DULUTH.com July/Aug 2018

BUILDING A BETTER LAKEWALK

DULUTH’S ICONIC LAKESIDE PATH EYED FOR CHANGE AFTER STORM DAMAGE

PG. 4

• BUILDINGS IN NEED OF A MAKEOVER

• CELEBRATE THE CITY’S GEEK CULTURE

• PARK POINT COMMUNITY CLUB IS ON THE JOB

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GROUP PUBLISHER Neal Ronquist

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Rick Lubbers

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to our readers

Duluth’s Lakewalk has had a rough time this past year. Nevertheless, the area shows off Duluth at its best — depending on the weather, of course. Or maybe not. Residents and tourists flock to the lake whether it’s filled with sunshine and seagulls, or wind and waves. Whether you’re picking up this issue to learn about the city, or you’ve lived here your whole life, we invite you to check out Duluth’s biggest attraction alongside the world’s biggest lake.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Peggy Day

On the cover: Dhruva Maturi, 12, of Rajahmundry, India, blows bubbles on the Lakewalk on May 20. Dhruva and his family were spending 54 days in the U.S., and their first stop was Duluth.

Photo by Tyler Schank / Duluth News Tribune

LAKEWALK STORM DAMAGE RUNS DEEP

REPAIRS WILL MORE THAN SCRATCH THE SURFACE

By Jack Nissen

Duluth’s popular Lakewalk took severe damage during a storm in April that came on the heels of another large storm in October. At first, the price tag for repairs was estimated to be at least $600,000, but that was raised recently to $9 million. That’s what out-of-state engineering consulting firm TRC said it will take to repair and improve the city’s lakeside trail after strong wind and high waves eroded rock, shifted earth and flipped boardwalk pieces.

“We never truly know what construction will look like,” said William Roche, director of the parks department, “so conversations have to include maximizing access to the Lakewalk and minimizing intrusion along the Lakewalk. It’s a real balancing act.”

Nevertheless, said Mayor Emily Larson at an April 23 press conference, the Lakewalk is open for business and will be repaired.

“This is a part of who we are as a community,” she said. “It is a part of what people expect to experience when they come here.”

The city is reaching out for emergency funding that would help cover the cost. The variety of issues at play have delayed long-term repairs, and resulted in the closing of a business that rented bicycles along the Lakewalk.

Emergency repairs made much of the Lakewalk accessible again. But where repairs are needed most, below the waterline, work cannot begin without approval from the Minnesota DNR, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and State Historic Preservation Office.

Storm damage is still visible on sections of the Lakewalk's walking path in late May. BOB KING / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

With a section of the Lakewalk still unusable (left), visitors to Canal Park use the bike path to walk in late May. BOB KING / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Much of what TRC has been doing is surveying underwater, on the ground and from remote-controlled aircraft, looking at where earth and rock shifted. Areas under Fitger’s, stretches past Leif Erikson Park and most of the shoreline along Canal Park will need the most help. It’ll require heavy machinery to lift and fit quarried stone chunks as heavy as two tons to reinforce the shoreline.

The city isn’t looking to merely restore the Lakewalk, but improve upon the weaknesses exposed by the storm.

“It’s a complicated and long process before we can start building,” said Michael LeBeau, a supervisor with the Project Management Office. “Of course, we’ve done some emergency repairs like putting the boardwalk back together.”

LeBeau said it’s important to improve design weaknesses because these storms will happen again — a sentiment shared by a local scientist.

“We don’t know what normal is any longer,” said Thomas Beery, a resilience specialist with Minnesota Sea Grant. “But there are a few things we can say based on projected trends of what we can expect.”

Beery lists three projected trends:

• Minnesota weather is becoming warmer and wetter.

• Winter weather is warming, especially our overnight temperatures.

• Extreme rainfall events are increasing.

“And that third one is the big concern when we think Duluth and we think about climate adaptation,” he said. “When we’re thinking about the resiliency of the Lakewalk and the resiliency of the infrastructure in our city, Duluth needs to be keying in on how we are going to deal with extreme rainfall currently being experienced and projected to continue.”

continued on page 8

WHEN DULUTH’S LAKEWALK WAS A JUNKYARD

Walking the shore of Lake Superior in Duluth’s Canal Park now, along the well-used Lakewalk, it’s hard to imagine that just a few decades ago much of that shore was used as a junkyard.

We don’t know the names of the men pictured or just when the photo was taken. But the First United Methodist Church (coppertop) is visible atop the Hillside, so it’s sometime after the mid-1960s.

The picture was used for some kind of article on cleaning up the city. The other photo is a view looking toward the Duluth Ship Canal.

After years of cleanup — and fill supplied by the excavation work needed to create the Interstate 35 tunnels in downtown Duluth — the Lakewalk opened in 1988.

Gradually, the industrial businesses in Canal Park closed or moved elsewhere. The last one — Duluth

Spring Co. — relocated its remaining Canal Park employees in 2008; the site is now home to Canal Park Brewing Co.

— News Tribune Attic

More images of Duluth’s past are posted on the News Tribune Attic blog, attic.

In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, there’s one that floats above the rest: Lake Superior. And there is no better vantage point to observe the serene natural beauty than Duluth’s own Lakewalk.

The lakeside path is about 7.5 miles long, but you don’t have to travel that far to take in plenty. Numerous landmarks dot the trail, starting with Bayfront Festival Park, the Great Lakes Aquarium and William A. Irvin lake freighter.

Walk across into Canal Park, and you’ll find the iconic Aerial Lift Bridge and popular Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center. They sit among numerous options for dining and shopping.

Start the walk north, and you’ll find a paved sidewalk for cyclists and runners, leaving walkers on the boardwalk free to enjoy a leisurely pace. You’ll pass pilings adorned with padlocks and the old concrete unloading dock called Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum, a jumping-off point for daring young swimmers.

As you make the turn, enjoy the beach covered in stones perfect for skipping. Detour up to enjoy Lake Place Park and its public art installments.

Dwarfing the Lakewalk farther northeast is a smokestack that rises above Fitger’s mall, home of a hotel, dining, brewhouse and shopping. If you’re interested in a tasty treat, go up the stairs to the PortLand

Malt Shoppe, a quaint cliffside ice cream parlor. About a mile from the lift bridge, Leif Erikson Park features a stone stage, wide grassy hill and a couple sneaky paths down to the lake. Just beyond, the Duluth Rose Garden will be in full form in late summer. You might even see some wedding parties taking photos.

If it’s not just the landmarks that line the beach you’re after, but a view unlike any other, set your alarm early to take in a sunrise. The sun makes its appearance earliest in mid-June, peeking over the lake just after 5 a.m. By the end of July, it’s still rising before 6, leaving plenty of time for the rest of the day’s adventures.

— Duluth.com

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Steve and Jan Chaffee of Hinckley, Minn., relax on a bench on the Lakewalk. The pair said they visit a couple times a month to bike or walk. TYLER SCHANK / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

O’ the Lake� Corner of historic Greysolon�

Statistically there is about a 1 percent chance each year that Lake Superior will rise 3.14 feet. The storm surge from late last October rose 3.3 feet.

So it’s not going to just be shifting and replacing missing rocks that the final design will call for. The boardwalk and shoreline near Canal Park is getting a tuneup to improve its resiliency as well, possibly in the form of a buried buffer wall.

“We’re building it again, but building it better,” LeBeau said. “There’s more science to it now than there was at the time of the original construction, and the frequency of severe weather seems to be increasing.”

Roche said because Duluth has a shorter construction season, they are trying to accelerate the design and permitting process to be finished by August. If everything goes according to plan, bidding for the construction will begin in September, construction will start in October, and the Lakewalk will be fixed by late 2019. v

Dana Brooks and her daughter Joey Kerr watch the sunrise recently. The two traveled from Dallas to celebrate Kerr’s birthday. Brooks, who is originally from Duluth, makes a point to visit every year. TYLER SCHANK / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE continued from page 6

Jack Nissen is a reporter for the Duluth News Tribune.

