Former MPR News radio host Tom Weber had always wanted to write a book. He yearned to know what that process was like, so he would have more insight into authors he interviewed. He got the chance when a friend put him in touch with Reedy Press in St. Louis, publisher of the “100 Things to Do in … Before You Die” series. In 2015, Reedy published Weber’s “100 Things to Do in the Twin Cities Before You Die.”

Then Weber got the chance to write a revised second edition sooner than usually happens. In late 2017, all the remaining copies of his book were destroyed in a warehouse fire. The second edition came out last month. On Saturday, Oct. 13, Weber will be at the Mill City Farmers Market, signing copies and chatting.

Weber’s book is one you want if you live here, if out-of-towners visit you, if you own an Airbnb or run a hotel. It’s thoughtfully written, fun to read and full of ideas for things to see and do, even in the winter.

We spoke with Weber on Wednesday. This interview has been edited and condensed.

[cms_ad:x100]MinnPost: Were 100 things too many or too few?

Tom Weber: It ended up being just right. It was a lot to get to 100. Those last few weeks of putting the book together were stressful. But the first half of the book came easily. It was fun to relive my early years here and pick out the things I really liked. From there, I talked to friends, did research online, and researched other communities I’m not as familiar with to cast a wider net. I enjoyed that.

MP: What are your personal top three?

TW: The top is the Luminary Loppett. It was one of the first things I did when I moved to Minnesota. It felt really Minnesotan. I probably have a romantic connection. It’s beautiful. You have the luminaries out there with the candles. You don’t have to ski. You can just be there for the hot cocoa.

Another thing I love is Minnehaha Falls. When you’re at the bottom of the falls, looking up, you can also turn around and there’s a walking path that goes away from the falls and follows the creek to the Mississippi River. It’s one of the most Zen places I’ve ever gone on a hike. And you’re only two or three miles from one of the busiest airports in the country. It’s one of those places you can go and forget you’re in a big city. I love to find those places.

The third thing is the Mill City Museum. It was so bizarre to me to think that someone would erect a museum dedicated to telling the story of flour and milling. And its main attraction is an elevator. Then you go in there and it’s so beautifully done. It was my biggest surprise. I fell in love with it.

MP: What did you leave out that you were sad to leave out?

TW: I left out a lot of food and restaurant stuff. I know I’m not Rick Nelson or Dara [Moskowitz] Grumdahl, or the Splendid Table, or the people here in the Twin Cities who have won their own Beard awards for writing about restaurants and food. That was so over my head. And frankly, I thought there was so much already out there about the food scene. And it’s so fast-changing. I put in things like Al’s Breakfast and the patio at [W.A.] Frost, more for the location than the food.

I hope people think it’s fun. I’m not here to say it’s the be-all, end-all. I probably didn’t pick the 100 you would have picked.

MP: Do you think you’ll write another book?

[cms_ad:x101] TW: I am pondering that. I am talking with some people about possibilities. I’m not totally sure yet on where that will go. But I do love writing, so if that’s an avenue and someone is interested in me writing something, I really want to have that meeting.

MP: What kind of book would you like to write next?

TW: I would be more interested in a nonfiction history kind of thing. Something within Minnesota history that I could really sink my teeth into.

Tom Weber will be at the Mill City Farmers Market on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Look for a booth or a table with a stack of grass-green books.

The picks

Tonight (Thursday, Oct. 11) at the U’s West Bank Arts Quarter: 3rd Annual Arts Quarter Festival. Fire pits and an aluminum pour. Screen printing and wheel throwing. Music, dance, visual art and theater. The U’s now-annual celebration/collision of arts will showcase student and faculty talent from across the University, with plenty of chances to participate. The first two hours will feature work by College of Liberal Arts faculty Christine Baeumler, Carl Flink, Matthew Lefebvre, Lynn Lukkas and Talvin Wilks, in collaboration with student artists. At 8 p.m., the students take over. 21st Ave. S. and 4th St. S. 6:30 p.m.-10 p.m. Free. FMI.

Friday at the Germanic-American Institute: Janet Horvath: “It’s Not Too Late to Stop the Hate.” Horvath was associate principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1980 to 2012. Her parents were musicians and Holocaust survivors. After the war, her father joined an orchestra of survivors and traveled through Bavaria, playing hundreds of concerts in Displaced Persons camps. Two were led by Leonard Bernstein. In May of this year, Horvath played Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidre” in Landsberg, Bavaria, on the same spot her father and Bernstein performed 70 years earlier. She calls it “an out-of-body experience.” Horvath has created a multimedia theater piece including narration, projected photos and cello interludes, all music her father played. Telling her parents’ story of survival, weaving in current social justice issues, she’ll follow the performance with “courageous conversation.” 301 Summit Ave., St. Paul. Ages 10 and up. 6 p.m. FMI and tickets ($20).

