(instrumental music chimes) - [Narrator] Almanac is a production of Twin Cities PBS for the stations of Minnesota Public Television Association.

- We have a fun show for you tonight.

We're gonna take a look back at some of our favorite conversations and stories from 2023.

So grab some eggnog and settle in, a special holiday edition of Almanac coming your way.

(instrumental music) (lively instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music) - [Narrator] Almanac is made possible by members of this public television station.

Support is also provided by Great River Energy, providing wholesale power to 27 Minnesota electric cooperatives.

Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation, improving oral health while advancing social equities.

DeltaDentalmn.org/tpt.

And education Minnesota, the voice for professional educators and students throughout the state.

More at educationminnesota.org.

One Greater Minnesota reporting on Almanac is made possible in part by the Otto Bremer Trust, whose mission is investing in people, places, and opportunities in our region.

- We have a special holiday week show for you.

Cathy and I and the rest of the Almanac team have picked some of our favorite stories from 2023 that we wanna share with you again.

- Exactly.

Eric and I will be back in a few minutes with our own choices, but we start with a story selected by Kaomi Lee.

- As I cover the state for Almanac, there's so many interesting stories like I'm doing here in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but if I had to pick a standout, it would be when I visited the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Nation.

Here's a look.

J. Garret Renville is Chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Nation in South Dakota.

(speaking in foreign language) - [J. Garret] That's how you say it.

Basically it's like fish scale village.

- [Kaomi] He's also the great, great, great grandson of the tribe's last Chief, Gabriel Renville.

He says he often comes to his ancestors' grave for guidance.

- Depending on how you view history, you know, he could potentially be a controversial person.

- Gabriel Renville was known for trying to broker peace during the Dakota outbreak or uprising of 1862.

Several bands of Dakota attacked white settlements after delayed US treaty payments starved their people.

- People call it uprising.

People call it an outbreak.

There's various, I've heard various names for it.

At the end of the day, you know, it displaced most of the Dakotas out of Minnesota, which is our ancestral homeland.

- [Kaomi] In 1863, Congress exiled all four Dakota tribes from Minnesota.

That federal legislation remains to this day.

- In this day and age, the the topic of exile is still a dominant narrative in most Dakota homes.

When we're looking at addressing historical wrongs and historical traumas, specifically when it comes to Dakota people, we have to look at that 1863 Exile Act and how it affects us today as Dakota people, as a displaced people.

And why is that on the law books today?

That whole narrative that author, that law or the removal law is based on the premise that there's a bad Indian, good Indian and bad Indian.

And if you are exiled out of Minnesota, you're a bad Indian.

- In a statement, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said, Minnesota cannot undo the federal law that exiled the Dakota people, but we can engage in authentic government to government relationships with tribal nations.

Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan added, "The lands in Minnesota are home to seven Ojibwe and four Dakota federally-recognized tribal nations, but tribal state relations in Minnesota have not been rooted in honoring sovereignty - they have been historically paternalistic and rooted in removal.

That is why we are working continuously with tribal leaders to advance our shared priorities."

- [Kaomi] The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate are reminded of that every day on the bluffs and plains of their new home.

- [J. Garret] Our reservation is kind of shaped like a triangle.

We started out with 918,000 acres.

Currently today, we're close to around 200,000 acres after the General Allotment Act.

- [Kaomi] About half of the band's 14,800 members live on the reservation.

He says, a drug epidemic, chronic health issues and trauma from displacement are all a direct result of colonization.

That's something Renville intends to correct.

Starting with food sovereignty.

- That's definitely gonna be one of the things that my administration's gonna push for, is to make sure that we're farming our own land, being able to feed ourselves, really taking what the pandemic has exacerbated and being able to fix that.

- [Kaomi] The band has been also cultivating an 800 head buffalo herd on more than 2000 acres of grassland.

Buffalo Tech Stacy Miller says they have one of very few pure gene herds in the country.

- We try to keep genetics a hundred percent so there's no beef genes in our herd.

And anytime we have other animals that come from different places, we have them actually held at the farm there in a separate pen.

We have the blood work sent off and then we get that back.

Then we can move them back out into the herd.

We wanna keep them at hundred percent.

- [Kaomi] And they're actively helping other tribes repopulate too.

15 buffalo will soon arrive at the Shakopee Mdewakanton band, the South Dakota band has just built its own processing facility.

The hope is to encourage traditional foodways on the reservation and be a major supplier elsewhere with a rising indigenous food movement.

- [Tamara] Where we're standing is a result of many.

- [Kaomi] Tamara St. John is the band's tribal archivist and historian.

She took me to their sacred burial grounds, where the tribe practices traditional prayers and rights, colonization once made it illegal.

- Now we're not only educating our children in an environment that supports that cultural identity, but we're also raising them with traditional practice.

- [Kaomi] Last month, the band made headlines for repatriating the remains of two children who died at an Indian boarding school out east.

Amos LaFromboise and Edward Upright were the sons of tribal leaders and died in the late 1800s.

They were sent to the US governments flagship boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

However, bringing them home took a six-year battle with the US Army.

- We are not able often to return them to the places that they were stolen from, but here we're able to bury them and protect them.

- [Kaomi] She says the children were part of a federal policy of assimilation.

They were forbidden to speak their traditional language or wear traditional clothing.

They were robbed of their kinship ties.

It was a way for the US government to break their tribal succession.

- This is historic.