Evie Nere, 3, celebrates after climbing through the rocks without help from her parents Jaimie and Jeremy Nere on the Lakewalk in late May. TYLER SCHANK / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

GET YOUR GEEK ON

NERD CULTURE IS KING AT DULUTH GAMING STORE

Story and photos by Kathleen Murphy

Everyone knows the outdoor scene is a huge draw for Duluth. All those trails, the views, the lake. Its many craft breweries might draw a few people as well. But what if you’re more into comic books? Or strategy games? Or other, shall we say, nerdy adventures?

Turns out Duluth has that covered as well.

“Nerd life is definitely alive and well in the Twin Ports,” said Ryan Fleming, owner of Rogue Robot Games & Comics in downtown Duluth. Terms such as “geek pride” and “nerd culture” were heard around the store. It seemed everyone had a different idea for the perfect terminology, the only thread tying them together a sense of humorous self-deprecation. “It doesn’t really matter,” Fleming said. “None of the names are derogatory. For us, it’s a source of pride.”

His store was crowded with people who braved the Superior Street reconstruction project to attend Free

Comic Book Day, a national event held on the first Saturday in May every year. Going strong in its 17th year, comic book publishers print special edition comic books for independent comic book stores to give away to attract new readers. One customer, Bob De Mars, was

Ryan Fleming, owner of Rogue Robot Games & Comics, sells comic books, card games, board games and action figures. He also provides space for enthusiasts to gather and play games together.

relieved to find a thriving comic book culture in Duluth. He and his children were from the Twin Cities area, in Duluth for a graduation. “We never miss Free Comic Book Day,” he said.

Comic book covers titled “Disney Princesses” and “Pokémon” drew the attention of many of the youngest attendees. Nearby, a group of teenagers poured over titles with video game tie-ins, such as “Overwatch.” There were even comics based on some of today’s popular TV shows, such as “Doctor Who” and “Riverdale.” Though the event is meant to bring in new readers and show off the comic book world’s newest products, comic book traditionalists were well-represented with titles such as “The Avengers” and “The Amazing Spider-Man.” A person would be hard-pressed not to find something of interest.

Rogue Robot has participated in Free Comic Book Day for years, and Fleming said he knows how to draw a crowd. His store sells not only comic books, but board games, card games and action figures. In addition to the traditional free comics that are the hallmark of the day, he also supplied free miniature gaming figurines for customers to paint from the strategic tabletop game “Warhammer.”

“A lot of people don’t know that some of these tabletop strategy games have an artistic aspect to them. You buy the game pieces then paint them however you want before using them for game play,” he said.

Many comic book and gaming stores, Rogue Robot included, encourage gaming culture by providing a space and extensive game library for people to come together and bond

favorite games. Rogue Robot hosts tournaments and casual game nights for games such as “Magic: The Gathering,” “Warhammer” and “HeroClix.”

“Parents can feel safe if their kids are playing here,” Fleming said. “We have just about any game they’d want to play, plus a list of rules to follow that basically spell out ‘respect each other.’”

OTHER NERDY ACTIVITIES

Not all nerds, of course, are into comic books or board games. Not a problem. Duluth’s nerd culture runs deep. Duluth has long seen Nerd Nite activities, an organized event where people give 20-minute presentations on whatever strikes their interest, including subjects that might not be in the stereotypical nerd realm.

JULY v AUGUST 2018

Louis De Mars of Edina, Minn., reads a comic book at Rogue Robot in downtown Duluth during Free Comic Book Day.

A collection of free comics were available at Rogue Robot in downtown Duluth on Free Comic Book Day on May 5.

“I know there’s an expected layer of nerdery in a comic book store,” said David Beard, a Rogue Robot customer, “but at Nerd Nite, there is always an element of people who like things that aren’t stereotypical nerd things.”

Past Nerd Nite topics have included “How to Survive a Zombie Uprising in the Twin Ports” and “Macroeconomics in World of Warcraft.” But less nerdy subjects have been offered as well, such as presentations on Civil War reenactments and the space program. There was once a presentation about where to find the best Reuben sandwich in the Twin Ports.

Occasionally, a comic or gaming convention is held in the Twin Ports, for those who enjoy the excitement of large gatherings. SAGA Con, a convention held by the local group Superior Alliance of Gamers and Associates is an anime, manga and gaming convention, usually held on the University of Wisconsin-Superior campus.

Nerdiness can even be considered highbrow: A few years ago, the Duluth Art Institute embraced its geek side and displayed an art show titled “Minnesota Comics: Paneled

Pages from the Northland.”

Also well-represented in online nerd culture, Duluth is the home of Jessica Carl, owner of The Nifty Nerd website (theniftynerd.com), “Where nerd culture & geek passion meet classic style.” The website is full of cosplay ideas, DIY projects and recipes — all nerd related, of course.

A popular page on the website is a tutorial for making King Arthur & Patsy costumes from the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” in which King Arthur never actually gets on a horse. Instead, he mimes horseback riding while his servant trots behind him, clapping coconut shells together to mimic the sounds of horse’s hooves. Carl and her husband dressed up as these characters for a Halloween Nerd Nite event a couple years ago.

“We ‘clomped’ down the streets of downtown Duluth on our way to Nerd Nite in full costume,” Carl said, as she laughed about the memory. “We lived the dream of every Monty Python fan.”

Kathleen Murphy is a Duluth freelance journalist.

Jessica Carl, owner of The Nifty Nerd website, displays a costume she made of Elspeth, Sun's Champion from "Magic: The Gathering."

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA CARL

A customer paints a figurine from the stategic tabletop game “Warhammer.”

The figurines were provided at Free Comic Book Day at Rogue Robot in downtown Duluth in an effort to introduce people to the world of tabletop gaming.

PLATED: NEW AMERICAN FLAIR

ZEITGEIST BRUNCH REDEFINES CONTEMPORARY COMFORT FOOD

Story and photography by Dennis Kempton

Brunch. That delightful and quaint portmanteau that dresses up the weekend and makes it perfectly acceptable to get up late, probably after sleeping off a night of music, dancing and wine, and eat in the blurry zone between breakfast and lunch. And do it while drinking more alcohol.

Brunch is a big deal in the Zenith City. It’s become a culture unto itself up and down Superior Street and expanding out from its epicenter downtown. Once confined to special events like Easter or Mother’s Day and made up of tame fare not unlike what we already have on hand at home, brunch in Duluth has its own rich flavors, locally-sourced ingredients, and a vibe of granola — literally and figuratively — as well as a flair for original coolness.

Zeitgeist Arts Café, at 222 E. Superior St., is definitely a brunch destination. When the restaurant opened, it began to transform the downtown landscape. It was a restaurant with big-city looks and local appeal for young professionals and artists who had a gnawing hunger for something a little bit more. And they got it.

The brunch menu at Zeitgeist is one of my favorites in the city. It’s light and flavorful. And it features a contemporary twist on an old favorite of mine: rosemary or bacon cheddar biscuits and a sage-maple sausage gravy that’s so good, it’ll make you slap your grandma, as my southern relatives would say. But this time, I took a road less traveled. Since the restaurant just recently rolled out a new brunch menu, I decided on the Chorizo & Eggs. A lot on the brunch entrée menu has a Latin influence, which isn’t a bad thing.

The interior of Zeitgeist Arts Café is modern, bright and urban.

Sunday at 11:30 in the morning seems to be peak brunch time in Duluth. The restaurant was full, and there was music on the main floor — nothing distracting, but a nice backdrop. I was taken upstairs and seated promptly. The interior of Zeitgeist is modern, bright and urban. Local art from featured artists brings to the tone a comfortable local temperature. It’s a far cry from the days when this was once the Red Lion — a rowdy bar that most definitely did not serve a Croque Monsieur Benedict.

My entrée was set before me within 20 minutes of arriving. Not bad for a full house populated with a diverse and hungry clientele: everyone from young parents with kids to 20-somethings in t-shirts and shorts laughing over last night’s adventures, to older sophisticates catching up with friends over drinks and plates of colorful food.

The chorizo, sourced from Northern Waters Smokehaus, was vibrant and smoky, with just enough spice to complement and give life to the rice and black beans. The rice was tender and each grain distinct. Rice is a staple food for billions of people in the world, but many of us struggle with cooking it. The rice and beans were joined by that hearty of Mexican cheeses, Cotija — a salty cheese popular in Mexican-American cuisine. It’s an ideal flavoring for rice and beans and tostadas. The pickled red onion balanced the spice and textures of the chorizo and beans with a much-needed sweetness.

