August 31, 2023 - MN Spokesman-Recorder

Surge in Encampment Evictions No shelter from the summer heatwave

By Cole Miska

Contributing Writer

ast Thursday morning, August 25, Minnesota State Patrol and Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDoT) officials evicted an encampment at East 22nd St. and Little Earth Trail, known as the “Wall of Forgotten Natives.” The encampment, located in the East Phillips neighborhood, was composed of mostly Native Americans from 14 different reservations. Shortly thereafter, another encampment sweep occurred at 31st and Nicollet, in what appeared to be a coordinated effort that left the homeless with few options this past weekend leading up to a forecasted Labor Day heatwave. The Spokesman-Recorder confirmed with Hennepin County that shelters were at 100 per-

cent capacity and no shelter beds were available countywide on August 26.

Just before state officials carried out the encampment evictions, activists held a press conference at the Wall of Forgotten Natives encampment.

Nicole Mason of the American Indian Movement opened the press conference by saying that encampment evictions lead to relatives going missing.

“Please listen to the people this time,” Mason said. “The camp is clean, people are getting rest, being fed, and hydrated. They are no longer alone.”

Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez also spoke at the press conference and called for money being used by the city for evictions to be reallocated to provide housing for unhoused residents.

“I just want to say I’m sorry

on my end,” Chavez said. “I don’t think that I, as a council member, have done enough to support our unhoused neighbors and help them find dignified housing. But we have folks back here today that have power to make decisions and we’re here to help support in any way we can.”

At the press conference, the demands included the creation of community hubs with resources for unhoused people, livable public spaces with warming and cooling centers, replication of successful programs such as the Avivo Village, and safe-use sites for drugs to reduce overdoses and the debris of used needles.

Although they did not speak at the press conference, council members Aisha Chughtai and Robin Wonsley were present.

The state patrol arrived shortly after the end of the press conference. Activists and

Minneapolis police chief under fire Complaints arise amid efforts to reform department

By Abdi Mohamed

Contributing Writer

inneapolis Police

Chief Brian O’Hara has come under investigation following three complaints filed with the Office of Police Conduct Review, the office tasked with handing complaints against the police department under the Office of Civil Rights. This news comes months after the city came to a settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and while negotiations are ongoing with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which has yet to finalize its consent decree.

The complaints were first obtained by another news outlet and are considered active investigations. None of the accusations against the chief have been substantiated. The first complaint was filed less than a month after O’Hara was sworn in as chief, amid reports that he was abusive and unprofessional toward a fellow officer in the Edina Police Department after demanding

a report that wasn’t public.

The second complaint against O’Hara was filed in February regarding an incident on Jan. 27, in which the “chief of police used reportable force, but did not do a force report,” according to the complaint.

Many critics of the department have found this incident troubling given the Minneapolis Police Department’s history

and the DOJ’s findings regarding MPD’s reporting on the use of force.

The last complaint filed against Chief O’Hara comes from his comments surrounding the hiring of Officer Tyler Timberlake, who joined the department in January after being charged with misdemeanor assault during his time as a Fairfax County, Virginia

police officer.

Chief O’Hara acknowledged that he was present for Timberlake’s final interview but denied that he was aware of the officer’s troubling history. “I did not know of the existence of video capturing a use of force incident involving this individual until after receiving a media inquiry,” O’Hara said

■ See OHARA on page 5

Blue Line extension plan delayed Transparency and funding concerns sidetrack project

By H. Jiahong Pan

and management committees by unanimous vote, which is unusual given the members’ voting history. Several Met Council members expressed concerns about how Met Coun-

officers argued while police blocked the area forming a human barricade, but no physical confrontations occurred, and no arrests were made. Mason argued that the camp could not

be swept as they were having a Spirit Fire ritual for Dan Robertson, a camp resident who passed away from heat stroke the day before. Mason alleges

■ See ENCAMPMENT on page 5

cil staff make decisions and explain their work to councilmembers. Those council members cited an August 21 announcement that the Met Council and

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire

ixty years after Dr. Mar-

tin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a groundbreaking new report has laid bare the stark truth of ongoing black economic inequality in the United States.

Titled “Still

A Dream: Over 500 Years to Black Economic Equality,” the report, co-authored by prominent experts Dedrick AsanteMuhammad, Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo and Sally Sim, and published by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), underscores the enduring disparities faced by Black Americans and highlights the pressing need for concerted action to address these disparities.

defaulted on this promissory note to Black citizens,” stated Chuck Collins, an IPS senior scholar who directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good in Washington, DC.

“Six decades later, despite incremental progress on some fronts, the check of opportunity has still come back with insufficient funds.”

“The findings of this report are sobering and demand immediate and comprehensive action to address the economic disparities faced by African Americans.”

“Sixty years ago, Dr. King observed that America has

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, chief of race, wealth, and community for NCRC, lamented, “It is deeply troubling that, 60 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Black economic equality remains nothing more than a dream for most Black Americans.”

Sixty years later, economic disparities persist

“The revelation that it would take more than 500 additional years to close the economic gap for Black Americans is a stark reminder of the systemic inequities

■ See DREAM

State troopers at Wall of Forgotten Natives encampment

Sixty years later, economic equality is still a dream

Intersection at 10th Ave. N., where the Met Council was considering Blue Line extension route Photos by H. Jiahong Pan

MPD Chief O’Hara at DOJ press conference in June

Nicole Mason of the American Indian Movement

Reexamining police killings after the official investigation is over Investigative

unit helps victims’ families find answers

the police department.”

By Cole Miska Contributing Writer

“We dig deeper” is the motto of Communities United Against Police Brutality’s (CUAPB) Police Reinvestigation Workgroup. The workgroup was integral in the $11.5 million lawsuit in the case of Cordale Handy, settled earlier this month, as well as the $1.3 million settlement awarded to the family of Marcus Golden earlier this year.

While others at CUAPB have previously reinvestigated police killings, the current workgroup—Nicole Kesselrint and her goddaughters Maddie Pederson and Emma Pederson—formed in 2018, does a deep dive into all the evidence that is available and looks for things that may have been missed or overlooked in the initial investigation.

“We try to prove the police narrative of events,” said Emma Pederson. “We start off and look through the county attorney charging decision. We look through what they say in that report. Then we basically say, ‘Can we prove what they say happened?’

“We go off that, based on the [Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] report. We look at all the audio. We look at all the video that captured the event.”

“We try to look at what they say,” Emma continued, “compare it to everything in the reports. Compare it to the

physical evidence. Compare it to news articles that provide more information. And we really try to understand the actual narrative of what happened versus the first police narrative that often comes out.”

Both Emma and Maddie Pederson have policing experience— the two trained in the Minneapolis Police Department’s Police Explorers program. Maddie worked as a Community Service Officer (CSO) in Minneapolis through 2018, and in Bloomington until 2021. A CSO is a junior officer who is paid to work in the department while going for an associate degree in law enforcement.

for a father figure because I didn’t have one at that time. I really was looking for some sort of structure,” Maddie said. “I thought what better than to be a police officer, because they seem to be heroes.”

Kesselrint, about the issues with the program after they said they had to find and bring back to the hotel one of their advisors who was drunk at a policing conference.

Maddie Pederson said fellow BPD officers became distant and aloof towards her after a video surfaced of her speaking about racism and excessive use of force by MPD at a Minneapolis City Council meeting in 2018. She left BPD in 2021 after she was accused of recording conversations in the police department, which she denies.

“Basically, my choice was to leave or be fired,” Maddie said.

Maddie Pederson, who is a domestic abuse survivor, discovered the Police Explorers program through a job fair in 2011, and thought it would be a good way to make sure children never endured what she did. Emma Pederson followed her into the program shortly thereafter.

“I mainly joined that program because I was really looking

In 2018, the sisters left MPD due to what they describe as “a lot of boundary issues and inappropriate sexual behavior from adult officers.” Maddie said a female officer texted her when she was in the Explorers program telling her about a boob job the officer had and offering to send photos.

Both Emma and Maddie allege that male officers would get the sisters to scope out pretty women for them at policing conferences. The two sisters told their godmother,

“When I found out the facts and the truth about the way these officers were behaving with a youth program, I was shocked,” Kesselrint said. She pushed for Maddie Pederson to file a complaint, but the family has not had a response to the complaint.

While Emma ended her law enforcement work after leaving MPD, Maddie did not lose her faith in policing and moved to Bloomington Police Department (BPD) as a CSO in 2018.

“I still wanted to be a police officer after Minneapolis. I

thought it was just a Minneapolis thing,” Maddie said. “But then I went to Bloomington, and I realized it’s not just Minneapolis. It was a police culture thing.”

Maddie worked as both a CSO officer at BPD and on the reinvestigation workgroup from 2018-2021. “I was always honest with both sides about working with the community and with the police department,” she said.

“I received a lot of support from the community. They were very caring and supportive about my story and my journey in the law enforcement profession. The police department was the opposite. I was seen as the ‘goddess of those people’ and they were worried about ‘[Black Lives Matter] infiltrating

Kesselrint and her goddaughters have been the mainstays of the investigation workgroup since 2018, with Kesselrint’s husband, Paul Bosman, working as CUAPB’s lawyer. Occasionally, help has also come from CUAPB members and family members of those slain by police.

Kesselrint says the group has re-examined more than 20 cases, with four more cases currently in progress. She is unaware of any similar groups nationally, but said she is willing to help teach anyone who wants to start a reinvestigation group.

“As much as I don’t want to see it grow anymore, because I don’t want to see this happen, I would like to see other states, other people, pick up and be able to do the same thing and help families find justice,” Kesselrint said.

Cole Miska welcomes reader comments at cmiska@spokesman-recorder.com.

Press conference announcing $1.3 million settlement with Marcus Golden’s family Photo by Cole Miska

“I realized it’s not just Minneapolis. It was a police culture thing.”

Black women weigh emerging risks of hair straighteners

By Ronnie Cohen Kaiser News

Deanna Denham Hughes was stunned when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year. She was only 32. She had no family history of cancer, and tests found no genetic link. Hughes wondered why she, an otherwise healthy Black mother of two, would develop a malignancy known as a “silent killer.”

After emergency surgery to remove the mass, along with her ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, and appendix, Hughes said she saw an Instagram post in which a woman with uterine cancer linked her condition to chemical hair straighteners.

