Jingjiang Chen (Helen is her “English name”) has felt the heavy hand of police brutality. She experienced it – and torture – in her homeland of China. As a helicopter circled overhead, monitoring a protest that originated in Bottineau Park, she recounted her story for the Northeaster, with her son as her interpreter.

A family or trusted half dozen friends converge at the boat launch at Boom Island Park, and Mississippi tourism begins anew on the Minneapolis Water Taxi.

Upset at the amount of time it took Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to charge police officers involved in the George Floyd murder, Minneapolis citizens started a petition drive to oust him from office.

You may have seen the marked sidewalk panels; some gaps between sidewalk blocks scattered around the neighborhood have been marked with a yellow or white line of spray paint, usually at spots where the walkway is really uneven, but not always. Some neighbors say the pavement in front of their houses has been marked even though the concrete is still fairly even, while others say a sidewalk has been heaved by tree roots and went completely ignored. The marks, as explained by Larry Matsumoto, paving engineer with Minneapolis Public Works, designate sidewalk blocks that need to be replaced this year to keep walkways up to code with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

As the August 11 primary election approaches, The Northeaster reached out to candidates who had filed to run to represent Minnesota in the U. S. House of Representatives, Fifth Congressional District. These are their responses to our questions.

The first community sing was held in 1913, put together by Thaddeus Philander Giddings, supervisor of music for the Minneapolis Public Schools. An Anoka native, he had devised his own method of teaching elementary classroom music that was used nationwide until at least the 1940s. The concert was held at Logan Park; 250 school children kicked off the event by singing “America.” The June 16, 1913 Minneapolis Daily News gushed, “Minneapolis has taken to the park song concerts like wildfire. … The crowd that attended the Logan Park festival last night was estimated at 15,000 people. They joined in the spirit of the concert with a will after they began to realize its purpose.”

On Friday, June 5, a group of people gathered outside in the small business district on 29th and Johnson Street NE to “celebrate and mourn the murder of George Floyd,” explained Jacob Virden. The protest was organized by a group of Northeast community members with the support of Virden’s Money Power Land Solidarity podcast.

Several hundred people, including black community leaders and AFSCME union chapter officials, demonstrated peacefully at the offices of the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation on University Avenue NE June 12 to demand removal of the Federation’s president, Bob Kroll.

With press helicopters circling over people chanting in the streets, Northeast Minneapolis witnessed two protests in recent weeks focusing on the Minneapolis Police Department. The demonstration on June 6 called for defunding of the department, and some speakers, including U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, demanded its complete dismantlement.

Many drag queens make a life out of this performance art, and LUSH, 990 Central Ave. NE, a bar and entertainment venue meant to provide a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community and others, provides them with the ability to have a full-time job doing what they love most – singing the songs they love to an audience who appreciates their art.