News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 23rd 2025
SOMALI MUSEUM: Now Right on Lake Street
Sarah Larsson, SACM, Outreach Director
A new museum celebrating Somali culture and art has just opened on Lake Street.
The world”'s only Somali Cultural History Museum used to be in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. In the last 20 years of war in Somalia, that museum”'s contents have been scattered across East Africa and the world. Now this community-led project offers hope to the large Somali diaspora.
On the block between 15th Avenue and Bloomington Avenue on East Lake St, in a basement office suite, a group of Minnesotans has been working for months to fill rooms with camel bells, goatskin water jugs, and ancient wooden writing tablets. It is the first time a collection of Somali cultural artifacts has been assembled outside of Somalia, and it is a new gem of the Twin Cities”' cultural landscape.
The Somali Museum was founded by Osman Ali, a local entrepreneur.… Read the rest “SOMALI MUSEUM: Now Right on Lake Street”
Spirit on Lake Grand Opening
Alley Collaborated News
Spirit on Lake opened and celebrated the region”'s first housing (46 units) built to serve older members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and the new home of Quatrefoil Library, one of the few libraries in the country specializing in materials for GLBT patrons.
Spirit on Lake began due to the inspiration of GLBT Generations and the United Church of Christ congregation Spirit of the Lakes Church which had purchased and remodeled the Grossman Chevrolet auto body shop for a worship sanctuary, education center and meeting place.
The church decided to use the property to serve the broader GLBT community; GLBT Generations was delving into issues of aging for the first openly out generation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender elders. That originating focus made this project unique in the Upper Midwest. The drastic fluctuations in the housing market resulted in abandoning the original plans of a co-op housing ownership as many of the original enlistees lost their house equities.
Related Images:
Gravity
GravityÂ
*****Â
Warner Bros. Science Fiction/Adventure/Thriller
 Cast: Sandra Bullock (Ryan Stone), George Clooney (Matt Kowalski), Ed Harris (Voice from Houston). Running time: 91 minutes. Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Doctor Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is lost in space. a feeling of terror and possible loss of life and fellow astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) when warned from Houston (voice of Ed Harris) a Russian satellite accidentally explodes and the debris is headed their way. Ryan and Matt stop fixing a problem on the Hubble telescope but before they reach safety the debris hits them as well as the telescope. Ryan is cut off from the telescope by the debris causing her to drift in zero gravity.
Before the incident, Ryan, Matt and Phaldut Shariff (Paul Sharma) are sharing idle conversation, then, all hell breaks loose. Cuaron”'s cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki making and awe catching cinematography works superbly in what is one of the finest pieces of science fiction ever made. Steven Price”'s music is wonderful for the cliffhanger in progress.
Life hangs in the balance for the astronauts not from menacing aliens or insidious diseases but from debris from a Russian satellite resulting in Ryan in desperation scratching to find any satellite nearby, happenstance, a Russian and a Chinese spacecraft.… Read the rest “Gravity”
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