Beautiful flowering trees outside the Rice County courthouse, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2026)
I’VE NEVER TRAVELED to Washington, DC, thus never seen the masses of cherry blossoms. I’m quite certain I would love them. Flowering trees began blooming here about two weeks ago and I can’t get enough of their beauty.
A young tree outside the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault blooms in late April. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
Whether pink or white, the petals add an artistic and poetic touch to the landscape. It’s as if an artist meticulously brushed petals upon a tree. It’s as if a poet wrote lovely words upon apple and ornamental trees, petal by petal.
Against the backdrop of the Guild House at the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour, a flowering tree buds and blooms. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
In poetry, every word counts. In art, every brush stroke matters. On a flowering tree, both create a canopy of loveliness.
Masses of flowers on a tree at the intersection of Third Avenue NW and Fifth Street NW, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo late April 2026)
I don’t paint. But I create with my camera and with words. I write poetry—poetry which has published on the pages of anthologies and literary journals, inspired artists and a musician, graced signs in public places.
At the intersection of First Avenue NW and Sixth Street NW in Faribault, a flowering tree graces a front yard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 28, 2026)
And so I see poetry where others may not. A flowering tree is not simply a tree with flowers. It is a work of literary and visual art. It is a love letter. It is a painting. It is romance. It is a thousand stories. It is more than a tree blushing beauty into the landscape on a spring day.
Sunshine dapples a tree along Third Avenue NW, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo late April 2026)
In residential neighborhoods, in parks and in other spaces, flowering trees bloom poetic verse. Above. And in a carpet of petals upon the ground. I’m inspired to write: Apple blossoms fall/like kisses from their lips/teasing, tempting, tasting/not of promised, forbidden fruit/but of young love blooming.
The Guild House tree in bud and now bloom. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
And so spring seems a time of young love. Of beginnings. Of feeling the heart beat faster.
Trees flower on the back side of Faribault’s Central Park bandshell which features murals honoring the life of Bishop Henry Whipple. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
Yet spring also celebrates the seasoned love of many years, even decades, together. Love that has seen countless springs of flowering trees blushing beauty into the landscape. For my husband, Randy, and me, 44 years of married life marked on May 15.
Looking up at flowering treetops outside an office building along Third Avenue NW in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
We walk beneath those trees, petals underfoot representing the poetry of days past and those above of poetry yet unwritten.
A protester stands at the intersection of Minnesota State highways 3 and 19 in Northfield last Friday afternoon. The inflatable frog costume traces to protests in Portland, Oregon, and signifies a humorous, nonviolent form of creative resistance. The dog’s sign reads, “Love & Kindness for a better world.” (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2026)
SIX POETS, me included, will read our poetry beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at Content Bookstore in Northfield.
I am honored to be in the company of prolific and talented poets Becky Boling, D.E. (Doug) Green, Rob Hardy and Dougie Padilla all of Northfield and Larry Gavin of Faribault. I’ve previously read with everyone except Padilla and consider them friends.
Poets will read from this publication on Thursday evening in Northfield. (Cover sourced online)
I will read two poems from this collection published by Content Bookstore. (Cover sourced online)
Two of the poems I plan to read—“Death of a Poet” and “Fiery Resistance”—are also anti-ICE. They published in Content Bookstore’s chapbook, Words to Meet the Moment: Poetry Against Fascism.
The years 2025 and 2026 have, indeed, been a time for us to use our words to resist, to rise up, to make a difference. Minnesotans did during Operation Metro Surge and continue to do so. I continue to write. I continue to protest. I continue to speak up, refusing to remain silent.
The table of contents for Words to Meet the Moment. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2026)
Words hold power. When we stand united on issues, like preserving our democracy, supporting our immigrant neighbors, protecting voting rights, opposing an unnecessary war, calling out wrongs and much more, we can collectively make a difference. At some point those who hear, but disagree, may finally begin to understand what’s at stake.
Poetry matters. To step up to the mic in an independent bookstore in a small Minnesota college town to read the passionate anti-ICE poems I crafted may not seem like much. But when I am joined by five other poets who also fired poems that could melt ICE, we become part of a movement, a force. We care about our neighbors, about Minnesota, about our country, about the world enough to pen powerful poetry.
