Introducing Ward 5 Council Member-Elect, Pearll Warren
Ward 5’s Council Member-Elect Pearll Warren is never at a loss for words. In fact, she’s among the best Spoken Word Artists in the country, having placed 14th in a global competition back in 2014. “I competed in the women’s National Poetry Slam, against 72 other women,” recalls Warren, who still performs today. “It’s my art. It’s my medicine. It’s my therapy. It gave me a diction for my experiences to really capture my emotions or my vantage point.”
She drew upon her gift for communicating during her campaign for City Council, and she plans to use it as a voice for her constituents. “Seeing as you have to get your point across on so many different issues,” she explained.
Warren greets supporters during her campaign. Photo courtesy of the Warren campaign.
Warren has been a resident of Ward 5 for most of her life, having first moved to the ward at age 4. A mother of seven (she adopted her eldest grandchild) and grandmother to six, her professional career has included work in housing, environmental justice, clean energy and literacy. This month, she’ll be sworn in as her community’s voice on the Minneapolis City Council, replacing Jeremiah Ellison, who did not seek re-election. “It feels good. I really want to do a good job,” said Warren. “This community is the first place my family settled in when we moved here. It’s always going to be home. It’s what shaped me.”
Ward 5 includes parts of the North Loop which still have development potential. The boundary starts at N. 4th St. on the Junction Flats and Inbound BrewCo side of the street, extending to 10th Ave. N., and goes all the way to the Farmers Market area, including businesses like Fowling Warehouse, Barks & Rec and Royalston Square. “It’s a beautiful dance with all the businesses — commercial, residential and mixed use properties that entangle within North Loop that join into Ward 5,” observed Warren. “I’m looking to see that that continues to grow and thrive.”
Warren’s top priority will be constituent services. “I want to put a great deal of my focus within the first year on building, repairing and restoring relationships that our community has with our council. So looking at business districts, community members and stakeholders, as well as neighborhood organizations, they need to have a presence and need to know someone is there and actively listening and prepared to show up and support how we can work together.”
Other issues important to Warren and Ward 5 are safe, sustainable and suitable housing, which in Warren’s view, along with business development, contributes to public safety. “The economic development and livability, and the safe, suitable and sustainable housing will support public safety and they all work in conjunction with constituent services.”
Warren will celebrate her January 5 inauguration with a reception at Glass House, located in the North Loop and Ward 5.
By Mary Binkley, NLNA volunteer