It had to happen. As soon as we take a little time off, literary news breaks, such as poet Heid E. Erdrich being appointed the first Minneapolis poet laureate. She will be honored Monday, Jan. 8, at the Minneapolis City Council meeting where she will read a special poem as her first official act.
Heid Erdrich (Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs / The Loft)
An esteemed poet, author and advocate, Erdrich brings an influential body of work and life experience to this role, according to the Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs department and the Loft Literary Center, partners in facilitating the competition. Erdrich is an Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain and, in addition to her own work, has edited multiple collections amplifying the work of other indigenous writers. She is the winner of two Minnesota Book Awards, as well as fellowships and awards from the Library of Congress, National Poetry Series, Native Arts and Culture Foundation, the Loft, First People’s Fund and others.
Erdrich, sister of Pulitzer Prize-winner Louise Erdrich, has taught and practiced multidisciplinary art for decades as a professor and in the community, visiting dozens of colleges and universities, libraries and cultural institutions as a guest speaker and teacher. She’s done multiple collaborations, curations, and installations around Native American art.
With her special interest in the intersection of poetry, performance, and visual art, Erdrich’s poems have been commissioned for the National Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art and elsewhere. She has collaborated on poem films, with choreographers, and on public art projects and has curated dozens of art exhibits focused on Native American artists. She is guest curator for Mead Art Museum of Amherst College and was 2023 chairperson of the National Book Awards poetry panel.
Advertisement
Mayor Jacob Frey said in a release announcing Erdrich’s appointment: “Minneapolis is a city of arts and creativity — and our new poet laureate will help inspire our community through the power of words. I look forward to welcoming Heid E. Erdrich to this role — and seeing her use language to inspire and unite our community.” In the release, Erdrich said: “It is especially gratifying for me as an Anishinaabe woman to acknowledge that indigenous people, particularly the Dakota, were the first poets of this place. In my role as poet laureate I will include Indigenous poets in all I do. Miigwech!”
The public can congratulate Erdrich during a celebration from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Loft in the Open Book building, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.
Second printing for ‘Where We Come From’
(Lerner Publishing Group)
Minneapolis author and teacher Shannon Gibney had a very good 2023. “The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be,” her speculative memoir of being a mixed-Black transracial adoptee, was cited by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best young adult books of 2023.
Gibney also joined with local writers John Coy, Diane Wilson and Sun Yung Shin to write “Where We Come From,” a picture book for upper elementary readers published by Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing Group. Now in its second printing, the book’s authors explore where they each come from — literally and metaphorically — as well as what unites all of us as humans. A starred review in School Library Journal, called it “Outstanding in all ways.”
Short story collection wins award
Pete Simons, pen name for Pete Simonse of Minneapolis, won the 2023 Best Indie Book Award for best short story collection for his third work of fiction, “Uncooperative Characters.” The award is an international literary competition honoring outstanding achievements by independent authors. Simonse retired as vice president and treasurer of Land O’Lakes in 2015. His previous books are “The Coyote” a humorous modernization of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” and “White as Snow,” a murder mystery inspired by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Subtitled “Whimsical Tales and Preposterous Parodies,” Simons’ new book is made up of quirky short stories with plots that include a teapot private eye hired by a spoonlike femme fatale, three spies who play a deadly game of rock-paper-scissors, and a serial killer having a dispute with the story’s narrator. (For more information go to bestindiebookaward.com.)
Archivist honored for essay
Trista Raezer-Strusa has won the Minnesota Historical Society’s annual Solon J. Buck award given for originality, excellence, creative research and writing for articles published the previous year in Minnesota History magazine. Her winning essay is “I Thought I Would Write You a Few Lines: Solomon G. Comstock and Civil War Veteran Pensions,” published in the fall 2022 issue. The author is an archivist at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
An ICE agent facing several assault charges in connection with a January shooting involving two Venezuelan people in Minnesota has been arrested in Texas, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
Christian Castro was charged earlier this month with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
CNN is working to determine whether Castro has an attorney and has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Castro faces those charges in connection with the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man shot in the leg through the front door of a Minneapolis home. The incident took place during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement blitz in the Twin Cities.
