Fierce Love

This is an excerpt from WOMN- a book about the women of Minnesota and what Operation Metro Surge made of us.

It’s a mutual aid effort — written by us, for us, moving hand to hand the way love does when it’s real. New excerpts will be released as I write them, every Tuesday, here on Fierce Love. When the manuscript is complete, I plan to release it the grassroots way. Self-published, and supported by grief at grounding community gathering events and independent bookstores.

If this chapter found you, it found you for a reason.

If you want to support this effort, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Paid subscribers will receive full chapters (not just excerpts) with my author’s commentary about my process and experience at least once a month.

Please add your voice by sharing in the comments. I’m listening. We all are.

That’s how this works.

That’s how we work.

I love you fiercely,

TeriLeigh 💜

If you google the history of Mother’s Day, the internet will tell you that Mother’s Day began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. But “Mothers’ Day”—with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural—actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War conv…

Good News 5/10/26 - 5/15/26

Teri Leigh 💜 — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:59:14 GMT

Good News: Mother’s Day Edition

Sunday, May 10, 2026

I spent yesterday with my mom.Today’s good news is a list of simple pleasures of being like-mother-like-daughter.

Mom was in Arizona for the winter. I’m grateful she wasn’t here for the worst of the surge. She tells me she wishes she had been, to stand in solidarity.
Mom wore a rebel loon sweatshirt she bought off Etsy, careful to make sure it was produced by a small Minnesota business.
On the drive to Renee’s Memorial, she asked me about the legal cases stacking up against ICE. She wants to see justice.
I introduced her to my friend, Stephanie, who is one of my local Fierce Love ladies who is up on all the things.
I told her several of the stories I’m collecting about Minnesota WOMN in the Resistance.
- The teacher who has come to know her student’s unique cries.
- The mother who raised $84K for mutual aid by herself.
- The “quarter fairy” who delivered rolls of quarters to immigrants in apartment buildings with coin-operated laundry.
Mom is an expert in the women of the Bible. So we talked about the book I just read Separation of Church and Hate that details what Jesus actually teaches and how it doesn’t match what the Christian Nationalists are trying to do to this country.
At Alex’s Memorial she stopped for extra long at the stethoscopes left by medical professionals.
I pointed out one of the “ghost shoes” left around the city to represent all those who were taken.
We talked about how Dad refuses to talk with us about politics, and continues to confuse us with his vote (which doesn’t match his values or behaviors).
We got a donut at Glam Doll.
We finished the day with a trip to the Tulip House, and she talked about how she grew up in South Minneapolis.

I hope, in whatever way you can today, you celebrate the WOMN in your world and the true meaning of Mothers’ Day (note the apostrophe placement).

If you haven’t read it yet, go see Heather Cox Richardson’s historical explanation of Mothers’ Day.

Letters from an American

May 9, 2026

13 days ago · 10505 likes · 538 comments · Heather Cox Richardson

5/11/26

Good New: FireArms Legislation

Monday, May 11, 2026

Minnesotans have been fighting to change firearms legislation to protect our youth.

On August 27, 2025 August 27, 2025, during a morning Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church and School connected to the first week of school two children, Fletcher Merkel (8) and Harper Moyski (10), were killed in a mass shooting, and many others were injured when the shooter fired through the church windows while students and parishioners were gathered inside.
On May 4, state senators voted 34-33 to pass comprehensive gun safety bill banning assault-style rifles weapons and high-capacity magazines. This bill closes the ghost gun loophole and directs $20M into school safety and mental health resources. The bill now sits on Speaker Lisa Demuth’s (R) desk. She controls whether it goes to the House floor for a vote before the legislative session ends on May 17.
In recent polling, the majority of Minnesotans support this bill. 51% of rural Minnesotans oppose, while 69% of urban residents support.
One Senator who was resistant to banning firearms, Grand Hauschild of Hermantown, changed his mind because his cousin’s children were in Annunciation when the shooting occurred.
Last September, Harper’s parents, Mike Moyski and Jackie Flavin, invited Lisa Demuth into their home. When they asked her “if the gun safety bill came to the House, would she block it from getting a floor vote?” She said yes. They have an email documenting her agreement.
Lisa Demuth is now running for governor and has not responded to emails this week regarding the bill. Flavin has stated “Refusing to engage the bill while also offering no alternative path forward is not leadership.”
This Mothers’ Day weekend, parents and students from Annunciation Catholic School stood on the street corners near their church holding signs asking passersby to honk their support.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy held a press conference calling on the House to act on more than a dozen Senate-passed bills, including guns and ICE. She stated “We are ready to negotiate, and at times we’re not finding willing partners because they’ve not been able to do the work in the House.”
Jackie Flavin is still writing emails.

If you live in Minnesota now is the time to contact your House representatives and pressure them to bring this legislation to a vote.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

GOOD NEWS: Minnesota ICE Legislation

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

SF 3699 passed the Minnesota Senate 34–33, a one-vote margin that shows that Minnesota is a purple state that works closely across party lines to debate things carefully. Supporters, including senators like Ron Latz and Omar Fateh, say the bill is about making sure people can access school, health care, and the legal system safely. Opponents argued enforcement limits and the broader direction of state policy.
The bill centers on what happens at “sensitive locations” like schools, hospitals, nursing homes, child care centers, and colleges—places where everyday life happens. SF 3699 would require a judicial warrant signed by a judge before immigration enforcement can enter those spaces, bringing court oversight into decisions that affect students, patients, and families. This part of the bill reinforces Constitutional rights.
The bill also requires schools and hospitals across Minnesota to create clear, written policies for how to respond if immigration agents arrive, giving staff guidance instead of uncertainty. It includes provisions to ensure that administrators and legal counsel are notified when enforcement is attempted, adding structure and communication into high-pressure moments.
Another section focuses on courts, aiming to limit civil immigration arrests around court proceedings so people can show up, testify, and participate without fear. This also reinforces Constitution rights to due process.
Because the vote was so close, every single senator’s position mattered, showing a legislature where individual voices still carry real weight. The bill now moves to the Minnesota House, where it will be debated again, amended if needed, and either passed, changed, or reconciled before reaching the governor

This is what a functioning system looks like, both sides debating, arguing, and working together to discuss proposals openly.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

GOOD NEWS - How Mutual Aid Works in Minnesota

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Some people saw chaos this winter and froze. Some people saw chaos and started organizing grocery deliveries from their living room. Kelly Wilson turned grief into motion.

Ten days before the election, Kelly lost her younger sister to aggressive kidney cancer. Days later, after the election, she decided: “When they take stuff away, you’re going to work really hard to give stuff back.”
In November, Kelly organized a hoodie drive for unhoused LGBTQ youth in Minneapolis, raising roughly $1,000 in hoodies and another $1,000 in grocery gift cards before Thanksgiving.
She created a Minnesota mutual aid group centered on “radical joy as resistance,” bringing together neighbors to support marginalized communities through direct action.
Kelly helped organize weddings for 12 LGBTQ couples after posting a simple Facebook invitation asking friends to meet at a coffee shop and hear her idea. Eight people showed up. Within 24 hours, the group had a location and a Star Tribune interview lined up.
During an earlier government shutdown, she organized a neighborhood bean drive for TSA workers impacted by SNAP disruptions.
After hearing about a Honduran mother taken by ICE while breastfeeding her infant, Kelly mobilized her community to deliver food and supplies to the family within hours. Neighbors arrived at her door carrying Costco, Cub, and Target bags full of beans, rice, and groceries.
Within 24 hours of posting a broader mutual aid request online, Kelly’s living room, dining room, and a neighbor’s garage were overflowing with donated food.
During one subzero week, roughly 50 neighbors gathered in an unheated garage to pack more than 100 food boxes for families sheltering in place.
Kelly and a network of volunteer drivers initially delivered about six food boxes a day. At peak periods, they reached as many as 12 households daily.
As churches and larger organizations began handling food distribution, Kelly shifted focus toward rent support, diapers, formula, toddler snacks, and infant supplies.
After Kelly posted an emotional video responding to violence in North Minneapolis, the video went viral, reaching roughly one million people in a day and growing her network from about 1,000 followers to more than 15,000.
Donations poured in from around the country and the world. In roughly three weeks, Kelly’s grassroots effort raised more than $73,500 through direct giving.
Kelly’s network has now helped 75 families, delivered more than 75 loads of groceries and supplies, and helped cover rent for 48 families through partial or full rent payments.
One donor family repeatedly arrived with roughly $1,000 worth of Costco meat, milk, eggs, and cheese—supplies mutual aid groups often struggle most to provide.
A donor connected through LGBTQ community networks quietly dropped off a $10,000 check after Kelly simply answered honestly when asked what was needed. That single donation helped cover rent support for 10 families.
Kelly coordinated directly with social workers, schools, churches, and neighborhood organizers to respond rapidly to emergencies, including helping an 11th grader caring for younger siblings after their mother was hospitalized.
People from outside Minnesota also reached out to help. One small town in Scotland offered to organize Zoom friendships for families isolated inside their homes during peak ICE activity.

Yesterday, Kelly received a message from a neighborhood elder, the kind you don’t say no to, requesting her presence on her front porch at 3:45pm. An elder Kelly doesn’t know well. Kelly went, and 10minutes after her arrival, nine other neighbors arrived. They were there to sing in her presence and bring healing. The video below is the result.

Minnesota is still being traumatized. We are grieving, and we are healing. All these things can happen at the same time.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

RAGE NEWS in Minnesota

I’m feeling angry this morning. And anger means action, which eventually leads to change.

Do people not care about dead children?

On Monday I posted this Good News list about a gun violence bill passing the Minnesota Senate. It got the lowest engagement of any of my Good News lists ever. By a lot.
The evenly split red/blue MN House passed a gun legislation bill that 80% of Minnesotans support.
This legislation has been brought forth as a direct result of children dying in the Annunciation School and Church shooting in August in Minneapolis. The parents of the children who died invited elected officials from both sides of the aisle into their home to discuss this kind of action. The Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, promised these parents to bring the bill to the House. She has now put that bill in a drawer with no intention of fulfilling her promise to the parents of this child who died.

When mass shootings happened in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, similar legislation was passed, and the results of those laws changed history.

Australia (1996, Port Arthur massacre, 35 killed) — within 12 days the government passed national reforms banning many semi-automatic weapons, creating a licensing system, and buying back 600,000+ guns, followed by decades with dramatically fewer gun deaths and no mass shooting at that scale
New Zealand (2019, Christchurch mosque shootings, 51 killed) — within weeks the government banned military-style semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, created a national registry, and implemented a buyback, with near-unanimous parliamentary support
United Kingdom (1996, Dunblane school shooting, 16 children and a teacher killed) — passed the Firearms Amendment Acts of 1997 banning most private handgun ownership, after which school shootings became extraordinarily rare.

If MN Representative and Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, doesn’t bring this bill to the House floor by 5pm tonight, members of MN Congress will be staging an all night sit-in. Anger means action. Minnesotans are angry about dead children.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

P.S. As a former high school teacher, I have attended way too many funerals for children in my life. One is too many. I’ve attended more than one. This issue cuts deep.

GOOD NEWS - Minnesotans are fighting for children’s rights to not die by guns.

Friday, May 15, 2026

The number one cause of death for children in the USA is gun violence. Minnesotans showed up en masse yesterday to simply ask the House of Representatives to have an honest debate about this issue and consider a bill that is similar to ones already passed in Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Thousands of Minnesotans signed petitions demanding a House vote on the gun violence prevention package. Advocates delivered more than 7,000–8,000 signatures directly to Speaker Lisa Demuth at the Capitol.
Students from across Minnesota traveled to the Capitol and spent the day meeting lawmakers face-to-face, telling personal stories about lockdown drills, school shootings, and growing up under the shadow of gun violence.
Families who have lost children to gun violence continued showing up with their grief, publicly week after week, including parents and survivors who have become some of the strongest voices pushing for action.
Resistance singers and community choirs held a public “sing-in” at the Capitol, using collective singing as a form of witness and pressure during the gun safety push.
Faith leaders and community members organized a public “pray-in,” bringing spiritual ritual and collective mourning into the Capitol alongside the legislative fight.
Emergency room workers and medical professionals staged demonstrations showing the aftermath of gunshot trauma, using medical role-play and firsthand experience to communicate what firearm injuries actually do to human bodies.
Minnesota House DFL members repeatedly asked from the House floor where the bill was and why it had not been scheduled, turning routine floor sessions into sustained public accountability moments.
Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura publicly gave leadership a 24-hour deadline to bring the bill forward, then helped lead an overnight sit-in inside the House chamber after the procedural motion failed.
Roughly 20 Democratic lawmakers stayed overnight in the House chamber after adjournment, physically occupying the space in protest and refusing to quietly let the issue disappear before session adjournment.
Community organizers from groups including Protect Minnesota, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, and GIFFORDS coordinated advocacy days, constituent outreach, Capitol gatherings, and sustained public pressure.
Protesters gathered outside the House chamber chanting “Hold the vote,” turning the Capitol itself into a visible civic pressure point during the final days of session.

Look at this list. This all happened JUST YESTERDAY and is continuing today.

We just want the bill to have an opportunity to be discussed. It already passed in the Senate. We want the House to debate and vote on it.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Portland & Mpls Protest Frogs and MomsTeri Leigh 💜

Teri Leigh 💜 — Wed, 13 May 2026 21:38:27 GMT

Available for iOS and Android

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Live Event Summary: The Portland-Minneapolis Connection — Fierce Love, OWLs, and the Power of Showing Up

This live conversation between Teri Leigh (Minneapolis) and Mel (Volcano, California — formerly Portland) explored the unexpected kinship between their two cities, the rise of older women in resistance movements, and what it looks like to lead with love instead of rage.

The Portland-Minneapolis Link Starts with George Floyd

The conversation opened with the question of how Portland and Minneapolis became so connected. Both agreed it began with the murder of George Floyd in 2020, which catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement in Portland, including the formation of the Wall of Moms.

Mel shared her firsthand experience joining the Wall of Moms — a group of women, organized by Black activists, who stood arm-in-arm on the front lines outside the federal courthouse in Portland to create a human barrier against the National Guard. At 4’11” and in her late 50s, Mel showed up in a ski helmet, goggles, and a rain poncho. They were taught how to link arms, when to break and run from flash bangs, and to write an emergency phone number in Sharpie on their arms.

Mel described the experience as both empowering and traumatic — watching armed officers in riot gear just feet away while standing ground with strangers.

OWLs: Old White Ladies Stepping Into Their Power

Teri Leigh connected the Wall of Moms energy to what’s been happening in Minnesota, where older white women have been calling themselves OWLs — Old White Ladies — stepping into their privilege and using it for resistance. Key points included:

Women over 50 who have reached the stage of “I have no more fucks to give” are showing up in ways that are uniquely powerful
Their perceived invisibility as older women has become a kind of superpower — no one expects them, and that’s exactly why it works
OWLs have been escorting school buses to protect families from ICE, protesting at the Whipple ICE headquarters, and writing their lawyers’ phone numbers on their arms
Many have been detained and had wedding rings cut off, but none have been formally charged — which says everything about where the real power lies

The Frog, the Dildos, and the Absurdity of Resistance

One of the most vivid stories was about a 57-year-old Minnesota woman who, inspired by Portland’s protest frogs, showed up to the Whipple ICE headquarters in an inflatable frog costume. From inside the costume she witnessed a moment that captured the whole movement: an older woman standing toe-to-toe with a young ICE agent in bitter cold, their breath mingling, telling him gently that he didn’t have to do this — and watching a single tear fall from his eye.

