcus Young, Saint Paul’s Artist-in-Residence since 2006. Since the program was inaugurated in 2008, 31 poems have been impressed into 268 sidewalk sites citywide:

View Larger Map

For more information see http://stpaul.gov/poetry/ and http://publicartstpaul.org/everydaysidewalk/

New writing from Gordy Palzer, Deb Pleasants and Diane Wilson

A Man’s Epiphany at O’Gara’s

By Gordy Palzer
It isn’t as far from Saint Paul to Nepal as you might think it is. This was all brought home to me several years ago, in the men’s room of O’Gara’s Bar and Grill on Snelling Avenue in Saint Paul, where I experienced an epiphany while gazing up at its fourteen-foot-high walls, and saw there evidenced a feat of heroic proportions—surely on a par, for ordinary men, that is, with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in their conquest of Mount Everest. Read More

Not Your Typical Irish Dancer

By Deb Pleasants
Grabbing the ballet barre to support myself, I attempted to stretch out my right leg. My thigh felt like a vise was twisting it tighter and tighter. The pain was so intense, I was afraid to breathe. I hobbled out of the dance room and nearly collapsed on the hallway floor. Massaging my cramped leg, I watched those energetic adults and wondered how I, a forty-seven-year-old Black woman with no dance experience, ended up in an Irish dance class. Read more

Early Spring

By Diane Wilson
Pale vision on an early day:
two gray wings gliding flat
balance on the body’s straight line.
A trill rises from the meadow….
Read more

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A Man’s Epiphany at O’Gara’s

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:51:07 +0000

On the corner of Selby and Snelling Avenues in St. Paul, O'Garas expanded decades ago into the space once occupied by the Family Barber Shop, owned by Carl Schulz, father of Charles M. Schulz. (History lesson and photo courtesy of Jim Ellwanger/Flickr Creative Commons)

It isn’t as far from Saint Paul to Nepal as you might think it is.

This was all brought home to me several years ago, in the men’s room of O’Gara’s Bar and Grill on Snelling Avenue in Saint Paul, where I experienced an epiphany while gazing up at its fourteen-foot-high walls, and saw there evidenced a feat of heroic proportions—surely on a par, for ordinary men, that is, with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in their conquest of Mount Everest.

This small, absurdly tall room had an annoying dimness, attributable to its “aesthetic” color combination: a deep, dark brown coat of paint defined its lower level, to about six feet or so, and from there on up to its distant ceiling, a putrid dark green took over. Yet I was strangely mesmerized by the relentless march of that ghastly green up the endless wall.

And that’s how I saw it—while gazing up at that expanse of avocado concrete—an interruption in the bland surface, a simple graffito proclaiming, “Big Irv was here.”

Few restrooms escape the plague of graffiti, man’s eternal desire to leave his mark. What made this scribble remarkable was its distance from the floor—it was even beyond a tall man’s reach from the top of the urinal, even if he could manage to balance himself on the porcelain fixture. How could this act of bravado have been accomplished by some mere, beer-swilling bar patron?

This is what I was pondering while tilting my head back to admire Big Irv’s claim—and then spied his better. At a still greater height, an astoundingly greater height, lay a second inscription, written perhaps in scorn of Big Irv’s bold boast. A scrawl at the very top of the wall pronounced: “So was Big Jake.”

I was astounded by the defiance of all laws of nature embodied in that taunt. I felt that I was in the presence of greatness and mystery, much as Howard Carter must have felt when he at last broke through the final wall and stood before the great tomb of Tutankhamen. Who could possibly have foreseen what great discovery awaited me in this men’s room, now a monument to the irrepressible ambitions of man?

As I gaped at the distant mark, another patron entered and took stock of my earnest but slack-jawed upward gaze with apparent alarm, so I left hurriedly, unable to give the moment its due.

Years later, I went back to O’Gara’s to see if perhaps those two brief epistles had survived the intervening remodel. But no, it was not to be. Not even a shadow remained. (I can only hope that the tradesman painting the remodeled restroom paused at least for a moment—in silence and out of respect—for the hand-lettered testament to masculine enterprise that he was about to consign forever to oblivion.)

I quaffed a beer as a toast to both Big Irv and Big Jake, and left that venerable old establishment with a lift in my step and a tip of my hat, thankful for having been made mindful of the great heights to which men can aspire—whether these heights reach into the sky in Nepal or the dingy walls in a bar’s restroom in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to go “where no man had gone before,” it would do them well to move over just a bit atop Everest’s empyrean heights to make room for Sirs Big Irv and Big Jake, who surely stand for the ordinary man’s capacity to aspire to—and achieve—greatness.

Gordy Palzer, in his ongoing quest to be a serious writer, has now resorted to writing a humorous story for the 2011 Saint Paul Almanac. As was the case a year ago, this pilgrimage has continually been delayed by various calls to other noble duties along the road of life, such as grandparenting, eking out a living through bone-wearying labor in a deli, and maintaining a backyard koi pond and wildlife-friendly yard. He hopes to semiretire next year and mine his rich mother lode of memories of growing up in Saint Paul before his faculties fail him!

Photo of O'Gara's courtesy of Jim Ellwanger. Browse Jim's photostream on Flickr or check out his website at www.ellwanger.tv

Not Your Typical Irish Dancer

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:28:08 +0000

Deb dancing with Rince na Chroi (Photo courtesy Deb Pleasants)

“Aghh! My leg!” I cried out, collapsing against the wall of the dance studio.

“Are you okay?” Emily asked.

Grabbing the ballet barre to support myself, I attempted to stretch out my right leg. My thigh felt like a vise was twisting it tighter and tighter. The pain was so intense, I was afraid to breathe.

“Try walking it off,” Katie suggested.

I hobbled out of the dance room and nearly collapsed on the hallway floor. Through the door, I saw Katie and Emily teaching the rest of my classmates a new jig step. Massaging my cramped leg, I watched those energetic adults and wondered how I, a forty-seven-year-old Black woman with no dance experience, ended up in an Irish dance class.

Considering my fascination with Irish culture, it was inevitable. I often tell people I love all things Irish, especially my husband. When I heard that a nearby Irish dance school offered beginning lessons for adults, I couldn’t resist. I quickly enrolled at Rince na Chroi (pronounced "Rink ah nah Kree") School of Irish Dance located at Concordia University in Saint Paul.

At the first class, director Katie Stephens Spangler and assistant director Emily Wolff stunned the neophytes by saying “all students are required to perform.” They mentioned several other important things, but most of their words collided with a nagging voice in my head. “I can’t dance on a stage. The audience is going to laugh at me. They’ll take one look at me and think, ‘She’s old; she’s out of shape; she’s off-step; she’s . . . Black.’”

Four months after that excruciating leg cramp, I was standing on the center stage in downtown Saint Paul’s Landmark Center. It was the annual Day of Irish Dance/St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Thousands of people blanketed the main floor; hundreds more lined the balconies. And there I stood with my class, in our school-crested outfits and our curly wigs, ready to dance.

The band began to play. After months and months of practice, the beat was so familiar that I immediately began to lose myself in the music. The audience faded away and I danced—I danced as the saying goes, “like no one was watching.”

After my dance, I stood near the stage and watched the advanced dancers perform. The precision of their choreography and footwork was artistic. While I was standing there, a burly Irish man walked up to me. “Hi, I saw you dance earlier,” he said.

“Oh really,” I replied, wondering what he would say next.

“Yeah, you were really great,” he said. “My buddy and I both thought you were great.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile. I walked off beaming with pride.

Sláinte!

Deb Pleasants is a full-time wife/mother and part-time writer/journalist. She often writes for the Twin Cities Daily Planet. She also writes poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. When not Irish dancing, Deb enjoys biking, camping with her family, and attempting to solve The New York Times crossword puzzle. She’s lived in Saint Paul’s Lex-Ham community since 1998.

Early Spring

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:16:18 +0000

Winter owl imprint. (Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

Pale vision on an early day:
two gray wings gliding flat
balance on the body’s straight line.
A trill rises from the meadow.
Persuaded, the flight turns,
begins a slow arc
toward the waiting field.
Riding a smooth river of air,
the sandhill crane descends,
folds her wings, and bows.

Diane Wilson is a prose writer whose memoir, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past (Borealis Books, 2006), won a 2006 Minnesota Book Award. Her work has been featured in the anthology Fiction on a Stick (Milkweed Editions) and many other publications. She is a past editor for Minnesota Literature, former board chair of SASE: The Write Place, and the founder and editor of The Artist’s Voice.

Tracks

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:21:11 +0000

Tish Jones

Before I was born
There was movement
Paddles pushing pent up people through oceans of pain
That explains my fear of water

When I was born
There was movement still

Lines
Paths
Roads
Circles
And tracks

Check it
I had my first perm in elementary school
Went from coarse
Curly black hair
To straight
Thin
Then what you gon’ do with this ’do

After that I did braids
Weave
Ponytails
Extensions
This faux hawk Mohawk ducktail design on the side type thing
But before all of that
I also wore
Tracks

Then there was high school
Saint Paul Central
Big gray five floor and a basement building
Kinda looks like a prison kinda ran like one too

The fifth floor was for the academic acronyms like AP and IB
The fourth floor was for the quest learners
Second to the best grade point average earners
The third
Well the third was whatever
The second was pass
And the first was primarily the theatre class
How we were placed in this system
Tracks

Pause

My name is Tish Jones and I have been called here to represent

Ancestors
Whose blood sift through the palms of my little brother’s hands
As he plays in the sand and they bless him
Forefathers
Who existed before my four fathers
And raised men to raise men
Hence the sun and the raisin
Then
A generation of beautiful black women
Born and bred to believe that beauty belongs to everyone but them
So
They dye and they fry and they try to fit in
In many ways allowing trains to leave tracks on their thighs
Because the tracks attached to the root of her naps which hang to the mid of her back
Reduce self-respect and she is alright with that
They call her a runner
Making laps on laps
Known as a track star
The best at her craft and she
Is right on
Track

Then
There is the little boy whose father was sent away yesterday
He’s having a bad day so he answered the test questions in the wrong way
Now he’s in the hallway with extra help
Frustrated
Fighting to keep his tears to himself
And she
Well she’s lived in the inner city since the beginning
Light skin
Long hair
And just a little bit skinny
Smart
She makes failing a test seem hard
Don’t believe me peep her report card

