MINNESOTA VOICES | Rabbi Amy Eilberg

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At the corner of religion and politics stands Amy Eilberg: Peace maker, teacher, spiritual leader, bridge builder. Rabbi.***By 1985, after both victories and failures, the American feminist movement was on the decline: Women’s studies departments and women’s centers had been established in most major universities. Support for the Equal Rights Amendment had flagged. Roe v. Wade was already a decade old. Middle-class women, including many young Jewish women entering college in the 70s and 80s, took it for granted that they could balance fulfilling careers with marriage and children. Continue Reading

Humor overcomes cancer in mime’s play

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When the brother traveled to Italy to bolster his sister after she was hospitalized with a stroke, it seemed inconceivable that they’d soon both be battling cancer. But that’s exactly what happened to Mikael Rudolph. Physically active and outwardly healthy, Rudolph was diagnosed with rectal cancer in January 2008, just three months after his sister, Kristi, a yoga and dance teacher, fell ill with pancreatic cancer. The stroke was brought on by the cancer. Rudolph spent much of last year enduring surgery, radiation and along with his sister, chemotherapy. Continue Reading

MN VOICES | Marcie Rendon

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Author-playwright-poet Marcie Rendon is fearlessly articulate. With wry, sardonic wit she cuts to the bone, setting society’s record straight on Native America, determined to disabuse society of its notion that Indians are frozen in time, still running around in buckskins, riding horses bareback and jumping off the reservation. “Believe it or not”, she quips, “some people consider Dances With Wolves current events.” That’s why she founded Raving Native Production. Raving Nation Productions debuted at Minnesota Fringe Festival 1996, showcasing a rare public appearance by Rendon and giving exposure to, among other pens, Janice Command and Ardie Mendoza, in a well-received staged reading of short scripts by Native American playwrights. Encouraged, Rendon decided to keep Raving Native Productions alive, mounting one or two shows in a given season – enough to maintain a presence without spending RNP into a financial corner. Continue Reading

MN VOICES | No opening night jitters for newest star in Carter family

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“On opening night, I thought I was going to be nervous, said Amani Ward. “But as soon as the lights came up, I wasn’t nervous anymore.”At age ten, Ward already displays a level of self-confidence equal to other members of the esteemed Carter family. Following in the footsteps of grandmother Toni Carter and uncle Melvin Carter III and other family members, this Crossroads Elementary fourth-grader is showing she, too, has acting talent. This week she opened portraying the lead role in Steppingstone Theatre’s latest production Ruby! The Story of Ruby Bridges. Continue Reading

Rita Apaloo gets African women to network (and bowl)

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Like most kids, Rita Apaloo’s daughter has watched her mother closely. She sees enough value in her mother’s monthly African Women Connect meetings to give her parents some advice. “Dad should start an African Men Connect group,” she told them. “No, no,” her father laughed. “I don’t need to connect with other men. Continue Reading

Hanging on by a keystroke

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I sleep with Puter and Lator every night. Neither one of them initiate contact, I always do–but as a heterosexual male, that is a familiar role for me. It’s not that Puter is cold, she really runs hot, but she is not in the habit of reaching out. I am always touching her, in repetitive ways, I might add. I really don’t consider myself a bigamist and Puter and Lator get along quite well–they have what you might call a symbiotic relationship. Continue Reading

Matt Little and Martin Luther King Day

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Literally a living legend, Matt Little’s name bespeaks Minnesota’s historic fight for civil rights, and no one is better qualified to reflect on the meaning of Martin Luther King Day. As president of the Minnesota NAACP chapter, he organized contingents of Minnesota activists to attend the 1963 March On Washington, where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King gave his immortal “I Have A Dream” speech, indicting America for injustices against its black citizens. In that era, there was an anti-draft card burning bill, but no legislation against lynching. Discrimination in such crucial areas as employment, education and housing kept millions of black men, women and children enslaved to poverty. On that day, Dr. King said:
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. Continue Reading

Steve O’Neil: Advocate for affordable housing

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General Motors and banks are getting multi-billion dollar bailouts, while corporate executives bemoan their fates on yacht decks, expansive manicured lawns and in mansions. The outgoing government has done little about the nationwide plague of foreclosures and less about sub-prime lending scams. Nor should one hold their breath expecting the new administration to ride to the rescue of working stiffs who are homeless or about to be. Here at home, Minnesotans are working in a variety of ways to address the problems of the economic crisis, and to address structural inequalities that existed before the crisis hit. Steve O’Neil is one of those Minnesotans. O’Neil has worked for social justice in Duluth for almost 20 years. Continue Reading