I hope your new year is starting well. The year looks bright. For the moment, the weather has decided that it is winter, just in time for Saint Paul’s world-famous Winter Carnival. Unlike in the past, we don’t have an ice castle every year. I wonder if climate uncertainty makes for uncertainty over whether we can have ice castles. Even so, the art climate is fine and this week is ready for your basking pleasure!
I have this strategy where I wait until the new year has come weeks after we have ventured into the next year before I buy my pocket calendar. My next wall calender has been fixed behind the old one for some time, my Minnesota Farmers Union calendar that I pick up each summer at the Minnesota State Fair. The pocket calendar is a different story. I wait because they go on sale at some places.
We are halfway through Chanukah, on the verge of Christmas, and peaking at Kwanzaa around the next calendar corner, not to mention the other thirty-odd holidays that my friend Mooks tells us fall in December. If you have been looking at the Almanac arts calendar, you know how busy this world has been.
The days are getting shorter, but only for another week. In the mean time, taking in some festivities will help brighten the brief days. If you look at the Almanac arts calendar, you might get a little dizzy with everything that is happening. If you need some help choosing, here are some ideas.
On the 152nd anniversary of the largest mass execution in the history of the United States: the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men in Mankato for their role in the U.S. Dakota War, contemporary Dakota writers speak to Presence. We speak several generations after the U.S. Dakota War and the United States government’s expulsion of Dakota from Minnesota. We speak, even as we are often erased or misrepresented in mainstream media and culture. We are here. Please join us as we reflect, remember, and share.
I am already winded thinking about all the things that are happening this week in Saint Paul. I know that as the season progresses, you might need a break, but first let me take a deep breath and start you on your trek around town and the arts and culture that make this Capital City a capital city!
Did I see you last week at one of the amazing happenings in Saint Paul? Okay, maybe we were just too busy to cross paths, or maybe I was enjoying my mom’s food way too much, or maybe we just didn’t look up from one of the grooves we were in while an artist or two was laying it down for us. Yes, we are busy, but maybe this week we can catch some friends along this artists’ way.
Wednesday, November 26, Nimo Farah presents “The Crooked Rib?!” at the Lowertown Reading Jam!
The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce the premier performance in its 2014–2015 season of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams, which celebrate the rich literary history of Minnesota’s capital city and the widely popular genre of spoken word.
Yes, it’s winter, several weeks early. In honor of an early winter, I won’t make you stand here freezing for long. We’ll get right to the business of art and literature and culture. Also, since we haven’t the sanity to avoid this weather, maybe I can help infuse a little sanity into your holiday plans.
First off, thanks to everyone who joined us and gave us a shout-out for Give to the Max Day. Along with the promise of a slight warm-up, that support is helping me start this week with hopes for more great happenings and being released from last week’s winter air. It is a luxury to reach toward Thanksgiving without snow and without cold, but it seems that we are due for a small treat if not a bask in comfort as we approach my favorite holiday.
This Thursday November 20, Soul Sounds Open Mic will have a special feature: “National Drop Out Crisis: Youth Poets Push Back.” This past summer, TruArtSpeaks tapped into the voices and expertise of young people addressing the national dropout crisis through spoken word, hip hop, and rap.
Nov. 13th – Lisa Brimmer is a poet and playwright residing in Minneapolis, MN. In 2009, she attended the Juniper Summer Writers Institute week long workshop with Dara Weir. Brimmer was a fellow through the Given’s Foundation of African American Literature in 2009 and worked with Ishmael Reed, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Laurie Carlos.
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