Longfellow

Relatively speaking, there’s a lot more money spent on graffiti removal locally than you probably realize. Along with the Minneapolis Anti-Graffiti Initiative, which pays citizens cash for leads about graffiti that produce arrests, the city of Minneapolis is offering Graffiti Micro Grants to non-profit community-based organizations and churches for beautification programs, graffiti clean-up, and teaching the Graffiti Hurts curriculum, among other projects. The cap for each organization is $10,000. (The image above, by the way, is the city’s very own anti-graffiti graffito.) MORE »

The Women’s Environmental Institute (WEI) invites you to participate in the Phillips Community Environmental Justice Forum and Feast on Friday evening, May 9 at Plaza Verde, 1516 E. Lake St., # 301, Minneapolis 55407. This community gathering will bring together experts in environmental health concerns, neighborhood activists, and allies who support the community’s right-to-know about the serious environmental health challenges facing our families — especially our children and elders in Phillips. The community feast begins at 5pm and features Native, Latino, and Somali foods. The program begins at 6 pm with speakers and panels that will present: maps and information on the kinds of toxic exposure residents are already living with; concerns about the proposal to site a wood-burning incinerator in Phillips; other toxic air pollution sources; and an opportunity for the community to respond and to begin to strategize for future action. Spanish and Somali interpreting will be available. This event is free and open to the public. The MN Pollution Control Agency and numerous community-based organization are co-sponsors. We encourage you to come, bring your neighbors, questions, ideas, and passion for environmental justice in our neighborhood! MORE »

Superb, veteran percussionist Wallace Hill is getting it together for Rumba Colombia Workshops: Thursdays After Work. It’s a monthlong foray into one of Colombia’s most beloved rumba stylings. At 5:30 p.m. every Thursday from May 8-29, you can experience rumba to a tee at Minneapolis’s Drums and Art courtesy of Hill, a Twin Cities legend in the world of Afro-Caribbean music. You get to listen to and try your own hand at rumba, and to watch rare footage of rumba sessions in Havana, Cuba. MORE »

In a city known for its many bicyclists, a new facility will soon offer sanctuary for those who commute on two wheels. MORE »

“You can make inroads in the machine,” Robyne Robinson says. Though she loves her job as Fox 9 News co-anchor, she has no illusions about the corporate news game. The news media have been “hijacked,” and news departments are “financial drains” on broadcast networks, tolerated because “federal law requires some sort of public communication.” MORE »