St. Paul Winter Carnival promotes diversity, community and winter living through new events

The St. Paul Winter Carnival is collaborating with Melanin in Motion for two new events this weekend to promote community and diversity through physical activity.

The first of the two events, Slow Snow Glow, is a bike ride through the snowy streets of the Rondo neighborhood on Saturday. The second is Walk-Up Snowboarding on Sunday, free snowboarding lessons and some light competition on a hand-built snow park at Battle Creek Regional Park.

Slow Snow Glow runs 4-8 p.m. Saturday, and Walk-Up Snowboarding runs 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Lisa Jacobson, president and CEO of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation, said the collaboration is largely focused on getting more people of color outside to enjoy events in the snow.

Snowboarding is an activity with a broad youth appeal and inclusive energy, but its high entry cost prevents people from embracing the sport, Melanin in Motion founder Anthony Taylor said. Walk-Up Snowboarding can break down some of these financial barriers.

“To do a first [snowboarding] experience and try and learn is almost $100,” Taylor said. “That is a price that is too high for everyone to do.”

Snowboarding has a very similar culture and aesthetic to skateboarding, but the latter has a far lower entry cost. Walk-Up Snowboarding and low-cost snowboarding opportunities could open up a new pastime that welcomes diversity and individuality, Taylor said.

“The roots and the aesthetic are urban — it doesn’t matter if it is snowboarding or skateboarding,” he said. “It is already setting itself up to be more inclusive.”

The free expression and free-spirited nature of snowboarding and skateboarding’s identity creates a space of inclusion and belonging, Taylor added.

Another important aspect of belonging is, of course, community. Riding through Rondo and the surrounding communities is an exercise in changing perspective on community. For starters, you’re biking in the snow.

“It’s more about how we live well in winter,” Taylor said. “So, all of the events we’re doing are all about this experience of the city we live in and love in winter.”

Given the origins of the Winter Carnival as a way to show up reporters from the East who called St. Paul uninhabitable 139 years ago, pedaling through piles of snow seems fitting.

The carnival used to focus more on sports and physical activity and collaborating with Melanin in Motion has helped the carnival get back to its roots, Jacobson said. The carnival even used to be called the St. Paul Outdoor Sports Carnival, according to the carnival’s website.

Biking through the snowy streets or learning to snowboard on shallow slopes by a creek is more than a bit of physical activity, Taylor said. It’s about embracing new ways of living in winter, not just surviving.

“Many people think that the strategy is suffering through winter, and really it isn’t,” he said.

The ride through Rondo will highlight the businesses lost to the construction of I-94 and many artists from the community, such as the late photographer Gordon Parks and blues musician Gloria Massey. Taylor said Melanin in Motion did community engagement for Reconnect Rondo, an organization focused on revitalizing the Rondo community through the construction of a land bridge. Ruminating on this community’s history could be all the more impactful on a bike.

“Motion creates emotion,” Taylor said. “If you want to feel better just find a way to move, and doing it on a bike is wonderful.”

The partnership has been tremendous, and Jacobson has been a breath of fresh air, Taylor said. While Melanin in Motion is a small organization, Jacobson has given them a large platform to improve the community.

“She has brought a clarity that the Winter Carnival is about lifestyle; it is about family; it is about wellness,” Taylor said. “It is diverse.”

These events are just two of the many new fixtures of this year’s carnival, which runs Thursday-Feb. 2. Other new events include Klondike Kate’s Red Cabaret and Casino Night Thursday, the new Grand Avenue parade route Saturday and Around the World in a Day Feb. 1, an event focused on highlighting different cultures within the community, Jacobson said.

Around the World in a Day will have more than 30 vendors and a variety of performers.

“Ultimately, festivals are all about community, right?” said Chris Jensen, Grand Avenue Business Association president. “No matter where they are, it’s about getting each other out and celebrating each other and the city that we all live in.”

For more information on St. Paul’s Winter Carnival visit wintercarnival.com/events.