Hello writers!

All over Minnesota, winter cold and snow have arrived. Many people have met the moment when ICE, the immigration control enforcement, arrived to break up families and cause suffering. If only the government would welcome immigrants and grant citizenship to the ones who arrived in the US as children, and to the ones who are employed, are raising families, and contributing their time, talents, creativity, and culture in our communities.

The holidays are upon us. This poem by Margaret Hasse offers a moment of peace as it calls to mind some of America's literary history. These writers lived during very turbulent times, as we do. A few tell the stories of heroes, and we know that often the hero begins as an ordinary person. We don't always know who it will be, but it is the one who rises and meets the moment.

May you find your moment. May you find your inspiration, warmth, and the words to help build a better world.

The Children’s Hour

When I’m upset, not quite devastated, but blue,
which is often these days of our country’s downhill
disaster, I pull out my old faithful poetry anthologies,
like Untermeyer’s The Golden Treasury, as I did today,
and read aloud to myself poems that rhyme, that gallop
across the page, my voice thrilled to keep pace
with the glorious upbeat regularity of rhymers
like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, bearded man
in a greatcoat featured in my deck of Authors
playing cards, along with Robert Lewis Stevenson,
and others who kept the beat going, and so, O.K.,
they are mostly men, but amiable pals from my grade
school years, with easy-to-memorize tales of fleeting
happiness, historical bravery, and great love
as in “The Children’s Hour,” “The Swing,” and
“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” which made me
imagine the belfry lights and clatter of a horse’s hooves,
and after I closed the book, I sat, in tears, for a long time
hoping as if with a child’s belief in magic for a hero
like that to come at a clip into our cities, into our lives
and draw us out, to the streets, to rally again for freedom.

— Margaret Hasse

Margaret Hasse is author of nine collections of poetry, including her latest: Belongings: New and Selected Poems in 2023. Her book Milk and Tides won the 2009 poetry prize of the Midwest Independent Book Publishers Association. In additional, she co-edited Rocked by the Waters with Athena Kildegaard and edited A Little Book of Abundance, a chapbook with poems of gratitude by eleven poets.

Her books have been prize winners and bestsellers. Margaret is recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, McKnight Foundation, Loft Literary Center’s Career Initiative Program, Minnesota State Arts Board, and Jerome Foundation. She also works as a consultant to arts organizations, teaches poetry, and curates a poetry book reading series.

To learn more about her many projects as well as her consulting work, check out her website https://www.margarethasse.com/

Images of Democracy and Resistance

Rain Taxi Book Festival 2025 Community Poem

WDA-MN hosted a community poem written by attendees of the festival held November 8, 2025 in St Paul.

Folks wrote lines on index cards that were typed onto pages to create a beautiful material artifact for the day.

"it all comes down to paying attention..."

Of Resistance and Risk

This blog post "Of Resistance and Risk" is too good to miss. It's written by Beth Bartlett of Duluth after attending the No Kings Rally in October.

"To know that ICE agents are storming apartment buildings in the middle of the night, traumatizing families and young children; that life-saving scientific research is being halted; that millions of AIDS sufferers have lost their medical care; that billionaires throw extravagant parties while thousands go to bed hungry; and that total disregard of climate change in the name of greed is causing the wanton destruction of forests, waters, and the very earth and not feel a “NO!” rising within oneself, to simply turn a blind eye and go along with it all would require us to completely numb ourselves to pain and suffering. This is something I cannot choose to do, for the ability to feel is at the core of our humanity. To do so would indeed be to die.

"Resistance arises out of such care, out of love – a theme echoed in the works of so many resistance writers -- Paulo Freire: “’I am more and more convinced that true revolutionaries must perceive the revolution, . . . as an act of love; Albert Camus: “ . . . rebellion cannot exist without a strange form of love. . . which unhesitatingly gives the strength of its love and without a moment’s delay refuses injustice;” bell hooks: “Love was the force that empowered folks to resist domination and create new ways of living and being in the world;” Beverly Wildung Harrison’s recognition of “the power of anger . . . in the work of love. . . ” is what moves us to acts of resistance. Resistance is care in action."

Read the entire article at https://www.bethbartlettduluth.com/gleanings/2025/11/10/of-resistance-and-risk-community-and-kin

Beth's books

• Making Waves: Grassroots Feminism in Duluth and Superior. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2016.
• Rebellious Feminism: Camus's Ethic of Rebellion and Feminist Thought. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
• Journey of the Heart: Spiritual Insights on the Road to a Transplant. Duluth, MN: Pfeifer-Hamilton, 1997.
• Liberty, Equality, Sorority: Origins and Interpretations of Feminist Thought: Frances Wright, Margaret Fuller, and Sarah Grimké. New York: Carlson Publishing, 1994.
• Sarah Grimké's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and Other Essays, Edited, Annotated, and with an Introduction by Elizabeth Ann Bartlett. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Know Your Rights

Protecting our community

As news of ICE incursions into our state increase, we wanted, to take a moment to share a list of resources gathered by our friends at Twin Ports Rapid Response to help us keep each other safe & strong.

We want to highlight the following resources:

• COPAL's Handbook for Constitutional Observers
• the Monarca Rapid Response Line
• the Immigrant Defense Network
• Unidos MN
• MIRAC MN
• COPAL

On December 2, MPR live-streamed a response from leaders in Minneapolis & St. Paul regarding recent reports that the Trump administration plans yet another ICE operation in Minnesota, this time targeting the region’s Somali immigrants.

We remember today the vision of "beloved community" that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke so passionately about.

Sahan Journal

We are grateful for the coverage of small, independent newsrooms.

"Founded in August of 2019, Sahan Journal is a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. Our diverse staff creates exceptional journalism: coverage that truly represents the changing face of Minnesota and recognizes that democratic engagement and power belong to everyone."

The Timberjay

Kudos to small town independent news sources. This month, we spotlight the Orr Timberjay! The editors strive to publish local writers in their opinion page.

The award-winning Timberjay newspaper is the most widely-read weekly newspaper in the North Country, serving communities throughout our region with local and regional news, opinion, sports, outdoors reporting, and much more. We also serve as the official newspaper for the city of Tower and a number of area townships, including Vermilion Lake, Bearville, Morcom, Leiding, Eagles Nest, Field, Embarrass, Kabetogama and Kugler.

The Timberjay maintains an office in Tower at 414 Main Street, 218-753-2950. Stop in when you're in the area for a free copy of their GO Lake Country visitors guide.

General email: mailto:timberjaynews@gmail.com

Rhythm and Revolution: The America at 250 Poetry Project

Call for work from The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library

Deadline:

Monday, December 15th, 2025

The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, as the Library of Congress-designated Minnesota Center for the Book, is conducting an open call for new/original (unpublished) poetry as part of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) states, this upcoming anniversary is an opportunity for us as a people to engage with history and reflect upon the full sweep of our nation’s past “beginning millennia before 1776 and continuing to the present – to build a stronger future.”

Using themes provided by AASLH, “Rhythm and Revolution” invites writers to share their ideas in poetic form of how we see ourselves in history, appreciate its relevance, and understand how the diverse people of the past and present contribute to the American story. We hope that the poetry recognized through this project adds to meaningful dialogue and mutual understanding.

Write to us!

We want to hear from you. Send us an email and let us know about your projects. Please respond to hello@writersfordemocraticactionmn.org. We want to grow our list of resources on the WDA MN website, so send us the names of your favorite news sources, reading lists, podcasts, subscriptions, and other resources.

Thank you for being a part of Writers for Democratic Action.