These children are the children of Chiefs.

We know that they would be the leaders.

We lost an entire generation of leadership with boarding schools, so we chose to honor them like the chiefs that they are.

- [Kaomi] The children were given a traditional four-day burial with songs and prayers.

Chair Renville's Dakota name is Tiwakan Inazin.

which means Sacred Lodge.

He says, bringing their children home, growing their own food and reintroducing traditional practices is all part of their intent to decolonize.

Reclaiming land in Minnesota before their exile is also high on the list.

- That's our ancestral homeland.

And you know, one of the treaties we had signed was giving up 25 million acres, I believe in Minnesota.

You know, that's, it's hard to forget that past.

- What made the last year at the Capitol especially memorable was the number of new lawmakers who proved to be a force in politics.

I profiled dozens of them from both sides of the aisle, but one who stands out, I think is still the only rapper to ever appear on Almanac.

Long before María Isa was a legislator.

At the center of the driver's license for all celebration is María Isa Pérez-Vega.

You had a whole life before this place.

- That's right.

- Tell us what your life was.

- I'm a rap artist, a hip hop performing artist and youth worker that works in community organizing and activism.

And my art has been my activism and it's what led me to the People's House.

- [Mary] You wouldn't know it by all of her fans and following and list of legislative accomplishments she's already had at the Capitol, but Pérez-Vega is a brand new lawmaker.

- Do you know, and have you been told that you're kind of redefining what a freshman lawmaker is and does?

- I've got quite a few people singing that song to me in the last month.

- [Mary] First, she was co-author on the driver's license bill in the house.

The bill is passed and its title agreed to.

(crowd cheering) (crowd singing) - Just felt the momentum of two decades of our immigrant community fighting for a human right and for our community fighting for public safety on our roads and the accomplishments and the joy that came from that crowd, many of 'em who have been my community and my music, and in our Latine and our East African and Asian immigrant community.

The impact showed why I ran and why I'm in this seat.

And it's just, it's loving and it's movement.

(crowd chanting) - [Mary] Then the Senate passed the long-awaited bill, sending it to the governor for a signature despite Republican opposition.

- We understand the public safety issue.

We understand we need to get our workers to our jobs.

We all understand that, we can all get on board with that.

We know there are so many hardworking people that are here illegally and legally that do do a lot of jobs.

But this bill is not that bill.

- 19 of those terrorists that flew those planes into the World Trade Center had 30 different state driver's license and state IDs.

And when they came out with that report, that's why the state of Minnesota reacted.

- You recognize the conflicts when you see who's representing Worthington.

You see who's representing Wilmer.

All of these rural and agricultural towns that are filled with immigrant communities that have been building them for over two decades, that they deserve to have that voice as well.

- Just outside this chamber, there are hundreds of immigrants whose lives will be completely transformed by this bill.

They'll be able to drive to work, they'll be able to take their kids to school, and they'll be able to live their lives with dignity.

- [Mary] It's another freshman in the Senate who's carrying this bill, what's in the water with the freshmen?

- We like to call it the trifecta class and it's time to be able to give folks accessibility to say that we love this state.

The state has been good to us in many ways and in certain ways there's been injustices.

And we're here to make sure that we're vocalizing and making a difference in those disparities for all Minnesotans.

- So this is not the first time the representative has been on Almanac.

María Isa the rapper performed on the show years ago.

- Our next guest has brains, beauty and the guts to sing and rap about politics.

♪ They try to stop me from marching, yo ♪ ♪ They try to stop me from marching, yo ♪ - [Mary] She dropped a new rap album the day she was sworn into office.

♪ Puerto Rico ♪ Puerto Rico - I was in my mother's womb when she was the first Latina appointed as the director for the Office of Equal Opportunity with Rudy Perpich.

- [Mary] Pérez-Vega, who's counted in the historic new class of LGBTQ lawmakers also supported a bipartisan bill banning conversion therapy, - Especially for us who are a part of this queer caucus making history from the House to the Senate.

- [Mary] Isa is part of a record amount of diversity at the capitol.

- The importance of caring about our children is what we're carrying on our backs and speaking it through.

- [Mary] As a top scoring point guard on the court, she's not afraid to lead an offense.

- You go big or go home, you know?

So we want the gold.

We want the gold.

So we're trying to push as much good legislation this year.

(upbeat instrumental music) - For nearly a quarter of a century, award-winning children's author, Kate DiCamillo has made annual visits to the Almanac set.

And we always have a good time poking fun at each other and talking about her work.

She stopped by this fall to talk about her new book, "The Puppets of Spelhorst" and while she was here, part of our conversation had a more serious tone.

All right, "The Puppets of Spelhorst".

- I'm looking at your notes and I'm thinking, "Oh boy."

- [Host] Oh, you're gonna love this.

Just buckle in.

- Okay, yeah.

- Talking animals again.

But this time they're puppets.

- Well, some of them are animals and some of them are people, they're all puppets.

- There's a puppet show.

A wolf loses a couple of teeth.

- That's true.

You're not gonna give away the whole plot, are you?

- The boy gets talcum powder dumped on his head.

- Yeah, that's right.

- [Host] At least he read the book, which is good.

- I know.

I mean, I was pleased.

It's kind of like he's answering the questions at the end of, you know, reading it in class.

Who gets talcum powder dumped on their head?

- [Eric] The boy Parrott, the boy puppet.

- Good, you read the book, yeah.

What's going on?