“I almost fell over,” Hughs said from her home in Smyrna, Georgia.

When Hughes was about four, her mother began applying a chemical straightener, or relaxer, to her hair every six to eight weeks. “It burned, and it smelled awful,” Hughes recalled. “But it was just part of our routine to ‘deal with my hair.’”

The routine continued until she went to college and met other Black women who wore their hair naturally. Soon, Hughes quit relaxers.

Social and economic pressures have long compelled Black girls and women to straighten their hair to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards. But chemical straighteners are stinky and costly and sometimes cause painful scalp burns. Mounting evidence now shows they

could be a health hazard as well.

Relaxers can contain carcinogens, like formaldehydereleasing agents, phthalates, and other endocrine-disrupting compounds, according to National Institutes of Health studies. The compounds can mimic the body’s hormones and have been linked to breast, uterine and ovarian cancers, studies show.

African American women’s often frequent and lifelong application of chemical relaxers to their hair and scalp might explain why hormone-related cancers kill disproportionately more Black than White women, say researchers and cancer doctors.

“What’s in these products is harmful,” said Tamarra JamesTodd, an epidemiology professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who has studied straightening products for the past 20 years.

She believes manufacturers, policymakers and physicians should warn consumers that relaxers might cause cancer and other health problems. But regulators have been slow to act, physicians have been reluctant to take up the cause, and racism continues to dictate fashion standards that make it tough for women to quit relaxers, products so addictive they’re known as “creamy crack.”

Michelle Obama straightened her hair when Barack served as president because she believed Americans were

“not ready” to see her in braids, the former first lady said after leaving the White House. The U.S. military still prohibited popular Black hairstyles like dreadlocks and twists while the nation’s first Black president was in office.

California in 2019 became the first of nearly two dozen states to ban race-based hair discrimination. Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed similar legislation, known as the CROWN Act, for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. But the bill failed in the Senate. The need for legislation underscores the challenges Black girls and women face at school and in the workplace. “You have to pick your struggles,” said Atlanta-based surgical oncologist Ryland Gore.

She informs her breast cancer patients about the increased cancer risk from relaxers. Despite her knowledge, however, Gore continues to use chemical straighteners on her own hair, as she has since she was about seven years old.

“Your hair tells a story,” she said.

In conversations with patients, Gore sometimes also talks about how African American women once wove messages into their braids about the route to take on the Underground Railroad as they sought freedom from slavery.

“It’s just a deep discussion,” one that touches on culture, history, and research into current hairstyling practices, she said. “The data is out there. So patients should be warned, and then they can make a decision.”

The first hint of a connection between hair products and health issues surfaced in the 1990s. Doctors began seeing signs of sexual maturation in Black babies and young girls who developed breasts and pubic hair after using shampoo containing estrogen or placental extract.

When the girls stopped using the shampoo, the hair and breast development receded, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics in 1998. Since then, JamesTodd and other researchers have linked chemicals in hair products to a variety of health issues more prevalent among Black women—from early puberty to preterm birth, obesity, and diabetes.

In recent years, researchers have focused on a possible connection between ingredients in chemical relaxers and hormone-related cancers, like the one Hughes developed, which tend to be more aggressive and deadly in Black women.

A 2017 study found White women who used chemical relaxers were nearly twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those who did not use them.

Because the vast majority of the Black study participants used relaxers, researchers could not effectively test the association in Black women, said lead author Adana Llanos, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Researchers did test it in 2020. The so-called Sister Study, a landmark National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences investigation into the causes of breast cancer and related diseases, followed 50,000 U.S. women

to know that chemical relaxers are harmful?”

Charlotte Gamble, a gynecological oncologist whose Washington, D.C. practice includes Black women with uterine and ovarian cancer, said she and her colleagues see the uterine cancer study findings as worthy of further exploration—but not yet worthy of discussion with patients.

“The jury’s out for me personally,” she said. “There’s so much more data that’s needed.” Meanwhile, James-Todd and other researchers believe they have built a solid body of evidence.

whose sisters had been diagnosed with breast cancer and who were cancer-free when they enrolled.

Regardless of race, women who reported using relaxers in the prior year were 18 percent more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Those who used relaxers at least every five to eight weeks had a 31 percent higher breast cancer risk.

Nearly 75 percent of the Black sisters used relaxers in the prior year, compared with only three percent of the nonHispanic White sisters. Threequarters of Black women also self-reported using the straighteners as adolescents, and frequent use of chemical straighteners during adolescence raised the risk of premenopausal breast cancer, a 2021 NIH-funded study in the International Journal of Cancer found.

“There are enough things we do know to begin taking action, developing interventions, providing useful information to clinicians and patients and the general public,” said Traci Bethea, an assistant professor in the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities Research at Georgetown University.

Responsibility for regulating personal-care products, including chemical hair straighteners and hair dyes—which also have been linked to hormone-related cancers— lies with the Food and Drug Administration. But the FDA does not subject personalcare products to the same approval process it uses for food and drugs. The FDA restricts only 11 categories of chemicals used in cosmetics, while concerns about health effects have prompted the European Union to restrict the use of at least 2,400 substances.

In March, Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) asked the FDA to investigate the potential health threat posed by chemical relaxers. An FDA representative said the agency would look into it.

Another 2021 analysis of the Sister Study data showed sisters who self-reported that they frequently used relaxers or pressing products doubled their ovarian cancer risk. In 2022, another study found frequent use more than doubled uterine cancer risk.

After researchers discovered the link with uterine cancer, some called for policy changes and other measures to reduce exposure to chemical relaxers.

“It is time to intervene,” Llanos and her colleagues wrote in a Journal of the National Cancer Institute editorial accompanying the uterine cancer analysis. While acknowledging the need for more research, they issued a “call for action.”

No one can say that using permanent hair straighteners will give you cancer, Llanos said in an interview. “That’s not how cancer works,” she said, noting that some smokers never develop lung cancer, despite tobacco use being a known risk factor.

The body of research linking hair straighteners and cancer is more limited, said Llanos, who quit using chemical relaxers 15 years ago. But, she asked rhetorically, “Do we need to do the research for 50 more years

Natural hairstyles are enjoying a resurgence among Black girls and women, but many continue to rely on the creamy crack, said Dede Teteh, an assistant professor of public health at Chapman University. She had her first straightening perm at eight and has struggled to withdraw from relaxers as an adult, said Teteh, who now wears locs. Not long ago, she considered chemically straightening her hair for an academic job interview because she didn’t want her hair to “be a hindrance” when she appeared before White professors.

Teteh led “The Cost of Beauty,” a hair-health research project published in 2017. She and her team interviewed 91 Black women in Southern California. Some became “combative” at the idea of quitting relaxers and claimed “everything can cause cancer.”

Their reactions speak to the challenges Black women face in America, Teteh said.

“It’s not that people do not want to hear the information related to their health,” she said. “But they want people to share the information in a way that it’s really empathetic to the plight of being Black here in the United States.”

Kara Nelson of KFF Health News contributed to this report. This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

“The data is out there. So patients should be warned, and then they can make a decision.”

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that officers and paramedics who responded to the call for Robertson did not give proper aid, and laughed at encampment residents who asked them to help. The state patrol allowed the Spirit Fire to go undisturbed for about an hour and a half.

One activist, Laci, who declined to give a last name, asked Minnesota State Patrol Captain Tarvis Schaap where the people displaced from the encampment were supposed to go. Schaap repeatedly told Laci and other activists to talk to the city for resources. Activists said they already had spoken with the city and that no resources were available.

Laci expressed frustration

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in a statement. “Upon learning of the existence of video and seeing it myself, I immediately ordered an investigation into MPD’s hiring processes.”

Following the report of these complaints, the City of Minneapolis has hired an outside law firm to investigate the charges filed against the chief. The complaints have been referred to the Office of the Commissioner of Community Safety (OSC), as is standard when formal complaints are made against a sitting MPD chief.

According to OCS spokesman Stan Alleyne, an external investigator will be used in order to “preserve neutrality and investigator independence and avoid any potential conflicts of interest.”

Members of the Racial Justice Network released a statement shortly after news of these complaints was revealed. They urged Mayor Jacob Frey to take action against O’Hara and called into question the chief’s credibility in light of these complaints.

“Chief O’Hara’s alleged deceptive statements regarding his knowledge of former officer Tyler Timberlake’s use of force history at the time of Timber-

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that persist,” Asante-Muhammad asserted.

Sally Sim, a senior organizer and project specialist at NCRC, emphasized the urgency of the situation. “The sobering projection and findings of our report 60 years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom reinforce that the dream for economic equality for Black Americans remains unfulfilled.

“On this historic anniversary, let us turn this report into a catalyst for meaningful action towards comprehensive solutions and public support for policies and initiatives that pro-

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Hennepin County would use a mix of existing sales tax dollars and a share of federal funds to plug a $272 million funding gap for the Southwest Light Rail project.

Though it appeared that the funding deal between the Met Council and Hennepin County on the Southwest Light Rail project was not being considered at that meeting, Councilmember Deb Barber, who represents most of Carver and all of Scott County and chairs the transportation committee, was nonetheless upset, and said she had no role in shaping the deal.

after the conversation with Schaap. She said she called the city’s shelter connect service that morning and was told the city had only two beds that were available. In the day prior, Laci had called the numbers for outreach workers the city had provided those living at the camp. She said that she did not get an answer from Minneapolis Legal Process Coordinator Christina Dowling, and a second contact, Bobby Morrow, who apparently no longer works for the city (The Spokesman-Recorder attempted to call Morrow multiple times to confirm his employment, but the calls were unanswered.)

Laci also attempted to reach out to Governor Tim Walz’s office and MnDoT. Laci says the only person who responded out of four or five people called at

lake’s hiring by MPD, not only undermine public trust but demonstrate the lengths that he will go to maintain the status quo of racist policing practices,” the statement read.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney and executive director of the Wayfinder Foundation, found the allegations against O’Hara to be troubling and disappointing.

“He knew the caliber of leadership that was required in order to take the helm of the Minneapolis Police Department, which has had its own troubles over the last several years and developed a terrible reputation in this community and around the nation for the significant breakdown in

MnDoT was Deputy Commissioner Kim Collins, who said she would “pass the message along.”

