It’s only been five years, but feels like a million. One week from today will be the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, followed by the most momentous week in Minneapolis’ 169-year history.

A few years ago, I started to feel like we were forgetting what that time was like. The details were blurring and slipping away, as were some of the lessons we learned. I wanted to create a document of the time. So as a way of remembering, and making some sense, I started researching, writing, interviewing and recording for this audio tour, which I hope serves as a kind of oral history of that time and place.

I want to thank Shannon Gibney and Ed Bok Lee for reading their poems, to Carolyn Holbrook for sharing her thoughts and perspectives and to Julie Ingebretsen, Fred Brathwaite, Amina Osman, Midori Flomer and Guillermo Quito for taking time to recount their experiences.

In the end, I spent several years working on this tour, and I hope it stands as a worthy testament to the losses, and hopefully the gains, that began on Monday of May 20, 2020. It was Memorial Day, as the anniversary will be as well. That seems appropriate, since as painful as it is, we’re better off remembering and honoring that time than we are forgetting it.

You can take the tour in person or virtually here: Days of Rage, Nights of Fire: A History Tour of Midtown Minneapolis