Renee Nicole Good

Say her name ...

As I was typing up this newsletter Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis. Moments after the news reached me the phone buzzed without stop. An urgent call to action as Homeland Security had showed up in our neighborhood.

[respond, film, debrief, send out press release for vigil in my community, back in car to patrol...hear that one of our members was a close witness at the scene of the shooting...typing this now from my parked car ...]

Our communities are being terrorized.

Our communities are brave, loving, exhausted, committed.

Our hearts are broken.

— Kathy

Renee Nicole Good was a poet

Her words live on...

from a memorial in Lithub

"In 2020, when she went by Renee Nicole Macklin, she won the prestigious Academy of American Poets Prize for a poem called 'On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs,' which begins:

i want back my rocking chairs,
solipsist sunsets,
& coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter
from the hairy legs of cockroaches.

i’ve donated bibles to thrift stores
(mashed them in plastic trash bags with an acidic himalayan salt lamp—
the post-baptism bibles, the ones plucked from street corners from
the meaty hands of zealots, i the dumbed-down, easy-to-read, parasitic kind)

remember more the slick rubber smell of high gloss biology textbook pictures; they burned the hairs
inside my nostrils,

& salt & ink that rubbed off on my palms."

...

Dream the Garden

For the past ten years I have been a teaching artist with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. What I have learned over the years working with all those who are a part of memory care, assisted living, long term and adult day is to never count any of these people out. Aging in America and living longer has provided us with unprecedented public policy challenges. Unlike other cultures and countries around the world, aging in this country is not often revered, this is a population that is often invisible and sometimes the forgotten.

It has been my privilege to gather with these elders for they are the ones who teach me about what it means to be vulnerable, to experience loss, navigate through health decline, to struggle with memories that are imperfect but still hover and bring meaning and much wisdom. My father had Parkinson’s with dementia and my mother experienced arterial dementia. They were both brilliant, vital, curious people who held their own as long as they could before the slow fade.

What we do know, older adult poverty rates continue to go up.

"Cuts to or privatization of Social Security are frequently used as threats or bargaining chips by conservative lawmakers. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of retirees suffer every month as they try to make ends meet – and their children and grandchildren spend their own income trying to help, creating an economic drain that spans generations."
— Economic Opportunity Institute

The following is a statement on Sep. 9, 2025, from Ramsey Alwin, President and CEO of the National Council on Aging on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data on poverty, income, and health insurance in 2024.

"Once again, more older Americans are sinking into poverty, just as 11,000 are turning 65 every day. A country as rich as ours should be shocked that over 9.2 million of our fellow older Americans struggle to cover basic expenses like food and medicine. Aging with dignity continues to be out of reach for far too many Americans who worked hard and played by the rules… In America, the ability to age well—with health and financial security—should be a right for every person, not a privilege."

Every day I hear stories from my friends as they try to find places to live for their ailing parents and grandparents. Places that offer care needed that they do not have the money or medical training to provide. This can be a fraught journey. There is a range of options, waiting lists and so many places where cost is so high many cannot afford this care.

Due to the rate of our aging population many facilities are popping up rapidly that can often have corporate intentions that erode at the best needed care. And many established facilities are places of true holistic care that runs deep through all levels of the staff. And I always see people who work hard caring for our elders who are low on the pay grade. Yet, they daily tend to our loved ones. Hanna Brooks Olsen on the Economic Opportunity Institute site asks, “Seniors remain one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations. So how can we help them, specifically, through policy work? How can we make aging in America less undignified?”

Let’s not forget our elders and those vulnerable in need of care. We can call our representatives and we can vote to protect our Social Security and our much-needed health care options.

Here are some of the beautiful words shared by those in assisted living, and memory care.

How to hope to break through the conditions of any confinement
to still soar upward into sunlight,
refracting each to form a trail of rainbows.

Do we march boldly into the modern world
Or do stay and revere the past? Or can we do both?

Why are we lonely today?
We need to maintain our connections

The ties that bind us
How we keep in touch

The poems of granddaughters
The I remember sense of serenity

The I remember signs of significance
Looking for where answers might be

Maybe they are in all of our songs

— from the writers of Heritage in St Paul

Anytime you can make a change
It might be beautiful
If you move quickly, you can get it
And if you don’t — keep going

— from the poets of Harbor Crossing- White Bear Lake

The journey of all of us considering what we were going to be When we grew up and where we ended up
And that is the way it works
The journey of stories
The journey of the arts
The journey of poetry
The journey of imagination

— from the poets of the Orchards in Minnetonka

As the poet Carl Dennis said, think of the sunlight we failed to welcome, How others stepped forward to take it in. We are all here to keep taking it in and to share it in the work we do to continue to make this country a place of compassion. Here is a poem I wrote for a Pollen Midwest/AARP event honoring all those who serve communities in need. Let us all keep our sense of connection, significance and beautiful change as these elder poets have offered in their words by working and dreaming together in this new year. -Diane Jarvenpa

Dream the Garden

Here we are
and some doubt it,
but we still know
what is quick and wild,
how hope or sorrow
write themselves into a day,
how we gently hold them in our hands
like maps we know all too well.
We are what is found in the garden,
we are the roots and the runners,
the leveling and the digging,
we are the sweet shoots and the good mud.
See us
in that blaze of sun?
We are not afraid,
we are here to really feel it.
You see we are still the warriors
to the collective colors that magnify,
we are the blooms of memory
of all that came before
and the yet imagined words of the future.
— Diane Jarvi

Attend Your Precinct Caucus Feb. 3

Get the Word Out!

Two of the most powerful ways for many of us Minnesota writers and other citizens to influence the behavior of our government are to register and vote in elections, and to participate in our precinct caucus.