Friday at the Anoka County Library – Northtown: Club Book: Curt Brown. A Minnesota Journalist of the Year (2013) and longtime chronicler of Minnesota history, Brown is out with his latest. “Minnesota 1918” captures an annus horribilus for our state: a year with a world war abroad, a flu outbreak at home and the most destructive natural disaster on state record. Brown’s other books include the New York Times best-seller “In the Footsteps of Little Crow.” 711 County Hwy. 10 Frontage Road, Blaine. 7 p.m. Free.

Sunday at Crooners: The First-Ever Twin Cities Fall Jazz Festival. With more than eight hours of jazz on two stages, this is where jazz fans will want to be. Out-of-towners include NOLA vocalist Nayo Jones, a hit at summer’s Jazz Fest; the great drummer Butch Miles, formerly with the Count Basie Orchestra; and pianist Tanner Taylor, who used to live here but moved to Iowa. Connie Evingson, Debbie Duncan, Dave Karr, Andrew Walesch, Lucia Newell, Southside Aces and ACME Jazz Company will round out the day. 1 p.m.-8:30. FMI and tickets ($35 general admission, $90 VIP with buffet). Crooners is spacious and comfortable, with lots of free parking.

Hot ticket

Former Vice President Walter Mondale was an eyewitness to the tumult of 1968 and has thoughtful, considered things to say about our current social and political upheaval. On Tuesday, Oct. 23, at the Minnesota History Center, he’ll be in conversation with Professor Larry Jacobs of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs for “An Evening with Walter Mondale – Reflections on 1968 and 2018.” 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($30).

After a longer than usual absence from your teevee, “Minnesota Original” is back. For its ninth broadcast season, which starts Sunday, Oct. 14, the arts and culture series seen on TPT and funded by Legacy dollars has rebranded and repositioned itself as bigger than broadcast.

The former “mn o” logo is now a bold “MNO,” sometimes in white and shades of gray, sometimes in color, with the O a bit lower than the MN, like a camera lens or an O of surprise. Formerly planned and created for broadcast, then moved to the web, all segments are now digital first and curated later to air as episodes.

The three segments in the first episode of season 9 are already at the Twin Cities PBS Originals website, along with others that will air in future episodes. They’re side-by-side with selections from “Almanac,” TPT documentaries, and other TPT series, projects and initiatives including “The Wrap,” “America From Scratch,” “Citizen Lane,” “In It Together,” Next Avenue and Rewire.

But wait! Since the show launched in 2010, hundreds of segments featuring thousands of artists across disciplines, practices and genres have been filmed. And they have all been accessible on the web, a vast archive of the arts in Minnesota for fans to enjoy, writers to research and artists to use. Several artists have experienced the MNO bump in attention and sales.

So, where did seasons 1-8 go? They’re still where they used to be – as segments and full episodes, all searchable by artist. Eventually, everything MNO will be in the same place.

By going digital first and not being driven by a broadcast schedule, TPT is able to spend more time with artists, to follow and work with them over longer periods, to do bigger projects and tell better stories. MNO has increasingly been about stories – artists as people, their lives, why they do what they do, what they’re saying. Art comes from the heart, and MNO covers both.

[cms_ad:x100]Episode 1 of Season 9 features three compelling stories. Of Nora McInerny, who translated devastating personal loss into a thriving writing life and a nonprofit that helps others. And Amy Ballinger, whose elaborately staged photographs are windows into fantasies and dreams. And TU Dance, Bon Iver and the SPCO’s Liquid Music, a collaboration that has put TU in the national spotlight, given Justin Vernon another creative outlet, and raised Liquid Music’s profile as innovator and changemaker.

MNO is something no other state has. The new season debuts on Sunday at 6 p.m. on TPT 2. Here’s a preview.

Two Minnesota publishers, three National Book Award finalists

When the National Book Award long lists were announced in September, five books from three Minnesota publishers were in the running: Jos Charles’ “feeld” (Milkweed Editions), Justin Phillip Reed’s “Indecency” (Coffee House Press) and Jenny Xie’s “Eye Level” (Graywolf) for poetry; Jamel Brinkley’s “A Lucky Man” (Graywolf) for fiction; and Heather Cleary’s translation of Roque Larraquy’s “Comemadre” for translated literature.

Three of the five books have moved on to the finals, announced Wednesday: Brinkley’s “A Lucky Man” and Xie’s “Eye Level” (both Graywolf) and Reed’s “Indecency” (Coffee House).

We’ll learn who the winners are on Nov. 14.

