Hands Across the Bong Bridge

A Cross-State, Flag Day Bridge Brigade Joining Duluth & Superior

THE GREATEST BRIDGE BRIGADE EVER!

When:

June 14, 2026

Where:

Bong Bridge

Expected Flow of the Event:

• 12:30 Start assembling at both entrance ways to the bridge
• 1:00 Participants start marching toward the middle
• When we meet up, Bridge Brigade signs and flags for about one hour
• Safely return off the bridge
• Post-event celebration (details to follow)
• Paddlers welcome in the water, too (stay safe)

On June 14th, Flag Day, join Rise Up Superior, Good Trouble Indivisible, Zenith City Indivisible, Duluth Indivisible, and Duluth 50501 for Hands Across the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge.

We will assemble on either side of the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge between Superior and Duluth (or Duluth and Superior, depending on your perspective) and march with signs and flags across the bridge on the protected pedestrian/bike path. Somewhere near the middle, we will join hands (and hearts and minds) in a demonstration of unity for democracy, for justice and for community. Two States. Two Cities. One Bridge. One Country. Our Country.

The Bong Bridge is 2.2 miles long - we will need about 3,000 people to be able to truly hold hands across the Bong Bridge. This event is set up for the Duluth access to the bike/pedestrian path (W. Michigan and S. 43rd Avenue West). The Superior trailhead is at Susquehanna Avenue, just behind the Quality Inn (46.722970, -92.125832).

Richard I. Bong was a hero (the "Ace of Aces") in World War II and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was born in Superior and raised in Poplar. Learn more about him at the Richard Bong Veterans Memorial Center in Superior.

Unfinished Freedom: 250 Years On

A Free Community Concert

When:

June 28, 1:00–8:00pm

Where:

Miner's Pavilion
1401 NW 3rd Ave
Grand Rapids
(Road Trip!!)

Join us for a fun community event full of music, food and drink for purchase, and connection.

Free event & parking, food & drinks for purchase. Bring a lawn chair!

Bridge Brigade Fridays

When:

Fridays, 4:00–5:00pm

Where:

35W Overpasses
Bridge at 25th Street East
(park behind Perkins)

Visibility politics is the new happy hour!

Grab a friend and join us at one of our Bridge Brigade pedestrian overpasses on Friday afternoons, 4-5 PM.

We will be waving signs and flags to raise awareness about current issues.

Bring signs if you have them, don't worry if you don't. Wear sturdy shoes!

Immigrant Solidarity Protest

When

Every Wednesday, 12:00–1:00pm

Where

60th Ave E & Superior Street

Women in Black Gaza Vigil

When

Every Sunday, 12:00–1:00pm

Where

Belknap & Tower, Superior WI

Other event calendars

Search for actions near Duluth

Be a walking voter registration booth

Talk to neighbors, friends, family, co-workers — Make sure everyone has a plan to vote.

We have business-size cards you can print & distribute. Download & print on your own, send a digital version to your contacts, or arrange for us to get you already-printed cards.

Once you have a card in hand you can help people you encounter use a handy QR code to get straight to an online voter registration portal.

We've got this!

Call for Writing

Activate your voice — storytellers, poets & independent journalists wanted

Panatrope wants you for the launch their new journal!

They are accepting written work of any genre: Poetry: up to 5 pages
Short Fiction or nonfiction: between 400-5000 words.

5calls

Pick an action & make a call

Post MN Legislative Session Debrief Webinar

from Rise & Repair

When:

May 26, 6:30–7:45pm

Where:

Online (RSVP required)

We'll be hosting a "Post-Session Debrief" to help us unpack the outcome of the 2026 session and take a look at the roadmap over the summer through elections & next session.

Strategy: Public Assemblies

Strengthen Community Resistance to Rising Authoritarianism

A couple of folks on a recent regional organizing call boosted this strategy & offered this introduction. It is really good & worth a listen.

Strategy: Surround Sound Communications

How to Build a Narrative Machine

Want to improve your messaging? Too often, we have seen the GOP's misinformation mistaken for the truth. They use social media and flashy video to surround voters with their distortions. In order to combat this problem, we need to develop more effective communication networks.