- He doesn't understand, he doesn't understand the book.

- He doesn't understand the book?

What?

- Are you Emma in the book?

- I'm not in the book.

Do I look like a puppet?

- [Eric] No, but portraying yourself.

- No, no, somebody else asked me that question, so in order to talk about Emma, I would have to give away big plot points and even though you think there aren't any, there are plot points in there and we're not gonna give them away.

- [Eric] Yes, ma'am.

- So, a lot happens in this book.

A lot of it involves puppets, there is some talcum powder.

I do have a strange mind.

It is a story that everything comes together at the end and people and puppets realize their destinies.

- More seriously, you've got Joy and Despair, one of the characters feels that together at the same time.

- Yeah.

- You got Truth, Wonder and Sorrow.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- Now, I had read your New Yorker profile and you talk about an abusive father and you know, some real tough personal stuff, is any of this reflected in these kind of characteristics?

- Yes.

Yeah.

And you know, it's what I've been doing all along ever since I started writing.

Those themes, I've been wrestling with them the whole time and you know, my dad has passed so I can talk about some of these things now and yeah, but that's one of the great things about being able to tell stories is that I can find a way to make sense out of what happened to me as a kid and maybe help another kid feel safe and less alone.

- I always figured there was more to the story about why you went to Florida with your mom and your brother.

- Yeah.

- I'm glad you're talking about it.

And you know, sharing darker pieces of oneself with the rest of the world is not easy obviously, that New Yorker piece was really interesting, why did you decide to share it now?

- Well, you know, it wasn't like I said "Come out here, New Yorker, I'm ready to talk."

You know?

The New Yorker sent Casey Cep, the writer, to do a profile with me and we talked about everything and I just, because of my dad having passed, you know, relatively recently, I felt more comfortable talking about all of it and you know, you're both journalists, you ask the questions and I answered the questions.

So it wasn't like I even, after she left, I thought, "Oh boy, I've said everything."

You know, so... - Without the experience as a young person, you wouldn't obviously be the artist you are today, so in a weird way, it shapes incredible success.

- Yeah, and it's funny because in all the times that I've gone and talked to groups of kids and stuff, that comes up.

Yeah, I was sick a lot and dad helped me to learn to live in my imagination, live in my head.

And yeah, this sorrow with my father, also, I don't know that I'd be a writer without it.

So we're having a serious conversation, should we talk about Eric's hair, that it's longer?

- We're gonna do that in just a moment, yes, but first, just getting back to one more question about the family issues, because they can seep into your personal life and you can carry that baggage with you for years and years as an adult, do you think you finally have purged some of this and do you feel a little more whole now?

- Yeah, I've set it down, I've set it down.

And in the short time the New Yorker article has been out, people have said to me that it has helped them to hear, you know, 'cause that's the thing, is you tell a hard truth and it helps somebody else with their hard truth, yeah.

Now I wanna talk about his hair, look at his hair!

- I went to the barber and I said, "Give me a modified DiCamillo."

(Kate laughing) - [Host] Please!

- [Eric] And this is what I've got.

- I knew we were gonna be coming from that direction, but that was even better than I thought.

I mean, like, wow.

- We have the same color.

- A modified DiCamillo, I like it.

- He's been accused of being Albert Einstein.

Did you see that recently, or Colonel Sanders.

- [Kate] I like it, I like it.

- What do you got coming up, you've got a big novel coming up?

- I got a novel coming up, I've got the "Puppets" coming up, I've got the anniversary of "Despereaux", 20 years.

- [Host] Yes!

- And remember, we did that little bit where I caught you reading it behind, yeah, you guys should play that again.

- I want to ask you about Ferris, because oh my gosh, that's like a normal, happy family.

- Right, I know, yay me!

I finally did it!

- Well, come back when you've got something to plug, okay?

- [Host] She's plugging it right now, that's the thing!

- I am plugging it and I'm gonna go and ask for a modified DiCamillo myself at the hairdresser and see what I get.

- Late last winter, we followed the St. Paul saga full of history and intrigue with one of my favorite guests, Fred Melo from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Take a look!

- It has been an eventful week for the historic Justus Ramsey House, that's on West 7th Street in St. Paul.

Late in the day, Monday, mayor Melvin Carter ordered its demolition.

Damage last year led to speculation that the house could collapse.

Preservationists and neighbors have been fighting to save the house and on Wednesday the St. Paul city council approved financing to assist with its relocation, here to talk about the significance of the house and what comes next, Fred Melo covers this story and others for the St. Paul's Pioneer Press.

Fred, why is this home important?

- Why indeed.

St. Paul is a city full of history, it's full of old structures, it's full of people who love history, historic preservationists, back in 1852, Minnesota was a territory, the first territorial governor was named Alexander Ramsey, he had a brother named Justus Ramsey.

This was his house.

And it's believed to be the oldest house in St. Paul still standing in its original location.

It's basically a cottage, two-foot thick limestone walls.

It hasn't been moved and it's sitting on a patio of a burger restaurant on the West 7th Street.

- [Eric] Burger Moe's.

- Burger Moe's, if you're heading into a Minnesota Wild game, you'll see it there.

- This cute little place is on the National Register of historic places which means the owner has to maintain it.

- Yes.

- The Heritage Preservation Commission was behind, you know, preserving this.

Why did Mayor Carter sign its death warrant?

- Yeah, so Moe, Moe Sharif approached the city last year and said, "Hey, look, this thing's falling apart."

