Joel Grostephan, Writer
Joel Grostephan is a reporter based in St. Paul. His work is regularly aired on KFAI Radio and in The Environment Report (based in Ann Arbor, Michigan). He’s always looking for a good story about class, race or poverty. Contact him at jgrostephan@gmail.com.
One strike and you're out: Facing the criminal justice system
Somali immigrants came to the US as refugees and asylees over the past 10 years. Children that arrived here in 1990s know Minnesota as their home. But if they get convicted of a crime – even a minor theft, they could lose their immigration status and get deportation ordered for Somalia. Whether they get orders for deportation or not depends on the legal help they get from public defenders and immigration law clinics. Some immigrants lose their way navigating the maze of immigration law and criminal law. MORE »
Complaints against cops frustrating but necessary
Although it may take years for complaints against Minneapolis police officers to be resolved, and only a few result in any disciplinary action or victim compensation, city officials and civil rights activists encourage immigrants to file formal complaints. MORE »
Ethnic media at the NCMR: Outsiders?
At last weekend’s National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR), Anthony Advincula sounded dismayed as he opened the forum “The Fighting Press: Ethnic Media Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.”
“We’re competing with Arianna Huffington next door,” he said to an audience of about 30 at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Saturday. “Hopefully we won’t have outsider status next year.” MORE »
Playwright, producers clash over "Border Crossing"
On May 4, Border Crossing, a play about immigration, finished an 8-day-run at the Ritz Theater. The play was produced and directed by the Off-Leash Area, a Minneapolis company known for adventurous movement-based productions. Reviews were complimentary, but the playwright, Marcie Rendon, refused to see it. Rendon also insisted that the program read: “The text was adapted and excerpted from a larger body of work by Marcie Rendon.” She asked for corrections in reviews that didn’t make that clear, and posted a letter on her blog after the play opened. MORE »
Not from Sweden any more: A new generation of immigrant farmers in Minnesota
On Saturday, two busloads of immigrant farmers from the 3rd Minority and Immigrant Farming Conference arrived at Gardens of Eagan near Faribault. Gardens of Eagan founder, Martin Diffley, showed the group his tractors. MORE »
workaround
