Art Hounds: Hmong culture, Memorial Chapel and Randy Weeks
Each week Minnesota Public Radio News asks three people from the Minnesota arts scene to be "Art Hounds." Their job is to step outside their own work and hunt down something exciting that's going on in local arts.
Find out how you can be an art hound.
This week:
Kang Vang is a local filmmaker and musician who teaches at the Broadway School in North Minneapolis during the summer. Kang calls the Hmong Art and Music Festival in St. Paul one of the most important events of the year for Hmong and Asian artists and musicians in terms of exposure and visibility.
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In the Hmong language, there is no word for art; hence the name of this year's festival, "No Word For Art." The Festival is sponsored by St. Paul's Center For Hmong Arts and Talent. It happens Saturday, August 22, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Western Sculpture Park in St. Paul.
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Mason Riddle is a writer and critic who covers visual arts and architecture in Minnesota and beyond. When guests are in town, Mason invariably takes them to the Memorial Chapel at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.
She calls the chapel the best example of Byzantine architecture in America, featuring more than 10 million mosaics crafted by Venetian artisans. The chapel is open seven days a week but calling ahead is recommended.
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Molly Maher is a St. Paul songwriter who performs with her band "The Disbelievers." Molly highly recommends a trip to Lee's Liquor Lounge on Friday, Aug. 21 to see Austin-based songwriter and ex-Minnesotan Randy Weeks.
Maher says Weeks is a master songsmith, and describes his songs as deceptively simple, with a dark undercurrent of tension and struggle.
