News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday December 15th 2025
Cupping Therapy
Photo Credit: Nikki Fleck
By Nikki Fleck NTP, L.Ac.
Therapeutic cupping has been around for a long time. It has been used in China for thousands of years and also in many other cultures around the globe. Cupping is the practice of creating reverse pressure or suction on the skin by using heat (fire) or manual suction with various cylindrical, hollow tools. Historically, some communities used bull horns, gourds or bamboo to cup but today tools like glass are more common. In my own practice today we use glass to allow for adequate disinfection of the cups. Cupping creates a vacuum-like action which pulls skin and muscle tissues up and away from the body which provides a delightful releasing and relaxing sensation for the patient. Many patients even fall asleep during treatment.
Although many western trained providers offer cupping today, there are some notable differences when receiving cupping from practitioners properly trained from an East Asian medicine perspective. The foundational knowledge of meridians, acupuncture points and extensive anatomy and physiology training provides us with a diverse toolkit in treating an assortment of conditions. Patients often seek out cupping to address muscle pain and tightness.… Read the rest “Cupping Therapy”
Tales from the Cemetery #200: A Peaceable Fourth?
Credit: Tim McCall
by Sue Hunter Weir
Reporters who covered Fourth of July festivities in 1906 had a peculiar notion of what a “peaceable” Fourth looked like. The Minneapolis Tribune described it as the “most peaceable Fourth that the city has seen.” They then went on to list 29 injuries and accidents, including two children blinded, three people who lost fingers, and numerous people, mostly children, with burned faces, hands and arms. The Journal’s headline described the day’s events in its headline: “Man Murdered, Boy Blinded, Many Patriots Injured.”
The man who was murdered was 24-year Jan Hamorrik, a Slovak immigrant. Little, other than the fact that he was employed as a laborer, is known about him but he appears not to have lived in Minneapolis more than a year or so. His wife, Anna, gave birth to their daughter, also named Anna, on June 5, 1906, about a month before her father was killed.
On the Fourth of July, Hamorrik was drinking with his friend Andrew Shurba in a saloon owned by Shurba’s son-in-law. Shurba’s son, Steven, who had been drinking heavily, came into the saloon and demanded that his father give him money to buy fireworks.… Read the rest “Tales from the Cemetery #200: A Peaceable Fourth?”
Powderhorn Joins Minneapolis Edible Boulevards!
photos provided by Minneapolis Edible Boulevards
By MICHELLE SHAW, Minneapolis Edible Boulevards
Do you live in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood? If so, you can now join your neighbors who live in Cedar Riverside, Ventura Village, Midtown Phillips, Phillips West and East Phillips by applying for an edible boulevard.
Hindolo Pokawa, the new environmental justice community coordinator for the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA), has been leading the effort to bring the two groups together. He is just as passionate as Minneapolis Edible Boulevards about having Powderhorn residents participate in this movement. “Our human and ecological relationships are based on extracting and exploiting each other and the environment. If we do not interact, know how people are feeling, or know the impact of our extractive and exploitative dynamics, ideas would never generate,” Pokawa says. Both groups are intentionally setting out to be inclusive, work towards food justice, and heal our environment together.
So what exactly does that mean for the participating Southside Green Zone neighborhoods listed above? Minneapolis Edible Boulevards (MEB) has funding to go towards teaching people how to transform the space between sidewalks and curbs into an edible boulevard, in addition to paying for soil testing, seeds, seedlings, organic soil, and compost.… Read the rest “Powderhorn Joins Minneapolis Edible Boulevards!”
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