The picks

Opens today (Friday, Oct. 12) at the Science Museum’s Omnitheater: “Living in the Age of Airplanes.” Filmed in 18 countries across all seven continents, narrated by Harrison Ford, actor and pilot, this is definitely one to see on a giant screen. Flying today is a drag in many ways, from endless fees to shrinking bathrooms, but it’s still a freaking miracle that we travel through the air at all. Let this National Geographic film restore your wonder and awe, if only until your next trip through airport security. FMI, times and tickets. Ends Jan. 3.

[cms_ad:x101]Saturday at the IDS Center: Artcrank MSP 2018. Biking has gotten much bigger since Artcrank was founded in 2007 as “the poster party for bike people.” The show is still about artist-made, limited-edition, bike-inspired posters. This year, it’s also about the many ways cycling is transforming the downtown neighborhood. Forty artists will be featured; posters will sell for $50 each until they’re gone. Beer sales (Fulton) will benefit Minnesota Cycling Federation. Arrive by bike and get free valet bike parking. 4-10 p.m. FMI. Free.

Monday at Icehouse: Jakob Bro Trio with Joey Baron and Thomas Morgan. It should be a night of pin-drop quiet as everyone leans forward to hear this longtime working trio play their subtle, mesmerizing music. Danish guitarist Bro, a former member of the Paul Motian & The Electric Bebop Band, has made 15 albums as a leader. Baron spent 10 years with Bill Frisell and another four with John Abercrombie. Morgan has worked with Frisell, Motian, Lee Konitz and many others. They’re touring behind “Bay of Rainbows,” their latest album for ECM, recorded live at the Jazz Standard in New York. Here’s a teaser. 9:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($20 advance/$25 door).

Tuesday at Summit Brewery Ratskeller Hall: “What Is Public Art Today and Why Does It Matter?” Public Art Saint Paul’s annual Distinguished Public Artist Program brings together three important artists for lively conversation. This year’s guests are environmental artist and activist Christine Baeumler (“Bee Real Bee Everywhere”), multidisciplinary artist Seitu Jones and photographer/cultural convener Wing Young Huie. Jones was the 2017 McKnight Distinguished Artist; Huie won that honor in 2018. PASP Executive Director Colleen Sheehy will moderate. 910 Montreal Circle, St. Paul. Reception and art activities from 5:30-7 p.m., program from 7-8:30. FMI. Free.

Hot ticket

Since February 2018, youth from the Rondo community have been learning documentary and production skills from experts. Their film, “Rondo: Beyond the Pavement,” collects and preserves the historical memory of a neighborhood destroyed by the I-94 highway. Presented by Saint Paul Almanac in partnership with Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) and High School for Recording Arts, it will screen on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 4:30 at SPNN. Free, but please RSVP.

If you see “I Come From Arizona,” the powerful new play at Children’s Theatre Company, try not to read any news about detained or deported immigrants earlier that day. On Sunday morning, we stumbled on an article in the New York Times about Adrián Luna, a 45-year-old Mexican man who was deported in 2017 after 27 years in Utah. He was determined to return to his home, family and church in the United States. His body was found in the California desert in July.

True story.

In Carlos Murillo’s play, a CTC world premiere, a Mexican-American family lives on Chicago’s South Side. Gabi Castillo, 14, has just been accepted into Northside College Prep, an elite public high school. Her 8-year-old brother, Jesús, loves Spider-Man. They don’t know their parents are undocumented.

Their mother, Dolores, cleans skyscrapers in the Loop and babysits other people’s children. At the start of the play, their father, Reymundo, leaves on a perilous journey to Mexico. His father is dying, and he wants to see him one last time. He’ll have to cross the desert on his way back – the same desert Reymundo and a pregnant Dolores crossed 14 years ago, fleeing violence and poverty. Will he make it back safely? Meanwhile, will ICE come knocking on the Castillo family’s door? And what if visiting your dying parent meant risking your life and maybe never seeing your family again?

[cms_ad:x100]If the many stories of deported immigrants, or immigrants fearing deportation, have blurred into a big gray cloud in your head, “I Come From Arizona” will bring the whole sorry, tragic mess into razor-sharp focus. Based on interviews with members of Chicago’s Latinx community, the play is a glimpse into the lives of people who worry every day about the knock on the door, or the meeting in the ICE office that ends in a wrenching separation.

Gabi learns the truth when Ms. Chan, the Global Perspectives teacher at her new school, gives the class their first assignment: Find out where your family is from, then report back. (This was the only moment in the play that gave us pause. Would a teacher today ask that question of a Latinx student? But the play hinges on it, so roll with it.)

It’s only the first day, and Gabi has already faced anti-immigrant bias on her long bus ride and heard a classmate speak out in favor of building a wall. She already wonders if she belongs at Northside or if she should have gone to a neighborhood school.

Other students have iPads; she has a flip-phone. They’re free to meet after school to work on projects; some get picked up and driven around by caretakers. Gabi has to ride three buses to the South Side, fetch Jesús from the neighborhood school, help him with homework, cook dinner for him, play with him, get him ready for bed and tell him a story, all before starting her own demanding homework, because Dolores has to work more and harder when Reymundo is away.