Well
She and he were cool
Went to the same school
Hung in the same crew
Did things that two best friends would normally do
Until one day after taking that test
She got labeled advanced and he got labeled a fool
Dropped outta school and did what he felt he had to
Became a star mathematician
A genius in the kitchen
Studied how different greens and whites would help with his addition
Financial advisor for women
Pimpin’ and flippin
Now
He fights his tears inside of a prison

Pause

Forget it
Play track black boy
Or football or basketball
Or just ball black boy
Rob steal fail get money and go to jail
You do the same black girl
Read Cosmo People VIBE and Vixen
Try all your life to find the place that you fit into

You see I represent broken histories
Missing texts from textbooks
Kinesthetic learners that don’t test good
Products of society
Twenty-four hours of good clean sobriety
A language that I play with because mine was taken
And a country that shuns me yet I have so much stake in it

A people
That are a direct result of an action taken
And people who fear those people so they’ve created laws to evade and contain them
Inside of lines
Paths
Roads
Circles
And tracks

My name is Tish Jones
And I have been called to represent the missing piece

Tish Jones is the founder, executive, and artistic director of a developing nonprofit arts organization, TruArtSpeaks. She teaches performance art and creative writing in Twin Cities area schools, as well as in prisons and at other facilities with youth programming. She is a spoken word artist, activist, educator, and organizer, and a 2009 Recipient for the Verve Grant for Spoken Word Poets and the MN Urban Griot Award for Female Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Tish collaborated with filmmaker Rachel Raimist in 2009 on a spoken word and film project funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board, State of the Cities.

The Uptown

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:05:48 +0000

(Photo courtesy Patricia A. Cummings)

In the drama of my family, the Uptown Theatre played a lead role. Sitting in the middle of the block at 1053 Grand Avenue, the theater began as the Oxford in 1921. In 1929, the Uptown was reborn as an “atmospheric theatre” with an Italian motif, stucco walls, faux balconies, stars and clouds on the ceiling, and a brightly lit marquee. In the 1950s, it was again remodeled in mid-century modern style. In 1976, the Uptown turned its lights out for the last time, to make way for a parking lot.

The Uptown’s place in our family story began in the early 1930s. My dad, Verne Cummings, had started in the movie theater business as an usher when he was fifteen and worked his way up to a “plum” assignment as the manager of the Uptown. One of Dad’s best managerial decisions was to hire Esther Lindgren as a cashier. They married on June 15, 1936.

My first memory of the Uptown was going to see Disney’s Bambi when I was about four. I saw lots of movies—as many as three a week. Sometimes I got to sit in the projection booth with the operator. Often, I’d go with Dad to the theater in the morning, when he “did the books.” In his office was a set of wooden cubbyholes—the repository for everything left behind in the auditorium. We got first pick of anything that wasn’t claimed after thirty days, so we always had a colorful supply of mittens and scarves.

Described in an ad in 1929 as “Distinctly in a class by itself,” the Uptown was a palace to my young eyes. There was a grand Ladies Lounge upstairs with sofas and dressing tables and a maid in attendance. The doorman’s job was to turn the wheel on the ticket box to grind out the tickets. He and the ushers wore uniforms with epaulets and lots of gold buttons. I always had a small-girl crush on one or another of them.

The Uptown was the first theater in Saint Paul to have air-conditioning. Down in the cavernous and spooky basement, an artesian well pumped cold water into a series of pipes. As the water fell from the pipes, huge fans blew through the rain to cool the air in the auditorium.

During World War II, Dad served in the Army in Europe. After the war, he chose to stay with the familiar and went back to the Uptown. We kids, now numbering three, resumed our three-movies-a-week routine.

When I was fourteen, I started working at the Uptown as the popcorn girl. I made the popcorn in a little upstairs room and carried it down to the candy counter. When the theater was remodeled in the 1950s, the clouds and stars disappeared, the Ladies Lounge became a utilitarian restroom, and Dad’s office was moved downstairs. The popcorn machine was moved downstairs, too, and I worked behind the expanded candy counter.

At sixteen, I was promoted to the box office. Adult tickets cost twenty-five cents and kids got in for twelve cents. At the end of each shift, the cashiers had to reconcile ticket sales to the money taken in. Dad was a stickler for accuracy. More than once, I “padded the books” with some of my own change so that my numbers came out equal.

With the advent of television, the movie business declined and the Minnesota Amusement Company sold the Uptown to an independent owner who drastically cut Dad’s salary. Dad decided it was time to develop a new career. While he studied for his license to become a real estate agent, Mother split the manager’s job with him at the Uptown. By the late 1950s, Dad was ready to launch his new business. We all said good-bye to the Uptown with regret for the loss of this fixture in our lives, but also anticipation for the next step in our family’s journey.

Patricia Cummings grew up in Nativity Parish. After graduating from St. Catherine’s College, she taught English, married, and had three children. Pat then spent twenty-five years in the field of philanthropy, most recently as the executive director of the Phillips Foundation. Now retired, Pat spends much of her time volunteering in the community and writing.

The Best Place in the World

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:23:36 +0000

(Photos courtesy Saint Paul Public Library)

I have lived in Saint Paul most of my life, and I’d say my favorite place in Saint Paul is the St. Anthony Park Public Library. With its many shelves and millions of stories, each one unique, each one special in its own way, there is no place like it in the world. I love going to the library after school for hours on end, looking at the books.

The St. Anthony Park Library is unique because of its architecture. The original library, now the adult-teen section, was part of a Carnegie Library built in 1917. It has been updated, and a children’s section, built in the shape of a large dome, was attached to the old building. When I was little, I thought the library used to be a church because it was so fancy and so old.

The St. Anthony Park Library in the 1920s.

On Mondays, instead of walking home from school, I walk to the St. Anthony Park Library. I eagerly climb up the double stairway, looking forward to the books I’ll find when I open the door. I go inside, take a sip of water from the water fountain, dump my backpack on a window seat, and start looking for good books. I know where all of my favorite books are. I have many memories of just sitting there, book in hand, nose glued in stories of fantasy, adventure, and science fiction. The library is within walking distance of my house, but I rarely walk home from it because I usually have checked out a bagful of books. I call home to get picked up.

The St. Anthony Park Library is warm and friendly because of its librarians. They aren’t just people who work there; they are people who love and care about the books, and this makes all the difference. They help me find books that are playing hide and seek with me, and they recommend books they think I might enjoy.

A luxury of the Saint Paul Public Library is that it has a very effective hold system. I can just go online, sign in using my PIN number and the number on my library card, and I can put any book on hold that is in any of the branches of the library system. When the book and I are ready, I can just go and pick it up. It’s very efficient.

An Asian Fair held at St. Anthony Park Library in the 1950s.

A year ago, I went to Namibia, a country in Africa with no public library. What I missed the most there, aside from friends, was having books. There were a few private libraries, but they weren’t well stocked. There were a few bookstores, but they didn’t have many books at my reading level that I hadn’t already read. I missed my library so much. Sometimes I would just daydream of walking into the library and checking out “old friends” and books I’d never seen before. Late at night, I would quiz myself about where my favorite books were in the St. Anthony Park Library.

When we returned after more than a year of being away from the library, I dramatically forced my mom to drive through the freezing winter winds to my much-missed St. Anthony Public Library. I was so happy! Books again! Mom thinks we checked out about twenty-five books; I think we checked out more.

To me, a good library feels as important as water and an exciting book feels like air. To me, the St. Anthony Park library feels like home.

Maxine Lightfoot was born in Indiana, and her full name is Maxine Indiana Lightfoot. She lives in Saint Paul and attends St. Anthony Park Elementary School. Her favorite color is turquoise, and if she had three wishes, they would be world peace, no animals would become extinct, and mosquitos wouldn’t bite. She is the oldest child in her family.

The Saint Paul Almanac partners with the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, a private, nonprofit, membership organization established in 1945 to support the Saint Paul Public Library. Today, The Friends boasts a membership of close to 3,000 individuals. The Friends' mission is to increase the use of the Library through public awareness and cultural programming; to advocate for strong public funding of the Library; and to provide private funding to enhance Library services. Through this work, The Friends serves as a national model for its unique, comprehensive support of the Saint Paul Public Library. www.thefriends.org

Saint Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly: Poem for the Second Inauguration of Mayor Chris Coleman on January 4, 2010

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:01:12 +0000

Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman

We stand on the edge of a New Year, full,
it is, of endless possibilities. Somehow, we
climbed the steep hills of the year just past,
none of it easy, our seven hills dotted
with lights steady in the dark of night, hills
alive now with the beauty of a new snow that
stopped traffic everywhere. Our city kept on
moving, speeding into this New Year in ways
never imagined by those who came before us,
who shook the hand of President Teddy Roosevelt
a century ago. He paraded through our city streets,
health care for all first on his list of critical issues.
Those who came before us may have held his hope
as they boarded the Empire Builder in the Union Depot,
never imagining it would be home, as it is, to the
speed of light rail. The sun can be a golden globe,
high in the winter sky. Its light does not blind us
to the many heroes among us, those who work
hardest and are often least rewarded, or those
pummeled by the economy, or our young women
and men in military uniform, fighting and dying in ways
we cannot imagine. We bow to all of them, take time now
to lace our skates, move onto the smooth ice of a city rink,
shoot a puck, or execute a perfect figure eight,
the number that signals prosperity, and begin
the long glide into our future, led by our young mayor.
He abandoned a call to higher office, and is with us
in this New Year, full, it is, of endless possibilities.
Tonight, the sun will set, the lights on the
High Bridge will come alive, burn steady,
arrow straight across the mighty river
that runs through our city, and with hope,
and every good intention, we move
forward into this New Year.

Mayor Chris Coleman and student photographers Kaying Thao, Tanisha Brandt, and Brittany Andrews from Gordon Parks High School outside the launch party of the 2011 Saint Paul Almanac.

Carol Connolly was appointed by Mayor Chris Coleman as Saint Paul’s first poet laureate. She is a longtime media columnist, and curates and hosts the monthly Readings by Writers series, now in its twelfth year, at the historic University Club of Saint Paul. Her book of poems, Payments Due, is in its fifth printing from Midwest Villages and Voices, a press founded by the late great poet Meridel Le Sueur. Connolly’s new book of poems is All This and More (Nodin Press).

