“I think Minneapolis is teaching us. We have to all show up for everyone. We have to see ourselves as all in a united struggle against these billionaires, against these people who really want to take everything from us.” — adrienne maree brown
“I’m so in love with Minneapolis.” — Autumn Brown
Yesterday was one month since the government illegally killed ALex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis. While the mainstream media wants us to parse the state of Donald Trump’s blather last night, I think we should still be learning from Alex’s example and from the people of Minneapolis, who are still (STILL) being illegally occupied by the federal government.
On my first day in Minneapolis, there wasn’t a lot on the schedule. We knew we had an 11am interview scheduled at Moon Palace Books. My friend and frequent collaborator Adam Mansbach is friends with Moon Palace’s co-owner, Jamie Schwesnedl, so that was an easy one to get. But for the rest of the week, I knew that we were going to have to hustle to get some points on the board. My goal was ten interviews over three, eight-hour days. That meant we would need at least three interviews in the can on this first day for me to feel like we were on schedule. Four interviews would put us ahead of schedule.
The feeling in my stomach was alternating between butterflies and eighteen wheelers playing demolition derby. Yes, I did this kind of thing regularly on United Shades of America for seven seasons, but each episode took months to plan. By the time we landed in a town, I had a dossier that was dozens of pages long with articles about each interview subject. We traveled from place to place with a crew of fifteen. We had layers of corporate, lawyered-up rigamarole to protect all parties from each other. WE HAD AN IGLOO COOLER FILLED WITH SNACKS!
But I had reason for high hopes.
I was doing this in partnership with the McKnight Foundation. Since they’re local to the Twin Cities, they have relationships with people I wanted to talk to. But since we only had four days to plan before I touched down in Minneapolis, it was going to have to be a quick turnaround to get some yeses.
McKnight had hooked me up with a local film crew, led by Destiny Roberts. Destiny personally knew and/or had connections with several of the people that I was hoping to talk to. When Destiny heard me mention the journalist Georgia Fort, Destiny excitedly announced, “I just saw her. I am working with her on a project.” That helped move my request for an interview up the list, and I’m sure it was a looooooong list.
The producer that I hired for this project, Deshawn Plair, had been with me on We Need To Talk About Cosby, so she already knew how to handle the quixotic, heart-on-my-sleeve, follow-my-nose style that has annoyed many a producer. Also, much to my chagrin, my OG producer, Geraldine Porras, had already taught Deshawn how to get me to do things I need to do but don’t want to do.
So we set out to fill our pretty much empty schedule. We decided to start with the trio of Minneapolis Memorials: George Floyd, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti. They are each active and activistic memorials to make sure we don’t forget these three peope who were illegally killed by law enforcement (a.k.a. “law enforcement”). We featured the George Floyd and Renee Good memorials in Episode 1 and Episode 3 of I SPENT 3 DAYS IN MINNEAPOLIS!, respectively. Today we’re sharing Episode 6, which was filmed on the afternoon of Monday, February 2, 2026.
By the time we arrived at Alex’s memorial I was beginning to feel drained by the activities of the day. Running around from memorial to memorial to memorial is mentally and psychologically weathering. Then there was also the challenge of the literal weather. The temperature was in the 30s. There was snow on the ground. We were filming outside a lot. That is a huge challenge for the crew.
Also, the number of people at each memorial was larger than the one before. Early in the morning, there were very few people at George Floyd’s memorial. Then, by mid-morning there were about 15 to 20 at Renee Good’s site. After lunch at Alex Pretti’s memorial, I would say there were at least 30 people at any given time, but there were are also a steady stream of people coming through, staying for a bit and leaving. There was even a Black man, named Michael, who had clearly taken on the role of memorial docent. Shortly after we arrived, Michael announced that we all needed to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. After that, Michael said a few words about the space and the reason we all were there. Michael needed us to be here now. And he wasn’t taking no for an answer.
At some point, I heard someone call out my name. I looked to the other side of the memorial, saw two people waving at me, and I waved back. I just marked them in my head as fans of mine. A few moments later the duo was standing next to me and said hello again. It was at this point I realized that these weren’t any regular folks. They were the legendary sisters Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown.
