Robert’s 2400 County Road H2, Mounds View, 763-432-9696 or http://robertsoff10.com Fri., May 6, 10 pm (doors open at 8 pm): Zapp Band With DJ Stevie Ray spinning ’80s R&B Tickets are $29 in advance and $34 at the door. This is an ages-18+ event. Southern Theater 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-340-1725 or www.southerntheater.org Sat., […]
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Posted inArts + Culture, News
To Kill a Mockingbird: Play shows limitations of famed novel
ARTS, NO CHASER By Dwight Hobbes At Park Square Theatre, the historic To Kill a Mockingbird is distilled from Harper Lee’s richly dramatic novel to Christopher Sergel’s social studies lesson-cum-serviceable play. Lee crafted a fluid, character-fueled, image-rich saga of one man’s courage against cowardly mob rule. In 1935 Alabama, it falls to attorney and atypically […]
Posted inArts + Culture, News
New jazz ‘distractions’ and old vinyl classics
Here’s a question I get often enough: “What are you listening to?” What I say may come as a surprise. Usually I listen to a mix of a lot of different things. Not just jazz. Lately, I’ve found myself listening to music that I grew up on, music I may not have paid enough attention […]
Posted inNews
MPS tries new ‘bottom-up’ approach to change
By Charles Hallman Staff Writer The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) recently released a study concluding that the district leadership structure needs major changes. Of the changes recommended, one of the most significant for parents of MPS students may be a greater emphasis on change developed from the community level up rather from MPS headquarters down. […]
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Will the new Met Council benefit communities of color?
By Vickie Evans-Nash Contributing Writer On March 9, Governor Mark Dayton swore in 15 new Metropolitan Council members. The council, a regional planning committee, works with the community to provide a framework for the region’s bus, water and park systems as well as providing public planning, forecasting population growth, and ensuring affordable housing. On April […]
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Swimmers save lives — including their own
By Charles Hallman Staff Writer -Photos by Charles Hallman Drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional death in the United States. Blacks ages 5-14 are at least three times more likely to drown every year than are Whites of the same age, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Such drowning deaths among older Black […]
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White Privilege Conference: Beyond the hype, there’s hope
By Stephani Maari Booker Community Editor -Photo by Misha Oneby Fox News’ Sean Hannity dismissed the 12th Annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) as a “White guilt conference” and quoted from an interview with organizer Dr. Eddie Moore published in the MSR (“White privilege: It’s designed to kill you,” April 7-13 issue) as “proof” of how […]
Posted inSports
It’s been eight years
This Easter weekend we continue the celebration of Carol Fitzgerald with the Seventh Annual benefit weekend. Carol died April 10, 2003 of breast cancer. This is year seven of the mission in her memory of raising awareness and money to support the causes that were especially important to her during her lifetime of 47 years: […]
Posted inSports
Time for Glen Taylor to pink-slip himself?
-Photos by Charles Hallman PHILADELPHIA — I watched the Philadelphia 76ers last week play their last regular season contest and fail to clinch their first winning season since 2004-05. At the same time, the hometown Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t fail to clinch the NBA’s worst record for the second consecutive year. Philadelphia is in the playoffs […]
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Hicks ends outstanding career at LIU
DAVID HICKS (St. Thomas Academy) quietly led Long Island University to NCAA men’s basketball’s last tournament last month. While much was made about Minnesota natives’ participation in the tournament, Hicks was rarely, if at all, in the conversation. The 6’-1” guard, who led St. Thomas Academy to a Class 3A third-place finish in 2006 while […]
Posted inSports
Athletes among the top 100
Part two of a three-part series: In DR. COLUMBUS SALLEY’s informative book The Black 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Africans-Americans Past and Present, his list included 14 people who had significant athletic experience. These athletes’ exploits, life experiences and athletic achievements have contributed to advancement of people of African descent in particular and […]
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Two Black candidates in race for Brooklyn Park mayor
By Vickie Evans-Nash Contributing Writer On Tuesday, April 12 at Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free Church, a group of Brooklyn Park youth presented questions to the city’s mayoral candidates. An election is scheduled for April 30 to fill the vacancy brought about by the death of the city’s three-term mayor, Steve Lampi, who passed away on […]
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Hennepin County workers claim age, race, gender bias
By Charles Hallman Staff Writer -Illustration by Chris Harrison A systematic pattern of firing Blacks or targeting them for eventual dismissal is occurring at the Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department (HSPHD), claim several present and former employees. “They [County officials] are trying to get rid of long-term employees [and] also creating a […]
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Local Ivorians differ on the country’s contested election
By Issa A. Mansaray Contributing Writer Serge Gnahoua Laurent Koudou Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast president, was arrested on Monday in a bunker. Gbagbo refused to step down after his defeat in a presidential election in November last year. For almost two weeks, he was holed in the presidential residence in the capital, Abidjan. After […]
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180 Degrees slows prisons’ revolving doors
By Dwight Hobbes Contributing Writer 180 Degrees, Inc. is aptly named. After all, if anyone needs to do a one-eighty in life, it’s the recently incarcerated reentering society. The nonprofit organization, sticking a jamb in the revolving door of recidivism since 1973, enables wrongdoers who, having done their time, want to get right. If you […]
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This Week’s Spotlights
First Avenue & 7th Street Entry 701 1st Ave. N., Mpls., 612-332-1775 or www.first-avenue.com Sat., Apr. 23, 6 pm & Sun., Apr. 24, 7:30 pm: TV on the Radio, with Glasser Tickets are $21 in advance and $21 at the door. This is an ages-18+ event. Cedar Cultural Center 416 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls., 612-338-2674 […]
Posted inOpinion
New lawsuit continues old MPD cover-up of White corruption
THROUGH MY EYES By Ron Edwards The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported April 5 that two ranking Minneapolis police officers, Lt. Andrew Smith and Sgt. Pat King, filed a lawsuit “accusing superior officers of retaliating against them for uncovering corruption within the department.” I wondered why the majority media didn’t ask the following question: Why was Chief […]
Posted inOpinion
No more passing the buck — the village has arrived
EVERYTHING’S POSSIBLE By Sondra Samuels Years ago my husband Don and I had a neighbor I’ll call Teresa. Teresa was pretty, smart and caring. She lived down the block from us in a dilapidated house riddled with roaches, mice and lead paint. Her home was and still is owned by a well-known slumlord. Teresa, about […]
Posted inOpinion
Developing our collective Black Consciousness Critical thinking in the Black Independence Movement
VOICES OF THE VILLAGE By Lissa Jones In his struggle against apartheid in South Africa, for which he was killed, leader and activist Steve Biko, defending a group of Black South African men unjustly charged in a South African court, found words to describe what I believe in my heart to be the essence of […]
Posted inHealth + Wellness
Young scholar speaks out on Black history, White privilege
By Charles Hallman Staff Writer Minneapolis native Shvonne L. Johnson is working on a master’s degree in public history and the African Diaspora from Howard University. -Photo courtesy of Shvonne L. Johnson Growing up in Minneapolis, Shvonne L. Johnson often was told how special she was. “I felt isolated with the praise I got. There […]