Art Hounds: COVID-19 and mourning on film, plus other emotion-provoking performances

Solo musician Lyla Abukhodair of Duluth, Minn., has fond memories of seeing Laura Sellner perform with her band Superior Siren shortly before the pandemic closed venues. She’s excited to share about Sellner’s new solo EP, called “Kill Your Darlings.” Abukhodair admires how hard Sellner works, the way she encourages fellow musicians and her “dreamy” music.

Sellner will be doing a Minnesota tour with her new music this summer, including a stop in Two Harbors at Castle Danger Brewery at 6 p.m. Thursday and in Minneapolis at Utepils Brewing at 1 p.m. Sunday.


Filmmaker Naomi Ko has followed the work of Yeej Moua for the past few years and looks forward to the premiere Thursday of his short film, “The Wind Always Strikes the Highest Mountain.” The film was written and directed by Moua and funded by Northern Spark as part of the final weekend of this year’s two-week festival.

movie poster
The poster for Yeej Moua's short film.
Courtesy of Yeej Moua

The short film tells the story of a Hmong American teenager grieving after her brother dies of COVID-19. The family was unable to perform a traditional Hmong funeral.

Ko praised Moua as a “jack of all trades” who creates music as well as writes and directs and wants to see how Moua will bring those skills together to inject a sense of youthfulness, joy and community on a difficult subject matter. The film is in Hmong with English subtitles, followed by a bilingual Q&A. It screens online at 7 p.m. Thursday, 9 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday.


Jon Skaalen of Stillwater is interested in Full Circle Theater Company’s upcoming virtual event, “Sharing Stories on Issues of Disability and Theater.” It’s a combination short live performance and an interactive discussion, featuring four actors with disabilities telling their stories as artists.

The show runs for 90 minutes, with English closed captioning and ASL interpretation, at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.

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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.