When I moved to the Twin Cities, my first job here was as a bookseller at the Hungry Mind bookstore (later known as Ruminator Books) in St. Paul, where I worked for several years until it shuttered in 2004. Hungry Mind was one of those truly charmed bookshops, known — not just here in Minnesota, [...]
I’m sitting at Hartsfield International Airport thinking about love and life while looking at the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet. Delta Airlines dominates the landscape here, just like love seems to dominate the landscape of life. Possibly in honor of this all-too-human
Last week we told you about “Soulé,” a one-night performance that extended traditional flamenco into a contemporary dance context. The presentation, which took place Friday, didn’t necessarily persuade everyone in attendance. But what “Soulé” lacked in energy and connection with the audience, the dancers made up for in grace and beauty as they illuminated the [...]
When Lisa Brimmer reads her poems on stage, she doesn’t just speak the words, she grooves – rhythm and meaning intertwined, delivered in apparently effortless alto cadences, punctuated by the occasional staccato of syncopated wordplay. Her spoken word performance style is already so musical, when you hear her read against the sounds created by her [...]
Since their opening just a couple of months ago, the folks at SubText bookstore in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood have hit the ground running, hosting a slew of events with some of the area’s most notable literary talent. Recent appearances include award-winning authors like Ed Bok Lee and Charles Baxter; fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes; [...]
Last Thursday night PAX (Performing Arts Exchange) hosted Velvet Glove, an underground circus held above ground because if you dig too deep in Little Havana, you hit limestone and then saltwater. The night featured local musicians, rappers, break
Five years ago today, on August 1, 2007, the 35W bridge in Minneapolis suddenly collapsed during the evening rush hour, sending everyone driving on it — all those people running end-of-day errands and singing along with the radio and thinking about what to fix for supper — plummeting into the Mississippi River below. Thirteen people were killed [...]
Reviewers just aren’t sure what to make of award-winning author Amy Leach. And she is hard to pin down; her wry, outrageously inventive nonfiction pieces have earned her comparisons with writers as diverse as Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Thoreau. Reading her debut book, “Things That Are,” a collection of short essays on science, philosophy, cosmology [...]
It’s almost Friday and I’m in love with Big Night Little Haiti at the Little Haiti Cultural Center (LHCC). Now it’s time for you to fall in love.
When all else fails, dance. That’s what I do when the world seems out of whack or wacky. When I dance, everything disappears, including myself. Unfortunately, there’s always someone there to remind me that people are watching and that I should settle down.