The Hmong Wedding

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:58:36 +0000

Bao and Noah on their wedding day (Photo: Bao Vang)

My wedding day began at 1 a.m., when I got up for work as anchor and producer of Sunrise 7, the morning show on WSAW-TV, based in Wausau, Wisconsin. After my shift ended at 9 a.m., I met up with my fiancé, Noah, to say goodbye until our wedding night, then headed for my mother’s home in Saint Paul.

Born and raised in the United States, Noah and I are what you could call a typical American couple. But we also treasure our Hmong heritage and wanted to honor our families by following the tradition that has spanned many generations. Although we’ve been engaged for a year, we can’t get married until our families give their official approval and agree on a dowry. There is no guarantee this will happen.

According to tradition, I must be at my mother’s house when the groom and his wedding party arrive, even though I no longer live there. There is no church, no reception hall—the entire negotiation process and feast will take place at my mother’s house. And so, in a 1,600-square-foot rambler, my family is prepared to jam fifty to sixty people.

At 5 p.m., my groom arrives with his best man, or phib laj, and two negotiators, or mej koob. Then his family follows, and must ask if our family is refraining from having guests. After my family allows them inside, the mej koob sing a song to start the ceremony.

There are a number of things Noah and his relatives must offer my family so the ceremony can be recognized as an official wedding. First, the best man carries a basket on his back, filled with items that Noah’s mom woke up extra early to prepare: a boiled, whole chicken, uncooked rice, salt, and oil. There’s a blanket, which Noah carried like a child on his back. They also need to have a black umbrella and several cartons of cigarettes, which would traditionally be smoked during the negotiations—but that will not happen in my mother’s house, she would never allow it. If even one of these items is missing, the ceremony could be called off.

The groom and best man must bow down to my mom and each member of my family to show respect. I had never seen Noah try so hard to get it right.

Before any negotiations begin, we have dinner. On this night, it’s boiled chicken with tofu, broiled fish, and chicken stir-fry. After dinner, more members of Noah’s family are allowed to enter the home, including his father. As our relatives get to know one another, it is finally starting to feel like perhaps we can be one big happy family.

Moments later, my mom and I are summoned downstairs, where about twenty male members of my family are waiting. My father, a Lao veteran who fought alongside the United States during the Vietnam War, passed away when I was a little girl, so these relatives are here to make certain that I am making a good decision and that my family is well-represented in the marriage negotiations. They grill me about my relationship with Noah. They want to make sure I’m not being tricked into marrying someone I don’t truly love. When they are convinced of my commitment, they ask me to leave. Then, they get additional reassurance from my mom.

By 8 p.m., everyone has agreed that Noah and I should be married, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. Now it’s time to talk money—the dowry.

This phase focuses around a coffee table in my mother’s living room, where two representatives from each of our families negotiate. It could take hours, or even days. It may sound old-fashioned, but this is an important part of Hmong tradition. The amount the groom’s side is willing to pay is an expression of appreciation to the bride’s parents for loving, caring for, and educating a young woman.

Before discussing the dowry, however, negotiators decide which members of my family will receive money and how much. This can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. It’s traditional to transfer the money wrapped up in cigarettes. When my family accepts the gift, I am officially a part of Noah’s family and my bridesmaid joins the party. She has been chosen for me by Noah’s family, just as they chose a best man for him. Fortunately, my bridesmaid is a woman very dear to me, Noah’s sister, Cheng Feng. She’s told to stay by my side and make certain I’m happy. We’re offered a toast to seal the deal.

And yet, for negotiators, it’s back to the bargaining table: they still have to decide a few more things, including how much my mom will receive in exchange for giving away her daughter, and the date and time of the wedding feast, a more formal celebration we’ll have next month for family and friends.

Several hours have passed, and I confess I’m starting to feel a little emotional. Our families still have not come to an agreement on these final things. My mother must act as both mother and father in these proceedings, and she has turned out to be a tough negotiator.

Noah’s feeling a different kind of pain. “My knees are hurting from all the bowing,” he said. We are reminded by our elders that although we are modern Hmong Americans, these traditions are important to us and our families, so we’ll need to be patient.

Around 1 a.m., twenty-four hours after I started my day, there’s finally an offer on the table that my mother accepts. The dowry money will be counted not once, not twice, but three times by members of the family.

We’re relieved and ready to call it a night, but where we spend our wedding night is up to my in-laws, and my new mother-in-law wants us back home in Wausau with her. So I quickly grab my things and say my good-byes. While my family is happy, it’s a bittersweet moment. For my mom, she’s letting go of her baby. She tells me to go and that I should start my new life. But she wants me to visit and always remember where I came from.

As I leave home, I am a married woman.

I am reminded that I shouldn’t look back with my eyes or my heart as Noah and I begin our own tradition as husband and wife.

Bao Vang is hard at work, while many of you are asleep, as the executive producer and morning anchor at WSAW News Channel 7 in Wausau, Wisconsin. Bao’s family immigrated to the United States in 1978. She was born and raised in Saint Paul and attended Harding High School and the University of St. Thomas.

Great-Grandma’s Fur Coat

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:43:01 +0000

Mary Peck Laber in her fur coat, sometime in the 1940s (Photo: Rosemary Ruffenach)

As coats made from the pelts of animals go, the one that I inherited three years ago probably wasn’t that expensive: It isn’t mink, beaver, sable, or even fox. Rather, it’s made from the pelts of brown rabbits, dyed black. We figure it came to my Austro-Hungarian great-grandma in the 1930s; family lore has it that Great-Uncle Ted presented it as a gift to his mother. Inside, embroidered in champagne-colored thread on small slips of satin that match the lining, are her initials: M. L., for Mary (Peck) Laber. But there is a bit of mystery associated with the coat—a photo shows Grandma Laber in a dark fur that’s a slightly different style from the one I inherited.

Knowing Grandma’s thrifty ways, we theorized that the coat had been remodeled. Why, though, if Uncle Ted had purchased it specifically for his mother, wouldn’t he have ordered the style she preferred? By the 1930s, Ted was flush from running booze down from Canada during Prohibition. He owned a tavern at 1730 Rice Street, and operated various games of chance. (He is said to have once swallowed the pull tabs when the law appeared—though he usually received ample warning of their impending visits.) Grandma managed the adjacent grocery store, and Ted’s brother ran the gas station next door. Surely, Ted could have afforded better than dyed rabbit in the wrong length!

While it’s fun to speculate about how and why Ted got the coat, I mostly like to imagine Grandma wearing it those many winters ago. She was a tough lady who had well earned that small luxury by the time she acquired it.

Widowed at thirty-seven with five young children, Grandma’s best resources were her gregarious personality and a self-reliance she learned early in life. Her family arrived in Saint Paul one cold April afternoon in 1888, when she was thirteen years old, along with sixty other immigrants from Andau, Austria (then Hungary). They were dumped on a Saint Paul sidewalk by their travel “expeditor.” Luckily, a German-speaking citizen came by and offered them sleeping space in an unfinished storefront. The next day, Mary saw the adults pick themselves up to seek housing and work—often at the North End rail yards, or as “domestics.” Much later, she too took work cleaning houses, after her husband, Joseph, a cigar roller, died at age thirty-eight.

Luckily, one of her clients owned a grocery store on Rice Street, and invited Grandma and her children to run his establishment and live in the quarters behind. As the family prospered, Grandma purchased land and an old farmhouse at Rice and Larpenteur, just outside the city limits. In 1937, Grandma and Ted built their own grocery store, as well as a bar, gas station, and living quarters. Today, Laber Liquors still stands at the corner of Larpenteur and Rice, but is no longer owned by the Laber family.

Grandma became well-known in the community, and was often called upon to give nursing advice when someone fell sick. Hopefully, by then she had the fur coat to wear when making those house calls. She likely wore it on days when she would take a little cash out of the grocery store till and board a streetcar for the two-hour trek to North Minneapolis to visit her sister. Another of her favorite haunts was Front Street. It took her grandchildren many years to figure out that Front Street was Calvary Cemetery, where her husband and parents were buried.

The coat undoubtedly kept Grandma warm when she went touring in the Model A owned by son Ted and daughter Martha, as well as in the yellow Stutz Bearcat owned by Ted’s pal Doc Schroeder. Later, Grandma would have worn it while riding in any of Martha’s succession of Packards.

Accessorized in the 1940s with leather gloves and a stylish velvet chapeau, the coat would have graced Grandma’s shoulders during Mass at St. Bernard’s Church in Saint Paul’s North End community (home to Austro-Hungarians and Bohemians), and to meetings at the St. Bernard’s Little Flower Mission Club, as well as visits to her extended family scattered throughout the North End.

You could say the coat really has come down in the world since those days—now riding sedately in my Taurus wagon, left to lie on top of a file cabinet during school hours. The coat may be old and unremarkable, but it’s still warm, and serves as a link to the past and to the vital woman who was my great-grandmother.

Winter Carnival 1887: A Ghost Story

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 21:14:52 +0000

Michael Reimringer and Anna Wiemann on their wedding day in November 1880 (Photo: John Reimringer)

For almost as long as there has been a Saint Paul, my family has been a part of the city. My father, Carl Reimringer, was born here in 1914, and baptized in Assumption Church, where his father was baptized and his grandfather was married. Though I’d never lived here, when my wife and I moved to Saint Paul shortly after my father’s death in 2001, I fell head over heels in love with the city, feeling that I’d returned to a home I hadn’t realized had been missing from my life. And since my father and the rest of his family and the generation that knew him are gone, I’m always pursuing family legends around the city, trying to catch a fleeting glimpse of ancestral ghosts in the corner of my mind’s eye. It turns out, though, that ghosts are slippery, and maybe what we see reveals more about us than them.

Some of my family’s story is written in stone. Much of it is written in air and electrons, words that reached family ears and got stored away in the sometimes faulty circuitry of the brain’s synapses.

Here’s a part that’s written in stone:

My great-great-grandfather, Theodor Wiemann, became a U.S. citizen in Saint Paul in 1856, and owned a saloon and grocery downtown. His grave monument, in the center of the family plot in Calvary Cemetery, is a Gothic fright that sits on the hillside at a slight angle, as though it might fall on its face; the stone is castellated about the top and chemically blackened around the edges to look very old, the height of Victorian fashion. There’s an unremarkable German verse celebrating Theodor carved into the base.