Minneapolis then “upped the ante” with its own brand of creative resistance — throwing dildos at ICE vehicles, which became its own viral moment. Both women celebrated the role of humor and absurdity in resistance, noting that Portland brought the frogs, Minneapolis brought the dildos, and the silliness itself makes the point: this is how absurd things have gotten.

Resistance, Not Protest — Love Over Fear

A central theme was the intentional use of the word resist rather than protest:

Resistance is a boundary, not an attack
It’s holding love in place, not forcing opinions
It’s “calling in” rather than “calling out”
Both women emphasized that rage and “fuck you” energy, while understandable, doesn’t lead to peace or connection

Both women shared that they’ve moved through their own periods of anger and come out the other side — realizing that nobody is irredeemable and that the path forward has to include joy, humor, and love.

Fierce Love in Action

Mel shared how she’s now living fierce love daily in her tiny community of Fiddletown/Volcano, California — running a pop-up art gallery called Mel’s Messy Love Lab Live, doing community theater, and bringing strangers together over art-making. She also described her 52-week analog letter-writing practice: creating mixed media art while thinking about someone she loves, writing them a letter, and mailing it.

Teri Leigh announced that she’s expanding her WOMN (Women of the Resistance of Minnesota) project into a mixed digital media storytelling format — combining watercolor imagery with video narration of these women’s stories for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Substack.

The conversation closed with a shared conviction: the world needs these stories because the fierce love of old white ladies stepping into their power isn’t just a Minnesota thing — it’s a model for everywhere.

"This could have been a voice note," with Kristi Keller 🇨🇦 and Teri Leigh

Teri Leigh 💜 — Tue, 12 May 2026 19:11:21 GMT

Thank you , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Available for iOS and Android

summary written by claude.ai

Substack Live: Teri Leigh & Kristi Keller — Fierce Love, Rebranding, and the Women of Minnesota

Participants: Teri Leigh (Fierce Love, Minnesota) and Kristi Keller (Unstack Substack / Homebody-ish Magazine)

Teri’s Substack Publications

Fierce Love, Minnesota — her main publication, focused on love, activism, and storytelling from the ground in Minnesota
Creator Retreat — a cohort program helping people build their Substacks “the slow, gentle, sensitive soul way”
Abundant Money Mindset — a cohort co-run with Axel Meyerhofer blending practical money management with mindset work
The Hobbit and the Owl — a fun weekly publication she writes with her husband, Neal (”the Hobbit”), about being in a relationship
Words or Spells — an alphabet-based publication exploring the energetic power of letters, winding down as she nears the end of the alphabet

Why Teri Rebranded (Mindful Sense Mentor → Fierce Love)

From December through mid-January, the ICE surge in Minnesota left Teri doom-scrolling, sheltering in place, and unable to write her usual mindfulness content — it all felt “frivolous” while people were being harmed on her streets. She couldn’t justify starting a sixth publication, and roughly 1,200 subscribers have followed her for 20+ years across every pivot — she couldn’t abandon them.

A Substack Note she posted about life on the ground in Minnesota went viral — 66,000+ likes, 6,000 new subscribers in three days — and the rebrand felt like something that “happened to her” rather than a deliberate decision. Having rebranded multiple times over 20 years of online business, the shift was natural and fast — done in just a few days, keeping her signature watercolor visual identity.

The WOMN Book Project

The title “WOMN” (Women of Minnesota) came to Teri in a middle-of-the-night download — “women” without the E, removing the “men,” with MN standing for Minnesota. The book collects stories of everyday Minnesota women — teachers, mothers, neighbors — who stepped up during the ICE crisis. One interviewee calls herself an “OWL” — an Old White Lady — a term Teri embraced since she’s always loved owls.

Stories from the Ground

The first-grade teacher: Head of the teachers’ union, she watched her classroom get reorganized overnight after a school closure — no goodbyes for her six-year-olds. Teaching online from her classroom, she’d hear children crying on a bench outside her door and realized she could identify each child by the sound of their cry. After school, she delivered groceries to families and sat with isolated parents who told her, “You’re the only adult that comes to my door.” Her insight: “I show up because they need me, but I stay because I need them.”
Dog walking and rescue: White women walking dogs for Black and Brown neighbors who couldn’t safely go outside, plus a whole dog rescue movement created for pets left behind by detained families
The Quarter Fairy: A woman with no connection to a local school called asking how to help. The school said they needed quarters for coin-operated laundry in apartment buildings, since sheltering-in-place families couldn’t go out to get them. She went bank to bank collecting quarters.
Confronting ICE: Women using their voices to confront ICE — and ICE literally walking away
Teri’s own encounter: She froze when she encountered ICE while walking her dog, but says next time she’d film, call rapid response, and take down license plates

Kristi’s Role and the Value of “Custodial” Work

Teri credited Kristi extensively as the behind-the-scenes force who made her Substack work — organizing the Good News Lists into posts, implementing back-end changes, spotting patterns in metrics and comments. She compared Kristi’s work to her husband’s job as “custodian of websites” for the State of Minnesota and to the teacher tucking diapers into a kid’s backpack — quiet, essential, unsung labor that makes everything else function. Kristi expressed feeling disconnected from her own Substack work, wanting something “more human than shouting into the void.”

Vulnerability, Fear, and Defiance

Kristi asked if Teri felt vulnerable being so publicly vocal — Teri said every woman she’s interviewed has said the same thing: “I don’t care. If they’re going to come for me, come for me.” White women who’ve been detained and arrested have had their charges dropped and say it was worth it to amplify what’s happening. Both women identify as introverts and “keyboard activists” — not the type to physically protest, but committed to telling stories and raising awareness through writing.

Broader Themes

The disorienting compression and expansion of time (”time is accordion”) — four months feeling like four years
The contrast between Substack’s supportive, love-centered community and the toxicity of Facebook (Teri cross-posted her viral note to Facebook and was immediately overwhelmed by trolls)
Declining international travel, airline safety concerns, and the ripple effects of the political climate on everyday life
The tension between technology/AI and humanity — Teri noted that dramatic inhumanity draws out even fiercer human love and connection
Loyal Substack supporters who restack everything were celebrated — the “quiet amplifiers” who spread the word

Closing

77 viewers at peak — Teri’s highest in a long time. Both expressed love for their friendship forged over two and a half years on Substack, with Teri saying, “Someday I will hug you in person when all this is over and we can actually cross the Canada border again.”

MN Frost, Red Hats, Dildos & the Rebel Loon

Teri Leigh 💜 — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:01:48 GMT

If you see yourself in these pages,

Pass it to the woman next to you.

Not everybody is built for the front line.
Not everybody is built to shout

~Paul Neary
owner of Needle & Skein and creator of the red resistance hats

Go Home ICE

Grand Casino Arena called for a moment of silence to honor the life of Alex Pretti.

Minnesota couldn’t just be “Nice” anymore. We chanted instead.

GO HOME, ICE!
GO HOME, ICE!
GO HOME, ICE!
GO HOME, ICE!

It was January 25, 2026, one day after Alex Pretti was shot ten times in the streets of Minneapolis, the second brutal murder by ICE.

MN Frost professional women’s hockey games are usually family-friendly events, a popular father-daughter outing for pre-teen girls to feel empowered. We should have been celebrating our team, two-time league champions, gearing up to send six players to the Winter Olympics in Italy.

We were too angry to sit in silence. Moments later, during the national anthem, we decided we could, in fact, be silent, and we sat down in protest.

“I love watching how Minnesota expresses their anger,” Emma says to the woman next to her as they watched a woman on the JumboTron wearing a Rebel Loon Frost jersey dance while lifting her middle finger and clearly saying “Fuck Ice.”

The camera quickly turned off, and the JumboTron replaced her image with their official Code of Conduct.

Alex Pretti’s death pulled the f-word of the tongue of Minnesota-Nice.

“We are so fucking reserved,” Emma’s eyes twinkled as she said the word fucking, as if she had only recently given herself permission to say it out loud.

“Not anymore!” the woman next to her says motioning to the fans clapping and chanting FUCK ICE as if the Code of Conduct was a challenge.

Dildos & Baloney

“Did you see that reel of the woman taunting the Fox News reporter at Whipple?” Emma asked, “She danced around him singing ‘I’m a big tough guy…I’m such a big tall strong tough guy.’”

“Yup. And the dildos?” the woman laughs.

“Oh my God. The dildos! We’re funny. We’re funny and creative. Let’s throw dildos and let’s throw baloney. That’s funny. And we’re not shooting guns—we’re throwing dildos and baloney.”

This is not how Minnesotans are supposed to behave. We are not a dildos-at-federal-agents people. At least we didn’t use to be. We were a hotdish-at-church-basement people. But the old rules weren’t working anymore, and the absurdity of the moment demanded an absurd response.

Once absurdity was allowed, creativity poured through the crack.

When ICE started patrolling our streets, the Smitten Kitten got mad, and their form of mad showed up as mutual-aid-married-expressionism and had a nonbinary baby. The Smitten Kitten, a progressive, sex-positive adult toy store that has been quietly serving the community for years with the warmth of a neighborhood bookshop and the inventory of, well, not a bookshop, gave us permission to be weird in public. They organized. They donated. They went viral on Instagram, and yes, they taught us how to attach freak flags to our protest signs.

And yes, they supplied the dildos.

“I’m proud of us,” the woman agrees.

“I have so much Minnesota pride. Don’t attack winter people in the winter. That huge protest when it was negative bajillion degrees out. Thinking of creative ways—the Singing Resistance, all the things—to continue the fight and hopefully inspire the country. We’re so fucking creative!” Emma’s eyes twinkle again, only brighter this time, as if using the word fucking is a super power she’s recently discovered.

The Rebel Loon

“Yeah! We are fucking creative!” The woman says, “Speaking of creative, I like your earrings,” she points the rebel loons dangling from Emma’s ears.

The Rebel Loon seemed to appear overnight, building momentum for Minnesota in ways we couldn’t have planned, but sorely needed. We were in the midst of a rebellion, and we are not a rebellious people. The simple design of Minnesota’s state bird rising into the shape of the Star Wars Rebel Alliance took on a life of its own when “feral_user,” a Moorhead web developer named Bernardo Anderson, shared it openly for anyone to use.

“Wearing these is a form of micro-activism.” Emma said, “I get excited when I see someone wearing a loon. It builds momentum.”

The Rebel Loon moved rapidly through social media feeds, the same way mutual aid and rapid response moved, passed along, neighbor to neighbor. Within weeks, it was everywhere, including a limited edition run of the MN Frost jersey.

“Those new rebel loon jerseys are only $60, and the proceeds go to mutual aid,” the woman tells Emma, and shows her where to get one for herself.

During nesting season, loons have the water, and eagles have the sky. The loon doesn’t meet her prey head-on. She disappears, underwater. And when she comes back up, she knows exactly where she is, driving off her opponent, the bald eagle, our federal government, again and again.

“I have a loon tattoo,” Emma tells the woman. “I’ve had it for two years, but now I feel prouder to have it. I feel prouder to have it tattooed on me.”

When Emma puts on her resistance loon earrings and her new loon Frost jersey, she doesn’t have to explain who she is. She doesn’t have to say anything out loud. . . She can just wear it.

To Emma, microactivism is wearing things to quietly make a loud statement.

She used to coach a hockey team, and had the opportunity to go to Washington DC to meet Senator Amy Klobuchar. Everyone was supposed to wear matching team sweatshirts for the event. But Emma wore a shirt that read “Racism and misogyny are injustices to all.”

“I don’t want to be the one following ICE. I don’t want to get blown in the head with a gas canister. What I can do is wear my activism.” Emma says. As a social worker who works in the ER where ICE brings protesters they’ve arrested and assaulted, she knows too well the personal consequences of that kind of resistance.

“I don’t want to be a soldier, and I felt kind of bad about that for a while because I’m an able-bodied white person that’s young and healthy that could have been out there.”

Emma has friends who are on the front lines, in the rapid response networks, chasing the ICE caravans and putting their privileged whiteness between ICE and our immigrant neighbors.

“There are people that can be on the front lines, that want to be out there, and that’s great. And sure, I’ll wear a whistle around my neck.”

“I don’t know if I’m going to see anyone,” she says. “But if I do, I’m ready, and it shows community support. And whenever I see someone walking with a whistle around their neck, it’s like — okay, yes. We have community here. Everyone’s looking out. We’re on the same page.”

The woman pulls a whistle out from under her turtleneck and winks at Emma.

Red Resistance Hats

“I can’t imagine myself on the front lines either, but I can crochet” the woman adds, motioning to the crowd, “Look at all those red resistance caps!”

In just a matter of weeks, women across the globe gathered in knitting circles to click-click-clack their needles. The red hat resistance started when Paul Neary and Gilah Mashaal, owners of Needle & Skein, a knitting store in St. Louis Park MN, reached back into WWII Norway and revived the nisselue, a simple red hat once worn under Nazi occupation. They sold their simple pattern for $5, went viral, and raised over $700,000 for mutual aid in under two months. The hats aren’t mass produced. Each one is handmade by mothers, grandmothers, aunts, friends, fathers, neighbors. The pattern reached more than 43 countries.

“I’ve made a crochet pattern with the Rebel Loon with laser eyes.”

“That’s super cool. Can I get a copy?”

“Of course.”

“My name’s Emma, by the way.”

“I’m Kim. It’s nice to know you, Emma.”

“I like that. It’s nice to know you too, Kim.”

This is an excerpt from WOMN- a book about the women of Minnesota and what Operation Metro Surge made of us.

If this chapter found you, it found you for a reason.

If you want to support this effort, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. If you want to support this effort, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers will receive full chapters (not just excerpts) with my author’s commentary about my process and experience at least once a month.

Please add your voice by sharing in the comments. I’m listening. We all are.

That’s how this works.

That’s how we work.

I love you fiercely,

TeriLeigh 💜

Good News 5/3/26 - 5/9/26

Teri Leigh 💜 — Sat, 09 May 2026 15:01:54 GMT

Renee Good was shot January 7, 2026. We honored her for the four month anniversary this week.

Good News - Sports Edition

Sunday, May 3, 2026

After a really tough winter, we are now looking into spring and craving some JOY! Minnesota knows how to lose. Our beloved Vikings has never won a SuperBowl, but we keep getting close. And still, we show up. We are loyal.

And, this last week, Minnesota is celebrating sports across various events! We believe in karma, the fierce love and passion we give out is bound to return to us 70x7, and it is seemingly starting with our sports teams this week.

