Minneapolis Mosaic
In the midst of an Occupation something new is being created. Like a mosaic, elements of many colors,shapes, sizes kinds are skillfully joined. Beloved Community. Everyone.
Mosaic-created by many hands, voices, actions. There is no central authority!
This post of mine is itself a mosaic, a collaboration , a confluence, a gathering of voices, images, works, voices.
It’s heart—it’s core—is that thousands say YES to LIFE. Yes to neighbords. Yes—to wer are one. Yes—to community. Yes—I will carry my share.
This is an organic and growing network of information, connections, relationships.
Creative works in many forms and ways are acts of resistance, courage—and—seeds for the future.
1500 Resistance Singers warm up in Westminster Church, Downtown , Minneapolis, before flowing into the streets, to sing in front of Hyatt,Marriott, other hotels harboring ICE/HSA. One song was— “put down your guns—we are all one—join us”.
Signs, poster,flags created for this time.
whistle on a lanyard—simple—and given away by the thousands in churches, book stores, food markets, merchants—every where. Agreed upon signal: a few short tweet-tweet-tweets. Be Alert! ICE in area! A long tweeeet. ICE Here!
a common greeting now is “hi—got your whistle”?
We are creating—beyond resisting—we sing and celebrate the community that is—and the one that must be.
“Song is a vehicle for us to grieve. It’s a vehicle for us to feel rage. It’s a vehicle to strengthen ourselves. Our love will carry us through.”
A sample of songs created —by many voices.
Member of Singing Resistance
It’s okay to change your mind
Annie Schlaefer
January 30
“ohh it’s okay to change your mind, show us your courage, leave this behind
ohh it’s okay to change your mind, and you can join us, join us here anytime”
ICE . . . we’re talking to you. This song is meant as a defection song, to be sung to (and with(?) ......eventually) ICE agents. Honoring that it can be hard to change our stance on something after you have been attached to this stance for a while, maybe created a life around this stance, taken a job with certain ideas of what it meant.
At what point can we admit, this has gone too far, surrender the ego, change minds and join the resistance?
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/us/video/mn-group-singing-resistance-ice-vrt-digvid
It is inspired by Otpor!, the Serbian civil resistance movement who overthrew dictator Slobodan Milošević in 2000. Otpor! members were regularly arrested and beaten by police. Afterward, they would show up to police stations and officers’ houses chanting “You may not join us today, but you can join us tomorrow.” In the final hours of their revolution, hundreds of thousands of people from across Serbia marched on Belgrade. Milosevic ordered the police and military to fire on massive crowds of protestors, and they refused. They were done being on the wrong side of history.
Here are more songs—created in the hope, resistance, urgency and the fierce love of this moment
Proud To Live In Minnesota – Time Sparks & Sanctuary Singers
Don’t Buy The Lie by Thomasina Petrus & Kashimana
Amanda Gorman’s Poem for Alex Pretti in Song
Corrido De Alex Pretti by the Mexican Community
https://www.facebook.com/reel/860936279948775
Phone In Hand (The Ballad of Alex Pretti) by Chuck Thompson
Ballad of Alex Pretti by Larry Long
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1464404995116443
Believe Your Eyes by Thomas Keesecker
Minnesota Anthem (The Rise of the North) by Artists from Stockholm, Sweden
Streets of Minneapolis by Bruce Springsteen
Hope to Hell by The Gated Community
We Can Find Our Way by Mark Emanatian
Jay PetersonMarian MooreTim SparksJim PageBobby VandellJim WalshChris RiemenschneiderRebecca LarsonIndivisible MinnesotaIndivisible Twin CitiesAdam LevyNoah LevyMarly KellerScotty Herold
Writers—Lit Hub is publishing a series of letters from writers in Minneapolis. This is history witnessed and made—now. Subscribe—read. here’s a link to some of the powerful witnesses. Free to read—and there are more.
https://lithub.com/letter-from-minnesota-life-inside-an-economic-blockade/
Letter From Minnesota: Life Inside an Economic Blockade
Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl on the Brutal Impact of ICE on Twin City Businesses
and another
https://lithub.com/letter-from-minnesota-from-otaango-to-eat-street/
Letter From Minnesota: From Otaango to Eat Street
Nimo H. Farah on Refusing to Mistake Silence For Safety
and one more—
Letter From Minnesota: “did they really take a 4 yo too the other night?”
