MN Shortlist Aug. 7-13: MN Fringe, ARTCRANK, murder mystery, Red Valley Ren Faire and more
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A bike art archive finds a new home, the Walker Art Center opens a new show inspired by the Mississippi River, a Broadway rave, a Northwoods art fest and more in this week’s MN Shortlist.
ARTCRANK Archive at Venture Bikes Midtown in Minneapolis — Aug. 7
For almost 20 years, the ARTCRANK group has been celebrating art that celebrates cycling. Part of the mission is to “make art as accessible as bikes.” Amen. And now the ARTCRANK Archive (including more than 200 original, limited edition, bike-themed screenprints) has a new home at Venture Bikes Midtown.
To celebrate, Venture Bikes is hosting a group ride at the Midtown Greenway at 6 p.m. Friday with riders from Melanin in Motion, followed by music and a large-scale outdoor projection featuring works from the archive at the shop. (Alex V. Cipolle)
Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis — Through Aug. 16
Minnesota Fringe, one of the largest experimental performing arts festivals in the Midwest, returns to Minneapolis for its 33rd year. Fringe always features homegrown stories inspired by our particular geography, culture and politics, and this year is no different. First up is “Who We Are: Stories from the Surge,” a piece of documentary theater about the Minnesotans who “experienced, confronted, and did their best to get themselves and their neighbors through Operation Metro Surge.”
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The show’s book is sourced from dozens of interviews, public statements and sworn testimony that captured ICE raids in Minnesota earlier this year.
In a similar if not more fantastical vein is “Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again,” where creator Seán McArdle puts a Tolkienian lens on many of the challenges and tragedies the state has faced in recent history: ICE, the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the assassination of Melissa Hortman and, as McArdle puts it, just generally living through the Scouring.
For lighter Minnesota fare, there is an improvised production of “Love is Blind” and a Lake Mille Lacs reimagining of “Jaws” called “MUSKIE.” There are other local takes, too, such as “An Earth Goddess (Preah Mae Thorani)” by Narate Keys, a Khmer playwright from Cambodia. The musical explores Khmer culture during the 12th-century Angkorian reign of King Jayavarman. As Keys points out in an artist statement, Minnesota is home to one of the largest Southeast Asian diasporas in the U.S.
“We are honored to share a story to enrich our underserved community including the Hmong, Khmer, Lao and Viet diaspora communities on reclaiming language through theatre, collective storytelling, working with arts makers and with our actors, singer, producer amongst many others to bring this musical into fruition,” Keys said. See more MPR News Fringe coverage in Art Hounds. (Alex V. Cipolle)
‘The Butler Did It’ at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul — Through Aug. 16
If I had to pick one Minnesota playwright best known across the country, it would be August Wilson. If I had to pick a second, it would be Jeffrey Hatcher. His adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Charles Dickens are sharp, witty and often quite funny — as are his original works like the musical “Glensheen.” His output is also quite consistent: In 2024, he debuted “Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot,” and next year his version of “A Tale of Two Cities” will premiere at the Guthrie Theater.
This theater season, however, Hatcher has crafted an original thriller, “The Butler Did It,” now running at Park Square Theatre, which they are describing as “in the grand tradition of ‘Dial M for Murder’ and ‘Columbo.’” (Clever marketing, given that Hatcher adapted “Dial M” for the stage in 2022 and wrote an episode of “Columbo” back in the day.)
Hatcher is a true gem in the Twin Cities theater scene, so whenever he has a new play out, it feels like Santa put a gift in your stocking. (Jacob Aloi)
‘Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies’ at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis — Through Jan. 3
The Walker Art Center presents the first solo museum exhibition of Olalekan Jeyifous, a Nigerian-born, Brooklyn-based artist trained in architecture. Jeyifous is known for using specific places and spaces to springboard into alternate worlds — be that whimsical or dystopic — that explore racism, climate change, capitalism, community and more.
With the Walker exhibition, Jeyifous finds inspiration in the Mississippi River as well as the 1991 magical realism novel “The Famished Road” by Nigerian author Ben Okri, which opens with the lines: “In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river, it was always hungry.”
Thus, the exhibition begins with a “riverine enclave” and island platforms rising from sediment and debris. The objects on view — carved sculpture, soundscapes, videos — are the fruits, remnants and detritus of the river and its peoples. Jeyifous calls it “a melding of African diasporic cosmologies with Indigenous water knowledge”
“Rivers have long served as lifelines for ecological and cultural balance, but colonization and industrialization disrupted these reciprocal relationships, imposing systems of control and exploitation with lasting effects,” Jeyifous said in an artist statement. (Alex V. Cipolle)
Northwoods Art & Book Festival in Hackensack — Aug. 8
The Northwoods Art Council presents the 31st annual festival, which brings together artists, authors and neighbors to celebrate storytelling. The fest features more than two dozen authors and more than four dozen artists on Lake Street in Hackensack.
Interestingly, the Northwoods inspires many a murdery mystery and thriller, including those by Marjorie Mathison (“Murder at Pelican Lake”), Brenda Lyne (“Ripple Effect”) and Chris Norbury (“Castle Danger”), who will be there for meet-and-greets. Artworks on view include the delightfully peculiar art brooms of Mark Smith and Crazy Leaf Photography (look for their photo of squirrels eating cheese puffs). (Alex V. Cipolle)
Red River Valley Renaissance Faire — Aug. 8-16
While thy patience must be tempered until the end of August to revel in the Minnesota Renaissance Festival’s return, another opportunity to enjoy ye olden times has presented itself just beyond the border of the fair land of Minnesota. The Red River Valley Renaissance Faire in Fargo boasts entertainment from bards and magicians, merchants hawking their wares and jousting that tests the true mettle of the participating knights.
Costumes are encouraged, but not required — Let’s be honest, though, who doesn’t want to dust off their musketeer outfit? The Ren Faire runs weekends through Aug. 16. (Jacob Aloi)
Broadway Rave at Fine Line in Minneapolis — Aug. 8
Minneapolis is a dancer’s paradise. Aside from the usual dance floors at clubs like the Gay 90s and the Saloon, the city is also home to great “rave events” — top of mind for me is “Shrek Rave” which is exactly what it sounds like. A perennial favorite for the theatrically minded, however, is “Broadway Rave” at Fine Line in Minneapolis.
The concept is simple: a major dance party featuring hits from major musicals, new and old. It’s the perfect venue for recovering theater kids, Lin-Manuel Miranda fans and those who insist on singing “Wicked” songs on karaoke nights. (Jacob Aloi)
