MPR has been recording decades of material that reflect the Black experience in Minnesota directly from the voices of members in the community. The wide-ranging subject matter of civil rights, politics, arts & culture, sports, music, education, and business are captured in the stories, memories, commentary, and speeches.
May 18, 2012 - Is life better for an African American artist today living in the Twin Cities than it was twenty or thirty years ago?
August 31, 2012 - MPR’s Brandt Williams reports that August is the deadliest month in Minneapolis for homicides, and most are African American men. Williams profiles a few young Black men trying to beat the odds by leaving the path that often leads to early death or prison.
November 30, 2012 - MPR’s David Cazares profiles all-Black jazz group Mother of Masks, a group that blends spoken word, poetry and improvised music in a blues-based fountain of black creative consciousness.
March 15, 2013 - MPR’s Tom Weber speaks with Lou Bellamy, artistic director of The Penumbra Theatre, about organization overcoming recent financial crisis.
April 5, 2013 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Supreme Court Justice Alan Page about the Page Educational Foundation.
August 9, 2013 - Is there room in the hyper-masculine hip-hop world for gay artists? Minneapolis rapper Kevin "Kaoz" Moore thinks so. MPR’s Nikki Tundel interviews Moore about being Black and gay in the rap music scene.
January 13, 2014 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on announcement of Sarah Bellamy as new artistic director at Penumbra Theatre and its five-year plan in stabilizing organization after financial struggle.
June 23, 2014 - When construction crews bulldozed St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood to make way for Interstate 94 in the 1960s, they destroyed the center of the city's African American life, forcing many of the community's residents to move. But the spirit of Rondo lives on among its former residents and their descendants. Among them is Daina Stanley, a University of Tampa junior. When she spoke with members of her family about the Rondo they knew and loved, that helped her find home.
June 12, 2015 - MPR News host Tom Weber discusses social justice, police reform, and the 50th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination with Twin Cities journalist and activist, Mel Reeves, who is planning a conference around his practices and social justice at Harvest Prep School in Minneapolis.
July 29, 2015 - Award-winning author Alexs Pate discusses how his experiences as a Black-American man influence his writing and move him to explore themes of guilt and innocence — along with hope and bitterness. Pate is the author of five novels, including the best-selling Amistad.