From Somalia to Kenya, to Somalia to Minnesota
2015
I am Hamda Ahmed Essa. I am twenty-two years old, I am single, and I live in the Twin Cities. In 1991 when I was a little girl in Somalia my family and relatives had to run away from the war.
Fabel’s Shoe Store
2015
On Saturdays when I was a kid, my friends and I took the streetcar—later the bus—to downtown Saint Paul. Sometimes we went to the library, where the wise librarians knew how to help active boys find books that would hold their interest and keep them coming back for more.
We Were Fine, Thank You
2015
Kwame McDonald, an African pillar in the Saint Paul Rondo com- munity, was working on his autobiography when he transitioned into ancestorhood.
Niam, Ua Koj Tsaug Thank You, Mom
2015
People ask me, “What is Hmong?” Hmong is not just an ethnicity, but a definition of who I am. Hmong is a tradition, a culture, and a belief. Above all, being a daughter in a Hmong family is both a gift and a curse.
Praises
2015
MAY LEE BEAMED when I praised her fennel. Mhonpaj’s Garden is the first organic Hmong Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the U.S.
Osceola, Osceola
2015
We were moving to Saint Paul after a year in Ireland, all ten of us packed into a tiny Fiat station wagon for the drive from New York to a big house on an even bigger hill set on Osceola Avenue.
A Copy Boy’s Tale
2015
It was a little before seven on the morning of June 1, 1966, when I entered the stately building at 55 East Fourth Street and hurried up the stairs.
Round Earth
2015
MARY STUCKY GOES around the world. The journalist knows the earth is round, and what goes around comes around, so she has been going around and around.
Imniza Ska (“White Cliffs” of Saint Paul)
2015
One day in June 2011, my wife, Mary Beth Faimon, and I took a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi River from Harriet Island in Saint Paul. On the cruise, I saw, for the first time, Imniza Ska, the white cliffs that line the Mississippi River.
Bratz
2015
A HALE FELLOW with a flair for retail, Todd Romocky grills, listens, hustles, grins. “I’ve been a meat-cutter for the past twenty years.
“Painting is Easy Until You Know How”
2014
RICHARD ABRAHAM paints outside. “Painting is easy until you know how,” Edgar Degas knew, and now Abraham knows. His pictures delight.
Kwame J. C. McDonald: He Faced Death with Courage
2014
Kwame McDonald was a much-loved icon in the community. He was well traveled and well known across the country. My relationship with him—a relationship of associating and working together—lasted over thirty years, right up until the time he died. This is also a story about the manner in which he died, his whole attitude about life and death, and the acceptance of his fate.