Lowertown.info was launched in 2014 as an online visitor’s guide, news magazine, and community information portal serving the arts neighborhood of Lowertown, Saint Paul, Minnesota. The site also served as a place of record of the changes Lowertown went through in the last decade. The site created special archives relating to the gentrification of the neighborhood—the JAX Wake, Domination Corporation, interviews with Lowertown pioneers, the pandemic on top of the existing struggles of an artistic community—for those interested in what happened to Lowertown. This project and its associated Twitter feeds will be wrapping up by 1 May 2022. I can’t thank enough the people who supported this project over the years—artists, individual community members, galleries, and local performing collectives…. Thank you so much.

Welcome to the second episode of “This Is #Lowertown”, a podcast created by Lowertown.info—an online visitor’s guide, news magazine, and community information portal serving the arts neighborhood of Lowertown, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Hosted by the editor of Lowertown.info, Nigel Parry, this show was recorded on 18th February, 2022. This podcast has been relaunched with a music focus to support Lowertown’s performing artists, which has the added bonus of also making it easier to produce regular episodes. Our main news feature looks at the closing of the Black Dog Café and music from Lowertown musicians and bands, including Eric Carranza and Jest, Steve Kenny, Goodnight Ritual, Jerry Kosak, and Pocket of Resistance.

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Minnesota Department of Health—Today, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) began accepting January 2021 appointments at its community testing sites across the state. Each site offers safe, no-barrier COVID-19 testing at no cost to participants. Appointments are strongly encouraged, but not required. In order to help prevent further spread of the virus, the Minnesota Department of Health has set up over 20 semi-permanent community testing sites statewide. These sites allow Minnesotans to get tested near where they live so they can make informed decisions to protect their families and communities.

Nigel Parry, Lifeline Tablets—We’ve all seen the heartbreaking stories about how families are not able to say goodbye to their isolated relatives, dying of COVID-19 in the hospitals, and how healthcare workers have been holding up their own phones so that families can say goodbye one last time. Addressing the problem of patients’ isolation is not cost-prohibitive. Amazon Fire tablets can be purchased for $50 a piece. Paired with a gooseneck stand and headphones with a mic, a kit costs just $100.