And here’s the rest:

Family legend claims Theodor Wiemann wasn’t happy on the November day in 1880 that his beloved daughter Anna married Michael Reimringer, who not only clerked for Theodor, but boarded with the family. The Mass was celebrated in Assumption, the city’s first German-Catholic parish. The church is still there, the witch hats of its twin steeples a downtown landmark, but Michael Reimringer didn’t fare so well. In 1887, he confirmed his father-in-law’s doubts by cracking his skull in a drunken tumble from a sleigh at the second-ever Winter Carnival. At least according to family legend.

In my ghost hunts, I’ve confirmed that my great-grandfather did indeed die during the 1887 Winter Carnival, but I don’t yet know whether he died at the Winter Carnival. I haven’t found a clipping about a drunken German falling off the back of a sleigh.

And here’s where ghosts get slippery, where what we think we’re seeing may be a reflection of ourselves on some silvered surface. Take the drunken German story. In my family, this was always told with pride, bravado. The Reimringer ancestors lived hard and died stupidly. So when someone asks how long I’ve lived in Saint Paul, I always tell the story as an illustration of a colorful past. But sometimes that colorful story is greeted with a look of horror, and I realize that my listener isn’t seeing the same ghost that I see.

Or take the German part. The Reimringers are from a region on the French-German border kicked back and forth between the two countries in several wars. Yet, my family has always identified as German. As did I, until I received an email from François Reimeringer a few years ago. Turns out the Reimeringer/Reimringer ancestral village was Remering-les-Hargarten in the Lorraine area of France, close to the German border. Turns out Michel Reimeringer added an a to his Christian name and dropped the extra e in his surname sometime between becoming a citizen and sending out wedding invitations.

And we still don’t know if that supposedly drunken French/German was at the Winter Carnival in 1887.

So what’s the truth? It’s a ghost slipping away in a tarnished mirror. But ghosts that tell a good story slip away more slowly.

John Reimringer’s first novel, Vestments, was published by Milkweed Editions in fall 2010. A Fargo, North Dakota, native, Reimringer grew up in Kansas and moved to his father’s family’s hometown of Saint Paul in 2001. He loves Saint Paul, but stays away from the Winter Carnival.

Feb 21st, 2011 Lowertown Reading Jam: Tou SaiKo Lee presents "Asiatic Fresh & Classic"

Saint Paul Almanac — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:38:16 +0000

Event curator, Tou SaiKo Lee believes in building an influential movement within the Hmong community through the arts. He is a spoken word artist, mentor and hip hop activist. A mentor for youth at schools and community centers across the country, he speaks about issues that include human rights, diversity, racism, gang violence and arts for social change.

Tou SaiKo Lee

Tou SaiKo Lee is the co-founder of “The H Project” a compilation music CD inspired by the human right violations of Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. On occasion, Tou teams up with his grandmother, Youa Chang – who does the traditional Hmong art of kwv txiaj (Hmong poetry chanting) – to perform as the duo “Fresh Traditions.”

Lowertown Reading Jam is on Monday, Feb. 21st, from 7 to 8:30 p.m

Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince St, St Paul, MN (Lowertown Saint Paul)

Spoken Word Performers

Ed Bok Lee
Juliana Pegues
Bao Phi
Saymoukda Vongsay
Kevin Yang
Chanmany Sysengchanh
David Vulocity
Chilli Lor
Laurine Chang
Gaoiaong Vang

Ed Bok Lee is the author of Real Karaoke People, winner of a PEN Open Book Award, an Asian American Literary Award (Members' Choice) and a Many Voices Prize. He attended kindergarten in South Korea, and was raised in North Dakota and Minnesota. Lee has worked a variety of jobs, including bartender, phys ed instructor, salesman, custodian, script writer, journalist and translator, in over a dozen U.S. states and abroad. He studied Russian, East Asian and Central Asian languages and literatures in America, South Korea, Russia and Kazakhstan, before earning an MFA from Brown University. A recipient of grants from such foundations as the McKnight, Jerome and National Endowment for the Arts, he has read and performed his poems across the U.S., Europe and Asia, as well as on public radio and TV, including MTV.

Juliana Pegues is a revolutionary Asian American writer. She collects her political views and experiences and ties them together through her writing and performances. She truly uses art as activism to build community. Her words are combative words to fight social injustice. Throughout Pegues' writing, her strong passion for social change is as evident as it is through her community involvement. She mixes politics, art, and activism in her writing to create a fresh, direct voice. Pegues currently lives in Minneapolis and some of the organizations Pegues is currently involved in include Guerilla Wordfare, Asian American Renaissance, Women's Prison Book Project, and the Garment Workers Justice Campaign.

Bao Phi is a Vietmanese American spoken word poet, writer and community activist living in Minneapolis. He is a two time winner of the Minnesota Grand Poetry Slam, and also won two poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York. Phi is the Associate Program Director at the Loft Literary Center where he curates Equilibrium (EQ for short), a series devoted to spoken word artists and audiences of color. EQ was just named the 2010 Minnesota Nonprofit Award winner for Anti-Racism Initiative.

Saymoukda Vongsay is a co-founding member of The Unit Collective of Emerging Playwrights of Color, author of No Regrets, Chair of the 2010 National Lao American Writers Summit, inaugural winner of the 2010 Alfred C. Carey Prize in Spoken Word from New York, recipient of a Loft Literary Center scholarship to attend Robert McKee's Story Seminar, advisory board member of the 2010 MPLS Asian Film Festival, and was recently recognized by the Lao Professionals of Illinois for her literary accomplishments. Get to know her at www.refugenius.com

Kevin Yang is from Brooklyn Park. He currently attends Hamline University in St. Paul, where is is a part of the Hamline University Slam Team. He loves to write and is always looking for a new way to tell an old story.

Chilli (Chia Lor) graduated with Honors from St. Paul Central High School. She is currently attending her first year of college at St. Catherine Univeristy. As a poet, hip hop artist and b-girl, Chilli has a vision of changing the lives of youth and women through performing arts.

Gaoiaong Vang is seventeen years old, a senior, and student body president at Johnson Senior High School. Although she lives in Forest Lake, her life revolves around Saint Paul. She loves writing poetry, playing tennis, and drinking ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer day. She has dreams of living somewhere beautiful and knows that home is where the heart is—Saint Paul.

The Almanac in the Press; Coming Asia-tasticness on Monday night; New writing from Barbara Cox, Michael Maupin and David Haynes

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:56:52 +0000

The Almanac in the Press: Saint Paul Almanac publisher Kimberly Nightingale wants to change the way America tells its stories

At the beginning of February, the online magazine The Line wrote a story on the Saint Paul Almanac, which offers a fantastic overview of the community vision we Almanacians have for our beloved Saint Paul. We reproduce a few excerpts from the article here:

Saint Paul Almanac publisher, Kimberly Nightingale. (Photo: Bill Kelley)

It's a six-year-old labor of love begun by onetime book editor and teacher Kimberly Nightingale, a woman with a mission that goes well beyond providing a handy and entertaining place to record coffee dates and relatives' birthdays. Nightingale sees the book as a model for nothing less than a revolution in American publishing. And her fusion of multiethnic, history-and-culture-rich, hyperlocal storytelling is resonating in places like Los Angeles, Portland, and Pittsburgh; people in a dozen cities across the country have asked her for help in creating their own versions of the Almanac.

At first, it was a one-woman enterprise. Nightingale hung out in ethnic cafes, talking to people, laying out her ideas, asking for stories. She went to literary events looking for writers. "I was creating relationships, building trust and connections with people all over the city," she says.

Eventually, the connections blossomed into a unique form of democratic editing in which Nightingale works with 20-plus "community editors" who help gather material. Through a system of evaluation, re-evaluation, and voting, the editors decide which stories go in. And then comes the editing itself, about which Nightingale has strong, even revolutionary opinions.

"You only have to go to a literary event to realize that the scene is mostly white-European," she says. "The publishing industry is mostly white-European. And the editing of books is mostly on a white-European standard." Nightingale teaches her diverse group of community editors the basics of the publishing process, but she encourages them to preserve the characteristic rhythms and word choices of the writers, even--or especially--when those writers don't or can't use standard English style.

The point isn't to be quaint--it's to change American publishing. "I dream of the day when every writer with a non-mainstream voice can have an editor who understands where that voice, that rhythm, comes from, and enhances it rather than homogenizes it," she says.

It remains to be seen whether the Almanac will spark an editing revolution, but Nightingale's enterprise is very active on the Saint Paul scene, with a reading and spoken-word-art series and a strong presence in the city's high schools. And it is certainly sparking interest nationwide.

Please visit The Line's website for the full article.

Photo of Kimberly Nightingale by Bill Kelley. Visit Bill's website at www.billkelleyphoto.com

Coming Asia-tasticness on Monday night at the Black Dog in Lowertown!

Lowertown Reading Jam is on Monday, Feb. 21st, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, 308 Prince St, St Paul, MN (Lowertown Saint Paul).

Event curator, Tou SaiKo Lee believes in building an influential movement within the Hmong community through the arts. He is a spoken word artist, mentor and hip hop activist. A mentor for youth at schools and community centers across the country, he speaks about issues that include human rights, diversity, racism, gang violence and arts for social change.

Spoken Word Performers: Tou SaiKo Lee, Ed Bok Lee, Juliana Pegues, Bao Phi, Saymoukda Vongsay, Kevin Yang, Chanmany Sysengchanh, David Vulocity, Chilli Lor, Laurine Chang and Gaoiaong Vang.

