August 5, 2016 - MPR’s Dan Kraker profiles Duluth's five lift bridge operators and their very unique work window view. The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge span goes up and down about 4,500 times every year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the Great Lakes shipping season that runs from March to January.
December 12, 2016 -
May 18, 2017 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles Vietnamese American spoken word artist Bao Phi, who talks of the how racial trauma affects both his poetry and life. Phi also discusses his collection, “Thousand Star Hotel.”
May 30, 2017 - MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles Chasity Brown, a Twin Cities based singer songwriter. Brown talks about the making of her album “Silhouette of Sirens," a collection of musical snapshots of her life drawing on country and soul music. She also says as a biracial queer woman of color living in this day and age, she can't help but be political.
June 9, 2017 - MPR’s Nancy Yang profiles Sunisa Lee, the 14-year-old St. Paul gymnast, who is believed to be the first Hmong American to make the national gymnastics team. Suni, as many people call her, is focused on making the 2020 Olympic Gymnastics Team. It’s a goal supported by her parents, coach…and community.
July 13, 2017 - MPR’s Doualy Xaykaothao profiles Mai Neng Moua, an immigration attorney working in the Twin Cities. Moua was born in a Thai refugee camp called Ban Vinai and arrived in the U.S. in 1982. She recalls the hardships she overcame while caring for family, facing racism, and achieving her professional goals.
July 19, 2017 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles artist Joe Sinness and his exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art that explores - and celebrates - facets of gay male sexuality with lovingly detailed drawings. The exhibit is called "The Flowers."
August 8, 2017 - MPR’s Brandt Williams looks back at Janeé Harteau's groundbreaking tenure as the first woman to serve as Minneapolis police chief…and the first openly gay chief.
August 23, 2017 - MPR News host Tom Weber talks with Art Blakey, Minnesota State Fair police chief, as he prepares to retire. For 37 years, Blakey has overseen it all as chief of police on the fairgrounds.
August 29, 2017 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles J. Otis Powell‽, a well-respected local poet, playwright, and performer, who died on August 28th, 2017. Those who knew him say he was an uncompromising artist, a provocateur and — perhaps most importantly — a mentor to generations of other writers and performers.