News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Friday December 19th 2025
Native American Teens Honor Traditional Tobacco & Fight Commercial Tobacco Use
Sophia Sarenpa and 7 other Native American Mashkiki Ogichidaag (Ojibwe for “Medicine Warriors”) teens, worked all summer on anti-commercial tobacco smoking public service announcements (PSAs). The teens brainstormed concepts, developed scripts, conducted interviews, handled the lighting and cameras ”“ and premiered their new works August 25th at the Division of Indian Work”'s Dakota Lodge, 1001 E. Lake St., Minneapolis.
“I”'ve learned so much about the difference between traditional and commercial tobacco use,” said Sophia. “Like how something so sacred has caused so many of our people to die. I”'ve come to care about the issue a lot.”
Tiana LaPointe, a Native film artist project mentor says, “They really took on the leadership for the project. They worked in front and behind the camera, and were in charge of their own shoots.”
Armando Rivera loved learning about filmmaking, and discovered a lot about the original, gifted and sacred tobacco of Native nations.
- PSA #1: Mashkiki Ogichidaag mission focus; promote community awareness and support for adoption of commercial tobacco-free policies with American Indian worksites in the Twin Cities.
- PSA #2:Â features statistics and facts about the dangers of second-hand smoke in Native communities.
This is Phase Two of an initiative for cultural values and traditional strengths to help the Native youth become policy change advocates. … Read the rest “Native American Teens Honor Traditional Tobacco & Fight Commercial Tobacco Use”
Artists in Storefronts, Interact Center, & Bridging Minneapolis Combine Talents Sept. 9
Join us Sunday, Sept 9, 2012, from 3-6pm for an art-inspired community event, beginning on the Whittier side of the 24th Street Bridge and ending on the Phillips West side.
The Sunday afternoon “Bridging Festival” closes out the second run of the Whittier Artists in Storefronts project, which turns vacant or underused storefronts along the Eat Street corridor into ongoing artist exhibition spaces. “The community response to Whittier Artists in Storefronts has been tremendous,” says organizer Joan Vorderbruggen. “This festival is our way of taking that idea of community engagement and bringing it to our neighbors to the west. I love that we can do it via this bridge, using it as a metaphor for art connecting us all.”
Inspired by Dallas Johnson”'s Bridging Minneapolis Project, which hosted the first annual “Bridging Festival” last year, installed six murals near the bridge and hosts monthly “Bridge Shenanigans”, this year”'s “Bridging Festival” will feature textile panels from Interact Center”'s “Palace of Wonder,” an interactive, collaborative art “world” that garnered community and critical acclaim when it appeared outside the Minneapolis Institute of Art during the Northern Spark festival.
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