New writing from Barbara Cox, Michael Maupin and David Haynes

Barbara Cox: Night Light Hockey at Groveland

During the cold winter months of Saint Paul, there is a mecca that kids of all ages flock to with religious fervor. Mecca is Groveland, the king of neighborhood ice rinks. Drive down St. Clair Avenue anytime day or night, and witness the packed rinks of pickup hockey, toddlers pushing plastic chairs in a circle, and packs of tween girls in huddles, observing packs of tween boys. [Read more]

Michael Maupin: 25 Random Things About Me And Saint Paul

RULES: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you. (I was tagged by Kimberly Nightingale, publisher of the Saint Paul Almanac. [Read more]

David Haynes: Sixth-Grade Cookie Competitors

David Haynes, an African American author and St. Louis native, lived in Saint Paul for many years and taught fifth and sixth grade at a downtown public school. He has written several adult novels, and decided to write for younger readers because he found a dearth of works for that age group that were set in this city. Business As Usual tells the story of a cookie-selling enterprise among two rival groups of sixth graders, with a few life lessons about people and economics woven in along the way. [Read more]

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Night Light Hockey at Groveland

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:15:07 +0000

Hockey at Groveland Rink (Illustration: Andy Singer)

During the cold winter months of Saint Paul, there is a mecca that kids of all ages flock to with religious fervor. Mecca is Groveland, the king of neighborhood ice rinks.

Drive down St. Clair Avenue anytime day or night, and witness the packed rinks of pickup hockey, toddlers pushing plastic chairs in a circle, and packs of tween girls in huddles, observing packs of tween boys.

Each year the all-volunteer crew of the Groveland Booster Club erects three rinks on the elementary school playground, surrounded by a track of ice perfect for pulling a tiny skater on a sled. We went there one evening—two adults, our two young sons, and our two-year-old daughter.

The boys, proud of their mini-mite moves, hoped to play with the “big guys” in one of the pickup games. They were in luck. Two junior high–aged girls approached the boys and asked if they’d like to make teams with the others gathered on the rink.

They were elated, of course, and in the ancient tradition of hockey players everywhere, they placed their sticks on the ice. The girls divided the players into teams by selecting sticks by length, one by one. Our boys, ages five and six, became teammates of their father, one of the young women, and an adult couple. Both teams passed to the boys, and cheered them when they scored.

The boys were in heaven. Or Mecca. Sometimes a sparkling night on the ice can be both.

Barbara Cox lives in the Mac-Groveland area with her husband, Joe, and her three young children. She has the kind of zeal for the city often found in those raised in the suburbs. Her favorite spots in the city include Mattocks Park, the River Road bike trail, and Candyland.

Andy Singer is a Saint Paul illustrator who has contributed more amazing images to the Almanac than one could realistically shake a corn dog at. His website can be found at www.andysinger.com

25 Random Things About Me And Saint Paul

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:23:22 +0000

1. The first thing I ever laid eyes on in Saint Paul was the used-car lot with the ski-chalet-looking office on University Avenue, in the early 1970s. While it’s no longer there, I think it was on the avenue’s north side, opposite the SuperTarget.

2. My second earliest memory of Saint Paul is waiting for the 16 bus to Minneapolis when it transferred from the White Bear Lake bus, coming back from college during the dismal winter of 1980. While standing at the corner of Sixth and St. Peter, I thought: “Saint Paul. What a dump.”

3. By 1990, nearly all my friends were living in Saint Paul. So, I moved there on December 7, 1992. By 1999, all my friends had left.

4. I rented a room in a crappy old mansion on Summit Avenue owned by crazy people.

5. Saint Paul is “Grandpa in his garage.” Grandpa doesn’t want you touching his tools or cleaning up his garage—Grandpa doesn’t want you messing around with his garage. Grandpa would prefer that you just go the hell back to Minneapolis, you with your hoity-toity ways, brown leather jackets, and moonshine over F. Scott Fitzgerald’s birthplace.

6. I was an extra in A Prairie Home Companion; greeted John C. Reilly at the door, and was serenaded by Meryl Streep, whose affections I stole from some lurching tall guy in red tennis shoes.

7. I made the acquaintance of a tall, beautiful cottonwood tree in the back alley of the block bordering Milton and Chatsworth, Lincoln and Goodrich. Man, can that old girl sing!

8. Back when The Muddy Pig was Cognac McCarthy’s, I attended a memorial service for the late poet John Engman. Between our tears and laughter, it was an unforgettable night.

9. I temped at Unity Unitarian Church under the late Rev. Roy Phillips, who constantly struggled with column deadlines for the church bulletin.

10. The best burger in Saint Paul (maybe the entire five-state area) is at Casper & Runyon’s Nook on Hamline. Good luck getting a table or spot at the bar. And call your cardiologist first.

11. I once was offered a joint in Irvine Park.

12. Lenny Russo has transformed Highland Park with his wonderful Heartland restaurant. I still miss Merriam Park’s Table of Contents.

13. Yes, I’ve been up the Highland Park Water Tower. You can see Minneapolis from there.

14. Every time I walk by St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s spacious playground on Goodrich, I think of The Zombies’ song “Beechwood Park.”

15. Summit Avenue haunts me. A confluence of past, present, and future, it wends like an arrow toward the Mississippi, attended by tree giants who whisper of age and death and parting sad lovers who take final lunches under their shade.

16. I was a dramaturgy intern at the Great American History Theatre (now History Theatre) under Lynn Lohr and Lance S. Belville in 1991.

17. After six months of living in a one-bedroom behind the Chatterbox (now Costello’s), hearing gang-related gunfire, and receiving infrequent freelance assignments, I moved from Cathedral Hill to Merriam Park, closer to Minneapolis.

18. I once ran into Paul Wellstone at the Hungry Mind. “What’s the news from Washington, Senator?” “Good! Good!” he barked with a grin.

19. My friends Sheldon and Perin live on the East Side. We like to grill their garden veggies, drink Spanish wine, and play bocce in the back yard.

20. On the block where I now live, two blocks south of Grand Avenue, WCCO reporter Pat Kessler often stops to chat while he’s walking his dogs, Shelby and Rupert.

21. I almost bought a co-worker’s condo and moved to downtown Minneapolis.

22. If it came down to either Izzy’s or Grand Ole Creamery, I’m sorry. The prize goes to Izzy’s.

23. I have washed my clothes at the Laundromat on East Selby Avenue.

24. In 2008 I met an amazing woman, just across the courtyard from my place. She loves Saint Paul and seems to like me.

25. Think I’ll stick around awhile longer.

Michael Maupin is a former educator, writer, and managing editor of Minnesota Law & Politics magazine. He has lived in Indianapolis, Washington, DC, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Iowa City, London, and Glasgow, but he calls Saint Paul home.

Sixth-Grade Cookie Competitors

Saint Paul Almanac — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:17:20 +0000

David Haynes

David Haynes, an African American author and St. Louis native, lived in Saint Paul for many years and taught fifth and sixth grade at a downtown public school. He has written several adult novels, and decided to write for younger readers because he found a dearth of works for that age group that were set in this city. Business As Usual tells the story of a cookie-selling enterprise among two rival groups of sixth graders, with a few life lessons about people and economics woven in along the way.

My name is Bobby Samson. What this story is about is economics and the West Seventh Wildcats and Kevin Olsen and how sometimes what you think about people and what is real can be two very different things.

There are six of us Wildcats—me, Lu, Tou Vue, Kevin, Johny Vang, and Tony R. We’re not a gang. We just all live near West Seventh Street in Saint Paul and are best friends.

All of us Wildcats are crazy about our sixth-grade teacher. Which is a good thing because there is only one sixth-grade teacher at River Road School, and therefore if you don’t like Mr. Harrison you are pretty much out of luck for a whole year.

April is the time for Mr. Harrison’s end-of-the-year special: his spring economics unit. Kids at River Road wait for six years to be part of it, and it is well worth the wait, you can believe that. . . .

“You are in business!” Mr. Harrison announced. And that’s just what the big assignment was. Mr. Harrison called it the Marketplace Project. . . .

The Wildcats, or at least those of us who were working on the marketplace project together, met over at Tony R’s house for a brainstorming session to figure out what to sell on Marketplace Day. . . .

Finally, the Wildcats decided that our best bet was food. All kids like to eat. We just had to figure out what. . . . And then it was like everyone had the same idea at the same time. Things like that happen when you have really good friends. The idea was sitting right there in front of our faces.

Chocolate chip cookies! . . .

The week before Marketplace Day we put up our advertising posters. Since Mr. Harrison knew it wasn’t a good idea to have everyone out in the hallways at the same time, we drew names to see which teams put up its posters first. The Wildcats were third, which was pretty good. There were still a few prime locations left—like by the gym door and over the drinking fountain by the principal’s office. . . .

Marketplace Day was a big success. “As always!” said Mr. Harrison. Everyone could see how proud he was.

The younger students came to school loaded up with cash—just like we had done when we were in the lower grades. A lot of parents came, too. They bought things to take home for family dessert.

Our booth was set up right next to Jenny Peterson’s group’s [which was also selling chocolate chip cookies]. Both teams had the same idea: everyone [in the group] would come to school dressed alike. Jenny, Tyra, and Kelly wore those old-lady type dresses that are patterned in dots or flowers and have a lot of frills. They had matching bonnets on their heads. The Wildcats wore jeans and our orange and black softball jerseys. It’s the closest thing you can get to an official Wildcats uniform.

Cover art from one of the editions of Business as Usual

We stuck our Wildcat Cookies posters around our booth and me and Tony R brought in some stuffed tigers and lions that belong to Alf and to Tony R’s sisters. It turns out that wildcats are real popular with little kids. A lot of the kids bought Wildcat Cookies just because they particularly liked the name or the symbol. . . . Another reason some of the younger boys bought our cookies was because they kind of look up to the West Seventh Wildcats. . . .

By the end of the hour we had sold every single package of Wildcat cookies. There wasn’t one crumb left. Some of the little kids made badges out of the wildcat tags. That day there was a whole school full of West Seventh Wildcats.

When we returned to class, our next job was to count up our money and see if we’d made a profit. . . . We did okay in the money department. We had over forty dollars to divide among the investors. . . .

Jenny Peterson’s group sold about the same amount of cookies, but they made more money than us because their cookies cost less to make.

“Yeah, but ours tasted better,” I said.

“Tell that to the bank,” said Jenny. She always has to have the last word.

Source: David Haynes, Business As Usual (Milkweed Editions, 1997): 3, 31, 37, 39, 43, 95, 115–17

Steve Trimble lives in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood on Saint Paul’s East Side. Steve has taught at local colleges and, while he has degrees in history, tries to write books and articles in a way that regular people will enjoy—usually in local newspapers or in Ramsey County History magazine. His house near Indian Mounds Park is filled with books and odd collections mostly garnered at garage sales.

