Last Word

How Small We’ve Become

December 11th, 2019

By Waylon Hedegaard
retiringwithcats@gmail.com

When I think about grandmothers, I think of a kindly woman with a plate of cookies in an old fashioned kitchen, but I’m not sure why. For my grandmother, none of this was even remotely true.

Except for the cookies. There were always cookies. Sometimes they even had sugar… but that’s another story.

My grandmother lived on a farm in Eastern Montana. She was small but tough, that ornery kind of tough that makes those around her nervous, and…

Read more...


Routine fatigue

December 4th, 2019

By Zach Nerpel
zachnerpel@gmail.com

What fugue was this which ferried me from Fall into our now and immediately miserable Winter? Where had I been this entire season? How much time had passed and what had I experienced? What had I learned?

The last time I had written to this publication, it was about unfulfilling and wasted Summers. How fitting it is, then, that Fall was so meaningless itself that I never felt the need to relieve myself on paper the entire period?

But was it so…

Read more...


​Dr. Snyder’s 20 Tips to Topple Tyranny

December 4th, 2019

“Because oil and gas are found all over the freaking place…companies need a rudimentary foreign policy to maximize…their ability to produce their product; (they need)…stability, access, control, simplicity. Countries may come and go, but oil and gas companies need to think bigger than that: …so the longer the relevant foreign ruler is in power, the better. And if the local autocrat is …on the payroll, no one’s going to bother anyone about cleaning up any mess that oil production…

Read more...


The Empire, Trump and Intra-Ruling Class Conflict

November 13th, 2019

Daily Trump Cartoon

Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

Over the past few months President Trump has unilaterally by Tweet and telephone began to dismantle the U.S. military’s involvement in the Middle East. The irony is amazing, because in a general overarching narrative sense, this is what the marginalized antiwar movement has been trying to do for decades. — John Grant (1)

Prof. Harry Targ, in his important piece “United States foreign policy: yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” (MR online, October 23,…

Read more...


There is no such thing as ‘well-intended’ Misogyny

November 13th, 2019

By Amido Jusu
amidujusu@live.com

As much as I wanted someone else—especially a woman of color—to write such an article, I also felt like it needed to be said urgently. The kind of misogyny Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (commonly known as T.I.) engaged in regarding his daughter’s virginity is a sin that has been plaguing black men in America since the inception of racist ideas that essentially defined both black masculinity and black femininity. It will continue to be a sin unless it’s…

Read more...


​Brexit: heck of a high note to hit

October 9th, 2019

ro-EU protests outside Parliament, August 2019 - photograph provided by William Southworth

By William Southworth
wsouthwo@cord.edu

The United Kingdom has a new boss. 

Considered to by some to be a British counterpart to Trump, Boris Johnson is riding a wave of political discontent with a can-do attitude and bubbly stage persona. He opened his inaugural speech with a powerful and politically charged promise. 

After ‘three long years of indecision’ this new Prime Minister´s government will deliver Brexit with or without a deal by the 31st of October. He will do this by simply…

Read more...


​Dr. Snyder’s 20 Step Defense for Real/Intended Victims of Trump’s Toy Hitlerism

October 2nd, 2019

Cartoon by Daily Trump

“In the middle of Europe in the middle of the twentieth century, the Nazi and Soviet regimes murdered some fourteen million people…This is a history of political mass murder. The fourteen million were all victims of a Soviet or Nazi killing policy, often of an interaction between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but never casualties of the war between them…The distinction between concentration camps and killing sites cannot be made perfectly: people were executed and people were…

Read more...


The arts are thriving in the Metro

September 25th, 2019

Award winning potter, Brad Bachmeier, pit firing his pottery at his studio - photograph by C.S. Hagen.

By Dayna Del Val
dayna@theartspartnership.net

Welcome to HPR’s big art issue! I was delighted at the invitation to write a guest column for this issue because, as you may know, the work we do at The Arts Partnership (TAP) is all in service to #supportlocalart and the artists who make it. And it’s fun to think about readers of HPR being immersed in a full issue of much of the art that makes our Metro community so great.