“It’s like a blackhole,” Laci said regarding finding resources for unhoused people. “It’s just kind of surreal, like you’re casting a line into a vast ocean that’s like a dead zone. There’s nothing there.”

Melanie Brown lived at the original Wall of Forgotten Natives encampment in 2019. Melanie found housing in 2020, but came out to the sweep to help people move possessions

of color,” she said.

Levy Armstrong stated that she had concerns about O’Hara following the revelation that he partook in the hiring of Timberlake despite knowing his misdemeanor assault charge.

Both Levy Armstrong and Pete Gamades of the Racial Justice Network raised concerns about Mayor Frey’s treatment of Black public safety leaders, in light of the complaints against O’Hara.

“All of this derelict behavior is co-signed by Mayor Jacob Frey, who has used a decisive double standard in reprimanding former Chief Arradondo and former Community Safety Commissioner Dr. Cedric Alexander (both Black men) for less egregious acts, while allowing O’Hara (a White man) to continue in his duties despite multiple red flags of glaringly incompetent leadership,” Gamades said.

because she knows what it is like to be homeless.

“One thing that held me back in 2020 was not being able to have a rental history or an income,” Brown said. “Now [a person’s income is required to be] three times the rent. There should just be more things out

community in a series of conversations on police policies. These discussions cover nondiscriminatory policing, use of force, and stops, searches, and arrests. These community sessions are part of the consent decree that the city signed acknowledging that collecting feedback from community members is an important part of implementing changes.

there for the homeless.”

Most of the people displaced by the sweep gathered their belongings at East Phillips Park, directly south of the encampment.

Waylon Duran, who had been living at the camp after being evicted from his apartment nine days prior, said he had “no idea”

She believes that community engagement is a necessary component to addressing MPD’s challenges, but at the end of the day “the proof is in the pudding. You can have a million discussions with the community and still fail to address basic policy issues that have led to the deterioration of the Minneapolis Police Department,” she said.

“It’s also my understanding that there are not a substantial number of people of color attending the meetings. So they’re going to have to shift their strategy if they’re not getting a strong turnout from the Black community and other communities of color with regard to outreach. We are the community that is most affected, most deeply and disproportionately affected.”

where he would be going next. “I’ll just follow whoever, I guess,” Duran said.

A spokesperson with the Office of Mayor Jacob Frey said the mayor plans a five-fold increase in the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority budget in 2024, increase the funding to $18 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, invest $2 million into the Minneapolis Homes program, replenish the Renter Relocation Fund, add $1 million for funding of additional shelters, and expand renter’s protections.

The spokesperson for Frey did not respond to a question about if Frey plans to continue encampment evictions.

Cole Miska welcomes reader comments at cmiska@spokesman-recorder.com.

of information being provided to the public.

She stated that the policies weren’t easily accessible to the community and that it would be difficult for the department to have a full conversation regarding draft policies for police conduct in these community sessions. She also criticized how the draft policies were written and communicated to the public.

police and community relations, as well as the use of excessive force which has occurred at disproportionate rates against Black people and other people

mote Black economic equality.”

Some key findings from the comprehensive report were that, despite modest advancements made by African Americans since the 1960s, including reduced poverty rates, increased high school attainment, and lower unemployment rates, income disparities between Black and White Americans have only slightly improved.

Only modest gains for Black Americans

The report exposes that in 2021, African Americans earn 62 cents for every dollar earned by White families. The report’s authors said, at this rate, achieving income parity would take an astonishing 513 years.

“I don’t think anyone around this table really contributed to the proposed agreement on solving the Green Line funding gap,” said Deb Barber. “I don’t think I’m comfortable moving things ahead when there’s not been that kind of transparency or robustness and discussion.”

Other council members were worried about what the Met Council was going to do to address displacement issues, echoing concerns that Northside residents and business owners have.

Councilmember Judy Johnson, who represents western Hennepin County, echoed those concerns. “I am worried about the risks around displacement and how we are going to manage that,” said

With news of the city hiring an outside law firm, Levy Armstrong called on the city to disclose the name of the firm that’s been hired to investigate the complaints against the chief. “I’m concerned about whether this is truly an independent investigation,” she said. These complaints against O’Hara also come at a time when the chief and MPD leadership are engaged with the

Further, the wealth gap between Black and non-Black Americans has experienced only marginal growth, with African Americans possessing 18 cents for every dollar of non-Black wealth in 2019. If this pace continues, it will take approximately 780 years for Black wealth to match non-Black wealth.

Median household income for African Americans has shown minimal growth, growing just 0.36 percent—less than one percent— since the turn of the century. Strikingly, it remained lower than White median family income in 1963.

Recommendations to bridge the economic divide Even after more than six

Johnson. “It’s moving at a rapid pace. There’s layers and layers and layers. [There is] more that we don’t know and we should know [before we] vote.”

Levy Armstrong was previously chair of the Minneapolis Community Safety Work Group, where she recommended that the city bring in an outside professional law enforcement agency to implement new training mechanisms and look at their hiring practices. She stated that to her knowledge the city hasn’t made the effort to have that external oversight.

decades, the Black-White homeownership divide persists. Black homeownership has grown from 38 percent in 1960 to 44 percent in 2021, while White homeownership surged from 64 percent in 1960 to 74 percent in 2021.

The report outlined a series of recommendations to combat Black economic inequality:

• Advocate for full employment and guaranteed jobs to ensure equal economic opportunities for all.

• Enact a substantial land and homeownership program to address the enduring homeownership gap between Black and White Americans.

• Commit to individual asset building, including finan-

in order to [vote]. I am very, very troubled by the need to take this action without an understanding of that agreement,” said Carter.

Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, attended the first community session on Aug. 15 and saw it as a waste of time.

In the past, Gross and her organization held over two dozen community events to educate the community on the consent decree process and inform Minneapolis residents on how they can provide feedback on policies.

After attending the community session, she felt as though there wasn’t a sufficient amount

cial education, asset matching programs, and supportive policies, to facilitate access to wealth-building opportunities for Black Americans.

• Implement policies to reduce dynastic concentrations of wealth and power, tackling the structural barriers that impede economic progress for Black Americans.

• Explore targeted reparations to address historical injustices and provide meaningful redress for the economic disparities Black Americans face.

Addressing systemic racism

The authors noted that, as the nation reflects on King’s enduring vision for equality and justice, the report serves as a sobering

“One [of the draft policies] I saw was so poorly written that I was objecting to a lot of it,” she said. “One of the things that they say for example is, ‘Police are allowed to use force as necessary to do their job’ or something like that. That’s not the actual standard. The Graham standard, which is the legal standard, is that police are only allowed to use the level of force necessary to effect a lawful purpose. It has to be the exact language that you have in your policy.”

MPD is scheduled to host its last community engagement session on Wednesday, Sept. 6. There is no information on whether or not Chief O’Hara will be in attendance.

Abdi Mohamed welcomes reader comments at amohamed@ spokesman-recorder.com.

reminder that pursuing Black economic equality remains an unmet challenge in America.

“The findings of this report are sobering and demand immediate and comprehensive action to address the economic disparities faced by African Americans,” remarked Omar Ocampo, a researcher for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS.

“We must invest in transformative policies that address systemic racism and create an equitable society.”

View the NCRC report at bit. ly/NCRCreport.

Stacy M. Brown is the NNPA Newswire senior national correspondent.

Councilmember Toni Carter, who represents parts of St. Paul, echoed those concerns. “I do not have the information I need

The Blue Line extension project has been in the works since at least the 1980s. In 2016, project planners decided to run the Blue Line extension on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad corridor to Brooklyn Park. The agency abandoned the alignment because BNSF was unwilling to negotiate use of its corridor. Project planners are currently envisioning running the line through the heart of North Minneapolis, as well as down the middle of Bottineau Boulevard to 73rd Avenue in Brooklyn Park, then up West Broadway to the Target North Campus.

However, residents and business owners in North Minneapolis have complained about the lack of transparency on the project in deciding the route and how it would affect their businesses and property. The state legislature passed a law this past session requiring planners to host quarterly meetings— the first of which was held last Wednesday—to inform and answer questions from Northside communities about the project. Despite concern over the lack of transparency voiced by residents and staff, some on the Met Council insisted on moving forward to keep the Blue Line extension project on schedule. “Those concerns [about transparency] extend beyond

the proposed action today. In not supporting this action you would be delaying the Blue Line,” said Anjuli Cameron, who represents Brooklyn Center, Crystal, Golden Valley, Hopkins, New Hope, Robbinsdale, St. Louis Park, and parts of Edina.

The vote means the Met Council will have to suspend all contracts associated with planning the project, including contracts for anti-displacement work, according to what agency staff said at the meeting. The full Met Council will consider the agreements again on September 13.

H. Jiahong Pan welcomes reader comments at hpan@spokesman-recorder.com.

“There should just be more things out there for the homeless.”

“You can have a million discussions with the community and still fail to address basic policy issues that have led to the deterioration of the Minneapolis Police Department.”

“I don’t think I’m comfortable moving things ahead when there’s not been that kind of transparency or robustness and discussion.”

After the encampment was cleared, state troopers formed a human barricade around the area.

Police Chief Brian O’Hara

Renaissance Black Business SPOTLIGHT

By Chris Juhn Staff Contributor

Renaissance men’s clothing boutique is tucked away in St. Paul’s Maplewood Mall, on the first floor close to JC Penny, across the hall from Foot Locker. The entrance to the store is through door #5, where men can find an array of suits, hats, and accessories.

Owner Marques Armstrong (MA), who is in his 50s, opened Renaissance at its current location in March of 2022, after a string of pop-ups beginning in fall 2019. His boutique caters to men of all ages and cultures who want a custom look and style, and have a certain sartorial swag.

MSR: What inspired you to start your business?

MA: My wife. She’d get invited to different balls and galas and all sorts of things where we had the opportunity to dress up. She noticed that I’d get a lot of compliments. She said, “Marques, you get compliments wherever we go. “And you’re getting compli-

ments from people from different backgrounds, and different cultures—both men and women. You should do something with that—I’m talking about some type of business.”

I said, “I have my mental health practice. I’m helping you start your law firm. We have the consulting firm. We have the Racial Justice Network and all of the community work that we do. When do I have time to start a clothing brand?”

She suggested that I just focus on accessories, because that was what attracted people. “It’s the way you put it together,” she said, “You wore that same suit to the last three galas that we went to. But because you dress it up differently, it looks like a brand-new suit.”