Feb 14th: Dr. Goddess Takes Saint Paul

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:48:00 +0000

This February 14th, the Saint Paul Almanac welcomes Dr. Goddess to Saint Paul at 6:30 p.m. at Arnellia’s at 1183 University Avenue West, Saint Paul. No cover charge! This event is free!

Dr. Goddess (Kimberly C. Ellis) will star in a 15 character, one-woman show about a young urban woman’s journey into academia. A comedy, grounded in engaging social commentary, this witty show uses dramatic monologues, poetry, music, and African, jazz, Hip Hop dance and sketch comedy. If her uncle, August Wilson, were in the audience, he’d be as proud as the Saint Paul Almanac to sponsor this community-building event.

Kimberly C. Ellis, PhD., affectionately known as Dr. Goddess, is a Scholar of American and Africana Studies, an artist, activist, and entrepreneur who has impressed audiences everywhere.

“ . . . Ellis is among a cadre of women . . . who’ve shown that hip hop, feminism and racial upliftment can co-exist. Dr. Goddess is a promising and fulfilling new recipe for black theater’s future.”

—Brentin Mock, Diary of a Baaaaad Black Woman, Pittsburgh City Paper

Arnellia’s at 1183 University Avenue West, Saint Paul

Get Directions →

Old Saint Paul

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:31:46 +0000

(Photo: Alex Lazara/Flickr Creative Commons)

Old Saint Paul, up and down your ripped up sidestreets,
kids roam, hands deep in pockets, snapping ice with each step.
Their mothers poke out of houses,
“Time to come inside,” they say,
waiting to hang blankets off shoulders
and brush the child’s hair from his face.
But you know all this, yes—from the old stone haze of Highland Park,
up Snelling, past Mac-Groveland,
riding I-94 like a slick pack of ghosts, made pale from snow, salt and progress,
past your dome and your horses and your Wild Travelers,
and right on past the damned East Side—you’ve seen it, felt it.
Watched us as boys and girls on the Tilt-a-Whirl at Como Park,
felt us freezing like silver in Moscow, waiting for buses downtown,
watching the well-dressed bastards meander in the Skyway.
You’ve seen us burned out in Frogtown, flattened down in Rondo,
pushed away to the West Side, and kept busy in the workhouse.
You watched as we leapt from the High Bridge.
Old Saint Paul, as we stumble down your bony roads
you know what we think. You know we forget.
You know we deny you to Minneapolis.
You know the kids in the caves, dunking their heads in booze and carbon monoxide,
You know the moment
when people hit the Third Street Bridge at night and they see the skyline breathing
and I swear, it’s like they were falling open.
You know the old men who snore soft in the back of the 16, bouncing their way to temporary placement offices,
the bright boys and girls whom you drive to dreams of absinthe-soaked Babylon
but who, until then, are happy just to be driving their dad’s car down Summit.
You know that from the cold
to the racists to the immigrants to the mean men and women,
the pissed-off boys and girls, we’re just tired of it all. We bow our heads against the wind,
and mutter together something about the life in the world to come.
We see you staring. And we look back, spit, and raise our heads,
and we tell you to wake up!
and we tell you we miss downtown, we miss Galtier, we miss Dayton’s!
and we tell you cathedrals are meant to be sea-foam green!
and we tell you that you’re terrifying alone in cars at night, when—
no matter where we are, whether at Mounds Park or Cathedral Hill or Dayton’s Bluff or Swede Hollow or Selby-Dale—we fall, down into this valley
of transient youth and gutted, rusty Fords.
But you know that now. You know that you’re a Chicago without the size, you’re a Minneapolis
without the balls. And you know in your heart, like a white plume of smoke
holding onto the frozen air, sucking and wheezing for a last few seconds
to hang over that river, that all we know is that somewhere, past a street-corner we may never know,
even if we dig with our nails in the dirt,
there is a home.

W. A. Alexander is a Saint Paul–born and bred writer who will probably never shake his hometown. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Morris, and is looking into graduate school. He currently resides in Northeast Minneapolis.

Ice photo courtesy of Alex Lazara. Browse Alex's photostream on Flickr or visit his website at www.alexlazara.com

A Seventh Grader reviews Saint Paul classic, Mickey's Diner

Saint Paul Almanac — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:22:39 +0000

Mickey's Diner on West Seventh Street. (Illustration: Andy Singer)

It was dinnertime. Well, actually, it was ten o’clock at night and my mom had just finished a big show. I was hungry, cranky, and tired. “Mom, I’m hungry, where are we going to eat?” I mumbled and growled at the same time.

“We’re going someplace special,” she told me as I cranked up the seat warmers and fell asleep on that cold winter night. It was a short drive and she woke me up and dragged me out of the car.

“Alright, so where is this place?” I said in my half-asleep sort of way.

“We’re here,” she replied, as she turned the corner and walked the small steps into the RV-like restaurant. She’d already opened the door halfway when she realized I wasn’t behind her. “Are you coming?” she said, with one eyebrow up and that smug look on her face that only moms can do. It said, Oh, you weren’t hungry; that’s funny, because you were complaining the whole car ride.

“Mom, that’s a car, not a restaurant,” I said, thinking of reasons why we would eat in a flashy RV. But the door was still open and I could hear the conversation of happy customers, so I swallowed my pride and walked in. It smelled good. Not like the smell of gas where it smells great for a few seconds, and then you start coughing. And I know this isn’t the best advertisement, but it smelled like grease, hamburgers, French fries, hash browns, and milkshakes. A million sights, smells, and colors in one place.

I sat down in a booth with the old-time boom box right beside me. I played with it and looked at my mom. She still had the I win expression on her face. When the waiter came, I was scared. She had tattoos and her hair was pulled back in a do-rag, but I couldn’t help but smile when she started making fun of my posture. “You need some help sitting up there, kid?” she asked with a smile. Without realizing it, I had started slouching. I crossed my arms with less attitude than intended, sat up, and let Mom order for me. “What would you recommend?” my mom said, as she glanced at the menu.

The waitress picked up the menu and said, “Okay, so what’s the most expensive thing on here . . . ” just loud enough for us to hear. We laughed, and then she spoke again with a grin on her face. “Alright, I guess the shakes and cheeseburgers are good, and everyone loves the hash browns, as long as you leave a big tip.”

My mom replied quickly before I could object. “We’ll have that,” she said, flashing a grin in my direction.

Let’s just see how good this stuff is, I thought. I got my plate. A feast of cheeseburger, hash browns, and milkshake awaited me. After about twenty seconds, hunger overcame pride and I dug in. This was the best cheeseburger and hash browns I had ever had! And I don’t mean it as in when you go to a fast-food restaurant for the first time and say that was so good. It was, well, wow. The milkshake was creamy and chocolatey, the hash browns crisp, and the cheeseburger meaty-cheesy goodness, and just how I like it. I looked up again.

My mom was absolutely terrified. I, a seven-year-old, had just eaten a plate of hash browns and sucked a whole milkshake, yes, with whipped cream, down into my belly. I licked my lips and took a French fry from my mom’s plate, her mouth still dropped. I raised my hand. “Bill, please,” I shouted over the men at the far table. But when you’re eating the best burgers in Saint Paul—no, Minnesota—I guess this story really isn’t an unusual experience.

Mickey’s Dining Car
36 West Seventh St.
651.222.5633
www.mickeysdiningcar.com

Browse listings for Breakfast & Diners in our Saint Paul Almanac City Guide.

Sebastian Tippett attends Saint Paul Public Schools and is in seventh grade.

Andy Singer is a Saint Paul illustrator who has contributed many amazing images to the Almanac. His website can be found at www.andysinger.com

Secrets

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:57:45 +0000

Mural at Hmong Garden. (Photo: Liren Chen/Flickr Creative Commons)

I search the concourse for the family,
a family whose people
were swept away by a river red with blood.
Swept when a secret war ended.
Swept from the mountains of Laos,
Swept in one day from the steamy jungle
to Minnesota’s pre-dawn dark.
I am a stiff giant walking toward babies, women,
young kids, two men—one smiling,
but not with his eyes. He tells me his name,
“Leng Vang.”
“Are you Laotian?”
“No, we’re Hmong.”
The family clings together, one mass.
If people move quickly, they will shatter.
They look down, pull sweaters over their bodies,
refuse the coats I offer, and move together.
Driving them to St. Paul,
I point out the window, “Snow.”
“S-No,” they giggle.
“Why are there no leaves on the trees?”
I explain nature’s seasons—winter, spring, summer, and fall.
I tell Leng the snow will melt,
the leaves will grow again.
He repeats my story to his family.
His wife and her mother will not tell me
until years later but they know
nature does not kill all the trees. They know
only Agent Orange could destroy
all the leaves in St. Paul.
They know my people are
the people of the secret war.

Kathleen Vellenga found history tedious when young—nothing more than dates of battles. Then, as she lived history, the stories caught her. She convinced her small church to sponsor a refugee family through International Institute of Minnesota, and thus the first Hmong family to come to the Twin Cities through an agency arrived in February 1976.

Photo courtesy of Liren Chen. Browse Liren's photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lirena/

Winter Wonderland and the Hunt for Treasure

Saint Paul Almanac — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:11:40 +0000

The Winter Medallion Hunt (Photo: Bryan Kennedy/Flickr Creative Commons)

The scramble begins. The quickest gets the matching gloves. Snowsuit on . . . wool socks on . . . boots on . . . I just need a hat and gloves. A lone glove lies on the wood floor in the entryway. Where’s its mate? Hats, scarves, and mismatched gloves fly out of the wicker basket.

“Ah ha!” It sits at the bottom calling to its twin.

I’m ready, we’re set, let’s go!

We pile into the minivan, shovels in the back. The 1990 Dodge Caravan is slow to heat up.

“Here we go! Let’s read the last clue again. Let’s make sure it’s Como.” The last clue is read aloud. Mom puts the caravan into drive, and we slowly roll across the packed, icy snow covering the road.

The best part about searching for the Winter Carnival medallion isn’t the digging. No, at age eight I prefer to lie in the snow or sit and watch the people shoveling around us.

“Wait! What’s this?” Mom’s shoveling pauses. She reaches down. Her heart fills with glee, only to be disappointed. “Oh, never mind.” But the voice remains positive.