"We are in two fights simultaneously. We are trying to protect what we’ve won against a right-wing administration that can weaponize a single viral video to freeze billions in funding for a program three-quarters of the country supports. And at the same time we are trying to win a lot more—not just protecting childcare funding, but making it truly universal; not just freezing the rent, but making sure everyone has a safe and stable home.

"This is a leadership development task. We need narrative organizers—people who don’t just repeat our messages but understand why they work, reach their own communities, and shape the story as much as spread it."

"Surround sound isn’t a social media strategy. It’s an organizing program—one that treats members not as a story bank or an audience but as distributed communications infrastructure. We began building it through four practices: map, seed, echo, and invite."

Special topics

Democracy Defenders

Our friends at Democracy Defenders Indivisible gather information on a variety of issues that come across their desk. You can access these links below.

Recent additions:

• Special Topic: Voting
• Special Topic: Data Centers
• Special Topic: Water

Freedom Trainers

Register for free online trainings

Today, Freedom Trainers is a decentralized network of experienced educators and organizers, including leaders from the Horizons Project, Beautiful Trouble, and Free DC. Together, we work to counter democratic backsliding by equipping people with the skills and strategies of strategic noncooperation.

Our trainings are grounded in three core pillars:

• Know the authoritarian playbook — Understanding how authoritarians consolidate power.
• Understand the pillars of support — Develop a sense of how authoritarian power is vulnerable.
• Build noncooperation skills — Developing the noncooperation practices that fracture authoritarian support.

This May Well Be the Most Consequential Case in the History of Humanity

from Meditations in an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)

"How this decision came into being might be one of the all-time great David and Goliath stories. Because this case that ended in the world's highest court began with 27 law students on the small South Pacific Island of Vanuatu who in 2019, asked themselves what they could do about climate--and it's not hard to imagine a 'what can we do, we're only students' or 'what can we do, we're in a tiny remote nation most people have never heard of' attitude, but instead they set out with the audacious ambition to ask the highest court in the world to render a verdict on the obligation of nations to address the crisis.

"Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's special envoy for climate, said of the decision: 'I choose my words carefully when I say that this may well be the most consequential case in the history of humanity.' Christiana Figueres, who presided over the negotiations that created that Paris Climate Treaty declared, with jubilation, on her podcast Outrage and Optimism: 'this is without a doubt, the most far-reaching, the most comprehensive and the most consequential legal opinion we've ever had.'"

Gaelynn Lea

Inspiring book by local musician makes it big!

Gaelynn Lea published an autobiography that is beautiful & full of stories about the place & people we hold dear up here in the northland.

Not only is she a brilliant, beloved musician & composer but she is a wonderful writer. This book is hard to put down for sure.

All Roads Lead to the South

"On March 7th, 1965, a few innocent children of God, some carrying only a bedroll, a few clutching a simple bag, a plain purse or a backpack, were inspired to walk 50 dangerous miles from Selma to Montgomery to demonstrate the need for voting rights in the state of Alabama. "
— John Lewis
from a speech he delivered March 7, 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma March

On May 16, a broad coalition of organizations converged on Selma & Montgomery for "All Roads Lead to the South: National Day of Action for Voting Rights."

Thousands & thousands of people showed up from all over the country. Get inspired. Take a look at some news clippings from the day that we posted on our bluesky channel.

We have the power. We have had it all along.

If we want candidates to reject big money, we have to provide a better way for them to get votes. We can do that.

"Demonstrations and strikes and calls to elected officials use our voices to influence the actions of people currently in power. This is about using our voices and skills to determine who gets put into power in the first place. If every volunteer generates (at least) ten votes, we could set as our goal the recruitment of enough volunteers to equal ten percent of our vote goal. Zorhan Mamdani had about 104,000 volunteers and received about 1,036,000 votes. That’s about one in ten.

"We have had somewhere between 8 and 9 million participants in #NoKings rallies. The largest number of votes ever received by a presidential candidate was just over 81 million (Joe Biden in 2020). If every participant in a #NoKings rally generated 10 votes, we could win the biggest election in the country. I know that this doesn’t automatically translate to winning elections in particular states or districts, but it does give you a sense of the scale. We have reached critical mass. Now, we just have to develop our political capacity: the best way for each of us, individually and collectively, to help generate votes for the candidates we support."