Sometimes drinking beer can make a difference. That’s the goal with Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest, which hits St. Paul for the second straight year on Sat. March 28. The festival is both a showcase for rare and limited beers that fans can’t get anywhere else, but it’s also a significant fundraiser for Pints for Prostates, a national charity that raises awareness and funds for prostate health.Chop Liver Craft Beer Festivals sponsors Rare Beer Fest, as well as St. Continue Reading
Sugarbushing begins in February when the snow is still on the ground and the sap in the sugar maple trees begins to rise. At the the Wozupi Tribal Gardens’ grove in Prior Lake, that still means it’s time to get to work. But, it no longer means pulling out the metal taps, the stainless steel buckets and the kettles.“Buckets are for hobbyists,” said Rebecca Yoshino, the director of the Wozupi Tribal Gardens and the maple syrup operation for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. “The bucket system is very labor intensive. You had to put the buckets up and take them down every year. Continue Reading
[Image at right: Rendering of the coming Anpetu Was’te cultural market on Franklin Avenue.] Franklin Avenue was once the border of Minneapolis, marking the edge of the city. Before that it was home to the Dakota people, and since the 1950’s post-“relocation era”, it is the site of the Little Earth community, the country’s only Indian-preference affordable housing site. But Franklin Avenue, which is controlled by Hennepin County, is also one of the most danerously designed streets in the city, home to a disproportionate amount of bicycle and pedestrian accidents. In particular, the corner of Franklin, Riverside, and Hiawatha, around the light rail station, has long been a dark, unpleasant place for people to walk and divded communities around. Transforming Franklin from a dangerous eyesore into a welcoming home for the surrounding Native community is one of the top priorities for Andy Hestness, vice president of the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI), which runs the All My Relations gallery on Franklin Avenue and works as an intermediary for the Twin Cities Native Amerian people. We caught up with him last week to talk about how Native American’s are starting to challenge and transform how sideawlks, buses, and bikes work in and around Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis’ most neglected busy street. Continue Reading
I’m not sure I should be reviewing Blue Water Theatre Company’s production of Kenneth Lonergan’s play This Is Our Youth. On the one hand, it is part of Southern Theater’s ARTshare offerings, and Blue Water is one of the resident companies this year. On the other hand, this could only charitably be called a full production, and I don’t think it helps anybody if I start grading on a curve. If reviewing Defying Gravity felt like kicking a puppy, I’m not sure where to take that metaphor if I start evaluating This Is Our Youth.“My father’s not a criminal, he just does business with criminals.”Part of it isn’t Blue Water’s fault. It’s the script. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Kenneth Lonergan because of his film You Can Count On Me—early pre-Hulk Mark Ruffalo; beautifully crafted, funny, human story; a soundtrack of songs that still haunts me, I could go on. Continue Reading
I’m fully behind Gadfly Theatre Productions’ mission of creating queer and feminist theater and art. (Heck, I even took part in their original shorts festival last summer.) But Vanda’s Vile Affections isn’t doing them any favors. The script has so many unreliable narrators for this supposedly true but sparsely documented story of nuns under investigation in 17th century Italy that I not only lost the thread of the story, at a certain point I wasn’t even sure what the story was anymore. The case of Sister Benedetta Carlini (Amanda Kay Thomm Bahr) is notable for being one of the earliest documented cases of a lesbian affair. But Benedetta’s sexual relations with Sister Bartolomea Crivelli (Bart, for short) (Emily Weiss) don’t take place until well into the second act. Continue Reading
You know how you keep local music supported for generations? Have venues that are open for intergenerational audiences. Tuesday night my favorite 10 year old and I hopped over to the Electric Fetus to see the Cactus Blossoms. She was thrilled because as she pointed out – she never gets to see them!The Cactus Blossoms were celebrating the release of their new 7 inch record. Better news yet – it sounds like it’s a prelude to a full album to come out soon.What I like best about the Cactus Blossoms is their knack for making music that sounds both classic and fresh. They started with a You’re Dreaming, brand new song that sounds like a classic bluegrass ballad and ended with their Buffalo Song, which is a bluegrass dance song.I recently heard them describe their harmony as easy and almost accidental in a recent interview with Bill DeVille on The Current – but it sounds pretty darned good to me. Continue Reading
The third annual Community Connections Conference attracted over 500 people to the Minneapolis Convention Center on March 21 to meet, learn, and get inspired for the work of creating a more equitable and connected city of Minneapolis. The Conference, organized by the city’s office of Community Relations and a committee of volunteers from across the city, was subtitled “Creative Engagement and Action Using Arts and Placemaking.” Neighborhood groups, community non-profits, arts organizations and city departments exhibited at the “Village Square.” Many of them held interactive exhibits, such as artist Aldo Moroni’s citymaking project at the Bottineau Neighborhood’s space. This year’s conference was called a “nonconference,” because it dispensed with the uaual keynote address and workshops, instead holding a number of “Learning Labs” on Placemaking, and performances. Continue Reading
Comic Books from the Margins on Vimeo. Presented by Gazillion Strong, Big Brain Comics, Moon Palace Books, Boneshaker Books, Ancestry Books, and Ramsey County Libraries, these series of workshops is aimed at teens and pre-teens. each bookstore and library will select comic books and graphic novels in which the central character(s) are from marginalized communities, such as the POC (people of color), LGBTQ, adoptee, foster care, and disabled communities. The books will be presented to preteens, teens, and their families by knowledgeable authors, activists, performers, and comic book connoisseurs.Comic Books from the Margins series gives an opportunity to people to tell their stories, and pick out books that are reflective of their culture.”We want different kinds of narratives,” said Ancestry Books owner Chaun Webster. “That don’t reduce us to these small, tokenistic stereotypes.”Future Comic Books from the Margins will be held at Boneshaker Books, the Minnesota History Center and Big Brain Comics. Check out Gazillion Strong’s website for more informationhttp://www.wearegazillionstrong.org/comics-from-the-margins/ Continue Reading
April 17 marks the passing of Minnesota artist George Morrison (1919-2000) 15 years ago. Seeing the exhibition Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison on view through April 26 at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul, reinforces his powerful, although under-recognized, voice in the aesthetic arch of 20th century art. Comprising some 80 works, Modern Spirit makes relevant the deep well of ideas that Morrison explored and refined over a six-decade career.The Minnesota Museum of American Art (MMAA) in Saint Paul, and Arts Midwest, Minneapolis, organized Modern Spirit, and much of the work is from the museum’s collection. W. Jackson Rushing III, the Eugene B. Adkins Presidential Professor of Art History and Mary Lou Milner Carver Chair in Native American Art at the University of Oklahoma nimbly curated Morrison’s paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture into an evocative, comprehensive whole. This is the final leg in a five museum-tour that began in June 2013 at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND.Morrison’s life is a peripatic journey that takes him from Minnesota to New York City to France and back again. Continue Reading
My favorite regular gig went worldly this month as Real Phonic at the James J Hill Reference Library hosted a group of eclectic artists. Headlining was Corey Harris who seems to have toes in places around the globe. He was born in Denver, busked in New Orleans, lived in West Africa and soaked up sounds wherever he went.Harris started with rock solid blues and a song called High Fever Blues. He has the voice of someone three times his girth. He sustains the low notes of yesterday’s dreams and hits the occasional imploring notes to strike a bluesy balance.But the tone lightens considerably with songs that have West African roots, such as an instrumental by Ali Farka Toure, a musician from Mali about which Harris wrote a book. Continue Reading
