K Street

K

Kansas Ave. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000) was an African-American poet. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950 and was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985. She was born in Topeka, Kansas. Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) was an African-American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He was raised in Lawrence, Kansas. William Inge (1913 – 1973 was an American playwright and novelist. His Broadway production, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize. He was born in Independence, Kansas. Bill Martin, Jr. (1916 – 2004) was an educator, publishing executive, and author of more than 300 children's books including,, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, (co-authored with John Archambault) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?, and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?. He was born in Hiawatha, Kansas. William Stafford (1914 – 1993) was an American poet and pacifist, and the father of poet and essayist Kim Stafford. He was appointed the twentieth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970. He was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. Damon Runyon (1880 – 1946) was an American newspaperman and author. He was born in Manhattan, Kansas.

Kasota Ave. Kasota is a Dakotah name meaning “cleared place.” The street reference, as Don Empson tells us, might be to the community of Kasota north of Mankato, Minnesota. You can find it in The Great Minnesota Touring Book: 30 Spectacular Auto Trips, published in 2004 and written by Thomas Huhti.

Kaufman Dr. The street was named for N. Lamont Kaufman (1894-1971), superintendent of parks in Saint Paul from 1932-1965 (thanks to Don Empson’s book). There are a few parks in this delightful children’s picture book, Larry Gets Lost in the Twin Cities published in  2012 and written by John Skewes. "Bel" Kaufman (1911 – 2014) was an American teacher and author, best known for writing the 1965 bestselling novel, Up the Down Staircase. Her grandfather was the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. He wrote the stories which later became the basis for the play, Fiddler on the Roof. Ariel Durant (1898 – 1981) was a Russian-born American researcher and writer, the co-author of The Story of Civilization with her husband Will Durant. Her birth name was Chaya Kaufman.

Kay Ave. Jackie Kay (born 1961) is a Scottish poet and novelist.

Kellogg Blvd. The street is named for Frank B. Kellogg (1856-1937) who lived in Saint Paul and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 for establishing a multinational agreement called the Kellogg-Briand Pact. This pact was designed to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy (thanks to Donald Empson and his book, The Street Where You Live for this information). Kellogg is mentioned in Famous Minnesotans: Past and Present by Dan Flynn and published in 2005. Steven Kellogg (born 1941) is a children’s book author-illustrator who has created more than 90 children's books.

Kennard St. Clyde Kennard (1927 – 1963) was an African-American civil rights pioneer and martyr from Mississippi. In the 1950s, he attempted several times to enroll at Mississippi Southern College - now known as University of Southern Mississippi (USM) - to complete his undergraduate degree started at the University of Chicago. He was arrested after publishing a letter supporting integrated education. He was sent to prison even though he was terminally ill with cancer.  He wrote the following poem when he was close to death: "Ode to the Death Angel" Oh here you come again Old chilly death of Ol' To plot out life And test immortal soul I saw you fall against the raging sea I cheated you then and now you'll not catch me I know your face It's known in every race Your speed is fast And along the way Your shadow you cast High in the sky You thought you had me then I landed safely But here you are again I see you paused upon that forward pew When you think I'm asleep I'm watching you Why must you hound me so everywhere I go? It's true my eyes are dim My hands are growing cold Well take me on then, that I might at last become my soul. Kennard is mentioned in The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches, published in  2005, edited by  Myrlie Evers-Williams  and Manning Marable.

Kenneth St. Kenneth Koch (1925 – 2002) was an American poet, playwright, and professor. He published two books on teaching poetry to children, Rose Where Did you Get That Red and Wishes, Lies and Dreams.

Kenny Rd. Kenny & the Dragon is a 2008 children's novel by Tony DiTerlizzi (born 1969). It is based on the story of The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. DiTerlizzi named the two protagonists Kenneth and Grahame. He also includes references to Grahame's other famous work, The Wind in the Willows. DiTerlizzi won a Caldecott Honor for his adaptation of The Spider and the Fly.

Kent St. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 1400), known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to be buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.  He is the author of The Canterbury Tales in which a story-telling contest takes place by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Canterbury Cathedral is in Canterbury, Kent, England. The opening lines of The Canterbury Tales are the basis for T.S. Eliot’s opening lines to The Waste Land. Here is Chaucer: When fair April with his showers sweet, Has pierced the drought of March to the root's feet And bathed each vein in liquid of such power, Its strength creates the newly springing flower; Here’s Eliot: April is the cruellest month, breeding    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing   Memory and desire, stirring   Dull roots with spring rain.

Kenwood Pkwy. Birchbark Books is a bookstore in the Kenwood neighborhood of Minneapolis. It is owned by author Louise Erdrich. Her books are wonderful to read in any order but if you haven’t read them try to start with the first and move up. Also, don’t forget to find her poetry. Here is one of them: I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move     by Louise Erdrich                                We watched from the house as the river grew, helpless and terrible in its unfamiliar body.    Wrestling everything into it, the water wrapped around trees until their life-hold was broken. They went down, one by one, and the river dragged off their covering. Nests of the herons, roots washed to bones,    snags of soaked bark on the shoreline:    a whole forest pulled through the teeth    of the spillway. Trees surfacing singly, where the river poured off into arteries for fields below the reservation. When at last it was over, the long removal,    they had all become the same dry wood.    We walked among them, the branches    whitening in the raw sun. Above us drifted herons, alone, hoarse-voiced, broken, settling their beaks among the hollows. Grandpa said, These are the ghosts of the tree people    moving among us, unable to take their rest. Sometimes now, we dream our way back to the heron dance.    Their long wings are bending the air    into circles through which they fall.    They rise again in shifting wheels.    How long must we live in the broken figures    their necks make, narrowing the sky.

Keston St. Keston M. Sutherland (born 1976) is a British poet, and Professor of Poetics at the University of Sussex. He is the Holloway Poetry Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kilburn St. The street is named for the city in England. The author of Winnie-the-Pooh, A. A. Milne (1882-1956), was born in Kilburn.

Kim Pl. Kim Robert Stafford (born 1949) is an American poet and essayist who lives in Portland, Oregon. His father is the poet, William Stafford. The novel, Kim, by Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was published in 1901. It is considered his masterpiece.

King St. John Kay was a fifteenth-century English poet who described himself as the versificator regis (which would develop into the position of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom) to Edward IV of England. “Regis” has the meaning of “kingly.” This author shall thus describe himself as the “compilercator regis.” Others might  describe him as the “complicator regis.”

Kingsford St.

Kipling St. Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. His most famous story is The Jungle Book.

Kittson St. Don Empson’s book tells us that the street was named for Norman Kittson (1814-1888). Kittson County, Minnesota, was also named for him. You can read about the county in the 2003 National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota by Larry Millett.

Klainert St. Don Empson tells us that the street is named for Robert John Klainert (1924-1945) who was killed in World War II. He was awarded the Purple Heart. A book by another Purple Heart recipient is I Heard My Country Calling: A Memoir by James Webb and published in 2014.

Knapp St. Harold A. Knapp (1925-1989) was a Defense Department analyst who uncovered risks from fallout in nuclear testing in the 1950's and initiated the reversal of a rape conviction of three black men in the 1960's. He was born in Berlin, New Hampshire. The name of his birth town is reason enough to include him in this list but, in addition, his son and this author were classmates in elementary school. The story of the rape conviction can be found in An American Rape: A True Account of the Giles-Johnson Case, published in 1975 and written by Arthur Smith and James Giles.