Stories That Build Community
Each quarter we curate a select group of stories around a single theme.
Browse each issue below or check out every single story published at Northern Spotlight.
Journey
spring 2024 Issue
A journey can be full of excitement, pain, fear, or joy. They can be round trip or one way. But no matter what, a journey should leave its mark on you. And for a lucky few, it can leave a mark on the world around you.
Our Spring 2024 issue features two stories of people that traveled halfway around the world to Minnesota. Now they’re working to make an impact on their community both at home and in the country of their birth. We also interview Mark Brown about his documentary "The Fishing Hat Bandit," and the creative journey he undertook over seven years to complete the movie.
The Collective
Summer 2023 Issue
Communities and organizations grow by creating space for others, encouraging them to share their voice, their ideas, and their perspective.
This issue features a community organization shaped by the community that benefits from its services, an activist group that inspired artists to come to their aid, and a rural arts organization trying to reach a new generation. Plus, we start a brand new podcast series featuring individuals that make up a vibrant, diverse suburban community.
Forward
Summer 2022 Issue
How do we move forward—to affect positive change —while history weighs on us? See four new stories that look back and look ahead, featuring a filmmaker and a grandfather grappling with racial reckonings, a prolific bank robber looking to make amends, a farmer maintaining the land for future generations, and the next set of leaders shaping policy and supporting people with intellectual and development disabilities.
Advocacy
Spring 2022 Issue
See three new stories of advocacy, featuring an advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a CSA program that sustains the land in Meskwaki Nation, and a class celebrating and teaching Black history.
Hidden
Winter 2021 Issue
Stories include a group bringing awareness to racism and discrimination that exists on the Iron Range, and a group that promotes the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Healing
Summer 2021 Issue
Healing can happen in an instant or over a lifetime. Stories include a mobile vaccine clinic bringing covid vaccines to underserved areas, a path toward racial healing through community, and the final episode looking back on one family’s tragic encounter with polio.
Uncertainty
Spring 2021 Issue
New eras can foster opportunities but also uncertainty about how best to plan and move forward. Stories include an LGBT Soccer bar trying to move forward during covid lockdown, a look back on the 2017 presidential inauguration, a non-profit rescuing food, and a new podcast shedding light on farming issues in the midwest.
Transition
Fall 2020 Issue
We look at transitions—both welcomed and forced upon us—and what meaning we hope to gain from them. Stories include a college initiative offering opportunities previously unthought for High school graduates, the conclusion to our feature on a caregiver caring for her grandmother, a teaser for a new documentary on muslim women impacting politics, and the second part to our podcast series on looking back on the impact the polio epidemic had on one family.
Upheaval
Summer 2020 Issue
Upheavals, like covid, can completely upended our lives, but others can point a new way forward. Stories include an incubator farm, a small town food shelf adjusting to Covid-19, a caregiver and her grandparent shelter-in-place, and more.
Beginnings
Spring 2020 Issue
Welcome to the first installment of Northern Spotlight. Our first set of stories include an urban mushroom farm on the brink, a community-oriented boxing gym, an Amazon organizer, using art to help with mental health, and a donation-based cafe.