1. Historic all-female St. Paul City Council is a sign of a growing trend
Earlier this month, the residents of St. Paul, Minnesota elected the first all-woman city council that’s also mostly people of color. It’s a win that Debbie Montgomery, the city’s first Black woman elected to the council in the mid-2000s, has been waiting for nearly 20 years. Sahan Journal has the story here.
2. Canal ignites movement many view as means to reshape lives, transform country
Three months into the construction of the controversial irrigation canal along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border, it has become clearer than ever that it is not just about changing the physical terrain. Many people in Haiti’s Ouanaminthe community and beyond are seeing the waterway at the Massacre River as a symbol of hope and transformation. The Haitian Times has more here.
3. Cheyenne River Youth Project helps to distribute 435 food boxes to families in need
The Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP), in collaboration with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, distributed 435 boxes of food to families on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota earlier this month. Each family received fresh meats, canned and fresh produce, spices, baking ingredients and household items like plastic wrap and aluminum foil. One community elder said the delivery would help her through the winter months. Native News Online has more here.
4. Finding your inner child at Pink Princess Nails
On the surface, Pink Princess Nails is a kids-only spa in the Bronx, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a place where kids get to be kids — free from judgment — and the adults working there heal their inner child and reconnect with their most authentic selves one pink manicure at a time. Epicenter-NYC has more here.
5. Black Widow (Great Grief Ep. 4)
The podcast Great Grief takes shape around Nnenna Freelon’s own grief, which she experienced after the death of her husband, Philip Freelon, in 2019. A wife for nearly 40 years, Nnenna wonders in the final episode of this season what to make of the term widow. “I’m building a new me from the shattered pieces of the old and learning to make a new life.” 🎧 Scalawag has the full season here.
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