News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Saturday January 10th 2026
“Talking in the Backyard” Gardening Grows More than Food
by Ariele Strachan, Cultural Wellness Center
The Backyard Initiative (BYI) now has 13 Citizen Health Action Teams (CHATs) implementing health strategies developed by members who are local residents. The Growing the Backyard CHAT was given support by the BYI Community Commission on Health for their Family Garden Project in April of this year and have been working with families on gardening since late May. The Family Garden Project has connected with eight families in the Phillips, Powderhorn, Central, and Corcoran neighborhoods (the Backyard area) and has helped each of them to install a 4×4 foot raised bed garden. The Family Garden Project works with whole families ”” parents, children of all ages, grandparents and other members of the family ”” to make gardening a natural part of everyone”'s day where different gardening activities are less chores and are more activities to bring the family and the community closer together.
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1st Annual Bridging Festival was a Blast!
By Dallas Johnson
Our 12 hour event on 8/13 (two dozen activities moving through 10 sites) exceeded our wildest expectations. The active embodiment of an invitation, the majority of the day was hands-on and interactive. It was well attended and numbers grew with each stop along 24th St. From collecting the water at dawn, bringing the water together (w/ Sandy Spieler), Simone Speer”'s dance workshop at E Philips Park, singing quietly in a circle (with Louis Alemayhu at PCC), decorating parade regalia (w/ Heart of the Beast), marveling at the Somali Mall, the parade up 24th St (with three 12 foot puppets, musicians and our decorated umbrellas), a big crowd and Patrick Nolan”'s original poem at the murals unveiling (w/ artists Elissa Cedarleaf and Greta McLain), neighborhood skit honoring Muriel Simmons that ended in a spiral dance, party at Center for Changing Lives with art activities, seed balls, MPRB”'s kids”' games, live African music, The Alley-hosted storytelling, snow cones and fudgicles, my original song with Julie Allen”' ASL interpretation)”¦we showed how creative, welcoming, willing and visionary we are when we come together.… Read the rest “1st Annual Bridging Festival was a Blast!”
Ingebretsen”'s Celebrates Nine Decades for Nine Weeks
By Carsten Smith
Every birthday is worth celebrating, but some birthdays are worth an extra special effort. For Ingebretsen”'s Scandinavian Gifts, that birthday is the ninetieth, which will be celebrated this October. “My grandfather opened the store here because it was a Scandinavian neighborhood at the time.… Read the rest “Ingebretsen”'s Celebrates Nine Decades for Nine Weeks”
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