When:

Tuesday, February 3, 7:00pm

Caucuses occur every even-numbered year on the first Tuesday in February. The 2026 elections in the fall will determine control of the Minnesota state government and impact policies related to the environment, gun safety, women’s rights, and many more.

But first: what are precinct caucuses?

Precinct caucuses are local meetings run by political parties. Anyone may participate if they live in the precinct, are eligible to vote in 2026 (must be at least 18 on Nov. 3), and generally support the party hosting the meeting.

By attending a caucus, you can learn about candidates for public office and influence who your party will endorse. You can bring up issues important to you that might eventually make their way into the party platform. Perhaps you will be chosen and agree to attend the district convention to represent a point-of-view. The next level of involvement would be the State convention!

Very often, anyone showing up to the caucus can become a delegate. Only a small percentage of citizens attend precinct caucuses, which means that your participation can have a large influence on the election process.

You can visit the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State website for more information about precinct caucuses, including the location of the one you should attend, based on your political leanings and address.

Book the Vote

from National WDA

A national drive bringing together readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians to register voters

"Democracies die by foreign invasion, but they also die by homegrown authoritarian malignancies. That is happening now in the United States, and Writers for Democratic Action calls on YOU to stop it! Join us in protecting representative government with the most powerful weapon we still have: the Vote in 2026.

"WDA is launching BOOK THE VOTE, a drive to bring together readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians to register voters before the next elections. Books themselves are threatened now, which is no surprise since books have always been essential to democracy. The Bookstore and the Library can be the frontline of the campaign to rescue it."

Previous Book the Vote Links

Midstream Reading

When:

January 8, 2026, 7:30–8:30pm

Where:

Unity Church-Unitarian
732 Holly Avenue
Saint Paul, MN

Please use the Holly Avenue entrance. The reading is upstairs in the Robbins Parlor.

There is an accessible entrance from the small church parking lot just east of the Holly Avenue entrance. Go through the accessible automatic door at the parking level to the elevator just to the right as you enter the first floor.

There is plentiful street parking, and a church parking lot one block to the east, at the southwest corner of Portland Avenue and St. Albans Street. Please save the parking lot right next to the church for those with mobility issues.

Best to arrive early to find the room and be seated by 7:30 so we can begin on time. The venue will easily hold about 35; after that, standing or floor-sitting room only. The early bird gets the seat. Please occupy the close seats first. Be an up-front person.

If you can't make it in person, you can watch the reading on our YouTube channel a few days after the event.

Stanley Kusunoki is the author of five collections of poetry: 180 Days—Reflections and Observations of a Teacher, Items in the News, (North Star Press of St. Cloud); Shelter in Place—Poems in a Time of COVID-19, and Social Studies—Poetry as History, Ethics and Journalism, (Polaris Press —an imprint of North Star Press); and Natural Life—A Poetic Field Guide, (Nodin Press). He is the former co-host/curator of the Literary Bridges reading series at Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul. Kusunoki most recently was the High Potential Coordinator at Red Oak Elementary School in Shakopee. He lives in Duluth with his wife, Claudia Daly.

Mona Susan Power is the author of four books of fiction: The Grass Dancer (awarded the PEN/Hemingway prize), Roofwalker, Sacred Wilderness, and A Council of Dolls (winner of the Minnesota Book Award, longlisted for the National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize). Fellowships in support of her work include a Radcliffe Bunting Institute Fellowship, Princeton Hodder Fellowship, USA Artists Fellowship, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship, and McKnight Fellowship. Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe (Yanktonai Dakota), born and raised in Chicago. She currently lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Jeremiah Gamble makes an honest living making stuff up. He’s a playwright, poet, singer/actor, storyteller and producer who has been working professionally in the Twin Cities for over twenty-seven years. He’s usually busy running two theater companies with his wife, Vanessa – their touring company, Theater for the Thirsty, and their West-7th-Saint-Paul-based-company Bucket Brigade. His original plays/musicals have been produced at theaters including Yellow Tree Theatre, The Southern Theater, A.D. Players and 4th Street Theater. He’s a Lincoln City Fellow, a member of the Dramatist Guild, and his poetry has appeared in Hummingbird: Magazine of the Small Poem, Art House Dallas: On Mortality, and The Green Hills Literary Lantern.

Athena Kildegaard's sixth book of poems, Prairie Midden (Tinderbox Editions), won the 2023 WILLA Literary Award for Poetry. Her poems have been set to music by many composers, including Linda Kachelmeier, Jennifer Higdon, Shruti Rajesekar, and others, and they've been published widely in such journals as Ecotone, Conduit, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, and the Southern Humanities Review. She teaches at the University of Minnesota Morris.

After: Sweeney’s Saloon is a few blocks away and has a full bar and kitchen. Please join us!

For further information and to request to be added to the email announcements, contact Marg Walker, marg.walker51@gmail.com.

Brave of US 30 City Midwest Tour

from Immigrant Defense Network

The Immigrant Defense Network (IDN) – based in Minnesota is a growing, statewide network of 90+ nonprofits, grassroots groups, and advocates – developing new rapid response and movement building strategies through deep collaboration and coordination.

"The Immigrant Defense Network, alongside powerful partner organizations, is launching the Brave of US 30 City Midwest Tour—a bold, urgent call to action in a moment when immigrant communities are under direct attack.

"Across the Midwest, families are living in fear, neighbors are being targeted, and our constitutional rights are being tested. In response, Brave people are rising—showing up for one another, defending their neighbors, and refusing to be silent.

"This tour will bring communities together to build collective power, grow local leadership, and train Constitution Observers who are ready to respond, protect, and act. These are not just trainings—this is a movement grounded in courage, solidarity, and shared responsibility.

"Join us. Stand with immigrant communities. Be part of a growing network committed to defending dignity, safety, and justice for all."

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.