Minnesota Timberwolves knocked out Denver 110–98 in Game 6, advancing to the next round in the playoffs. Wolves move into the Western Conference Semifinals for a third straight deep playoff run, building real consistency and momentum in front of a packed Target Center
Minnesota Frost women’s hockey beat the top seed Montreal Victoire 5-4 in the first game of the play-offs. The Frost are two-time champions chasing a third straight Walter Cup.
Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 in Game 6, winning the series 4-2 and advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Minnesota will host the 2028 NFL Draft at U.S. Bank Stadium, bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors and a national spotlight to the Twin Cities
Minnesota will host the Special Olympics USA Games in June 2026.
Minnesota Vikings focused their draft on line strength and depth, reinforcing protection and long-term stability in a way that reflects Minnesota’s grounded approach
Twin Cities fans are showing up in full force with playoff crowds filling arenas, bars, and streets across both sides of the river, creating a shared citywide energy
That same spirit showed up on May Day across Minneapolis, with people gathering, marching, and standing together in steady, visible community presence. Minnesota’s organizing continues to influence broader national movements, offering a model rooted in consistency, care, and showing up

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Minnesota’s Flag Represents our Ability to Respectfully Disagree

Monday, May 4, 2026

Minnesota changed its state flag in 2024. And in 2026… we’re still talking about it. Minnesota is having a real disagreement, out loud, in public, across cities, councils, and communities. . . And nothing is breaking.

While the rest of the country seem to deem Minnesota a Blue State, what they don’t know is that we are more of a Middle State, rather than blue or red. We just know how to disagree respectfully and still work together as a whole.

Minnesota adopted a new state flag in 2024 after years of criticism of the old design, which included imagery many felt was harmful or outdated, especially in how it depicted Indigenous people
The new flag was designed through a state commission process and features the North Star and water symbolism meant to represent all Minnesotans
At the same time, multiple cities and counties are choosing to keep or return to the old flag, including Elk River, Zumbrota, Champlin, and Inver Grove Heights
Some of those decisions are coming directly from residents, including surveys where large majorities supported keeping the old flag in their communities
City councils are actively debating and voting on this in real time, with close votes like Zumbrota’s 3–2 decision showing how evenly people feel about it
People who support the new flag say it reflects a more inclusive Minnesota and removes imagery that caused real harm, especially to Indigenous communities
People who prefer the old flag say they felt left out of the process, want a public vote, and feel the original design represents history they don’t want to lose
There’s even a proposal at the state level to financially penalize cities that refuse to fly the new flag, showing how seriously this debate is being taken
Some communities are choosing a middle path—flying the old flag in certain spaces, the new flag in others, or opting out of flying a state flag altogether

And through all of this… Minnesota continues to rank near the top nationally in health, education, civic engagement, and quality of life. This is what the middle actually looks like. Neighbors disagreeing—and still fiercely loving each other.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News in Minnesota

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

After a long hard winter with way too much ICE, Minnesota processed our grief with abundant JOY this weekend in Minneapolis May Day Celebration and St. Paul Cinco de Mayo celebration. This is what it looks like to be alive together. Celebration and mourning in the same breath.

The May Day Parade and Festival filled South Minneapolis on May 3, 2026, with thousands walking down Bloomington Ave into Powderhorn Park for a fully community-led return of the tradition
A Tree of Life Ceremony gathered the hillside at Powderhorn Park, where performers raised symbolic figures and the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder in a shared moment of song and a performance about the surge and the Minnesota response.
The parade featured massive puppets and creative expressions of resistance, including anti-ICE imagery, some Mad Maxx themed floats, and symbolic pieces reflecting what neighborhoods experienced this winter
Community-created pieces included whistles, costumes, and movement inspired by neighborhood alert systems used during raids, turning lived experience into public storytelling
Music carried through the park all afternoon, including brass bands and Singing Resistance, with people gathered across the grass, along the lake, and up the hill
The Cinco de Mayo Fiesta brought thousands to Cesar Chavez Street May 1–2, 2026, for one of the largest Latino cultural celebrations in Minnesota
The St. Paul parade stepped off at 10 a.m. Saturday along Cesar Chavez Street, with dancers, community groups, and neighborhood organizations filling the corridor
The West Side festival featured 80+ vendors, 40+ food stands, and live music across two stages, turning the entire neighborhood into a full-day gathering space
The celebration began the night before with a lowrider and classic car show at Harriet Island, bringing together music, cars, and community ahead of the main event
Lake Street in Minneapolis was also alive with Cinco de Mayo celebrations, with local businesses, food vendors, and performers drawing crowds into the corridor

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

On May 1, six protestors with the Sunrise Movement blocked the southbound lane of Hennepin Avenue Bridge as part of the May Day General Strike. They were arrested. Minnesota is still staging peaceful civil disobedience.
Maine and Massachusetts are following Minnesota’s lead. Twelve people were arrested last week while trying to deliver care packages of food, personal items, and letters of support to ICE detainees in Massachusetts. Several dozen faith leaders and volunteers participated in the action at ICE’s Burlington field office. The group was not allowed into the ICE office even though they arrived during normal working hours. They were arrested for trespassing. Rev. Allison Smith, senior minister of the Congregational Church in Cumberland acknowledged that it was unlikely the care packages would make it to the detainees, but it sent a message.
Minnesota was the first state in the nation to pass legislation to prevent harm caused to children by the use of AI nudification technology. Representative Jess Hanson authored the bill. After a couple high school girls discovered their prom pictures were “nudified” and turned into pornography, Minnesota acted fast.
In the wake of the assassination of Mark & Melissa Hortman in Minnesota, their children were left with their home that had military grade chemical irritants deployed inside the home. It took over eight months to fight insurance and clean the house of effects. Minnesota passed legislation to prevent the use of chemical irritants inside homes and to require insurance agencies to cover such events.
In 2020, in an effort to get out of the house during the pandemic, the city of Minneapolis started the Minnehaha Creek Duck Race, run by the Field Regina Northrop Neighborhood Group. The tradition continues each spring, with families dumping 2000+ rubber ducks down the creek, selling sponsorships for each racing duck. Volunteers equipped with waders, nets, and kayaks retrieve every last duck.
The two Twin Cities women who aided an ICE agent during a seizure have had their charges dropped.
In 2021, Minnesota created the first-in-the-nation Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. Governor Walz named Tuesday, May 5th 2026 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News in Minnesota

Thursday, May 7, 2026

GOOD NEWS: Minnesota Still Shows Up for Renée Good

Today marks four months since Renée Good was killed by an ICE agent in South Minneapolis on January 7, 2026.

Also, today, neighbors and city council members are reporting increased ICE activity since DHS received funding. We are still vigilant.

May 6, 2026 — for the first time, the federal government reportedly turned over investigative evidence connected to Renée Good’s killing to lawyers and officials involved in the broader investigation after months of legal pressure and court fights
The evidence release reportedly came because of a ruling connected to a separate federal shooting case, showing how multiple investigations are now intersecting and forcing greater transparency
March 24, 2026 — Minnesota, Hennepin County, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension sued the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security for withholding evidence related to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti
January 9, 2026 — Tim Walz proclaimed “Renée Good Day” in Minnesota after the shooting sparked protests and vigils across the state
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Attorney General Keith Ellison publicly pushed to preserve evidence and continue state-level investigation efforts after Minnesota authorities were initially blocked from accessing the case
January 23, 2026 — an estimated 75,000 people marched in Minneapolis during the statewide Day of Truth and Freedom protests connected to the winter surge and Renée Good’s killing
Renée Good’s family continued speaking publicly after her death, including appearances in Washington, D.C., where her brothers Luke and Brent Ganger called for accountability and transparency
The May Day Tree of Life Ceremony at Powderhorn Park this past weekend explicitly honored Renée Good through puppetry, ceremony, and collective remembrance, weaving her story into one of Minneapolis’ oldest community rituals

Four months later, people are still gathering, still asking questions, still demanding evidence, and still refusing to let the story disappear. Four months later, neighbors are still active in rapid response groups and showing up when ICE appears.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

GOOD NEWS: Minnesota Is Paying Attention (And It’s Showing)

Friday, May 8, 2026

Minnesota is not ignoring what’s happening. People are tracking it, challenging it, rewriting it, and forcing it into the open.

The Minnesota House voted 127–5 to create a new independent Office of Inspector General with authority to investigate fraud in state programs, run a tip line, and recommend law changes, with Senate approval expected next week
Keith Ellison filed suit against two Minneapolis nonprofits alleging more than $2 million in charitable funds were spent on luxury travel, designer clothing, and personal payments, with the state seeking restitution and dissolution
The Minnesota Senate passed SF 1750, a bipartisan HOA reform bill led by Susan Pha, banning HOAs from charging legal fees for residents questioning fines and requiring transparency around conflicts of interest. The HOA bill was shaped by testimony from hundreds of homeowners after a 2025 investigation found management companies hiring their own subsidiaries for inflated construction projects, including at least one foreclosure tied to assessments
A compensation package advanced in the Minnesota House that would award $4.5 million to Marvin Haynes, who spent nearly 20 years in prison after being arrested at age 16 and exonerated at 36. Haynes’ case directly led to 2024 Minnesota legislation banning deceptive interrogation of juveniles and removing the two-year limit on postconviction relief based on new evidence
Federal prosecutors dismissed 14 of 36 cases against individuals accused of assaulting immigration agents during Operation Metro Surge, reducing nearly 40% of those charges. This week also marked the first known transfer of federal evidence from the shooting of Renée Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross into U.S. District Court, placing the case into formal judicial review for the first time. At the same time, Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension still has not been allowed to independently investigate Renée Good’s killing, keeping pressure on state and federal accountability systems
Court data reported May 7, 2026 showed federal felony filings in Minnesota dropped to 90 cases from January–April, roughly half of the previous year, while gun and drug prosecutions fell from 77 to 8 cases
Reporting confirmed that about half of the 3,700 people detained during Operation Metro Surge have now been deported, with families across Minnesota actively adjusting, reorganizing, and deciding how to move forward

This is what it looks like when details matter. Votes, filings, lawsuits, dismissed charges, evidence transfers—real things moving in real systems.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

GOOD NEWS: Minnesota Is Writing Itself Into History

Saturday, May 9, 2026

While everything is happening, people across Minnesota are writing it down. Not just through headlines, but through books, stories, and spaces that hold memory in real time.

WOMN of the Resistance, by Teri Leigh (yes, me) documents what’s unfolding across the Minnesota as a result of Operation Metro Surge through the eyes and stories of average Minnesota women, turning lived experience into immediate history.
The Land of Everlasting Sky by Jill D. Swenson will be touring through the midwest this month. A memoir about returning to her mother’s hometown after her funeral, Swenson finds a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. There, she learns, Red Lake Nation has recently dispossessed descendants of Ojibway spiritual leader Kakaygeesick from their land—land where the family has lived for the last two centuries—and has also denied them tribal membership.
The Scenic Route: Building Minnesota’s North Shore by Arnold R. Alanen (2025) traces Highway 61 from Duluth to Grand Portage, showing how a rugged mail route became one of the most iconic drives in the country
People the Planet Needs Now by Dudley Edmondson (2025) brings together first-person stories from BIPOC scientists and activists, many connected to Minnesota, documenting environmental justice work happening right now
The House on Rondo by Debra J. (2025) tells the story of Saint Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood and the destruction caused by I-94, through the eyes of a young girl fighting to protect her community
Enmity and Empathy: Japanese Americans in Minnesota During World War II (2025, Minnesota Historical Society Press) brings forward a lesser-known Minnesota history with a specific focus on wartime experiences in the state
The Gales of November by John U. Bacon (2025) revisits the Edmund Fitzgerald through a Great Lakes lens, tying Minnesota’s shipping and industrial history into a story many people thought they already knew
Sinkhole by Juliet Patterson (forthcoming 2026, Milkweed Editions) is a memoir-in-essays written from Minneapolis, exploring family, grief, and place through a deeply local lens
Holy Cow! Press continues publishing 3–5 new Midwest-focused books each year, including 2025–2026 titles rooted in regional voices often overlooked by larger publishers
Minnesota Historical Society Press continues releasing new titles documenting immigration, war-era Minnesota, and community memory across the state
Independent bookstores like Moon Palace Books and Black Garnet Books are hosting readings, launches, and community events that give Minnesota authors a physical space to share their work with neighbors

Minnesota has always been a place where stories are told close to the ground, shaped by the people living them. What’s happening now is part of that same tradition, with writers, journalists, and communities documenting this moment as it unfolds.

Tim O’Brien continues to shape national understanding of memory and storytelling, with roots in Minnesota that still inform his work
Louise Erdrich, based in Minneapolis and owner of Birchbark Books, continues publishing award-winning work centered on Indigenous experience and place
William Kent Krueger continues releasing bestselling novels set in Minnesota, bringing the state’s landscapes and communities into mainstream fiction
Marcie Rendon, a White Earth Nation writer, continues producing crime and literary fiction rooted in Indigenous life in Minnesota while gaining national recognition
The Minnesota Star Tribune won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for its coverage of the August 27, 2025 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, where two children were killed and 17 people were injured
A Prairie Home Companion, created by Garrison Keillor, built one of the most recognizable storytelling traditions in the country from St. Paul, bringing small-town Minnesota life into the national imagination

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Fueled by Rage ~ Rooted in Love

Teri Leigh 💜 — Fri, 08 May 2026 13:03:36 GMT

Yesterday I saw a bald eagle standing in a crosswalk.

With vehicles facing it from all directions, it gazed into the sky above where two crows circled, loudly pestering.

For an eagle, a single crow is a tasty lunch, but when crows outnumber the eagle, the power balance shifts. A group of crows is called a “murder” because it’s persistent, menacing, unrelenting, and. . . playful. Crows won’t kill an eagle, but as intelligent trickers they will pester and prank until the eagle gives up and leaves.

The eagle looked up at the crows, and at the cars on the road boxing it in, and took off in flight with the two scrappy, loud, unapologetic crows pushing it out of their territory.

We are the crows, holding this resistance rage with every bit of trickster energy we can muster to express our stubborn, radiant fierce love.

It was a long hard winter.

We watched ICE kill Renee and Alex for defending our immigrant neighbors.

We gasped as the Epstein files dropped, re-traumatizing every survivor.

We gulped as women’s health and transgender rights have rolled back.

We felt sucker punched when the war in Iran started, while we face rising grocery bills and gas prices.

We give a shit.
And that shit hurts.

We are angry, triggered, and showing up.

With signal chats, rapid response networks, mutual aid deliveries, legal observer trainings, letter-writing and phone-calling our elected officials, bridge brigades, and massive rallies. . .

And now, all these months of efforts and actions are catching up to us.

We are lost, and yet more certain than we’ve ever been about what matters.

We are lonely, and yet part of something so connected that we’ve never felt so alive.

We are exhausted, and yet more wide awake than ever before.

This is bigger than grief and rage. It is the love and connection and empathy and humanity growing out of us exponentially as a result of the trauma and pain.

It’s all just so much, and we don’t quite know what to do with all of it at the same time.

This is where we step into the medicine of the crow.

Crows don’t overpower eagles. They outsmart them, outmaneuver them, and outplay them. Crows are tricksters with high emotional intelligence who know that the answer to a bully is to be so clever, connected, and playfully relentless that the bully gets annoyed and goes elsewhere.