Gabi’s parents have never told her about their past. They sidestep the topic when she asks. And if anyone asks her, she’s supposed to say “I come from Arizona” and leave it at that. But that’s not good enough to avoid getting an F for Ms. Chan’s assignment. This leads to a crisis, a confrontation between Gabi and her mother, and a late-night monologue that’s the main reason to bring Kleenex to this play. That, and the final scene. And a few in between.

Presented in a mixture of Spanish and English, “I Come From Arizona” turns a mirror on our time. The staging in the Cargill black box works beautifully. Yu Shibagaki’s sets are backed by a colorful mural of diverse faces. The stage becomes an apartment, a city bus, a busy school hallway whirling with first-day uncertainty, a classroom, an upscale condo, a South Side park and a glimpse into a desert. Director Lisa Portes keeps it thoroughly believable, up to and including the dream sequences. Who wouldn’t have nightmares under such circumstances?

The cast more than carries the weight, with young Ayssette Muñoz as Gabi, a girl on the brink of adulthood; even younger Luca La Hoz Calassara as smart, sensitive Jesús; Nora Montañez as careworn Dolores; Ricardo Vásquez as the loving Reymundo; Antonio de La Vega as Gabi’s new friend, Ricardo; and Madison Neal as her classmate Fiona, a girl of great privilege whose eyes are opened.

Shá Cage plays a hip crossing guard and no-nonsense teacher Ms. Chan. It’s always a pleasure when she takes the stage. Here, it’s also comforting. Cage brings humor to both roles, and her usual, seemingly effortless excellence and integrity.

CTC initially recommended this play “for receptive 8-year-olds and up.” They’re now thinking middle school and up might be the best age. It’s a long play – two hours, including a 15-minute intermission – and the topic is heavy. We saw the 5 p.m. show on Sunday. There were many young children in the crowd, but none around us acted bored or impatient. And when 2-year-olds are brought before judges in federal immigration court, 8 seems old enough to see this. And 80 is not too old.

“I Come From Arizona” continues through Nov. 25. FMI and tickets (prices vary). CTC has prepared an Audience Resource Guide with tips on talking with kids about the play.

Joshua Bell, Sheku Kanneh-Mason to perform at the Ordway

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, in case you haven’t heard because you don’t care about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (who are having a baby, by the way), is the young cello prodigy who performed at their wedding. He’s also the first black artist to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year award.

Joshua Bell is, well, Joshua Bell.

The best way to guarantee tickets is to buy a subscription package to the current season. If you’ve already bought single tickets, you can upgrade. Call 651-292-3268.

The picks

Tonight at the Parkway: “The Gates: An Evening of Stories with Adam Gopnik.” The best-selling author and New Yorker staff writer is the sole star of a show that sold out a week at New York’s Public Theater. Developed with the Moth, it draws from Gopnik’s own life and family, from his ancestors to his two children. It’s a man at a mic, precisely what we want from Gopnik in person. 6:30 p.m. doors, 7:30 show. FMI and tickets ($20 advance/$24 door).

Wednesday at the Cowles: Arena Dances Panel Discussion: Gun Violence in America. For its fall season, Mathew Janczewski’s company will perform a new work, “Hold my hand,” about gun violence in America. Arena has partnered with activist organizations whose work focuses on gun safety and support for victims of gun violence. The evening will include an excerpt from the dance and a conversation with Ayolanda Evans of Protect Minnesota, Steven Venable of Moms Demand Action, and Rachael Joseph of Survivors Lead. In Studio 2B. 6-8 p.m. FMI. Free.

Thursday at the Hennepin History Museum: Opening reception for “History in Focus: Photographs in the Life of Hennepin County.” Nicollet Island bellhops and Walter Mondale with AIM members. A 20-pound northern pike and Dan Patch, the world-famous horse, beside his own railroad car. The Hennepin History Museum has more than 14,000 photos; friends and neighbors Peg Meier and Dan Dennehy have chosen 40 to tell the story of our region. Meier is a former Star Tribune reporter and author (“Bring Warm Clothes”); Dennehy is senior photographer at Mia, just up the street from HHM. 6-8 p.m. Free with museum admission ($5/3). Please RSVP online or call 612-879-1329, ext. 2#.

Thursday at Plymouth Library: “The Great Minnesota Cookie Book” discussion and signing. Each year, the Star Tribune holds a cookie contest, then prints the winning recipes. And each year, we fully intend to keep them and file them away neatly somewhere. But we don’t and never will. So hurray for this book, which collects 15 years of the contest’s best recipes, plus baking lore and photos. Say “Perfect Christmas Gift.” With authors Lee Svitak Dean and Rick Nelson. 6:30 p.m. Free.

