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It’s been a long year under our current authoritarian regime. Among the innumerable brutal attacks on civility and democracy have been the invasions of United States cities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It began in Los Angeles–where it’s never left–and soon bled into Washington, D.C. and Chicago. Brutality against our neighbors continued in other cities, with the current surge not only persisting in Minneapolis but growing in places like small-town Maine. The targeted areas aren’t coincidental. They’re blue cities with large immigrant communities.
ICE had its deadliest year in 2025, with at least 32 people dead while in custody. At the rate ICE is going, they will likely surpass that number in 2026. Two point-blank murders by ICE in Minneapolis have already accounted for two of the three total homicides in the city so far this year.
From rural Maine to Los Angeles and everywhere in between, people have been showing up in support of their vulnerable and targeted neighbors. This has been evident in every state-occupied initiative in the last 12 months, though it has become especially documented, observed, and championed in Minneapolis.
Whether you live in the Twin Cities or not, you can help support those who are fighting back on the ground. There are so many worthy causes and organizations helping to support both those with privilege and those who ICE is targeting. But in an effort to offer specific ideas and tie them to the bookish community, here are a few ways to support our Minneapolis neighbors through literary activism.
 Publishing for Minnesota AuctionA large group of authors, illustrators, agents, and editors has joined forces to auction off an array of goods–ranging from signed books to manuscript reviews, video chats, and a whole lot more. The auction, which kicked off on Wednesday, January 28, runs through tonight, January 30. Item winners will then donate to one of several organizations linked by the auction organizers. Fundraising auctions like these have raised tens of thousands of dollars in the past, and this one is likely to meet or exceed those totals. You can find a complete list of available auction items here. |
 Red Balloon’s CAN MN and Local Schools Book DriveRed Balloon Bookshop, a children’s bookstore in St. Paul, has been collecting books for Community Aid Network Minnesota and several local schools. These books go to children who are staying home amidst the violence being perpetrated on city residents. There are two ways to participate in this donation drive. You can purchase a book (or more than one) from Red Balloon for them to donate, using the code CANMN20. You can do this in person if you’re local or online if you’re not. There is a specific request for Spanish-language books. You can also make a monetary donation through the Red Balloon Bookshop. A Book of My Own Donation Drive A Book Of My Own is a Minnesota nonprofit that ships curated book collections to families in need across the state. Throughout January and continuing into February, they are collecting monetary donations to curate collections for Minneapolis families. Like Red Balloon, their focus is especially on Spanish-language books. You can make a donation here and know that your contributions will help bring literature to some of the most in-need children in the Twin Cities. |
 Support Dreamhaven BooksA brutal and powerful image surfacing on social media over the last week is one of 70-year-old comics retailer Greg Ketter being tear-gassed while standing up against ICE. You can see him here yelling at ICE agents for destroying his community and disrupting the lives of his neighbors. Kettler is the owner of Dreamhaven Books, which was vandalized in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Kettler ran a successful GoFundMe that year to help restore the shop, which you can read about here. As of writing, the store’s website is down, likely due to increased traffic and attention. You can learn more about Dreamhaven on their Instagram account, and once their website is back up, consider making a purchase or two in support. You can also make purchases through their eBay account and their AbeBooks accounts. On Dreamhaven’s Facebook page, Kettler wrote about his experience and the increased attention to the prior GoFundMe campaign. He asks folks who want to take action not to donate there but to offer that money to local food banks instead. This is where you can marry two actions at once–support Kettler’s shop with a purchase and make a monetary donation to a Minneapolis area food bank. Shop Independent Bookstores While consumerism isn’t the best answer for helping in times of crisis, it is a meaningful action when applied to small businesses. Many of Minnesota’s independent bookshops have seen their traffic decrease, and many have been deeply supportive of anti-ICE efforts, including participating in the General Strike. Some shops to consider purchasing your next reads through include: + Birchbark Books, owned and operated by Native author Louise Erdrich + Big Hill Books, the owner of which shared this powerful message about the love and care she has for her Somali neighbors and customers. + Moon Palace Books, which has displayed a giant anti-ICE sign outside its building and which is currently helping collect Spanish-language books for a local book drive. + Black Garnet Books, owned by a queer Black woman, with a focus on inclusive literature for teens and adults. + Planting People, Growing Justice, a newer social justice focused bookstore (which began and still exists as a small publishing business as well), owned and operated by a Black woman with a focus on diverse children’s titles. + Wild Rumpus Books has been coordinating several give-back campaigns and helped coordinate a donation drive to get kids in the community art supplies during this trying time. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for upcoming projects. Help Fund Local Classrooms Always a decisive action, choosing to support a local Twin Cities classroom through DonorsChoose is one way to ensure educators and their students feel seen during this time. School has been disrupted not just once this year in Minneapolis. It’s been rattled twice–this school year began with the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School. Here are a few current DonorsChoose projects focused on diversity and equity, worthy of a few dollars. DonorsChoose projects are meaningful because teachers select them, and the supplies are sent to them based on their requests. In other words, these aren’t set up to be free-for-all donation centers for supplies or books; that becomes a quick burden for already overworked educators. Teachers instead develop their project, list out the exact supplies and materials they want, and the funds they raise get them only those items. First, check out this map and navigate to see what educators are requesting across the city—the darker blue the icon, the more in need the school. If you click on a school, you’ll be able to see not just the complete projects being requested; you can donate money for individual supplies as well–for example, clicking Folwell Community School gives you the option to purchase a specific type of folder for a teacher, a quick, easy, and budget-friendly way to make an immediate impact. + Full STEAM Ahead would get STEAM supplies to a historically underfunded classroom of elementary students. + Caps, Dreams, and Memories would supply young students with goods and books to celebrate graduation season. It’s another historically underfunded classroom, and this would mark a significant moment in their lives. + Essential Classroom Resources would provide historically underrepresented and underfunded students with the classroom supplies they need to succeed. + Sow the Seeds for the Joy of Reading would help get elementary students new books in their St. Paul-based school library. One of the best resources out there for supporting the work in Minneapolis right now is one that has collected, vetted, and verified organizations and individuals in need. Stand With Minnesota offers an opportunity to do good and select which place you want to do good with–and as noted earlier, this is your opportunity to pair supporting someplace like an independent bookstore with another organization helping provide the sometimes unsexy supplies needed to keep the work moving forward. |
Although not a direct action in the same way as the above are, another thing worth doing right now is getting to know the diverse communities that make up the Twin Cities and Minneapolis more broadly. The Minnesota Humanities Center has several excellent resources that include books showcasing authentic Native and Somali stories, and more. It’s also worth seeking out books by and about the upper Midwest’s sizable Hmong communities. One title for your radar is Hmong: A Graphic History by Vicky Lyfound, translated by Kao-Ly Yang, publishing in April. Minneapolis’s own Feminist Book Club also shared this great list of books to read if you’re in need of hope right now.