A new JWST image, showing the star-forming region Sagittarius B2. Open up the image and lose yourself in the stars...

There is simply an incredible amount of good, inspiring work happening in Saint Paul and it makes me so excited.

Open this photo up and look for the small, white dot just left of centre. It looks like Venus, shining brightly in the twilight sky. But it's us. It's Earth. From Mars.

I'm over the moon that Arthur Sze has been named our 25th U.S. Poet Laureate. Arthur was on the show for his new & collected The Glass Constellation and we looked back across his life as a poet in honor of it. ICYMI: 📻 tinhouse.com/podcast/arth... @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

Looking forward to @katnuernberger.bsky.social's November book. (And I like pre-orders because when publication time comes, it's like getting a present!)

Truly the coolest person I know. www.startribune.com/how-she-spen...

Kelly is being modest here but her book is called THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS and it was nominated for the National Book Award! An excellent read on this long weekend!

It's Don't Argue Inside Your Head With Other People Friday. Today, if you wish, practice gently stopping the argument you're having inside yr head w/someone who's not present, or who it's not safe or not fair for you to argue with. Do this as many times as you need--you'll get better at it each time

“Do not offer thoughts and prayers as you systemically enable such tragedies. Do not claim prayers are sufficient when children die as they pray. Do not pretend you do not understand.” — Lydia, 16, Minneapolis

The cars :: cigarettes parallel has legs.

We deserve a city government that works for all of us—where decisions are made based on what’s right for the people of our city, not based on who is most loyal to the mayor. We deserve better.

You guys, there’s nothing better than Minnesota sweet corn! Every year, The Corn Roast sells 24 acres worth of corn from a farm near Waverly. They use 4,000 POUNDS of butter every year. Thanks for letting me show you a taste of Minnesota, @elizabeth-warren.bsky.social.

“Ruefle, who is based in VT, has been making erasures, which she illustrates with collages, almost daily since 1998. Usually working on two pages a day, she has completed more than one hundred and twenty-five erasures to date, a selection of which are now on view through September 6 at Poets House”

It's a delight to see some examples of teachers and students engaging @mrtomrad.bsky.social's "One Word Wall" project in his recent Bluesky posts!

there are going to be so many tears at the crop art exhibition this year I hope the fair has stocked up on tissues

A page of garden things to break in a new sketchbook.

Long live the Midtown Greenway! Thanks to George Puzak, Tim Springer, and everyone else who made it happen. (And thanks, Bill, for the article.)

What a celebration! Our No Boundaries program brought 150+ students to the Boundary Waters this summer. Honored incredible Buoy Award winners & gathered families for canoeing, portaging & s'mores. Here's to more boundary-breaking adventures ahead! 🛶✨

kentucky long stem apples, painted by royal charles steadman, 1925

Thank you, Ward Four! We did it. Whether you knocked doors, made phone calls, donated, hosted a meet and greet with your neighbors, were a supporter from day one or decided just before walking into your polling place: you built this campaign, and I’m forever grateful for your support.

Congratulations to @mollycoleman.bsky.social for running an incredible, people powered campaign in Ward 4! Her victory is a testament to running a campaign on unapologetic, progressive policy that improves people’s lives.

Plums!

The garden in front of St Anthony Park Lutheran Church in St Paul. #FlowerReport Jeana phlox, Mystic Spires Blue salvia, and a cool multicolored zinnias.

Molly Coleman for Ward 4 on the St. Paul City Council!

Congratulations to my dear friend and mentor, Carolyn Holbrook! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 No one is more deserving of this honor. ✨✨✨

Does your little one want to hear the same book over and over and over again? Thread 🧵

Indigenous Design Camp teaches Native youth what a career in architecture can look like, and how important training the next generation of Indigenous architects is for tribal sovereignty. minnesotareformer.com/2025/08/01/i...

I wrote about why I like Molly Coleman for Ward 4 City Council. If you live in the neighborhood, please vote for her before August 12th! (Chauntyll Allen would be my second choice.) tcsidewalks.blogspot.com/2025/07/vote...

New office, restaurant, retail, hotel space going in at United Village, plus more proposed! Housing proposed near Culver’s. A new cannabis dispensary that just got prelim approval! Now is the time to bet on Midway and its workers & residents — not abandon them. www.startribune.com/brooks-st-pa...

This is a lovely thread.

Minneapolis, THIS is the leadership we deserve. This is what it looks like to show up without showing off. This is why I'm donating again to @dewayneforminneapolis.com and can't wait to rank him first in November.

This post is my "Gone Fishing" sign, except that I'm going to read instead of fish. Take care, good people.

oh my god, this is it precisely

This is exactly why I support @mollycoleman.bsky.social for StP Ward 4. She has a clear grasp of our city's housing crisis and a focused & effective plan to fix it.

I saw a post yesterday asking why "organized Christianity" isn't doing more to point to Colbert as an example of what a good Christian in public looks like and it's like, "We, the segments of Christianity that nobody (not the media, not the other kinds of Christians) listens to do! All the time!"

MSP, please come out and register for this great conference next month, featuring none other than the marvelous @kaokaliayang.bsky.social as keynote! 🙌🏽😍 Catch WHERE WE COME FROM authors @sunyungshin.bsky.social @johncoy23.bsky.social and I at a 2:45 pm breakout session. 👍🏽

Book report: nothing is better than the beaming face of a four-year-old when a picture book reaches out and embraces them like these books do. Thanks, @vivschwarz.bsky.social.

Molly Coleman for St Paul City Council Ward 4!

The Playwrights Center is moving to the Creative Enterprise Zone in Saint Paul as of July 21!

Huzzah!

July floral palette, to shift your brain away from fight or flight. Pause for a moment if anxiety is lurking, research shows my photo will help 🌿

The avian drama is off the charts this year. (Gift link via The New York Times Opinion Section.) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/o...

This mural by CYFI is very popular on Bluesky... on the north wall of The Wycliff, not far from Urban Growler and Bang Brewing. If you go see it, be sure to step as far away as possible because the distance changes how you see the butterflies against the angle of the building!

Just keep doing the next good thing. That’s all that’s asked of us in this moment. That’s it.

Floral snapshot, July, in case your brain is noisy and overloaded:

Relatedly, of all the activists and groups who protested the GOP budget bill on Capitol Hill, the largest and most sustained were almost entirely led by religious groups — and it’s not close. religionnews.com/2025/06/02/f...

“There’s a whole mix of emotions: One, I’m sad because I miss my family like crazy. I miss my kids, I miss my wife,” Vue said. “Second, I’m mad. Is this the kind of thanks that my people get for sacrificing blood and sweat for them?”

This is a new image from JWST. The six-pointed features are stars in the Milky Way. Everything else is a galaxy. Everything else is a galaxy.

The annual Hmong International Freedom Festival drew thousands to St. Paul for food, family reunions, sports competitions and more. By Aaron Nesheim and Yvette Higgins