‘Arts’ Archives
ADVENT CANDLE: PEACE
A POEM BY THOMAS R. SMITH Peace to the goose with the broken wing, eliciting the maddening kindness of human beings, maddening because inconsistently applied. Peace to the snapping turtle burrowed in the riverbottom mud, frozen and sealed as if for Judgment Day. Peace to the queen bee in her hive, kept warm at the center of a ball made of thousands of her subjects, not all of whom will survive the winter. Peace to the bear in her leafy den, giving birth in her sleep, as it seems that poets sometimes do, astonished to awaken to the bright, hungry eyes of the poem. Peace to the trees keeping their minds on heaven, while holding fast the under-sky of roots and mycelia. Peace to the clouds, shielding the sun from the glaring follies of humans [...]
Never Homeless Before 1492
By Carz Nelson On November 3, a new art installation was unveiled at the Wall of Forgotten Natives, the location of the 2018 homeless encampment on Franklin Avenue. Twenty-three boards wired to the chain-link fence spell out: “Never Homeless Before 1492”. Each panel includes images and symbols that are relevant to the American Indian community. Artist Courtney Cochran led the design. Many community members contributed to the work, including people who have experienced homelessness themselves. The project is sponsored by the Native American Community Development Institute and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. It will remain in place on Franklin Avenue for two years. 1492: The year it all started Looking west down Franklin An additional panel provides space for community members to leave their thoughts. Various letters from the wall highlighting art and issues.
Something I Said: Mario and Melvin
By DWIGHT HOBBES The original title of Mario Van Peebles’ Baadasssss! (Sony Pictures, 2003) was How To Get The Man’s Foot Outta Your Ass, entirely fitting for the social commentary his father Melvin Van Peebles’ film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Yeah, Inc., 1971) put forth in a time when grassroot black America had grown sick and tired of this country kicking us around to keep us down. Indeed, Baadasssss! is a dramatized, making of historic document, looking at what went into Melvin returning the favor and putting his foot in American cinema’s behind, profoundly challenging its cherished tenet of supremacist propaganda. There is a reason, after all, The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense lauded it, in Huey Newton's words as "the first truly revolutionary…" that, in the opening credits, starred "The Black Community," It became required viewing for Party members. There is the same reason Bill Cosby, who’d narrated CBS’ Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed [...]
