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Mother Mary Thomas and Kevin Kling. Photo by Reaction Studio.
Guthrie presents Interact Theater’s collaboration of Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the World by Kevin Kling in the Dowling Studio Previews October 22 and 23; Opening October 24; Playing through November 8, 2009 Tickets: 612.377.2224 | GuthrieTheater.org
September 28 - October 4, 2009 • MN Metro Vol. 35 No. 39 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • www.insightnews.com
Cole-Smith celebration breaks barriers By Alaina L. Lewis Contributing Writer With so many waiting for that one special person to put the period at the end of their sentences, anytime you hear of a couple basking in the glow of matrimonial bliss, you either graciously applaud the union, or you sulk enviously, impatiently waiting for your turn at bat. But what if the union was that of two men, or even two women, who’ve decided to stand before family and friends to seal the walls of their loving relationship? Does our applause still resound, or are we stuck in a world determined to pass judgment rather than celebrate the beauty that comes with love and acceptance. The Talk of the Town Sunday, September 13, 2009, is a story that breathes a radical twist on the age old tale of boy meets girl. Stylist Michael K. Cole, owner of the famed and celebrated Talk of the Town Salon, stood before family and friends in a commitment ceremony between he and his soul-mate Jamil Smith. In a unique celebration stylized like an official wedding ceremony, Cole and Smith were intentional in their efforts to
break through the barriers of a world immersed in intolerance. They said their union opened the doors of possibility for both heterosexuals and members of the GLBT community who are seeking true love. “What this ceremony meant to the gay community is that now a lot of gay people can say that ‘Yes, we too can do this.’” Cole said. Cole and Smith said they met a few years ago at Gay Pride Celebration in Atlanta, GA. Cole and Smith hit it off in a way that reads like the pages of a fairytale. “From the day we met there was an initial connection. What started out as 4 or 5 hours together, talking and getting to know one another, felt like a weekend or a lifetime of knowing each other,” Smith says of his first conversation with Cole. Cole and Smith’s love for one another radiates around them. They say theirs is a special bond that comes solely when love calls and the right person finally answers. Cole and Smith said it seemed natural to take their love from mere words and onward into a public statement of solidarity. They said they had already taken the time to build the proper foundation, which
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‘POPS’ Montgomery Senior Jazz Band of MN performs again
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Your New AssignmentConsignment
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4 Michael Cole Smith and Jamil Smith Cole
StudioTobechi
Dr. Dorothy Height
still pushing progress
for Blacks, women
Citizen input essential to integration revenue hearing
By Pharoh Martin NNPA National Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Dr. Dorothy Height sits demurely in an office chair that seems more like a throne as it swallows her 97-year-old frame. Yet, her legacy is overwhelming. The living icon of civil rights history still comes to work every day in her spacious office that sits in the vista of the U.S. Capitol on Washington’s famed Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s the headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women of which she is chair and president emerita. And she has regular work hours, running the day-to-day operations and contacting the major fundraisers of the four million member organization
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Dorothy Height
NNPA
that advocates on issues of African American women. She’s been heading it since 1957. In an interview with the NNPA News Service, Height talks about how she cares for herself, issues of the day, and her vision for the future. “Well, while I haven’t taken
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Celebrating Eid
at Mall of America By Ahmed Tharwat, Host Belahdan, Arab American TV Talk Show Ramadan, the glorious fasting month for Muslims has finally come to an end, no more Iftar under the big tent at Marina Grill and Holy Land Bakery, no more sweets Katife, Konafah, and no more California Majoul dates to break the day fast. Thirty days of Christmas celebration has just vanished before our eyes like an unfinished sweet dream. Now it is time for Eid
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celebration, a celebration of complete realization that life goes on even after Ramadan; we have been for 30 days cleansing our body and soul of all excessiveness of life. Now it is time for Muslims in America to go out there and celebrate their end of Ramadan Eid, and in post 9/11 America this is way overdue. My daughter and I started Eid celebration by rushing to the nearest Mosque for the early Prayer. After the brief chanting of god’s greatness ... “Allah
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Members of the hardline Al Shabaab Islamist rebel group on patrol in Mogadishu, June 29, 2009
US Ethiopia policy a factor in radicalization of young Somalis By Douglas McGill The McGill Report Commentary ROCHESTER, MN – It sounds a bit roundabout at first, but if Minnesotans truly want to know why Minnesota became a breeding ground for young Somalis who take up arms with Somalia’s extremist militias, we need to look first at Ethiopia. Specifically, we need to scrutinize U.S. foreign policy towards Ethiopia, which the U.S. has supported with millions of dollars in annual aid for many years. Connecting the dots is always hard in the Horn of Africa, and therefore also in Minnesota, which has one of the world’s largest diaspora populations from the Horn of Africa, including refugees from Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya. Fortunately, a new policy paper from the Council on Foreign Relations does an excellent job of connecting the dots by drawing a bright line
connecting U.S. financial and military support for Ethiopia and the rise of Islamist militant groups in Somalia, of the type that recently attracted 20 Somalis living in Minnesota to join. Somali Militias Five of those young men have died in the fighting, and one of the largest domestic terrorism investigations ever in the U.S. is
radicalization of young Somalis living both inside Somalia and in the global Somali diaspora, such as in Minnesota. The paper’s very first sentences provide the context for that claim: “U.S. strategic interests in the Horn of Africa center on preventing Somalia from becoming a safe haven for alQaeda or other transformational jihadist groups. In pursuing its
Linda Hamilton honored at National AFL-CIO Convention
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U.S. STRATEGIC INTERESTS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA CENTER ON PREVENTING SOMALIA FROM BECOMING A SAFE HAVEN FOR AL-QAEDA OR OTHER TRANSFORMATIONAL JIHADIST GROUPS. underway to determine how Somalis in Minnesota and other states are recruited to fight with Islamist Somali militias. The connection to Minnesota is implicit in the CFR paper but deeply compelling. It is so because the report clarifies how U.S. support for Ethiopia is a key component – possibly the most critical one – contributing to the
counter-terror strategy, the United States has found common cause with Ethiopia … But the Ethiopian government’s behavior in recent years, both domestically and in bordering states, poses mounting difficulties for the United States and its long-term goals in the
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New stadium, new Gophers, new hope
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