News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Saturday December 20th 2025
Thrones’ Eye View: The West Bench
The city has announced it is dismantling Touchstone Plaza at Peavey Park due to deterioration and safety concerns. Also known as “The Thrones,” the Phillips landmark sits at the northeast corner of the park, at the intersection of Franklin and Chicago. The sculptures were the product of a multi-year collaboration between the late artist Rafala Green, community members, and more than 80 local youth employed by the project in the 1990s. “Thrones” is a reference to a poem by Louis Alemayehu mounted on a plaque near the entrance.
As a goodbye, the alley is featuring photos of each of the Plaza’s sculptural elements every month through June.
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Slow-Rolling Boulder
By SAM HENDRIAN
The Right cheer, the righteous jeer
At the documentation of undocumented hate
Yet both fail to see it’s not hate but fear
That permits prejudice to perpetrate.
One person dies at the hand of a foreigner,
Therefore the danger must dwell overseas;
Never mind that many a coroner
Has recorded their fair share of local atrocities.
Our leaders operate in a post-logic landscape,
A finger-pointing fairyland
Where there is no escape
From those who stand on anyone they don’t understand.
The empathetic laugh it off,
The apathetic whistle on
Like a man with a cancerous cough
Who insists he’ll always wake at dawn.
And so we seal our country’s doom
Shrugged shoulder to shrugged shoulder,
Forgetting that few have ever heard the boom
Made by a slow-rolling boulder.
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EPNI-CEF Collaboration Brings Energy Justice and Savings to Phillips Residents
By KYLE SAMEJIMA
Cooperative Energy Futures (CEF), a local energy cooperative based out of Sabathani Community Center at 310 E 38th St, is actively partnering with East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) on energy justice and community-owned renewable energy. EPNI and CEF recently won a Department of Energy Community Energy Innovation Prize for a proposal to develop the “largest urban solar array within two miles of a downtown in the United States.” The array would provide an estimated $9.4 million to the East Phillips community over a 25 year period, while contributing to a more cyclical and just localized economy. It would power an estimated 200 homes, and offset carbon emissions from the proposed indoor urban farm operations by 50%. The project is in the planning stages, and CEF is honored and thrilled to be an active partner with EPNI.
The good news is that community members do not have to wait for the completion of this project to participate in the benefits of a community solar garden, which include Xcel bill savings and energy ownership. By joining the Midtown Community Solar Garden cooperative, which costs $25 for life to join, you will pay for the energy you own only after you save, so there is no out of pocket money needed.… Read the rest “EPNI-CEF Collaboration Brings Energy Justice and Savings to Phillips Residents”
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