MINNESOTA WOMEN’S PRESS Reconstruction womenspress.com | June 2021 | Issue 37-6 MINNESOTA “[Is it] possible for a people to rule WOMEN’S PRESSPOWERFUL. EVERYDAY. WOMEN. themselves, justly and fairly, and as equals, through the exercise of judgment and care?” — Jill Lepore PHOTO SARAH WHITING SARAH PHOTO What’s inside? Editor’s Letter 3 A New Reconstruction Era Tapestry 4–5 Where Have You Found Community? Family 6–8 Revitalization, With Language and Child Care Transforming Justice 12–14 Conversation With Robin Wonsley Worlobah April Chouinard (l) and Ashley McCarthy, Page 18 Money & Business 15–17 Building a Better Twin Cities Contact Us MWP team Healing Trauma 18–19 Creating a Village 651-646-3968 Publisher/Editor: Mikki Morrissette Submit a story: [email protected] Managing Editor: Sarah Whiting Home 20–21 Finding Shelter Subscribe: womenspress.com/subscribe Business Strategy Director: Shelle Eddy Advertise: [email protected] Digital Development: Mikki Morrissette Greater Minnesota 22–23 Why I Am Reclaiming Community Donate: womenspress.com/donate Photography/Design: Sarah Whiting Health 26–27 Find a copy: womenspress.com/find-a-copy Associate Editor: Lydia Moran Measuring Racism Minnesota Women’s Press has been sharing the Advertising Sales: Shelle Eddy, Ashley Findlay, stories of women since 1985, as one of the longest Ryann Swimmer Policy & Politics 28–29 continuously published feminist platforms in the An Essential Ingredient for Rural Connection Financial Operations: Fariba Sanikhatam country. It is distributed free at 500+ locations. GoSeeDo 33 Our mission: Authentic community-based journalism This month’s writers: April Chouinard, Northern Spark, NAMI Hope for Recovery Grace Enfield, Elaine Evans, Elicia Kortus, Jenn that amplifies and inspires the stories, action steps, Lamb, Larissa Little, Ashley McCarthy, Stephany and leadership of powerful, everyday women (cis and In the News 35 Morgan, Sheila Regan, Ruvarashe Tsoka, Anne trans), nonbinary people, and trans men. Online Learning & BookShelf Winkler-Morey, Alexis Yeboah Our vision: We all are parts of a greater whole. Our Copy Editor: Kelly Gryting stronger future will be built from the collective energy Specialty guides of people who shift narratives to effect change. Proofreader: Abbie Phelps Minnesota Women’s Press LLC Factchecker: Selena Moon Elder Guide 9–11 800 West Broadway Ave., Suite 3A On Freeing the Deeds Distribution Coordinator: Ashlee Moser Minneapolis, MN 55411 LGBTQ+ Guide 24–25 Community Engagement: Melannie Bice, Vol. 37-6 Siena Iwasaki Milbauer, Lydia Moran, Queer Health & Relational Healing ©2021 by Minnesota Women’s Press LLC Denisse Santiago Ojeda, Keely Schultz All rights reserved. ISSN #1085-2603 Pets Guide 30–32 Cover Photo: Brenda Morrow (l) and Gina Mallek Befriending Pollinators Past Publishers: at the Near North encampment. Photography by Mollie Hoben & Glenda Martin (1985–2002) Sarah Whiting Classified Ads 34 Kathy Magnuson & Norma Smith Olson (2003–2017) Follow @mnwomenspress Editor’s Letter A New Reconstruction Era by Mikki Morrissette he centuries-old ideology of white supremacy inflamed. The New York Daily embedded a legal system into the foundation of our Tribune, for example, wrote nation. Many Americans also developed a penchant to that “the most intelligent, Tthink there is an “us” that necessitates a “them” who is trying the influential, the educated, to steal their share of a limited pie. the really useful men of the This flawed foundation of our nation is not stable. In the South, deprived of all political past year we have seen growing fragmentation under that power … [are] taxed and long-ingrained value system. Global protests. A new civil war swindled … by the ignorant led by insurgents who believe that government and “others” class, which only yesterday have stolen their birthrights. A pandemic — which should hoed the fields and served remind us that we are all interconnected in nature — that has in the kitchen.” led to more divisiveness about the rights of individuals. As Richardson wrote, How do we build true equality without duplicating the the rhetoric of that failed short-lived experiment of Reconstruction after the Civil War? Reconstruction era has haunted us ever since. We Have Been Here Before “When Ronald Reagan talked about the ‘Welfare Queen,’ In her March 28 “Letters From an American” blog post, [he was] calling on a long history. Today ... the end game [of historian Heather Cox Richardson detailed the fact that some] is the same as that of the former Confederates after the the post–Civil War Reconstruction era was aimed toward war: to keep Black and brown Americans away from the polls giving Black Americans an equal role in society. When to make sure the government does not spend tax dollars on white southerners refused to rebuild states with formerly public services.” enslaved people, the Military Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867 