Sunny-side up eggs are usually not a favorite of mine, usually because the whites can render a bit slimy and the yolks are runny and cool, since the

tops of the eggs don’t directly touch the heat of a skillet. The trick is to cook the eggs slowly over medium heat so the whites set, and the yolks cook to a velvety consistency. That’s what I got at Zeitgeist — perhaps the best sunnyside up eggs I’ve had in a decade, gently cooked and topped with a Gruyere hollandaise, just enough hollandaise to satisfy and still leave me wanting a little more. Creamy avocado slices, another ingredient originating from Mexico, and micro cilantro pair with everything in this dish for a beautifully composed bite. All of this, by the way, is served atop a fried tostada for a satisfying salty crunch.

The rest of the brunch menu is filled with things that are familiar but with a New American twist, which means a heavy confluence of European and Latin notes — distinctly new America: braised Minnesota-raised pork belly with green chili sauce is on the same menu as Challah French Toast, and a Vegan Toastada features veracruz sauce, falafel and cumin tortilla chips. This is not your old-fashioned “ladieswho-brunch” fare, and it’s served at prices fair to the market and composed by executive chef Matthew Lyons with an eye toward expanding the palate as much as it is meant to be comfort food for a new generation of Duluthians. Zeitgeist Arts Café appeals to those who value innovation as much as they insist on a consistently excellent dining experience. When you can pull that together and pull in such a diverse group of people on a Sunday morning, you’ve got “it.” v

Dennis Kempton is a Duluth freelance journalist and culture writer.

Chorizo & Eggs is among Latin-influenced brunch offerings at Zeitgeist Arts Café.

FUN

CITY IN COLOR

MORE MURALS NEEDED TO BRIGHTEN DULUTH?

By Brooks Johnson

My grandfather, Halvor Johnson, was known to quip: “I love the mountains, but they sure block a great view.”

I’m starting to feel the same about Duluth’s skyline. Yes, there is intrinsic beauty in all that preserved historical character and the way those old towers rise above the lake. But there is no life springing forth, no resonance — except at the AICHO building along East Second Street. See what I’m getting at?

Duluth needs more murals. Big, small, well-placed and random, the city could use a coat of color. I’m not saying we need to look like Larimer Street in Denver (an oversaturation of street art to say the least) but it’s clear Duluth has a shortage of outdoor ocular offerings. For a city that celebrates its arts and culture scene, it shouldn’t be so hard to find. So here are a few blank canvases and their potential paint jobs for your consideration.

ELECTRIC FETUS, 12 E. SUPERIOR ST.

Is there any better candidate for a music-themed mural? What an incredibly visible corner it is, too. Here is the rare intersection of the interstate, Canal Park and downtown, and here is the broad side of a building currently serving only a structural purpose. Let’s not let it go to waste.

The Pitch: Oh, something with Dylan, of course. But a diverse collage of musicians would be ideal, like the visual equivalent of flipping through records at the Fetus. Maybe, and all credit to esteemed arts writer Christa Lawler for this one: A Last Supper-style rundown of the local greats, with who else but Charlie Parr at the center.

DUNBAR FLORAL AND GIFTS, 526 E. FOURTH ST.

Here’s a well-traveled intersection that serves as another gateway to and from downtown. Driving west on Fourth Street, I become almost lost in the monotonous white of the building, thinking always of the natural advertising opportunity waiting to be seized.

The Pitch: Flowers, obviously. A beautiful field of color would brighten the coldest, grayest day. And we have plenty of those without cold, bare buildings adding to the midwinter malaise.

Electric Fetus, 12 E. Superior St.

CLINT AUSTIN / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Dunbar Floral and Gifts, 526 E.Fourth St.

CLINT AUSTIN / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

PARKING GARAGES

Not every parking garage has a big, bare wall to cover with Cool Stuff. Some even blend well with their surrounds as-is. But there is an oversupply of short, long walls between floors. This could be a chance to feature a variety of artists, styles and statements.

The Pitch: Duluth is a very transportation-centric city, so let’s make these transportation structures sing the songs of movement. Boats and trains and buses and trolleys and Cirrus Vision jets and Subarus and mountain bikes and jetpacks — we were promised jetpacks, after all.

ORDEAN BUILDING, 424 W. SUPERIOR ST.

Here is how I imagine this building was originally decorated: Someone enlisted a group of kids to throw gravel at the side of it, and then, well that’s it. While this office tower reminds us to celebrate inner beauty, there is a massive mural opportunity on the windowless east side that could lend beauty to the whole town. It’s not perfectly visible right near the building, but from the interstate or Railroad Street, you can’t miss it. And now you’ll always see it. Sorry.

The Pitch: This is where Head of the Lakes United Way is headquartered. Let them take the lead to showcase our giving nature.

CITY OF DULUTH FLEET SERVICES, 4825 MIKE COLALILLO DRIVE

This is a barn, and an ugly one at that. Which means it’s a perfectly suitable, utilitarian municipal structure. But for the millions of eyes it greets as visitors and residents drive in and out of town? Even if it said WELLCOME, yes, even if it were a misspelled word, we’d be making better use of this magnificent canvas.

The Pitch: Scenes from around the city, from Fond du Lac to Lakeside. A mixture of arts and industry, recreation and history ought to do it.

This goes without saying, but please don’t take these hypothetical projects into your own hands without getting the proper permissions. I appreciate your zeal but can’t condone your tactics. Oh, and send along some more ideas to bjohnson@duluthnews.com.

Parking garage, 32 E. First St. CLINT AUSTIN / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Ordean Building, 424 W. Superior St. CLINT AUSTIN / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Two walls of the City of Duluth Fleet Services building in West Duluth face I-35. STEVE KUCHERA / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

DULUTH RELICS

HISTORY PRESSED INTO PAPER

But once in better light, three dollars seemed a bargain. On the first giant cardboard sheet, an entire newspaper page emerged, not printed on the surface of the board, but each individual Times New Roman letter sunk neatly into the board to create a relief, so the words could be touched as well as seen. The date at the top explained why the entire format of the page seemed foreign to my modern eyes: Dec. 22, 1939.

Even had the date not been present, a quick scan revealed it was not from the present day. It was the front page of the sports section. The headline read “Cats Meet Trojans Tonight: Central Invades Steel Plant Gym for Major Cage Classic,” a pre-game article for a basketball game between Central High School and Morgan Park High School, both now closed (Central in 2011, Morgan Park in 1982).

It took me a minute to understand the antique store wasn’t trying to sell five scratched up cardboard panels for three dollars apiece.

Story and photography by Kathleen Murphy

Above: The flong of the Duluth Herald sports page from Friday, Dec. 22, 1939.

Right: The printed page of the Duluth Herald sports page, Friday, Dec. 22, 1939. Photo taken from a copy of the microfilm reels at the Duluth Public Library.

On the national front, the Sun Bowl was in the news with the headline: “Arizona Gets Favorite Role in Sun Bowl.” The resulting game between Arizona State Teachers College and the Catholic University Cardinals was notable for being the only Sun Bowl game in history to end with a 0-0 score.

But it’s the article under the title “Today’s Sports Parade by Henry McLemore” that really reveals the newsprint’s age. The column’s subject is

none other than Seabiscuit, the unusually small racehorse who became a symbol of hope during the Great Depression. McLemore’s column tells us that at the ripe old age (in horse years) of seven, Seabiscuit was training for the March 2, 1940, Santa Anita Handicap. Twice before, Seabiscuit had lost the race by a nose, and now he was not only the oldest horse on the track, he was recovering from a torn ligament. It was the perfect underdog story.

Seabiscuit did go on to win that race.

The cardboard sheets, I later discovered, were called “flongs,” an important step in the printing process of the time. Before today’s electronic age, each individual letter was carefully placed by hand into a “forme”– a box that held the type. In order to free the forme for other uses, a copy was made from papier-mâché (and later rubber), which was then used to create the metal stereo plates used on the

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The printed page 4 of the news section from the Duluth Herald, Monday, Dec. 18, 1939. Photo taken from a copy of the microfilm reels at the Duluth Public Library.

