aesthetically speaking
Aesthetically It! Events, venues, and outings in the Twin Cities
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Insight News
May 9 - May 15, 2016
Vol. 43 No. 19 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Celebrating
Prince By Al McFarlane Editor-in-Chief
A new Prince mural painted at 26th & Hennepin by artist Rock “Cyfi” Martinez
Part 2 of a series Dear friends and avid readers of Insight News called me to report that people were at Paisley Park and at First Avenue celebrations for Prince, selling copies of our free newspaper, Insight News, for $1 - $2 per copy. They called concerned for our business and our brand. I appreciated the calls and I smiled upon hearing the news. I thought it was absolutely great that entrepreneurial minded young Black guys saw the opportunity in the midst of tragedy, loss and pain. And I want to thank and encourage them to
David Bradley
always examine our incidents and issues, our conditions and challenges differently. I encourage them to always see beyond the pain to discover the promise, to look deeply into conditions and challenges to unearth opportunities and solutions, and to see incidents and issues not as barriers, but rather as mileposts, markers on our path to freedom. That’s what Prince did. That’s who Prince was, from my pointof-view. He destroyed the mold. He challenged the voluntary slavery that chained Black artists to bad deals. He looked at patterns of our conditions and he chose to act differently.
PRINCE TURN TO 6
Thor sets sights on Plymouth & Penn Twin Cities-based Thor Construction Co. has its sights set on constructing a new, four-story, $30 million multitenant office and retail center at the intersection of Plymouth and Penn avenues in North Minneapolis. The targeted location will be home to the national headquarters of Thor and affiliated operations. Thor is also in preliminary conversations with several institutional partners to create a hub for minority entrepreneurship on the Northside, according to Ravi Norman, chief executive officer for Thor.
R.T. Rybak
The Board of Trustees of the Minneapolis Foundation announced R.T. Rybak as the seventh CEO and president in the foundation’s history. Beginning July 1, Rybak will lead one of the nation’s oldest and largest community
foundations, succeeding Sandra Vargas, who retires at the end of June. Rybak currently serves on the foundation’s board. Last year the Minneapolis Foundation
RYBAK TURN TO 4
THOR TURN TO 5
From left: Laysha Ward, Kimberly F. Price, Jacob A. Gayle and Sharon Smith-Akinsanya
Thomas Strand Studio LLC
R.T. Rybak to lead Minneapolis Foundation
Ravi Norman Norman calls the company’s North Minneapolis development plan “directional” at this point, as it still needs approvals from
neighborhood groups, the city and the county to go ahead on its plans to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year. Under its proposal, Thor would break ground on the new 92,000-square-foot project late this year, beginning with the construction of an underground parking garage and the outer shell of the building. The building could be ready for occupancy by the spring of 2018. “We feel confident that this is the right move for us, as a successful minority-owned company,
Corporate, civic leaders show up, show out at UNCF masked ball The Minneapolis United Negro College Fund (UNCF) office will host the fourth Twin Cities Masked Ball on Saturday, May 14, at the Radisson Blu, Mall of America. The sold-out signature event,
Proceeds from the evening will fund the UNCF Twin Cities Hope Scholarship, UNCF’s member institutions nationwide and the UNCF Campaign for Emergency Student Aid (CESA) to help college seniors pay final
emceed by actor T. Mychael Rambo, will bring together more than 400 business, civic and education leaders, including Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Dr. Michael Lomax, UNCF’s president and CEO.
bills in order to graduate from UNCF member schools. “I am thrilled to attend the fourth UNCF Twin Cities Masked Ball to support the
UNCF TURN TO 8
Inequality
Education
Health
Lifestyle
Council focuses on solutions to racial, ethnic inequality
The community answered the call
Falls, chemicals, medications and sharps
Turning Point celebrates 40th anniversary
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