to permit Black men to be part of writing new state Values Reset constitutions, which confirmed the right to vote. The U.S. was built on transactional, commodified, and Richardson, whose 2001 book is titled “The Death of extractive systems. True reconstruction will come only Reconstruction,” wrote that some people violently opposed by healing the damages of the past while also working this system. They dressed up in white sheets, representing the collaboratively to build equity. ghosts of dead southern soldiers. These members of the Ku The people in the pages this month exemplify how that Klux Klan claimed to be patriots and aimed to “protect and works. They share their stories from an encampment defend the Constitution” by opposing “Negro equality” and community, a town of 600 people, and a home for those in favoring a “white man’s government.” substance abuse recovery, among other vantage points. April Georgia voters elected 33 Black men into the state Chouinard (page 21) says: “It was because of my [community] government in 1868, legally, but white legislators expelled that I was allowed the grace to stumble. This is how true them, claiming they were not allowed to hold office. In healing begins.” response, the 15th Constitutional amendment was enacted Americans have diverse experiences, cultural norms, to prohibit states from denying rights. Opponents claimed passions, and methods of expression. We have solutions Black voters were attempting to redistribute wealth by using based on that diversity. Those who believe in serving the government funds to build schools, hospitals, and other common good will find content and conversation about public services, and to offer land to newly freed people. those values at the core of our magazine and upcoming Some media turned against Reconstruction after fears of forums (see page 33). white wealth and property redistribution were effectively See new and more extensive online stories and VIEW columnists at womenspress.com Minnesota Women’s Press | womenspress.com | June 2021 | 3 tapestry Where Have You Found Community? See more at womenspress.com Malaika Eban: Relationships Bea Lima: Changes I think for the rest of For better or worse, I have my life, when I hear a lived for long periods of time in helicopter’s propeller, many different communities: I will think of George from the busy city life of Floyd. On the Saturday Lisbon, to the quiet countryside after he was murdered, PHOTO COURTESY mountainous villages of the PHOTO AKEMI MECHTE AKEMI PHOTO I sat under a tree in Portuguese Beira Alta, to the Powderhorn Park with dense Black Forest in Freiburg, my neighbors and Germany, to the humid warmth developed strategies of sunny Sarasota, Florida, and for how we were going finally to the cold white winters to keep supporting of Minneapolis. each other in the days Moving comes with its ups ahead. We developed and downs. It often takes a toll on one’s identity and pursuit text chains, planned of meaningful relationships. Despite that, I am lucky to night-watch shifts, and have found an intense attachment to the places I have lived reminded one another because of experiences of significant changes either in my that even at the height personal life, in collective experience, or both. of our fear, we needed I grew up in Lisbon, a town of many firsts for me and, to interrogate our definitions of “safety” and “belonging.” therefore, many changes. When I was 14, I moved to a Later that afternoon, our “COVID friend pod” came countryside village near Viseu, Portugal, at a time in my over. Before the evening’s 8pm curfew kicked in, we sat life when my body and mind were rapidly transforming. outside in my backyard. Each of us people of color, brought I finished high school in Germany in a school full of together as we attempted to navigate predominately white students from all over the world and all walks of life institutions of higher education, kept together because — every day I learned something new and shared the of the deep relationships formed. As we ate hot dogs and experience with students as a community. I moved to grilled corn with coconut milk, we discussed cross-racial Florida for college, another instance of intense change solidarity and all that we wanted to do together after the and emancipation. pandemic. I have been in Minneapolis for over a year now. I Through the rage and pain of the last year, it has been days witnessed the tragedy of murder happen on 38th and like that Saturday that have kept me going. Uplifted by the Chicago just two blocks from where I live. I watched wisdom of neighbors and encircled by the love of friends, I history unfold, and saw a community looking to heal and have been reminded that we are, as adrienne maree brown love through solidarity, compassion, and camaraderie describes in “Emergent Strategy,” “a microcosm of all the in the middle of chaos, trauma, and change.