“The Great Gatsby” and the Great Pumpkin: Writers who wrestled with their Minnesota pasts

By |

It was my friend Eric Bennett who drew my attention to a reference made by Bob Dylan to his fellow Minnesota escapee, F. Scott Fitzgerald. In Dylan’s song “Summer Days,” from 2001’s Love and Theft, a woman looking into the narrator’s eyes and holding his hand tells him he can’t repeat the past. “You can’t?” he replies. “What do you mean, you can’t? Of course you can.”It’s a sentiment expressed late in Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby (1925). Continue Reading

Dr. Hawa Abdi, Somalia’s ‘Mother Theresa,’ keeps hope alive

By |

Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author Dr. Hawa Abdi was in Minneapolis at the beginning of April as part of her national book tour for Keeping Hope Alive– a memoir about her life and work in Somalia. Named the Mother Theresa of Somalia, she has offered shelter and aid to thousands in her country since civil war began in Somalia in 1991. KFAI’s Christina Cerruti has this report. [Audio below]

Continue Reading

Longtime Dinkytown shop, the Book House, finds new home in Prospect Park

By |

Entering Dinkytown’s the Book House is like entering a maze.Follow the bend of ceiling-high bookshelves and there’s a corner table with a book on hair in African art and another one with 3-D landscapes of Israel.In the next winding stretch of literature, plastic lawn chairs are waiting to be used, and books on everything from botany to Marxism are waiting to be read.Soon, the Book House and its estimated 60,000 volumes will be packed up and moved to a new home in Prospect Park.After 37 years of business, the used book store will need to relocate for a new student housing project developed by the Opus Group to take its place.According to owner Kristen Eide-Tollefson, lawyers from the development company told the Book House it would have 10 days and $2,500 to move out when they take possession of the property.“We are going to have to move before we even know if they’re going to get their permit,” she said. “It’s a predicament.”Matt Rauenhorst of Opus said the company will need to wait until the city approves its plans before it can move tenants out. He declined to comment on any agreements with the Book House.Opus hasn’t begun looking to fill the retail on the ground floor of the project yet, he said.“We still haven’t gone out and started soliciting for those retail spaces at this point,” he said. “We don’t want to be too far out in front of it.”University alumna Kirsten Wisniewski said she distinctly remembers her first trip to the Book House.“I remember thinking this was the strangest but coolest store,” she said. “… To me it was such a staple of campus life — I’m sad that future students aren’t going to get that.”Employee Kevin Sell said he and others at the store have been searching for a new location in Dinkytown to no avail for the past two months.“If we stay in Dinkytown, we have to go to a lower level and a smaller space, and that’s something that is not our favorite option,” Eide-Tollefson said.She said she was also interested in a vacant storefront on 14th Avenue but was dismayed when she discovered the apartment complex across the street was planning to use it as a rental office.“They’re not just doing their project, they’re taking retail space, and we need to relocate,” she said. Continue Reading

St. Paul: St. Anthony Park Library will close in June for remodel

By |

Starting in early June, the St. Anthony Park Library, 2245 Como Ave., will close to begin facility upgrades that will include creating more community space by redesigning the customer service desk area and installing an automated materials handling system. Currently, the library is planning to reopen on Aug. 1.Summer Reading Program events will be relocated to St. Anthony Park United Methodist Church, 2200 Hillside Ave., through June and July. Continue Reading

Leaning toward a new Columbia Heights library?

By |

If one is counting votes, and if we’re reading the signals right as to what those votes might be, Columbia Heights taxpayers, owners of one of only four independent libraries in the metropolitan area, could embark on finding the money to replace the current library. And a Northeast resident whose job is to be her firm’s government—and particularly, libraries—expert, has helped lay the groundwork.Cindy McCleary of Leo A. Daly, an architecture and engineering firm, has designed 23 libraries. She told the City Council April 8 that communication preferences are changing, but not replacing the book. “Historical material does not translate well…with the pace of change, there is a need to preserve history. The way libraries are being used is more people centric.”Mayor Gary Peterson, before telling the assembled group after a long presentation that the council would “take it under advisement,” agreeing to take the issue up again on May 13, said that he was among the people who said he thought books were a thing of the past, but then changed his thinking. Continue Reading

Little Free Libraries: Merriam Park

By |

Out of the 3,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide, more than one hundred dot the front yards of Saint Paul residents. An initiative started in 2009, Little Free Libraries are a community movement that offers free books housed in small, outdoor bookshelves to members of the local community. “I chose to have a little free library because it connects me with the community,” Little Free Library owner Mary Sorlie says, “and there really is something wonderful about sharing a great book.” For more information on Little Free Libraries (and a map of all their locations) visit their website at littlefreelibrary.org.This is one of a number of articles produced by students at Macalester as part of a New Media class.Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Funders Collaborative. Continue Reading