Part of a wall is collapsed, there's stones, there's rubble, it's gonna fall on my customers, let me tear it down.

It's just a shed.

The historic preservationists, the commission at the city hall said, it's not just a shed.

Like you said, it's on the National Register.

You should be doing something else, preserving it, relocating it, some figure something else out.

That was in December, weeks pass, he basically appeals to the mayor.

The mayor says, I'm gonna have to overrule you.

This thing's gonna fall down.

So on Monday after hours, 6:00 PM he signed a demolition order.

And then things got really interesting.

- Is the Commission toothless?

I mean, what's the health of the Heritage Preservation Commission?

- I wouldn't call them toothless.

They can deny demolition orders, obviously, but that can be appealed to the city council.

And of course the buck stops with the mayor.

We have a strong mayor system in St. Paul, where really, if you have a house that's fallen down, somebody like a mayor might step in and say this could hurt someone.

- This damage that occurred, was there some skepticism about the cause of it or who caused it?

- There's been so much finger pointing.

I used to cover homicide.

This story has drawn as much venom as some of the worst crimes I've ever covered.

A lot of accusations and speculation.

You know, the historic preservationists neighborhood groups like the Fort Road Federation said just a few years ago this was fine.

What's going on?

Moe, who doesn't really return calls, but he said through people, talk to Tom Reed's pub next door, their water is seeping under our land division and that caused some shifting probably.

Other people are saying, look, maybe this was intentional.

Maybe this was a result of some alterations that happened decades ago before Moe was on the scene.

A lot of speculation.

Dueling engineering reports saying it can be saved, it can't be saved.

Which all leads to the bankruptcy attorney that showed up Wednesday.

- [Host] Oh really?

- Yeah, you wanna hear about that?

- [Eric] We've got a minute left.

- So on Wednesday, a bankruptcy attorney showed up to city council, said, can I have $115,000?

I'll move the shed cottage house down West 7th Street.

I'll live in it.

I'll make it a home office.

City council said, we're not gonna subsidize the house of a bankruptcy attorney at $115,000.

How's 84,000 sound?

He said, I'll take it.

So that's where things stand.

And maybe Monday, Tuesday, it'll get disassembled and stored and hopefully reassembled.

- [Eric] The plot thickens!

- Is it salvageable?

- Yeah, it looks like it's stone.

You know, it's been there 170 years.

So here's to 170 more.

(upbeat instrumental music) - Raghavan Iyer was one of the best Indian cooks in America.

And he lived right here in Minnesota.

Iyer was born and raised in Mumbai, arrived in Marshall, Minnesota in the 1980s to go to school.

His experiences there led him to a lifetime of sharing his passion for the flavors of his homeland.

Kaomi Lee visited with Raghavan Iyer last spring as he was on his final life adventure.

Her piece aired just one week before Iyer died.

(dish sizzling) - [Kaomi] When Raghavan Iyer cooks, there's color, texture, and spices.

- I eat with all my senses.

You know?

- [Kaomi] Iyer is the Emmy and James Beard award-winning author of seven books, including his latest, "On the Curry Trail".

At age 61, he's still teaching.

He's showing me how to make a savory Indian dish of tapioca pearls, spinach, peanuts, chilies, and spices.

As someone who prepares Indian food from a jar, this seems approachable, even for a novice Indian food cook like me.

You know what I love is that the flavors have so much impact.

Iyer has been sharing his knowledge for decades.

- My name is Raghavan Iyer.

I'm a James Beard award-winning culinary educator, author and consultant.

- In 1982, Raghavan Iyer arrived from India to go to southwest Minnesota State University here in Marshall to do great things.

And he has.

- Tell us a little bit about the topping itself.

- Really the key to this pizza is the house-made kimchi.

This is my mother's recipe, actually, it's her mother's recipes.

- [Kaomi] Iyer also appeared on the TPT series Relish hosted by chef Yia Vang.

- I always differentiate between the word hot and spicy.

- Explain that a little bit to me.

- Yeah.

Spicy is not a taste element, but hot is, this dish is all about balance.

That's why we're creating in this.

- [Kaomi] How does it feel to be called an icon?

- Old.

It's a terminology I really would not have assigned to myself.

- [Kaomi] To understand Raghavan, you have to know his backstory.

Raised in the large city of Mumbai, a young chemistry graduate came to Minnesota on a whim.

- I, frankly, I chose the cheapest university, which was Marshall, Minnesota - [Kaomi] As a young gay Indian man, he needed something different.

SMSU also had a well-regarded hospitality program.

He met his life partner, Terry Erickson there.

But aside from potatoes and onions, the local stores had him in despair.

- Desolate.

It's like, what am I doing here?

- [Kaomi] There was however something strange called curry powder.

- And I wasn't a good cook, you know?

So I came here not knowing how to cook.

I learned how to boil water.

I learned how to, and my first meals were all, you know, sprinkled liberally with curry powder because that's all that was available at that time.

- [Kaomi] Today, some 40 years later, a local store carries a wide selection of Indian spices and foods that would've overjoyed a young Raghavan.

But in those early days, he learned how to become a bridge.

- The thing about Raghavan that I find I admire so much, he can take the most complex concept, history, that's like a bowl of spaghetti, you know, I mean, it's not straightforward, it's not easy to to share.

And he can make it understandable and exciting.

- Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosted the Splendid Table Radio program for 22 years.

