#block parties

[hclib]

National Night Out, 1990

Since the 1980s, many local communities have gathered with their neighbors on the first Tuesday in August to celebrate National Night Out or Night to Unite. In 1990, the Elliot Park neighborhood hosted several National Night Out gatherings featuring everything from a march for neighborhood peace to raffle drawings to volleyball matches. These attendance sheets completed by the event hosts and included in our Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc. Records (M/A 0265) summarize these get togethers in the hosts' own words.

Attendance sheets like these were compiled from 620 National Night Out events held across Minneapolis in 1990. With over 20,000 people attending, Minneapolis won a national award for the highest National Night Out participation that year.

The Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc. Records is one of many neighborhood archival collections available for use in Special Collections.

[everydayanth]

I woke up with so many questions today!

How are snails dealing with this quarantine? Are they faring better than slugs?

What about turtles? Do they just tuck and roll?

If Millennials and Gen Z are going through an “extended adolescence” does that mean YA will start going up to, like, 25? Will we stop having to save the world by 19 and be happy or die? That would be nice.

What about farmers? Our farmer families aren’t doing so great right about now, what about people farming coffee and cocoa, where there’s so much corruption and slavery?

Will people start to plant more gardens? I think we will. Will we stand back up and move forward with new skepticism about what it is we want or need right now and what is a pleasure to make ourselves or consume slower? I hope we will. With little garden plots for lawns and block parties so Karen can trade her zucchini and tomatoes for some of Gretchen’s oddly sweet lemons. I think this will remind us what communities are, what neighborhoods are good for, and how wealth circulates. 

Now all I’m thinking of is Mr. Rogers and all these sad stories I read of people getting through tough times with him, but my dumb brain has imprinted the “you got a friend in me” song over the Mr. Rogers song because my grandma used to sing it while we watched after school or something. 

I dunno brains are weird. There’s some questions. What do you think, snails or slugs?

[ts-56]

Hot Fun In The Summer Time

[hclib]

Party With Your Neighbors

Tonight, August 7, is National Night Out. Neighborhoods all over the country will gather over food, fun, and conversation to build community, promote neighborhood safety, and get to know their neighbors. Last year, Minneapolis ranked #1 for National Night Out among all U.S. cities with a population over 250,000. Over 1,500 events were registered. 

The Hennepin County Library Digital Collections is filled with neighborhood related content--from neighborhood newspapers to photographs, like those above of block parties in South Minneapolis in the 1980s and 90s. In many instances, individuals are not identified. See someone you know? Tell us!

[hclib]

Minneapolis Community Picnic Day

On August 1, 1945, Minneapolis celebrated Community Picnic Day with two large community picnics: the 27th annual north side picnic at North Commons, and the 24th annual south side picnic at Powderhorn Park. In addition to food and concessions, activities included doll buggy parades, husband and wife calling contests, dancing competitions, sports games, races, comedy acts, fireworks, and more. Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey also spoke at both events.

This year, in 2017, National Night Out also falls on August 1st. Find your block party in the Minneapolis listing of registered events. Get out and meet your neighbors, and perhaps you’ll be inspired by the 1945 picnic throwback to do a little street-side jitterbug!

Photos of the 1945 community picnics from the Minneapolis Newspaper Photographs Collection, available in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections.

[luvmesumus]

[noneknxws]

FUCK

WE HAVE A BLOCK PARTY TODAY BUT- BUT-

MY PURPLED AND JACK MCC :(

[wilder368]

As a kid growing up in Brooklyn

I remember my old block where I lived had 3 or 4 block parties in one summer beginning on Memorial Day and the last on Labor Day