Minneapolis journalist Steve Brandt has been an inveterate observer of community.  He may not have set out to be a placemaker, but Steve’s stories chronicled a particular place – Minneapolis - and highlighted that particular place in time. 

Del Hampton has a wish for University Avenue:  “I want it to be welcoming for people to come outside, to walk along, to be.   With places to sit, art to look at, sounds to listen to:  people talking, birds, children playing.  And the smells – trees, flowers, food – that will invite us to get out of our buildings, to go outside and be with other people.”

There is more than one way to make curry. 

Chef Heather Jansz is noodling another mouthwatering idea:  What if there is more than one way to feed community?

Heather is known as “The Curry Diva.”  She is a native of Sri Lanka and has been cooking for friends, customers, and total strangers in Minneapolis since the 1970’s. Food has always been a focus for Heather, even as a young girl.  At home, “I would cook outside, on three brick stones, like in the olden days.  My mother would give me a little bit of lentils and spices for me to practice with in the backyard. ‘Be careful of the snakes!’ she’d warn.”

If Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee Creek) were a math symbol, she would be a plus sign.   An artist, illustrator, animator, entrepreneur, teacher, wanderer and mapmaker, Marlena’s work teems with language, metaphor, movement, crisp colors and history to ignite new thinking and build community around stories that are integral to this land and people.

Susan Wilkins runs The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, a free garden within expansive public parkland on the western boundary of the City of Minneapolis.  It is not a formal “garden” in the sense of rows of colorful snapdragons or petunias, but a nature-filled, quiet place that nonetheless requires hours and years of planning and pruning and planting to maintain.

Like a second grader, art can sometimes be wiggly, and the path to embracing it can be equally winding.

Two generations of docents, Mary Ritten and Kit Wilson, came to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) along different paths, but with a similar purpose.  Each is a lover of art; one, a practicing artist.  Both women credit the power of art – and their experiences at MIA - for revealing their best selves and connecting them, in powerful ways, to community.

Listen.  Do you hear that? 

Somewhere in Minneapolis someone is talking about development with a policy leader, a real estate broker, or land use expert.There is a good chance that the topic or the conversation is being curated by Caren Dewar or her colleagues at Urban Land Institute, Minnesota (ULI).There is a good chance they are talking about things that matter to you:housing, public open space, or the bustling commercial node where you can get a really good cup of coffee.

“Eight is Enough” could never be the title of a show about Janne Flisrand’s life; “Cheaper by the Dozen?”  Now we’re talking.     

For Janne, more is more. She is a proponent of more residents calling Minneapolis home and heads a volunteer citizen group called Neighbors for More Neighbors.“We stand for those who want a place in this city,” she says.

So far, being the “new kid” on the block has its appeal. 

The Minnesota African American Heritage Museum & Gallery (MAAHMG) in North Minneapolis is reveling in the “bump” that being new provides.The museum opened its doors just 5 months ago, in September 2018, and is the first African American museum in Minnesota.“There is definitely a ‘newness’ energy going,” admits Coventry Cowens, co-founder of the museum.

Think of it like a gift you give yourself:  Elizabeth Foy Larsen’s 111 Places in the Twin Cities That You Must Not Miss is a collection of destinations, out-of-the-way places, oddities, cultural institutions, food emporia, architectural gems, and personal amusements that beguile you into being a tourist in your own home town.

In a vacuum, civic planning would be easy:  No statutes to comply to, no constituencies to hear, no politicians to placate, no history to contend with, no legacy to propose. 

Heather Worthington, Director of Long Range Planning for the City of Minneapolis, balances these concerns, and more.

This is Minnesota, and today it’s snowing to beat the band.  Beauty is all around, the spectacle, sweeping.  Take a minute to notice details:  there are footprints here and there, tiny and undaunted; eventually, a wide path through the snow.  Who is first to make those tracks?  How soon do others join in, and how many follow?

Jeremy Cohen, Artistic Director of the Playwrights’ Center, is a path maker.

American poet Mary Oliver asked, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?” 

American poet / cookbook author Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), tells of lives devoted to food that is wild, precious, and at-hand.

Imagine a Venn diagram:  three overlapping shapes, one each for Production, Artistry, and Place.  Where they overlap is where you find the people of St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ).  One beating heart in the center of it all is Catherine Reid Day.

Drink up, it’s good for you! 

In Japan, green tea is said to reduce infection and boost cognitive function.  Kombucha - fermented, tart and naturally effervescent - is thought to improve human gut bacteria and aid digestion.  Yak’s milk, a Tibetan favorite, contains heaps of calories and (as a side benefit) heals chapped lips. 

Beer, at least how Josh Janos brews it, is good for community.   

When it comes to defining her work at Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center (CAFAC), Victoria Lauing has heard it all:  “We’re not IN Chicago, but ON Chicago,” she says. “And it’s not fire ANTS.  Or FINE arts.  It’s ‘Chicago Avenue FIRE. ARTS. Center.’” 

Given the juxtaposition of FIRE to ART, the center’s title pricks the imagination of anyone who has ever created, or destroyed, something with heat, spark or open flame.  “Our mission is not dainty,” Victoria demurs.  Then, sitting tall, she declares, “But hard-core and dangerous!”

“A horse walks into a bar....” is one way to start an evening of comedy.

“A Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner walks into a bar...” is one way The Theater of Public Policy starts an evening of comedy. 

Masterminds Tane Danger (“My real name”) and Brandon Boat (“MY real name”) created Danger Boat Productions and within that, The Theater of Public Policy (T2P2). The combination of “Danger” and “Boat” should alert you that what they concoct is both safe container and something potentially quite tipsy.

Jaton White once was a computer engineer.  Before that, her mother engineered a process to make sure Jaton would go to college, and beyond. 

When Jaton was just 6 years old, her mother brought home a Commodore 64 computer and gave it to her daughter.  Jaton took the computer apart and, given a little space and support, “mostly got it back together.” 

Bruce Chamberlain appreciates deep roots and the elements that nourish them.  

From his farm boy days, the land, and the people who tend it, have shaped him.When his parents chose to go organic for their dairy production, Bruce noticed big and small changes, saying, “Animal health improved, smells evolved, insects returned.Roots grew, and a more complex ecosystem emerged.”

“At some point every day, we are all pedestrians.” 

*****, Board Member at Our Streets Mpls, reminds us that no matter the mode of transportation any of us takes to or from work or school, we all spend some time on our feet.

Her fellow pedestrian, Nick Ray Olson, is the staff Events and Programming Director for Our Streets Mpls. He coordinates the buzz around the eight Open Street events that happen across Minneapolis each year.