minneculture Archives | Page 2 of 3 | KFAI

MinneCulture | The Evolution of Singer-songwriter Gaelynn Lea

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Duluth-based independent musician Gaelynn Lea made headlines when she won National Public Radio’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016. But she almost didn’t enter the contest that changed her life. Several years later, Lea’s music has been heard by millions and some of her wildest musical dreams have come true. But as a touring artist with a disability, Lea has to deal with a world that is not set up for her, so she recently decided to take matters into her own hands. KFAI’s Nancy Rosenbaum reports.

Listen here:

KFAI’s MinneCulture · The Evolution of Singer-songwriter Gaelynn Lea

Photo courtesy of Paul Vienneau. Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Annie Mack looks down, wearing long tight braids and a gold necklace against a gray backdrop.

MinneCulture | Singer-Songwriter Annie Mack Finds Her Truth in The Blues

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Singer songwriter Annie Mack does it all, from powerhouse blues to New Americana and beyond, highlighting her unique vocal presence and original songs. She released two new singles in 2020, “Shadows of a Kingdom” and “Judge and Jury.” Her new EP Testify dropped in January 2021. She is also featured in the book 50 Women in the Blues (Supernova Books, 2020). This story was produced by Dixie Treichel.

Listen here.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Singer Songwriter Annie Mack Finds Her Truth in The Blues

Photo by Shelly Mosman. MinneCulture on KFAI is made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Fund.

Patrons of Pi Bar fill the crowded dance floor

MinneCulture | Ty Yule Remembers Pi: “The Dyke Bar of Our Dreams”

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Pi Bar infused the Twin Cities with an ecstatic, high energy jolt of queerness for the year and a half it was open. The bar was dreamed up in 2006 and established in South Minneapolis in 2007. They catered to lesbians and queer women, but was also open to the entire LGBTQ scene, making its embrace of the transgender community explicit.

In his recent memoir, Chemically Enhanced Butch, former Pi proprietor Ty Yule reflects on Pi’s brief but impactful existence in the Twin Cities. KFAI’s Sheila Regan reports. Listen below.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Ty Yule Remembers Pi: “The Dyke Bar of Our Dreams”

Lower photo by by Kim Thompson. Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

MinneCulture | Most Memorable Stories of 2020

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Ugh. 2020.

What an onslaught. And yet Minnesota artists persisted, creating and sharing amidst the constraints of isolation, disease and social injustice. MinneCulture producers at KFAI found innovative ways to work around the pandemic and through the unrest, connecting us with timely art and history stories from around the state. The year was terrible, but the work was a triumph. Here are our editors’ picks for Most Memorable Stories of 2020.

The year started in ordinary fashion—Minnesotan artists doing their thing, KFAI producers sharing their stories. Producer Anna Stitt gave us a beautiful story about the Voices of Hope women’s prison choir, Emily Bright brought us a story about a Hmong hip-hop artist who performed alongside his grandma, Dixie Treichel introduced us to interdisciplinary artist and dancer DejaJoelle, and KFAI program director Mason Butler profiled a film fest that actually encourages audiences to heckle.

But around mid-March, with the arrival of the novel coronavirus and the drop of an executive order, the live events industry all but vanished. Many local artists rallied and moved their work online, like DJ Shannon Blowtorch and MPLS Adonia. Their Tuesday night installations of “Quarantine Live: Online Dance Party” caught the attention of KFAI’s Dixie Treichel, who filed this bumpin’ audio portrait.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · A New Territory Of Dance Party

During the stay-at-home orders, Polish American artist and MCAD professor Piotr Szyhalski turned to drawing. Working in his basement, he responded to news reports about the pandemic by making incisive drawings that utilize sharply drawn humor to criticize America’s response to the coronavirus crisis. KFAI’s Sheila Regan filed this report.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Scarce Paper, Extreme Historical Phenomena

Season 3 of the MinneCulture Podcast rebooted with original interviews and audio dairies, sharing pandemic stories from a poet, a dancer, a rapper, and a chef. Then on May 25, Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Protests and unrest swept the Twin Cities. The podcast team hit the streets to find out how artists would respond and what art might emerge from the destruction of entire blocks in the Twin Cities. KFAI’s Nancy Rosenbaum, Anna Stitt, Emily Bright, Melissa Olson and Ryan Dawes produced this podcast episode.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Ep. 27: What Do We Do Now?