The flong of the Duluth Herald news section page 4 from Monday, Dec. 18, 1939.

printing press. The entire process was called stereotyping, and is indeed where the modern idea of a “stereotype” originates from.

In the world of newspaper printing — where a new plate was needed every day — the metal plates were heavy and too unwieldy to store long term, so were usually melted down to be reused. The flongs, on the other hand, were

easily stored in case another metal cast needed to be made.

Of the five flongs I purchased, two were pages from the news, clearly displaying their origin: The Duluth Herald. Many longtime Duluthians might remember this paper — it was an evening paper that ran until 1982, when it merged with the Duluth News-Tribune to become the Duluth

News-Tribune & Herald — today’s Duluth News Tribune. The second news page was also from 1939, but a few days earlier – Monday, Dec. 18. It was page four of the front section and included news of continued work on the “Twenty-fifth avenue west sewage treatment plant” — still the location of what is now called the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD).

A flong from the Jan. 5, 1941, Sunday comics page (right) is placed beside the comics page plate from Friday, May 11, 2018. Today’s plates are made from aluminum photopolymer.

The Sunday, May 13, 2018, comics section of the Duluth News Tribune goes through one of the final steps in the printing and bundling process at Forum Communications Printing on May 10.

Perhaps because Christmas was looming, ads dominated the page. Some were for well-known Duluth stores that remain in business today, such as Columbia Clothing Company. It is now known as Ed Barbo’s Columbia Clothing, but impressively resides in the same location, 303 W. Superior St. Other ads are from businesses long forgotten (does anyone remember Kult Music House across from Hotel Duluth?), and those lost within recent memory, such as the East Fourth Street Daugherty Hardware Company, closed in 2008 and now an office building for Essentia Health.

The other three flongs were from the Jan. 5, 1941, Sunday comics page of the Duluth News-Tribune. Since each plate represented only one of four colors that would end up on the comic page, it was harder to tell what comic they were from. A date and one-word description helped identify the comic “Thimble Theatre,” the earliest version of the Popeye comics when he was but a side character and Olive Oyl the star of the show along with her long-forgotten brother, Castor Oyl. Another was easily identifiable as “Little Orphan Annie” and the third as a full page “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”

“We still print the comics page using only four colors,” said Michelle VanDell, plant manager at the Forum Communications Printing facility. “Each of the four plates prints a series of different colored dots onto the page. Together they create all the colors seen on the comics page.” The plates are made of aluminum photopolymer now, the words and images burned into the plate with lasers rather than pressed, but the end result looks remarkably similar.

Jim Hill, a journeyman press operator who began working for the Duluth News Tribune in 1978, had never seen a flong like my antique store find. He recalled an oldtimer telling him about a printing press in the downtown News Tribune building, next to the main press that the paper had utilized until 2012. “He said there had been a smaller press dedicated to comics, but that disappeared before my time,” Hill said. “I think it was in what is now the exercise room.”

Kathleen Murphy is a freelance journalist and Duluth.com’s Relics columnist.

Jim Hill, a journeyman press operator at the Forum Communications Printing facility, loads an aluminum photopolymer plate into the printing press on May 10.

LIVING LIFE ON THE POINT

ACTIVE COMMUNITY CLUB TAKES ON ISSUES BIG AND SMALL

By Andrea Busche

With seven miles of sand protruding from Canal Park, Minnesota Point is the world’s longest freshwater sandbar. Featuring plenty of parks, public beach areas and trails, the neighborhood known as Park Point is a nature-lover’s paradise.

It is also home to about 1,300 Duluthians. Residents of Park Point are privy to spectacular sunrises and sunsets, and can bear witness to Lake Superior in all its glory. They also have a primo spot for catching those spectacular Fourth of July fireworks.

But life isn’t always a beach on Park Point; there is also plenty of work to be done. The Park Point Community Club, with 218 active members, has tasked itself with protecting “The Point.” Addressing everything from environmental stewardship to organizing the annual community rummage sale, this grassroots organization is passionate about protecting — and promoting — this beloved neighborhood, one issue at a time.

Located at 3026 Minnesota Ave., Lafayette Square is the heart of Park Point. This public square has a lot to offer: an edible garden, a bicycle maintenance station, a public playground, the Lafayette Community Center, and two new, gender-neutral public restrooms.

The 12th Street beach on Park Point was a popular place on a hot July day in 2017. BOB KING / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Over the years, the Community Center has served as a school, a senior center, and even as home to the “Good Dog Club.”

Today, the center is the home base for the Park Point Community Club, the Summer Youth Program, and serves as a polling place for Park Point residents. It also can be rented for weddings and parties.

The club, with an all-local membership, has been around since the 1930s. Featuring a mission statement, bylaws and its own neighborhood newsletter, The Breeze, it’s a well-oiled machine.

Club President Dawn Buck said that while a few other Duluth neighborhoods have community clubs, Park Point’s is arguably the most active and well-organized.

“People who live here are truly passionate about the sense of community,” Buck said. “We have many members who are environmentalists, and many safety personnel, too.”

Club activities are meticulously recorded in The Breeze, which volunteers distribute door-to-door, so that even nonmembers are kept informed about club and neighborhood news and activities. There is also an optional email list.

The Park Point Community Club is responsible for organizing several well-known neighborhood events, including the annual rummage sale and the art fair, which is a fundraiser for the Summer Youth Program, a nine-week summer camp for children.

Club members also coordinate an annual pine tree planting and guest speakers. A recent meeting included a representative from the city assessor’s office who was there to discuss property taxes.

“The Park Point Community Club is a good line of contact for issues affecting Park Point residents,” Buck said.

Top: Trees sit outside the Park Point Community Center during this year’s spring cleanup. Middle: Park Point Community Club President Dawn Buck (left) and Sunshine Committee Chairwoman Pam Griggs prepare for a club meeting.

Bottom: Signs outside Lafayette Square display a variety of information, from beach safety to securing a rental.

PHOTOS BY MIKE BUSCHE

A photo from Sept. 25, 1936, shows Duluth Mayor S.F. Snively alongside members of the Park Point Community Club. PHOTO COURTESY DAWN BUCK

Buck said the completion of two new public restrooms, directly behind the community center, is a huge accomplishment — not only for the club, but for the neighborhood.

The club also has more serious issues to contend with. There is a sub-committee specifically tasked with rip current and riptide awareness, and plenty of attention is paid to beach safety for residents and tourists alike. When two Duluth visitors drowned a few years ago, the club raised money to donate to the victims’ family.

Club members discuss things such as poison ivy awareness and eradication, the erosion of Park Point’s sand dunes, and issues with water leaking into residents’ basements.

Pam Griggs is chairwoman of the Park Point Community Club’s Sunshine Committee. She said it’s

important to remind residents of the unique issues affecting residents, primarily in the summer.

“We don’t have any grocery shops or gas stations, so, primarily in June, residents should remember to get their groceries before the weekend,” Griggs said.

She also referenced the term so popular among point residents,

which turns the noun “bridge” into a verb. This happens when travelers are hoping to cross Duluth’s iconic Aerial Lift Bridge only to find it raised up to let a ship pass — a wait that can be 20 minutes.

“Always bring along something to do in case you get ‘bridged.’ I guess these are the problems of living in paradise,” she said.

Forty-five percent of Park Point is comprised of parkland, but the foot bike traffic is the same as the Lakewalk, Buck said. “As residents, I feel we are the stewards of the land,” she said. “It is both a privilege and a lifelong dream of mine to live on Park Point, and I feel so fortunate to be here.”

Andrea Busche is a Duluth freelance writer and frequent contributor to Duluth.com.

Runners leave the starting line of the Park Point 5-miler road race in 2016.

CLINT AUSTIN/DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Hal Moore shops at the Park Point Rummage Sale in 2014.

CLINT AUSTIN/DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

A REAL LOOK AT LIFE IN UNIFORM WRITING WORKSHOP HELPS SOLDIERS, FAMILIES TELL

Story and photo by Mark Nicklawske

Movies, books and television shows tend to highlight two kinds of military stories: The heroic private saves a platoon in a midnight firefight or the wounded soldier returns home a broken soul.