Starts Friday at MacPhail’s Antonello Hall: Cantus: “Alone Together.” A concert built around a theme meant to stir hearts and minds is a Cantus signature. “Alone Together” explores meaningful connection in a world where we’re growing farther apart each day. It includes three works written for the superb men’s vocal ensemble: Steven Sametz’s setting of Walt Whitman’s poem “We Two,” David Lang’s yearning “Manifesto” and Libby Larson’s brand-new “You,” a musical essay on the human condition of being alone together. Plus the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” and works by other composers. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets (prices vary by location). Five more performances take place in Wayzata, Edina, St. Paul, Stillwater, and back in Minneapolis.

Anna Burns has won the 2018 Man Booker Prize for her novel “Milkman.” Burns was born in Belfast, she lives in East Sussex, England, and the prize was announced at an award ceremony in London, but her publisher – Graywolf Press – is here in Minneapolis.

Graywolf publisher Fiona McCrae, who attended the ceremony, said in a statement, “We are all over the moon that Anna Burns has won the Man Booker Prize, the first time in Graywolf history that an author we have published has had this honor.”

Burns’ third novel tells the story of a young woman during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Pursued by a paramilitary figure known as the Milkman, her life is upended as rumors spread about an affair. “Everything about this novel rings true,” said the Guardian in a rave review.

[cms_ad:x100]Originally scheduled for U.S. publication in fall 2019, “Milkman” will now be available on Dec. 11 of this year.

Four of the six authors shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize are women. Of those four, two are Graywolf authors. The other is British novelist Daisy Johnson, the youngest writer ever to be shortlisted for the prestigious award.

Ann Hampton Callaway to step in for Ramsey Lewis at the Ordway

If you’re holding tickets for Ramsey Lewis at the Ordway on Saturday, Oct. 21, there’s been a change. Lewis has canceled all of his upcoming performances. Ann Hampton Callaway will take his place.

It’s OK to feel disappointed that you won’t see Lewis perform. The multiple Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master is a living legend. Per the Ordway’s announcement, the 83-year-old, “who is still healthy, has decided that after seven decades the strenuous demands of touring have taken a toll on him.”

But don’t despair. Ann Hampton Callaway is smashing. A singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger and Tony nominee, she’s a great entertainer and a legend in her own right. According to the New York Times, Callaway’s voice is “so rich, flexible and extravagantly gorgeous that it hardly matters what use she puts it to.”

Lewis first announced his retirement from touring in April, then changed his mind in May. He might really mean it this time. He’s still composing and recording and will release a new album in 2019.

The Ordway will contact ticket holders about the change and offer refunds to those who request them. Questions? Call 651-224-4222. Tickets? Same number or online.

MacPhail announces 2018-19 Spotlight Series

While programming the sixth season of the MacPhail Spotlight Series, which features MacPhail faculty and special guests, artistic director Mischa Santora asked questions like “What do J.S. Bach and Thelonious Monk have in common?” and “Why did a philandering 19th-century virtuoso take the minor orders in the Catholic Church?” Then he created five programs that draw fresh, unexpected connections between classical music masters. The 2018-19 series looks like this:

Nov. 10: “Masters of the Keyboard.” Co-hosted by Classical MPR’s Steve Staruch, this performance will feature music by composers who were also performers and improvisers. At Antonello Hall.

Feb. 10 and 11, 2019: “Roaring Twenties.” Classic songs and instrumental selections from this storied era, with dancer/choreographer Vie Boheme adding her art to selected tunes. Feb. 10 at Antonello Hall, with a post-concert dance party; Feb. 11 at the Paramount Theater in Austin.

Feb. 29: “Liszt’s Spiritual Journey.” Pianist Richard Tostenson will perform secular and spiritual works by Franz Liszt in the Basilica of St. Mary.

March 9: “Fanny and Felix.” In the early 1800s, siblings Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn were equally brilliant, talented and educated by great music teachers. He was supported to become a musician; she was discouraged. This program is dedicated to Fanny. Jennifer Baldwin Peden will read from letters and contemporary accounts of her life.

April 13 and June 2: “Pranksters and Protagonists.” Three stories told in classical music: one by Richard Strauss (“Till Eulenspiegel”) and two by Igor Stravinsky (“Suite Italienne” and “The Soldier’s Tale”). Raye Birk will narrate “The Soldier’s Tale.” April 13 at Antonello Hall, June 2 at the Lakeville Area Arts Center.

[cms_ad:x101]FMI, times and tickets at the links above. Tickets for the Paramount Theater (“Roaring Twenties”) will go on sale Dec. 28.

