immigrants

1st Cup Cafe is slowly becoming a pillar in the Twin Cities Pan African community. Walk into this cafe on any given day and you are likely to see a rainbow of Africans congregated around a topic or issue vital to our local and Diaspora community. In one such meeting I attended few weeks ago, the cafe played host to three local politicians (Sen. Lawrence Pogemiller, Sen. Linda Berglin, and Rep. Karen Clark) talking about recent and future legislations that could affect all our lives. MORE »

If my work life were a movie, my adult life would be foreshadowed. Scene one: I beg my big sister to hold me while I watched “Rama of the Jungle.” The cobras and marauding tigers terrify me, but I want to see India. Scene two: The first hardcover book I purchase with my allowance is “The World’s Great Religions.” Fast forward to 1973: I’m studying anthropology, an impractical choice for someone with two sons to raise. Instead, I complete a degree in communications and find work in nonprofit public relations, development and public information. MORE »

Saturday October 6th was the close-out day for the Pan African Trade and Investment Summit, fittingly titled African Day. MORE »

The wrestling match lasted for almost a minute. Two young men from Somalia and Ethiopia respectively, locked into each other’s arms, test each other’s strength while their friends watch and cheer. A group of elders, mostly from Somalia, stood outside the building discussing recent changes on Green Cards, and the latest news from home. A couple of Asian elders dropped some clothes into laundry machines located on the main floor of the building. This is 1247 St. Anthony Avenue in St. Paul. MORE »