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Arts and Culture

MPR News has you covered with news and stories about local art and culture happenings across Minnesota.

Art Hounds: Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what's exciting in local art. You can explore arts events here, or become an Art Hound today.

Art Reviews: Our arts team offers insight on the latest in theater, music, visual arts and more. We explore the breadth of creativity and innovation found throughout Minnesota, offering audiences a deeper understanding of the works and artists shaping our cultural landscape. Read more here.

Art Friend: Everyone needs an art friend. Art Friend is a new segment with our arts team. Art spaces can feel exclusive and art can be confusing, obtuse, and even boring. But, especially with the right context, everyone can be a critic. So let us be your guide- your Art Friend. Listen or read Art Friend stories here.

Our arts coverage is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

Ann Patchett reflects on love and relationships in new essay collection

Ann Patchett reflects on love and relationships in new essay collection

Even when nominally about something else, the essays in “These Precious Days” are about the weight and grief of relationships. "I was asking what mattered most in this precarious and precious life."
by Annalisa Quinn

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The white ghosts haunting Native Americans in 'The Sentence'

The white ghosts haunting Native Americans in 'The Sentence'

Louise Erdrich's novel turns the trope of the haunted Indian burial ground on its head with the story of a Native-run bookstore being visited by the ghost of a white woman obsessed with indigeneity.
by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

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Song of the Day: 'Waves' by Briand Morrison

Need a relaxing moment to kick off a busy holiday week? Then listen to Monday’s Song of the Day, a jazz guitar solo from Briand Morrison, brought to us by WTIP music director Will Moore.
by Cathy Wurzer and Kelly Gordon

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Influential poet and bracing critic Robert Bly has died

Influential poet and bracing critic Robert Bly has died

Minnesota poet, teacher and men’s movement founder Robert Bly was a major figure in American literature for decades who criticized the Vietnam War. Bly died Sunday. He was 94.
by Euan Kerr

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Comedian Charlie Berens lovingly skewers Midwestern life

You don't have to be raised in Minnesota to know the stereotypes: “Oh, fer sure,” “doncha know,” hot dish — the list goes on. Comedian Charlie Berens told host Cathy Wurzer how he mines his roots in the Upper Midwest for creative inspiration.
by Cathy Wurzer and Kelly Gordon

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Former gun industry insider explains why he left to fight for the other side

Former gun industry insider explains why he left to fight for the other side

“Gunfight” author Ryan Busse was once a rising star in the gun industry. But he became disillusioned after Columbine when, he says, the NRA began to use "fear and conspiracy and hatred" to boost sales.
by Dave Davies

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Jon Hassler's memoir 'Days Like Smoke' details a small-town Minnesota boyhood

Jon Hassler's memoir 'Days Like Smoke' details a small-town Minnesota boyhood

Long after Jon Hassler’s death in 2008, the memoir that he worked on in his last years is now being published. A celebration of "Days Like Smoke" is planned for next month at the Community Center in Plainview, one of the two small towns where Hassler spent his childhood.
by Euan Kerr

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Ask a Bookseller: 'Tiny Americans' follows one family over 40 years

Ask a Bookseller: 'Tiny Americans' follows one family over 40 years

Bob Lingle of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Lakewood, N.Y., recommends the novel "Tiny Americans" by Devin Murphy. The book starts in 1978 and follows a family of five over the next 40 years.
by Emily Bright

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Remembering Dave Frishberg, songwriter of 'I'm Just a Bill'

Remembering Dave Frishberg, songwriter of 'I'm Just a Bill'

Songwriter Dave Frishberg reluctantly said “I’m Just a Bill,” the song from the TV show “Schoolhouse Rock,” was his most famous. Frishberg died Wednesday in Portland, Ore., where he’d been living since the 1980s. He was 88.
by Tom Crann and Kyle Shiely

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Poetry inspired by a viral photo of drowned migrants wins the National Book Award

Poetry inspired by a viral photo of drowned migrants wins the National Book Award

Photos of a father and his young daughter, drowned in the Rio Grande, underlined the deadly risks of the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Martín Espada drew on them for his book “Floaters.”
by Bill Chappell

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