Conversations with groups outside the mainstream

2006
Spring	Facing the Flesh-Eating Undead and Other Disasters	Are you prepared to face the zombocalypse? How 'bout just a snowstorm?
Summer	Where the Door Stays Open	The 3D Resource Book Center aims to include us all
Fall	Using Bricks and Mortar to Build Community	Downtown Teens learn to take pride in their own neighborhood's jobs, well done
2005
Jan	Inside Out Loud	University museums exist to foster community dialogue
Mar	Who Are the People in Our Neighborhoods?	Ten years and going strong for the annual SLACO Neighborhoods Conference, where you can learn a lot
May	Pairing Off in the Creative Class	A new St. Louis social group pursues passion with a purpose
Sep	On Fire for Ferguson	How one group of fun-loving neighbors met decline with determination... and a side of frozen custard
Dec	Medal to the Pedals	Fans mass in the Lou to celebrate the masters of the steel guitar
2004
Feb	Parceling Out Pieces of Peace	From St. Louis classrooms to the global community, an innovative art project sends out seeds of peace to the winds, hoping a harvest will return
May	Where the Rubber Meets the Road	The ninth annual St. Louis Neighborhoods Conference brought together theory and actual practice in a way that's invaluable for neighborhood activists
Jun	Many Nations, but Not One Map	The International Institute marks 85 years of helping immigrants and refugees start their new lives in America, but leaves old divisions like maps and flags behind
Nov	Close-Knit	Saturday mornings fly by spent among girls — and the occasional guy! — who purl
Dec	A City Built to Music	A cadre of avant-garde musicians once polarized the city's jazz scene, but now is revered
2003
Jan	Breaking Dumpstered Bread Together	In an unassuming pocket of Old North St. Louis, the overlapping worlds of Karen House and Dorothy Day Cohousing Community are creating radical community
Feb	Brown Like Me	Life in St. Louis became infinitely richer when I realized there were young South Asians somewhere besides the Indian grocery store
Mar	The Science, Psychology and Truth behind Venus Envy	Arty sisters — and their supporters — are doin' it for themselves, now in three cities
Apr	Bound by Books	An ever-growing, international community of booklovers — who may or may not ever meet — has its epicenter in Missouri, and its most prolific member in St. Louis
May	Favored Corners	Can you put actual St. Louis coordinates with your mental "happy place"? Marijean can.
Jun	Free to Just Be	For the young people and their adult advisors who come to Growing American Youth, the space to be themselves is the best gift of all
Jul	Suburban Diversification	Cookie cutters made the houses, but the people in them break the mold
Aug	X-treme Accordions Serenade St. Louis	Bosnian music blends the sounds of Gypsies, Latin America, the Middle East and a European outdoor café into a delectable soup
Sep	Fair Lords and Ladies	Wondering what those armored fighters are doing in your local park? Nothing less than competing for royalty
Oct	LaClede Town: Impressions of a Native Son	A utopian community where all races and walks of life live in harmony? It may not be in our future, but it happened in our past.
Nov	Why People Remain in Struggling Neighborhoods	Ever have friends or family reassure you that "you'll be able to afford something nice in the suburbs someday?" They don't know what they're missing.
Dec	Improving St. Louis Schools, One Box of Crayons at a Time	You've heard it time and again: the schools have to be better before the community will thrive. So what if kids lack even the most fundamental tools? Meet KidSmart.
2002
Jan	Getting Back to Our Roots	It's about a lot more than hair at The Loop's NAPPS salon, a hub of the African American community
Feb	Sacred Washington Avenue	Amid the worldly hubbub of construction crews and club kids, one new resident finds the spirit of his neighborhood
Mar	Acting Out	The DisAbility Project challenges audiences to check their assumptions at the door
Apr	Gay St. Louis	Out and about in one of the most gay-friendly cities in the Midwest
May	Brick by Brick	A small new book celebrates the rock-solid foundation beneath some otherwise desolate parts of town
Jun	The St. Louis Punk Community: Virtual or Real?	The blossoming of an online punk presence actually strengthens the "real" relationships among fans, from kids exiled to suburbia to band members rocking out all over the bi-state area
Jul	The View from Stockton House	A 24-year resident of Grand Center shares the development lessons he's learned from watching the transformation of his neighborhood
Aug	Secret Society of Those from Somewhere Else	St. Louis can have a way of neatly dividing folks into two camps: natives and other
Sep	Lunch and a Side of Hope	From its start 14 years ago with just seven clients, Food Outreach has grown to be a critical link in keeping St. Louisans with HIV/AIDS on their feet
Oct	Discovering St. Louis Communities	An upcoming series at the Missouri Historical Society offers St. Louisans the chance to see our own city with new eyes
Nov	The Superhero of Shaw	Fed up with the punks and the no-good-niks? One man in the Shaw neighborhood was, too...and he and his neighbors did something about it.
Dec	Fort Gondo's 100 Yards of Chaos	Are you here for the art classes? The battle of the bands? The performance piece? The book signing? The puppet show? Whatever it is, watch out for the dogs.
2001
Jan	Still Life	A local filmmaker's striking look at his former northside neighborhood
Feb	Everything Old is New Again	New Urban St. Louis and the New (Old) American Dream
Mar	Grand Human Being	From prerecorded history to today's development drama, Grand Boulevard has seen it all
Apr	Tending to a Writing Community	How squaring off poets against fiction writers builds the ties that bind
May	If They Can Sew, I Can Dance	Stitching new Americans into the fabric of their community
Jun	Senior Moments	Sharing their life stories is all a part of the day at the Grand Oakhill Community Center's senior program
Jul	No Silence in Asylum	Ogoni activist Noble Obani focuses his words on the future of his homeland
Aug	Walking Through the Open Door	A community counts on an all-volunteer art studio for therapy and to get them through the day
Sep	Don't Fence Me In	A St. Louis transplant uncovers some unwritten community rules in her simple quest for backyard privacy
Oct	A New Definition of "Leadership"	An upcoming conference will serve as a launching pad for citizens and real community leaders to tackle the challenges facing St. Louis
Nov	Judging By Their Covers	The first-ever book fair at Taproots School of the Arts celebrates the process, the product, the cover, the content and the book-making community. Oh, and books that spring like frogs.
Dec	Common Space of a Different Sort	Cohousing in St. Louis is a newish twist on the tried-and-true notions of what community is all about

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