Join us from 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday to hear our poetry. United we write. United we read. United we rise.
Petals 2 Metal, a flower shop in Kasson, features a spring message, floral arrangements and salvaged treasures. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo March 2026)
RAIN DRIPS OFF the roof line, big fat drops plopping onto brown stalks of hydrangea emerging from dormancy into a world reawakening.
Tulips about to bloom. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
April showers bring May flowers. Tulips bloom, replacing the crocuses and daffodils already finished flowering. Fiddleheads pop through the soil, reaching for the sun, unfurling into leafy ferns that bend in the wind. Peony plants push up. Bleeding hearts dangle from stems, strong, yet vulnerable.
This is spring in southern Minnesota, a time of transition, of new growth, new life. Lush. Vivid. Visually-pleasing after months of drab surroundings.
A flowering crabapple tree at the corner of Fifth St. NW and Fourth Avenue NW in a residential neighborhood near the River Community Church in Faribault.(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
Leaves, only weeks ago tight buds on branches, now color a canopy of green across the land. Spring Snow ornamental crabapple trees scent the air with perfume in a blizzard of blossoms clinging to branches.
Off the grill, a burger topped with peanut butter, blueberry jam, pepperjack cheese and bacon with a side of charred broccoli. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
There’s so much to take in. So much to experience with all of the senses. The intoxicating scent of apple blossoms, of earth and April rain. The birdsong of early morning. The green, oh, the greenery, everywhere. The furry softness of a fuzzy curled caterpillar found among decaying leaves. The taste of burgers from the grill.
A poem about rain by Aimee Hagerty Johnson outside the Northfield Ice Arena and part of Northfield’s Sidewalk Poetry Project. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2026)
And a poem imprinted in the sidewalk outside an ice arena. Poetry not about icy winter, but about welcoming rain.
April showers bring May flowers. Gardeners tend perennial flowerbeds, plan plantings, shop for annuals, buy flowering baskets. Planters are plumped with fillers, spillers and thrillers.
Low-growing spring flowers. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
We Minnesotans thrill in welcoming spring, when rain replenishes a land awakening from yet another winter.
(Promo sourced from The Grand Event Center Facebook page)
THE GOOD FOLKS of Northfield, Minnesota, are organizing again to help their neighbors. This time it’s via a 12-hour Mutual Aid Marathon from 10 am-10 pm Saturday, March 7, at The Grand Event Center in this college town south of the Twin Cities.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to organizations—such as Sharing Our Roots and Northfield Community Action Center—providing mutual aid to those in the community impacted by federal immigration enforcement.
Doors open at 10 am at the event center, 316 Washington Street, just a block off Division Street in the heart of this historic downtown. Suggested donation at the door is $10.
From 10 until noon, attendees can enjoy a breakfast with 30 percent of entree sales going to organizations doing vital work in the community. Likewise, profits from a “pay what you can” appetizer buffet, which starts at 4 pm, will also be donated.
Event planners promise a full day and evening of live music, performances, poetry, political education, and powerful speakers. See the event poster promo above for a complete schedule.
Organizers are calling upon the public to: Bring friends. Bring family. Bring your appetite and your solidarity. Come for a while or stay for the entire marathon.
As I see it, the Mutual Aid Marathon is all about neighbors helping neighbors, which is the very definition of a loving and caring community.
Mark Heiman designed the book cover. (Image sourced online)
IN A SLIM VOLUME of poetry collected by a small town Minnesota independent bookstore and printed by a small town printer, 22 area poets raise their voices in response to the massive immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota. The result is 26 powerful, empowering, strongly-worded poems that hold back nothing.
These poets unleash their fury, their fears, their frustrations, layers of intense emotions. “Let every poem be a witness,” writes my friend and former Northfield Poet Laureate Rob Hardy in his poem, “A Witness.” He writes that in the context of the fatal shooting of mother and poet, Renee Nicole Good, by a federal immigration agent on the streets of Minneapolis on January 7.
