Andy Sturdevant’s “Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow”: The Minnesota book that Minnesota needed

By |

When I was 11, my family moved into the house my father had grown up in—a turn-of-the-century foursquare near the University of St. Thomas, where my paternal grandfather taught English. My dad Jim could still walk around the block, until well into his 50s, and be greeted as “Jimmy” by elders who had been there since he was a boy. When describing my family’s relationship to our home, I would tell people at college that my dad was convinced we lived in the best house on the best corner of the best neighborhood of the best city in the best state in the best country in the world. Not that he thought any of those jurisdictions was perfect; each was just obviously preferable to any reasonable alternative.I went far away to college—to the east coast. Continue Reading

Saint Paul Almanac plans a big bash for the release of its 2014 edition

By |

Over the past several years, the Saint Paul Almanac has grown from bathroom reading for Capital City buffs to a full-fledged organization engaging the city’s diverse communities through innovative programming—and, of course, that chunky book. On September 12, the Almanac will celebrate the publication of its eighth edition with a party at the Black Dog showcasing a wide range of local talent.The party, which runs from 7:00 p.m. until “late,” will spread to nearby venues including Clouds in Water Zen Center, which will host readings by IBé Kaba, Marcy Rendon, Carol Connolly, and others; and to the AZ Gallery, which along with the Black Dog will feature original art commissioned for the new volume. Live music will range from traditional Irish folk to Indian sitar and tabla.The almanac itself is being touted as bigger and better than ever, including poster-size hand-drawn maps of the city overall and downtown specifically. This year’s edition is dedicated to the memory of Rondo neighborhood writer Bertha Givens.Read stories from the Saint Paul Almanac in the Daily Planet; and Wendy Brown-Baez’s interview with Saint Paul Almanac editor Kimberly Nightingale.Coverage of issues and events affecting Central Corridor communities is funded in part by a grant from the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | Letters of wife of MN Congressman Walter Judd to be published as book

By |

Miriam Barber Judd was a prolific letter writer. She could pour out her feelings and experiences much more easily on paper than propriety allowed her to in daily life. The result is an amazing collection of letters (she left almost 2,000) and private writings that give a real-time, first-person account of the life behind a public servant.Now her daughter, Mary Lou Judd Carpenter, has put these together in a volume called Miriam’s Words: The Personal Price of a Public Life. These selections give a chronological, well-written, insightful account of the life of the spouse of a public servant, Dr. Walter Judd, who was a medical missionary to China in the 1920s and 1930s, a 20-year Congressman and a delegate to the United Nations. Miriam kept the home fires burning, and was an undaunted masterful manager of the many worlds she inhabited.What is seldom heard is the price of such service. Continue Reading

Books & Bars gives you a buzz (of satisfaction)

By |

I haven’t been reading a lot of books lately and I feel bad about that. I used to read all the time when I was younger, but there are so many things that I want and have to do that sitting down with a good book falls far on the rung of my to do list.So, when Meghan Murphy of Paper Darts Magazine told me about Books & Bars and about Sheila Heti’s new book How Should a Person Be? I got really excited and loved the idea of joining a book club (especially if the books in question incite as much passion as Heti’s does). Despite how desperate I am for some new summer reading, bars are not places I often choose to spend time, especially for the sake of talking about books. The suggestion sort of went in one ear and out the other until I saw the Facebook Event page a few days before the meeting was to take place this past Tuesday. Continue Reading

Minneapolis: Collapsing support beams close Webber Park Library until further notice

By |

There’s nothing like thinking your building’s going to fall down, to fuel the passions of those advocating to get an entirely new one. And since it takes so much money to maintain a temporary facility, prepare to do without until the new one can be built. We’re talking about Webber Park Library; that’s an impression, not necessarily the final word.Early in July, several ceiling tiles fell down while patrons and staff webber librarywere in the facility. Gary Peterson said he was there, and saw the guy whose computer they fell on. The area is over the west bank of windows; the metal between the windows shows signs of stress, and there is a widening crack at a corner of the brick at the south end behind the window wall.The metal ceiling grid had buckled and snapped at that point where the wall was leaning in ever so slightly at the top, perhaps pushing out ever so slightly at the bottom and twisting on a poorly supported beam.Interior corner brick, separating.An engineer explained his best assessment during a tour with Hennepin County Commissioner Linda Higgins, a couple of Hennepin County library board members, assorted staff and community members July 18. Jerome Ryan, architectural section Leader for Hennepin County Property Services said he suspects that in a previous repair to the foundation under the window, “they probably did not repair under the corner,” an area that, while structural, cuts further into the library footprint and would not have been easily accessible. Continue Reading