Checkerboard pattern of DejaJoelle, Shannon Blowtorch, MinneCulture Logo, two Hmong rappers,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.”

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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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:


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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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

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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:

“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.

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Artwork, of "Soil Horizon" depicting sky, dry grass, dark soil, roots, a lighter bedrock

MinneCulture | Like the Banks of a River: Deborah Foutch’s Fiber & Mixed Media Art

Minneapolis artist Deborah Foutch creates rich and complex work with fiber and mixed media that expresses her love of the natural world. Her Soil Horizon series portrays a living system using special layering techniques and honors her father who was a soil conservationist. This story was produced by Dixie Treichel.

“My work is about a living system in the world,” says Foutch. “I’m looking at a way that layers will show me qualities that I see when I stand and look at water. I take paint and I water it down a lot and I pour it through layers. I spreads on whatever material I’m using it on.”

Funding for MinneCulture on KFAI is made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. Photo of “Soil Horizon” and “Rooted Earth,” courtesy of Deborah Foutch.

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Snow Queen with Tiara looks over her left shoulder while her giant white cape suspends behind her

MinneCulture | The (Really Mean) Snow Queen Streams On Screen

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Ballet Co.Laboratory wants to change the way people think about ballet by changing ballet itself. That’s no easy task. The art form is full of tradition, which some people find stuffy and elitist. Plus, there’s this little thing called COVID happening. As Todd Melby reports, the St. Paul company is doing its best to challenge the status quo at a challenging time. Listen here:

For holiday dance productions, we’ve come to expect Tchiakovsky’s Nutcracker as the standard. Ballet Co.Laboratory bucks the trend with a production of Hans Christian Anderson’s 1844 fable, The Snow Queen. The ballet tells the story of a little girl whose brother has been frozen by, you guessed it, the Snow Queen, played by Rachel Seeholzer.

Because of COVID, this ballet will be performed in front of cameras, not a live audience. The cameras magnify facial movements of the dancers that might otherwise be missed to someone sitting in the cheap seats. 

“Usually in ballet, it’s smile and be pretty and pretend everything is fun,” says Seeholzer. “For once, I get to furrow my brow and get to pout my lip and let my eyes get really stern.”

Ballet Co.Laboratory’s production of The Snow Queen will be available for streaming on Saturday, December 19 and Sunday, December 20. Tickets are $40 per household. For more information, go to balletcolaboratory.org.

Support for MinneCulture comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Photo courtesy of Ballet Co.Laboratory in St. Paul, Minn.

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Stencil-like graphic of Paul Deng Kur overlaid with text from his book

MinneCulture | Driven by Hope: Paul Deng Kur and the Story of a Lost Boy

Paul Deng Kur is from South Sudan, but now lives in Minnesota. He is an author and holds two advanced degrees, but neither are relevant to his current occupation, driving for Lyft and Uber. Although the coronavirus pandemic has hurt the ride share industry, he isn’t scared of COVID-19. He grew up with a different threshold of fear.

“I am scared of two things: lions and snakes,” says Kur.

That’s because Kur was one of countless Lost Boys who endured treacherous nights in the Sudanese jungle, a bloody civil war, and the displacement of his family. KFAI’s Britt Aamodt spoke with Kur about his journey to the US, the power of stories, and the day a suicidal passenger slid into his backseat. Listen:

There’ s something about two strangers cut off from the world in a moving car that invites intimacy. As a ride share driver, Paul Deng Kur had heard hundreds of stories.

One particular passenger had a weight to get off his chest.

After George Floyd was killed by a white police officer at the end of May, a wave a vandalism swept into Minneapolis. This passenger’s business had been among those destroyed.

“He told me he wanted to take his life. He feel like loser,” said Kur.

After the two arrived at their destination, Kur shut off his driver app and put the car in park.

“Just to talk to him. We talked nearly two hours.”

The passenger shared his hopelessness around losing his business and Kur shared his own story of loss.

“I have seen so many people die… I tell him I am Lost Boy. Many don’t know what Lost Boy is,” said Kur.

Kur became a Lost Boy in 1987, four years into the Second Sudanese Civil War when Sudan’s government bombed Kur’s village in the south, believing it was supplying the rebels with food and protection.

Kur escaped the bombing only because he, like many South Sudanese boys, was in the pasture looking after livestock. And like most of those boys, when he returned to the smoking ruin that had been his home, he couldn’t find his family. They were gone. Fled somewhere. Or dead.

This happened village after village, leaving behind numberless young boys and some girls with no homes or families. They were told to walk east to a refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Suddenly there was a line of Lost Boys and Girls, miles long, all marching east on foot. Kur was five years old.

After spending time in refugee camps and later as a soldier, Kur, then nineteen, and nearly 4,000 Lost Boys got an offer that was hard to turn down: a ticket to America, which despite its divisions, was at least not embroiled in armed civil war.

Kur ended up in Pittsburgh, where he pursued college, eventually earning advanced degrees in the fields of education and leadership. It was difficult to relive the memories, but he sat down at a keyboard and, little by little, began to tell the story of his life as a Lost Boy.

“I deleted it so many times. When you write something you have to review it and with reviewing it, it get to me. Affect my sleeping,” says Kur.

Even though he deleted the manuscript and started over, he eventually self-published the memoir called Out of the Impossible: The Hope of the Lost Boy.

It was these stories of hardship and hope that he shared with that ride share passenger. The two have since reconnected, the passenger sharing later that Kur’s stories had helped.

Kur is thirty-eight now. He has not seen his mother, except through a device, in thirty-three years. And he still wants to put his master’s degrees to use, opening a school in his village back home in South Sudan.

“But one of reason I am here is hope,” says Kur. “You hope tomorrow will never be the same.”

Paul Deng Kur’s book Out of the Impossible: The Hope of the Lost Boy can be found of Amazon. Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Illustration by Ryan Dawes.

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