The poets and their poems plus an intro by Lindsay Ness, co-owner of The Grand Event Center. She introduced a “Words to Meet the Moment: Poets Against Fascism” poetry reading which preceded publication of this chapbook. If you find the title of a poem offensive, read the poem and you will understand the title. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo February 2026)
Two poems, “Last Words” by Susan Jaret McKinstry and “I’m Not Mad at You” by Marie Gery, quote Renee Good’s final words—”I’m not mad at you”—spoken to a federal immigration agent right before her fatal shooting.
The words within these 26 poems reflect not only individual poets’ thoughts but also a collective community reaction to ICE in Minnesota. Themes of anger, fear, unity, dignity, hope and light run throughout this poetry.
Colorful merchandise inside Mercado Local in Northfield, where I met Mar Valdecantos and read poetry with Becky Boling and D.E. Green. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
I especially appreciate the writing of two immigrants, including my friend Mar Valdecantos, who came to the U.S. from Spain many years ago. She uses humor to make a point, stating that perhaps she should cover her dark hair with a blonde wig. That would allow her to semi hide her ethnicity and allow her to feel safer while out and about in the community. Safe against racial profiling, used freely by immigration agents to stop people of color in Minnesota.
Latino immigrant Heriberto Rosas, in “Minnesota es un lugar de contrastes,” writes of whence and why he came to America, the challenges he and other immigrants have faced, and the hope and gratitude they hold. It’s an especially revealing poem written in Spanish and translated into English on the opposite page.
My poet friend D.E. (Doug) Green also writes “hope” into his poem, “A Bridge Too Far,” as he references the Civil Rights Movement and the bridge crossed, literally, “in the face of violence, cruelty and terrible hatred.” A bridge which must once again be crossed.
I picked up my copy of the chapbook at Content Bookstore after a morning of protesting in Faribault, thus the flat hair. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo by Randy Helbling)
These poems are raw, relentless, sometimes raging in content. That includes my “Fiery Resistance” and “Death of a Poet.” Words hold power. “We the people have a job to do,” writes Orick Peterson in “ICE Prowls Our Streets.” He asks us to muster our courage against the bullies, take on our neighbors’ fears, lean into each other.
Steve McCown, who died unexpectedly on the day he was to read his original poem, “Ice and Fire,” at a “Words to Meet the Moment: Poetry Against Fascism” event on January 18 in Northfield, summarizes everything well in the final line of his poem: “We can build a fire on ice.” Let me repeat his final line, with emphasis: “We can build a fire on ice.”
FYI: The 42-page chapbook, Words to Meet the Moment: Poetry Against Fascism, is for sale only at Content Bookstore in Northfield. Cost is $10. The bookstore will ship domestically at a cost of $4.99, the media mail book rate, with an additional $1 charge for each book ordered.
Content Bookstore published the chapbook with printing By All Means Graphics. The original print run is 300 books. Once expenses are paid, proceeds from sale of the chapbook will go to the Northfield Community Action Center.
“Words to Meet the Moment,” published by Content Bookstore, Northfield, Minnesota, and printed by Northfield-based By All Means Graphics.(Book cover designed by Mark Heiman)
POETRY HOLDS POWER. And perhaps no time has that been more evident in Minnesota than during the massive federal immigration enforcement, Operation Metro Surge.
In January, poets from my area of southern Minnesota gathered to read original poetry at a “Words to Meet the Moment: Poetry Against Fascism” event in Northfield. I was in Wisconsin, unable to attend. But a poet friend, Becky Boling, read my two poems, “Death of a Poet” and “Fiery Resistance.”
T-shirts for sale at Content Bookstore. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo February 2026)
Now those two poems and others read at The Grand Event Center in January have been printed in a chapbook, Words to Meet the Moment, published by Content Bookstore. That’s an independent, socially-conscious bookshop in the heart of historic downtown Northfield. Once printing costs have been covered, all proceeds from chapbook sales will be donated to the Northfield Community Action Center, a nonprofit serving the community.
The work of 20 poets, some of whom I know personally (and have read poetry with) or whom I’ve heard read, are printed therein. These are gifted poets, many with their own published collections of poetry. Several were previous poet laureates in Northfield.
I picked up this zine when I was recently at Content Bookstore. It includes three poems, “Ice and Fire” by Steve McCown, “Last Words for Renee Nicole Good” by Susan Jaret McKinstry and “A Witness” by Rob Hardy. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo February 2026)
All of us wrote in response to ICE’s presence in Minnesota and/or in reaction to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent on January 7. This was prior to the second fatal shooting, that of Alex Pretti, by ICE agents. Good was a poet, which makes this new chapbook especially meaningful.
