‘Cover Stories’ Archives
What is a ”˜beloved community”™?
Let”™s move from Race to Culture by Minkara Tezet, Cultural Wellness Center  “Our goal is to create a beloved community and that will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” ”“ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “It is in community (nuit) that a person is socialized (remut); he is given an identity, a place of belonging, human dignity, and personhood. The community (nuit) is a critical concept that infuses the word remut with meaning. ”˜Society”™ here does not remain an abstraction devoid of a sense if cosmic purpose.” ”“ Seba Ahmed Azzahir Part of my study at the Cultural Wellness Center has been to learn how to live and practice empathy, not sympathy. The empathy we are called to practice is a lost art. It is the practice of empathy where we meet the importance of Dr. King”™s teachings about the beloved community. It was [...]
Navigation Center closes
Coalition partners involved in the temporary Navigation Center in south Minneapolis reflected June 3 on the months”™ long effort to provide a safe and service-rich environment for people formerly living at the Franklin-Hiawatha homeless encampment. The Navigation Center at 2109 Cedar Ave. S. has closed after operating since late December of 2018. At its peak occupancy, it provided beds and shelter to 176 people in three sprung structures. Seventy-four people who stayed at the center have been connected to housing, nursing homes or treatment programs ”” a high success rate compared to traditional shelters. Red Lake Nation, Simpson Housing Services and the Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors (MUID) partnered to provide services onsite and led transition efforts while the city of Minneapolis provided funding and support for the Navigation Center. Through the Navigation Center, people were able to secure an array of services including pathways to permanent [...]
New public art at Bde Maka Ska
Photo by BRUCE SILCOX The city of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) announce the dedication of a new gathering space and public artwork at Bde Maka Ska on June 8, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. Festivities will include music, comments from descendants and artists, refreshments and activities for the whole family. The artwork includes a website, decorative railing and pavement stamps by artists Mona Smith, Sandy Spieler and Angela Two Stars honoring Maḣpiya Wicaṡá¹a (Cloud Man) and Ḣeyata Ọtunwe (Village to the side), the Dakota leader and community that inhabited this area in the 1830s. The three artists collaborated on the entire design with Angela Two Stars conceiving the pavement stamps depicting plants and animals significant to the Dakota, as well as selecting the Dakota words and phrases incorporated into the site. Sandy Spieler invented the overall railing design highlighting crops grown and harvested at the village; and Mona [...]