I sink deeper into the snow.

Hours pass, the fun is over. My sweat turns into a cold chill. The sun begins to drift downward and head for the horizon. I did my part. I shoveled; I dug around with my hands. Now, I want to go home and strip off my layers of clothing. I want to watch TV and sip hot chocolate.

“Mom! Can we go yet?”

“Just a little longer, honey.”

The woman never tires. Just yesterday she was hunting, and tomorrow she will do it again. A never-ending treasure hunt, at least, until the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion is found. Then we must wait for next year.

It’s a continual cycle of disappointment. Our hopes are dashed when smiling faces cover the front page of the Pioneer Press. No worries. We’ll find it next year.

Brie Goellner currently attends Boston University. Although she loves the city of Boston and its rich history, nothing beats coming back to Saint Paul. The people and the streets are amazing. Lying on the grass at a Saint Paul park and looking up at the stars is a favorite pastime.

Epic medallion hunt images courtesy of Bryan Kennedy. Browse Brian's photostream on Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/bryankennedy/

Anthem

Saint Paul Almanac — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:48:46 +0000

Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo: Dick DeMarsico, World Telegram staff photographer/Library of Congress)

Gathering in St. Paul 40 years after Selma,
the speakers’ arms pump and flail;
the voices of the preacher and senator ring out
and we step into the stream like revelers,
cheerful on the buoyant morning,
walking the half-mile from Central High School
to Concordia College.

W. Rayford Johnson blares directions through the bullhorn.
At the end of each row, the Million Man Marchers
walk sentry in their black jackets
with the letters, M.A.R.C.H:
Men Are Responsible for Cultivating Hope.
We are all here to protect that frail plant.

My friend links arms with her granddaughters.
I hold the hands of grandchildren muffled in mittens
and scarves. They can’t see over
the crowd, but they know this
is leading them to cookies.

Behind us men start singing, We Shall Overcome,
holding the banner of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute
in memory of the man who organized the railway porters.
In front of us, Jews in their yarmulkes
join in stoutly. The blind are tapping their canes.

I take up the anthem.
We’re singing out and marching like Martin:
We are not afraid
We’ll walk hand in hand
The whole wide world around
But even as I’m singing,
the minor keys gather round the high note
and start the descent, the sadness
always there

in the heart of January,
in a song of someday.

Norita Dittberner-Jax is a poet whose work has been widely published. She has an abiding love for Saint Paul, having been raised in Frogtown, taught English in its schools, and continues to live in this lovely city. Her books of poems include The Watch and What They Always Were.

Still Life, St. Paul

Saint Paul Almanac — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:06:00 +0000

(Photo: Cp'n Monky/Flickr Creative Commons)

On the coldest day of the year,
a man stepped onto the 21 bus

carrying a vase of lilies, shell
pink, tall as a child in his arms.

He sat behind the driver
with the flowers in his lap.

A lady said, They’re beautiful.
He replied, They’re from a funeral.

Each of us had clutched our thumbs
inside our mittens and swayed,

kept our shoulders up, rubbed
our cheeks, and leaned into the street,

willing the bus to float toward us
from the horizon. But we didn’t

wade up the aisle and press
our arms around his shoulders. No

one touched his cheek and said,
I know. Outside, the sun

made glitter of the road, and
nothing grew. It was like in church

when everyone at once says
and forgive us. People

cram together, almost
touching, but nobody touches.

We rode, wrapped
in wool and silence,

past sealed houses
and their plumes of steam.

Carolyn Williams-Noren’s poems, including one nominated for a Pushcart Prize, have been published in Spoon River Poetry Review, Seems, and Literary Mama. The event that inspired “Still Life, St. Paul” took place in Saint Paul. She now lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters.

Lillies photo courtesy Cp'n Monky. Browse Cp'n Monky's photostream on Flickr.

Jan 10th, 2011 Lowertown Reading Jam: May Lee-Yang presents works in progress by multidisciplinary artists

Saint Paul Almanac — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:45:12 +0000

The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The January presentation of the eclectic series, curated by May Lee-Yang, offers an intimate look at works in progress by multidisciplinary artists. The Reading Jam will be presented on Monday, January 10, 2011 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The Jams will continue on the second Monday of each month through July 2011.

May Lee-Yang (Photo: Ann Marsden)

“I feel blessed to be surrounded by a community of artists from various disciplines and what I’ve found interesting is that, almost everyone I know is a writer. I know actors who write, dancers who write, performance artists who write,” says Lee-Yang. She noted that some of their writing eventually gets performed in public, in spoken word pieces or one-person shows, but sometimes they write things about which they are secretive: the five-year-old unfinished novel, a memoir, a collection of poetry, and the list goes on.

“Perhaps they don’t share these parts of themselves because, like most artists I know, they are perfectionists who are waiting to be done with their projects. But I’ve always been fascinated by the unfinished tidbits, the ideas that are still in the process of being created, essentially, in works-in-progress.” May Lee-Yang curated an evening that features multi-talented people as they share works that have never been seen in the public sphere before.

About the Artists

Sun Mee Chomet has worked with the Guthrie Theater, Mu Performing Arts, History Theater, Penumbra Theater and many other theaters locally and nationally. As a playwright, her first play, “Asiamnesia,” was voted Best New Script of 2008 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She is currently working on a new play about her relationship with her Jewish grandfather. Chomet received her M.F.A. in Acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and her B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Earlham College.

Reginald Edmund is a Many Voices Fellow (2009-2011) playwright originally from Houston, TX, where he was Artistic Director for the Silver House Theatre, as well as the founder and producer for the Silver House Playwrights Festival and the Houston Urban Theatre Series. Reggie was the inaugural recipient of the Kennedy Center Fellowship at Soul Mountain Retreat and the 2009 National Runner-up for the Lorraine Hansberry and Rosa Parks Playwriting Award. He received his MFA in playwriting at Ohio University under the guidance of Charles Smith. His play Southbridge, which was presented in May 2010 at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK, was named winner of the 2011 Southern Playwrights’ Competition. Edmund is a co-founding Playwright of The Unit Collective, a collective of playwrights of color.

Ellen Marie Hinchcliffe is a poet, performer and video maker whose work includes: “Dirty the Bones—on being white and other lies...” performed at Intermedia Arts, and Bedlam Theater (and was accepted into The Los Angles Women's Theater Festival) and “Death's Daughter—a love letter, a prayer for Mama” that premiered at Pangaea World Theater in November 2010. She is currently working on a documentary about the late, great writer/thinker Paula Gunn Allen, and her video short, “Art Letter—For Gabrielle Civil” will premiere on Twin Cities Public Television this December.

Julian Hines was born in the Twin Cities as a second generation Jamaican-American. Starting his artistry late in high school, he competed in drama and poetry forensics and founded his school’s first Step/Drill Team. He performs in various disciplines including dance, theater, and spoken word. In addition to his work mentoring inner city and south metro youth, Julian has shared and performed in local public venues, schools, theaters, colleges, and in Japan.

May Lee-Yang is a playwright, poet, prose writer, and performance artist from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She has been hailed by Twin Cities Metro Magazine as “on the way to becoming one of the most powerful and colorful voices in local theater.” Her theater-based works include “Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman”, “Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star”, “Sia(b)”, “Stir-Fried Pop Culture”, and “The Child’s House.” She has received grants from the National Performance Network, the Midwestern Voices and Visions Residency Award, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright Center Many Voices Program, and Intermedia Arts’ Naked Stages Performance Art Program. In her 9 to 5 life, she is the Interim Executive Director at Hmong Arts Connection (HArC).

The Almanac has been hosting the monthly Lowertown Reading Jams since October 2009, and they have been steadily gaining in popularity as excited audiences spread the word about their powerful, shared experiences. The Jams provide an opportunity to explore and bridge the cultural and social breadth of the city of Saint Paul throughout the year. Each Jam is produced and hosted by a well-known writer or spoken word artist. Saint Paul “performance drawing” artist Lara Hanson interprets the readings using Japanese ink brushes. All Reading Jams are American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted.

The entire 2010-2011 season of Lowertown Reading Jams will be presented at the Black Dog Café, a popular Saint Paul venue for spoken word artists, and a co-sponsor of the series. The Jams are curated by the following creative writers and agents for social change:
Oct. 11, 2010 - Deborah Torraine
Nov. 8, 2010 - Tish Jones
Dec. 13, 2010 - Matthew Rucker
Jan. 10, 2011 - May Lee-Yang
Feb. 21, 2011 - Tou SaiKo Lee
Mar. 14, 2011 - Carol Connolly
Apr. 11, 2011 - Marcie Rendon
May 9, 2011 - Desdamona
June 13, 2011 - Melvin Giles
July 11, 2011 - Diego Vázquez, Jr.

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Recently released in its fifth edition, the Saint Paul Almanac features essays, poems, photos, maps, and listings of events, bars, restaurant, theaters, and other cultural venues within a datebook format. The 2011 Almanac features 129 works by 118 writers. These writers include literary giants, everyday residents, students, journalists, new Americans, and lovers of Saint Paul who live in other corners of the world. Writers interested in having their work considered for the 2012 Almanac have until March 1, 2011 to make a submission. Information on upcoming events, how to make a submission, and other Saint Paul Almanac news is available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org

The 2011 Saint Paul Almanac sells for $11.95 online at www.saintpaulalmanac.org and is available in independent and mainstream bookstores everywhere, as well as at libraries and coffee houses throughout the City.

Saint Paul Almanac activities are made possible, in part, by funds provided by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council from an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature. Sponsors and partner organizations include the Black Dog Café and Wine Bar, the City of Saint Paul and Saint Paul STAR Program, Clouds in Water Zen Center, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, KFAI Radio, The Lowertown Future Fund of the Saint Paul Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Travelers Arts & Diversity Grant, and Twin Cities Daily Planet.

Saint Paul Almanac seeks stories for sixth edition from YOU!

Saint Paul Almanac — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:14:34 +0000

A brand new year is upon us and 2011 will see the creation and publication of a sixth edition of the annual Saint Paul Almanac!

The process of creating a new Saint Paul Almanac each year is an epic community journey that begins with a simple call like this one—to writers and aspiring writers everywhere—to submit essays, poems, reviews, recipes, and short stories about Minnesota's capital city, Saint Paul.   Each year, the call is heard by literary giants, everyday residents, kids, grandparents, journalists, new Americans, lovers of Saint Paul who now live in other corners of the world...and the submissions start pouring in.

