Star Tribune
Meet the St. Paul journalist dedicated to deeply covering communities of color
When it was announced last month that former Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio reporter Mukhtar Ibrahim was stepping down as CEO and publisher of the Sahan Journal, the news organization he founded in 2019, Eye On St. Paul reached out.
Ibrahim, a University of Minnesota journalism graduate and onetime teammate of the Eye’s at the Star Tribune, launched Sahan Journal to give Twin Cities communities of color deeper and more dedicated coverage. In just five years, the website has become a major player among Twin Cities news media. Now, he says, it’s time for another big change. This interview was edited for length.
Q: Where’s home?
A: I live in Eagan, but I call St. Paul my hometown. I’ve always lived in St. Paul, since [the family] came to the U.S. in 2005. I grew up near downtown, Mt. Airy. My sisters live there still.
Q: Why were you drawn to journalism?
A: I think it goes back to when I was growing up. My parents were news consumers. They used to listen to the BBC Somali, which was broadcasting from London. People like my dad fled from civil war in Somalia and went to Ethiopia, then Kenya, They were just trying to stay in the know about current affairs in the country.
I came here when I was 17. And I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to major in biochemistry at the U, but that’s when [I thought], “OK, what am I really doing here?” And that’s when I shifted my major from biochemistry to journalism. [Former Star Tribune reporter Chris] Ison was there at the time, and I just felt it was a passion.
Q: When did you graduate from the U?
A: 2011.
Q: And when did you go to work for the Star Tribune?
A: 2018.
Q: What did you do in between?
A: I was at MPR.
Q: What brought you to the Star Tribune from MPR?
A: When I came to the Star Tribune, I’d done my master’s at Columbia [University]. And I just wanted to use those skills. I did data analysis. I did the investigative track at journalism school and I wanted to put those skills to use. And I thought the paper was a good place.
Q: Were there stories that you wished you were doing that you weren’t able to do?
A: No. I had a good beat. I was covering Minneapolis City Hall. But I just wanted more stories from my community, more news.
Q: When did you get the idea for Sahan Journal?
A: I had this idea for a while. Even when I was applying for a Bush Foundation fellowship in 2016, I wanted to advance my journalism skills and I wanted to go to Columbia and come back and do something with people of color. But I had no idea where to start.
Sahan Journal was to be like MPR, or MinnPost, that kind of journalism, but be more laser-focused on the communities [of color]. Keeping the stories of those communities on the front page every day and not just when there’s a triple shooting in the neighborhood.
Our stories are published at Star Tribune, at MPR. What we are doing is classic journalism but with a different lens.
Q: Have you been surprised at how successful it’s been?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: My immediate goal when I left Star Tribune in 2019 was to do good journalism for the community. And then I realized the success [laughs]. That just really consumed me, the business side of the operation. Trying to get the community to support it, with $10 or $15 [donations]. Now we have a 21 to 22 person newsroom, one of the largest newsrooms in the state.
Q: What has surprised you?
A: [long pause] How quickly we established ourselves in the market, providing something different — deep coverage of communities of color. And the quickness of that growth is something I am so grateful for.
Q: Who is your audience?
A: We are trying to accomplish different things. We want to inform diverse communities about things going on in their community, in their neighborhoods. Ultimately, that will result in them being more significantly engaged in the issues that affect them. The other part is for the white community to better understand the issues of their neighbors, their friends, their colleagues. That can lead to better understanding.
Q: So why get out?
A: I want to make space for someone else to come in and lead the transition and become a leader. I want to cultivate more leaders in the community who can step in. Now we are at a point where our feet are strong. We have amazing staff. We have good funding. We have all the infrastructure. And I just felt this was the right time to make that transition.
Q: I got the impression that some of this was a nod to your family.
A: I am the father of four kids [ages 9, 8, 5 and 4 months]. As you know, I’ve been doing this through the pandemic. Uprisings. Fundraising. All of that just took me further and further away from family life. I just want to shift the focus a little bit.
At the same time, I am working on an MBA at [the U’s] Carlson School of Management. And I want to see what’s next.
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