Autumn and adrienne maree are… well their bios are thick with accolades, descriptors, vocations, and avocations. Autumn’s bio lists artist, front woman of a band, theologian, freedom worker, orator, and mother, among other defining words. adrienne maree’s bio features words like somatics, science fiction scholarship, New York Times bestselling author, and doula. Both of them use the job title facilitator. But that seems like such a simple and antiseptic word for how I see them. Although that may just be my misunderstanding of the word. I know them as oracles who see the future that we are headed towards, but still believe that we can all do better. At the same time, they don’t want us to be unnecessarily hard on ourselves while we fight for liberation. But they do want us to understand that this is a fight. It may or may not be a physical fight, but we do need to get ready. Hence the name of the podcast they cohost, How To Survive The End of The World.
That day at Alex Pretti’s memorial, when I realized who they were, and they realized that I had finally realized it, we all started squealing with joy and hugged each other. Although I had only hung out Autumn once before (when she appeared on the “Woke” episode on season 7 of United Shades of America), and I only knew adrienne maree through her time as a guest on my old podcast Politically Reactive, I felt like I was reuniting with my favorite cousins from childhood. I had no idea why they were in Minneapolis, but it felt serendipitous. Here I was trying to navigate through these tough times and unfamiliar streets, and I ran into two professional navigators.
“As terrifying as the circumstances are, the overriding feeling I have about being here right now is pride.”
— Autumn Brown on living in Minneapolis
I quickly found out that Autumn has been living in Minneapolis for over six years. I also found out that adrienne maree had just stopped by the memorial on her way to the airport. Luckily, they agreed to spend a few moments with me before they had to go. We talked revolution, liberation, and how to be less judgmental of other people’s versions of revolution and liberation. We talked about public executions and divine intervention. We also talked about being careful out here. At the end of our talk, adrienne initiated a prayer over me: for my safety, for my family, and for my city of Oakland. I began to get weepy because I was so grateful, and then I made a joke like I do sometimes. It’s not that I’m afraid to cry. I just like laughing and crying at the same time. How else can we survive the end of the world?
“What can you do that you will do? Because this is the time. It’s not time to just critique what everyone else is doing. This is not that time. What can you do with your body, your time, your energy, your resources? What are you gonna do? Because it’s time.” — adrienne maree brown
I hope you enjoy this one. And I hope you have some serendipity come across your path soon.
WHO’S WITH ME?
Also… we ended up filming interviews on that Monday. In fact, I’ll share a second video from the Alex Pretti memorial later this week.
Yes, I also had thoughts on the BAFTAs, tourette’s, Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan, and the N-word controversy
But I didn’t have time to write so I just made this video.
Mutual Aid with Stand With Minnesota!
While I was in the Twin Cities, I talked to many people about the power of mutual aid. Mutual aid is when you just give people money or goods or services without bringing American capitalism into it. Think of it as when you go out to dinner with a friend and you know that you can’t afford the meal, and your friend says, “I got you!” Right now, mutual aid is helping Minnesotans who can’t go to work for various reasons. It could be because their workplace is closed during the federal occupation OR because they were laid off due to business being down during the federal occupation OR because they are, understandably, afraid to leave their house during the federal occupation!
I met with organizer Ashley Fairbanks who built the website Stand with Minnesota. That interview will be out eventually, but don’t wait for that. You can help, today!
My WHO’S WITH ME TOUR
April 17 North Bethesda, MD at The Music Center at Strathmore
April 30 San Francisco, CA at 10th Annual Comedy Night for Immigrant Rights
May 22-24 San Diego at The Mic Drop Comedy Club.
Support Minnesota Students & Teachers with DonorsChoose
Of course my folks at DonorsChoose are figuring out ways to help teachers in Minnesota! TAKE IT AWAY, DONORSCHOOSE!
“The Twin Cities community is in a period of deep disruption. Teachers are stepping up to provide stability and strength. They need our support.”
How it works:
Make your donation to the Minnesota Students & Teachers Fund, and we’ll direct your gift to meet the most pressing teacher needs in the Twin Cities. These resources will be distributed quickly to support classrooms where support is needed most.
