‘Miscellany’ Archives
In Praise of Ventura Village
from the series Peace House Community - A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby This article may sound like I’m currying favor, or being really self-serving, but I want to praise what I see in the alley and in Ventura Village. When I started writing articles for the alley about five years ago, I didn’t really expect anyone to read them. I thought this was a small neighborhood newspaper that sat in racks at the local grocery stores and were recycled when the next edition came out. I have been proven wrong many times over. I don’t know how many times people have commented to me about something I wrote, and I still find myself thinking, “You actually read my article? Why?” It turns out A LOT of people are really interested in what happens in their own neighborhood and want to engage with each other, both through print and in person. I shouldn’t be that surprised. I like reading the alley myself, even though I don’t live here. I don’t read every [...]
Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium and More From Marcie Rendon
from the series Something I Said... By DWIGHT HOBBES with MARCIE RENDON University of Minnesota Press Marcie Rendon, author par excellence, is one of those overnight successes who’s been killing it for years. She broke ground in guerilla theatre (Free Fry Bread/Bryant-Lake Bowl), emerging mainstream (SongCatcher/History Theater) and, now, goes national. Soho Press’s Cash Blackbear series (Murder on the Red River, Girl Gone Missing, Sinister Graves) opened the floodgates. Upcoming are Where They Last Saw Her at Penguin Random House in September, Stitches of Tradition (Heartdrum) in October 2024, and the next Cash Blackbear mystery, Broken Fields, Spring 2025 at Soho Press. Meanwhile, Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium (University of Minnesota Press), drops in July.Bao Phi (Different Pond, Thousand Star Hotel) has known her work since they were both fledgling firebrands in Twin Cities lit. He reflects, “As a fellow poet from the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, I [...]