She says Raghavan was one of the show's favorite guests.

She says his kindness stands out.

Iyer followed in the footsteps of Indian cookbook authors, Julie Sahni and Madhur Jaffrey, and arrived on the scene at the right time.

- He came at it from a different stance.

Still the authenticity, still the incredible taste, but not recipes that were multi pages long and trying to work with what we can buy in a supermarket.

- To me, cooking, two-way thing, it was cathartic.

It was also a way for me to showcase my culture.

- [Kaomi] Iyer says he was once embarrassed to be Indian, a South Asian, but writing and cooking was his way to connect people.

Now he's on his final journey.

Iyer has been living with stage four colorectal cancer for the past five years.

He turned in his latest book, tracing Indian curry from its colonial roots between chemo treatments.

- I sat down at the computer and I thought, you know what?

I don't have control over cancer, but I have control over my deadline.

- [Kaomi] Iyer knows his own time is coming to an end.

He says, Terry, their son Robert, his family in India, and the many friends he's made along the way are his legacy.

- I don't wanna say he left behind seven books and Emmy, handful of James Beard, Julia Child Awards.

Yeah, they were meaningful.

They were, you know, they served the purpose.

They made my career what they were.

But at the end of the day, it's my relationships that I'm leaving behind.

- Well, I get to stand next to this monitor every few months and share stories with all of you.

And tonight I'm excited to stand here and introduce a compilation of the stories told by several of the essayists that stand here throughout the year.

I sure hope the producers choose one of mine.

Oh, please, oh please, oh please, it's part of the group, oh please!

The world is melting.

Well, the snow anyway.

And that makes this one of my favorite times of the year.

See, in the receding snow drips around my neighborhood, layers of artifacts are being exposed.

Car keys, sunglasses, pieces of balloons with Chinese writing and with every melt, another wonder is revealed.

It's sort of a paleontologist view of what happened a few weeks ago.

I call it shallow time.

The first to emerge are discarded Christmas trees, candy canes, tensile remnants of rituals, and with luck and more excavating a hot dish lid with a Turkey or even further down, Halloween candy still good.

- How do snakes feel about the ocean?

I'm so sorry and I know that this is hard, but the church made Patrick a saint for what he did to you.

How do you feel about that?

I don't think you can use words like that on public television.

- We all know Ronald Reagan liked jelly beans, but did Aretha Franklin, how about Rosa Parks?

What about Jesse Owens, Thurgood Marshall?

Did any of these people like jelly beans?

I don't know.

I know very little about the intimate lives of the people who dedicated themselves to giving me opportunities, which is so unfair because that means I only get to see a fraction of their humanity.

So this Black History month, be curious, ask strange questions.

The twins are the oldest professional franchise in the state, and as such, stand as a pretty good metaphor for our relationship with pro sports.

Dizzying ascents toward the heights, stomach churning plummets to the depths.

Now the Wild are looking good now, but they haven't made it out of the first round of the playoffs since 2015.

The Timberwolves, they can't even win the draft lottery.

Even the once mighty Minnesota Lynx have seen their dynasty devolve into mediocrity.

So what's a Minnesota sports fan to do?

Me?

I've been dialed into Gopher Women's Athletics.

- I'm an improver.

I took a personality test because another thing I can't resist is an online personality test that will tell me all my personality secrets in 10 minutes or less.

And this test said that I was an improver, which means I can't help but see flaws and want to fix them.

A trait my husband appreciates very much.

- I just love being around young people.

I just feed off that youthful energy.

Look out, you young bloods.

I'm sharpening my fangs.

Maybe Professor Sheletta should be known as Professor Vampire!

(growling) - It's been a couple of weeks now since New Year.

How are you coming with those New Year's resolutions?

About half the people all over the world still make resolutions for the new year.

I get it, we all wanna be better people, but to make a resolution, you have to admit something is wrong with you.

And that's no way to start a new year.

- Hey there, my name is Kris.

In the spring I joined the Almanac team as their new associate producer.

In August, I had the opportunity to sit down with BIPOC Foodways Alliance as they co-hosted their dinner table series with THC Beverage Company Plift.

Let's take a look.

(upbeat instrumental music) - We're making jambalaya, cornbread, and pineapple upside down cake, which are the family favorites of Todd Harris'.

- Good job, mom.

- Oh my God.

Because today's story is about his family and his company and we're really telling a story about people, not about food.

BIPOC Foodways Alliance and BIPOC Foodways Alliance Table was kind of a mind-meld between myself and my partner, Sean Sherman, Sean has been spearheading the indigenous food movement for a long time, and I'm a long time Twin-Cities-based food writer and chef.

About the past five years, I've been mostly concerned with black food ways.

- American history just has so much intersection with black and indigenous.

So we started talking about doing something that really helps weave those stories together and centering it around food, which is really kind of the center and heart of everything we do anyways.

And it really came about of just including everybody, all people of color to come to the table and a lot of allies to come and listen to these stories.

And allowing Mecca to have a platform to really record some of these really important stories that don't get the attention they get.

So much action that still has to happen in America in general to really confront a lot of the racial oppression and segregation that's ongoing and continuous.

And getting into the food business is a really hard thing, you know, because not everybody has a half a million dollars laying around to try to open up a restaurant of their dreams.

You know?

- Already good.

- Already good.

- Food is a really powerful tool and I just genuinely believe that we can hear each other better if we're sitting around a table together.

