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Walker Church, the home to so much of the history and culture of South Minneapolis for the past 40 years, burned to the ground on Sunday, May 27. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and radio station KFAI are perhaps the two most famous infants born at Walker and raised there until they could walk on their own. The Reverend Bryan Peterson nurtured these groups and also organized Linda Berglin’s first political campaign and did community organizing for Model Cities citizen participation. Forty years later there were still groups that called Walker home—like Communities United Against Police Brutality; Coalition for a People’s Bailout; Welfare Rights Committee; and Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. Those groups reflect the mission of Walker Church, and that spirit remains strong in the community that it serves.
Services for Walker Church are now being held mostly at Heart of the Beast Theatre, Lake Street and 15th Avenue, at 10 a.m. on Sundays. To check for variations call 612-722-6612.
Photo by Janell Lynch
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The Vine Arts Center supports local artists
BY JANET CONTURSI
In the summer of 2007, visual artist Sue Kolstad rode the Amtrak from Minneapolis to Washington state, and what she saw along the way changed the focus of her art for the next five years.
Kolstad is a member of the Vine Arts Center, a nonprofit housed in the historic Ivy Arts building in the Seward neighborhood. With a mission to support arts and crafts by connecting artists with patrons and the wider public, the center provides studio and gallery space, free exhibits, and sale space in its on-site store. The center will host its fourth Spring Member Show in June, and Kolstad’s work, inspired by her Amtrak journey, will be among the exhibited works.
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Can the Vikings Stadium be stopped?
BY ED FELIEN
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Council Member Gary Schiff addressed a rally of anti-stadium activists before the vote on Friday. He said, “When we passed the amendment to the charter in 1997 calling for a referendum, we said, ‘We don’t trust politicians when it comes to corporate welfare. We don’t trust politicians when it comes to sports stadiums. This is not what democracy should look like, but this is the beginning of taking our city back.’ ” |
According to the latest estimates, it looks like the Vikings Stadium is going to cost the Minneapolis taxpayers upwards of $890 million dollars over the next 30 years. And in exchange for that gift from the city, we get a traffic jam eight times a year and an empty drag on development the other 357 days.
Is there any way the stadium can be stopped?
According to the Minneapolis Charter, the City Council is required to allow the citizens to vote on whether they want to use city tax money to fund a sports stadium. In a legal opinion written for Council Member Cam Gordon, private attorney Karen Marty says: “Minneapolis Charter, Chapter 15, Sections 9 and 13, restrict the city’s authority to incur indebtedness.
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How the deal went down!
BY ED FELIEN
What happened? Did anyone get the number of that truck that ran us over?
In the last moments of the legislative session a stadium bill came crashing down the highway hell-bent for destruction, and it was going to run over anything that got in its path—the Open Meeting law; the Minneapolis City Charter; the Minnesota taxpayers; the merchants and customers who buy things in Minneapolis all became roadkill!
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Powderhorn Park atmosphere holds
thoughts, birds and rockets
BY JOHN KARRIGAN
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This has nothing to do with birds, animals or anything else at Powderhorn Park, but to me and lots of others in the neighborhood and the city, the loss of Walker Church is tremendous. I am sure there will be a lot about this event in this issue of Southside Pride, but I feel like adding my own 2-cents’ worth. I never attended a church service there, but I attended many events of many types.
Most of the events, political or nonpolitical, involved deep concern for issues, large and small, and coming up with the right way to deal with the issues, be they neighborhood, city, state or world issues. People that met for many reasons and came up with many ideas at Walker Church had a lot to do with what makes Powderhorn such a great and unique part of the universe.
I was going to go on a late night storm inspection of the park that night, which I did, but first I walked to the fire. I eventually walked completely around the fire area. The many firefighters and other responders looked very well trained and were working very hard. There were many, many people watching. It was easy to see that a lot of the people had deep personal ties to Walker Church and they were deeply troubled and devastated by the event ...
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Redefining healthy
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
BUNNAG
Being “healthy” encompasses much more than being skinny, but it is often hard for us to focus on health goals that don’t involve temporarily slimming down. Like everything in our society today, we constantly seek quick fixes. Staying healthy requires hard work, but focusing on lifestyle changes instead of temporary switches can lead to simple, long-term wellness.
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The hungry insurgent
BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD
The other day, I learned a new four-letter word from a naturalist: “lawn.” In her view, our yards contain an invasive species that has destroyed wetlands, wasted natural resources through frequent sprinkler irrigation, crowded out native species, and created pollution through fertilizer and pesticide runoff.
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Confronting racism in myself and others
BY POLLY MANN
There she was on Stephen Colbert’s show. She was beautiful. Photographs can be doctored up, but I’d seen too many of her (including the one on the book cover of “The New Jim Crow”) to be unaware. Michelle Alexander is one beautiful young woman. Besides which she’s smart—college professor smart. That’s what she is—a college professor at Ohio State University, who’s written this phenomenal aforementioned book. Not too long ago she was on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now.
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The slickest stunt at SeaWorld
by Jim Hightower
Let me tell you a corporate morality tale that I call: “The Shame of Shamu.”
Actually, Shamu is not the cause of the shame. After all, that’s just the generic name given to the killer whales kept in captivity as the star attraction at three theme parks operated by SeaWorld Inc. The shame belongs to the corporation, which not only profits from its exploitation of the whales, but also manages to dodge paying even a penny in national or state income taxes. Based in Orlando, this giant outfit pocketed record profits of $380 million last year, but paid zero taxes on it.
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June
Phillips Powderhorn Community Calendar
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Headwaters Foundation for Justice has graciously set up an easy way that you can donate to help the Communities United Against Police Brutality, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee and the Welfare Rights Committee to reestablish their committees after losing their offices and everything in them in the fire that destroyed Walker Church on Sunday. Donate at this link: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Headwatersfoundation
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| Phillips Powderhorn Religious Calendar |
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Join the Dignity Not Detention campaign to repeal mandatory immigrant detentions, preserve human rights and restore justice. Hosted by the Church of St. Stanislaus in St. Paul, Faith Action Vigils are held all first Sundays of the month at 2:30 p.m. at Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, 425 Grove St., St. Paul 55101. Next one is July 1. For more information e-mail campaign@detentionwatchnetwork.org
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June 2012 
