Art Hounds recommend a show on the future without honeybees, touring farms and parks
Sarah Peters, executive director of NorthernLights.MN, is excited to see the return of Queen B, a musical designed to be performed outdoors.
Written by Minnesota playwright and beekeeper Elle Thoni, the subtitled “A New Work of Honeybee Futurism” takes place in a future when bees are extinct and humans live in artificial domed environments in order to survive. As the characters realize the problems and inequalities with their situation, they must find a new way to make a life for themselves.
“My favorite thing about work like this is that, by being set in the future, it models for us a different way that our lives could be,” said Peters. “It has music [by Dameun Strange], it has dance, it has gorgeous costumes and makeup and the actors are an incredible, diverse cast that will make the show really come alive.”
“Queen B” runs Friday through Sunday at 6 p.m. in Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer. Other performances are Friday, Aug. 27 at DreamAcres Farms in Wykoff; Saturday, Aug. 28 and Sunday, Aug. 29 at Squash Blossom Farm in Oronoco, and Saturday, Sept. 4 at Robert’s Lot in Minneapolis.
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Photographer Julia Cheng is looking forward to this year’s Duluth Superior Film Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Zeitgeist Zinema 2 in Duluth. The festival has a goal of challenging filmmaking norms and making space for diverse communities.
This year, they’ve partnered with multiple local organizations to promote the films. For example, Cheng is looking forward to two films sponsored by the Twin Ports APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans) Collective.
On Saturday, the festival presents “Land of my Father,” by Matthew Koshmrl, a documentary addressing the unresolved trauma stemming from Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula, and the short film “Big Happiness” by Da Hee Kim, about transnational adoption.
The three-day schedule includes Q&A sessions with the filmmakers, which Cheng says is “just really special.” Viewers can buy tickets for individual films, in blocks at $15, or $50 badges for unlimited entry.
MCAD painting student Casey Grengs is a fan of the work of the Fresh Eye Gallery in Minneapolis, which supports emerging and mid-careers artists who have intellectual disabilities. Fresh Eye Gallery’s current show, “Creature Comforts,” features 10 Minnesota artists whose work finds wonder and peace within daily life.
Grengs says the work of one of the artists in particular, Lynda Mullan, who creates brightly colored, abstract paintings, gives her joy. The show runs through Sept. 25.
