You can learn more about things such as housing covenants (something very common in cities across the US) in a fantastic tour Kristen runs both in person (when rules allow) and virtually, Alphabet Streets: Discovering Prince’s Minneapolis Through Place.

But even on a tour of the Northside of the city four years ago, given by Kristen – a historian in all things Prince, I learned that life wasn’t quite as harmonious and racially-integrated as he sometimes described – perhaps it was his utopian perspective he was portraying. Then the song Uptown, about what was at the time of release, a bohemian area of the city, has the lyrics: “Now where I come from, we don’t let society, tell us how it’s supposed to be. Our clothes, our hair, we don’t care, it’s all about being there,” and: “white, black, Puerto Rican, everybody just a freaking, good times were rolling”.įor fans, the Minneapolis Prince painted, is to a degree, what they came to see as a true representation of Minneapolis life. Prince was born and bred in the city and lived there most of his life so he knew it wasn’t without its challenges, but his space within the city was a beautiful, cool, multicultural melting pot as described in songs like Rock n Roll Is Alive (And It Lives In Minneapolis). A Heterotopia is a space within a space that is either cultural, intense, incompatible, contradictory, or transforming to the norm. My friend Kristen, who lives in the Twin Cities and is much smarter than me, considers that Prince created through his work, a cultural Heterotopia of Minneapolis for fans. Since Prince didn’t only sing about the city, but is renowned as the founding father of the Minneapolis Sound music genre, I long wanted to visit (there are many other famous names who took their lead from him and I’ve put a playlist together of classic songs for you below). I’m a music lover and almost a life-long fan of Minneapolis’ hometown boy, Prince. For me though, Minneapolis in particular, has long been a place of global significance. But it’s fascinating how as residents in a place, we often don’t see that it offers anything that should put it on a world stage. I have visited the Twin Cities five times now and hold them close to my heart. So, why Minneapolis? This is a fun question and one I’ve been asked numerous times by people in the Twin Cities: “what on Earth brings you here from England?”. This post is written by my friend Helen, but I wanted to interject for a moment with this introduction as this is a destination I love and that has seen some dark days recently, in the midst of dark days around the globe. Dance with the gangster past at Wabasha Street Caves.Take in St Paul’s historic neighbourhoods.Unmissible things to see and do in Saint Paul, Minnesota.Get a taste of the Twin Cities on a food tour.Minneapolis Skyways – a different way to explore.Explore a little of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.A comprehensive guide of things to do in Minneapolis.

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