The crow has community and creativity and the willingness to make a whole lot of noise while having a damn good joyful time doing it.

(because frankly, we’ve had enough grief, guilt, rage, and fear to last a lifetime, and we need some good old fashioned joy and play and LOVE right about now).

We know that the antidote to all of this bullshit is Fierce Love.

Fierce Love is what shows up and keeps us hope-hunting for the good news when the doom-scrolling gets to be too much.

I’m inviting you to tap into the totem medicine of the crow, fueled by rage, and rooted in love. This is a sacred space to gather in community of like-minded souls who want to expand on our ability to be tricksters, spreading fierce love so loud that the world has to listen.

When we gather in circle:

Our breath deepens again, and with it comes a clarity of thought we forgot we had.
Loneliness of carrying all of this dissolves in a supportive coven of other people carrying the same contradictory bundles.
Rage stops leaking sideways onto the people we love and starts flowing into clear activism and resistance actions that make a difference that matters.
The guilt of taking time for ourselves is replaced by the understanding that a regulated, resourced crow is ten times more effective.
As tricksters, we start laughing again, deep belly laughter, the kind that shakes the shits right out of us without us knowing.
Our actions and efforts get sharper because we’re responding from a grounded, creative, trickster place that can see three moves ahead.
We become each other’s rapid response network for the soul.
Ideas start emerging from the group that none of us would have had alone.
We start to feel like ourselves again, except fiercer.

What the Cohort Coven Includes

Biweekly Zoom Sessions:

Every other week, we meet for 90 minutes.
The first 45 minutes are dedicated to nervous system regulation that goes beyond bubble baths and tea.
The second 45 minutes are community gathering time where we connect, share, and conspire together about how to bring our trickster energy into the world.

Intimate Circle: The coven is capped at 15 people. We need a circle small enough that every voice is heard, every face is known, and every crow has a buddy.

Private 1:1 Session: Each coven member gets one private session to go deeper into whatever is alive for them personally, because sometimes what needs tending doesn’t belong in the group.

Session Replays: All sessions are recorded so nobody has to choose between showing up for their life and showing up for the coven.

Encrypted Community Space: This is a place to get to know each other, share wins and wobbles, hatch trickster plans, and build the kind of trust that only happens when people have time to breathe between responses.

Timeliness: The coven runs through the midterm elections, because we are building this container for a reason and that reason has a timeline.

Application Only: This protects the container and ensures that every person in the circle is there with the same intention and the same fierce love.

Who Is a Crow?

anyone who has been showing up for the world and forgetting to show up for themselves.
someone who carries rage and tenderness in the same hand and refuses to let go of either one.
a hope hunter, a trickster, a person who gives a shit so deeply that it has started to cost them something and they know it.
someone who understands that fierce love is not soft or passive but is the most powerful and creative force available to us right now.

We are teachers and nurses and artists and organizers and therapists and retired grandmas and small business owners and writers and caregivers and people who just can’t stop showing up at rallies even though our knees hurt.

We give a damn about this world and we are ready to take care of ourselves as fiercely as we take care of everyone else.

Do NOT apply if:

You have plenty of energy and feel totally fine about everything happening in the world right now.
You prefer to do your healing alone and don’t need other people.
You’ve already figured out how to stay grounded, joyful, and effective without any support whatsoever.
You think self-care is selfish and that good activists should just push through until they collapse.
You’re not willing to laugh, cry, get weird, or be honest in front of other humans.
You already have a murder of crows and your trickster energy is fully activated.

The Details - Two Ways to Join

The Coven — $1111 or 5 x $222.20*

This is the full experience. Every other Wednesday at 11am-12:30pm CDT.

45minute nervous system regulation + 45minute community container space
Intimate gathering - no more than 15 people.
1 private 1-1 session with TeriLeigh
Access to session replays, nervous system regulation lessons, secure community chat
and our encrypted community space for ongoing conversation between gatherings. Sessions run at 11am Central. If enough crows apply, a second coven will open at 4pm Central. Payment plan available at $222.20/month for five months.

The Flock — $444 or 4 x $111*

For crows who want the medicine but need a more flexible path.

The Flock includes full access to the self-paced lessons and curriculum
1x monthly community gathering where we come together to connect, share, and conspire.

*A portion of all proceeds goes directly to Minnesota mutual aid and rent relief.

Timeline:

Applications due June 28
Acceptances sent July 1
Enrollment due July 6
First gathering July 8

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is leading this? I’m the writer behind the Fierce Love Substack where many of you found me during the hardest winter of our lives. I’m not leading this coven as an expert on a stage. I’m leading it as a crow who needs this circle as much as anyone in it. My special skill that I bring to this coven is that I’ve been teaching nervous system regulation, chakra work, and mindfulness practices for over 30 years to more than 200,000 students and 2,000 one-on-one clients.

What do I get with a private 1-1 session? I have 30 years experience reading chakras and auras, as well as intensive training and eldership initiation as an African shaman. I’m also a master yoga teacher with expertise in body posture and mechanics. sessions with me can go as woo-woo as a chakra/aura reading or shamanic divination or as practical as a body mechanics assessment with somatic exercises to address chronic pain and emotional stress.

Why does this cost money? This is how I make my living. The Substack posts, the good news hunting, the rally coverage, the community gathering, the Zoom healings — this is not a side project or a hobby. It is my full-time job and my work in the world, and charging for it is what allows me to keep doing it. A portion of every enrollment goes directly to Minnesota mutual aid and rent relief, so the money moves in two directions — it sustains the person doing the work and it feeds the community the work is for.

I’m already overwhelmed. How can I add one more thing? This is not one more thing. This is the thing that makes all the other things sustainable. Ninety minutes every other week is less time than most of us spend doom scrolling on a bad Tuesday. And if life gets in the way, every session is recorded.

What if I cry? What if I’m angry? What if I fall apart? Good. That’s what the container is for. We are not here to perform wellness. We are here to be real, messy, fierce, tender humans together. Falling apart in a safe circle is not weakness, it’s the beginning of being put back together by people who actually give a shit.

What if I can’t make every session? Life happens. Replays are available for every session. The community space keeps you connected between gatherings. We’d rather have a crow who shows up when they can than lose a crow who thinks they have to be perfect to belong.

Do I need to be in Minnesota? No. Fierce love is global. We have hope hunters from California to British Columbia to Wisconsin to New Zealand to Spain to Denmark. The coven meets on Zoom and the community space is online. The only requirement is a heartbeat and a willingness to show up.

What happens after November 11 when this ends? We will decide that together. The coven may continue, evolve, or complete. What we can promise is that the connections made in this circle won’t end when the sessions do.

I want to apply but I’m scared. That means it matters. Apply anyway. You’ll probably find that the application inspires you, triggers you, and helps you get a really good idea of what you are stepping into should you decide to join us. Filling out the application is a great way to see if this coven is the right fit for you.

A crow alone is an eagle’s lunch.

A murder of crows changes everything.

Apply for the Fierce Love Coven.

Applications close June 28.

If this speaks to you, and you know others
who need this kind of community connection, please share.

I will send a pack of frogs to destroy you.

Teri Leigh 💜 — Tue, 05 May 2026 13:01:01 GMT

If you see yourself in these pages,

Pass it to the woman next to you.

“Because life is better when we leap together.”

— Kermit the Frog

Portland’s Protest Frog

“There was this guy in Portland dressed in an inflatable frog costume,” Frances says as her eyes fill with sparkles. “He was taunting ICE by wiggling his pelvis at them, pushing the line.”

Then her tone darkens and her eyes sharpen, “They grabbed him, held him down as they opened his air hole, and sprayed pepper spray inside his suit. And then, they kicked him while he was down.”

She pauses.

“He showed up the next day and did the same thing.”

Another pause.

“And I was like— that’s my kind of frog.”

Minnesota’s Protest Frog

Now, you have to understand what this means for a Minnesotan. Generally, as a culture, Minnesotans don’t wiggle our pelvises at anyone. We aren’t as open and flamboyant as our Portland friends. We don’t judge them for it, but we also don’t feel comfortable doing it ourselves. Remember, we are a people who apologize for taking up space when someone else steps bumps into us. “Ope, let me just sneak right past ya” is how we move through the world.

And here’s Frances, a woman in her fifties with a list of chronic conditions she doesn’t like to talk about, inspired to be a frog who felt the temperature rising and jumped out before being boiled alive.

She’d been attending protests by herself for nearly ten months, keeping a flip-chart of protest signs in her car. A stack, six or eight pages thick, bound together, each one added as the news cycle changes.

“I try to make them useful for pedestrians and drivers,” she says. “Simple message on one side. But then on the back, breaking news — stuff people can read if they’re stuck at a stoplight.”

One of her signs is frog-themed, a Bible verse: I will send a pack of frogs to destroy you.

But then, around Halloween time, she got her own inflatable frog costume.

The frog changed things.

People want selfies with the frog.

And people don’t talk to the frog.

“I can wander around and just... witness.”

The frog is a sort of permission slip for Frances to see things and do things she wouldn’t normally see or do. But it also gives permission to children to point and squeal, and for their sensible and practical grown-ups to laugh and be ridiculous.

The frog breaks the wall of Minnesota Nice by saying, “We’re allowed to feel things in public.”

“It’s like being a mascot,” Frances says. “Some people don’t even know the story of the Portland frog. They just know there are frogs now. These protests are a very low-rent Disney World.”

And then, the frog costume gets her an exclusive pass to a special club of frogs!

At a family-friendly protest in Burnsville, one of those sprawling suburbs where the parking lots are vast and the minivans are plenty, there were four frogs. They divided up along a long stretch of sidewalk, evenly spaced, sentinels of absurdity waving at passing traffic. Parents slowed down to point them out to their kids in the backseat. Teenagers rolled down windows to take videos. For a few blocks of suburban Minnesota, the resistance looked like a very strange parade.

Protest Frog Love

“We do this thing,” Frances says, already laughing. “The slow romantic run. Slow motion. Like, I finally found you — leaping toward the other frog.”

Picture it: two inflatable frogs, arms outstretched, running in exaggerated slow motion, with the Chariots of Fire theme-song playing in the background. The dramatic yearning of a rom-com climax, they collide in a hug on a suburban sidewalk flanked by protestors with signs. .

“And then they start doing it too,” Frances says. “The people watching. They start doing the slow-motion run toward each other.”

This is what Minnesota looks like when we finally let go. Who knew that a costume and a flip-chart of protest signs could puncture a hole in rage so that the joy can squeal out?

Even when, and especially when everything else feels like it’s falling apart.

This is an excerpt from WOMN- a book about the women of Minnesota and what Operation Metro Surge made of us.

If this chapter found you, it found you for a reason.

If you want to support this effort, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers will receive full chapters (not just excerpts) with my author’s commentary about my process and experience at least once a month.

Please add your voice by sharing in the comments. I’m listening. We all are.

That’s how this works.

That’s how we work.

I love you fiercely,

TeriLeigh 💜

Good News 4/26/26 - 5/2/26

Teri Leigh 💜 — Sat, 02 May 2026 13:51:30 GMT

4/28/26

Good News

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Minneapolis is planning a Prince sing-a-long on June 6, and is planning for over 15,000 signing to participate.
Tuesday, May 5th, for Cinco de Mayo, ICE OUT Projection in collaboration with Second Sight Visuals will display protest art on the Witch’s Hat Water Tower at 5 Malcolm Avenue SE in Minneapolis.
True Friends, Minnesota non-profit that provides independence and confidence-building experiences such as camps, retreats, team-building, therapy, adaptive riding, and travel opportunities to children and adults with disability is opening a new rec center with a gym and aquatic center.
Four community leaders will accept the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award on behalf of the people of the Twin Cities for their response to Operation Metro Surge.
- Yusuf Abdulle, Somali American Leadership Table co-founder
- Natalie Ehret, founder of Haven Watch
- Carolina Ortiz, executive director of COPAL
- Zena Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights schools, Yusuf Abdulle
A series of Support & Processing groups organized by social workers to address collective PTSD and trauma is creating safe and supportive spaces to talk about healing. These groups will be happening across the cities at libraries and public spaces.
Saturday, April 25 was Independent Bookstore Day honoring dozens of locally owned mom and pop small business bookstores in the metro area.
Minnesota has the 3rd lowest poverty rate in the nation.
Minneapolis City Council brought forward an ordinance creating protections to ensure residents are not prevented from obtaining rental housing or made to feel unsafe in their rental housing due to their immigration status. It was approved.
Becca Good, Renee Good’s wife, is asking a federal judge to order the return of their Honda Pilot that ICE took into evidence.
Will Stancil just revealed that during the surge he worked with a group of local women on a “honeypot” operation. These young women matched with ICE agents on the dating app Tinder, where the ICE agents revealed information about their operations to these young women who then shared them with local rapid response networks. The ICE agents would share videos of raids, tell the women where they were staying, and provide all kinds of useful information to women who would pretend to be impressed by it. In some cases, these women were able to locate the agents’ wives in Texas and forward them the message history.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

4/29/26

Good News: Fraud, Minnesota, and the Follow-Through

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

During the COVID pandemic, fraud surged across the country. When a $250 million scheme surfaced in Minnesota, it showed the scale of what was happening. Minnesota had the oversight to catch it and act on it, while much of that same fraud continues quietly undetected in other states.

Nationwide enforcement efforts recently identified $14.6 billion in healthcare fraud schemes across the United States, reinforcing that this issue spans every state.
Minnesota’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit ranks: 5th in fraud charges, 8th in convictions, Top 10 nationally overall.
Minnesota’s Medicaid improper payment rate is about 2.2%—well below the national average of 6%, which means that Minnesota has stronger baseline controls than many states.
Yesterday, 22 search warrants were executed across Minnesota, coordinated between state and federal investigators after Minnesota agencies flagged suspicious billing patterns themselves. Fraud follows money everywhere, and Minnesota’s numbers reflect a system that continues to identify, investigate, and complete cases through the full legal process.
In Minnesota 79 people have been charged and 65+ already convicted, including dozens of guilty pleas where individuals admitted the fraud in court because they knew Minnesota has the evidence to convict.
Minnesota ranks Top 5 nationally in Medicaid fraud convictions, holding that position consistently over multiple years. Across states, the pattern shows audits and flagged dollars, while Minnesota’s pattern shows charges filed, guilty pleas entered, convictions secured, and sentences issued. Minnesota catches the bad guys.
A federal review (2020–2022) found Minnesota secured more fraud convictions than similarly sized states like Wisconsin, Colorado, and Maryland operating within the same federal programs.
During that same period, audits in peer states uncovered significant improper payments: Colorado ($77.8M), Wisconsin ($18.5M), Indiana ($56M), and Maine ($45.6M), with errors identified in 100% of sampled autism service claims.
Minnesota’s largest case alone brought nearly 80 defendants into one coordinated prosecution, with dozens already convicted and additional trials ongoing. This is because Minnesota is diligent about records, evidence, and tracking.
Across states, the pattern shows audits and flagged dollars, while Minnesota’s pattern shows charges filed, guilty pleas entered, convictions secured, and sentences issued.

You can’t tell me that Minnesota is the “bad guy” in terms of fraud in the United States. We are actually the one state that caught the fraud and have been systematically dealing with it case by case. Plus, the United States President was convicted of massive fraud and has yet to be held accountable for those actions.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

4/30/26

Good News - Voter’s Rights Edition

Thursday, April 30, 2026

This week, the Supreme Court weakened protections against racial gerrymandering in Louisiana v. Callais. And yet, people, courts, and communities are already responding. When one state seemingly suffers, the others pick up the slack. Minnesota is often one of the states leading the way, which is the case in terms of voter’s rights too.

In Minnesota, same-day voter registration is still law—over 500,000 voters have used it in recent election cycles, one of the highest participation tools in the country.
Minnesota continues to rank #1 or #2 in voter turnout nationally, regularly hitting 75%+ participation in presidential elections—meaning maps don’t stop people here from showing up.
Minnesota’s 2022 redistricting map was drawn by a court-appointed panel, not politicians, after a deadlock—an existing safeguard that remains in place regardless of federal changes.
ISAIAH helped mobilize thousands of voters and volunteers statewide during recent election cycles and has active infrastructure ready for rapid response organizing.
TakeAction Minnesota has already run statewide voter protection and turnout campaigns reaching tens of thousands of residents—systems that remain intact today.
In Michigan, voters passed Proposal 2 (2022), locking anti-gerrymandering and voting protections into the state constitution—proof that voters can override partisan maps directly.
In California, an independent redistricting commission continues to draw maps—one of several states where fair maps are structurally protected regardless of this ruling.
The ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund both announced immediate legal strategy shifts within hours of the ruling—these cases are already moving back into court under new arguments.
After Shelby County v. Holder weakened the Voting Rights Act, voter turnout among Black voters increased in multiple states in subsequent elections, showing organizing adapts faster than suppression.
Grassroots organizers in states like Georgia and Arizona have already built year-round voter outreach systems, registering and mobilizing voters between elections, not just during them.
Community-based efforts—rides to the polls, ballot curing, neighborhood canvassing—have scaled up nationwide since 2020, reaching millions of voters each cycle.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News May Day

Friday, May 1, 2026

The Minneapolis May Day march is expected to include labor unions, immigrant rights groups, and faith leaders—the same coalition that brought 75,000+ people into the streets on January 23. ISAIAH and other interfaith groups are coordinating turnout, bringing clergy, congregations, and community networks into the streets again. Organizers across Minnesota are planning workplace walkouts, student actions, and coordinated demonstrations throughout the day—not just one central march.

In Minneapolis, May Day organizers are gathering at Powderhorn Park before marching through the city—continuing a decades-long tradition of one of the largest May Day events in the country.
In Duluth, local unions and community groups are hosting a May Day rally and march in Canal Park, connecting labor rights to regional economic issues.
In Rochester, organizers are holding a public gathering downtown focused on healthcare workers, service workers, and immigrant communities.
In Mankato, students and community members are organizing a May Day demonstration tied to campus and local labor issues.
In St. Cloud, grassroots groups are planning a smaller-scale rally bringing together workers and immigrant advocates.

Across the country, organizers are using May Day to coordinate strikes, boycotts, and mass call-ins—tactics that research consistently shows increase the success of social movements.

In Chicago, thousands are expected downtown for one of the largest May Day labor rallies in the country, continuing the city’s historic role in the labor movement.
In Los Angeles, organizers are planning a major march focused on immigrant rights, with participation from major unions and community groups.
In New York City, multiple May Day events are scheduled across boroughs, including rallies in Union Square and Foley Square.
In Washington, D.C., national advocacy groups are gathering for coordinated demonstrations near the White House and Capitol.
In Atlanta and across the Southeast, May Day actions are centering voting rights and worker protections in states directly impacted by recent court decisions.

This year’s May Day actions are being coordinated through national networks connecting hundreds of local groups, allowing cities to act together instead of in isolation.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News - Minnesota

Saturday, May 2, 2026

Minnesota has been getting dragged hard in the national conversation lately. Today’s list is proof that the feds chose the wrong state to bully.

💜 They say Minnesota is “fraud-filled.” Minnesota built systems strong enough to detect fraud, investigate it, and prosecute it—while many states don’t even know what they’re missing.

💜 They say Minnesota has “terrible leadership.” Minnesota consistently ranks near the top for quality of life, with strong systems in education, healthcare, and economic stability.

💜 They say Minnesota is “too political.” Minnesota has one of the most engaged citizen populations in the country, with some of the highest voter turnout rates in the U.S. for decades.

💜 They say Minnesota spends too much and taxes too much. Minnesota invests in public systems that work—parks, schools, healthcare, infrastructure—and consistently lands on “best states to live” lists because of it.

💜 They say Minnesota is “soft.” Minnesotans show up in subzero temperatures, organize, vote, volunteer, donate, and keep communities running through literal blizzards.

💜 They say Minnesota “lets people in.” Minnesota became home to the largest Somali and Hmong populations in the country—and those communities now staff hospitals, lead cities, run businesses, and care for neighbors every single day.

💜 They say Minnesota is “too generous.” Minnesota consistently ranks among the most charitable and volunteer-driven states in the country, with people giving time, money, and care at scale.

💜 They say Minnesota is “overregulated.” Minnesota protects its water, land, and public health systems with intention—because 10,000+ lakes and a major river system require people who actually give a shit. And btw - those lakes can provide fresh water to the entire world.

Minnesota is a case study in what happens when people vote, participate, build systems, welcome neighbors, and keep showing up for each other year after year. I, for one, am proud to be a Minnesotan.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Aliveness & Activism w/ Teri Leigh 💜 & Alexander Lovell🩵

Teri Leigh 💜 — Fri, 01 May 2026 20:34:33 GMT

Available for iOS and Android

*summary written by claude.ai

Aliveness and Activism: A Substack Live with Teri Leigh & Alex Lovell

May 1, 2026 (May Day)

On May Day, Teri Leigh and Alex Lovell sat down for a Substack Live to dig into a question that’s been living in both of them: What does it mean to feel alive in the middle of all this? The conversation wove together political science research, personal experience, and the kind of unscripted honesty that happens when two people trust each other completely.

The Spark: How Activism Gets Into Your Body

Alex, a social and political scientist, shared that his entire PhD research was born from one visceral experience at an Occupy Wall Street gathering in 2011. He went in without much understanding of the movement and walked out days later completely consumed by it, chanting songs he’d never heard before. That possession, that full-body aliveness, became the question he’s been researching ever since: Why do movements take us over like that?

His answer has layers. On an individual level, people crave being part of something larger than themselves. That craving connects to belongingness, to generational identity, and to the values that run underneath our daily lives but rarely get activated. Alex described each generation as having its own version of that deep, dark pit they have to climb out of, and how that shared struggle becomes the fuel for collective action.

The Free Rider Problem (And Why It’s Broken Right Now)

Alex brought up a fascinating concept from political science: the free rider problem. If someone else is willing to do the activism for you, why would you spend the energy? Historically, that’s been a strong predictor of why people don’t participate.

But something has shifted. Teri reflected on her own experience as an accidental activist. When ICE showed up in her Minnesota backyard, she couldn’t not act. The women she’s been interviewing for the Women Project book are telling her the same thing. They weren’t looking for community. They got activated because something enraged them so deeply that sitting still became impossible. The belongingness came after, as a side effect, and it bonded fast and strong.

What they’re both seeing is that these new bonds are replacing older relationships that were already decaying. Activism is creating what Teri called “synapses of relationship,” connections that feel more real and more intimate than what existed before.

Choosing When to Activate

Alex’s latest Substack post became a touchstone throughout the conversation. In it, he described sitting in a crowded Amsterdam pub where every table carried a different emotional charge trying to pull him in. He chose not to engage. And in that restraint, he felt more alive and more powerful than he had in a long time.

This led to a core theme: our energy is finite. We have to be selective about where we spend it. Teri shared a phrase that’s become common in Minnesota’s activist circles: “Pick your lane.” You can’t protest AND do mutual aid AND write AND call every elected official AND stay whole. The lane that sustains you is the one that feeds you as much as it directs your energy.

The Disappearing Front Porch (And Its Return)

Alex traced the erosion of community life through decades of research, from the literal disappearance of front porches to the decline of PTAs, workplace associations, and local religious communities. Social media promised to fill the gap but mostly made us more isolated.

Teri offered a stunning counter-example from her own street. After ICE activity changed the neighborhood dynamic, five houses on her block started texting each other, watching out for each other’s packages, reporting an abandoned car together. All five neighbors had independently called the non-emergency police line. In a politically diverse neighborhood with a Trump voter two doors from a rainbow flag house, they’re taking care of each other. That wouldn’t have happened a year ago.

What’s Coming Next

Alex is returning to Substack collaborations and relaunching a component of his paid tier at Department of Aliveness.

Teri announced a brand new offering: a Fierce Love cohort. It will be a five-month, every-other-week small group program designed to help people hold each other in sacred community as the midterm elections approach. The focus is learning how to be activated without reacting, how to channel passion into power and productivity. Applications will open in the coming weeks.

Accidental Activists Live with Teri Leigh 💜 & Jennie O'Connor

Teri Leigh 💜 — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:07:57 GMT

Available for iOS and Android

Summary written by claude.ai

How Two Writers Lost Their Muse—and Found Their Mission

Teri and Jenny came together for this Substack LIVE to talk about a shared experience: becoming accidental activists. Both started on Substack writing in completely different lanes—Teri in mindfulness and sensitivity, Jenny in fiction and personal essays—and both hit a wall when the political upheaval in their communities made everything else feel frivolous.

For Teri, the shift happened in December 2025 when ICE arrived in Minnesota. Living a stone’s throw from the state capitol, she watched videos of people she knew being targeted, couldn’t stop doom scrolling, and lost all desire to write about her usual topics. When Renee Goode died and she saw that video a half hour after it happened, she couldn’t breathe for a week. Two days after Alex Prady’s death, she started writing “good news lists”—her way of pulling herself out of the spiral by doing what she teaches: paying attention to the positive and looking for the helpers.

Jenny’s experience mirrored Teri’s. She’d carved out space to finally write her novel, but January rolled around and the muse had left the building. She canceled events the weekend Alex Prady died, sat in her hotel room and cried, and eventually followed a nudge from her astrology podcast that said the thing that won’t leave you alone—you have to do it. She wrote a justice magic post. It went viral.

The Power of Collective Intention

Teri drew on the story of The Hundredth Monkey—a study where scientists taught one monkey to wash its fruit, and eventually monkeys on a completely separate island started doing the same without any contact. That collective unconscious energy, she believes, is what’s driving the accidental activism movement. She pointed to how she and fellow Substack writer Sean Snow often write about the same topics on the same day without ever coordinating.

She also underscored Minnesota’s collective power:

75,000 people showed up for a general strike in minus-30-degree weather
An estimated 300,000 supporters stand behind the resistance
The energy of that many people moving in the same direction creates something unstoppable

White Magic, Fierce Love, and Letting Karma Work

Jenny shared three accessible rituals she’s been offering her readers:

A psalm-based prayer rooted in hoodoo tradition—a “send-away prayer” that anyone, regardless of spiritual background, can recite
A karmic boomerang spell involving taping a photo face-down against a mirror, trusting karma to reflect negative energy back to its source
A May Day world peace spell using bay leaves, a pen, and fire—writing wishes for peace, burning them, and releasing them into the world

Teri contextualized these through her own background as an initiated elder in a shamanic tradition. She explained the difference between black magic (putting intention onto others to control them) and white magic (working on your own internal process). These rituals, she said, aren’t about attacking anyone—they’re about trusting karma, turning away from rage, and channeling energy toward fierce love.

She also explored power as addiction: leaders caught in a cycle of control that builds tolerance, demands more, and eventually self-destructs. The antidote is empowerment—not power over others, but the fierce love that connects us.

Resistance Over Protest, Stories Over Sermons

Teri made a distinction between protest (fighting, arguing) and resistance (holding a boundary). Minnesotans, she said, have been deliberately choosing the word resist—standing firm without attacking back.

She also introduced her upcoming project, WOMN (spelled without the E): interviews with twelve Minnesota women instrumental in the resistance. These aren’t preachy call-to-action pieces—they’re parables. Stories of real moments where a woman chose fierce love, like the one who stood toe-to-toe with an ICE agent in the bitter cold and whispered, You don’t have to do this. You can change your mind. He started crying.

A Call to Writers Who’ve Lost Their Way

Both Teri and Jenny closed with encouragement for writers stuck in the same creative paralysis: if your muse has gone quiet, maybe she’s trying to tell you something. Maybe the thing you’ve been holding back is the thing the world needs right now. Hit publish. You can always pivot later—but right now, this moment needs your voice.

WoMN used their voices to make ICE offer a handshake and leave without detaining anyone.

Teri Leigh 💜 — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 13:02:11 GMT

If you see yourself in these pages,
Pass it to the woman next to you.

Sasha

Sasha was standing at the entrance to a mobile home park with about five other women, wearing reflective vests over their winter gear and whistles around their necks.

Women show up every day, twice a day, as trained legal observers to make sure the kids from the mobile homes get on and off the bus safely each day. They knew the school bus drivers, and the bus drivers knew them. The women have come to know all the families, their kids, their struggles and needs. They bring each other coffee and donuts, and the mothers occasionally gift them with homemade tortillas or a jar of salsa.

When two ICE vehicles parked at the entrance to the community, the women knew what to do.

Sasha stayed back a bit, blowing her whistle.

The signal rippled through — don’t come outside, stay inside, don’t open the door. The elder women in the group moved forward to meet the agents as they got out of their trucks. Sasha held her position a few steps back, watching how her elders knew to use their voices before the agents could use their force.

There were four of them, all men, all carrying the recognizable ICE energy, cold, fierce, and uncompromising. Their bodies were loud, and their voices were piercing with anger. They were clearly annoyed that they had to deal with these women they considered to be “obstructions” to their efforts.

The elder women didn’t raise their voices to match. Some raised their phones to film while others asked the questions they were trained to ask.

Do you have a warrant?
DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE PROTECTING A RAPIST?
What’s your authority to be here?
YOU’RE STOPPING US FROM ARRESTING A CHILD MOLESTER!
Do you even know whose trailer you’re approaching?

No response. . . because they didn’t know.

The women’s simple questions created a perimeter, a verbal boundary blocking the threshold to the mobile home park, and the men started coming apart inside it.

The men continued to throw the ugliest language and most ferocious energy they had into the air, as the women remained calm. Their calm made all the agents’ efforts melt into puddles on the pavement.

Then, in a surprising move, one of the agents held out a hand, offering a handshake like men do at the end of a negotiation. Maybe they didn’t know what else to do with their hands. Maybe somewhere inside the gear and the masks there was a muscle memory of humanity that responded automatically.

Men who had just been posturing and accusing and trying to intimidate, now reached out their hands as if they wanted to pass back through the narrow gate of civility on their way out.

The women accepted their handshakes.

The men shook their heads, clearly unhappy about the outcome, but unable to assert violence or force as they’d been reputed to do elsewhere in the cities.

