By BOBBIE ERICHSEN
Caption: Neighbors documenting their memories and experiences at a Lake Street Community Archive Pop-Up event at the Midtown Farmers’ Market on June 28.
Invitation
If you love East Lake Street — live near, work there, or feel connected —please, add your stories to a collection of memories.
Incentive
I’ve lived near the Lake Street Corridor most of my adult life; knowing it as a street, state highway, blocks of businesses, and a place of stories, contradictions, resilience, and creativity; significantly, centuries ago a walking trail of Indigenous Founders and animals between the Mississippi River and Bde Maka Ska, at the end of West Lake Street. Events five years, decades, and centuries ago inspired the creation of an additional way to hold its stories. That’s how the idea of East Lake Community Archive began.
Community Ownership
Community members dreamed and realized transformative projects before:
- Midtown Greenway from a Rail Road trenched and bridged across Mpls.
- Public Art Murals by artists celebrating connection and culture,
- Social justice projects by small business owners and non-profits to uplift community.
Showing the power of community when it owns its narrative.
Preserving Treasured Stories
Stories often go untold and not in “official” records. Murals fade, buildings burn or crumble. People pass on and away with their stories, experiences, and wisdom..
Who’s collecting these stories? Who’s keeping track of what East Lake has meant? This prodded me to start a way to keep those treasured memories, these stories..
“Neighbor” is Your Credential
I am not a historian. I began as a neighbor who believes history lives in people through photos, voices, memories of a corner store, a protest, a dance night, a family-owned shop. I wanted to create a way those stories could live out in the open; accessible, community-owned, and rooted in care.
I listened and talked with people; artists, elders, organizers, folks who’ve known the Corridor for years and others who just arrived. Common goals emerged: East Lake Street deserves to be remembered, celebrated, and we have to do it instead of someone else telling our stories..
Neighbors as Designers and Authors: One By One
The East Lake Community Archive is taking shape, being molded by what the Community shares. This summer we’ve started the conversation using a traveling Pop-Up Exhibit, East Lake Street: A Neighborhood History. It shows the histories of well-known and lesser known Corridor places and invites people to reflect on their own memories.
It’s been incredible to see folks stop, tell stories, and bring their kids and friends to talk about what East Lake Street is to them.
We’re seeking participants to help collect stories, engage the Community, and build a digital archive where oral histories, photos, flyers, artwork, anything that tells a piece of the East Lake story can be preserved. It’s not making a perfect record. It is collecting the messy, beautiful truth of a Neighborhood in motion.
Your Story Will Cause More Stories
If you love East Lake—whether you live near, work there, or feel connected to this place—I hope you’ll be part of it. This Archive belongs to all of us. And together, we can make sure our stories don’t just survive, they grow.
Please, tell your story.
To get in touch, scan the QR code.
