What do you think?
Rate this book
Butterflies and Tall Bikes: West Bank Stories of Community, Creativity, and Change
Join artist and author Jamie Schumacher on a tour of one of Minneapolis's most unique neighborhoods: The West Bank.
In her second book, Butterflies and Tall Bikes, Schumacher combines personal narrative, compelling interviews, and neighborhood history in vignette-style chapters that paint a picture of the West Bank/Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and her time with the West Bank Business Association. Detailed, mandala-like illustrations by artist Corina Sagun weave through the text. A new West Bank map by Minneapolis artist Kevin Cannon draws the reader further in to the neighborhood's streets and treasures.
The interviews highlight West Bank friends and Cedar-Riverside residents, past and present, as they reflect on the community's changing landscape. Their stories affirm an essential truth about community: it's the people that make a place.
In her second book, Butterflies and Tall Bikes, Schumacher combines personal narrative, compelling interviews, and neighborhood history in vignette-style chapters that paint a picture of the West Bank/Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and her time with the West Bank Business Association. Detailed, mandala-like illustrations by artist Corina Sagun weave through the text. A new West Bank map by Minneapolis artist Kevin Cannon draws the reader further in to the neighborhood's streets and treasures.
The interviews highlight West Bank friends and Cedar-Riverside residents, past and present, as they reflect on the community's changing landscape. Their stories affirm an essential truth about community: it's the people that make a place.
320 pages, Paperback
Published May 18, 2021
About the author
Jamie Schumacher
4 books19 followersJamie Schumacher is an author, artist, and community organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She’s the Executive Director of the West Bank Business Association, a nonprofit that supports the culturally vibrant creative economic district in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. She is also the founder of Altered Esthetics, a nonprofit arts organization also based in Minneapolis.
Her written work has been featured by a variety of media publications including Pollen, The Mother Baby Center, and the Minnesota Women’s Press. Her photography has been featured in a variety of print publications from The Growler to Bicycling Magazine, and her debut novel It’s Never Going To Work is scheduled for release October 2018.
Her written work has been featured by a variety of media publications including Pollen, The Mother Baby Center, and the Minnesota Women’s Press. Her photography has been featured in a variety of print publications from The Growler to Bicycling Magazine, and her debut novel It’s Never Going To Work is scheduled for release October 2018.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 27, 2021
Bob Dylan (who's played the West Bank) famously sang, "he not busy being born is busy dying," and Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside is nothing if not a neighborhood that's been busy being born...for many, many years. Butterflies and Tall Bikes is a poignant portrait of that community, and a promise of many more dynamic years to come. I reviewed Butterflies and Tall Bikes for The Current.
June 23, 2021
I usually like to have a book (or zine) in front of me when I'm reviewing it. However, the second I got done reading this book my partner snatched it out of my hand and started reading it herself. Think I'm joking? We were on a plane back from Portland. I showed her the interviews with Anna & Elton, and she said she wanted to read it next. When I read the last page and closed the book, she grabbed it off my tray table. And I don't blame her. I really loved this book. (That's a long introduction to say that I'm doing this review by memory. without being able to reference the book.)
I stopped by Palmer's Bar one day (as I often do), saw copies of this book on the shelf behind the bar, and asked Tony about it. He grabbed the bar copy and showed me Kevin Cannon's map of the West Bank, and a couple interviews. I was heading off on a bike ride to (most likely) get sloppy drunk, so I told him I'd pick up a copy next time I was in. He told me to bring in copies of my books too, and this is just one of the many reasons I LOVE the West Bank. I mean when was the last time you went to a bar and they were selling books? But also, just the focus on community. Everybody pushing each other to succeed. I did pick it up the next time I was at Palmer’s and started reading it right then and there with a cold Hamm’s. This was not the book I expected it to be. (Let's be honest, I ride a tallbike and I couldn't resist picking up a book with tallbike in the title.) It's not about tallbikes, although at the end of each interview Jamie asks, "When was the last time you saw a tallbike?" I wasn't expecting it to be about tallbikes or the bike club though. I was expecting it to be about artists that had spent time on the west bank. I expected to hear stories about Bob Dylan, Tony Glover, Spider John, Papa John & Cadillac Kolstad. Turns out that Cyn Collins may have already covered those in West Bank Boogie, which Jamie mentions in her book. (I've already picked up a copy of that too.) I expected stories about poets and visual artists and thespians.
This ain't that book.
There are SOME of those stories there, but this is book is more about members of the community who have helped to make the West Bank what it is, whether they're bar owners, restaurant owners, people involved in venues, or community leaders and organizers. Of each she asks for a west bank story. A story that kind of defines their relationship with the neighborhood. She talks with each about their involvement with the neighborhood and what they expect from the future. That's one question that really interests me, because I've been hanging out on the West Bank for over 25 years, and I've seen a lot of changes, especially recently. We've lost venues, and I'm already missing the Hub Bike Coop which shut its door during the pandemic. It's a place I love, so I want to see it retains its character and not just because an extension of the University campus or a tentacle of downtown Minneapolis. There's something special about the West Bank, and Jamie does an amazing job of communicating that. She comes at it as someone who enjoyed the neighborhood and then spent almost a decade at the West Bank Business Association supporting the businesses and community she loves.