One by one, the agents got back into their vehicles and drove out of the park.

They circled back and wrote down every license plate in the cul-de-sac where the women had parked.

Petty.

The women quietly smiled, unafraid. What mattered most was that the agents drove out of the trailer park without detaining anyone.

The buses came.

The kids got on, and Sasha stayed with her whistle and her reflective vest until the school bus drove away too.

Kelly used her voice pinned to the pavement with a man’s body on top of hers.

Frances watched a woman use her voice face to face with a young agent whose eyes filled with tears.

And here, in a mobile home park in Minnesota on a bitter cold day, a group of women used their collective voices to force ICE back into their vehicles.

That is another thing Renee gave us.

When she died, women all over Minnesota learned that their use-of-voice power can outperform any use-of-force. . . except a gun.

A woman’s voice can de-escalate a punch.
A woman’s voice can call to the frightened boy inside a uniform.
And women’ s voices can protect a whole community.

This is an excerpt from WOMN- a book about the women of Minnesota and what Operation Metro Surge made of us.

If this chapter found you, it found you for a reason.

Please add your voice by sharing in the comments. I’m listening. We all are.

That’s how this works.

That’s how we work.

I love you fiercely,

TeriLeigh 💜

Good News 4/19/26 - 4/25/26

Teri Leigh 💜 — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:01:59 GMT

Sunday, April 19, 2026

At a time when the federal administration is openly anti-trans and many states are challenging trans rights, Minnesota is upholding and strengthening its position as a sanctuary state for LGTBQ and specifically trans-gender people.

Attorney General Keith Ellison secured a federal court ruling protecting gender-affirming care. In March, Ellison and a coalition of 21 states won a case blocking federal pressure that aimed to shut down care for trans youth. The court sided with the states, reinforcing that medical decisions belong to patients, families, and doctors—not politics.
Minnesota’s “Trans Refuge” law is still in effect—and still working. Authored by Rep. Leigh Finke, the state’s first openly transgender legislator, the law protects both patients and providers from out-of-state interference. Families are traveling here specifically because Minnesota has made it clear: gender-affirming care is protected here.
Gender-affirming care remains fully legal and protected across Minnesota. Despite national pressure and proposed federal changes, providers across the state continue offering care backed by major medical organizations. Minnesota remains one of the states where access has not been interrupted.
Governor Tim Walz officially recognized Transgender Day of Visibility this year. On March 31, the state formally honored transgender Minnesotans—naming visibility, dignity, and recognition as values worth protecting at the highest level of leadership.
Minnesota continues enforcing one of the strongest anti-discrimination protections in the country. State law explicitly protects transgender people from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations—giving people legal backing for everyday safety and participation in public life.
OutFront Minnesota continues organizing, advocating, and supporting trans Minnesotans statewide. Led by Executive Director Kat Rohn, the organization remains a central force—connecting legal advocacy, community support, and public education to protect and expand trans rights.
Minnesota is still allowing trans student athletes to participate in sports aligned with their identity. Even under federal legal pressure, the state has maintained its position—refusing to remove trans students from participation and continuing to defend inclusive policies.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Monday, April 20, 2026

💧 Boundary Waters, Water, & Earth Day — Minnesota Good News

This week, the waters of Minnesota were pulled into a national fight. Minnesota is not only the headwaters of the Mississippi River, but also the indigenous peoples of Minnesota have been protecting the water of Lake Superior for years.

A narrow vote in the U.S. Senate just cleared the way to lift a 20-year mining ban near the Boundary Waters—opening the headwaters of one of the most pristine freshwater ecosystems in the country to potential copper-nickel mining.

The Boundary Waters is over a million acres of interconnected lakes, rivers, and forest—water that flows, connects, and sustains life far beyond its edges.

And when something that sacred is threatened, Minnesotans do what Minnesotans do.

🌲 People are showing up for the water—together

An Earth Day Rally at the Minnesota State Capitol is bringing people together to stand for clean water and the Boundary Waters, with the message that protecting these waters belongs to all of us. The timing matters. The response is immediate, visible, and collective.

🛶 The Boundary Waters is still protected—right now

Even after the federal vote, no mine is approved or operating. Any proposed project still faces years of environmental review, permitting, and legal challenges. Organizations, tribal nations, and environmental groups are already preparing next steps to protect the watershed.

🌊 The water movement here runs deep (and experienced)

Minnesota isn’t new to this fight. Groups like Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness have been protecting this ecosystem since the 1970s—helping shape laws, expand protections, and build public awareness. That means today’s movement stands on decades of knowledge, strategy, and love for this place.

🌾 Indigenous voices are centered in protecting water

The Boundary Waters watershed connects to wild rice ecosystems, which hold deep cultural and ecological importance. Tribal leaders and advocates continue to be among the strongest voices calling for protection, grounding the movement in generational stewardship and relationship to land.

🚣 The Boundary Waters still belongs to the people

It remains the most visited wilderness area in the United States, with thousands of people paddling, fishing, and camping its lakes every year. Every canoe that enters those waters is a quiet act of connection—and a reminder of what’s worth protecting.

🌎 Earth Day energy is translating into real action

Across Minnesota, Earth Day events are expanding beyond celebration into organizing, education, and mobilization. Climate groups, local communities, and everyday people are using this moment to: call legislators, attend rallies, share information, support water protection efforts

💙 The fight isn’t over—and Minnesotans know how to stay

Even supporters of the mining decision acknowledge that the process is far from finished. Legal pathways, state-level decisions, and public pressure all remain active. And if there’s one thing Minnesota has proven—again and again—it’s this: We don’t walk away from our water.

Water remembers where it flows, and here in Minnesota, it keeps finding its way back to people who love it fiercely.

When you drink your water today, whisper a little prayer of gratitude and protection into it. That magick matters.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News emerging out of the horror.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

This weekend in Shreveport Louisiana, eight children died by a gun.

What does a community actually do with something like this?

In Minnesota, we respond as we do with everything, with long-term action.

Last August, a gunman opened fire through the stained-glass windows during morning Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in south Minneapolis, killing 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and injuring dozens more.

The night of the shooting, hundreds of people gathered at Lynnhurst Park, organized by Protect Minnesota and Moms Demand Action, and more than 600 people filled the gym at Academy of Holy Angels. Archbishop Bernard Hebda stood in front of parents holding babies and teenagers sitting shoulder to shoulder. Governor Tim Walz and Senator Amy Klobuchar stood with the community as people sang and cried together.
Within days, more than 100 students and parents stood on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol calling for specific changes.
Harper Moyski’s parents from the Annunciation community invited elected officials into their living room. They sat together in a home, face to face, asking hard questions about safety, responsibility, and what could actually change going forward
At Allianz Field, Minnesota United supporters raised banners with Harper and Fletcher’s names and sang together. The Minnesota Vikings wore shirts that read “Be Kind. Be Respectful. Be Inclusive. Be Brave,” carrying the message into a different kind of public space. At Target Field, the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays paused before a game. The scoreboard read “Annunciation Church,” and an entire stadium stood in silence
Schools across Minneapolis and the broader metro quietly updated protocols over the year. Not just drills, but communication systems, reunification plans, and trauma-informed practices that continue shaping how staff respond to crisis
Parish networks and local organizations continue supporting families with ongoing expenses, recognizing that recovery stretches far beyond the immediate aftermath
Lawn signs are still visible, months later, in neighborhoods across south Minneapolis that read “We Love Annunciation Children,” now sitting alongside newer signs—“ICE OUT,” “Protect Trans Kids,” “Black Lives Matter”
Annual rhythms are beginning to form. Plans for memorial masses, anniversaries, and continued gatherings ensure that the story is marked, remembered, and carried forward with intention
Local leaders and elected officials continue referencing Annunciation in policy discussions, keeping it present in legislative framing rather than allowing it to fade into a past headline
Students who lived through the shooting have continued to shape the conversation, bringing their voices into classrooms, community forums, and public spaces as they grow into what this experience has asked of them

This is how Minnesota responds.

We gather in parks, sit in each other’s living rooms and look each other in the eye, and we keep the conversation going, for as long as it takes.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News - Prince style

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Prince died ten years ago yesterday.

The day he died, Minneapolis shut down the streets for a massive grief celebration. What showed up in Minneapolis that night still shows up now. People gathering on bridges, in neighborhoods, playing music and standing close to each other. That instinct—to come together in public and hold something collectively—is the same instinct showing up in Minnesota right now.

Prince didn’t just make music here. He amplified how this place responds when things get hard.

Prince opened Paisley Park in 1987 as a working studio and creative campus so artists could stay in Minnesota instead of leaving for Los Angeles or New York. It became a place where music was made at all hours and where local musicians could build careers without relocating.
Prince was known for giving large amounts of money quietly. After his death, it was revealed he had funded education programs, paid for instruments for schools, and supported Black youth organizations in Minneapolis without attaching his name to the donations.
In 2015, Prince hosted a series of “Rally 4 Peace” concerts in response to the killing of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis. He brought together activists, community members, and artists at Paisley Park, using music as a way to gather people during a moment of crisis.
Prince’s song Baltimore was written after the death of Freddie Gray and includes the line “Does anybody hear us pray?” He released it for free, saying music should be used to respond to injustice in real time.
From Let’s Go Crazy: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to get through this thing called life.” That line has been used repeatedly in Minneapolis memorials, vigils, and public gatherings, including after his death and during later community crises.
Prince said, “No one can dictate who you are.” He refused to label his own identity publicly and often left gender ambiguous in his lyrics, creating space for listeners to see themselves reflected without definition.
Prince said, “A strong spirit transcends rules.” That line has been widely circulated in Minneapolis over the years, especially in moments when community members have stepped outside formal systems to care for each other.
When Prince died on April 21, 2016, thousands of people gathered outside Paisley Park and outside First Avenue in downtown within hours. There was no central organizer. People brought candles, speakers, flowers, and stood together late into the night.
The Lowry Avenue Bridge, the I-35W bridge, and buildings across downtown Minneapolis were lit purple the night of his death. The lighting spread quickly across the city without a coordinated announcement, as institutions and individuals responded in real time.
Murals of Prince began appearing across Minneapolis within days of his death. Many were created by local artists without commission, turning walls into public memorials that are still part of the city’s landscape.
Prince regularly played unannounced shows at small venues in Minneapolis, sometimes performing late at night after larger concerts. These shows kept him connected to the local community rather than operating only at a national level.
Prince once said, “I like Hollywood. I like Minneapolis a little bit better.” He maintained his home and primary creative base in Minnesota for his entire career, even at the height of his global fame.

The instinct Minneapolis showed the night Prince died—gathering, witnessing, making space for grief in public—is the same instinct showing up now in how people respond to each other during moments of pressure.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Minnesota resistance efforts made it into a newspaper in Chile! The world is still watching Minnesota’s example.
The genuine relationships that grew out of the ICE surge crisis are long-lasting. One example, Jody Abramson started driving kids to school during the surge. The good news is that those kids are back to riding the bus like normal. The even better news is that Jody is still playing an active role in their lives.
The St. Paul Art Crawl wrapped its April weekend with artists opening studio spaces across Lowertown and other neighborhoods. Thousands of people moved through warehouses, galleries, and shared spaces, buying art directly from local creators and meeting them in person.
At the Mall of America, the annual spring plant care cycle is underway, including the release of beneficial insects like ladybugs to protect the mall’s 30,000+ live plants without chemical pesticides. It’s one of the largest indoor plant care systems in the country.
Second Harvest Heartland reported continued high volunteer turnout this week as they sort and distribute food across partner agencies. Spring tends to bring a shift from emergency response to more steady distribution, and volunteer numbers have held strong.
University of Minnesota Extension has launched its spring Master Gardener programming, with residents across the state signing up to learn soil health, planting techniques, and food production skills that they’ll bring back into their communities.
The Minnesota Historical Society opened new spring programming at sites across the state this week, including outdoor tours and public history events that bring people back into shared spaces after the winter season.
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity continues its spring build season, with volunteers back on construction sites across the metro helping build and repair homes for local families.
Free Bikes 4 Kidz Minnesota is beginning its seasonal ramp-up, preparing thousands of donated bikes for distribution to kids later this spring and summer.
The Minneapolis Public Schools continues its return to more stable in-person learning routines, with attendance patterns improving after earlier disruptions and more students consistently back in classrooms.
St. Paul Farmers Market has reopened more fully for the season, bringing local growers, early produce, and small food vendors back into regular weekly rotation.
Minnesota Orchestra continues its spring concert series, drawing audiences back into Orchestra Hall and maintaining one of the most active performing arts schedules in the region.

I’m gaining momentum on writing the individual stories of the amazing WOMN who showed up during the surge. New excerpts post every Tuesday, and I’ve got stories scheduled through May! I’ll be posting stand-alone quotes each day (thank you Substack notes scheduler).

I’m going on a mini-vacation this weekend, headed to a wedding in Colorado. I’ll be taking a few days off of Good News until I get back on Tuesday. If you post your good news here in the comments, I’ll share those instead.

Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Friday, April 24, 2026

Before I head out on a weekend road-trip, here’s a good news list proving that elected officials are loving fiercely. These are examples of people detained by ICE, and how elected officials are showing up to get them released.

Andrea Pedro-Francisco, 23, is from Burnsville, Minnesota, and has been held in El Paso, Texas, since February 5, after ICE arrested her six days before scheduled surgery for a tennis-ball-sized ovarian cyst. On April 23, DFL Sens. Lindsey Port and Alice Mann, religious leaders, and other elected officials held a State Capitol press conference demanding humanitarian parole. Rep. Angie Craig has been communicating with federal officials and said, “I’m not going to let a constituent die on my watch.”
Javier Abreu-Vasquez, a kidney-transplant recipient from Rochester, Minnesota, was detained by ICE on February 5 while delivering groceries for a church mutual-aid network. State Rep. Kim Hicks helped his family try to get his anti-rejection medication to him after the arrest. He was released after two weeks and returned home to Minnesota on February 19, where his wife, daughters, and mother met him at the Rochester airport.
Rihan, an 18-year-old honors senior from Cheshire, Connecticut, was detained by ICE on April 6 and held at Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. Gov. Ned Lamont, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General William Tong, school leaders, and local officials publicly pushed for his release. He was released on bond April 20 and returned to Cheshire, though his case continues with a May 4 immigration hearing.
Salah Sarsour, 53, is a Milwaukee-area Palestinian legal permanent resident and president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. ICE detained him on March 30 after he left his home in Franklin, Wisconsin, and transferred him to Indiana. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, local elected officials, clergy, Muslim organizations, labor groups, and Rep. Mark Pocan have demanded his release. His first immigration hearing is scheduled for April 27.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children are from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and were held for more than 10 months at Dilley in Texas. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar publicly called for the family’s release after reports of heart-related medical concerns, children’s mental-health distress, and delayed care. A federal judge ordered their release April 23, and Castro said ICE should release them immediately.

Thank you Gracefully Ragtag for commenting on my note this week with this quote from Sylvia Brown. I hope Sylvia’s prophecy is right, because our local government officials are proving to have the fierce love heart we need to carry this country to a new energy.