Advertisement
Originally, Sosa-Celis and his cousin Alfredo A. Aljorna were facing federal charges after DHS said they had attacked an agent, prompting him to fire a defensive shot.
But the Justice Department dropped the charges in February, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said two of its agents, who made false statements about the incident under oath, were placed on administrative leave.
FOX 9’s Erika Mrazik has your Thursday evening and extended forecast. Our temperatures continue to feel more like July than May, and we’ll continue to see plenty of sun.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued an air quality alert for the Twin Cities starting Friday.
Air quality alert in Twin Cities
Advertisement
What we know:
MPCA says that ground-level ozone will be at unhealthy levels in the Twin Cities on Friday. An air quality will be in place from noon to 9 p.m.
An air quality alert in the Twin Cities. Graphic courtesy of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. (Supplied)
Advertisement
Sunny skies, low humidity and warm temperatures make for favorable conditions pollutants to react with sunlight to make ground-level ozone. MPCA says the ozone will subside as the sun sets.
Who is most affected by poor air quality?
Dig deeper:
Advertisement
People with asthma or other breathing conditions like COPD, chronic bronchitis and emphysema will be affected by poor quality. They can experience symptoms like difficulty deep breathing, shortness of breath, throat soreness, wheezing, coughing and unusual fatigue.
Additionally, children, teenagers and people of all ages who are doing heavy physical activity outside.
Advertisement
What you can do:
MPCA recommends taking it easy while outside and limiting physical activity.
To help reduce pollution, use public transit or carpool when possible, fill up your car’s tank at dawn or dusk and avoid backyard fires.
Advertisement
The Source: A press release from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
After the murder of George Floyd, the Minneapolis Police Department lost hundreds of officers and was a “depleted police department,” a statement from former Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s attorney said.
The chief “made significant progress in rebuilding community trust and pride within the ranks of MPD,” the statement reads.
At the memorial to Alex Pretti, who was killed during Operation Metro Surge, part of the attorney statement hits home. It says the city was constantly on the “precipice of igniting the spark that would set the city on fire again” and it claims O’Hara helped mitigate the violent clashes.
Most people WCCO spoke with around several Minneapolis neighborhoods say O’Hara had their respect.
Advertisement
“I was watching the Twins game on my phone and the announcement came over and I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s that all about?’” said Marta Knick as she was heading to the Guthrie Theatre.
“I was very sad because we’re more than the sum of our mistakes,” said Minneapolis resident Howard Dotson.
Hours after the announcement, community members were eager to learn more about the one challenged with leading the most scrutinized police department in the country.
“What’s heartbreaking the most is he was in a high-level position of leaderhip and he dropped the ball,” said Michael Wilson, who works at Pimento Jamaican Kitchen.
Some are giving grace more than others.
Advertisement
“He may have made a mistake but that doesn’t erase his four years of transformational work in the MPD,” Dotson added.
O’Hara joined the department in November 2022, two-and-a-half years after the murder of Floyd.
“You have to reestablish culture. I feel like he did an amazing job at that and was front-facing, which is good,” said Wilson.
That wasn’t the chief’s only challenge. Just within the past year, he responded to the Annunciation Catholic School shooting and Operation Metro Surge.
“I was pleased with the whole way he handled the Metro Surge thing,” said Ruth Lipker on the Stone Arch Bridge.
Advertisement
In the statement from his attorney, O’Hara says he was “proud to serve Minneapolis and remains grateful to the officers and community partners who did difficult work under extraordinary pressure.”
“Yeah, he was invested in his job and the community. but he had personal investments in that job as well,” said Minneapolis resident Donald Turner.
Now, Minneapolis residents are looking ahead.
“We have change, again, and because we have change, I think we’re in the place to create a positive outlook or negative outlook,” Wilson told WCCO.
“I always have hope for the city. The city’s bigger than any of us and I love living here,” another man added while walking the Stone Arch Bridge.
Advertisement
In the recent statement from his attorney, there was zero comment on the investigation that occurred. Those WCCO spoke to continued to have questions about that.
