While African Americans comprise just five percent of the total population of Minnesota today, the state boasts many successful, creative, and influential African American residents who have left and
In the summer of 1978, while disco was dying and new wave and punk were rising from the underground, two twenty-something guys were thrown together on a new music monthly ignobly called Sweet Potato.
Since its beginnings in 1993, the Queer Voices reading series has featured both emerging and established Minnesota-based writers of the LGBTQIA+ community. With a track record of more than twenty
Kevin Kling's first book, The Dog Says How, brought readers into his wonderful world of the skewed and significant mundane. Kling does it again in Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn, a romp through a y
Daniel Corrigan has been the photographer on the Minneapolis music scene since 1981—just as the scene was coming to life. As both a freelancer and the official house photographer for the legendary clu
Daughter. Sister. Wife. Mother. Diplomat. Eugenie Anderson of Red Wing, Minnesota, played many roles in a life that virtually spanned the twentieth century. She cherished her family but purposely soug
Gardening in a northern clime has its own unique set of challenges. Yet, despite the shorter growing season, gardening remains a popular passion for millions of green thumbs in Minnesota and the Upper
A tall tale set on a midwestern farm, where, sure, there might be worries upon worries, but the best lesson is to share what you have and enjoy the folks you’re with.
“I had a profoundly well-educated Princetonian ask me, ‘Where is your tomahawk?’ I had a beautiful woman approach me in the college gymnasium and exclaim, ‘You have the most beautiful red skin.’ I too
Windy Girl is blessed with a vivid imagination. From Uncle she gathers stories of long-ago traditions, about dances and sharing and gratitude. Windy can tell such stories herself–about her dog,
For centuries, people have celebrated every Midsummer’s Eve at an ancient spring near a small Swedish village. On that special night, when unmarried men and women dance and some unusual activities are
With insight and candor, noted Ojibwe scholar Anton Treuer traces thousands of years of the complicated history of the Ojibwe people—their economy, culture, and clan system and how these have c
Germans are the largest single immigrant group in Minnesota history and perhaps its most invisible. Exploring this paradox, author Kathleen Neils Conzen recounts the struggles and triumphs of the Ger
From techniques for tapping maple trees and harvesting wild rice to extracting dyes from bloodroot to making dishes from birch bark and dolls with cattails, Strength of the Earth details the many uses
No ethnic group is so identified with a single state as the Swedes are with Minnesota. From before statehood, Swedish immigrants flooded into the small frontier towns of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Enco
The first Finnish immigrants arrived in R ed Wing in 1864, the vanguard of thousands who eventually and resolutely placed Minnesota second among the states in terms of Finnish population. Today we may
On a backpacking trip with her aunt and uncle, a young girl collects rocks while hiking in the forest, by the river, and at the lake, but when her pack becomes too heavy too carry, she finds the perfe
Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, applied subversive satire and razor wit in his portrayals of American life. Born and raised in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, he was