Whether you love music: rock, jazz, classical, instrumental or…

Read more...


How FAR You Can GO

September 25th, 2019

Andrew Maus

By Andy Maus
amaus@plainsart.org

When I started working at Plains Art Museum in 2000, I worked at the Museum’s visitor services desk – greeting visitors, answering phones, and selling items in the store. I was just getting started, so I didn’t have a lot of perspective, but one thing was certain – this museum did not fit my narrow understanding of what an art museum is. Isn’t an art museum just a place where old things go to die? I had never seen an art museum that did so much…

Read more...


In Intra-Elite Battle: Dems Preferred the ‘Stache to the Donald

September 18th, 2019

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

While actual leftists were elated by Bolton’s ouster, corporate Democrats were publicly circumspect and even critical, using terms like, abrupt, chaos in the White House, disarray in foreign policy, unstable situation and even “I’m legitimately shaken.”

In part, this response is because expressing unqualified relief would be giving Trump a boost. However, the motives behind these reactions are more disturbing and more sinister. None other than…

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry Bismarck Tracker Pixel for Entry Blackbird Tracker Pixel for Entry artfest1 Tracker Pixel for Entry artfest2 Tracker Pixel for Entry Hjemkomst Tracker Pixel for Entry artfest3

Recently in:

By Bryce Vincent Haugen There are three Fargo Park Board seats up for election June 9. Park Board President Vicki Dawson and long-time member Dr. Joe Deutsch announced their reelection bids, but board member Aaron Hill is vacating…

By Michael M. Miller Francie M. Berg, native of Hettinger, N.D., edited an impressive book, “Ethnic Heritage in North Dakota,” published in 1983. She grew up on a ranch near Miles City, Montana. Her son, Richard Berg, is…

Thursday, April 23, 7 p.m.Fargodome, 1800 University Dr. N, FargoHeralded as "The Nicest Man in Stand-Up" by The Atlantic, Nate Bargatze is also one of the top-grossing comedians, breaking both streaming and attendance records. Now…

By Sabrina Hornung In the last week of March, we heard about an AI education droid visiting the White House as the first lady made a pitch to replace teachers with androids. In an interview with conservative commentator Benny…

About the leader who sits so far-right from God he can’t see Him I have been reading Harvard PHD Heather Cox Richardson for more than a decade because she knows how important Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is in the study…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gion A brand new food event called the "ONE BITE Challenge" will launch in downtown Fargo on May 23. Rocky Schneider, executive director of the Downtown Community Partnership told us more. HPR: Hi Rocky. Thank you for…

By John ShowalterAs hip-hop started to make its way into the national spotlight in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was largely split into two camps, “East Coast” and “West Coast”. Not content to be left out of a…

By Greg CarlsonKristen Stewart’s critically well-received directorial debut should do better in its second life on digital streaming platforms and VOD than it did during the very limited theatrical release it received stateside…

Friday, May 8 - Sunday, May 10, 2-8 p.m.Brewhalla, 1702 1st Ave. N., FargoAmarok Tattoo is working with our pals at Drekker Brewing/Brewhalla to celebrate ink and everything odd and a little macabre. See some of the best in the…

Saturday, January 31, 6:30-9 p.m.Transfiguration Fitness, 764 34th St. N., Unit P, FargoAn enchanting evening celebrating movement and creativity in a staff-student showcase. This is a family-friendly event showcasing pole, aerial…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By Ellie Liverani In November 2025, the FDA initiated the removal of the “black box” warning from Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). The “black box” warning is a FAD safety warning for healthcare providers and patients…

January 31, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.Viking Ship Park, 202 1st Ave. N., Moorhead2026 marks 10 years of frosty fun! Enjoy sauna sessions with Log the Sauna, try Snowga (yoga in the snow), take a guided snowshoe nature hike, listen to live…

By Jim Fuglie Okay, here I go again, warning (whining? complaining?) about another threat to the North Dakota badlands. Sorry. Please put up with me for a few hundred more words. Now, some folks I don’t think want to put a…