Upcoming Events ^
Share Your Voice — the Talon Mine
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is accepting public comments on the proposed Tamarack Mine. This is your opportunity to tell decision-makers what matters to you before decisions are made
Your comments are really important at this stage. Show elected officials that we are watching & we care about this.
- Deadline:
- September 14
- Where:
- Submit your written comments online or by mail
"Talon Metals/Rio Tinto plans to mine a 'massive sulphide mineralization' with high levels of sulfide and toxic metals. Drilling in the huge 31,000 acre area where Talon controls private land and state leases (about 85% of the size of Minneapolis) controlled by Talon Metals in central Minnesota’s Aitkin County, Talon has already found sulfide ore both in the Sandy River and Tamarack River watershed, which flow through the Big Sandy Lake Flowage to the Mississippi River and along the West Branch Kettle River, which flows downstream to the St. Croix River."
Support our Work
We have $500 in matching funds for folks that make a donation in August!
We run on a shoestring budget & on volunteer labor. Your support is vital and fuels our continued work and success.
We work in a collaborative with Northern Action to build communications across the region through web, print and in-person trainings. Thank you for being a part of that mission.
North Star Lane ^
Home
North Star Lane — Episode #2
with host Michael Goldberg
In our second episode of North Star Lane Michael welcomes two storytellers who talk about their connections to home.
Doris Kolodji grew up in the house next door to the house her father grew up in. His mother still lived next door. Doris has raised her own family and spent her life in this place she calls home.
Recording artist and community builder Annie Humphrey, tells of finding home while stationed overseas.
NCDN Special Features ^
The Appleton, MN CoreCivic Concentration Camp
NCDN Special Features — Episode #2
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pay private prison company CoreCivic more than half a billion dollars to reopen a defunct 1,600-bed prison in rural western Minnesota as an immigrant detention center.
"CoreCivic runs some of the country’s largest and most infamous immigrant detention centers, including the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas... Disease outbreaks, lack of medical care, inedible food and lack of outside time are common complaints"
— The Minnesota Reformer
The Talon Mine
NCDN Special Features — Episode #1
New samples of written comments & video/summary info from recent public meetings
This is a deep dive into the proposed mine &
a walk you through of
some simple things you can do to meet this urgent moment.
This special issue is full of local voices & information.
Through video, text & photos we bring you a fuller picture of
what is at stake for our watershed & our communities.
Opportunities ^
Calls for work
Panatrope Call for Writing
Activate your voice — storytellers, poets & independent journalists wanted
Deadline: August 31, 2026
Wildwood River Press* is announcing a new annual anthology of literary
and political writing, Panatrope. We invite you to submit writing
about what sustains you, about what has marked you, about where you
are from and what has made you. The deadline is August 31.
The term panatrope means "all octaves in music" and it was the name of
the first electric record player in the 1920s. Trope is a word used
in literary circles, and it refers to a pattern in a piece of writing:
a narrative structure, theme, image, or metaphor used by an author
across their body of work.
Call for Storytellers
"Humans evolved opposable thumbs to be able to hold on. We evolved Story to know what to hold on to."
What’s your story? We’re celebrating the art of oral storytelling —
the every day way we all communicate with each other.
For our new podcast, 'North Star Lane', we’re collecting personal stories about connections —
to place, to the past, to each other.
Stories should be 3–10 minutes in length, and can range in tone from funny incident to elegy and everything in between.
Michael Goldberg is collecting the stories.
Send audio to him — or a note to arrange a phone call or zoom —
at goldberg.actionmedia@gmail.com.
Michael also produces live storytelling shows in Grand Rapids and elsewhere in the region. Let him know if you’d like more information about those.
North Star Lane is produced by Michael Goldberg, who lives in the woods of northern Minnesota and collects stories from his friends and neighbors. They tell stories about their connections – to place, to the past, to each other – and about things that are important to them. We think a lot of the same things are important to us all.
Letters from Minnesota
An invitation from Writers for Democratic Action Minnesota
Last month WDA MN launched a new feature, Letters From Minnesota.
We invite you to contribute your Minnesota Letter to be featured in the Writers for Democratic Action Minnesota newsletter. We are seeking writers from all over the state of Minnesota. We are looking for flash essays or stories or poems. Here are some suggestions or writing prompts:
- What are the concerns in your area?
- What are the ways the community is dealing with that concern?
- What is happening in your community to strengthen democracy?
- Tell a story that is connected to your particular landscape
Letters From Minnesota is an opportunity to connect with and learn about Minnesota writers and their locale. WDA-MN is a non-partisan organization. Writers of all kinds have a unique ability to harness the written and spoken word for good, for truth, for justice and equality, and for the rights of all. WDA–MN aims to advocate for writers and for the written word as well as to empower writers to join the fight to protect our democracy.
We support independent journalism, libraries, and indie bookstores.
We believe in participatory democracy. Voting is important, but we can have more impact if we take action in our communities in word and deed.
Writers for Democratic Action Minnesota has arranged public poetry & writers' events, hosted a table at the Rain Taxi Minnesota Book Festival, published monthly newsletters that offer resources, opportunities, and curated news reports. The national WDA organization also has a Substack and invites writers anywhere in the US to send in essays for publication.
Send us your contributions at hello@writersfordemocraticaction.org.