But there is much, much more to life in uniform. Just ask anyone who has served.

Duluth writer, pilot and Air Force veteran Eric Chandler worked to capture those hidden stories and share them with the public in a two-day writing workshop for all those touched by life in the service. A group of northland writers attended “Bridging the Gap: A Writing Workshop for Military

THEIR STORIES

Storytelling” June 2-3 at the Fitger’s Brewery Complex in Duluth. A public reading was also held to conclude the event.

Chandler said Americans typically salute veterans with parades, but listening to their stories can be more significant. The storytelling process can lead to a better understanding of what it’s like to serve the country.

“I’ve had commanders when I was in Iraq say, ‘Hey, go home and tell your story,’” he said. “I’ve done some writing myself, so I thought it was something I could pull off.”

After attending a writing conference in Washington, D.C., early last year, Chandler created a smaller scale Duluth event to help writers tell military stories. The Arrowhead Regional Arts

Eric Chandler stands in front of a display recognizing those who have served in the Global War on Terrorism at Veterans Memorial Hall in the Historic Duluth Depot. Chandler, an Iraq war veteran, ran a workshop designed to help writers tell their stories of military life.

Council authorized a $5,000 grant for the project.

Bridging the Gap featured presentations from four national writers and instructors:

• David Chrisinger, the director of writing seminars for The War Horse, a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on military and veteran issues.

• Randy Brown embedded as a journalist in Afghanistan with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit and published a book of poems based on the war.

• Mary L. Doyle, an Army veteran, has written about her Iraq war experiences in a variety of styles include memoir, mystery and adult romance.

• Andria Williams is the wife of an active duty naval officer, author of the 2016 novel “The Longest Night” and manager of the “Military Spouse Book Review” blog.

Chandler said the group was enlisted to provide insight and assistance to a variety of Northland writers. The four speakers all played different roles in the military and have written about their lives with different perspectives.

The workshop encouraged people to tell stories about military life — all aspects of it — not just the stereotypical “heroic” and “damaged” soldier narratives, Chandler said.

“This is an attempt to help shatter that a little bit, to show that there is a broader spectrum of experience for people who are in the military or adjacent to the military, like family members,” he said. “The idea being that if I can encourage people to write about those experiences then maybe some of that writing will enter the public arena and can help shatter the idea that there are only two types of veterans, two types of experiences.”

Williams, a guest author, wrote exclusively about a young couple and their love life on a military base in her debut novel. Brown has written a humorous poetry book called “Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems

from Inside the Wire.”

Instructors worked closely with each writer to help them share their stories so readers would better understand the hardships, sacrifice and daily experiences of life in and around the service. Since the end of the Vietnam War, a smaller percentage of Americans have served active duty, he said, which means fewer people understand what it means to live on an aircraft carrier or prepare for a night battle.

This is the civilian-military gap.

“I’m talking about how our elected civilian leadership in the country is becoming more and more disconnected from the actual experience (of the military),” he said. “I wish people would feel more pain.”

If leaders better understand military life, Chandler said, they will make more informed decisions on important issues like veteran health care, proper supplies levels and war strategy.

University of Minnesota Duluth associate professor and journalism program director John Hatcher said writing workshops can inspire people to share their stories.

“Storytelling is how we communicate as humans, so in some ways, it’s wired into us,” he said. “What most people need is the permission to tell their own stories. People assume their own stories are just their lives and not particularly interesting. But, when you press them, most people have important stories to share — stories that others will connect to and learn from.”

Sharing stories not only benefits readers with new knowledge, said Hatcher, sometimes it benefits the writer.

“Veterans, especially those with military service, may benefit from the healing that comes from telling a story,” he said.

Getting those stories out in front of the public could help even more. Chandler said the workshop directed writers on publication avenues.

“You can write to your heart’s content but if it ends up in a box in the attic, that’s not what I’m after,” he said. “Because writing has long life, if you get it published somebody will find it eventually, maybe a historian will find it or somebody who makes policy or it will help some kid think about (war) in a more nuanced than cartoon level.”

Duluth Veterans Memorial Hall program assistant Jay Hagen said the St. Louis County Historical Society collects and archives military stories. A small room at the Historic Duluth Depot is jammed with volumes of written work from local veterans.

“So many stories have been lost to history,” he said. “We’re doing our best to hang on to them.”

Hagen said future generations will seek out military stories as they study U.S. history and family roots. He said storytelling has played an important role in national development.

“Our nation was settled by immigrants, and many didn’t have the means to record their experience so we relied on these stories from the old country being passed down,” he said. “You can see it in Native American culture, too. Stories were amplified as they were forced to live shoulder to shoulder. It created strong connections. And, of course, African Americans lost their family ties when they were brought over here forcibly. There’s a strong human need to share stories.”

Chandler said nine writers attended the day-long workshop. While participation numbers were small, he was pleased with the results from the inaugural event. “The group itself seemed to be about the right size. It allowed a lot of instructorstudent engagement. I think a lot of the beginning writers really had their eyes opened to the tools and craft of writing,” Chandler said. “I think people were really energized.” v

Mark Nicklawske is a Duluth freelance journalist and arts critic.

CHILDREN’S AUTHOR and STORYTELLER DELIGHTS LOCAL YOUTHS DURING LIBRARY TOUR

Story and photography by Kelsey Roseth

Her arms cling to the side of her chair. She frantically kicks her feet and energetically thrashes, hard enough to move her chair from side to side. Her eyes are wide and her voice is foreboding as she tells the audience an animated tale of a greedy dog and the consequences of his actions. This is Rose Arrowsmith DeCoux doing what she does best — sharing stories through the art of acting.

LESSONS LEARNED THROUGH STORIES

“You don’t need a stage, you don’t have to have costumes … you can do everything with your words,” said Arrowsmith DeCoux, as she described her recent tour throughout the Arrowhead Library System. For two weeks this spring, the children’s author and storyteller from Grand Marais made 24 stops throughout the system’s 27 libraries, visiting seven counties. On tour, she performed “Animal Tales of How and Why,” which are interactive folktales for families. Her act drew in crowds from a dozen to more than 170 children and was funded by Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

“I like the magic of stories,” Arrowsmith DeCoux said. “It’s an ancient art form … and it’s how we communicate as human beings.” The actor performed tales she adapted to explain how the turtle gets cracks in its shell, why dogs sniff each other’s tails, and why bears hibernate, among other stories.

“I think the world is magical and beautiful,” Arrowsmith DeCoux said, describing herself as the Pied Piper leading children through the wardrobe door and into Narnia. “I feel like I want to be looking for those doorways into fantastical places.”

“My favorite story was the one where the dog was naughty,” said 5-year-old Ripley Haglund-Pagel of Duluth. His mother, Amber, said free programming at the library like “Animal Tales” is a huge help.

Rose Arrowsmith DeCoux studied theater at Northern Illinois University and uses those skills in her storytelling.

“Especially on nights where my husband works,” she said. “It’s something to do. It keeps them busy, it gets me out of the house, and they learn something. We love it.”

“I liked the frog one,” said 7-yearold Vanessa Pascone of Duluth. “I liked how we got to touch our knees and toes and wave our hands in the air.” She said that through the stories, she learned that “it’s not good to break promises.”

PURSUING A LIFELONG PASSION

Arrowsmith DeCoux’s love of performance dates to her youth. As a child, the Minnesota native loved theater and knew she wanted to write, too. “I was always one of those kids who read a lot,” the storyteller said. “I have memories of (my mom) reading us bedtime stories when I was certainly well into middle school.”

Arrowsmith DeCoux studied theater at Northern Illinois University. She met her friend’s mother, Tina Rohde, a woman who would shape her future, when Rohde came to see an end-of-semester storytelling class performance at the end of freshman year. Rohde is part of WonderWeavers, a Minnesotan storytelling duo made up of her and Colleen Shaskin. The pair provide entertainment throughout the region, and after freshman year of college, Arrowsmith DeCoux worked for Rohde. “I started out doing a lot of day cares and preschools, and I would do children’s birthday parties. I learned how to do face-painting and balloon animals and clowning,” she said.