Sylvia Browne:

“The year 2020 will mark the end of the U.S. presidency and the executive branch of the government. Let’s just say the American public will finally be fed up by then and leave it at that. The legislative branch will essentially absorb the responsibilities of the executive branch, with a streamlined body of elected representatives, an equal number from each state, forming the new legislature, which will be known simply as the Senate. The “party” system of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, et al., will un-complicate itself into Liberals and Conservatives, who will debate and vote on each proposed bill and law in nationally televised sessions. Requirements for Senate candidates will be stringent and continuously monitored. For example, senators will be prohibited from having any past or present salaried position with any company that has ever had or might ever have a professional or contractual connection to federal, state, or local government, and each senator must submit to random drug and alcohol testing throughout his or her term. The long-term effects of this reorganized government and closely examined body of lawmakers will be a return of legislative accountability and public trust, and state governments will follow suit no later than 2024 by becoming smaller mirror images of the national Senate.”

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

I Am A Writer!

Teri Leigh 💜 — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:24:30 GMT

The summer before fourth grade, I went off to sleep-away summer camp for a week.

On the second day of camp, we were challenged to dress up like what we wanted to be when we grew up for a party that night. I don’t remember what the other girls in my cabin did for their costumes, but they were for more elaborate and creative than mine was. And they called …

A protest frog watches a WoMN make ICE cry.

Teri Leigh 💜 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:01:41 GMT

If you see yourself in these pages,
Pass it to the woman next to you.

Frances

Two days after Renee Good was shot, Frances went to a protest at the Whipple Federal Building, AKA ICE Headquarters.

She wore an inflatable frog costume.

“People don’t really notice me as a person,” Frances says, “they notice the frog.”

She’s able to weave in and out amongst the people, and witness the most intimate of conversations and interactions without anyone realizing she is there.

That day, before the big fence went up to barricade the protestors, ICE agents stood in a line almost toe to toe with protestors. Things turned violent really fast. There was pepper spray, pepper balls, and multiple altercations with ICE tackling protestors and arresting them.

“I almost got pepper sprayed. And I had my frog costume on, so luckily people helped pull me back.”

Once out of the fray, Frances decided to wander the quieter edges of the protest where fewer people were gathered. In those spaces she could witness things that the people in the center of the protest would miss entirely. She found an intimacy there that didn’t exist inside the chaos.

An older woman stood face to face with an ICE agent, close enough that the mist of their breath almost mingled in the bitter January air.

The agent was young. He was masked, but from ten feet away through the window of her frog suit, Frances noticed his eyes. Behind the tactical gear and the weapon, hidden inside his eyes, she saw vulnerability.

The older woman had the energy of a third grade teacher. You know the type, the one who is soft and squishy, almost grandmotherly, but also the teacher you respect the most, the one you never ever want to make mad. She spoke to him calmly, but firmly, as he stood there silent. His eyes said he was listening, but he dared not speak. She raised her voice enough to be heard over the chaos, commanding attention without demanding it.

“You don’t have to do this. You can change your mind. It’s never too late. Just please join us.”

Together, an ICE agent, an older woman, and a frog were lost in a moment where all the chaos, the whistles, the yelling, and the pepper spraying around them faded into the background. The agent said nothing. He just stood at attention, receiving her message, like a soldier receiving a demerit.

And the woman kept speaking to him, lovingly, but firmly.

His eyes filled with wetness.

He didn’t say anything.

He just looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there — like he wanted her to hold him, to hug him. Somewhere inside the gear and the mask and the gun, there was a third-grade boy thinking:

I didn’t know what I was signing up for.
Mom, can you please help me.

He never said it.

Frances just read it in his face.

That was enough.

This is an excerpt from WOMN- a book about the women of Minnesota and what Operation Metro Surge made of us.

If this chapter found you, it found you for a reason.

Do you have a “protest frog” story? Please add your voice by sharing in the comments. I’m listening. We all are.

That’s how this works.

That’s how we work.

I love you fiercely,

TeriLeigh 💜

Good News 4/12/26 - 4/18/26

Teri Leigh 💜 — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 12:55:13 GMT

Good News

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Today’s good news looks like giant butterflies, blindfolded dancers, anti-war conscience, a tribal college securing its future, and a crowd of weirdos carrying the Constitution through St. Paul. When the world gets darker, people start making stranger, braver, more beautiful things.

The StarTribune published a piece this week explaining the giant US Constitution that has appeared at several MN rallies. The article says more than 150 people carried the 210-foot-long replica of the U.S. Constitution through the crowd at No Kings 3, along with 50 large and 100 small handmade monarch butterfly puppets. People signed the Constitution at Western Sculpture Park before it was carried to the Capitol.
Volunteers gathered beforehand to handcraft about 100 monarchs to travel with the giant Constitution.
Red Lake Nation College received a record $7M donation from Mackenzie Scott. The college now has campuses in both Red Lake and downtown Minneapolis, and Bring Me The News notes that its Minneapolis site became the first tribal college campus in the Twin Cities when it opened two years ago. So this gift is not only about one institution in the north; it is also about Indigenous higher education taking root in the metro. The donation is unrestricted, giving the college control of choosing how to use the money. Scott pledged in 2019 to donate most of her wealth following her divorce from Jeff Bezos. She has pledged more than $26B across 2700 organizations. Red Lake will use the money to create a new “permanent endowment fund that will empower the college to guarantee its long-term financial sustainability in perpetuity.”
As part of National F*ck Ice day yesterday, protestors participated in a “Bye Bye Bondi Dildo Dance Party” at the Whipple Federal Building. People arrived in costume and smacked a DJT piñata. While I don’t approve of the negative language and the poking fun at others, I support the sentiment that Joy is Resistance.
The Centre on Conscience and War (CCW) has reported that the number of US military personnel seeking advice about becoming conscientious objectors has increased 1000% stating that their fears are not about dying in war, but about killing people in a war they don’t believe in.
Twelve young dancers where leotards printed with quotes from the Epstein files danced blindfolded toa children’s choir rendition of Madonna’s “Live to Tell” in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival opens this week with more than 200 films across six theaters in the Twin Cities and Rochester. Axios says the lineup includes Minnesota-made work and opens with Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story. In a season when so much has felt reduced to slogans and panic, Minnesota is still gathering in dark rooms to watch stories together.
Open Eye Theatre’s Puppet Lab Festival is back in Minneapolis with two weeks of brave, quirky, visually dazzling new puppet work. Star Tribune highlighted the festival this week, including puppet artist Destiny Davison’s Dolly Who’s for Dinner. This feels especially right beside your giant-Constitution item: Minnesota is meeting this moment with oversized art, handmade creatures, and public imagination.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News from Minnesota: Soft Superheroes Edition

Monday, April 13, 2026

Yesterday our weather hit almost 80 degrees, which is a big quiet celebration here in the land of snow and ice. Windows opened, screendoors opened, and the world felt open and happy again in ways we haven’t felt for months.

Minnesota has its own Batman, and his version of heroism is surprisingly tender. The Star Tribune profiled NoMark, the anonymous Minneapolis vigilante who patrols in costume and keeps his identity hidden. He has escorted drunk people home, mediated “Judge Judy-grade disputes,” broken up fights outside bars, and chased off a vandal, all while using a GoPro and a police scanner app.
Marshall MN is doing a small-town childcare supply drive starting today. A local campaign called We Care 4 Daycare is collecting diapers, wipes, rash ointment, paper towels, disinfectant, and disposable plates and cups for area daycares. Donations can be dropped off at the Marshall YMCA and Holy Redeemer School from April 13 through May 1, and the supplies will be distributed to local daycares on May 9.
Anoka County quietly extended shelter funding. County officials approved extending a Shelter Funding Grant with the Minnesota Department of Human Services through June 30, 2026, continuing housing support for people experiencing homelessness.
Red Wing is gathering tonight for sweetgrass basket making. Red Wing Arts and the Honoring Dakota Project are hosting a Community Crafting Circle: Sweetgrass Basket Making tonight from 5 to 7 p.m.
Burnsville has a bottle-cap collage class for people 55 and older this afternoon. The Creative Arts Series for 55+ at The Rivers Retirement Community is offering a free Hyacinth Bottle Cap Collage session today.
Central Minnesota quietly sent more than $139,000 into local arts organizations. The Central Minnesota Arts Board awarded 15 Community Arts Support Grants totaling $139,332 to arts organizations across the region. It is one more example of Minnesota putting money not only into emergency response, but into culture, imagination, and places where people gather.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News from Minnesota

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

We are angels, living amongst angels!

Last night, I attended the Chicks in Charge event sponsored by Politics Chicks. Over the course of the evening, I witnessed several moments of humans being angels. Here’s just a snippet of my evening.

Judy has osteoporosis, bunions, and uses a walker. She stumbled stepping off a curb and fell to the pavement cutting her chin. All three vehicles passing stopped to her aid, six people in total. A man she didn’t know called 911. A woman she didn’t know collected her belongings. My husband retrieved napkins from our car for her wound. I sat with her and calmed her until EMTs arrived. She was terrified they would force her to go to the hospital because she can’t afford the bill.
An hour later I watched several elected officials and people running for office pledge to a crowd of Minnesotans that they are fighting for universal health care.
Frances was discharged from the hospital just hours before the event. She was determined to attend because events like this matter. When one of the speakers mentioned Liam Conejo Ramos, she pulled out a blue bunny hat like Liam’s and wore it with a smile.
Zaynab Mohamed, a MN State Senator for District 63 (the district that burned after George Floyd’s death and the district heavily affected by ICE), told a story about a Somali woman who emailed her. This woman’s husband had died during the height of Operation Metro Surge, while she was pregnant, and then she found out she has breast cancer, and she was not yet a citizen. Zaynab called her own mother, who told her to bring the woman groceries. So she did. One of the highest elected officials in the state, brought a woman groceries because she could.
Kelly Wilson, the founder of Do’Gooders LLC, raised $75K to support immigrant families during the surge. She was discharged from the hospital the day before the event, and she showed up to speak and receive the full proceeds of the event as donation.
Christy, one of the Politics Chicks, suffered a life-changing car accident, coordinated the event from her couch in her living room.

Minnesota is proof, anyone can be an angel. Angels stop what they are doing to help. Angels show up with bunny hats of solidarity after they’ve endured their own trauma. Angels bring groceries to strangers because they can.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News in Minnesota

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

My friend Kelly Wilson says “we need the micro joys to get us through the macro grief.”

Today was “one of those days” where I got momentarily stuck the macro grief. I had to just let myself feel it for a while. And then I opened Sean Snow’s post for the day. to remind me why I do this list every day…to focus on the micro joys. There are so many more micro-joys than there are big-bad-news items.

Ramsey County is widening its investigation into what happened to ChongLy “Scott” Thao. County Attorney John Choi says multiple agencies are now looking at ICE’s January arrest of the 56-year-old St. Paul U.S. citizen as possible kidnapping and false imprisonment after agents broke down his door without a warrant, dragged him outside in freezing weather, and realized too late they had the wrong man. The good news is that Minnesota keeps refusing to let federal violence hide inside confusion.
Andrea Pedro-Francisco’s case is being tracked publicly now. The 23-year-old Burnsville woman still needs surgery for a growing ovarian cyst while detained in Texas, and Rep. Angie Craig’s office says it is tracking 20 similar medical cases involving people in immigration detention. The good news is that these stories are being named, watched, and documented instead of disappearing into silence.
Tim Walz is publicly fighting for Minnesota’s withheld Medicaid money. More than $240 million in reimbursements is being frozen even though Minnesota’s improper payment rate is 2.1%, well below the national average. The good news is that the state is not shrugging and absorbing it quietly; it is forcing the mismatch into public view while defending HCMC and the people who rely on it.
The economic losses are getting named in real numbers now. Minneapolis and St. Paul now estimate business losses above $300 million, and districts like Fridley and Columbia Heights say attendance drops have already cost them more than $1 million each. I’m calling this good news because the damage is no longer abstract. Once harm has numbers, communities can organize around it more clearly.
Neighbors covered utility debt for about 200 households. Sahan Journal reported that community groups, the Citizens Utility Board, and the Energy CENTS Coalition raised more than $70,000 to help families who fell behind on power bills during the surge, and Xcel worked with them to apply $250 to $500 credits to customer accounts. That is one of the clearest examples of Minnesota refusing to let people freeze in the dark.
Melissa Hortman’s legacy is now attached to shared solar. Walz signed a bill renaming Minnesota’s Community Solar Garden Program in her honor. The program lets renters and homeowners who can’t install panels themselves subscribe to a shared solar array and receive bill credits. That feels like a very Minnesota memorial: practical, collective, future-facing.
People are even turning crossword puzzles into mutual aid. Midis for Minnesota is putting together a pack of 13 crossword puzzles to raise money for mutual-aid groups helping families affected by ICE activity. Donate, send proof, get the puzzle pack later this month. I love this so much: even your crossword can become a tiny act of Fierce Love.
Boneshaker Books is hosting Compassionate Overdose Response Training tonight. It’s happening at 708 W. 26th St. in Minneapolis at 6:30 p.m. and is exactly the kind of quiet local good I trust: practical skills, community safety, ordinary people learning how to help one another stay alive.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News

Thursday, April 16, 2026

10,000 Moms are going LIVE to shut down Dilly detention center in TX. This is the detention center where Liam Ramos was sent. On April 16th, today, 10,000 moms will be going LIVE at the same time to tell the truth about the conditions at Dilley and demand its shutdown. On April 18th, Moms will be showing up at Dilley in protest.
A Republican led effort to impeach Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison failed when the MN House Rules and Legislative Administrative Committee deadlocked in an 8-8 vote along party lines.
The Rebel Loon Archive is planning two pop-up art exhibitions of art and protest signs that came out as a result of the surge. One will be in May and one in June. They will be participating in the St. Paul Art Crawl this weekend at the Owl’s Eye Art Collective.
TIME named Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in its list of 100 most influential people in the world for “trying to knit together a city where businesses and daily life were hollowed out by fear.”
Wes Burdine, the proprietor of Black Hart of Saint Paul, is the inaugural recipient of the FB St. Pauli Peace Prize in recognition for his support for the immigrant community during the surge.
Kare 11 reports a tow truck driver hiked deep into the woods to rescue a strander Uber Eats driver who followed a wayward GPS map onto an obscure private road.
A new mural is going up on Nicollet Ave in south Minneapolis Wittier neighborhood, depicting Alex Pretti filming an ICE agent with his phone shortly before being killed. The site of the mural is four blocks from his memorial site.
Governor Walz signed a bill renaming Minnesota’s community solar program after Speaker Melissa Hortman, who was a true champion of solar. Hortman and her husband were killed last summer.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Good News!