Whether you like poetry or not, this is one collection you should read to better understand how we as Minnesotans, we as poets, have been feeling these past few months. Poetry holds power. It is a way to raise our voices against injustice, a way to express our thoughts, our feelings. A way to make a difference. A way to meet the moment.
FYI:To pre-order/order Words to Meet the Moment: Poetry Against Fascism, click here. The chapbook is priced at $10. Content Bookstore will ship the chapbook domestically for an additional cost of $4.99, the media mail book rate, plus an additional $1 per book shipped. Only one printing is planned, unless the chapbook sells quickly. Books will also be available for purchase in the store.
A hope medallion gifted to me by my friend Beth Ann many years ago. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
IN THE MIDST of the invasion of Minnesota, not just Minneapolis, by armed masked badge-less federal agents who are violently detaining and taking people, even fatally shooting them, I am trying to find hope.
And that comes to me in big and small ways. Never underestimate the power of your voice, the power of your compassionate words and actions no matter who you are, where you live.
In the speeches of legislators in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, I heard praise for the strength of Minnesotans. I heard concern for our country and our democracy. And I listened to Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith boldly, loudly call for this federal invasion to stop. That’s me paraphrasing their messages. To hear them say they’ve never felt more proud of Minnesotans brought me to tears.
A hope stone that sits on my desk. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
THE WORDS OF A POET & A MUSICIAN
Then there are the words printed on a card that arrived in my mailbox from a blog reader, who has countless times sent me uplifting notes, cards and more simply because she is a kind, compassionate, caring person. On the front of that card were these lines from poet Emily Dickinson: Hope is the thing with feathers/that perches in the soul/and sings the tune without the words/and never stops at all. Roxy has followed my blog long enough to know that “hope” is one of my favorite words.
And then there are the words penned and sung by Bruce Springsteen in “Streets of Minneapolis.” Springsteen doesn’t hold back in his just-released anti-ICE protest song. …Against smoke and rubber bullets/By the dawn’s early light/Citizens stood for justice/Their voices ringing through the night… He specifically references the whistles and phones the people of Minneapolis (and throughout Minnesota) have used to alert people to ICE’s presence and to document their actions. He unleashes strong words against ICE and federal government leaders and officials. Several people sent me links to that song because they knew I would appreciate the lyrics, the ways in which creatives can powerfully protest.
Words from Mr. Rogers in a front yard in the small town of Nerstrand, Minnesota. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
SO MANY HELPERS
Another blogger friend has uplifted me many times in recent weeks by sharing about protests, vigils and more in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lives. It helps to know that Beth and others across the country and world are lifting up Minnesotans, protesting wherever they live, fighting for what is moral and right.
Ruth, a blogger friend from Pittsburgh, is knitting red “Melt the ICE” hats using a design from the 1940s. Norwegians knit and wore the pointed, tasseled hats to visually protest against Nazi occupation of their country. Proceeds from pattern sales will go to immigrant agencies to help those impacted by the actions of ICE. Ruth and other knitters are using their talents to protest, to help.
Mr. Rogers would be proud of all the helpers.
Closer to home, while walking Wednesday morning inside a soccer dome, I shared with several people about protesting and ways to help immigrant families locally. Others in my circle have donated money, via my direction, to a local food shelf and also to one in the south metro. Volunteers are delivering food to people afraid to leave their homes because of ICE. Minnesotans all across the state are stepping up to help their neighbors.
All of this gives me hope. Hope perches. Hope sings. Hope never stops.
(Image sourced online from Content Bookstore, Northfield, Minnesota)
RENEE GOOD, fatally shot by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis on January 7, was an award-winning poet. That is fact. The federal government has flooded Minnesota with thousands of ICE agents. That, too, is fact.
According to organizers (Content Bookstore, The Grand and Northfield area poets), the event is intended to bring the community together in response to recent ICE presence in Northfield and in response to the killing of Renee Good.
