Jay Gabler

"I'm white and I have a lot to learn about black art," I wrote in February, "but I believe I could contribute valuable insight to Obsidian Arts in an advisory capacity." That was how I found myself sitting in a conference room at Pillsbury House last week, joining a conversation as part of the nonprofit arts organization's newly-formed advisory panel.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how creative writing will adapt to, with, and through the move from print to digital—but with Khary Jackson's Any Psalm You Want, I was presented with a book of poetry that feels fresh and contemporary despite being printed on old-fashioned paper (that is, on any paper at all).

After seeing Django Unchained, I wrote about how slow Minnesota has been to see the plank in its own eye when casting judgment on the cruel history of slavery in the south. Dakota and other Native inhabitants of our land were treated brutally during westward expansion, and that treatment precipitated the deadly Dakota War of 1862—perhaps the darkest moment in our state's history.

According to Sasha Frere-Jones, Neil Diamond’s voice has two settings: less Neil and more Neil. Something similar could be said of Scott Hutchison, frontman of the Scottish band Frightened Rabbit—his thickly accented keen can be less poignant or more poignant, but it’s always poignant. The band’s March 21 show at the Varsity Theater, though, had a “Song Sung Blue” quality to it. The songs were sad, but the mood was buoyant.