So that’s literally where I got the idea from. Most of the things that people were complimenting me on were things that I would buy during our travels out-of-state or out of the country. I’d find nice little boutiques and haberdasheries that I used to go into, trying to

find some unique things.

So when they would ask, “Where did you get that, I’ve been looking for something like that,” or “I’ve been looking for something like that for my husband,” I’d say, “Unfortunately, I got it out-of-state.”

Initially, I just started with accessories. As I traveled, I would mention to those business owners that I was thinking about opening a boutique. I would ask, “Would you or do you sell wholesale? Or would you be open to a distribution contract?” To my delight, they all said yes.

I started to collect accessories, storing them in our home office. One day, I came home and I looked around. I had too many boxes of products. I didn’t have space and I didn’t know where to sell it.

I called my pastor and asked

him if it was okay if I set up in the foyer with my new business. He said, ‘Marques, you’re in leadership. You didn’t have to ask me that.’ That Sunday, I set up after church, and in an hour I had made $500. So that’s when I started to look for other places to sell. And that’s what turned into popup shops.

contacting them.

In New York I initially had one supplier, and I have many suppliers outside of the country—China, Istanbul, Turkey, Italy, different places like that where I’m able to get materials and supplies.

Because of COVID, and then the war in Ukraine, transportation was negatively im-

I was able to find three more suppliers by just me walking in the garment district, walking in the stores, and explaining myself. I started placing orders on that trip from suppliers to get the products that I needed. Now I’m able to get products when I order from California in three days to a week, versus three months.

MSR: How did you guys manage COVID?

MA: Honestly, I didn’t think about it because the business had just started. I didn’t think that it would really get off the ground, because the world had shut down. This is a clothing business, and you

MSR: Who designs your clothes?

MA: Carlos Muñoz is the designer. Carlos designs a lot of our newer products, and also many of our clothes. I have suppliers in LA, New York, and some suppliers from overseas. Sometimes we just order the product and Carlos tailors it to the customer.

MSR: Where do you get your clothing from?

MA: I have about five main people that I go to in LA where I can call and place orders. My wife grew up in California, so we visit there a lot. What I would do is go down to the Fashion District, getting products by myself. But then I started to ask them if they did wholesale. They’d give me the card with the address and the phone number, and I just start

pacted. Initially, ordering stuff from overseas was about two weeks. But then when supply chain problems happened, it was a month, two months, three months. Stuff was stuck on cargo ships. It was slowing down my business.

My wife was doing her book release for a book called “J is for Justice.” Her book release was in Brooklyn, New York. So, I tagged along and told her that I needed to find some new suppliers. The next day, I woke up early in the morning and got out here and started my search.

Carlos has also impacted my casual style 100 percent and I was rocking that style. As I’m moving through SoHo in New York, I recognize and realize that I blended right in, because he’s from New York and he’s had a huge influence on my casual style.

need [customers with] somewhere to go. Whether you’re going to work, or you’re taking someone out on a date, or a business meeting—you come in and get your outfit together. Well, there’s no way for people to do that because the world was shut down.

I honestly didn’t think that it would continue, especially because I had just started. But to my surprise and delight, we were still able to make some sales. Nowhere near what my projections were, but it was about $20,000 in 2020, which, to me was incredible.

No one had anywhere to go, but they were still patronizing the business. In 2021, when things started to open up a bit more, I began to do pop-ups because I didn’t have a brickand-mortar location at that time. Those pop-ups turned

■ See BBS on page 13

One of the goals of Renaissance is to grow, so that we can create employment opportunities for young brothers and sisters.

(l-r) Renaissance owner Marques Armstrong and designer Carlos Muñoz Photos by Chris Juhn

By Nadine Matthews

Contributing Writer

It’s impossible to document all 50 years of contributions, experiences and legacies of women in hip hop, but the new four-part Netflix docuseries, “Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip Hop,” gamely attempts it.

Although it doesn’t exactly go all the way back to Cindy Campbell’s historic August 11, 1973 party at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx, the series traces hip hop from its earliest days as a unique expression of the inner lives of urban, working-class Black Americans of the late 20th century to the global cultural juggernaut it is today.

“Ladies First” begins its chronicling around 1977, when there was a plethora of teen girl emcees and B-girls going toe-to-toe with their male counterparts.

One of those girls, Sha-Rock, figures prominently in the docuseries. Often referred to as “Mother of the Mic,” she was the first well-known female emcee. Sadly, too many hip hop fans today have never heard of her, a tragedy “Ladies First” aims to change.

In addition to Sha-Rock, “Ladies First” presents many significant contributors to hip hop via direct interviews and/ or archival footage. They include lyrical luminaries such as Cardi-B, Queen Latifah,

Arts & Culture

docuseries shows

Rah Digga, Remy Ma, Monie Love, Lauryn Hill, TLC, SaltN-Pepa, MC Lyte, Kash Doll, Megan Thee Stallion, Tierra Wack, Rapsody, Nicki Minaj, YoYo, Da Brat, and Roxanne Shante, waxing nostalgic and philosophical about the art, history, culture and business

bold, iconoclastic art form. The series ably captures the accomplishments of women in hip hop and the particular hurdles Black women in the industry face, such as the “First Lady” phenomenon (which basically states that there can only be one woman member of

its scarce coverage of the few women who exercised real power in hip hop, managing to push it forward by being a part of the decision-making structure, such as label heads Sylvia Robinson and Sylvia Rhone.

Further, though archival footage features rapper KRS

that stares the viewer in the face as “Ladies First” does its comprehensive survey of women in hip hop.

Discussion of rapper KRS’ dis of then-16-year-old rapper Roxanne Shante characterizing her as “only good for steady f***ing,” was framed only as an example of Roxanne Shante’s fame and the growing tradition of “beef” between rappers.

Later, there is a lengthy discourse about the then-teenaged Lil Kim and Foxy Brown’s departure from traditional lyrical and visual norms. As journalist Joan Morgan described them in her iconic feminist treatise “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down”:

“These baby girls, with their history-making multi-platinum debuts, have the lyrical personas of hyper-sexed, coutureclad hooch mamas.”

cause Black women and girls have always been considered hypersexual.

There is also no discussion of the connection for women between beauty, access to power, and Black women’s relationship to European beauty standards. For record executives unable to see and/or promote Black women’s beauty, sex is seen as a logical alternative.

Exciting and energizing in its breadth, “Ladies First” can be frustrating in its lack of depth, and as much as the viewer will revel in the amazing ac-

of hip hop.

Those who did the important work of documenting, curating and promoting hip hop such as journalists and critics Joan Morgan, Rianna Jade Parker, and Britney Copper, TV host Dee Barnes, archivist Syreeta Gates, and others come together in “Ladies First” in studied celebration of the

any rap crew), sexual assault, financial exploitation, cultural appropriation, and the glass ceiling that kept many from becoming major players.

As Def Jam Exec Drew Dixon graphically explains, for a woman in hip hop, “Unless I’m f***ing somebody powerful, I’m dead in the water.”

Still, “Ladies First” falters in

Roll out the red carpet for Mrs. O’s Sunday Brunch

By Jiccarra N. Hollman

Contributing

Writer

It is a downright sin to miss

Mrs. O’s Sunday Brunch. The most recent red-carpeted brunch hosted by celebrity chef Mrs. O of Real Cooks Kitchen was a joyful and memorable event—think Thanksgiving in the Bahamas!

Mrs. O, aka Orneary Conley, is known as the churchlady-celebrity-chef, blessing the stomachs of the late John Witherspoon, Mary Mary, DC Young Fly, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Timberwolves, just to name a few.

Not only does she serve celebrities, but once you’ve had the opportunity to get to know her, it is not lost that Mrs. O herself has celebrity status. At the August brunch, the combination of a tropical theme, celebrity appearances, and a lively atmosphere created a truly unique and enjoyable experience for all guests.

Mrs. O made the experience accessible, offering two sessions at 11:30 a.m. for morning Saints and 2 p.m. for those of us coming after church or sleeping off Saturday.

did with jokes and tales rooted from the valleys of Mississippi, the soul of Dallas, and a little Minnesota Nice sprinkled in. The presence of the comedian was a highlight as the guests were treated to an exceptional show.

Hosting the event was Nyla Harris of Nyla Harris LLC, and Mrs. O herself took the stage multiple times, showcasing her charming and funny personality.

As stated, it felt like Thanksgiving, and what does Thanksgiving bring? A time with family, and Mrs. O’s was present and accounted for—from her husband, Teron Conley, stealing last-minute tastes, to her twin daughters double checking that every plate was brought out beautifully and the guests’ trash was collected from tables.

The August 13 brunch featured the greatest hits by the one and only Walter “Q Bear” Banks from KMOJ. Shed G, “Madea #2” Tyler Perry stuntman and “Christian Comedian of the Year,” racked up frequent flyer miles just to grace the stage for his friend Mrs. O. And grace the stage Shed G.

It’s evident that Mrs. Ornery poured her heart and soul into every aspect of the event, beginning with the delectable food. Alexa, play Shirley Ceasar’s “Greens, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, chicken, turkey… You name it!”

But don’t forget the maca-

roni and cheese. Every single person said that cheesy bake was a showstopper.

The “Mrs. O Experience” is one of abundance: She honored birthdays, put a spotlight on businesses, and made genuine connections with attendees. This level of dedication and care truly made the event stand out. It’s a testament to the power of bringing people together to celebrate, connect, and create beautiful memories.

In the words of Orneary’s taste-tester and proud best friend Pebbles, “If you weren’t there, make sure you are there for the next event.”

Mark your calendars today, pick out your red-carpet-worthy outfit, and call your brunch mates for the next Mrs. O Sunday Brunch set for September 24, from 2- 6 p.m. at the St. Paul Event Center, located at 400 Wabasha St. N., St. Paul. For more info, visit bit.ly/ MrsOSeptBrunch.

Jiccarra N. Hollman welcomes reader responses to jhollmon@ spokesman-recorder.com.

One indicating that hip hop encompasses “art, dance and lifestyle,” the docuseries’ lens remains somewhat disappointingly squarely on the music. Progenitors of hip hop’s bold visual style such as costumer June Ambrose and stylist Misa Hylton receive scant mention.

