The Dale Street Bridge: What Does it Mean to Remember?

St. Paul’s Rondo Neighborhood was a thriving African American community until it was torn apart by the construction of I-94 in 1955. Hundreds of homes and businesses were lost, and the neighborhood suffered greatly. Despite this, Rondo refused to die. Residents have worked tirelessly to preserve the history. Plymouth member and artist Hawona Sullivan Janzen who has spent much of her adult life living in St. Paul, is one of three artists commissioned to design the art for the new Dale Street Bridge over I-94 in a unique collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The design elements honor Rondo’s history and are a response to the question “What does it mean to destroy, remember, reckon?”

Hawona Sullivan Janzen is a poet, storyteller, and interdisciplinary artist. Her poetry has been read on National Public Radio, performed as part of a jazz opera, and sandblasted into sidewalks in the city of St. Paul. She works as a public art consultant for Forecast Public Art and coordinates Plymouth’s Literary Witness program.