MN Shortlist, Feb. 13–19: Love songs, hard truths and a long winter
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February refuses to pick a lane. The week toggles between romance and reckoning, spectacle and intimacy: Valentine’s cabaret one night, Iron Range existentialism the next.
From touring Ukrainian ballet to hometown roots tributes and museum shows that question the ground they stand on, these picks point somewhere to look when winter starts to drag.
‘I Love Lucy ⏤ Kiss the Tiger Pays Tribute to Lucinda Williams’ at Turf Club in St. Paul — Feb. 14
Valentine’s Day at the Turf Club leans toward grit and grace with “I Love Lucy,” a hometown tribute to Americana icon Lucinda Williams. Minneapolis band Kiss the Tiger brings a full-throated lineup to Williams’ songs, leaning into their ache and defiance rather than smoothing them out. They’re joined by Molly Maher and Her Disbelievers, making the night feel less like a cover show than an intergenerational handoff of roots-rock DNA.
‘Hearts Uncorked’ at Chateau St. Croix Winery in St. Croix Falls — Feb. 14
Valentine’s Day gets a cabaret spin at Chateau St. Croix Winery with “Hearts Uncorked,” a musical survey of love in all its wiser and worse choices. Twin Cities vocalists and theater artists Debi Kildie, Amanda Weis and Joni Griffith move through Broadway, country and pop with close harmonies and duets. Dessert and wine are available for purchase, which suits a night that knows romance is rarely just sweet.
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‘The Harlem Globetrotters 100 Year World Tour’ at Target Center in Minneapolis — Feb. 15
A century on, the Harlem Globetrotters remain masters of basketball as spectacle. Their 100 Year World Tour arrives at Target Center with the trick shots, aerial theatrics and crowd play that made the team a global phenomenon, refreshed with new routines and audience-driven moments. The stop also nods to Minnesota’s place in that history: late-1940s Globetrotters victories over the Minneapolis Lakers helped accelerate NBA integration, paving the way for Nathaniel Sweetwater Clifton to sign the league’s first contract with a Black player in 1950.
‘The Ice Fishing Play’ at Eveleth Auditorium in Eveleth — Through Feb. 15
Set inside an ice fishing house on a Minnesota lake, Kevin Kling’s “The Ice Fishing Play” uses a familiar setup to quietly reckon with mortality. The 90-minute production blends Iron Range humor with moments of real poignancy, delivered with the restraint Kling is known for. Brought to Eveleth by the touring Stages of the Range Players, the show feels especially at home here, where the jokes come easy and the silences carry meaning.
‘Grand Kyiv Ballet: Swan Lake’ at Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis — Feb. 19
Few ballets carry the instant recognition of “Swan Lake,” Tchaikovsky’s tragic romance of love, enchantment and loss. Performed by the touring Grand Kyiv Ballet, this Minneapolis stop places that classical fantasy alongside present-day reality: the Ukrainian company’s leaders have spoken openly about fleeing the Russian invasion with their family. The result is a familiar spectacle shaped by the lived resilience of the artists onstage.
‘Never Spoken Again: Rogue Stories of Science and Collections’ at Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis — Through May 17
This traveling exhibition makes its final stop at the Weisman Art Museum, turning a critical eye on how museum collections are shaped by colonial extraction, war and systemic racism. Curated by Mexico City–based Colombian writer and researcher David Ayala-Alfonso, the show features work by 18 artists examining the cultural and political afterlives of heritage. Highlights include Michael Rakowitz’s sculpture “The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist,” which reconstructs an object looted from the National Museum of Iraq in 2003. Ayala-Alfonso will also host a free April 8 panel, “Relational Heritage and the Remaking of Museum Histories.”
‘Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:' (i hope it will stir your mind)’ at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis — Through July 5
This exhibition caps a two-year cross-disciplinary residency by Seneca artist and choreographer Rosy Simas, bringing video, sound and sculptural installations into conversation around Indigenous “survivance.” Using materials like treaty cloth, deerskin and cornhusk-twined bottles, Simas foregrounds Indigenous presence as active and ongoing, a concept articulated by Anishinaabe scholar Gerald Vizenor. The project continues beyond the gallery, with a newly commissioned dance and community engagement work arriving at the Walker’s McGuire Theater in May 2026.
‘Making Waves’ at Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona — Ongoing
In 2026, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum organizes its year around the idea of disruption. “Making Waves” treats marine art as a contested space rather than a serene one, focusing on how artists challenge the genre’s conventions and grapple with water as an environmental and political reality. The theme is anchored by three exhibitions: “Splish, Splash, Story,” drawing on children’s book illustration from The Eric Carle Museum; “Water | Craft,” a group show addressing water access and climate change through traditional forms; and “Robert Gonzalez: Mystical Waters,” a series of large paintings tracing water’s role in pre-Columbian myth and belief.
Taken together, these events sketch a state comfortable with range: high art and ice houses, legacy acts and living histories, sweetness cut with steel. If you’re heading out this week, commit to it. Laugh loud, linger late, and let something stir your mind before the thaw.