Her background as a “Scandinavian nerd” also played an important role into shaping her into a lively storyteller and provided her inspiration for creating her own stories. She began performing at cultural heritage festivals. “I found that it really resonated with me to be telling stories, especially from Scandinavia,” she said.

A LIFE LIVED CREATIVELY

Today, Arrowsmith DeCoux lives in Grand Marais with her husband, Jay, the town’s mayor, and is a proud mother to 8-year-old Ennis. Her son is at an age now where she can travel for a few days at a time, she said, and she’s taking time to explore storytelling and get back to her love of performing.

Arrowsmith DeCoux is also a published author who wrote a children’s book called “The Marvelous Imagination of Katie Addams,” which was published in 2015.

This library tour is one of the myriad of gigs and pursuits in the family — she and Jay run the Art House Bed and Breakfast in Grand Marais, own Fireweed Bike Cooperative, teach pie-baking and sausagemaking at North House Folk School, and Arrowsmith DeCoux is part of a Swedish folk singing group called SVEA Singers. “We seem to be good at a lot of things, except for saying ‘no’ to new ideas,” she said, laughing when talking about the innovative vibe in her hometown. “Grand Marais is a wonderful community of artists; there is a real creative spirit.”

Not surprisingly, Arrowsmith DeCoux is also a published author who wrote a children’s book called “The Marvelous Imagination of Katie Addams,” which was published in 2015. The book’s main character witnesses her parents go through a tough divorce. To cope, she hungrily reads letters from her interesting Uncle Edmond, who is off on adventures around the world, and imagines she’s alongside him. v

To experience Arrowsmith DeCoux’s storytelling and read her writing, she has two free story downloads available on her website: rosearrowsmithdecoux.com.

Kelsey Roseth is a Duluth freelance multimedia journalist and writer.

Ripley Haglund-Pagel, 6, of Duluth wore a green dinosaur costume and remained active throughout the storytime.

Rex Haglund-Pagel, 5, of Duluth listens to stories recently at the Duluth Public Library.

ADVENTURE

BROADCASTING OUTDOOR ADVENTURES TO THE WORLD

FRIENDS HARNESS SOCIAL MEDIA TO TELL THEIR STORIES

By Alison Stucke

If you’re a fan of hunting and fishing, or if you’d like to learn more about participating in these sports locally, check out HCQ Outdoors on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. HCQ Outdoors is a group of five friends who enjoy hunting and fishing together, and they want to share their adventures and know-how on social media.

The group started several years ago when Austin Driscoll met Matt Schwab (who serves as president of the St. Louis Bay Chapter of Ducks Unlimited) at work. The two Duluth men started getting outdoors together to enjoy hunting and fishing. Then friends Scott Cole and Trent Haugen, both of Duluth, and Josh Weber of Superior joined in the activities. They realized they all had about 20 years of experience in these outdoor sports.

Eventually they asked themselves, “Why aren’t we filming this?” and HCQ Outdoors was born.

“We figured we might as well film our hunting and fishing trips and share education and location with others,” Driscoll said.

The group hunts, fishes and films mostly in the Duluth-Superior area. Once a year, they also cover an out-of-the-area hunting trip.

“During the waterfowl season, we chase the migration down to Missouri,” Driscoll said. Check out a video of the group’s snow goose hunt titled “South Dakota Day 1” at youtube.com/ watch?v=Gexi76Hle5I.

Other adventures of Driscoll and the group include steelhead and Kamloops fishing on a local river, when Driscoll hooked a 7-pound hen steelhead; turkey hunting when Cole got his first turkey; and smelting on the Lester River when Driscoll and a friend netted about six gallons.

“First turkey season under my belt, and I’m hooked for life,” Cole said. v

HCQ Outdoors member Scott Cole displays a turkey he harvested on May 6 in southern Minnesota.

PHOTO BY SCOTT COLE

HCQ Outdoors posted a video on Youtube on April 21 from the group’s first day of a goose hunt in South Dakota.

This natural steelhead was caught and released by Austin Driscoll on May 1 on the Lester River.

PHOTO BY LUKE BENNETT

HUNTING CALL COMPANY SUPPORTS COMPANY’S EFFORTS

Austin Driscoll and Scott Cole recently participated in the 2018 ALS Fishing Tournament, raising money to help fight the muscular disease. Deadshot Custom Calls, a company that custom-makes duck calls and a supporter of HCQ Outdoors, donated to the tournament.

“Deadshot is a phenomenal company,” Driscoll said. “Both for their product and that they are just good guys! Deadshot Custom Call Company … have supported us as we grow with tips, advice, general ideas on how to expand what we do.”

Deadshot Custom Calls now offers the Man’s Best Friend Call. It’s made of acrylic infused with the ashes of a beloved pet — usually a hunting dog who spent many hours out in the field. Deadshot Custom Calls

has invented a proprietary casting process that incorporates the ashes of a beloved hunting partner or family pet into a customized acrylic call. They are available in a variety of colors and shapes, and can be engraved with the dog’s name on the band of the call. Duck and goose calls are available, and calls for additional types of game are in the works.

“It’s a memory of a hunter,” Driscoll said. “It reminds you of your best bud out in the duck blind.”

“Once your call is complete, you can continue the hunt and bring your best friend back into the field,” says Deadshot Custom Calls’ website.

Visit deadshotcustomcalls.com to learn more.

Photo courtesy of deadshotcustomcalls.com

WELCOMING VOICE, HELPING HAND

GABE MAYFIELD GIVES

LIFE HOUSE YOUTHS SOMEONE TO LOOK UP TO

Gabriel Mayfield nodded and led a young woman through a swinging door at the Life House dropin center. Mayfield has worked at the nonprofit organization serving at-risk homeless youths for more than three years.

During lunch recently, young adults filtered in for help with basic needs: food, clothing, camaraderie. Mayfield glided through the downtown Duluth facility, towering but not domineering at 6 feet, 7 inches tall.

He walked past a young man, giving him a low high-five. He sat down at the kitchen table with another. His voice was animated, his laugh boisterous and welcoming.

Mayfield is the youth center program manager, so he oversees grant reporting, administrative duties and supervision. While his main job is helping keep Life House safe, he said he relishes connecting with the youths.

Christa Ricci, 24, of Duluth has been coming to Life House since she was 16.

“They’ve been here. Through the birth of my kids — I’m

married now … and pretty much every life event, they’ve been here,” Ricci said of the staff during a recent stop at the center.

Ricci used to co-host the annual Life House Got Talent Variety show with Mayfield. “Gabe is so nice; everybody adores him,” she said.

The variety show is one of the offerings Mayfield launched as the youth activities coordinator, along with karaoke and trivia nights, a choir and a songwriting group.

It’s all “creating good outlets for the youth that I felt helped me out in life and gave me a path to deal with my frustrations and struggles,” he said.

Mayfield moved to the Twin Ports from Chicago in 1999 to play basketball for the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where he majored in visual arts and minored in theater.

Arriving in the Northland was a weight lifted off his shoulders, he said. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and when he left: “There was no love in the air, no happiness.”

By Melinda Lavine

“Who’s available?”

“What do you need?”

“Shower and laundry.”

Gabe Mayfield congratulates a young man who was recently hired for a job at a store. Mayfield, the youth center program manager at Life House, was manning the front desk at the time. STEVE KUCHERA / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Predominantly in black culture when a grandmother dies, the family breaks apart, Mayfield said. Typically, a cousin or aunt will step in to keep the family going, but that didn’t happen in his family. “People just went their own ways, so I took my own little path and came this way and looked for a new life,” he said.

Mayfield’s first impression of the Twin Ports: “The streets were white. I thought it was snow, but it was just cold,” he said with a laugh.

Since then, he has immersed himself in the arts. His artistic resume includes shows with the Lyric Opera of the North, the Duluth Playhouse, Renegade Theater Company, and the recent Lake Superior Community Theatre production of “Fences.”

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Creativity has always been a part of his life, but he didn’t realize it was therapeutic until he started working at Life House. If he has strong feelings today, he makes music. “Start hitting on some drums. Boom boom cling cling, and it’s gone,” he said.

That’s a big reason why he aims to share the arts with youths.

On the wall in the Life House living room is a row of art pieces: A picture of Converse sneakers with the words “just live” on the toes. A colorful marker scene with a heart on fire and the words “so many questions.”