Friday, April 17, 2026

Aliya Rahman, the disabled woman with autism who was forcibly removed from her car by ICE on January 13 has filed a federal claim against ICE. She made it clear to against she had a disability and was on her way to a doctor’s appointment. She was released without charges, but suffered torn tendons and cartilage in both shoulders, a concussion, and PTSD. Her legal team promises that if her claim is denied or ignored they will take the case to federal court.
MN State Senator John Hoffman and his wife have filed a civil suit against the man accused of shooting them in their home in June of 2025. This week, Hoffman spoke up to his colleagues in legislative committee demanding them to stop dehumanizing individuals by calling them “illegals”.
A federal judge has one again halted construction on the White House ballroom, ruling the administration cannot move forward without the approval of Congress.
Director of ICE, Todd Lyons, has resigned from his position with DHS and will be entering a private sector job. His last day is May 31.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty filed two felony assault charges against ICE officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. for allegedly pointing a gun at two motorists on Highway 55 in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge. A nationwide warrant has been issued. Star Tribune called it the first criminal charge brought against an ICE agent for actions during the surge, and possibly the first of its kind in the country.
Minnesota’s protections for trans student athletes held up in federal court. A federal appeals court denied a challenge to Minnesota’s inclusive school sports policy, which means the state’s protections remain in place while the broader legal fight continues. In a season when so many rights feel fragile, one more guardrail held.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

April 17, 2026 - bonus note

Don’t Let Them Win

Yesterday, my friend Kelly Wilson posted a video of herself in a very dark place. It was tearful and rageful and raw and real. And then she texted me privately and told me she was afraid she wouldn’t get out of it.

I told her I was wrapping her up in my arms and holding her until she let go — except I wasn’t letting go. I was holding her and holding her and holding her until I could see her aura return to its brightness and her energy tanks fill back up. I told her that at some point she would start hugging me back — not out of obligation, but out of fierce love. And that’s when I’d know her fuel source was back up to a manageable level.

Kelly did the right thing, she reached out to community and told us her pain, and she received my embrace when I offered it. She came out of the hole because she asked for help.

That’s how fierce love works.

Kelly is not alone.

Yesterday, so many people I love went to that same dark place. And I want to say this gently, it’s okay to not be okay. But it is not okay to not be okay and believe that it’s forever and stay there alone— because that belief is what pulls us deeper into the hole. The darkness lies to us. It tells us it’s permanent. It isn’t.

What we’re navigating in this country right now is a narcissistic energy. It wants control. It is addicted to power. And when we spiral into victimhood and stay in the ugliness and lament it on loop, and rehearse the worst-case scenarios until they calcify into our nervous systems — we are handing over exactly what that energy feeds on. This happens to all of us sometimes. We need to have these not-okay moments. But they need to be just moments. We need to lean on community to help each other OUT.

Here’s what I know about narcissists: the opposite of love is not hate. They thrive on hate just as much as love. To them, it’s all charge. It’s all attention. It’s all proof that they matter.

The opposite of love is indifference. What kills narcissistic energy is not a fight — they love the fight. What kills it is neglect. Treat it like a plant you forgot to water.

Don’t let them see they’ve gotten to you. Go on with your life. Do better despite them. Thrive despite them.

Look at the Ukrainians. Living under unimaginable pressure, and still — still — they feed each other, love each other, show up for each other. That is not weakness. That is the most radical form of resistance there is.

The louder the noise gets, the more we need to turn away from it and turn toward each other. Especially when the things happening are things completely out of our control. Let the people who do have power do what they do, love them, empower them to fight the good fight the right way. Because when we fall into the spiral and stay there, we are also turning our backs on the extraordinary magick of being alive. There is beauty everywhere. Right now. Even today.

So when you are hurting, tell people, and ask for help!

When you see your people hurting, call them. Leave the voicemail. Show up. Hold them and hold them and hold them, and don’t let go until you see the light come back into their eyes.

Gush it. Spill it everywhere. Tap into the eternal, inexhaustible source of all that is good.

No matter what they do, we turn to each other and we love more.

That is how we win.

I love you all fiercely.

Thanks for giving a shit!

TeriLeigh💜

Good News

Saturday, April 18, 2026

I know this week was rough. Especially in terms of the Boundary Waters and a certain person who shall not be named, but gets less than .0002% of his followers to like his posts…seriously this guy is a nothing-burger here. I figure good news doesn’t count in a boycott cuz we all need it.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors, founded by community organizers in South Minneapolis, has now scaled to 1,800+ volunteers and 550 vetted carers, handling over 70 daily requests for rides, groceries, and rent support across the metro. One co-founder shared they were able to immediately transfer $500 for emergency help and coordinate grocery support for 20 families through the network.
Oasis Lactation Services is collecting postpartum supplies for families staying home
Owner Danielle Downs Spradlin and her team are gathering C-section wound care kits, prenatal vitamins, and hygiene supplies for new and expecting parents who are sheltering in place.
. Through the Joyful Day Project, Lara Magdzinski and her kids are assembling “Joyful Day” gift baskets for children affected by recent disruptions—turning their own home into a small distribution hub.
Immanuel Lutheran Church partnered with Cristo Obrero Lutheran Church are pooling funds to directly support members facing housing instability, quietly redistributing money within their shared community.
Audrey Rose Vintage and Moth Oddities are running supply networks out of their stores. Owner Jessie Witte and others in the vintage community are using their shops to collect donations, coordinate deliveries, and even run alert systems to protect and support neighbors.
Queenie & Pearl is using its orange bus for deliveries. The shop repurposed its vehicle to transport supplies directly to people who can’t safely leave home—turning a retail asset into a mobile mutual aid system.
Sharing and Caring Hands, founded by Mary Jo Copeland, serves 700–800 people per day, powered largely by community volunteers showing up to cook, serve, and distribute essentials.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Latine-led organization, started with one request for rides—and grew into a system now distributing over $236,000 in rent support to 150+ families.

Thanks for giving a shit.

I love you all fiercely.

TeriLeigh💜

Writing the Bardo Program Information

The WOMN Project Kick Off Party

Teri Leigh 💜 — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:52:09 GMT

Let’s celebrate the launch of The WOMN Project. I’ll be reading excerpts of pieces I’m working on. And let’s have a community discussion about next steps in healing, grieving, and tipping this iceberg of bad news into good news.

Join Zoom Meeting

A grassroots mutual aid healing project

This is a healing movement.

My vision is for Fierce Love to grow into a community space where we share our truths about what we have lived. I hope our comments section becomes part witness-space, part story-circle, part gathering-ground. I want people to read these excerpts and feel their own memories rise up, and to spill those stories here too as a way of holding, bearing witness, honoring, and recognizing each other in love.

Fierce Love is more than a publication. It is more than words on a screen. We have community gatherings, on Zoom and in person. We hold grief rituals, and healing circles, and storytelling campfires. This is a place where story becomes medicine because it is spoken out loud and received by others with care.

This isn’t my book or my project. It’s ours. This is a shared endeavor, a living act of community. Fierce Love is a movement of loving neighbors telling the truth, bearing witness, and creating spaces where healing and organizing can happen side by side.

The women of Minnesota showed us what that looks like during the surge.

This project to carries that same spirit.

I want us to make something together that helps people feel held, and helps them find each other, and helps them imagine what becomes possible when story is sacred and community is medicine.

WOMN's Use of Voice

Teri Leigh 💜 — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:01:48 GMT

Renee Nicole Good - shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026

Renee Good’s last words changed something in Minnesotan women.

This chapter follows what happened next and what women’s voices can do.

It moves through three profound stories of women using their voices in the face of ICE force.

Kelly, pinned to the pavement in a Target parking lot, reached for the last human thread inside the man assaulting her.
Frances, inside an inflatable frog suit, witnessed an older woman speak so firmly and tenderly to a young agent that his eyes filled with tears.
Sasha and a circle of women at a mobile home park used whistles, questions, calm, and collective presence to protect an entire community.

These stories drip out for free subscribers week-by-week.

Paid subscribers get the full piece, along with my writer’s commentary on how this chapter emerged and why I chose it first.

✨ Writing the Bardo: When Everything Falls Apart… and Something Truer Begins

Teri Leigh 💜 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:30:25 GMT

Thank you , , and many others for tuning into my live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

There’s a moment in the conversation where the word bardo stops feeling like a spiritual concept and starts feeling like a lived reality.

Amanda introduces it through How You Live Is How You Die—that traditional idea of the space between death and rebirth. And then, almost immediately, the definition softens and expands.

We move through the bardo again and again.

when a version of us ends
when a relationship shifts
when the ground beneath us changes
when something new is forming, even if we can’t see it yet

It’s that in-between space where nothing quite fits anymore, and if you’ve felt disoriented lately… there’s a reason.

Teri shares her own bardo, and it doesn’t arrive gently.

It arrives in December, in Minnesota, with the presence of ICE in her city. What unfolds over the following weeks feels like a slow-motion unraveling—videos, tension, fear building day after day—until the death of Renee Good on January 7th cracks something open in the collective.

People split into instinct.

rage → taking to the streets
freeze → staying home, unable to move

Teri recognizes herself immediately frozen. Even her writing—her anchor, her work, her offering—feels suddenly hollow. Frivolous. Disconnected from what’s happening right outside her door. She retreats into a kind of self-imposed sheltering, moving only between home and small, necessary outings.

A walk with her dog becomes a confrontation. ICE vehicles in a familiar parking lot. And then—this is where everything shifts—something cracks.

I have to do something.

She invites a Buddhist Chaplain to stay in her home as he attends local protests and legal observer training to bring home to his own community. invitation. And Teri lets herself feel again. Within days, the world outside intensifies—strikes, massive protests, more loss.

And then, on January 26th, she writes her first “good news list.”

What started as a way to survive begins to evolve into something much bigger:

a body of writing about Minnesota culture
interviews with women in resistance
the unfolding of Fierce Love
the early roots of the WOMN project

The frozen stillness becomes movement.

The bardo is chaotic. It carries panic. It pulls us backward toward what was familiar—even when we know we can’t return. Healing doesn’t recreate what existed before. It reorganizes us. It strengthens the places that broke. It expands the capacity for something larger to move through.

Writing is how we remember ourselves.

Teri describes it as something that happens in the body—in the bone marrow. A remembering that thinking alone can’t access. Writing gives form to what feels shapeless. Amanda adds another layer: when we write from that in-between space, the words themselves begin to guide us.

And then the conversation widens. The Bardo is collective.

There’s a shared recognition that something larger is happening: systems breaking down, old ways dissolving, a global sense of instability. It feels scary because it’s unknown. And yet there’s a quiet undercurrent of trust. Every bardo we’ve lived through—no matter how painful—has led somewhere better. And sometimes, unexpectedly… more joyful.

Because the bardo doesn’t just break things down. It opens channels. Creativity rushes in through the cracks.

Writing the Bardo is a cohort writing program that Amanda is offering as part of The Mindful Writer, starting in June.

A space designed for exactly this kind of moment.

writing from liminal space
guided by yoga nidra (a deeply restorative, in-between state)
supported by prompts, reflection, and community

A WoMN stopped an unprovoked ICE assault with her voice

Teri Leigh 💜 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:01:02 GMT

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Trigger Warning - this excerpt depicts a physical assault, so if you need to take a breath, grab a weighted blanket, or come back to it when you’re steadier, please do that first. You can also skip it. I have other stories coming that aren’t so raw.

“I’m not mad at you, dude.”
~Renee Nicole Good’s last words
before being shot three times
by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, MN
on January 7, 2026

Use of Force Voice

Something happened to the women in Minnesota when Renee Good died.

Operation Metro Surge had been on the streets of Minnesota for just over a month. ICE presence in the Twin Cities increased from 150 agents to over 3000 agents, twenty times bigger, and triple the size of the Minneapolis police force. On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good, a peaceful protestor, was shot three times and killed by an ICE agent.

The women of Minnesota watched that video, and the multiple angles of it, over and over and over again. We couldn’t not watch it. We couldn’t look away because that felt like abandonment. Watching Renee’s death was a way of loving her, if even just through a mobile phone screen. It was our way of honoring her and absorbing her life force into us.

“I’m not mad at you, dude.”

That nervous little laugh she gave — we know that laugh. We’ve all made that laugh that says “I’m okay” even when we’re not sure we are. We add the chuckle to keep the temperature of an intense situation down while our hearts are hammering.

Usually, that little half-laugh works. But that day, for Renee, it didn’t.

We imagined ourselves facing ICE in our own ways, because it could happen. And, we have a duty to live up to Renee’s courage and memory.

ICE agents were everywhere in those early days of January 2026, in grocery store parking lots, at school bus stops, in caravans of three or more SUVs with overly dark windows and no front license plates driving through our neighborhood streets, and staged in the parking lots of our the parks where our children play on swingsets and jungle gyms.

We kept going grocery shopping, and walking our dogs, and feeding our sourdough starters. When ICE showed up in the center of our everyday lives, we found out what our voices could do.

Kelly

“What are you doing? I could be your mother. I’m just going grocery shopping.”

Kelly said this from the pavement of a Target parking lot in bitter January with a masked man’s full body weight on top of her.

“Bitch, what are you looking at?”

That’s how it started.

There were a bunch of ICE agents at the store entrance, but Kelly wasn’t paying attention to them. Healing from a broken pelvis seven weeks earlier, she was focused entirely on walking on icy pavement. She wasn’t even sure he was talking to her.

He just stomped right up to her, grabbed her arm, and threw her to the ground. Her head hit the pavement hard enough to cause a concussion as he straddled her and tried to punch her in the face.

But, Kelly grew up with Abuse as a sibling in her home. Her body has kept the score since she was four years old, and her nervous system has a full catalog and reference manual for every shift in weight and micro-facial-expression that precedes assault.

She looked up at him, this masked man wearing camo gear, ICE prominently displayed on his chest, a gun on his hip. He had a look in his eye that was two red-tones darker than human. She’d already turned her head the instant his fist was set to land on her face. His punch grazed her cheek and ear instead.

All the textbook stress responses—fight, flight, freeze, and fawn—would have failed her. With a cracked pelvis still healing, she couldn’t fight. Pinned underneath him, she couldn’t flee. Her history as a survivor had taught her that freezing often led to worse injuries. And, Kelly knew fawning from the inside. It’s Stockholm Syndrome on steroids: make yourself smaller, read the danger, say the soothing thing, do whatever keeps the pain from getting worse. She had survived that way before. But not here. This man wanted to feed on her fear, and fawning would only have confirmed the submission he was trying to beat into her.

Instead, she went underneath all of it, to the place inside him where he was still somebody’s child. She channeled the voice of the Divine Mother—a primal frequency. Educated in the grammar and rhythm and punctuation of male violence, Kelly knew how to tug on the thread of humanness with the only tool he could not take from her: her voice.

“I could be your mother.”

Something in his eyes clicked off for a moment, and he pushed off of her.

She had found the thread with nothing but her voice and everything she had survived. Just like Renee did, Kelly used her voice.

Unlike Renee, Kelly’s word-spell worked.

This is an excerpt from WOMN — a book about the women of Minnesota and what Operation Metro Surge made of us.

If this chapter found you, it found you for a reason.

Fierce Love is a community space, and your voice belongs here just as much as any story I publish.

If Kelly’s story touched you, please add your voice by sharing in the comments. Tell us what it stirred. Share with us what it woke up inside you. Tell us about the WOMN in you that recognized herself here. Respond to the other stories commented here.

I’m listening. We all are.

That’s how we work.

I love you fiercely,

TeriLeigh 💜