I've spent a lot of time on the West Bank, but this really opened my eyes. I stumbled across Hard Times Cafe by accident trying to find the Laughing Cup, and it became a regular haunt. I'd hit up venues on occasion, and eventually because a regular at Palmer's. But I always hit up the same places time and time again. I think I checked out the New Riverside Cafe a couple times, but then Hard Times became "home" and I almost never ate anywhere else. I've always hit up the same half-a-dozen places. As soon as Jodi and I started reading this book we were both asking ourselves why he had never hit up most of the places even on that short stretch of Cedar Ave. I decided that I was going to start biking from downtown (where I work) to have lunch in the neighborhood. Today Jodi and I hit up Soma Grill & Deli for the first time to have Somali food. (Goat meat & rice) This book helped me see a broader view of the community, beyond my narrow "White punk stumbles upon Hard Times, builds a tallbike and becomes a Palmer's regular." My friend David had the right idea. He'd get drunk at Palmer's and stumble down the block to have Somali tea and meet new people. This book has me wanting to be more like that (though perhaps a little less drunk.) It makes me want to do more to support the community I love.
I stopped by Palmer's Bar one day (as I often do), saw copies of this book on the shelf behind the bar, and asked Tony about it. He grabbed the bar copy and showed me Kevin Cannon's map of the West Bank, and a couple interviews. I was heading off on a bike ride to (most likely) get sloppy drunk, so I told him I'd pick up a copy next time I was in. He told me to bring in copies of my books too, and this is just one of the many reasons I LOVE the West Bank. I mean when was the last time you went to a bar and they were selling books? But also, just the focus on community. Everybody pushing each other to succeed. I did pick it up the next time I was at Palmer’s and started reading it right then and there with a cold Hamm’s. This was not the book I expected it to be. (Let's be honest, I ride a tallbike and I couldn't resist picking up a book with tallbike in the title.) It's not about tallbikes, although at the end of each interview Jamie asks, "When was the last time you saw a tallbike?" I wasn't expecting it to be about tallbikes or the bike club though. I was expecting it to be about artists that had spent time on the west bank. I expected to hear stories about Bob Dylan, Tony Glover, Spider John, Papa John & Cadillac Kolstad. Turns out that Cyn Collins may have already covered those in West Bank Boogie, which Jamie mentions in her book. (I've already picked up a copy of that too.) I expected stories about poets and visual artists and thespians.
This ain't that book.
There are SOME of those stories there, but this is book is more about members of the community who have helped to make the West Bank what it is, whether they're bar owners, restaurant owners, people involved in venues, or community leaders and organizers. Of each she asks for a west bank story. A story that kind of defines their relationship with the neighborhood. She talks with each about their involvement with the neighborhood and what they expect from the future. That's one question that really interests me, because I've been hanging out on the West Bank for over 25 years, and I've seen a lot of changes, especially recently. We've lost venues, and I'm already missing the Hub Bike Coop which shut its door during the pandemic. It's a place I love, so I want to see it retains its character and not just because an extension of the University campus or a tentacle of downtown Minneapolis. There's something special about the West Bank, and Jamie does an amazing job of communicating that. She comes at it as someone who enjoyed the neighborhood and then spent almost a decade at the West Bank Business Association supporting the businesses and community she loves.
I've spent a lot of time on the West Bank, but this really opened my eyes. I stumbled across Hard Times Cafe by accident trying to find the Laughing Cup, and it became a regular haunt. I'd hit up venues on occasion, and eventually because a regular at Palmer's. But I always hit up the same places time and time again. I think I checked out the New Riverside Cafe a couple times, but then Hard Times became "home" and I almost never ate anywhere else. I've always hit up the same half-a-dozen places. As soon as Jodi and I started reading this book we were both asking ourselves why he had never hit up most of the places even on that short stretch of Cedar Ave. I decided that I was going to start biking from downtown (where I work) to have lunch in the neighborhood. Today Jodi and I hit up Soma Grill & Deli for the first time to have Somali food. (Goat meat & rice) This book helped me see a broader view of the community, beyond my narrow "White punk stumbles upon Hard Times, builds a tallbike and becomes a Palmer's regular." My friend David had the right idea. He'd get drunk at Palmer's and stumble down the block to have Somali tea and meet new people. This book has me wanting to be more like that (though perhaps a little less drunk.) It makes me want to do more to support the community I love.
August 17, 2021
Andrea Swensson called this a love letter to the West Bank, which is exactly right - but Jamie also weaves in a lot of historical information about the neighborhood, and many fantastic insights about urban planning/policy and creative placemaking while chronicling the evolution of this special part of Minneapolis. And of course, she does it in a delightfully friendly book that feels like a chat with Jamie if you’re among the lucky folks who know her!
Coincidentally as I write this review, I’m about to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in urban planning on the West Bank in a couple of weeks, and I could not be more excited to spend quite a bit of the next couple years in this area. (Also, the last time I saw a tall bike was a few weeks ago on the Plymouth Ave bridge in Northeast)
Coincidentally as I write this review, I’m about to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in urban planning on the West Bank in a couple of weeks, and I could not be more excited to spend quite a bit of the next couple years in this area. (Also, the last time I saw a tall bike was a few weeks ago on the Plymouth Ave bridge in Northeast)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews