After Consulting with our Team, We Are Choosing Love / Sara Lynne Puotinen
This is a call to everyone. This is a call to anyone.
Here, now, in Minneapolis, our hearts are open.
Here, now, in St. Paul, our hearts beat strong.
Here, now, in Minnesota, we are choosing to take the day
and fill it with resistance, solidarity, reflection, love.
Let us be clear: we are not powerless.
We are not hopeless.
Of course we have hope!
And we will find each other.
We will gather,
we will keep moving.
We must raise our voices
to acknowledge,
now is not okay.
ICE’s ongoing occupation is fascism.
We are afraid, we are angry, we are exhausted.
And we will continue to show up
and to fill the streets with love.
This is not about choosing sides,
this is about choosing love.
On Friday, January 23, 2026, there is a call for a general strike against ICE: ICE OUT MN. No work, no class, no shopping. As of 22 jan 2026, more than 500 local businesses are participating.
Many of them have declared their show of solidarity through social media posts. For the past few days, I’ve been gathering their words and turning them into new poems.
In today’s (1/22) practice, I typed up 3 pages of the words, printed them out, then sat at my desk and read and reread them. I wrote down words and phrases that I noticed on another blank sheet of paper with a jumbo pencil. Then I shifted those around and turned them into new lines. I don’t think it is finished, but I’ll post it here anyway.