Musician Taylor Seaberg lived just blocks from 38th and Chicago where Floyd was killed. They organized and co-produced a BIPOC community album featuring artists who performed at Floyd’s memorial site. On the album is a track called “Pandemonium” written in response to both the pandemic and the killing of Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. Again, KFAI’s Sheila Regan was on it.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Taylor Seaberg and the Art of the Revolution

The History Theater in St. Paul was slated to stage the world premier of a new musical in May, but COVID-19 wrecked that plan. We did a story on it anyway. Emily Bright filed this one about the historic controversy that inspired “Runestone: The Rock Musical.” By far, this story had the most lively comments section on our facebook page. Who knew a rock might inspire such debate?

KFAI’s MinneCulture · ‘Rock’ Musical Excavates Muddy Truth Behind Runestone

June is documentary season at KFAI’s MinneCulture and this year’s crop brought us excellent storytelling on Minnesota arts and history. As 2020 brought the centennial anniversary of both Prohibition and Suffrage, Fulbright fellow and podcaster Katie Thornton revealed how the two movements were intertwined. Here’s “A Brief History of Women in Bars: A Minnesota Story in Three Rounds.”

KFAI’s MinneCulture · A Brief History of Women in Bars: A Minnesota Story in Three Rounds

Then, producer Anna Stitt unveiled her gigantic storytelling feat, “Fighting Back: The Rise of Anti-Racist Action in Minneapolis,” chronicling the rise of anti-racist skinheads who organized to fight white power movements in the Twin Cities. Told through vivid first-person accounts, archival audio, and music from the era, Anna’s doc starts under the railroad tracks in Uptown, Minneapolis and traces a movement that continues to shape the U.S. to this day.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Fighting Back: The Rise of Anti-Racist Action in Minneapolis

James Napoli’s documentary “Stay Young, Go Dancing” reminded us of the warm embrace of a maskless dance partner in his oral history of one of the Midwest’s most revered polka venues, the Gibbon Ballroom. Dive into the polka scene of rural Minnesota right now. It’ll make you grin.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Stay Young, Go Dancing

Returning to the present and the pandemic, as COVID summer 2020 wrapped up, Paul Brohaugh from KFAI’s Poetry, Science and Wrestling brought us a story about an aquatic twist on the drive-in theater. This story features a brief cameo by a cat in a canoe. Listen here:

KFAI’s MinneCulture · BYO Boat at Float-In Theater

And lastly, Colleen Cowie reported on the First Love Project, sharing a the story behind a labor love organized by musicians and fans in support of the famed First Avenue.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · First Love Project Supports First Ave Fam

Thank you to all our producers, the KFAI staff, community radio listeners and the artists who make our work so rewarding.

Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Digital illustration of First Avenue Music Venue dark, except for one light, shining onto the street

MinneCulture | First Love Project Supports First Ave Fam

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When the future of an iconic music venue is on the line, artists and music lovers haven’t just stood around. Colleen Cowie reports from Minneapolis where a group of volunteers created the First Love Project, a compilation album that gives back to the famed music venue, First Avenue. Listen here:

KFAI’s MinneCulture · First Love Project Supports First Ave Fam

Like many Minnesotans, musician and guitar technician Molly Maher has many favorite memories from inside First Avenue’s star-studded walls.

“First Avenue is truly the holy grail of venues,” says Maher. “Emmylou Harris turned 50 and she was playing First Avenue and somebody in the crowd made her a birthday cake. And to see Lucinda Williams get married! It’s not just a local iconic stage for us – it’s embraced all around by the music community all around the states and all around the world.”

