News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Sunday December 21st 2025
“I”'m Not Your Indian Any More” 40 + Years of History
By Laura Waterman Wittstock
The American Indian Movement will open its first exhibit telling the story of its history on May 10th at the All My Relations Gallery. Planning for the exhibit has been underway for months, as Executive Director Clyde Bellecourt and AIM”'s board of directors worked to narrow down thousands of choices to a fraction of the holdings that depict the history of the Movement. They chose a photographic exhibit, featuring the work of Dick Bancroft, long known informally as the “AIM photographer,” and Roger Woo, a photographer who worked in black and white in AIM”'s earliest years.
Woo joined the AIM patrol in 1968, at the beginning of the organization”'s formal activities. He took photographs of elders in Minneapolis neighborhoods, some of the early pow wows and children at play. He recorded the poor living conditions in the Indian community and students in schools and after school programs. Woo was born in Canton, China and he came to Minneapolis as a youth, graduating from West High School and the University of Minnesota. He began his journalistic career by following his curiosity and his heart, reaching out to populations in need, just as he remembered those in his homeland China.… Read the rest ““I”'m Not Your Indian Any More” 40 + Years of History”
The Store That Worked for Working People Closes
Sandy Spieler, HOBT Artistic Director, choreographs a MayDay Puppet”'s bow on Kaplan Bros. Plaza after Kaplan Bros. clothing store has “bowed-out” after 86 years. Kaplan Bros. and HOBT”'s Avalon Theatre are across the street from each other at Lake St. and 15th Ave. Harvey Winje
By Carstens Smith
People who work outside year round know where to find high-quality work clothes at a reasonable price. For decades, that place was Kaplan Brothers, at 1414 East Lake. “Word of mouth was very good to us,” says Jerry Kajander, one of the store”'s owners. But even word of mouth and a loyal customer base couldn”'t keep the 86-year-old business alive after a series of setbacks. The combined stresses of Lake Street construction, a broken water pipe flooding the store and forcing a 4-month closing, and years of mild winters that lessened the demand for warm outdoor clothing, resulted in the current owners”' reluctant decision to close this past February. The flooded basement, which destroyed large amounts of inventory and forced the store to be closed for four months, was the greatest factor influencing the owners”' decision.
Kaplan Brothers came to East Lake Street in 1988. The original store was founded by Joseph and Jacob Kaplan in 1926 and located at Franklin and 15th Avenue.… Read the rest “The Store That Worked for Working People Closes”
Seeds Planted 40 Years Ago
Walker Community Church rises again out of the ground at 31st Street and 16th Avenue 40 weeks after it”'s devastating fire in 2012. Clarasophia Gust
By David O”'FallonÂ
In this age of disconnection, we seek each other. In our isolation, we hunger for eyes to meet ours. Faced with problems and dangers that are, literally, world-size, we doubt our own strength to change energy into creation rather than consumption, into collaboration rather than competition. Always some spark in each of us believes that we can.
From such sparks came the fire that glows and warms us now as In the Heart of the Beast Theatre.
Wandering back into Minneapolis, 40 years ago, after travels and studies from California to Pennsylvania to Vermont, I brought images and commitments nurtured at Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont and New York.
And a question; Could a theatre belong to a place, a people? Could it be a living part of their search for connection? Many theatres and their performers traveled. A production in New York might tour a dozen states. Theatre in colleges and universities too often looked the same.
These are valuable–but not what I felt I needed. What we needed.
The commitment to place, to a people, to a neighborhood, started in the basement of Walker Church as Powderhorn Puppet Theatre 40 years ago.… Read the rest “Seeds Planted 40 Years Ago”
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