Oyate Hotanin

Category: Storytelling

  • Buffalo Show – May 9th, 2023

    Buffalo Show – May 9th, 2023

    Write-up by Basanti Miller (she/her) “I couldn’t tell which side of the dream I was on.” Ben Weaver (Buffalo Weavers) “The Other Side if the Dream” Do creative, healing communities exist only in our dreams, or can they be realized? In early May, inside of the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, an answer revealed itself to…

  • Part 3: A Conversation with Russel Balenger: The Founder of the Circle of Peace Movement

    Written by: Sabrina Nur & Carrie Pomeroy Part 3: Growing Community Healing  In Parts 1 and 2 of our conversation with community leader Russel Balenger, we learned about how his childhood in Rondo and his family’s example inspired him and how he grew to become involved in criminal justice reform efforts and worked to connect…

  • Part 2: A Conversation with Russel Balenger: The Founder of the Circle of Peace Movement

    Part 2: Growing Into Leadership Written by: Carrie Pomeroy & Sabrina Nur In Part 1 of this conversation with St. Paul community leader Russel Balenger, we talked about Russel’s childhood growing up in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood both before and after the construction of Interstate 94. We also learned about how his parents profoundly shaped…

  • Cracking Open the Possibility of Joy

    Collective Power Is Needed for Climate Healing Reflections on Climate Grief to Joy, Healing Circle Programming at Crosby Farm Park Written by: Grace Generous The crisp October day welcomed us into the circle as we gathered in the clearing at Crosby Farm Park. Jothsna, Buffalo, Laura, and Ben welcomed us, asking us to find a…

  • A Conversation with Russel Balenger: The Founder of the Circle of Peace Movement 

    Written by Sabrina Nur & Carrie Pomeroy 15 min read Russel Balenger, is a son, a father, a grandfather, an uncle and a guardian angel to many. A fearless and respected community voice, a son of Rondo, and an elder in Saint Paul. He recently made news when he was appointed to fill a seat…

  • p.o.v…of sabrina: -37 ° (WHY?!)

    Written by Sabrina 6 minute read Let’s talk about winter! Because I don’t like how we as a society are so out of tune with nature that we can’t recognize S.A.D as a symptom of how capitalism is negatively affecting all of us. This year, I greeted winter with a welcoming spirit, unusual for me.…

  • Childhood fawn 

    Childhood fawn By Kaija Long Crow I mold myself to be whatever you want or need, I paid attention to your social cues. I noticed you give affection to those that pay their dues, this is the service conditioning of survival. Sometimes we fawn and end up as someone’s pawn left to deal with their shadows.…

  • p.o.v…of sabrina: flower power 🌸

    Written by: Sabrina Nur The morning that Flower Power took place I woke up to the voice of my soul sister, Bella. The alarm that I had set the previous night failed to wake us up. We’d been planning this day for a year. We couldn’t afford to be late for one of the most…

  • A Conversation with Laura LaBlanc: The Birth of IN Equality

    A Conversation with Laura LaBlanc: The Birth of IN Equality

    Written by Sabrina Nur 15 minute read After starting my journey with Oyate Hotanin in the fall of 2021, I sat down with Laura LaBlanc, one of the founding members of IN Equality, a Saint Paul-based community group seeking to transform criminal justice and build a coalition of those with firsthand experience with the criminal…

  • p.o.v…of sabrina: An Introduction.

    Peace! I am Sabrina and I’m twenty-two years old. I moved to Minnesota from Kenya when I was fourteen years old. The culture shock, nothing like I had ever experienced before, turned my world upside down. I prayed every day to go back to Mombasa, back to the Indian Ocean. The bitter cold, the individualistic…