2020 was slated to be a busy year for First Avenue. The club was celebrating its 50th anniversary. First Avenue’s staff was loading bands in and out of the Mainroom and 7th Street Entry nearly every night of the week. But that all came to a halt in March, when Covid-19 forced First Avenue to close its doors.

In early Spring of 2020, hashtags and petitions spread like wildfire attempting to draw financial support for local music scenes. A group called the Committee of Concerned Citizens decided to take more direct action with a specific venue in mind. They volunteered to create a benefit album for First Ave. It’s called the First Love Project.

Music fans can subscribe to a plethora of tracks donated by local and national artists, including Dessa, Jeff Tweedy, Har Mar Superstar and more. Find the music at the project’s bandcamp page.

Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Illustration by Ryan Dawes.

Four repeating photos of African American girl

MinneCulture | Theater Artist Kim Hines Authors Novella for Young Adults

Kim Hines’ young adult novella Wingo Fly (2020) revolves around Christy Wingo, a 10-year-old Black girl in 1965 Minneapolis, Minnesota. The book is filled with humor, mystery and social justice issues. Based in Minneapolis, Kim has been a theater artist for 50 plus years and this is her first book.

“This book is really based on when I was ten years old in 1965. Christy is a lot like me,” says Hines. “We don’t have a lot of stories about Black people growing up in the Midwest. We were middle class. There’s not a lot of stories about Black kids growing up in a middle class family. There’s a lot of books out there about kids growing up in poverty and growing up in gangs and you know all the stereotypes that I think White America has about Black people. And growing up I don’t think I read anything that spoke to the way I was living.”

Listen to our story by KFAI’s Dixie Treichel and hear excerpts from the book.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Theater Artist Kim Hines Authors Novella for Young Adults

Photo courtesy of Kim Hines. Wingo Fly can be found at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis. Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

MinneCulture | The Master of Deception: John Ivan-Palmer Remembers His Magician Father in New Memoir

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The Minneapolis of the 1950’s offered a thriving entertainment scene that lured men and women with money into dozens of theaters and burlesque clubs. Variety performers arrived from all over the country— contortionists, jugglers, ventriloquists, dancers—and a magician named Jack Pyle, aka the “Master of Deception.”

In 2020, the magician’s son, John-Ivan Palmer, wrote about his father and the era of variety floor show entertainments in his memoir “The Master of Deception: A Son Searches for His Father in the House of Illusion.” Listen to our story by KFAI’s Britt Aamodt.

KFAI’s MinneCulture · The Master of Deception: John Ivan-Palmer Remembers His Magician Father in New Memoir

Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Photo of Jack Pyle courtesy of John Ivan-Palmer.

MinneCulture | Sharp Imagery and Precise Language: Heid Erdrich’s Little Big Bully

Heid E. Erdrich’s latest volume of poetry, Little Big Bully, is brutal and beautiful. It won the National Poetry Series, and was released just before the 2020 election. A major theme throughout the book of poems is poor behavior, manifested in numerous ways. An Anishinaabe poet and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, Erdrich writes of violence and erasure with aching clarity, in one case, comparing the disappearance of bird species with that of Native nations. Erdrich talks to Sheila Regan about her latest work in this MinneCulture piece. Listen here:

KFAI’s MinneCulture · Sharp Imagery and Precise Language: Heid Edrich’s Little Big Bully

“So at some point, when I was struggling with both personal events, and the political events since 2016,” say Erdrich. “I saw somebody post something about, you know, the 10 signs of a narcissistic abusive relationship, and like, Oh, my God, this totally applies to the country.”

In her poems, Erdrich grapples with why people get hoodwinked by bad people.

“Yeah, I was really trying to figure out like, what is the mechanism? What is the thing emotionally, intellectually, behaviorally, and that allows abuse, people who side with abusers, people who become subordinate.”

Signed copies of Little Big Bully are available at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.