[Mpls] The Women of Lake Street

[Cam Gordon]

What a fantastic project and what a fantastic list of people.
How lucky we are --- as a community and a City --- to have these people with 
us.

I hope they (you) all feel appreciated and honored to be recognized in this 
way.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to see this kind of thing duplicated elsewhere in 
Minneapolis?


Cam Gordon
Seward
>
>The Women of Lake Street
>The exhibit opens at the Blue Moon Coffee Café December 10 with a reception
>from 7:30 - 10 p.m. when the public can meet the students and the women 
>they
>profiled who they will introduce at the reception.
>
>Also on Dec. 10, Patrick's Cabaret is hosting a public performance from 1 -
>3 p.m. another part of the project.
>
>The "Women in Politics" student papers will be featured online within the
>next week at: Macalester.edu/LakeStreetWomen.
>
>Excerpts from full article in the Pulse - December 7th.  Available on line.
>Groundbreaking on Lake Street is occurring on more levels than meet the 
>eye.
>Besides undergoing renewal for the first time in more than 40 years, it's
>inspiring renewal in the way history is learned. An exhibit revealing women
>politicians, activists and artists changing the face of Lake Street is
>opening Dec. 10 at the Blue Moon Coffee Cafe, Minneapolis.
>
>The Minnesota Historical Society and Macalester College is engaged in a one
>and a half year collaborative partnership to design and display small-scale
>community history projects along Lake Street. MHS's Senior Exhibit 
>Developer
>Benjamin Filene said the project comes out of a shared desire of MHS and
>Paul Schadewald of Macalester's Community Service Office to connect to the
>communities in which they're based. The dramatic changes Lake Street is
>undergoing make it an ideal area for the project to cover.
>  The first project is "Women Politicians, Activists, and Artists on Lake
>Street," being completed by Adrienne Christiansen's class on "Women in
>Politics." For this project, Christiansen assigned the students to profile
>one woman politician, activist or artist on Lake Street they view as 
>shaping
>the community. Students collected their subject's oral history, news and
>photographs for a paper to be featured on a Macalester website and an
>month-long exhibit at the Blue Moon Coffee Café, then possibly at the Old
>Arizona Theater, and ultimately at the History Center. Their exhibits will
>be featured there with other elements of the multi-part project involving
>six Macalester such as documentary films, footage of Lake Street related
>dance and theater performances, and an exhibit project focusing on 
>merchants
>and entrepreneurs of Mercado Central.
>
>Student Jessie Hasken said students were instructed by Christiansen to take
>a bus down Lake Street, get off at a place that looked interesting, dig
>around and find a woman they were interested in profiling. Jessie Hasken
>went to the Reuse Center, where she learned of four-term at-large Park 
>Board
>Commissioner Annie Young and her work as founder and the first program
>coordinator of the Green Institute, an environmentally friendly business
>incubator. Hasken was intrigued with Young's vision that "extended far
>beyond the Green Institute." The Garbage Transfer site became the location
>of the Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center, a result of Young's work with the
>Green Institute it houses. Hasken said of the student project, "There are
>times it goes so well and you're so excited; sometimes you hit a wall. It's
>hard to change gears from writing academic papers and writing for a broader
>audience." She said she's gained greater appreciation for people who 
>compile
>historic works as a result of the project.
>
>Other women profiled by Christiansen's students are: Representative Karen
>Clark and Senator Linda Berglin, both serving the Lake Street area 
>district;
>Joan Vanhalla, a community activist; Teresa Ortiz, director of Worker's
>Rights Center located in the Resource Center of the Americas; Rosita Balch,
>community outreach coordinator of the Resource Center of the Americas;
>Theresa Nelson, Midtown Greenway Project artistic director; Marie Braun, 
>who
>works with Women against Military Madness and organized the Lake Street
>Bridge protest vigils occurring weekly since the Iraq sanctions; Brigid
>McDonald, CSJ, an "extraordinary" peace activist with The Sisters of St.
>Joseph of Carondelet; Darcy Knight, who founded Old Arizona Theater; Wendy
>Knox, founder/director of Frank Theater, producing site-specific plays; and
>Sandy Spieler, director of In the Heart of the Beast Theater.
>
>
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