Glimpses: 428

Partners in Preservation

The Twin Cities will receive $1 million grant funding from American Express and The National Trust for Historic Preservation, through their Partners in Preservation program. The five previous locations are San Francisco, Chicagoland, New Orleans, Greater Boston and Seattle-Puget Sound. Twenty-five sites will be announced September 20, for which local residents can vote through October 12 on Facebook.com/PartnersinPreservation. The popular vote winner is guaranteed funding, while the remainder of the grant money will be given to other sites after review by American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and an advisory committee. The committee, co-chaired by Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman, is composed of Twin Cities civic and preservation leaders. “The Twin Cities have a rich cultural and architectural history and we are thrilled to bring Partners in Preservation to the area this year,” said Timothy J. McClimon, President of the American Express Foundation.

Of Dolls & Murder – And John Waters

Doll houses, dotted Swiss and death… Jerome Grant recipient and award- winning filmmaker Susan Marks’s documentary Of Dolls & Murder explores tiny crime scenes and their connection to modern day forensics. These “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths,” were created by Frances Glessner Lee (1878–1962), New England socialite and heiress, who dedicated her life to the advancement of forensic medicine. Her pieces are still used in forensic seminars. Once at Harvard, the dioramas are now ensconced at the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office, the very bailiwick of another Baltimore icon, filmmaker John Waters, the film’s narrator. IFP Media Arts will present the regional premiere of the film on September 28 at The Heights Theater: 3951 Central Ave NE, Columbia Heights. IFP Members, $10; Non- Members, $12, followed by a Q & A with the filmmakers, St. Paul Crime Lab criminalist Roberta DeCrans, and Sgt. Anita Muldoon of the St. Paul Police Department.

Healing Minnesota

Eloquent preacher Barbara Kay Lundblad, Union Theological Seminary professor and ELCA minister, will bring her inclusive perspective for Healing Minnesota with song, word, and spirit to Plymouth Congregational Church, September 25, to preach for the first-ever Healing Minnesota service. The Minnesota services incorporate song, speakers and spiritual reflection to inspire love, respect, and healing in a time of division about the proposed constitutional amendment on marriage rights. Cast members from Eat Street Players’ Sound of Music will perform. Everyone is welcome to these services, 5 p.m., fourth Sunday of the month (except December), through October 2012, at Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet in Minneapolis, 612-871-7400.

Lundblad is the author of two books Transforming the Stone: Preaching through Resistance to Change, and Marking Time: Preaching Biblical Stories in Present Tense. Visit www.plymouth.org