Minneapolis Interview Project

es for dates and locations of public events, and welcome corrections on those details. Otherwise, the stories stand as testaments of personal experience. In choosing people to interview, I am asserting that they have important stories to tell. The inclusion of a life story is not an endorsement. That would be impossible, as these people represent different and sometimes opposing perspectives. All have much to teach us about inequality and the struggle for social justice in Minneapolis. Motivation
I lived in thirteen different places in four states by the time I was twelve. I chose Minneapolis as a young adult and have lived in the city since then. Sometimes I will claim it as my homeland. Other times I feel I am still an outsider. As a child, the story of my Dad’s escape from Nazi Germany came with a lesson: Love humanity and principles, not places. After my trip around the perimeter of the United States on a bicycle in 2011-12, however, I concluded that attachment to local places might be innate for humans and that this kind of attachment is not nationalism and it need not be provincialism. On the bike trip I kept a blog that is now a book, forthcoming in Spring 2022, titled Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States. In the process of writing about inequality and social justice in communities across the US, I began to wonder how much I really knew about the place I had called home for decades. These thoughts stewed until May of 2016, when a tragic event pushed me to take action. Kirk Washington Jr. had been a student in my Race and Public Policy class at Metro State University. He was a father, a husband, a scholar, an activist, a writer, an artist, and a Minneapolis Northsider with roots going back five generations. We had planned to meet for coffee the week of April 2016, when he died in a car accident on his way to class. Kirk embodied the philosophy of building social justice through personal connections. His interactions were always on the profound level. When I began the Minneapolis Interview Project, it was a resolution, to stop missing chances to connect. The project continues to evolve, changed by the people willing to engage in it. Stories Enhanced with Photo Portraits
Eric Mueller joined the project in the Spring of 2019, volunteering his time and expertise as a professional photographer; shooting portraits of the interviewees in locations that are important to them. He also designed and runs the project’s website. Parameters
100 interviews, beginning on May 28, 2016. Interview people of different ages, races, genders, economic classes, migration experiences, who live in different parts of this city. However, there is much serendipity and little scientific sampling involved in who I end up interviewing. Invite people to tell their whole stories, while at the same time, interrogating inequality in Minneapolis and the struggles for social justice in this city. Include at length, stories of the places outside of this city that inform the people who reside and or work in Minneapolis. The city does not exist in a vacuum but is profoundly influenced by the other places people come from. I welcome suggestions for interviewees. [email protected] Please keep in mind, my limited capacity. Every person has an important story to tell. Questions On My Mind As I Approach the Project:
How do places define us? How we build communities that celebrate place and culture without building walls/ gates? How we create borders for corporations and developers and tear down walls and regulations for working people? On the national level, we combat a free trade economy. On a local level, gentrification is basically the same process. How do we combat bigotry couched in nationalism or local pride? Can we love local places and enjoy their evolution as newcomers arrive? What does a focus on place tell us about how to advance social justice? How to we desist and repair systemic inequities at a local level? Note: Letting people tell the stories they need to tell, is more important than my larger interests. I do little intervening during the interview, as most people have no problem talking about their lives once they get going. Still, there is clearly some of me in each of these interviews. Methods
I use a tape recorder and a computer. I create an essay in the first person, using the interviewee’s own language, rearranging what was recorded to tell full stories. Words are changed for clarity, and brevity. The published essay is not a transcript. Interviewees edit the final version, unless they don’t want to. Each interview is a collaboration between me and the interviewee. Each collaboration is unique. I am sensitive to telling the story of the interviewee. If the stories of others are told, I will most likely curtail them, so the focus is on the interviewee. On the other hand, I encourage holding up and giving credit to others. Mentorship is a pervasive theme. Famous people, elected officials are considered fair game for criticism. I do not check stories for verification, except for known facts like dates, places, and names. Each essay is accompanied by at least one photograph. Currently, the project is unfunded. Final Project Possibilities
The final finished project is yet undetermined. I am looking for places to exhibit interview excerpts and photos. I am working on composite essays on themes (policing, education, non-profits, parks and lakes, grassroots organizations, art and politics, the influence of Chicago, the influence of rural areas of the Upper Midwest) with an eye toward a book. I am talking with those in theater about a theatrical production. I would like to create an interactive map. This is a no-profit project. I would love to find a way for it to be a vehicle to raise funds for grassroots social justice projects in Minneapolis. If you have any thoughts in pursuit of any of these goals, please let me know. [email protected]

Thank you
To interviewees, for sharing their stories with me and the world, and to the readers, who make the project worthwhile. Anne Winkler-Morey