News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Sunday December 28th 2025
Learning with the BYI TEENS Project
by Carl Lobley, Denisse Sanchez, Braysheen Martin and Rose Lobley
Hello, Back Yard Initiative Community! We are the TEENS Project. TEENS stands for “Teens Entering Existing Networking Systems”. We are a peer-to-peer youth leadership and entrepreneurial skills development organization in cooperation with the Back Yard Initiative. We seek to unify, empower, and equip Teens with the knowledge and skills to create, maintain, and grow the essential networking skills to obtain work opportunities.Â
We”'ve have had a wonderful summer full of memories, team-building, and personal growth as well as new experiences here at the Teens Project thanks to the continuous support and generosity of our partners at the Cultural Wellness Center (CWC) and Allina Health. We have been able to staff and manage an office space located inside the Midtown Global Market over these past several months which has enabled us to achieve great accomplishments in serving the needs of our community and its members.
Over the past month, Teens Project has been creating and running various programs at the Southside Village Boys & Girls Club. Tony Arnold, the Activities Director, has worked closely with us in developing a program called “how to study” which would provide the club members with all the necessary tools to complete their work for the upcoming school year.… Read the rest “Learning with the BYI TEENS Project”
Speak Your Truth at Amen Corner
Sponsored by the Communities of Light Co-operative
in affiliation with the BYI Rebirthing Community CHAT
The Amen Corner concept and practice has a long history in American lore. It was made famous by James Baldwin in his play, “The Amen Corner”, as an arena where an African American Minister used her speaking skills to explore truth and to obtain the support of parishioners. Supporters of her point of view were put in a special section of the congregation, the amen corner, where the people would indicate agreement by shouting in unison, “Amen”, or let it be.
Even before Baldwin”'s play, the Amen Corner concept had entered into the American mainstream consciousness together with expressions like “preaching to the choir”. The idea of a “soap box” extends this idea to a single individual standing on a “soap box” to make his ideas known, and has a long history in street culture, labor struggles, and public squares. The concept can also be seen in the “open mics” that have sprung up across the country via hip hop and slam poetry.
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COMMENTARY Obama Can”'t Do it Alone: Your Vote is Important This November
By Donna Pususta NesteÂ
I remember the fall of 2008 when I got in the longest line to vote that I had ever seen in Phillips Neighborhood. Everyone was excited. We all knew that the whole country was sick of Bush and the Republicans. Obama won by a landslide and for the first two years of his presidency much was accomplished. However, the Republicans had taken back the House of Representatives in the following mid-term election and because of some very creative gerrymandering, they have owned it ever since. Since 2010 their strategy has been to block everything that benefits those who are struggling to get by, which is most of Phillips Neighborhood. President Obama and the Democrats have introduced bill after bill over the past six years that, if passed, would have put our nation squarely back on its feet again, but nothing moved in Washington because Congress refused to budge.
If you are eligible to vote, please do. This up-coming election is as important as any presidential election, especially for those who rely on food stamps, reduced or no-cost school lunches and summer lunch programs for your children, receive much needed help through the Women, Infants, and Children Program, and/or receive a big tax refund through the Low Income Tax Credit Program, all Federaly funded programs.… Read the rest “COMMENTARY Obama Can”'t Do it Alone: Your Vote is Important This November”