Sarah Green on Preserving the Idea of Kinship in the Face of Brutality
We are learning—from other movements—in times before —in other places.
Citizen Street Filters are being erected—to filter out ICE/HSA and others who want violence and chaos—and allow safe passage to neighbors, to those who are working for community.
Volunteers build and stay with them—with music and hot drinks. These are not legal and Minneapolis Police have ordered them taken down—have taken some down—but they go back up—and the police go on to other work.
Sharing these pieces of the Minneapolis Mosaic—with full awareness of the powers that oppose it, to say that the mosaic must have only one color and only a chosen few will make it.
The Super Bowl half time show—Bad Bunny sings and shows an America larger than the USA—an America to be loved and lived in and worked for.
The show generated rabid reractions from the MAGA world—and its leader—you know.
This excerpt—from The Rev Cameron Trimble—I recommend her.
Rev. Cameron Trimble <camerontrimble@substack.com
What we are witnessing is not a disagreement about taste. It is a struggle over whether the country will face its own complexity or continue to deny it.
One story understands diversity as strength. It sees multiple languages, cultures, and histories as the source of vitality and resilience. The other story treats diversity as a threat that must be contained, policed, or erased. That second story always requires force. It needs borders, exclusions, and punishments to keep itself intact.
This is why these cultural moments matter. Stories about belonging do not stay symbolic. They shape policy. They justify violence. They decide whose grief counts and whose presence feels suspicious.
Image below from The Enchanted Garden, a site of 100’s of ice sculptures and luminaries, honoring Renee Good and Alex Pretti. On the edge of Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis, on a cold February night—that was filled with light
Pic below from Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis , from Minnesota Public Radio
Indigenous civic and spiritual leaders held a public memorial for Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis on Saturday, exactly one month after a federal agent shot and killed her.
The event was titled “Wokiksuye” — a Dakota and Lakota word meaning “to remember” or “to call someone back into presence,” according to an event handout.
Gaby Strong, vice president of the NDN Collective, said her grandmothers were the first witnesses and survivors of state violence.
“This is a generational burden that we carry, and we’re seeing that burden again today,” she said, adding that Good was “the example of what it means to be a good relative, to be a good neighbor, to stand up for people beside you.”
Minneapolis Mosaic
--is being created now—even as ICE hammers hard . No central authority. 1000’s of people—all voices, cultures, imaginations—choosing life, choosing community, showing love in action.
You can join here to support Unidos—an effective, growing, caring organization based in Minneapolis—effectively confronting the Occupation AND— to imagine and create the future.
https://unidos-mn.org/
Unidos MN is a grassroots organization that builds power with Minnesota’s working families to advance social, racial, and economic justice for all. Born from the strength of the DREAMER movement, we place immigration, education, and climate justice at the heart of our work. As an intersectional and intergenerational organization led by women and multiracial communities, we unite people from all backgrounds to fight for a future where everyone can thrive—no exceptions.
1515 E Lake St, #206
Minneapolis, MN 55407
(612) 231-9719
Our Vision
We organize for a Minnesota where everyone’s inherent dignity and worth, regardless of age, race, class, gender identity, incarceration history, disability, or immigration status, is fully recognized and honored. Every person deserves the freedom and opportunity to live a good life (el buen vivir).
We organize for a Minnesota where grassroots power, driven by our shared love for each other and the planet, reshapes the structures, systems, and institutions that have excluded and divided us. Together, we will build pathways that ensure all communities can thrive.
We organize for a Minnesota where Latine communities, alongside people of all races and backgrounds, work shoulder to shoulder to end oppression in all its forms and fight for justice, self-determination, and equality for all.
We organize for a multiracial, inclusive, and vibrant democracy that serves every person, without exception—because when we come together, we all win.
Below—ICE agent in my neighborhood. Oh wait—just an Urban Turkey. Mean look. All in Black. My mistake.
Thanks for sharing straight from Minneapolis; songs, unity, and perseverance. Restacking ❣️
♥️