Just because the sky won't be lit up doesn't mean there won't be fireworks this year at Powderhorn Park's July 4 celebration.

Publisher and political activist Ed Felien is trying to make sure of that. Working with Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association, he's inviting all comers to speak out from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. These stump speakers will have roughly five minutes to make their case on any topic, but they'll have to run the risk of heckling.

"We have enough gasbags in Powderhorn just circling the park that we can more than fill it up," said Felien, 75. He lives across from the park's northwest corner and runs his community newspaper, Southside Pride, from an office two blocks away.

Felien thrives on politics, and is nostalgic for the days before radio, TV and digital media when orators expounded on such public issues as slavery and suffrage, war and peace. He's hoping the event will help to recreate the magical aura of July 4 at Powderhorn Park that he remembers from his boyhood.

"We'd come to Powderhorn in the late 40s and early 50s and there was still a sense of patriotic fervor and community that was lovely," he said. That attitude faded somewhat in the tensions of the Vietnam era; Felien remembers quizzing then-Congressman Donald Fraser about the war with other activists one summer.

In those old days, the Felien family would arrive around supper time, picnic food in tow. After eating, they'd pass the interminable interval until the arrival of dusk and fireworks by watching what Felien recalls as a "macho promenade" of tough guys strolling the park paths with cigarette packs rolled up their sleeves.

The speakout on the Fourth will be held at the "teahouse" gateway on the southwest shore of Powderhorn Lake. Felien said recently he's expecting the return of mayoral candidates Captain Jack Sparrow and Bob Carney, and current school board candidate Soren Sorensen. So is political firebrand Michael Cavlan. Others can sign up by calling Southside Price at 612-822-4662 or e-mailing edfelien@southsidepride.com

Meanwhile, the association is planning a more family bent to this year's Powderhorn Fourth, with music starting at 11:30 a.m. and rolling through Aztec dancing, a medley of recordings by young people, an acoustic duo, and Latin folk. Also on tap are badminton, croquet, bocce, canoeing, face painting and other diversions.

The lack of actual pyrotechnics will give the association a chance to collect more public input on what future Fourths should look like in the 14-square-block park. Eliminating the fireworks that attracted an estimated 20,000, but also rowdy behavior, cut the fundraising need for the day's events almost by half, according to Becky Timm, the association's staff director.

(Photos -- Above: Fireworks at Powderhorn Park in 2010. Staff photo by David Joles. Right: Ed Felien)