Another missed opportunity was failing to tackle an issue

“Ladies First” argues that they changed the way women in hip hop were marketed, and that their overtly sexual images and lyrics triggered misogyny. However, these discussions don’t go as deep as they should, to the damaging and disturbing phenomenon of the adultification of Black girls in general.

Though Morgan is herself a contributor in “Ladies First,” the discussion of sexuality in hip hop is limited to themes of empowerment, itself a complicated and nuanced subject be-

complishments of the women featured, they’ll be reminded there are still many stories the ladies of hip hop have yet to tell.

“Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip Hop” is currently streaming on Netflix. For more info, visit bit.ly/LadiesFirstNetflix.

Nadine Matthews welcomes reader comments at nmatthews@spokesman-recorder.com.

Top to bottom, l-r: Sha-Rock, Rapsody, Queen Latifah, Saweetie, Roxanne Shanté, Remy Ma, MC Lyte and Dee Barnes Courtesy of Netflix

Exciting and energizing in its breadth, “Ladies First” can be frustrating in its lack of depth.

“If you weren’t there, make sure you are there for the next event.”

One year later, wins for the environment and the economy

By Ben Jealous

President Biden couldn’t have said it any more plainly when he said last week in Milwaukee, “When I think climate, I think jobs.”

He was speaking the day before the one-year anniversary of the historic clean energy and jobs package that he and Congress agreed on. It was the third major economic push that the federal government has made since 2021 along with earlier boosts for infrastructure and technology.

Remembering the March on Washington

By Marian Wright Edelman

In August 1963, I was a new law school graduate starting my last year of intensive preparation to become a civil rights lawyer under the tutelage of an extraordinarily gifted and committed band of attorneys at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund, Inc., in New York City.

God was headed south to Mississippi and Alabama and Georgia and Louisiana and North Carolina and I would be going along for the scariest, most exhilarating, most challenging years any human being could hope for. But first came a thrilling, buoying moment that was one of the great days of my and our nation’s life: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

I drove Ella Baker from New York City to Washington, D.C. for the March in my brother Julian’s well-worn Volkswagen Beetle. Bob Moses and Jane Stembridge, the young white woman from Georgia who was the first employee Ella Baker had hired for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), traveled with us. We stayed with my sister Olive.

On August 28 I stood on the National Mall with uncontained excitement and tears with Bob Moses, Ella Baker, Julian Bond, and 250,000 others. A photograph captured our group in the crowd with

our arms linked, singing “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem of the day. The March brought a whole community together across race and class as a show of unity and a collective gathering of people seeking jobs and justice. And then Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. electrified us all as he told America about his dream. We shared that period of hopefulness that Dr. King’s dream, which was also

So, it’s a good moment to check the scorecard for what officially is called the Inflation Reduction Act. To date, Americans are winning.

in communities where they are needed most. The Treasury Department found that two-thirds of the projects announced involving clean energy, electric vehicles or batteries are in counties with above-average poverty rates. The projects are going to places with low college graduation rates, low weekly wages, and high unemployment, federal officials reported.

the best way to grow U.S. productivity overall is to increase it in these places that have the most growth potential.

But these wins haven’t convinced the opponents on Capitol Hill who didn’t support the plan in the first place. While they are happy to celebrate the clean energy jobs that are sprouting in their states, they continue to work against everything from limits on the carbon pollution that threatens the climate to the tax credits that encourage people and businesses to buy electric vehicles.

our own, could be realized in America in our lifetimes with the help of our hands and feet and voices.

Sixty years later, the iconic image of the March remains Dr. King delivering the inspiring “I Have a Dream” message he spontaneously added to the end of his speech that day. But the central metaphor that made up the first half of his speech was the bounced check America had written to its Black and poor citizens.

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Dr. King said we had come to the nation’s capital to cash a check America had written nearly 200 years earlier. He reminded us that when our nation’s founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they had created a promissory note that guaranteed all Americans the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But instead of honoring that promise for Black Americans, America had defaulted on it and given us a bad check that had come back marked “insufficient funds.”

Dr. King said those of us who had come to the March on Washington were there to cash our checks because we refused to believe “the bank of justice is bankrupt’’ or that “there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” He then reminded us of the urgency of the moment.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. has put the original three-page copy of the speech that Dr. King brought to the podium on display to commemorate this 60th anniversary. One of the images that jumps out from the worn typewritten sheets is the underlining of the word now.

“We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of Democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.”

As Dr. King delivered it, he added: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

This message is still our charge today if we would hear, heed and follow it. The Children’s Defense Fund will serve as a supportive partner for the anniversary event “Not a Commemoration, a Continuation!”

at the National Mall on August 26. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children, and 60 years later, our hands, feet and voices are still needed.

Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund.

More than 190 clean energy projects across 41 states have been announced in the last year, according to the group Climate Power. Those projects are adding more than 140,000 jobs in those states.

While no Republicans in Congress voted for the $350 billion clean energy package, those jobs are being spread across both red and blue states. In the 2020 election, the president lost five of the top 10 states in terms of new jobs created and five of the 10 states with the most projects announced since last year.

Just as importantly, it appears we’re growing those jobs

Those are the same places that far too often must bear far more than their share of the impact from pollution and climate change. Throughout our nation’s history, the least powerful people have had to make unfair choices because they needed jobs, whether it’s stripmining mountains they love or living in cancer alleys that the plants where they work create with their toxic discharge.

For the rest of us, the benefit isn’t just environmental, it’s economic as well. As the Treasury Department noted,

It’s increasingly clear that Americans no longer must make a false choice between a vibrant economy and a safe, livable planet. There are more good jobs in nearly every state, every day, that are tied to clean companies.

The protectors of an unsustainable status quo that relies on dirty fuels and toxic waste want to fool the public into believing that is not a certainty. It’s an old play, stoking fear to try to divide people enough to keep them from joining together in their own best interest.

We can let them know that we won’t be fooled that way. We can read the score.

Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.

PERSPECTIVES FROM WITHIN

Families demand reduced timeline to implement new prison “Good Time” law

The Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act (MRRA) allows people to earn early release and supervision reductions by using their time well, increasing public safety and saving taxpayers money.

Planned for the last three years and passed in May, the law went into effect this August 1.

Yet there is ongoing controversy over its implementation, with those on supervision and with incarcerated loved ones demanding the good time they’ve already earned and the Department of Corrections (DOC) Commissioner saying they need 18-24 months to have policies in place.

At an August 16 press conference, the Home for Good Coalition called on Governor Tim Walz to step in and set a timeline for implementing supervision reductions and prison good time for thousands of Minnesotans. “We want to see the draft MRRA policies this month, supervision reductions by Thanksgiving, and prison time reductions starting Black History Month [2024]” said Stefanie Brown, a Home for Good organizer.

The DOC canceling a meeting with the community and refusing future meetings didn’t go unnoticed. “Governor Walz needs to step in and make sure the commissioner follows the law, that he be an adult and come back to the table to talk

with the community” says Trina Murray, former Minnesota corrections officer and mother of a son in Moose Lake Prison. The coalition is asking to meet with the governor as well.

the DOC delays as planned.

This worries Tracy Karlovich, whose loved one James Jordan has earned his way down to the minimum unit in Stillwater. “What happens to the minds of those 1,300 people who could be released? Not getting them what they’ve already earned is a risk to their minds, to the officers, and the public.”

The group is calling for implementation of supervision reductions to 6,700 new voters currently supervised by the DOC by this Thanksgiving. “With the election coming up, we want the governor to give thousands of new voters, their families, and their parole officers something to be thankful for this holiday season” says Brown. “Safety means putting resources where they’re needed, not holding people who’ve demonstrated safety beyond what is necessary under the law.”

But it’s not only about benefiting thousands of new voters—there are also over 1,300 people in prison who should be considered for early release who will not be considered if

In a recent presentation, Corrections Commissioner Schnell was adamant that the DOC needs 18-24 months to implement the policy, yet Trina Murray, former DOC employee, doesn’t believe him. “We can’t just keep punishing people when they have served their time. My son did his time, he turned himself in 16 years ago. He’s a visible example that you can change if you want to—but now his kids and community need him to come home.”

The Coalition plans to rally outside the governor’s home at Eastcliff on September 16 in order to emphasize the need for timely action to implement the MRRA.

The Twin Cities Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee is a union of prisoners, exprisoners, families and communities working to transform the justice system in MN. They host the Home for Good Coalition to increase safety and use of Minnesota’s early release programs.

“Now is the time to make real the promises of Democracy.”

It’s increasingly clear that Americans no longer must make a false choice between a vibrant economy and a safe, livable planet.

“We can’t just keep punishing people when they have served their time.”

Summer Guide

14th Annual Southside Back in the Day

Saturday, September 2 – 11 a.m.- 7 p.m.

Phelps Park, 701 E. 39th St., Minneapolis

Southside Back in the Day returns on Saturday, Labor Day weekend. With the theme of “A Community in Pursuit of Healing, Peace, Love & Happiness,” this year’s fest offers food vendors, healthcare resources, old school classics spun by DJ Kimuel Hailey, boxing demonstrations by Circle of Discipline, double-dutch sessions with Pros of the Rope, and more! The event is free and for all ages. For more info, visit Facebook/SouthSide Back In The Day.

Selby Avenue JazzFest

Saturday, September 9 – 11 a.m.- 7:30 p.m. 934 Selby Ave., St. Paul

Selby Ave JazzFest returns to the intersection of Selby and Milton Avenues in St. Paul’s Summit-University neighborhood with another sizzling yet smooth lineup. The headliner for this year’s festival is Grammynominated artist Najee, along with Pippi and Daniel Music, Urban Legends of Jazz, Walker West Music Academy, and the Selby Avenue Brass Band. For more information, visit www.selbyavejazzfest.com.

Night Life: Nocturnal Worlds in African Art

Now through September 10 Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gallery 255

2400 3rd Ave. So., Minneapolis

“Night Life” presents 20 artworks from across Africa that address how nighttime is perceived and experienced in the past, and in some cases the present. Wooden masks, head rests, and figures support contact—through dreams—with spiritual companions. With the sounds of African nightlife in the background, these artworks speak to the richness and vitality of life after the sun goes down. Admission is free. For more info, visit new.artsmia.org.

