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Minnesota Shortlist is your weekly curated roundup of recommended arts events from MPR News, highlighting standout theater and music performances, exhibits and gatherings around the region.

Featured event: Avant Garden at the Walker Art Center

 — A perfect blend of outre art and high-end fun, The Walker’s iconic (and spendy — a Platinum Table will cost you $25,000) 

 returns with food, fancy dress, an art auction, and, this year, a DJ set by Wisconsin-born, multi-hyphenate celebrity Trixie Mattel.

“Wear your wildest prints, mix materials and layer however you like,” the Walker demands, a statement that somehow manages to be fabulous and uniquely Minnesotan. We don’t suffer for fashion here; we select sweaters and scarves to match the weather. All proceeds support the Walker’s award-winning programs. 

‘Swapnō Jhnāp: Dream Jumping’ at The O’Shaughnessy

 — Dreaming of a different reality is a powerful act. In Ananya Dance Theatre’s 20th season premiere, they do exactly that in 

 This production shows how dreams can help us imagine a better world.

The show leans on the feminist spiritual practice of quantum jumping. Ananya uses dancing together to build community and connection, especially during times of isolation, grief, uncertainty and fear of belonging.

Ananya Dance Theatre is based in St. Paul with an ensemble of feminist professional dance artists who create and perform social justice choreography. 

‘Salon du livre’ book fair at Alliance Française

 — The Francophonie — a global community of French-speaking countries — stretches from Vietnam to Canada, with a variety of stories told in those locales in the literal lingua franca. The Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of Alliance Française is celebrating that variety of stories with a book fair featuring local “Francophile and Francophone” authors. 

From the war memoirs of a southern Vietnamese soldier to fictional tales of North American voyageurs

, the annual book fair “Salon du livre”

 features author readings and invites connection with writers exploring the French language and the cultures shaped by it. 

 — Crop art is making its debut at Farm Aid. The festival has tapped Minnesota crop artist (and the Minnesota State Fair assistant superintendent of crop art) Marta Shore to host a booth 

“Farm Aid is meant to be, in some ways, a representation of the location it’s in, so that’s why we want to have a local artist in the village doing something meaningful,” Alexandria Ward, Farm Aid’s farmer services network manager, tells MPR News. “Obviously, crop art is super Minnesotan and really important.”

From noon to 5 p.m., Shore will instruct attendees in helping make five collaborative works of crop art. Each piece will recreate the album art of one of the headliners — Neil Young, Margo Price, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews.

“It's kind of like seed-by-numbers, if you will, like a paint-by-numbers, but with seeds, and people can stop by and add to it,” Shore says. Shore hopes to display the finished pieces at the 2026 State Fair. 

‘An Iliad’ at the St. Croix Festival Theatre

“An Iliad,” adapted by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare,

 is a modern retelling of the Greek poem. Set in an empty theater, it features a lone storyteller destined to tell this tale forever — just as the classic has endured for thousands of years.

This production was co-produced with Combustible Company, who are dedicated to creating new physical theatre work, with direction from Kym Longhi. The production was recently performed at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. 

Grupo Soap Del Corazón at Northeast Sculpture

 — The Upper Midwest arts collective Grupo Soap Del Corazón is celebrating 25 years with the exhibition 

“Los Pasos Prohibidos (The Forbidden Steps)”

 at Northeast Sculpture’s Gallery Factory in Minneapolis. Artists Xavier Tavera and Dougie Padilla founded the group in 2000 to celebrate “Latino artists and culture and the Latinization of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.” 

There will be an opening reception 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 19 with live music and “fire dancing, prop manipulation, flaming sword fights and fire breathing” by The Singed Nipples. 

‘Don’t Miss Doris Hines’ at the History Theatre

 — To some audiences in Minnesota, Doris Hines was a familiar name and voice. Since arriving in 1963, she performed at various Jazz clubs and theaters in the Twin Cities until her death in 2015 at age 91. Now, a new play at the History Theatre called 

The show explores her artistry and the challenges of raising six children, including Sounds of Blackness co-founder Gary Hines. Select performances will be followed by a talk-back with members of the creative team and Gary Hines. 

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Minnesota Shortlist is your weekly curated roundup of recommended arts events from MPR News, this week including dance from Ananya Dance Theatre, French literature and crop art at Farm Aid.

MN Shortlist, Sept. 19-25: Trixie Mattel at Avant Garden and more

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