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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.

In 'Nubia: Real One,' trying to be a hero when society thinks you're a threat

In 'Nubia: Real One,' trying to be a hero when society thinks you're a threat

Nubia has been many things over decades of comics: Wonder Woman's sister, her rival, a guardian of the underworld. Now, L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smith have re-imagined her as a Black American teenager.
by Juanita Giles

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Ask a Bookseller: A northern Minn. author explores the aftermath of a shooting

Ask a Bookseller: A northern Minn. author explores the aftermath of a shooting

Sally Wizik Wills of Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery in Park Rapids, Minn., recommends a new book by a local author this week: Doug Mayfield’s “The Saint Patrick’s Day Hero.” The novel begins after a horrific mass shooting at a fictional college in Minnesota.
by Emily Bright

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Twin Cities artist Lady Midnight moves from stage to virtual reality

Twin Cities artist Lady Midnight moves from stage to virtual reality

Her latest project, “Practice for Relief,” is an immersive virtual reality experience featuring sounds meant to promote calm, peace and healing.  
by Cathy Wurzer

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Can poetry be a force for social change?

Can poetry be a force for social change?

Host Angela Davis talks with Minnesota poets Tish Jones and Mary Moore Easter about the power of poetry during hard times and how National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman is raising the profile of spoken word poetry. 
by Angela Davis and Maja Beckstrom

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You actually will be talking about 'No One is Talking About This'

You actually will be talking about 'No One is Talking About This'

Patricia Lockwood's first novel follows an extremely online woman whose life changes forever when her niece is born with a serious illness — which sounds Hallmark-ready, but Lockwood pulls it off.
by Heller McAlpin

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Art Hounds: Photography three ways

Art Hounds: Photography three ways

Tony Duran’s celebrity portraits are on display in Winona; Steve Ozone pays homage to flowers and Chinese vegetables; and Melissa Borman captures female figures as active participants within landscapes.
by Emily Bright

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Aspen Words announces 5 finalists for 2021's literary prize

Aspen Words announces 5 finalists for 2021's literary prize

The $35,000 prize honors fiction that "illuminates vital contemporary issues." This year's finalists deal with everything from Native American land ownership to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
by Petra Mayer

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'The Echo Wife' layers sci-fi and murder mystery for a twisty treat

'The Echo Wife' layers sci-fi and murder mystery for a twisty treat

Sarah Gailey's new novel follows a famed geneticist whose husband uses her methods to clone her — and has an affair with the clone. When he's murdered, the two women must figure out to do next.
by Jason Heller

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