THE BROKEN BEGINNINGS

Scroll down for the first images and start-up remarks my students posted on the blog, as they began formulating their BROKEN MIDWEST project work for the semester.  From these beginnings they wrote and revised the work posted later.
--Barrie Jean Borich

Former Glory

When I look at this grain elevator, I see the history and former glory of my neighborhood. More attractive than researching the building’s owner, its purpose, or its future, I like to imagine its back-story and former backdrop.

Dorothy Day Center

At the heart of St. Paul, there's a dead zone. The streets are empty. Many of the towers have high vacancy rates. The city feels empty, ghostly and full of sorrow to me. When I was a teenager, we went downtown on the weekends. Now, after dark, there are small spots of activity and other zones, at bus stops, where teenagers fight.

July 2008

July 2008--

My brother-in-law, Jim, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme stage IV. These photos were taken a day or two after surgical resection of Jim's brain tumor. In the days after this grim diagnosis, grappling with an uncertain future, my sister, Sara, and her beloved husband took respite in sleep. Day and night they retired for countless siestas, often entwined, dreaming cures.

Integrity

I came across this old American barn when in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is situated on a plot of land, right near a creek, across from a large field which appeared to be free from any sort of farming.

"There's a meadow I can't stop coming back to" - Carl Phillips

There's a place I can't stop coming back to. A short walk from my house there's an opening in a fence just off the street. I've walked down these broken stairs, this wooded path to the river more times than I can remember. I call this place White Sand Beach, but it's more than that. It's solace, it's my city, it's part of home.

Barren Pond

This pond with surrounding park is located in Battle Creek-Ramsey County. The park is framed by Suburban Avenue-north, White Bear Avenue-west, Upper Afton Road-south, and Ruth Street-east. The pond once provided habitat for egrets, herons, loons, Canada geese, and mallards.

Don't Tread on me

Tripod Wonder

When I think of landscapes that represent home to me, I think of the lands that surround me, but I also think of the bodies of beings that nurture in me a sense of home. Olive is one of those beings. We adopted Olive from a rescue organization just a few weeks ago.

Tesserae of Pepin County

House and Valley from County Road N, Pepin, County, Wisconsin

Public View

This house sits in a wide valley between two glacier ridges. Over the hill to the east is the Chippewa flowage and river.

To the west and south, less than fifteen miles is Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River. The house is built on the slope of the eastern hill.

Just north of the house is a spring that feeds a creek that meanders along the edge of the valley, flowing south and emptying into the Mississippi River.

The view to the west is farm fields and the wooded hillsides.

Hicks House on County Road N, Pepin County, Wisconsin

Broken Pig's Eye

These photos were taken near Pig's Eye Lake along the Mississippi river, just southeast of Downtown Saint Paul.

 

Nearness of history
One of the things that appeals to me about this place is simply to see "Pig's Eye" on a map or a road sign. This seems to make the history of Saint Paul closer. The lake is not far from the location the bootlegger Pig's Eye Pete's bar (which gave the town the one-time name of Pig's Eye).

The Banbury Swan

Steve Bateman’s Watch Swan stands in front of Banbury Place, staring out over the Eau Claire River. An enormous guardian of the once broken.

The word “broken” can be optimistic if it is in search of healing. I like to think of it as a transient word.

Haze in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Those of us who have lived in Minnesota for any amount of time are familiar with the one million acres in northeast Minnesota, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). It is a parcel of land, first home to the Ojibwa, and later traders and then foresters. In 1978, the land of lakes and trees, habitat for thousands of species of wildlife, was set aside as protected national park land, and its use is regulated for minimum impact.

However, despite such efforts, it is still susceptible to the same things that ails our earth's inner cities-- air contamination.

COMING SOON!

THE BROKEN MIDWEST--images of beauty and brokenness in the landscapes we consider "home."