Arts Briefs: Minigolf, Elvis and puppets

The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis is looking for six emerging or emerging songwriters and musicians from Minnesota.

Artists must create and perform 30 or more minutes of new music at The Cedar.

Applications must be submitted by June 29 and can be found on the website organization website.

The program is supported by a grant from the Jerome Foundation.

From a tapestry to a T-shirt

Rooftop miniature golf has returned to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Among this year’s courses was one designed by teenage organizers from the Hmong community. Theirs is the size of a table and is on springs, and the ball is moved by tilting the track. It features pictures of the Twin Cities Hmong community and is inspired by Hmong stories.

One of the designers, Ethan Vue, says that the embroidered textile part of the Hmong culture is significant.

“There are many embroideries and tapestries in the Hmong language or Hmong culture where the clothes from the stories are an important part of the Hmong community,” Vue told MPR News. “In the Hmong language it is pronounced move down. So that was part of the way to record stories and share them with the Hmong community.”

Tickets are available at Walker’s website.

The power of puppets

Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop is an organization dedicated to diversifying the field of puppetry by supporting people of color in developing their skills.

The group will present the work of its last cohort of puppeteers at the Pillsbury House Theater until May 21.

visit them Facebook page for more details.

Minnesota dance companies turn to national funding

Two Minnesota dance organizations are finalists National Dance Project production subsidies.

Finalists include Ananya Dance Theater AND Morgan Thorson, both in Minneapolis. Ananya tries to create a full-length dance theater that explores history and memory. Thorson plans to create a late night outdoor dance party inspired by nightscapes and winter.

The grants provide funding to create a new dance project. It also helps with operating expenses, community involvement, and grants for trips.

The scholarships are overseen by the New England Foundation for the Arts.

hip-hop harmonicas

Cypherside is a breakdance and hip-hop studio whose mission is to teach young dancers different styles in a diverse environment. Founder Lue Thao says student shows are designed as community events:

“It’s very energetic, so it’s not just a recital in a dance studio that you wait for and just clap at the end,” Thao explained to MPR News. “We like to encourage our family and friends to get involved.”

On Saturday, the studio will offer a student presentation.

Historical mishmash

Original Louisiana Purchase papers or Star Trek memorabilia can be found in the old church in Duluth.

The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Duluth is one of 11 nationwide. David Karpeles, a Duluth philanthropist who died in 2022, opened these museums to showcase his collection of rare documents – one of the largest in the world, says Director Matthew Sjelin.

This includes everything from William Shatner’s letters to the current Chinese history exhibit.

“So this is President Lincoln’s original order to amend the Tien-Tsin Treaty between China and the United States,” Sjelin told MPR News. “So this is my favorite because it shows that presidents have been dealing with China long before I even thought they were, you know, it’s just kind of like someone forgot to tell me something in school.”

The museum is free. In autumn you can see the collection of Charles Darwin’s manuscripts.

From Soul Asylum to Stunt Dogs

The Minnesota State Fair has announced its performances different free stages for 2023.

Among them is Minneapolis alt-rock band Soul Asylum, who topped the charts with their 1992 song “Runaway Train”. They will play at Leina Lodge Bandshell Stage 3 and 4 September.

Other appearances include country musician Drake Milligan, The Bacon Brothers featuring film actor Kevin Bacon, and the All-Star Stunt Dogs Splash where dogs perform stunts.

Echo of Elvis in Minnesota

Anthony Shorewho started performing Elvis songs as a teenager, he has performed as Elvis for almost as long as the king of rock and roll.

Elvis died at the age of 42. Shore is approaching his 42nd birthday and is planning an Elvis song show. The London-born artist emphasizes, however, that he focuses more on music than on embodiment.

“If you come to see my show, I speak with an English accent. I say, “How are you all?” you know, and then I sing, I make songs. It’s like second nature. I sing like second nature to Elvis, now I’ve been doing it for so long,” Shore told MPR News.

Shore will perform at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis on Sunday.

Other panties

• Ballet Laboratory will present “Carmen in the 1920s”, starting tonight and ending this weekend. The production takes Georges Bizet’s opera into the Jazz Age, including extensive swing dance choreography by Artistic Director Zoé Emilie Henrot. The performances will take place at the EM Pearson Theater on the campus of Concordia University in St. Paul.

• Duluth Theatre announced its 2023-24 Underground season. The season will open with a stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “Misery”. Other plays include “Nick Payne’s Constellation” and the What She Said festival, which celebrates female-identifying playwrights and directors.

• Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis will present their New Works 4 Weeks Festival, which will start on May 25. The series begins with works by Rebecca Nicholson, Sam Arosa-Mitchell, Margaret Ogas and Atim Opoka.

• Theater of Ten Thousand Things announced its 2023–24 season. Performances will include Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “The Spitfire Grill” by James Valcq, both directed by art director Marcela Lorca, and “The Hatmaker’s Wife” by Lauren Yee, directed by Joel Sass.

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The absolute bleeding edge

The MPR News art team offers the best of avant-garde, experimental and unconventional arts and culture.

Music: “L’Herbe de Dé​tourne” by Sourdurent

The first song onL’Herbe de Détournetitled “Franc De Bruch”, at first sounds like an ecstatic North African tune, with buzzing folk reed instruments and soaring vocals. But there are also surprising sounds, electronic blips and bleps, and drum machine-style rhythms.

It’s not easy to explain Sourdurent, the work of French experimental composer Ernest Bergez, except that the album can be seen as the invention of new folk music for a place that defies modern nationalist ideas. That place is Occitania, a vast area covering most of the south of France as well as parts of Spain, Monaco and Italy, connected by a common language, Provençal.

The music on the album somehow sounds both ancient and very modern, the sounds of people who defied being swallowed up by the nation states that sprang up around them.