Blaze

By Jameelah Crawford ● 2023

Inspired by True Events • CONTENT WARNING: Gun Violence   “Where did you get the nickname ‘Blaze?’” Fatimah tilted her head, then took a sip of water. “That’s my rap

Sacred Water

By Diane Wilson ● 2022

The Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, which includes the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota peoples, carry an origin story that teaches the sacred nature of water. This relationship is embedded

Minnesota Nice

By Ty Chapman ● 2022

At fifteen, I watched a cop shove a child down concrete school steps, his body flailing between impacts. His skull battered to fragments. Crimson rivering down a well-ironed shirt.

Gifts of the Superior Hiking Trail – The Dragonfly

By Mikkel Beckmen ● 2022

“Flora or Fauna, we are all shapeshifters and magical re-inventors. Life is really a plural noun, a caravan of selves.” – Diane Ackerman   Mid-way along my thru hike of the

Isaac’s Blessing Bags

By Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ ● 2022

When we left our quiet townhome in Inver Grove Heights to move to our first home on the Eastside, as a mother of two young men I was extremely nervous.

West Saint Paul

By Roberto Sande Carmona ● 2019

Tengo un headache. Maybe it’s the combinación de lenguas en my head, on the billboards (espectaculares, dice mi abi), y en las conversations of people pasando por Cesar Chavez Street.

Art by Patricia Olson

Where I Belong

By Joan Maeda Trygg ● 2017

SAINT PAUL IS MY HOME. I am made of the water and air of this place. I am accustomed to the short urban horizon, to the slant of sun that

The Good Ole Days All Over Again

2016

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

Fire on Pig’s Eye Island

2016

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

Cheesehead

2016

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

From the Beginning: Forums, Theater, and Music

2016

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

Art by Maya Rose

Mears Park

By Martin Devaney ● 2016

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