What we do is we bring in a co-host each month and this month it's Todd of Plift.

- This recipe is one of my mom's recipes.

It's my mom's jambalaya.

Thinking about it now, how many times in my life did this meal, was this meal the meal I requested when I was a kid?

The impetus of the brand is to be a sessionable way for people to swap in, you know, a THC substitute for alcohol.

Alcoholism is a real thing in our family.

Providing someone with something that they still are gonna feel an effect, it's still gonna give them a light heady buzz and allow them to unwind.

But it doesn't require alcohol is one of the major missions of the company.

Plift plus BIPOC Foodways Alliance, we're getting ready to co-host one of their tables and we're gonna share, you know, the stories of Plift.

You know, all of our personal stories over a really killer meal with some new friends.

- We strive to do a variety of things with this newly forming non-profit organization.

This is a dinner party, not a meeting, not a classroom.

This is a place to have fun.

It's also a place to tell undertold stories and I have been saying it's been a place to tell undertold food stories, but I think it's actually more of a place to tell undertold people stories.

- [Narrator] On August 1st, Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize recreational marijuana.

As part of the legislation, the new Office of Cannabis Management establishes a division of social equity.

It will be tasked with identifying social equity applicants for business licenses and promoting development, stability and safety in communities that have experienced disproportionate negative impact from cannabis prohibition.

- There's a couple things going on in the world we live in, one of which is this, this euphoric feeling we all feel around the decriminalization and the legalization of cannabis.

But the reality of it is, is that the people who are most often left behind are people of color.

- [Narrator] Mecca Bos hopes to keep bringing in more co-hosts for her table series.

- We're trying to keep these going as long as possible, hopefully in perpetuity, but it costs money.

Of course.

We've done about five or six of these.

We're gonna take a pause in August for some fundraising.

- [Narrator] And sharing more intimate conversations like Todd Harris'.

- As we were putting this table together, my sister Alicia, who's sitting at the end of the table, she reminded me that the first meal that we ever shared together was my mom's jambalaya.

And then because my mom couldn't be here, and I knew that me and my sister shared that memory, I asked her to come make her cornbread because when she pulls up to my house at meals, she normally makes cornbread and it's fire.

So I wanted her to be here.

But you know, the story of Plift is a painful one for her.

All these flavors are things that bring me so much joy around my mom, but this drink is going to fundamentally change the way families like mine have to socialize.

She didn't want to be here because her struggles with alcohol are really real for her.

And I don't blame her, but I wanted to represent her in the way that she deserved to be represented.

- I really enjoy directing the live musical segments for Almanac.

Here's my favorite performance of 2023, Cantus with Mele Kalikimaka.

♪ Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way ♪ ♪ To say Merry Christmas to you ♪ ♪ Mele Kalikimaka ♪ Is the thing to say ♪ On a bright Hawaiian Christmas day ♪ ♪ Bright and shiny Christmas day ♪ ♪ That's the island greeting that we send to you ♪ ♪ From the land where palm trees sway ♪ ♪ Here we know that Christmas ♪ Will be green and bright ♪ The sun will shine by day ♪ And all the stars at night ♪ Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way ♪ ♪ To say Merry Christmas to you ♪ ♪ Hawaii Kalikimaka ♪ Mele Kalikimaka ♪ Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say ♪ ♪ On a bright Hawaiian Christmas day ♪ ♪ Mele Kalikimaka ♪ Mele Kalikimaka ♪ That's the island greeting that we send to you ♪ ♪ From the land where palm trees sway ♪ ♪ Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright ♪ ♪ Sun to shine by day ♪ And all the stars at night ♪ Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way ♪ ♪ To say Merry Christmas ♪ A Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas ♪ ♪ A very Merry Christmas to you ♪ ♪ To you ♪ A Mele Kalikimaka ♪ To you - Hi, I am David, Almanac's production assistant.

My favorite segment this year was when high schoolers with the Hype Program and photojournalists from the Star Tribune joined us on the couch.

I found the two students to be particularly engaging and inspiring and I hope you will too.

Here's a part of that conversation.

- So Deb came to you and said, hey, what do you think?

And you're like, you said... - Yeah.

So Deb came to us and was like, hey, we have a super cool opportunity to mentor some students.

And you know, I'm the youngest on the photo staff still.

I've only been on the staff for four years and when I was in college and even high school, like I, my entire career, I feel like I can dedicate to the mentors that help guide me and help me grow in this field.

And so I was like, this is an amazing opportunity to give back the same way that people helped me.

And so I said, absolutely, jump right in.

- Liz, what kind of stuff did you teach these budding journalists?

- Well, I remember coming to the school and meeting the students and we were the first ones to open the cameras from the boxes and hand 'em to the students.

And just seeing their reaction was amazing.

And once we put the cameras in their hands, they, it was almost a natural instinctive behavior to just start taking pictures of other people.

And that particular day we taught them how to shoot using available light.

- And we're talking not, you know, everyone shoots pictures with their cell phones, right?

We're talking about like professional cameras.

- Correct.

- Okay.

So that's a different deal.

- What kind of stuff did you learn?

Composition and lighting and that sort of stuff or?

- Yeah, it's like, one of the thing was working on the lighting and symmetry of photos and how we can balance 'em all out.

But we started doing portraits our first day there actually.

And I feel like I started to fall in love after the first day, especially with Jerry being there.

It was really-- - [Eric] Jerry Holt.

- Jerry Holt.