The picks

Tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 17) at the ShowPlace ICON West End: The Twin Cities Film Fest opens. This year’s TCFF features several likely Oscar contenders. They include “A Private War,” about war correspondent Marie Colvin (Rosamund Pike); “Boy Erased,” about the son of a Baptist preacher forced to participate in a gay conversion program; “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” with Melissa McCarthy as celebrity biographer Lee Israel; “Green Book,” in which a working-class Italian-American bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) drives an African-American classical pianist (Mahershala Ali) around the American South; and “Widows” starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Erivo. Plus scary films, films about animal humanity, a line-up of LGBTQ films, shorts, and (new this year) the Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival. FMI including times, trailers and tickets.

Hot ticket

Gospel singer Robert Robinson will perform two holiday concerts in the Memorial Chapel at Lakewood Cemetery, modeled after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Seating is limited and concerts at the chapel usually sell out. Buy now or cry later. 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, and Sunday, Dec. 2. FMI and tickets ($30 advance, $35 door).

If you’re turning 50, you might as well do it in style. Throw a party. Have a classy jazz duo – Benny Weinbeck on piano, Gordy Johnson on bass – greet people as they come through your door. Serve prime rib and ice-cream drinks. Enjoy the fact that Gov. Mark Dayton has proclaimed this your day. Entertain a crowd of 560 with a spectacle of a musical, with famous songs and fabulous dancing, a strong cast and gorgeous costumes. Then continue with a birthday bash in the Club Theatre.

That’s what Chanhassen Dinner Theatres (CDT) did, and they did it impeccably well. Opening night of “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn” was a night to remember, with nonstop hospitality in the house and fireworks on the stage.

But before getting into “Holiday Inn,” some background.

Founded by Herbert and Carolyn Bloomberg, built in a Carver County cornfield – and “still here against all odds,” said infomercial queen Nancy Nelson during the opening remarks – CDT opened on Oct. 11, 1968, with “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Growing into a 90,000-square-foot complex with multiple stages, it has staged 237 homegrown productions and entertained more than 12.5 million people.

[cms_ad:x100]It’s one of a half-dozen professional dinner theaters still standing, with table service from the start, and the largest privately owned single-unit restaurant in Minnesota. It’s also the state’s largest employer of musical theater professionals. All productions are designed and created on site by Minnesota artists, designers, actors and musicians. Many actors who have trod Chanhassen’s boards have gone on to Broadway, TV and films: Amy Adams, Laura Osnes, TR Knight, Linda Kelsey, Loni Anderson, Pat Proft, Ron Perlman.

No longer in a cornfield – the city of Chanhassen, which just observed its own 50th anniversary, has grown up around it, and Paisley Park is down the road – CDT is someplace to check out if you haven’t yet been there. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience. And the current production, “Holiday Inn,” is a musical, muscular display of its strengths.

This is a regional premiere of the show that opened on Broadway in 2016. Inspired by the 1942 Oscar-winning film starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, it’s full of great songs including “White Christmas,” “Happy Holiday,” “Blue Skies,” “Easter Parade,” “Cheek to Cheek” and “Steppin’ Out with My Baby.” The large cast is led by Michael Gruber, Ann Michels, Tony Vierling, Jessica Fredrickson and Michelle Barber.

The story is thin – mainly a frame on which to hang all the singing, dancing, costumes and scenes. After years on Broadway, Jim (Gruber) has decided to leave the bright lights behind for a peaceful life in Connecticut. His stage partners Ted (Vierling) and Lila (Fredrickson) aren’t happy about that, especially Lila, who’s Jim’s fiancée for a minute, until Ted woos her away with promises of Hollywood stardom.

Jim soon finds Connecticut too sleepy for his tastes. He meets Linda (Ann Michels), a schoolteacher who happens to be a talented singer and dancer, and Louise (Barber), a mouthy farmhand. Together they turn the farmhouse (Linda’s former home) into an inn. It will only be open on holidays from Thanksgiving to the Fourth of July – including Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter – and it will stage performances featuring Jim’s Broadway friends.

Jim and Linda fall in love. Then Ted shows up, wooing Linda with promises of Hollywood stardom. Oh, and here comes Lila. Will Jim lose the girl again? What do you think?

The story barely matters. What counts are the nonstop singing and dancing, both splendid. The leads are backed by a large ensemble cast that fills the stage with twirling, tapping, and smiles. Gowns sparkle and whirl. And there really are fireworks. In “Let’s Say It With Firecrackers,” Vierling mimes throwing flash bangs onto the stage while dancing up a storm. What masterful timing all around: from Vierling, the band and whoever flips the switch to make the lights in the stage burst into brightness.