Common artistic themes at the center are broken hearts, difficulties with relationships and struggles with trust.

“We all have trust issues, but they really got it,” Mayfield said. When young adults share their work through poetry or art, they can release it.

“The audience takes that now, (and) they can heal a little bit,” he said.

Life House offers programs in parenting, cooking, planning for college, job training, and assistance in gaining housing and important documentation such as birth certificates. While the organization focuses on guidance so the youths are doing the work, Mayfield said the staff are always in the role of support.

In that, listening until a young adult is finished with whatever they have to say is important, Mayfield said. Also, offering positive feedback. If there are bad vibes during a difficult conversation or if a particular issue is outside his expertise, he will bring in a colleague, he said.

“Working at Life House, we have to have all sorts of difficult conversations about homelessness, sexual assault, family issues,” Ahna Pelto said.

Pelto was Mayfield’s supervisor and the former youth

center program manager. Before they met, Mayfield left an impression on her. Pelto called to set up an interview and his voicemail message: “It’s him singing a song,” she said.

He has such a big personality, and a lot of the young men look up to him, Pelto added.

“He’d be able to connect with some of the youths that other people maybe couldn’t because of his own experience and the way he can make people feel comfortable.”

“When I left, I knew that the youth center was going to be in really great hands with him as manager,” said Pelto, who is now an Essentia Health therapist for young adults.

Working with Mayfield has taught Cheyenne Alisankus that it’s OK to be silly, she said.

It’s very important, said the youth advocate/ resource coordinator, because the work can be stressful. “He’ll be singing all the time, and I can vibe off of that, and I’ll joke around and start singing, too,” she said.

Engaging and building relationships with the young adults are key for Mayfield. His tips for connecting are: be honest, don’t take it personally when they get angry, and don’t give up on them.

One challenge is making sure he’s not trying to save everyone, he said.

“I have my own kids. … I know my kids are taken care of, they’re fine, but these kids aren’t.

“They are with us, and some other agencies, too,” he said. His go-to outlets are theater, online chess, painting, making music. And the ongoing rewards of his job are helping someone who’s hurting. “This is the greatest job in the world. For me, it is,” he said. v

Melinda Lavine is a features reporter for the Duluth News Tribune.

Gabe Mayfield demonstrates the fast-pace card game Spot It! Hip to a visitor to Life House. Mayfield plays the game with youths visiting the center. STEVE KUCHERA / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

NOT ALONE, AFTER ALL

‘UNMASKING’ PROJECT HELPS PEOPLE WITH BRAIN INJURIES SHARE EXPERIENCES IN COMMON

By John Lundy

On the forehead I put the statement, “But you look OK.” ... Because it just makes you feel crazy, like, “Is it me? Am I just crazy? Why can’t I override whatever’s happening in my brain?”

My particular mask is unequally divided into two sides. ... I literally feel sensory-wise like I have two halves of a body that don’t feel the same.

I had one side that was a bright, happy side. ... The other side was a darker side with tears. I had an out of order sign put on me, so people would understand that I’m still not the same person.

PHOTO COURTESY ESSENTIA HEALTH-POLINSKY MEDICAL REHABILITATION CENTER

Samantha Smingler, Mark Zmudy and Sharon Jugasek were describing what they did when presented with plain white masks and various materials this winter at the Essentia Health-Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center.

An educator for a nonprofit, a schoolteacher and a retired accountant, the three followed paths that might not have crossed had it not been for a bad experience in common. All of them, along with 10 other people who participated in the event, have been affected by traumatic brain injury.

They are among more than a thousand Minnesotans who have created masks in the past couple of years to depict their brain injury journeys.

Turning masks into individual artistic statements might sound like a middle school summer camp project, but participants and leaders say it has proven to be a powerful experience.

“We put people in a room to make masks together,” said Brad Donaldson, chief operating officer of the Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance, the nonprofit that spearheaded the project.

“They all the sudden realize, ‘I’m not alone and the person across from me — because of me — is not alone.’”

WIDESPREAD CONDITION

The story began with a National Geographic special involving 16 veterans who made masks depicting their war experiences. That was picked up by an adult day care program in

North Carolina. The Minnesota group decided to go bigger, Donaldson said.

“We traveled the entire length of Minnesota, top to bottom, so that this would have a good representation of brain injury, both adults, pediatric, loved ones, caregivers, parents, professionals, people from far northern Minnesota, people from far southern Minnesota.”

Sadly, there’s no lack of prospects. Brain injury affects 100,000 people in Minnesota, Donaldson said. That’s more than the number of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, breast cancer and multiple sclerosis combined.

Caused by anything from a stroke to a car crash to a fall on the ice, brain injury is often a hidden condition with no outward signs, he said. So people affected by brain injury often are misunderstood and may not even understand themselves.

“They’ll sometimes come to see us a year later and they’re like, ‘I thought I was going crazy,’” said Amy BrownHolappa, a speech language pathologist at Polinsky. “They start questioning mental health, and they start going down a path that is not necessary.”

Brown-Holappa and some of her colleagues attended an annual Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance conference last year at which hundreds of masks were exhibited and the documentary by Minnesota filmmaker Jed Schlegelmilch was shown. They came back determined to bring the project to Duluth.

Mask-makers use all kinds of art supplies, including paint, paste, pencils, stickers, puzzle pieces, pictures taken from magazines – anything they choose to represent the image of having a brain injury as it relates to them.

PHOTO COURTESY ESSENTIA HEALTH-POLINSKY MEDICAL REHABILITATION CENTER

THE ‘SWEET 16’

Zmudy, an extroverted teacher and musician who lives in Duluth, was eager to participate, he said. Since sustaining a brain injury in what he will only describe as being “hit in the head extremely hard,” Zmudy has struggled with what he calls his “Sweet 16” of symptoms. They include dizziness, nausea, vision changes and severe headaches.

But Zmudy, a youthful-looking 49, shows no outward signs of those conditions other than the dark glasses he wears because another symptom is light sensitivity.

Creating the masks, and then listening to each other explain their stories, was a moving experience, he said.

“Each step of the way was filled with people laughing, people crying, people wondering, people worrying, people being optimistic, people being understood for the first time since they’ve gotten hit in the head,” Zmudy said.

Heads nodded in agreement around the room when he talked about the loneliness of brain injury, Zmudy said.

“Because as early as yesterday, I could do all these things I loved,” he said. “And today, I can’t do any of those things.”

MISUNDERSTOOD

Like Zmudy, Jugasek was moved beyond her expectations.

“I didn’t realize how emotional that time was going to be,” said Jugasek, 67, of Sturgeon Lake.

“Because when doing that mask and then having to write about it and then we all stood up afterwards and talked about it, I could hardly write.”

Jugasek was working as an accountant at Dougherty Funeral Home in Duluth and living in Proctor when she was hospitalized for what initially appeared to be a stroke, she said. The medication she was given caused bleeding in the front part of her brain.

Although she could tell something was wrong, particularly with her ability to choose her words, Jugasek could make herself understood and she looked normal, she said. It took a long time and help from occupational therapists to get her into speech therapy.

“When I did this unmasking, it was really nice,” she said. “Because I met some other people in there that had the same issue as me. Because when people look to me or talk to me, they think: What’s your problem?”

Sharon Jugasek (back of her head), Samantha Smingler and Lennette Sunderman write down their thoughts and then create their feelings onto their masks.

VISION AFFECTED

Smingler, 30, an educator at the Great Lakes Aquarium, has had two traumatic brain injuries, she said. The first was in 2013 when the pain of stomach cramps caused her to black out and fall, with her forehead hitting a radiator. That, she said, caused dramatic personality changes.

The second occurred in January 2017, when the car she was driving was struck by a truck. It wasn’t at high speed, Smingler said, but the impact caused a brain injury that severely affected her vision.

“For the longest time, I couldn’t see anything that was moving,” she said. “If I was moving, then I couldn’t focus on anything. It made nearly every task … pretty impossible.”

Smingler and Zmudy both credit Dr. Terrence Tancabel of Litchfield

Eye Center in Litchfield, Minn., with helping them overcome the worst of their vision difficulties. Smingler can drive for short distances now, she said, but her eyes still feel pain and fatigue easily, and sunny days are especially challenging.