Yeah.

So it was interesting.

I actually fell in love with it and I'm a photographer as of now, you know, I really feel like I can pursue this and it's something I really love.

And it was just, it was natural to me.

It was like once the camera was in my hand, I felt at peace.

And capturing the image, capturing the emotion inside of that image is just something that really just brings joy to me.

- [Eric] Wow.

- And Benny, do you feel the same way or?

- Yeah.

I feel the same way.

I feel like I learned a lot in that class.

You know, they taught me the basics.

I really only knew how to take a picture on my phone until then, you know, they handed the camera.

I actually got the camera here and then I had brought it over there.

So from there it was pretty nice learning how to do everything the right way instead of just, you know, tapping the screen and fixing the brightness with your phone.

- We've got some pictures.

We gotta see some pictures, right?

So we're gonna go roll some of these.

And this is at the beginning, right?

Is this?

- Yes, yes.

And I think you can see that's Jerry Holt on the left, who is one of our staff photographers, he was an integral part of this and was working with the students and Carlos Gonzalez is the other photographer who was working with us too.

- [Host] And this is where y'all just kinda started out and it looks like you're like, okay, these are cameras, what are we doing?

You know, it looks like you're just starting, right?

- [Participant] And Liz, it looks, this looks like the available light assignment.

- [Eric] I mean this is artistic.

I mean, look at the composition and the shadows.

- [Co-Host] So this is all part of the exhibit, is that right?

- [Liz] Yeah, so all these pictures are on exhibit at Capella Tower where the Star Tribune offices are.

And that's Damarj's picture right there.

- Nice.

- Would you call that a portrait or?

- I don't really know.

I'm still trying to figure that out myself.

- [Eric] Do you guys plan to do this as a career or is it too early to say that or?

- [Benny] It's too early to say.

I kind of view it as a career, you know, but I think we need just a little more guidance and to be where we need to be.

- Me personally, I feel like this is something I could really take advantage of as a career, but I just want to keep building my skills and I don't wanna limit myself just to one thing, you know, I just wanna have multiple things I can go back to if I really want to.

So, but yeah.

- Liz, this is a really great way to mentor the next generation of journalists.

- Absolutely.

You know, we're assigned to cover these communities every day and it's kind of nice to be able to go into a situation and mentor these young folks and give them the opportunity to have this idea that this profession exists for all of us.

- What kind of expectation did you have coming in?

You know, coming in I was, I was kind of at halt because I didn't know what to expect, but when I actually did dive into it, it was like, okay, wow, photography is something I'm really into because I always took pictures with my phone, so when I had the camera in my hand, it was like I was already used to it.

And so I just built off that to learn more.

Like, it was really unexpected because I never thought photography would be something I could actually pursue in my life.

So with actually being exposed to people with more knowledge and passing it down to me and being great mentors as they are, which I do appreciate.

It just opened a window of opportunity for me.

- If you haven't heard, Minnesota is getting a new flag and state seal in 2024.

Back in November we got a little insight to the historic process from the chair of the commission responsible for selecting the new designs.

Here's another look at that story.

- [Narrator] The current Minnesota State flag and seal are seen as outdated at best and culturally inappropriate.

So state law says both must be redesigned.

- Tell me about how overwhelming the public's interest in this process has been.

- It's been great.

We've been getting national news and obviously local news and not just in the Twin Cities, but all over the state.

- The redesign website has had 300,000 page views and 3,000 comments for the more than 2,000 flag designs submitted by the public.

Do you feel like you have a winner in there?

- Does it feel Minnesota, does it have the DNA of what Minnesota could be?

Does it bring people together, all these different elements, is it simple?

Can I judge it from far away, very small?

How does it look when it's flat?

How does it look when it's flying?

How does it look when it's relaxed, vertical, horizontal, you know, you name it.

- [Narrator] The chair is down to his top 20, commission members have to submit 25 of their favorites next week and clear themes are emerging.

- There's a lot of green, a lot of blue.

That's obviously Minnesota.

It represents the greenery and the pines and the northern woods and obviously the lakes.

- [Narrator] A sleuth staffer at TPT has an unofficial tally showing stars are the most prominent for our North star state.

- In that 20, were there any of the themes, you know, loons, stars, lakes, trees, any of those make it in your list?

- Yes, all of them in one way or another.

Sometimes not direct ways.

Like the loon made it in the seals, not in the flag.

- Because they don't have to be the same.

That was fascinating for us to learn today that those can, and a lot of states do follow a different track for the flag and the seal.

- That's correct.

I think we came to an agreement that it could be the same and it doesn't have to.

- [Narrator] The other members of the commission are still working on their final list.

- I'm interested in hearing what you have to say because if some of you are passionate about, we must have a loon or we must have a north star.

I'm interested in that.

- I just feel like Minnesota is really invested in this process and we can see that from the comments as well.

Not everybody loves to have this new flag coming soon, but I think the more we talk about it and encourage people to share their reactions or their thoughts, the clearer I got.

- I know you have native members.

- Yes.

- On the board and the old flag and symbols was seen as very problematic to the people who were here first.

- Yes.

- But you bring multiculturalism, the board does.

How important is that aspect?

- I think to me it's the number one most important thing.

It's, you don't have to see it.

We have to make sure that it's not just representing one culture.

- [Narrator] Chair Fitch's culture starts in Mexico.

- Growing up in one of the most important borders in the whole world.