As pens dart across paper and fingers clatter on keyboards in corner cafes here and around the world, the Almanac gets to work with a team of 21 community editors of diverse backgrounds that include 4 professional editors/writers. Seven of the 21 community editors are high school students.

In 14 three-hour meetings, the community editor team is commissioned to determine collectively what ends up in the Saint Paul Almanac. Our writing workshop method is the same process universities use to strengthen writers’ and editors’ skills. Critiquing other peoples’ writing in a group environment and defending that analysis enhances one’s own writing and editing abilities.

Each of the 450 submissions to the Almanac is carefully reviewed by the community editors, who select the 100-plus pieces to be included in the new edition. All pieces are read with author names removed. Even Garrison Keillor's work is reviewed anonymously!   At the last few meetings, the top-rated 200 pieces are reviewed one more time. As a result of the workshop process, new community editors’ concepts of quality and inclusivity are refined. Apprentices often re-rate work that early on in the process they rated differently.

A Saint Paul Almanac community editors meeting at the Black Dog cafe in Lowertown, St. Paul

The final Almanac that is crafted from this collaborative community process is both a literary campfire around which the diverse community of Saint Paul has gathered to share stories, and a year-round calendar and guide designed to take the curious urban adventurer through a year of seasons in Minnesota’s capital city.   In our partnership with the Saint Paul Public Schools, 2,000 high school students receive a copy of the Almanac as part of their social studies curriculum, returning the Almanac to the young members of the community to begin the process again.

For more information about how to submit to the Almanac, see:

http://saintpaulalmanac.org/about/submissions/

For more information about our Community Editor Apprenticeship Project, see:

http://saintpaulalmanac.org/about/community-editor-apprenticeship-project/

About the Almanac

The Saint Paul Almanac is a literary campfire around which people gather to share their St. Paul stories, poetry, fiction, and recipes as well as a guidebook to Minnesota's capital city, its festivals, exhibits and more!

The Almanac's generous sponsors and partners include the City of Saint Paul's Cultural STAR program, McKnight Foundation, Mardag Foundation, Bigelow Foundation, Saint Paul Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), Lowertown Future Fund, Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, SPPS, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Black Dog Café, Clouds in Water Zen Center, Twin Cities Daily Planet, A to Z Gallery, and KFAI.

Crosby Lake: The Wilderness in the City

Saint Paul Almanac — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:32:37 +0000

Crosby Farm Regional Park (Photo: DonJuanDeMacro/Flickr Creative Commons)

Growing up in the West Seventh Street area of Saint Paul in the 1950s and 60s, in a family with no car, could have limited my adventure horizons, except that tucked away just out of sight, near its west end, lay Crosby Lake—and I was lucky enough to discover it in my teens, when any wildness oasis in the heart of Saint Paul seemed as rich in natural wonders as any of the great national parks out west!

(Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

I first set foot on Crosby Lake land in the late 1950s, when I was twelve years old and trailed my neighbor, Alex Hauwiller, on foot through a landfill just off Seventh Street on what was then Leland Street and followed a leaf-strewn trail to the lake’s flooded shore. Some fifty feet out rested flood-remnant lumber that had perhaps once been the deck of a riverfront home—and so, because my neighbor wore hipboots and I did not, Alex carried me on his back to the platform, from which we fished with cane poles for several hours, catching a nice meal of perch, sunnies, and crappies.

(Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

My next magical visit to Crosby Lake came the following winter, when, amid gently falling snow, I followed my neighbor Alex again out onto the now-frozen lake, on my first-ever ice-fishing endeavor. The huge booming sounds of new ice forming underfoot froze me in my tracks, yet Alex walked fearlessly on, turning at last to assure me that the ice was safe and the rumbling sounds simply those of new ice forming beneath us. Again that day, we took home a nice meal of fish, mostly crappies and even a few small northerns.

(Photo: Tom Westbrook/Flickr Creative Commons)

And so Crosby became the destination on weekends beyond number for similar fishing trips as well as exploratory hikes, and I came to know the entire layout of the abandoned farmland surrounding the lake, once owned by Thomas Crosby but now reduced to unmaintained, tax-delinquent city property. While Crosby was the site of many illegal beer parties and a drop-off site for many stolen cars, it was also a haven for wildlife, including an unbelievable variety of bird species. I learned to become a birder over years of hiking all about Crosby, and I learned about the little Crosby lake as well, which, though small, was unbelievably deep. I came to a deeper appreciation of the area’s floodplain tree mix and the varying seasonal beauty that turned the area into a bejeweled gem of nature.

(Photo: Patricia Bour-Schilla)

My brothers and I hiked Crosby even while Shepard Road was pushed westward above the lake area, the bridge piers for long-awaited I-35 were set in place, and the trusses and beams were thrown across them. We climbed with boyhood glee over all the heavy equipment parked there while that work progressed, and we even walked the catwalk underneath the bridge until it was padlocked! We could see that even the overhead presence of a busy commuter roadway and a booming freeway would not sully Crosby Lake’s wildness, and we were further gladdened years later, when the City of Saint Paul realized the promise of Crosby’s wildness and made it a city park, preserving its wild, undeveloped nature.

I am ecstatically reassured to know that Crosby Farm Park will continue to be there for new generations of young boys and girls looking for wildness in—of all places—the heart of our rivertown city!

Gordy Palzer’s quest to be a serious writer has continually been delayed by various calls to duty along the road of life. Over the years, he has kept his writing skills honed through the penning of countless personal letters and several published articles. Encouraged by having made it into Saint Paul Almanac, Gordy plans on further mining the rich mother lode of memories he has just scratched into with his piece on Crosby Lake.

Winter Crosby Farm Regional Park photo courtesy Tom Westbrook. Browse Tom's photostream on Flickr. Summer photo courtesy DonJuanDeMacro. Browse Don's photostream on Flickr.

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Saint Paul Almanac

Mar 28, 2012: Tou SaiKo Lee presents "Stories from O.G.s" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

About "Stories from O.G.s: Honoring the O.riginal G.eneration"

About the Performers

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Location & Directions

Carnival

Sleigh Ride

Thirty Degrees Below Zero

A Nostalgic Zephyr: William Hoffman on the Old Jewish West Side

William Hoffman, Those Were The Days (T. S. Denison and Company, 1957); pages 26–27, 29–31.

Feb 13, 2012: Alexander Wanna presents "Poetry & Comedy" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

About "Poetry & Comedy"

About the Performers

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Location & Directions

Happy New Year from the Pig's Eye Post!

From the Saint Paul Almanac's Saint Paul Calendar

New writing from the Almanac

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Saturday Morning

The Dead of Winter

Radio Crew

Jan 9, 2012: Wendy Brown-Báez presents "Yours Truly" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

About "Yours Truly"

Introducing the performers

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Get directions

Thank you from the Saint Paul Almanac!

Dec 14: Join Tata Diego for a ride on the Almanac Train!

A Last-Chance Writing Workshop for 2013 Almanac Submissions

Location & Directions

Dec 12, 2011: Nimo Farah presents "Nomadic Expressions" at the Lowertown Reading Jam

Introducing the performers

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Get directions

Nov 16th is "Give To The Max Day": Support your Hometown Almanac!

What if you could help the Saint Paul Almanac win $1000 just by giving $10? On November 16, Give to the Max Day, you can. Make a donation now by clicking on the GiveMN.org graphic:

Why give on November 16th?

Why give to the Saint Paul Almanac?

On November 16th, join others on GiveMN.org and support the Saint Paul Almanac!

Your story wanted for the 2013 Almanac -- Deadline: December 15th, 2011

What is YOUR Saint Paul? The Saint Paul Almanac wants to know!

Share Your Memories of Deb Torraine

OCT 23: Our Sweet Potato Sister: Celebrating the life and writings of Deb Torraine

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 from 6:30–8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) SteppingStone Theater, 55 Victoria Street North, St. Paul, MN 55104

Free event with dessert reception afterward, featuring performances by many local artists including: Ananya Dance Theater OBIE award winning actress Laurie Carlos Louis Alemayehu of Ancestor Energy Musician, songwriter Larry Long Excerpts from the writings of Deb Torraine

Location of the Celebration

Donations will be accepted for the Deb Torraine Scholarship Fund for Young Adults

For More Information

Nov 14th, 2011: Lowertown Reading Jam: J. Otis Powell! presents "Duende and the Sound of Soul"

Introduction by J. Otis Powell!

Introducing the performers

J. Otis Powell!

Alexs D. Pate

Louis Alemayehu

e.g. bailey

Andrea Jenkins

Leah Nelson

Introducing the musicians

Tom Kanthak

Katherine Pehrson

About the Saint Paul Almanac

Get directions

Saint Paul Almanac Readings, coming to a coffee bar near you...

Thursday Sept. 22, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Thursday Sept. 29, 2011 — 6:30 p.m

Saturday Oct. 1, 2011 — 1:00 p.m.

Thursday Oct. 6, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Thursday Oct. 13, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Saturday Oct. 15, 2011 — 12:00 p.m.

Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, Oct 20, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Thursday Nov. 3, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Saturday Nov. 5, 2011 — 1:00 p.m.

Thursday Nov. 10, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

Thursday Nov 17, 2011 — 7:00 p.m.

2012 Almanac book release events in September: Fundraiser (8th) & Party (15th)

2012 Saint Paul Almanac Fundraiser

2012 Saint Paul Almanac Release Party

Free event with dessert reception afterward, featuring performances by many local artists including:

Ananya Dance Theater

OBIE award winning actress Laurie Carlos

Louis Alemayehu of Ancestor Energy

Musician, songwriter Larry Long

Excerpts from the writings of Deb Torraine

Saturday Nov. 5, 2011 — 1:00 p.m.  

Q. When is a Jam a Slam?

A. When it’s the first ever Poetry/Story Slam with prizes from the Saint Paul Almanac and the last Lowertown Reading Jam of the second year of the series.

 About the Saint Paul Almanac

 About the Saint Paul Almanac

April 29th – Friday evening, 6-10 pm.
April 30th – Saturday afternoon, noon-8 pm.
May 1st – Sunday, noon-5 pm.