Breathing in Minneapolis is a chronicle of the tumultuous events that defined 2020: the Covid pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, sometimes violent civil unrest, and the often murderous cruelty of American society. We encounter the sweet scent of lilacs competing with tear gas, immigrant store owners picking up burnt fragments, a young father crossing the Rio Grande on Christmas Eve, a pastor mourning a dying parishioner he cannot visit, a shower of cottonwood blossoms falling like snow. Breathing in Minneapolis invites us to join an intimate dance between the ordinary and the apocalyptic, where we never forget that it is the breath of courageous people and of the resilient earth that keeps us alive.
Of this collection, poet and pastor Patrick Cabello Hansel writes: "Most of these poems were written during one of the most difficult times for Minneapolis and the neighborhood I live and work in. We were battered by COVID, by the murder of George Floyd, the ensuing destruction of so much of the community, the threats against immigrants and the democratic process. Yet in that struggle, the breath of people and of the earth continued to sustain us. These poems reflect that power."