Minnesota Streetcar Museum

Extended Summer Events  Public Star Parties at the Baylor Regional Park Observatory

Baylor Observatory, 10775 County Road 33, Norwood Young America

2nd and 4th Saturdays through the end of October, from 7 to 10 p.m.

View stars, galaxies, nebulas, planets, and other celestial wonders up close with one of their big telescopes! Star parties happen regardless of the weather; volunteers will give tours of their telescopes if the sky is cloudy. Those eager for a deeper dive into our universe may want to consider participating in the Minnesota Astronomical Society’s Camping with the Stars. For more info, visit www.mnastro.org.

Black Liberation: Dismantling of Racism in Minnesota, 1800s to 1960s

Now through December 31

Tues. through Fri., from 1 to 5 p.m., and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

MAAHMG – 1256 Penn Ave. No. (4th floor), Minneapolis

Curated by Tina Burnside, with researcher Simiyah Garrison and graphic design by Michaela Spielberger, the exhibit is an exploration of the Black Liberation Movement in Minnesota. Focusing on Black-led organizations and Black leaders including abolitionists, labor, civil rights and Black Power leaders, “Black Liberation” reflects the fight for Black self-determination in Minnesota during the 19th and 20th centuries. Admission is free and free parking is available in the ramp at the rear of the building. For more info, visit www.maahmg.org.

The Bond Between Us

Now through Spring 2024 Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Hennepin History Museum

2303 Third Ave. So., Minneapolis

In “The Bond Between Us,” local artist Daren Hill reflects on the past through an exploration of three generations of photographers. This exhibit will feature a large collection of images of Minnesota’s Black community as well as new original digital artwork by Hill that honors his family and celebrates their bond. The museum’s admission policy is “pay as you can.” For more info, visit hennepinhistory.org.

Twin Tracks

Ongoing – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesdays and Saturdays

Minnesota Transportation Museum 193 Pennsylvania Ave. E., St. Paul

Visit this moving exhibit, which highlights the careers, lives, stories and legacies of Minnesota’s African American railway workers in the early 20th century. For more info, visit transportationmuseum.org.

Sunday, September 10, from 10 a.m. to noon

501 MN-7, Excelsior, MN

All Aboard! The Minnesota Streetcar Museum is offering rides on a streetcar that once ran in Minneapolis and St. Paul before the 1950s through a forest between Bde Maka Ska and Bdé Umáŋ (formerly Lake Harriet). The museum rolled out two new programs in recent years, both of which center around their quintessential streetcar rides. One is focused on neurodiverse people, their family and friends; and the other provides an opportunity to ride streetcars at night. Fares for both events are $3; an unlimited ride pass for the event period is $7. Transfers from Metro Transit or other transit providers are not accepted. For more info, visit trolleyride.org/special-events/como-harriet.

The MSR’s guide to festivals, concerts, and activities for foodies, stargazers, art and music lovers, and outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy this Labor Day weekend through the rest of the summer.

Sunday, Sept 3rd, 12:00 –7:00 p.m.

Phyllis Wheatley Field

1301 N 10th Ave (Bethune Park), Minneapolis

The Purple Crew presents the 50th Anniversary HipHop BBQ, at Bethune Park in North Minneapolis. Every aspect of hip-hop—DJs, MCs, graffiti artists, and B-boys and B-girls—will pay homage to the Twin Cities hip-hop legends.

There will be food trucks and vendors, a backpack giveaway (sponsored by Block Nation Clothing), prizes for best dress hip-hop attire and best dress look-a-like.

Bring your lawn chairs and grill. Come and have fun!

Continued from page 14

After graduating in 1992, earning a degree in criminal justice/law enforcement, Benner obtained a degree in elementary education and teaching at UST through the Urban Education program. He moved on to education administration after 21 years as an elementary school teacher. He was recently named assistant principal at Hill Murray School in Maplewood.

While at St. Agnes from 1983-87 he starred in football and basketball for the Aggies. As a junior, he teamed up with 1986 alum and current Grassroots Youth Mentoring CEO Brian Sandifer to form one of the metro area’s top backcourts.

I must admit that I only saw Benner once in action and it was not on the gridiron. Both he and Sandifer were on the basketball court leading St. Agnes to a 62-54 non-conference victory over St. Paul Highland Park on De-

s part of our celebration leading up to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder’s 90 years of continuous publication, over the next several months the MSR will be republishing notable stories from our extensive archives of weekly issues, chronicling the history of African Americans in Minnesota. That history began when the founder, Cecil E. Newman, published two weekly newspa-

pers—the Minneapolis Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder— on August 10, 1934. Although the separate weeklies had similar content, it wasn’t until 2000, that the two papers merged, becoming the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Many of our readers will recognize friends, family, and neighbors from the distant and not-so-distant past. In the year leading up to the anniversary in 2024, we invite readers to share

their memories of the Spokesman-Recorder, as we mark milestones in the newspaper and Minnesota’s Black history.

Featured in the August 11, 1944, issue of the Minneapolis Spokesman were two of the most powerful Black leaders at the time— Walter White, secretary of the NAACP and Lester Granger, executive secretary of the National Urban League. Top officials from two of the most powerful civil rights orga-

nizations at the time, they were seldom photographed together. The Spokesman wrote of White and Granger, they “call most of the signals and carry the ball in most of the moves to further the cause of the American Negro.” In addition, to publishers and executives of some of the country’s most prominent Black newspapers, the photo also includes Dr. Maynard Jackson, the father of the late mayor of Atlanta, GA.

cember 3, 1985.

As a junior journalism major on winter break from Central State University (Ohio) at the time, the experience got me seriously thinking about following in my father Kwame’s footsteps as a sportswriter.

Benner will be inducted Saturday, October 28, during halftime of the 1 p.m. Marist game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader comments at mcdeezy05@gmail.com.

Shown left to right: Leon Washington, publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel; P.L. Prattis, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Courier; Mr. White; Mr. Granger; Cecil E. Newman, publisher of the St. Paul Recorder and Minneapolis Spokesman; and Dr. Maynard Jackson of Dallas, Texas. This photo was taken in New York at the Hotel Roosevelt. MSR

Employment & Legals

Estate of Court File No. 27-PA-PR-23-1194

Charles John Seanger a/k/a Charles J. Seanger, Decedent NOTICE OF INFORMAL APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS (INTESTATE)

Notice is given that an application for informal appointment of personal representative has been filed with the Registrar. No will has been presented for probate.

The application has been granted.

Notice is also given that the Registrar has informally appointed Ali M. Seanger, whose address is 2825 28th Ave S, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55406, as personal representative of the Estate of the Decedent. Any heir or other interested person may be entitled to appointment as personal representative or may object to the appointment of the personal representative. Unless objections are filed with the Court (pursuant to Minnesota Statutes section 524.3-607) and the Court otherwise orders, the personal representative has full power to administer the Estate including, after 30 days from the date of issuance of letters, the power to sell, encumber, lease or distribute real estate.

Any objections to the appointment of the Personal Representative must be filed with this Court and will be heard by the Court after the filing of an appropriate petition and proper notice of hearing.

Notice is also given that (subject to Minnesota Statutes section 524.3-801) all creditors having claims against

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Req. Bach. Deg. in Comp. Sci. or Software Eng. or rel. field & 4 yrs. exp. as an Integration Systems Eng. or Integration Platform Eng. or Middleware Systems Eng./Administrator. Req. minimum of 4 yrs. exp. with each of the following: Software Admin./Automation of Middleware Tech. platforms (including Oracle Fusion, Middleware, Mulesoft, Weblogic); Middleware systems installation and monitoring. Req. minimum of 1 yr. exp. with each of the following: DevOps Automation tools incl. Jenkins/Azure DevOps; Scripting languages incl. Python; System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodologies (incl. Waterfall and Agile). This position allows remote work from anywhere within the U.S. For confidential consideration, please submit résumé to https://careers.landolakesinc.com using requisition #R28286. No agencies or phone calls please.

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The MSR handles billing digitally. This means you will get e-tears and e-mailed invoices unless you specifically request a hard copy.

Employment & Legals

STATE OF MINNESOTA IN DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF HENNEPIN FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT Case Type: Condemnation COURT FILE NO. 27-CV-23-11901

State of Minnesota, by its Commissioner of Transportation, Petitioner, vs. Crossroads Professional Center Association, Respondents. IN THE MATTER OF THE CONDEMNATION OF CERTAIN LANDS FOR TRUNK HIGHWAY PURPOSES NOTICE

To the Respondents hereinabove named:

You, and each of you, are hereby notified that on November 8, 2023, at 1:15 p.m., or as soon thereafter as counsel can be heard, before Judge Bridget Sullivan, in the Courthouse at Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, via remote hearing, the Petitioner will present a Petition now on file herein for the condemnation of certain lands for trunk highway purposes. This hearing will not be in person at the Courthouse. The remote hearing may be accessed by video at https://Zoomgov.com/ join, or by phone at 833-568-8864. For either method, the Meeting ID is 161 598 8965 and the Meeting Password is 740012. A copy of the Petition is attached hereto and incorporated herein.

YOU, AND EACH OF YOU, ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED, that Petitioner will also move the court for an order transferring title and possession to Petitioner of the parcels described in the Petition in accordance with Minn. Stat. §117.042, as of December 13, 2023.

YOU, AND EACH OF YOU, ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED, that all persons occupying the property described in the petition must VACATE THE AREA BEING ACQUIRED AND MOVE ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL PROPERTY FROM THE AREA BEING ACQUIRED ON OR BEFORE DECEMBER 13, 2023. All advertising signs or devices located in the area being acquired must be removed by December 13, 2023.

YOU, AND EACH OF YOU, ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED, that (1) a party wishing to challenge the public use or public purpose, necessity, or authority for a taking must appear at the court hearing and state the objection or must appeal within 60 days of a court order; and (2) a court order approving the public use or public purpose, necessity, and authority for the taking is final unless an appeal is brought within 60 days after service of the order on the party.

Dated: August 7, 2023

KEITH ELISON Attorney General State of Minnesota

s/Mathew Ferche For JEFFERY THOMPSON Assistant Attorney General Atty. Reg. No. 027107X 445 Minnesota Street, Suite 1400 St. Paul, MN 55101-2134 (651) 757-1312 (Voice) (651) 282-2525(TTY) ATTORNEY FOR PETITIONER STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF HENNEPIN FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT Case Type: Condemnation - - - -State of Minnesota, by its Commissioner of Transportation, Petitioner, vs. Crossroads Professional Center Association, an inactive Minnesota Non-Profit Corporation, Cowboy Investments LLC, an

controlled access highways, and further, to acquire a temporary easement in those cases which are herein particularly mentioned.

