Join the Conversation: Neighborhoods and the New Normal

By |

The Twin Cities Daily Planet’s series, The New Normal: Deciding Community Priorities in a Downsized Economy, tackles a different issue each month. In March we’re talking about Neighborhoods. We’re asking people in the Twin Cities: “In a time of budget deficits and decreasing resources, how can we best promote the economic vitality and livability our neighborhoods?”Come to a Community Conversation!Come meet neighbors over snacks and coffee, exchange ideas and wrestle with some hard choices. We’ll use the article, Hard times, hard choices: How should neighborhoods respond to the “New Normal?” to get the conversation going. Continue Reading

House of the Spirits resurrects ghosts of dictatorships past

By |

UPDATED 11/13/2010: There are ghosts, love stories, families, and torture—lots of it—in Mixed Blood’s production of the House of Spirits.  Through much of the play the main character narrates her family’s history, some of it beautiful and ephemeral, from a hostile looking torture chamber. The play, an adaptation of Isabel Allende’s book by the same name, reminds audiences of the atrocities committed during the brutal dictatorship in Chile during in the late 1970s.For Dr. Ellen Kennedy, Executive Director of World Without Genocide, the House of the Spirits was a perfect opportunity to educate the public about human rights abuses in Latin American.”We need to educate people about the past,” she said. “It’s ultimately up to us to prevent genocide and to give people the mechanisms to do so.”This was the goal of a recent conference co-hosted by the Mixed Blood Theater and World Without Genocide, a Twin Cities based organization dedicated to ending genocide. The day-long conference on torture and dictatorship in Latin America culminated in a performance of the House of the Spirits at the Mixed Blood.Dr. Kennedy, also a human rights activist and professor, steers World Without Genocide toward education and advocacy efforts. Continue Reading

MINNESOTA VOICES | Ramón León connects business and justice

By |

Growing up working in a family-run furniture business in Mexico, Ramón León learned from his parents that social justice is paramount to running a good business. “If you have 10 employees, you are not just impacting 10 lives, you are impacting 10 families,” his parent told him. That lesson has been his guide as a Twin Cities business and community leader over the past couple of decades. León is the President and CEO of Latino Economic Development Center, a community development center that provides economic opportunities to Latinos in the state of Minnesota. León was also one of the founding board members of Mercado Central on Lake Street in Minneapolis. Continue Reading

One woman’s trip through the insurance maze in Minnesota

By |

A year and a half ago, Sonya Austin Emerick dropped her son off at day care at 5:30 a.m. and drove toward her job at a produce warehouse. Instead of going to work, though, she began looking for a building big enough to destroy the “big ol’ Cadillac” she was driving until she suddenly pictured her son’s face. “I was looking for a building and passed Abbott Northwestern [hospital],” said Emerick, who is now 27. “When I saw my son’s face, I decided it would probably be a much better idea to check myself in.” The pressure of living with schizoaffective disorder had become too much for Emerick. Continue Reading