Detail from Andy Nelson’s 1993 mural for the Saints’ Midway Stadium. Courtesy of the St. Paul Saints School starts in just a week’s time, and our family’s making a mad dash to do all those summertime things we’ve not yet gotten to this year. One night this week, we want to hit Vali-Hi drive-in, just […]
Article · August 25, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Wing Young Huie, “Ashley Hanson in Bus Stop Theater, from Creative CityMaking,” 2013, digital print. There’s been so much focus on the new Twin Cities light rail Green Line, itself, since its launch earlier this summer, it’s welcome to see close attention paid to the individual neighborhoods and residents who live and work along its […]
Article · August 20, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Production photo for “King Arthur” by Ty Sassman, courtesy of Mixed Precipitation. I’ve been eyeballing pressure canners lately. Our little front yard vegetable garden is coming in faster than I can handle – peppers and tomatoes, those lewd Italian trombone squash and too many cukes to count. I’ve long since run out of creative ways […]
Article · August 13, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Read the title of Allison Bolah’s ongoing video project, “Tell Me About Your Mother,” and you’re bound to think of Freud – of therapists and apron strings that want cutting, the well-worn grooves of habit and personality born in childhood. But Bolah’s not interested in excavating the sins of mothers. Her project consists of a series […]
Article · August 6, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Mark your calendars: the August 9 Square Lake Film and Music Festival is going to be a hot ticket again this year. (Last year’s festival sold out for the fourth year in a row, so it’s smart to act sooner than later to reserve your spot if you’d like to go.) Just a few miles […]
Article · July 31, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
As of last week, one St. Paul author’s fortunes are definitely looking up: on the Monday, July 21 episode of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” author-turned-phenom Edan Lepucki plugged Stephan Eirik Clark’s new book, “Sweetness #9”. It’s a nod that’s already given the Twin Cities novelist’s pre-sales a coveted “Colbert bump”. Have you been following the stand-off […]
Article · July 28, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Photo courtesy of Live Action Set, one of ARTshare’s 15 resident companies Just a few years ago, Minneapolis’ Southern Theater was at the brink of bankruptcy, but after years as a venue-for-rent, the Southern just might have found a way to turn its fortunes around permanently. The theater’s new ARTshare venture upends the usual show-by-show, […]
Article · July 23, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
St. Paul City-Artist-In-Residence Marcus Young and the artists of the Grace Minnesota have been encouraging folks to cut loose and dance in the streets since 2008. This year, on Aug. 1 in Minneapolis’ Peavey Plaza, they’ll do so to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Minnesota’s legalization of same-sex marriage. The idea behind the ongoing project, “Don’t you […]
Article · July 21, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Urban Flower Field and mural, at the opening celebration June 28, 2014. Photo: Tiffany Bolk Live in the middle of a city, and you can’t escape the cyclical flux of abandonment, demolition and development. Businesses come and go. A once-prosperous neighborhood hits hard times, and slowly dilapidating properties bear witness to its residents’ struggles. But […]
Article · July 16, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Some of the many voices behind Kysar’s just-released “Pretend the World” CD. Photo: Steve Peterson When I first encountered the poems in Kathryn Kysar’s 2011 collection, “Pretend the World,” I was struck, most of all, by the expansiveness of her voice and vision. Here’s a thumbnail description of the collection, from my review of her book written […]
Article · July 7, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler
Over the holiday weekend, Garrison Keillor and the gang behind “A Prairie Home Companion” are returning home to Macalester College, the site of the show’s very first broadcast nearly 40 years ago on July 6, 1974. Over the course of its hugely successful four-decade run, the locally produced public radio show has become a Midwestern […]
Article · July 2, 2014 by Susannah Schouweiler