There is power in poetry, in the written and spoken word. The arts in general—whether literary, visual or performing—have long been a way to meet the moment. In 2021, for example, the Ramsey County Library published This Was 2020: Minnesotans Write About Pandemics and Social Justice in a Historic Year. That collection of short prose and poetry addressed the COVID-19 pandemic, the justice for George Floyd movement and the overall political climate in our country in 2020. My poem, “Funeral During a Pandemic” was selected for publication in the collection.
While I won’t be available to participate in Sunday’s “Words to Meet the Moment” poetry reading in Northfield, I will be there in spirit. And if I am so inspired, I will work on a poem to submit. That’s an option for those who can’t attend or who don’t want to read.
“Words to Meet the Moment” is about more than just words, though. Event planners are also accepting donations for Northfield Supporting Neighbors, a grassroots organization founded to help meet the needs of local immigrants, especially for legal services.
This marks a moment in time when we can use our words, our hands, our financial resources to make a difference. Or we can do nothing. I choose meeting the moment with strength, courage, hope, action and words.
“Stand in the Shadows” public art outside the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Red Wing shares interesting local history. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
Oh, the things you discover when you least expect it. That can be said for the local history highlighted outside the Red Wing Salvation Army Thrift Store. There, imprinted upon the sidewalk, I found these words: I was born as chattel but on this corner I was an owner and bought cattle for The Equal Rights Meat Market—1897.
The Equal Rights Meat Market once stood at this location. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
And that’s how I learned about Red Wing’s first Black-white owned business opened in 1897 at the site of the current-day thrift shop on the corner of Plum and Fifth streets. Jeremiah Patterson, born into slavery, and activist Julia Bullard Nelson co-owned the meat market in this Mississippi riverside community in southern Minnesota.
I love when communities pull hidden history out of the archives and publicly share it in creative ways. If not for this “Stand in the Shadows” public arts project, I would have had no idea that the thrift shop I was about to enter stood on the site of The Equal Rights Meat Market.
That name, oh, that name. Equal Rights. It fits. Nelson was a leader in women’s suffrage. For a white woman and a Black man (freed from slavery) to go into business together in the late 19th century, especially in predominantly white rural Minnesota, speaks to their strength, confidence and courage.
But then again, the two forged ahead on multiple fronts. Nelson taught African Americans in government Freedmen Schools down South when that was not necessarily well-received during post Civil War Reconstruction. Patterson was her student. He eventually moved to Minnesota to manage Nelson’s farm south of Red Wing near Belvidere. Patterson would marry a local white woman, Verna Gaylord, in 1886 with the interracial couple having nine children.
A summary of the story behind The Equal Rights Meat Market is showcased at the thrift shop. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
I considered all of this fascinating as I researched information based on that sidewalk message and on a plaque posted outside the Salvation Army thrift store.
Similar historical info and a sidewalk imprint are also located by Red Wing’s St. James Hotel, although I missed seeing that. That poem reads: Bondage and war behind me/Back and forth, trunks and trolley, from train, from steamboat to the St. James Hotel/I landed here, worked and forged a life. This honors another Black man, Joseph Parker, enslaved in Kentucky and later a porter at the hotel. He is the great grandfather of Seitu Ken Jones, a multidisciplinary artist from St. Paul and lead on the “Stand in the Shadows” public art in Red Wing.
As I searched out the backstory, I learned that the Patterson family eventually left Red Wing, after the Ku Klux Klan became active in the area in the early 1920s. It’s an unsavory part of Minnesota history that some would prefer remain hidden. I’d rather know about such hatred than pretend it never happened.
My shadow falls on the sidewalk as I photograph the words. This art also includes a sidewalk silhouette although I don’t recall seeing it. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
On this day in Red Wing outside the Salvation Army Thrift Store, I learned about two strong individuals who owned The Equal Rights Meat Market. Although the business remained open for only a short time, it leaves a legacy of strength and equality in this community.
This public arts project reminds us that history cannot, should not, be erased, rewritten or hidden. Those words—“born as chattel” to “I was an owner and bought cattle for The Equal Rights Meat Market”—need to be imprinted not only upon a sidewalk, but also upon our collective spirits. Especially now. And in recognition of civil rights leader and activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who is honored annually, this year on Monday, January 19.
