‘Cover Stories’ Archives
WHAT WE CARRY
By ATLAS OF BLACKNESS ARTWORK: Saint Grim Last month, Atlas of Blackness presented “What We Carry” at the John and Denise Graves Foundation’s Creating Change Gallery, an intimate exhibition featuring the 2024 Black Scholar Fellows. Over many months, these young storytellers, artists, and cultural workers traced the emotional, structural, and historical forces that shape Black life in the Twin Cities. Their work examines the weight held in our bodies and families, the memories our cities ask us to carry, and the moments that refuse silence. Centering Black mental health, the complexities of Black motherhood, the long shadow of loss, and the quiet transformations that make survival possible, this exhibition insists that these experiences are not marginal or private. They are primary sites of knowledge and power, especially for women, nonbinary people, and Black youth coming of age in an uncertain time. Curated by Lucina Kayee and Patience Zalanga, “What We Carry” honors [...]
Design Plans for Owámniyomni Restoration Unveiled
By OWÁMNIYOMNI OKHÓDAYAPI The Owámniyomni Project, View of the Mill Race. Rendering: GGN After nearly a decade of relationship building, community conversations, and reimagining what the riverfront could be, Dakota-led nonprofit Owámniyomni Okhódayapi has unveiled its design for restoring the land and water at Owámniyomni, just north of the Phillips neighborhood. The project area includes a five-acre site adjacent to the Upper Lock on the Mississippi Riverfront, along with three additional acres managed by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board. Owámniyomni, known to many as St. Anthony Falls, has been a sacred place for Dakota and other Indigenous peoples since long before Minneapolis existed. The land holds significant spiritual power for the community as a space where families have gathered to pray, hold ceremonies, and welcome new life into the world. Settler industrialization of the Mississippi River reshaped the land for milling, power, and other industries [...]
The alley, Like a Cat
By HARVEY WINJE Cats sense by sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Their sensory world is much richer than ours because of unique night vision, incredibly sensitive whiskers (vibrissae) for feeling surroundings, excellent hearing for high frequencies, and a strong reliance on smell, plus a specialized “sixth sense” through their Jacobson’s organ for detecting pheromones, They love any fish except a ‘red herring’ and seldom “bite” on clickbait. A cat won’t miss a chance to play, cautiously. Cats are exceptionally flexible due to fifty-three vertebrae, elastic cushioning discs, and loose pelvic connections, allowing for a nearly 180-degree rotation enabling twisting and maneuvering with great agility; thereby always landing on their feet. The alley Newspaper’s several lives show its adaptability and resilience, too. Always “landing on its feet” through seven phases with leadership by forty people who produced 569 issues adapting to the needs and means [...]