Michael Brindisi directs. He’s only the second artistic director in CDT’s long history, after Gary Gisselman; this is Brindisi’s 30th year with the theater. Choreographer Tamara Kangas Erickson guided dozens of feet in many thousands of steps. Andy Kust leads the band; Nayna Ramey did the scenic design, which morphs seamlessly from New York to a country farmhouse with a barn that figures prominently toward the end, and a Hollywood set (an especially hilarious scene). Rich Hamson came up with the beautiful costumes. The show lasts two hours, plus there’s a 30-minute intermission, enough time for a coffin-sized slab of the Chanhassen’s chocolate cake.

Though “Holiday Inn” is perhaps best known for loosing “White Christmas” on the world, it’s not specifically a Christmas show. You can see it anytime from now through Feb. 23, 2019. There are eight shows every week. Former Star Tribune theater critic Graydon Royce plans to be in every one. A member of the ensemble cast, he plays a radio announcer, and he sings. He’s pretty good, too.

FMI and tickets ($76-91 dinner and show; special student and senior pricing); 952-934-1525. Show-only tickets are available 10 days before a performance date.

The picks

Now at the History Theatre: The Great Society. Robert Schenkkan has written two plays about LBJ: the Tony-winning “All the Way,” seen at the History Theatre this time last year, and a sequel, “The Great Society.” The original cast returns, with Pearce Bunting as LBJ, Shawn Hamilton as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Erskine Wheeler as Hubert H. Humphrey. Spanning the years 1965–68, the play schools us on our history and depicts LBJ’s fall from grace as his accomplishments – including historic legislation on health care, education and poverty – are overshadowed by Vietnam. FMI and tickets ($37-56; less for seniors, students and under 30s). Ends Oct. 28.

Saturday at Hamline: Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop 7th Annual Reading: “Beyond Bars: Voices of Incarceration.” Family members, friends, and MPWW instructors and mentors will read poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction by writers incarcerated in state correctional facilities. Released MPWW alumni will read their own work. In the Klas Center, Kay Fredericks Room. 7 p.m. Free. Here’s a campus map.

Saturday and Sunday at MacPhail’s Antonello Hall: Minnesota Bach Ensemble: “Rustic and Refined.” The Bach Ensemble will open its 7th season with an old favorite, rarely heard works and special guests. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2 will feature the SPCO’s Lynn Erickson as trumpet soloist. The program will also include music by Fasch, Biber, Conti and Czech Baroque composer Zelenka. Artistic Director Andrew Altenbach will conduct. With Minnesota Orchestra flutist Adam Kuenzel and soprano Linh Kauffman. 3 p.m. both days. FMI and tickets ($30/$10 students).

Monday at the Chanhassen: JazzMN Orchestra: “Sinatra & Basie: Live at the Sands.” Swinging, sophisticated multi-platinum recording artist Curtis Stigers will perform with Minnesota’s premier big band as it approaches its 20th anniversary under Artistic Director Doug Snapp. Note the new location: not the Hopkins High auditorium, but Chanhassen’s main stage. This is a dinner show. FMI and tickets ($30-50). Coming up: “Jingle Bell Jazz” on Dec. 17 and JazzMN’s 20th Anniversary Celebration concert on April 8.

Horror films are scary. Horror theater is arguably scarier. The energy of live theater, the closeness and immediacy, can ramp up the fear factor.

Launched in 2012 by Four Humors Theater as a juried, horror-themed, live-performance arts festival, now overseen by United Festival Group (whose owners include Four Humors’ Jason Ballweber, Ryan Lear and Matt Spring), the Twin Cities Horror Festival has called the Southern Theater home since the start. Old, intimate and worn, its classic proscenium arch a gaping maw, the Southern is a perfect place to scare people silly.

TCHF VII starts next Thursday, Oct. 25, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 4, with 13 different shows and experiences. Most are suggested for ages 13 or 16 and up. Just one, Rogues Gallery Arts’ “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” is all-ages.

[cms_ad:x100]Four nationally and internationally known guest companies and artists will perform: Toronto’s Kairos Collective, New York’s Jody Christopherson, Breaker/Fixer Productions from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Portland’s Amica & Hecate, whose “Funerals for Life” take place in the lobby. For a sliding scale donation ($15-30 suggested), you’ll lie down on their coroner’s slab and be embalmed. You’ll leave with a photo and a signed death certificate.

“A Morbid History of Sons & Daughters” by the Vincent Hovis Experience (cabaret artist Leslie Vincent and composer Keith Hovis, with friends) is a song cycle about serial killers. Tom Reed’s “Greenway” is a bike commuter’s worst nightmare. Christopherson’s “St. Kilda” follows a working-class woman from Nebraska as she unearths a dark family secret on an abandoned island off the coast of Scotland. Kairos Collective’s “The Bathtub Girls” is a tale of sibling matricide. Garrett Vollmer’s “Home,” the newest horror show from Dangerous Productions, digs into what happens in the basements of small-town America. There will be blood.