In different ways, Smingler, Zmudy and Jugasek designed their masks in ways that divided the hurt of their brain injury and their hopefulness.

One side of Smingler’s mask contains hopeful words, she said. The other contains questions.

“Well I ever get to stop asking for help?” she asked. “Will I ever get to be self-sufficient? Will I ever get to feel like an equal partner in my relationships? … Will I ever be well enough to have a child if I wanted to?”

Questions like those had as much impact on the therapists as on the

participants.

“It was so unbelievably moving,” said Teri Hallback, an occupational therapist at Polinsky. “I was almost speechless. It was so powerful. …

“And they realized that they weren’t alone. They’re not alone. There are other people experiencing the exact same things, the same frustrations.”

The understanding that she wasn’t alone in her journey was crucial to Smingler, she said.

“We’re talking about paper masks,” Smingler said. “We’re talking magazines, tape, glue, scissors. We’re not talking expensive materials.

“But the impact is something I will never forget.” v

Samantha Smingler, an educator at the Great Lakes Aquarium, keeps a menagerie of stuffed animals at her desk.

BOB KING / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

John Lundy is a health reporter for the Duluth News Tribune.

TO THEIR OWN TUNE

DULUTH DANCE CHURCH MELDS MOVEMENT AND MINDFULNESS

By Melinda Lavine

Dean Talbott felt awkward and self-conscious. That’s what he recalled from his first soiree at Duluth Dance Church.

By the end of a recent Sunday session, Talbott’s arms were outstretched as he moved seamlessly around the room to pulsing instrumental music. It was his third or fourth time there, and he called it a special environment where there are no inhibitions.

“I consider it part yoga, part meditation, part exercise,” Talbott said.

Duluth Dance Church is a sober, nonreligious and communityoriented dance gathering from 1-3 p.m. Sundays at the Mohaupt Block, 2024 W. Superior St. There’s an eclectic mix of music, and the cost is $10, though no one is turned away.

Julie Allen dances at Duluth Dance Church recently, silhouetted by light coming through a window. STEVE KUCHERA / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

The Hiwes; Baily (2.5), Tayah and Sean, dance at Duluth Dance Church recently.

STEVE

KUCHERA / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE

Formerly Ecstatic Dance, organizers changed the name to coincide with a similar event in the Cities. And there’s not much difference between the two; said SeanTayah Hiwe (Sean), who shares a name with his wife. They’re based in the 5Rhythms theory, a dynamic movement that promotes being present in the body to ignite creativity, community and connection.

Many people say they feel a spiritual component to dance, and that we discover things about ourselves moving our bodies in a conscious and intentional way, Sean said.

“It’s about what it feels like inside and not about what it looks like from the outside,” he added.

To promote that, the dance floor is a cellphone-free space. They dance with bare feet or with non-street shoes. (What better way to get connected than through bare feet, he said.) On the dance floor, they also ask for no talking (or to whisper, if needed).

There’s a lot of daily mental chatter, and maybe more so on the dance floor, he said. Limiting talking is an element of ecstatic dance and a way to encourage listening to the body’s intuition.

The Hiwes attended dance events in California, and they wanted to bring it to Duluth when they moved here to raise their son, Baily, now 2½. Their first event was in late 2016. Since, they’ve hosted many others, including an outdoor dance, and are settling into a new location.

Recently, a stick of sage sat on the registration table along with a treasure chest for payment, a tube of ear plugs, a picture that reads “Things that are Real are given and received in silence.”

The DJ’s first song was meditative and instrumental. Talbott stretched on a yoga mat. Lorna Koestner of Carlton laid still and flat on the floor. Jess Cavis of Duluth slowly moved to the beat. The music flowed to faster mixes including drumming, reggae and “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel. No one spoke, only in whispered urges to join in the movement.

Many wonder if Dance Church is a religious event because of the name, but it’s about creating a sacred

space, said SeanTayah Hiwe (Tayah). The Hiwes understand negative and positive associations with the word “church.” But they noted a reclaiming of it through jazz churches and a John Coltrane church in California.

Dance Church is embracing an age-old form of spiritual movement or ceremony, like calling the rain, stomping the earth, Sean said. Dancing prompts self-communication as you figure out what feels good and what doesn’t, what pushes people away, what draws them in.

“Because dance is in the body, I think there’s a western spiritual idea that … there’s something non-spiritual about the body and we want to shun the body and we don’t want to live in the physical world because we don’t do things for pleasure.

The body is the greatest teacher, and we are spirits having a physical experience, he said, “so, let the spirit kiss the body as close as it can.”

We don’t normally exist in a nonverbal, nonjudgmental space,

IF YOU GO

What: Dance Church

When: 1-3 p.m. Sundays

Where: Mohaupt Block, 2024 W. Superior St.

More info: facebook.com/DuluthDanceChurch, duluthdancechurch.org

Cavis said. That’s one of the things that intimidated her about an initial visit to ecstatic dance.

She said she questioned how others didn’t care what they looked like, which was hard at first for her. Soon, she found it freeing, and she has been attending now for 10 years — in Hawaii, Washington state, Minneapolis.

She moved to Duluth about a year ago, and was thrilled to see a presence here. Today, she works with the Hiwes in making events happen, and she calls dancing exercise for the soul that fulfills different needs in her life.

“It can become an outlet for expression of emotion, whether they be positive emotions like joy, gratitude or playfulness, or if it’s negative things, anger, sadness, despair. It’s good to have a creative outlet,” Cavis said.

She also noted a common wave in Dance Church playlists. There’s always a flow in the music that’s meant to mimic the natural rhythms in the body, from meditative to a powerful buildup and stillness. Everyone contributes playlist ideas, and there’s also an unspoken agreement that it’s a safe space, Cavis said.

Even if there isn’t a verbal conversation, dancing together is an intimate experience. There’s an exchange of vulnerabilities; you become familiar with others, and that builds trust.

In that, too, at ecstatic dances across the world, people are encouraged to make noise as long as it’s not using words. “You can howl like a wolf, you can turn around and clap, you could hoot and holler,” Cavis continued.

Trying to emulate an animal on the dance floor is one way Tayah helps children get comfortable; that, along with closing her eyes, is a tool she uses. (Her go-to animal: “Usually bird or soaring eagle,” she said.)

Tayah’s background also helped her acclimate to the conscious dance setting. She grew up competing in Scottish Highland dancing. She moved onto drum circles.

Her husband, Sean, said he learned how to dance spontaneously in his living room, and his education grew when he started attending dances. Lessons he said he wouldn’t have learned elsewhere include how to interact and communicate with others, how to know his inner intuition and follow his body’s guidance.

“It was a major support for me as I was growing and getting myself where I was healthy enough and ready enough to meet my wife,” he said.

The first time they met was at an ecstatic dance, where they didn’t speak for the first two hours. In that time, Sean flipped Tayah head over heels on the dance floor. “I just hoped he wouldn’t drop me,” she said.

On Sunday, the Hiwes eased about the upstairs of Mohaupt Block.

Tayah bobbed to the beat while holding their son. Sean moved freely, making yogic motions with his arms. He glided around the room before returning to his family.

In the future, the Hiwes would like to see more children and families attend, more outdoor dances and

an addition to ecstatic singing. They hope to grow their cooperative and build ways to forward the existence of conscious dance as a medium for health and spiritual growth.

But you don’t have to be spiritually minded to come, they said. It’s all about connection and movement — or even lack of movement.

If people need to move their bodies, roll on the floor, lie on a yoga mat or bark like a dog, they can do that, Cavis said.

For Tayah, more is being revealed about the importance of movement through motherhood. She’s constantly rocking Baily on and off the dance floor. It’s a motion her body does naturally, and it’s just as calming for her as an adult as it is for him as a child, she said.

Movement is everywhere, in the cosmos, the stars, the moons, the planets, Sean said.

When you remove external distractions and allow the body to dance with lush, beautiful music, it helps return you to the source of what life is, he said. “Creation is a dance, it’s all movement.” v

Melinda Lavine is a features reporter for the Duluth News Tribune.

People worship with movement at Duluth Dance Church recently. STEVE KUCHERA / DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE