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1 month ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
C.H.I.L.L. stands for Community Helps Individuals Live and Learn. The MN CHILL Foundation’s motto is “If not me, then who?” The founders, William “Chuck” Hill and Cynthia “Cindy” Hill, help parents steer their children toward a successful future. The Hill’s service to the community began through sports. Chuck was a basketball coach, and all three of their children played basketball, one professionally.
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1 month ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
On November 8, 2022, Erin Maye Quade, Zaynab Mohamed, and Clare Oumou Verbeten became the first Black women in the Minnesota Senate. Quade is focused on families, specifically childhood hunger. She is committed to working across the aisle and representing the diversity of the constituents in the communities she serves. Her interest in politics began when she was a freshman in high school.
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1 month ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
In 2021, Texas Republican Rep. Matt Krause created a list of 850 books that might cause “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.” Among those banned were four books of Saint Paul’s Macalester College African American Studies Professor Duchess Harris.
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1 month ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
In semi-retirement, Samuel Simmons lectures and holds men’s groups twice per week. He recently completed a book that details his path to therapy. Though many become therapists as a calling, he entered the field purely by accident and is now one of the leading voices in his field. After being injured on the job while working as a truck driver for the University of Minnesota, he sought treatment at Abbott Northwestern Pain Clinic.
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1 month ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
Anders Genealogical Services reconnects families with their ancestral stories. Using her skills as a genealogist, Mica Anders, its founder, finds lost family members and creates art that represents a family’s unique history. Like most people, Anders started genealogy by researching her own family. When she moved to Minnesota to pursue a master’s degree in visual arts, she used genealogy as the basis for her thesis. She began by researching 11 families.
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2 months ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
“‘Race,”as we currently carry such a notion in our head, is a myth, a fiction, or a stage of false consciousness,” Professor Mahmoud El-Kati writes in “The Myth of Race: The Reality of Racism.” Over 20 years ago, the Cultural Wellness Center (CWC) created teachings to deconstruct the myth of race and form a new definition of self. In the second of this two-part story, the focus is psychology.
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2 months ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
Timothy Berry is a lifelong Minnesotan who grew up on the North Side and is now helping prepare future school principals and district superintendents. Off campus, Berry celebrates Black culture through his talents in music and the arts. He uses both roles to remember and build on those who came before us in the effort to move ourselves forward.
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2 months ago | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
When Africans arrived on American soil, the colonial society deemed them slaves. Their persistent fight against enslavement gained some traction after the Civil War during the Reconstruction era. But this was short-lived and ushered in a new version of enslavement named Jim Crow. The Civil Rights Movement several decades later defined freedom as equal access to resources and opportunity.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
Martin Luther King Day is a time to remember the legacy of the most prominent civil rights leader in U.S. history. He is one of the few leaders who activated change on a political level without being elected to public office. Behind every speech he gave and every march he led was a purpose, a call to action. In that spirit, many leaders in the Minnesota community are commemorating his life and legacy by continuing to answer the call.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
spokesman-recorder.com | Vickie Evans-Nash
Pastor Donnell Bratton has served the community through his church, Overcomer’s Victory, since 2008. He was able to help meet their needs through the Covid-19 epidemic and the murder of George Floyd. He now sees an “American crisis” and is calling the community to action inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bratton was a military kid who moved around to different cities. As an adolescent, his father got addicted to crack and ended up spending years behind bars.