This photo reflects how I am feeling today. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
ALL OF THIS is beyond belief, yet it isn’t.
I texted that to a friend today. “This” refers to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. The governor of Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis, the police chief of Minneapolis all publicly predicted several weeks ago that something like “this” could happen during ICE’s ramped up immigration enforcement here.
I’m not surprised either. Tensions have been building, not only in Minnesota but across the country, as ICE swarms cities and communities. ICE tactics seem unnecessarily aggressive and sometimes violent. I see zero humanity. Zero compassion. Zero care. I wonder about the vetting, the training, the actions, the accountability of these ICE agents.
Now in the aftermath of Renee’s killing, the FBI, which originally agreed to work with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on investigating the fatal shooting, has backtracked. The FBI will be the sole investigator and will not provide any investigative information to the BCA. It is impossible for me to trust the process since, shortly after the shooting, Renee Good was tagged “a domestic terrorist” by the feds. Judgment was already made.
(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
Nothing I’ve read or heard indicates to me that Renee was anything but a wife, mom, writer and poet. Recently-moved to Minneapolis, the 37-year-old was young enough to be my daughter. She had a full life ahead of her.
Because I am also a wife, mom, writer and poet, I relate personally and professionally to Renee. I am grieving the senseless loss of not only a human being, but of another creative. In 2020, Renee won an Academy of American Poets Prize for her poem, “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.” That’s quite an accomplishment for a then-undergrad at Old Dominion University. She graduated with an English degree in 2020. Today I think of all the poems this poet will never write, all the hugs and kisses this mom will never give to her three children.
A partial quote by Georgia Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis, photographed several years agoin Dundas, Minnesota, and fitting for today. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
“…May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace. My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”
I think, as a creative, that Renee would have appreciated those well-crafted words. I do. In continuing to process this tragedy, I feel uplifted by those of you who have encouraged not only me, but Minnesotans as a whole. Your solidarity, your supportive actions, your caring words all matter while we work through this collective trauma. Thank you.
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Reflecting from Minnesota on the killing of Renee Good, wife, mom, writer & poet January 8, 2026
Tags: Academy of American Poets, commentary, death, fatal shooting, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Minneapolis, Minnesota, news, Old Dominion University, opinion, poet, poetry, Renee Nicole Good, trauma
ALL OF THIS is beyond belief, yet it isn’t.
I texted that to a friend today. “This” refers to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. The governor of Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis, the police chief of Minneapolis all publicly predicted several weeks ago that something like “this” could happen during ICE’s ramped up immigration enforcement here.
I’m not surprised either. Tensions have been building, not only in Minnesota but across the country, as ICE swarms cities and communities. ICE tactics seem unnecessarily aggressive and sometimes violent. I see zero humanity. Zero compassion. Zero care. I wonder about the vetting, the training, the actions, the accountability of these ICE agents.
Now in the aftermath of Renee’s killing, the FBI, which originally agreed to work with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on investigating the fatal shooting, has backtracked. The FBI will be the sole investigator and will not provide any investigative information to the BCA. It is impossible for me to trust the process since, shortly after the shooting, Renee Good was tagged “a domestic terrorist” by the feds. Judgment was already made.
Nothing I’ve read or heard indicates to me that Renee was anything but a wife, mom, writer and poet. Recently-moved to Minneapolis, the 37-year-old was young enough to be my daughter. She had a full life ahead of her.
Because I am also a wife, mom, writer and poet, I relate personally and professionally to Renee. I am grieving the senseless loss of not only a human being, but of another creative. In 2020, Renee won an Academy of American Poets Prize for her poem, “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.” That’s quite an accomplishment for a then-undergrad at Old Dominion University. She graduated with an English degree in 2020. Today I think of all the poems this poet will never write, all the hugs and kisses this mom will never give to her three children.
I appreciate a three-paragraph statement released by Old Dominion President Brian O. Hemphill. It reads in part:
“…May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace. My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”
I think, as a creative, that Renee would have appreciated those well-crafted words. I do. In continuing to process this tragedy, I feel uplifted by those of you who have encouraged not only me, but Minnesotans as a whole. Your solidarity, your supportive actions, your caring words all matter while we work through this collective trauma. Thank you.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling