Five years ago, Racket pioneered a worker-owned, reader-funded model of alternative digital journalism in the Twin Cities. Since then, we’ve published almost 5,000 articles, written by more than 200 talented contributors, on everything from hole-in-the-wall restaurants to hyper-local politics.

That was the easy part.

The hard part? Choosing just eight stories from the Racket archive for this first-of-its-kind physical compendium, which we'll be celebrating tonight at Arbeiter Brewing Co. to mark our fifth anniversary.

They’ll be hanging out at a semi-private space reserved for 50ish Racket revelers, but there'll also be plenty of overflow space in the taproom and patio to drink great beers and gab about independent media. We'll be giving away koozies + stickers, and maybe even make brief remarks -- who can say?

Come party! Buy the book! Raise a toast to (at least) 500 more years of Racket!

P.S. If you can't make it, the book will be available the following day at Moon Palace Books.