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.