Tijuana and San Diego, I experienced a lot of multiculturalism.

- [Narrator] He went on to become an incredibly successful artist, designing a stamp for the US Postal Service and merchandise for Target as a Minnesotan for a quarter century now.

- 25 years in Minnesota's a good chunk of your life now.

- Actually it's the most I've lived in any place.

And so yes, I'm a Minnesotan.

- [Narrator] And this Minnesotan is taking his responsibility seriously to select a new flag in all its detail.

- This was Care Box if you want, I dunno if you can see.

It comes with a little book compiled by Ted Kaye.

about how to design good flags and he makes it very visual, like yes, no, yes, no.

First thing is keep it simple, right?

Then the matching colors, they're very specifically for flags and we are gonna be able to touch the materials and understand colors.

The other thing too, it's material, right?

There's different materials.

You can see that this is more shiny and a lot easier to print.

Another book that graphic designers use that is called Pantone.

There, we match that blue to a color number as you can see here.

And this is for printing.

- What I found fascinating is how many other states now say, hey, we need to do this.

Have you heard that and seen that?

That this is really creating a national wave in conversation?

- I think more and more we're gonna start seeing that.

We saw with the sculptures, we saw with the names of parks being changed and so on and so on, and so flags and seals we're gonna start seeing a lot.

- What do you think of being part of this really essential moment in history and time?

You're making history here.

- It's been such a fast ride that I haven't felt it yet.

I think ask me on January the 1st.

(upbeat instrumental music) - Viewers often tell us that they are big fans of the index file section of the show.

Now, I'm a history buff, so it's one of my favorite parts of the hour too.

Last spring, something out of the ordinary happened when I was standing next to this monitor.

Take a look.

Here is last week's index file question about Minnesota history.

It concerns one of the most famous American athletes of the past half century.

We told you this person absolutely not seen here is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

This athlete is the subject of a recent definitive biography released last fall to great fanfare.

We added the hint that this book features a prominent quote on page 394 from a person who regularly appears on Almanac.

We made it your job to tell us the name of the famed athlete and the Almanac guest.

One further hint, this Almanac regular guest appeared on the show tonight.

What Almanac regular is quoted in a recent book about a college football hall of famer.

As usual, we start with the folks who struggled with the question and a theme quickly emerged.

Listen up.

- [Lee] Hi, this is Lee in St. Louis Park, and I'm guessing that the answer to the Almanac question this week is Tom Brady as the athlete and Larry Fitzgerald as the frequent guest on your show.

- [Jim] I believe the local regular commentator on Almanac as Larry Fitzgerald, and I believe the athlete about whom he was commenting for the college football Hall of Fame was Bobby Bell.

Thanks.

- [Caller] Hi, we know that the answer to one part of the question is Fitzy, who's on talking about sports quite often.

Would it be his son Larry Fitzgerald who played for the Cardinals?

- That's not bad.

Here's a hint.

Those callers were wrong both about the Hall of Famer and about the Almanac regular.

Yes.

The regular we asked about was not Almanac sports commentator Larry Fitzgerald Senior, so who was it?

- You know what, Kathy, I got this.

Yeah.

I'm taking over, yes.

The person quoted was me.

In the recent biography of two-sports star, Bo Jackson, the title of the book is "The Last Folk Hero", Bo Jackson was the first pro athlete to have a hip replacement and return to play.

On page 394 of the book I was quoted about that, Mark DePaolis, a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota-based physician, put it bluntly, the constant abuse of competitive sports, I wrote, might turn his new hip into a rattling peanut in a shell.

I don't even remember writing that.

I definitely don't remember getting paid a cent for being quoted.

Perhaps you've had a recent book that quotes an Almanac regular.

If so, we want to hear from you.

- Yeah, well, okay.

I'll take it over from here.

Thank you so much.

(upbeat instrumental music) We hope you've enjoyed this special look back at 2023.

Almanac will return in two weeks with a live show to kick off 2024 - And as we say goodnight, let's revisit a musical highlight from last spring when the Steeles joined us to help say farewell and good luck to retiring Almanac creator and producer Brendan Henehan.

Take a look and listen as we roll the credits.

Thanks for watching.

See you again in the new year.

♪ Without a song ♪ The day would never end ♪ Without a song ♪ The road would never have been ♪ ♪ When things go wrong ♪ A man ain't got a friend ♪ Without a song ♪ That field of corn, would never see a plow ♪ ♪ That field of grain, would be deserted now ♪ ♪ A man is born ♪ And he's no good no how ♪ Without a song ♪ I've got my trouble and woe, but sure as I know ♪ ♪ The Jordan will roll ♪ I'll get along, as long as a song ♪ ♪ Is strung in my soul ♪ I'll never know, what makes the rain to fall ♪ ♪ I'll never know, what makes the grass grow tall ♪ ♪ I only know - [Narrator] Almanac is made possible by members of this public television station.

Support is also provided by Great River Energy, providing wholesale power to 27 Minnesota electric cooperatives.

Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation, improving oral health while advancing social equities.

Deltadentalmn.org/tpt.

And Education Minnesota, the voice for professional educators and students throughout the state.

More at educationminnesota.org.

One Greater Minnesota Reporting at Almanac is made possible in part by the Otto Bremer Trust whose mission is investing in people, places and opportunities in our region.

Almanac is a production of Twin Cities PBS for the stations of Minnesota Public Television Association.

(instrumental music fades)