“The Queen’s Gambit” has made chess popular again, but Homer resident Andy Haas says chess has never lost its appeal - not for 1500 years! – and he’s making sure that Homer kids have a chance to learn its strategy, rules, camaraderie, vibe, and even its flavor.

Sally Oberstein is the human counterpart to the conspicuous Alaska bumblebee: an enthusiastic pollinator and team player who brings culture and connections to bloom.

As a reporter at Homer, Alaska’s KBBI Public Radio (890 AM), Emilie Springer describes herself as a “hyper local” storyteller, offering, “My stories start here and stay here.” Emilie profiles interesting and diverse locals across Homer and the lower Kenai Peninsula, and asks the questions: “Who does that?” and “Why?”

Cinda Nofziger, the Youth Service Librarian at the Homer Public Library, offers a wide, irrepressible smile when talking about her job. “I get to come to work each day,” she says with gusto, “and feel all this good kid energy.” Cinda knows that her work affects the future; after all, Cinda has the next generation of readers, of library patrons, in her hands.

For 22 years, each September, Mavis Muller has created a large basket by the sea in Homer, Alaska that is built by community over a week – woven with local materials, adorned with flowers and notes, consecrated by music and dance - and then is burned in community for all to see. She calls it her Burning Basket.

Susannah Webster runs The Porcupine Theater in Homer, Alaska. The Porcupine is a small-town movie theater, the type of place where the owner pops the popcorn, writes the ad campaign, and shovels the front walk before films.

In the metaphor of sport, getting to the competition is half the battle. For the inaugural Uruguayan U 14 Girls Soccer Team, it took a village of supporters to make a tournament appearance in Minnesota happen.

Holding space is Erin Coughlin Hollowell’s superpower. Knowing what writers need - and what they don’t need - is what Erin does best as she directs Storyknife, a unique writer’s retreat for women in Homer, Alaska. 

In a land of giants, Amy Stearns brims with ideas both big and small.  Committed to place and the people who animate place, Amy spearheads Project 412, an ambitious placemaking enterprise in Detroit Lakes that builds community through public art experiences, entrepreneurial ignition, and making good on hometown hype by “Doing Cool Sh*t.”

Maggie Lorenz (Dakota, Ojibwe, Irish, German) has a “heart connection” to Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi, also known as Lower Phalen Creek Project, on the East Side of St. Paul. Her nonprofit organization’s impact is bringing about “healing justice for the land, the water, the plants, and for the animals and the winged and finned relatives” of this place. And while she may walk in two worlds, her vision unites the area’s original inhabitants, visitors to the area, and her many neighbors who are helping her steward the sacred site.

St. Paul is a city of neighborhoods, and James Walsh – writer and native-born son – knows somebody (or 20 somebodies) in each one of them.

Emily Hunt Turner is an Minneapolis entrepreneur and an iconoclast who hopes a remarkable grilled cheese sandwich can slake hunger and serve up justice, healing, reconciliation.

Imagining a future ripe for vibrant storytelling, archivist and historian Lisa Vecoli collects personal narratives from women whose work and perspectives are vital to understanding the spunk of the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota.

Ron Harris, Chief Resilience Officer for Minneapolis, knows that to create something great, something beautiful and robust, one must work with what one has, making do - and making better - even if an ingredient or two is in short supply. The trick? Leverage existing strengths, work together, keep going.

Divya Maiya is not afraid to stand out. In fact, she radiates when noticed, when her costume or colors shine, when her movement causes a stir. Divya is a devotee and teacher of South Asian dance, and she wants you to join her.

Tom Evers discovered the fun of parks, as many of us did, when he was a kid. “Growing up on a cul-de-sac” in his hometown of Mankato, Tom says, “my childhood was full of free play down at the river and in the woods.” To Tom, who is both a “big kid” at heart and a big thinker, fun is only half the power of parks; the compelling remainder lies in a park’s ability to heal a city, and the people who call it home.

Ten thousand hours, and ten thousand stitches, could not begin to describe the sewing output of Suzanne Thao. To quantify her workflow, one might as well count the singular daubs of paint on the canvasses of Mary Cassatt, or individual letters in the writing of Louise Erdrich.

The Coven is a female-centric co-working and community space in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood. Erinn Farrell and her co-conspirators - Alex West Steinman, Bethany Iverson, and Liz Giel – have crafted a space that meets the needs of women who work. Think: Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” with high-speed internet and a coffee bar.

Essie Simpson has the inside scoop on what’s going down in downtown Minneapolis. Essie is an Ambassador with the Downtown Improvement District (DID), a visible, mobile envoy of hospitality in the city’s urban core.

Carla Godwin serves bold for breakfast. As Executive Director of the Peris Foundation, Carla ushers in a modern-day Renaissance in affordable and accessible housing in Minneapolis. Peris Hill Apartments is the Peris Foundation’s inaugural project in community, and it offers refuge and promise to a particularly vulnerable and underserved population: young adults aging out of foster care