‘Something I Said’ Archives
Having A Heart For Homeless Cats
from the series Something I Said... By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes Condensed from Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder If, as the Good Book says, the Lord gave us dominion over the beasts, birds and so forth, dominion doesn’t just mean being in charge. It means caring for. Even protecting. This includes homeless cats fending against the elements. They’re hungry with no roof overhead through no doing of their own. Fortunately, folk do what they can to help out. Feed and water them, leaving bowls where they can eat and drink, close enough to a make-do refuge that the cats needn’t scrounge in garbage cans and can scurry to safety at a moment’s notice. I did this for a clutch of felines. A neighbor ratted me out to animal control. When they came, I stood my ground. “Who is it hurting to give those cats a mouthful of food?” Which is how I learned food can be put down for three hours, then has to be removed. Hours? What I gave them was gone in three minutes. This [...]
Marcie Rendon’s Sweet Revenge
from the series Something I Said By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes What’s An Indian Woman To Do When White Women Act More Indian Than Indian Women Do, part of a prose-poetry reading at Jungle Theater, was my first exposure to the bone dry wit of singularly gifted writer, Marcie Rendon. Catching her irreverent theatrical tour de force, Free FryBread at Bryant-Lake Bowl. a take-no-prisoners satire cum indictment of the prison system, I sat back in my seat, thinking, ‘Scared of her: this lady ain’t nothin’ nice.’ Her play, Sweet Revenge, receives a March 20th stage reading at the Jungle and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Between books Murder on the Red River, Girl Gone Missing and upcoming releases, Anishinaabe Songs for the New Millennium and Where They Last Saw Her, she pretty much has two speeds, asleep and overdrive. Rendon took time for an email interview with the alley. Marcie Rendon. Photo: JAIDA GREY EAGLE Dwight: Maggie’s the matriarch, nurturing [...]
Native Women Write About Protecting Little Earth : A Chapbook Edited by Marcie Rendon and Diego Vazquez, Jr.
from Something I Said Reviewed by DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes Native Americans matter. Shouldn’t need to be said. Twin Cities black communities weren’t the only ones devastated by the George Floyd uproar. All that came to many minds was the most visible and vocal, black folk. Unconquered Nations (Wiishkoban) reflects on the thoughts and feelings of women of Little Earth (Minneapolis) who saw their neighborhood put through hell. Brilliantly. The Unconquered Nations Writing and Healing Project gathered seven prose-poets, Little Earth Protectors to convey, along with property damage, the shock, hurt, dismay and personal experiences, a glimpse inside their personal and communal realities. Cover photo credit: Maricela Diaz Author Marcie Rendon and co-editor Diego Vazquez, Jr. shepherded the project. Rendon, who has spent a successful career looking into and looking out for Native women’s concerns, stated in an interview, “During the school year of 22-23 I, with [...]