With reference to Parcel 215E, there appears a mortgage executed by Patricia A. Clarin and Kenneth L. Clarin Sr., husband and wife, Hennepin County, Minnesota, as mortgagors, to the United States of America, acting through the United States Department Housing and Urban Development, mortgagee, and filed in the office of the County Recorder in Hennepin County, Minnesota, as follows:

Dated Date Filed Document No. April 4, 2005 April 4, 2005 T4097464

It is the intention of the above-named Petitioner to move the court for an order authorizing the Court Administrator to accept and deposit payments, in an interestbearing account, from the Petitioner to the court pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 117.042.

Further, it is the intention of the above-named Petitioner to move the court for an order transferring title and possession of the parcels herein described, prior to the filing of an award by the court appointed commissioners, pursuant to Minn. Stat. §117.042.

Further, it is the intention of the above-named Petitioner to move the court for an order requiring the parties to exchange any appraisals at least 14 days prior to a commissioners’ hearing, pursuant to Minn. Stat. 117.036.

The Petitioner reserves its right to recover costs of clean up and testing and all other damages arising from the presence of pollutants, contaminants, or hazardous materials on the property described herein, from all potential responsible parties, including respondents herein where appropriate, in a separate legal action to the extent permitted by law.

III.

That the following described lands in these proceedings taken are situated in Hennepin County, Minnesota; that the names of all persons appearing of record or known to your Petitioner to be the owners of said lands or interested therein, including all whom your Petitioner has been able by investigation and inquiry to discover, together with the nature of the ownership of each, as nearly as can be ascertained, are as follows:

FEE ACQUISITION Parcel 438 C.S. 2782 (35W=394) 913 S.P. 2785-424RW

All of the following:

That part of the Common Element of COMMON INTEREST COMMUNITY NO. 1610, CROSSROADS PROFESSIONAL CENTER, shown as Parcel 438 on Minnesota Department of Transportation Right of Way Plat Numbered 27-243 as the same is on file and of record in the office

Tract A and there terminating; containing 17,174 square feet, more or less.

Names of parties interested in the above-described land and nature of interest:

Best Buy Co., Inc. Fee

County of Hennepin Taxes and Special Assessments

WHEREFORE, Your Petitioner prays that commissioners be appointed to appraise the damages which may be occasioned by such taking, and that such proceedings may be had herein as are provided by law.

Dated: July 25, 2023

KEITH ELLISON

Attorney General State of Minnesota

s/Jeffery S. Thompson

JEFFERY S. THOMPSON

Mortgage LLC, Novad Management Consulting LLC, Kenneth L. Clarin Jr., May Ann Hummel, Kelly Clarin, Dawn Mattie, Thomas Emmons, Best Buy Co., Inc., also all other persons unknown claiming any right, title, estate, interest or lien in the real estate described in the Petition herein,, Respondents. - - - -IN THE MATTER OF THE CONDEMNATION OF CERTAIN LANDS FOR TRUNK HIGHWAY PURPOSES

To the District Court above named the State of Minnesota brings this Petition and respectfully states and alleges:

in fee simple absolute, together with the following rights: to acquire all trees, shrubs, grass and herbage within the right of way herein to be taken, and to keep and have the exclusive control of the same, to acquire from the owners whose lands front thereon any existing right of access to said highway in those cases which are herein particularly mentioned, and to keep and have the exclusive control of all access to said highway in accordance with the law governing

VIEW

Continued from page 14

among the highest, if not the highest among all NCAA Division III schools.

KiJuan Ware is Augsburg’s defensive back coach and recruiting coordinator, in his second season: “The one thing we worked on in the offseason was depth. We brought in a class of 54

SOE

Continued from page 14

It was built on its “Core Four,” the four players who played on all four W title-winning Lynx teams on odd numbered years (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017).

Which team was the best?

Slam magazine’s September issue calls Minnesota’s 2013 championship team (26-8 overall, 7-0 postseason) perhaps the best ever. But the 2011 (27-7, 5-0) and 2013 (26-8, 5-0) teams were also dominant.

ESPN’s M.A. Voepel calls the two Minnesota-Los Angeles finals in 2016 and 2017 that went the five-game limit the most intense and impressive championship series ever.

“Beat LA,” the legendary chant popularized during the Lakers-Celtics rivalry of the 1980s, gained new meaning around these parts as both

Continued from page 6

to 55 guys and transfers. It takes time to build that trust and those relationships. We are moving in the right direction.”

Lamker, Augsburg head coach, is in his fourth season: “They’re here because they love the game. D-3 is different. No one’s given them a scholarship or forcing them [to play].”

Both Hamline and Augsburg will open their respective seasons at home on Saturday

Minnesota and Los Angeles had a healthy but respectful hatred for each other during that two-year stretch. It ended up with each team winning a chip (LA in 2016 and the Lynx in 2017 at Williams Arena). And what about 2015 (22-12, 5-2)?

Someday a Mt. Rushmorelike statue will be erected for the Core Four (+1).

Seimone Augustus (200619) was the Cities’ first Black female pro “franchise” player who almost left the team via free agency, because she was sick of losing. Then Minnesota acquired Lindsay Whalen, and ‘Mone stayed and collected four chips, and the 2011 Finals MVP. “I’m just happy to be here,” she told us during the celebration.

Rebekkah Brunson (201018) was already a champion (Sacramento, 2008). There wasn’t a rebound that Brunson, now a Lynx assistant coach,

into me getting invited to become a part of a multi-vendor market.

I did that the entire summer—every Saturday and Sunday—waking up at 5:30 in the morning to get down there at 6 a.m. and set-up by 7 a.m. I did really well there. So, it was really pop-ups and my network just being supportive. I’d share the things at the places that I would be, and they would show up. That’s really how we survived the pandemic.

MSR: What was the multi-vendor pop-up called that you were a part of?

MA: Bread.

MSR: How does your business impact the community?

MA: We have parents, mostly mothers, bringing their sons. In most cases, it is their very first time purchasing a suit, which means that they’ve never been measured and never had clothes designed to fit them directly.

They come stand right here, and when they look in that mirror you can literally see their bodies change. Their shoulders straighten, and they stand up tall. It changes them immediately when they see themselves. And then Mom says, “Oh my goodness, look at my baby boy.” Then I lean into Mom and say, “He is no longer your baby boy. He is becoming a young man.” One mother began to tear up.

I’m heavily involved in social justice work and being of service to the community. So, everything that I do, whether it’s my mental health practice, whether it’s the activism and advocacy that I do, even here at Renaissance—everything is focused on how do we advance community.

As you walk into the store, you’ll see I have messages that come from the movement on the wall. One of the goals of Renaissance is to grow, so that we can create employment opportunities for young brothers and sisters. It’s well-known that businesses that are owned by people of color are more likely to hire people of color.

afternoon. As expected, optimism is all around both squads.

“Every head coach will tell you we’re never ready,” said Lamker, adding that his players and coaches are ready to get after their first opponent.

“We’ll be ready to go. We’ll be ready to play,” predicted Taylor.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

couldn’t corral, especially on the offensive glass. She is the only WNBA player with five league championship rings.

Maya Moore’s (2011-18) elimination game-winning shots in Game 4 in 2016 and 2017 are stuff legends are made of. “It is so overwhelming to know how long the greatness has been sustained,” she said. “When you’re in it, you’re just grinding and locked in. Everybody is doing their thing.”

Lindsay Whalen (201018), the hometown hero, had already cemented her place in Minnesota sports history before coming to the Lynx via trade in 2010. When asked to pick her favorite title team, she chose “The first one… None of us knew what we were doing. That was a fun one,” said the winningest player in WNBA history. “And the last one. It was a solid effort. LA was a more talented team, but we were better.”

ALLIANCE

Continued from page 14

It’s even lower at the youth, high school, and college levels.

McGee quickly dismissed the well-worn notion that a primary reason for this is that Black fathers don’t play catch with their sons as earlier generations once did. “Our kids are leaving the game,” she stated. “We’re seeing a huge

number of dropouts between that 12 and 14 age range.”

Instead, McGee touts the less frequently mentioned fact that playing baseball is an expensive sport. “It’s more feasible to afford equipment for other sports than it is for baseball,” she said. “And if you’ve got a family of boys and girls and siblings that are all playing the game together, that’s gonna be costly.”

Rortvedt said of Blacks

and baseball, “We need to get more people that look like themselves playing this game. Unfortunately, we just don’t have enough people to make them feel like they fit here.”

“I believe in the mission of utilizing and creating pathways of equity and access resources for Black youth,” said McGee.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments at challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

out until it finally took place, ultimately brought her to Minnesota in 2015, from Chicago. Fowles won the Lynx’s last two titles, winning Finals MVP in both years. She told me the 2017 team remains her favorite memory

“You do a lot of reflecting when you hang up your shoes,” said Fowles, who retired after the 2022 season. “I am grateful for the opportunities I have and what I’ve done.”

Finally, when asked about the Lynx dynasty years, Whalen said, “You got to have a little luck and to have people who really bought in to the team and to each other. Seimone Augustus is the most unselfish superstar ever. We got Syl at the best time. We had Brunson and me who really were good role players.”

I want to be able to get to a point where we have multiple locations and we’re able to hire more people. We’ll look within the community to try to find those individuals. And we want to help build those individuals up as well.

MSR: What would you consider your most popular product?

MA: To my surprise, it’s the fedora. I didn’t carry them initially. One day Carlos walked in and I’m behind the register and I’m doing some stuff. I looked up, and said, “Yo! That’s kind of a Renaissance hat. Where’d you get that hat?” He said, “Oh, I got it from the store down the hall.” I was like, show me.

We went there. I bought them out. I bought all of their hats. They said they weren’t able to sell them. I asked what kind of deal are you willing to give me if I buy all of them from you? We purchased them all and brought them down here and they became a bestseller. After we purchased them, Carlos customized them.

MSR: What has been your biggest challenge in owning a business?

