Halloween costume party brings out north Minneapolis families

Tired of hearing about north Minneapolis kids having to go to the suburbs to trick-or-treat, business owner KB Brown started throwing a costume bash at the Capri Theater with the goal of bringing together families and the organizations that care for them.

Now in its fourth year, that Halloween party has become a stone soup of community organizations cooking out, roller-skating and giving away tote bags of candy to tiny superheroes and princesses.

Elected officials, including state Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, dropped in on the festivities Saturday to get out the vote in the final stretch of door-knocking season. KMOJ’s Walter “Q Bear” Banks Jr. DJed the party.

Farji Shaheer of Innovative SOULutions provided a bounce house and inflatable basketball hoops. A violence intervention professional who offers community training on treating traumatic bleeding, Shaheer recently bought land in Bemidji, Minn., to develop a retreat center for gun violence survivors.

He, in turn, invited Santella Williams and Dominque Howard to bring Pull and Pay, a former Metro Mobility bus retrofitted as a mobile arcade full of vintage games, such as NBA Jam and Big Buck Hunter. The bus was a pandemic epiphany for Williams and fiance Howard when they suddenly found themselves with four children and nowhere to take them after COVID-19 seemed to shut down everything. Pull and Pay now shows up to community events throughout the North Side.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to come through, but we figured we’d stop by check it out. It’s so perfect, and such a beautiful day,” said Shannon Tekle, a Northside Economic Opportunity Network board member who attended with her 2-year daughter, both of them dressed as monarch butterflies.

“North Side, we’re a big family,” said Brown, proudly toting on his arm grandson Zakari — a 3-year-old with candy-smeared cheeks. “Everybody here is from the community.”