MA: My biggest challenge is developing the right team. As I mentioned earlier, one of our goals is to create employment opportunities. We’re in a place now where some of those opportunities are presenting themselves as we get busier, and as we begin to grow and get

And the plus-one, Sylvia Fowles (2015-22), the 6’6”

center who was the first W player to force a trade and sat

more products. I need help. I’m very busy. Carlos is my guy. He’s my right hand, man. So he’s here. But he also needs time off.

I began to hire some young men and women part-time, and it was disappointing because there seems to be a different kind of work ethic going on right now. I’m a 1970s baby. Carlos was born in the 1960s. We have a work ethic that was instilled in us to get to work on time, be respectful, do what it is to please your employer so that they keep you. There may be an opportunity for growth.

Unfortunately, what I have been experiencing is that the young people I’ve tried to hire— when I say young, I mean 18-25—I’ve had to let each and every one of them go. It’s the lack of a strong work ethic.

My biggest challenge is finding the right people that fit the brand, but also having good character, and showing up on time. If you can’t make it, call and give us a heads up. No-shows don’t work in any business.

That’s the biggest challenge I’m facing right now.

MSR: What has been the most rewarding part of owning your business?

MA: Seeing young men, and even adult men, who don’t really dress up, want to step their game up.

MSR: What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?

MA: Develop a strong business plan and develop a strong team. None of us are islands. It takes teamwork to make the dream work. Those are the two pieces of advice I would give any aspiring business owner or entrepreneur. Have your plan mapped out and begin to develop a very strong team of people.

Not everybody thinks like you. But you need some people who think the opposite of you or in a different way than you, because that helps challenge you. And it’s through challenges that we grow.

MSR: What would you like to add?

MA: I think we’ve carved out a niche, and it’s weddings, concerts, and other events like that. When we first opened up, we were trying to drum up business and attention to get people to come into the store. We would plan these Saturday meet-and-greets for custom-

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments at challman@ spokesman-recorder.com.

ers to learn about Renaissance. We would pay for charcuterie and good champagne. And you know, we’re spending money to try to get people to come into the store.

A couple came in, and they were looking at tuxedos. I asked the question, “What’s the occasion?” And they said, “Oh, it’s our wedding.” Of course I congratulated them on their wedding, and in that moment I thought to myself, “Let me try something.”

I said, “Hey, how big is your wedding party?” It’s huge, actually. I said, “Okay, I have a deal for you, and I made it up right there on the spot. I said, “If there’re five or more men in your wedding party, your tuxedo will be free.” And so they agreed.

We sat down, we went over their color scheme, the type of tux that they wanted for the groom, the tuxes that they wanted for the groomsmen. Then I said, “Okay groom, get with your best man, and I want you to get everybody together. I want to schedule a consultation so all the men can come in and we can get their measurements. Then we can show them what you guys picked for them, what they would be wearing.”

The day that they scheduled I thought to myself, “You know, we’ll bring out the charcuterie board and champagne and pull out all the stops in the hopes that it would produce sales. This is a wedding party. They’re gonna buy suits, so why don’t we give them that fivestar treatment?” They absolutely loved it. We closed the doors, but we were still open. We closed the doors to give all our attention to the customer.

To my delight, what I discovered was that other people walking by saw all of the people and heard the excitement. It made them want to come in and find out what was going on. It helped to generate even more sales outside of the wedding. So that has become one of the top things we do. Right now, we have about five weddings coming up that we’re preparing for.

Renaissance is located at Maplewood Mall at 3001 White Bear Ave. in St. Paul. For more information visit www.facebook.com/reclaimingswag/, or call 612-886-4218.

Chris Juhn welcomes reader comments at cjuhn@ spokesman-recorder.com.

BBS

ootball practice, no matter the level, is tedious and repetitious, especially in the days leading up to the season opener. And the unseasonable heat in the last couple of weeks hasn’t helped as necessary adjustments had to be made for the players’ health and safety.

Last week we spent time with two conference teams, Hamline and Augsburg, two Skyline Conference foes as they prepared for their respective season openers on Saturday. Both programs allowed us to watch their practices, sit in on position and team meetings and the coaches’ skill sessions. We also talked to players and coaches to get their perspectives on training camp and the upcoming season.

Elijah Jamison, Hamline 6’0”

College football 2023 is here The 2023 MIAC season officially kicks off Saturday, Sept. 2

soph defensive end, didn’t play last season due to injury. “This is my second year, but first year playing. I came back from ACL injury. The [rehab] process has been long, but it’s been good for the most part.”

last season due to injury. “Being 23 [years old], it means something—like you’re a big brother to them. That’s a really big part, one of the reasons I came back.”

Mike Harris, Hamline’s assistant coach is in his second season: “We’re all working toward the same goal, and it’s little by little getting better.”

EJ Shelby, Hamline’s offensive coordinator, is in his second season: “We’re making sure the guys understand what we’re trying to do.”

Rahim Avery, a Hamline

5’10” junior defensive back, transferred from Minnesota State Moorhead: “We’ve been here since August 9. I feel like everybody has the same goal.”

Noah Hickman, is a Hamline 5’11” fifth-year linebacker: “We put in a lot of work in the offseason, in the spring, and even over the summer, bonding and

getting it together, molding a new culture around here.”

Calab Lueders, is a Hamline 5’10” senior defensive back: “Every man matters on this team.”

Alec Ralph, Hamline’s 6’0” fifth-year quarterback, missed

Matthew Wood, a Hamline assistant coach, is in his fourth season: “I think our guys are doing a great job of embodying our culture and doing the little things well. They handled all the stuff so far in camp that we’ve thrown out.”

Seth Greenwald, Hamline’s assistant coach, is in his sixth season: “Guys are playing hard for each other.”

Chip Taylor, Hamline’s head coach, has been with the team for eight seasons: “I’m being a barometer, or I should say, the

thermostat for the program, and making sure I set the temperature the right way.”

Jevon Jones, Hamline’s 6’0” junior linebacker: “We could be a team by working together and having the same goal.”

On the other side of the

river, Augsburg may have the most diverse football team in the MIAC with 80 Black players on the 116-player roster. Head Coach Derrin Lamker believes the squad’s percentage of players of color may be

The Players Alliance and Twins partner to attract more Black youth to baseball

By Charles Hallman

Sports Columnist

couple of weeks ago, the Minnesota Twins held several events specifically for youth, and especially for Black youth.

An estimated 200 boys and girls from the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota participated in a “Twins Youth Takeover” game in Bloomington. There was also a day-long leadership academy for 100 high school students at the Twins ballpark, evenly split between baseball and softball players. A “Future Mentorship” clinic was held at Minneapolis Henry High School for 20 Black high school baseball and softball players from Henry and Minneapolis North.

The purpose of the events was to get more Blacks in baseball, both on and off the field. Current Twins officials such as Third Base Coach Tommy Watkins, Twins President Dave St. Peter and other members of the team participated.

“Education has always been a primary community commitment for the Minnesota Twins,” declared Kristin Rortvedt, the team’s senior director of community engagement and Twins Community Fund executive director. “It absolutely is very intentional for us to try to connect groups of kids who maybe aren’t exposed to baseball as much as

other communities,” she told the MSR. “So, we’re excited to be able to offer all these different kinds of events for kids.”

Former and current Major League Baseball players, Twins front office staff and others met with Black youth for the Future Mentorship clinic, an initiative of The Players Alliance, a growing group of current and retired African American players and people of color, MLB and Minor League Baseball players, that are dedicated to getting the Black community more involved in baseball. The morning session, on August 19, was dedicated to “guided con-

versations” covering the pressures of play, and the discomfort of being “the only” person of color on their teams.

Angel McGee, the director of club relations for The Players Alliance, pointed out, “We’re traveling throughout the country to different [MLB] markets to have those open

and transparent conversations [with Black youth], so they can see that somebody else has reached the level that they’re aiming to reach,” said McGee, who worked in the Kansas City Royals organization for nine years before joining the Alliance last October.

“With The Players Alliance

event,” added Rortvedt, “this commitment really is to help young people of color have access to leadership opportunities and to mentors who want to help them succeed.”

It’s no secret that the numbers of U.S.-born Black players in the majors and minors are low.

■ See ALLIANCE on page 13

The MSR is the only local media that has covered the Minnesota Lynx from the start of its 25-year existence, as the team became the Twin Cities’ most successful pro franchise. Before this season, the team chose its top-25 players in Lynx history and held their 25th anniversary celebration the weekend of June 9-11, where the MSR spoke to several of the honored players. This week: The dynasty years (2011-2018)

he Minnesota Lynx hadn’t made the playoffs for six consecutive summers, and only twice in franchise history. That postseason playoff streak came crashing down in 2011, with a seven-year run, making six finals, and winning four of them. A Twin Cities championship roll hadn’t been seen by a pro team since the Lakers played at the old Minneapolis Auditorium in the 1950s.

It was a standard of excellence not seen since Houston won the WNBA’s first four crowns as the league’s first dynasty. “I wasn’t in the league during that stretch, but I followed it,” said WNBA

■ See SOE on page 13

aron Benner has accomplished quite a bit as an educator and student-athlete at the prep and collegiate levels. Now the former St. Agnes and University of St. Thomas standout will add yet another accomplishment to his outstanding contributions as a student-athlete.

Benner, who starred in basketball and football at both schools, will be inducted next month into the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2023 for his contributions on the gridiron.

Though he played basketball at UST, football was where Benner made his mark. He finished his career among the top five in receptions, receiving yards, all-purpose yards, and

punt returns. He helped the Tommies win the 1990 MIAC championship and reach the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division

III championship game. During that game, Benner accumulated 180 receiving yards in the second half.

■ See PREP on page 10

“It takes time to build that trust and those relationships. We are moving in the right direction.”

EJ Shelby All photos by Charles Hallman

KiJuan Ware

Chip Taylor

Local youth met with former Black MLB players at Henry HS. All photos courtesy of Minnesota Twins

Angel McGee

Kristin Rortvedt

“If you’ve got a family of boys and girls and siblings that are all playing the game together, that’s gonna be costly.”

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert during the team’s 25th anniversary weekend celebration in June. “Dynasty is the right word for that.”

The Lynx “Core Four (+1): (l-r) Moore, Brunson, Augustus, Fowles and Whalen in front Courtesy of Twitter

“You do a lot of reflecting when you hang up your shoes.”

Aaron Benner Photo courtesy Facebook