Playable Artworks’ “Second Skin” is an audio-driven, site-specific adventure that takes you out of the Southern and around the Seven Corners neighborhood. You’re the protagonist in an interactive horror adventure.

Not everything is scary. Reverend Matt’s “Monster Science: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” is a pair of comedy lectures.

Each show has five performances. “Second Skin” is by appointment, “Funerals for Life” is by reservation. View the whole line-up and buy tickets or passes here. If you’re a glutton for punishment, a Skeleton Key ($180) gives you unlimited priority access.

More Halloween fun

The Haunted Basement is back, now in its 12th year and not at the Soap Factory anymore (since 2017, if you missed that memo). It’s in a new home – Building No. 9 of the old General Mills Research Facility in Minneapolis – with new horrors. Their words: “Expect strong smells, physical contact, and projectile liquids. You may get very messy, you may have to crawl, and you may find yourself in a confined space with something horrible.” Sounds great! FMI, times and tickets ($25). Ends Oct. 31.

It’s the 200th birthday of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” and the U of M’s Department of English is celebrating. On Tuesday, Oct. 23, Twin Cities actors will read from “Frankenstein” and other 19th-century monster texts. 7 p.m. in Lind Hall, room 2017A. On Wednesday, Oct. 31 (Halloween night), U of M students will present an evening of original “Ghost Stories.” 6:30 p.m. in Pillsbury Hall, room 110. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Zeitgeist Halloween Festival 2018: “Things That Go Bump in the Night” is four nights of live music and storytelling. Each night will be different. The music includes new works by Dameun Strange, Dan Nass and Doug Opal; Mark Engebretson’s “She Sings She Screams”; a new work by Alyssa Anderson inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Bells”; electronic sets by DeVon Russell Gray and Eric Gonzalez; and an improvised on-the-spot score to a silent horror film. The storytellers are Loren Niemi, Debra Ting and Laura Packer. “Crocus Hill Ghost Story,” a musical tale of a house possessed, will be performed twice. Oct. 25–28 at Studio Z. FMI including schedule, times and tickets (singles $15/10, festival pass $40).

[cms_ad:x101]Count on the Trylon to have its Halloween on. From Friday, Oct. 26, through Sunday, Oct. 28, its William Castle Fright Fest will feature two vintage films by the legendary schlockmeister: “House on Haunted Hill” (1959) starring Vincent Price and “Homicidal” (1961) starring Joan Marshall and Glenn Corbett. Per the Trylon, “House” was “filmed in Emergo, a process so terrifying it hasn’t been used in any movie since.” FMI, times and tickets ($8).

The picks

Tonight (Friday, Oct. 19) at Highpoint Center for Printmaking: Opening reception for “Kinngait Studios: Printmaking in the Arctic Circle.” Prints from Kinngait (pronounced Kinn-ite), the Inuit printmaking studios at the West Baffin Cooperative in Nunavut, Canada, are coveted around the world. This exhibition of work by 18 artists covers a wide range of imagery, from traditional Inuit practices to contemporary subject matter to Inuit lore. One of the featured artists is Kananginak Pootoogook, the first Inuit artist to be presented in the Venice Biennale (2017). Tour and talk by Inuk art scholar Heather Igloliorte at 5:30 p.m., RSVP requested. Reception 6:30-9 p.m. FMI. Free and open to the public. Correction: The tour and talk are on Friday, Nov. 16, not Friday, Oct. 19. Apologies if you showed up early on the 19th for that (so did we!).

Saturday at Macalester’s Mairs Concert Hall: Gao Hong and Issam Rafea. Chinese pipa master Hong and Syrian oud master Rafea recently released their latest album, “Life as Is,” to international acclaim. They will be joined by students in the Macalester Asian Music Ensemble. In the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 130 Macalester Street. 7:30 p.m. Free.

Sunday on your teevee: Minnesota Original. The broadcast version of TPT’s arts and culture series continues with profiles of choreographer Karen L. Charles, watercolor artist Tara Sweeney, author Carter Meland and musician Stokley Williams. Inspired by her father’s death to do what was truly important to her, Charles quit her job as a mathematician to start a dance company. Watercolorist Sweeney is creating an alphabet book based on objects Swedish immigrants carried to this country. Educator Meland learned about his Anishinabe heritage in his thirties and turned that discovery into his first novel. And MNO caught up with Williams, longtime lead singer for Mint Condition, as he debuted his first solo album at the Ordway. Watch Sunday at 6 p.m. on TPT 2 or view all four stories online.

Monday at the Dakota: “Hooked on Hamilton.” T. Mychael Rambo leads a cast of Twin Cities favorites in songs from Broadway’s biggest hit. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($40-30).

Monday through Thursday (Oct. 22–25) on your teevee and at the St. Anthony Main Theatre: “Welcome to Waverly.” Aswar Rahman, an immigrant from Bangladesh who grew up in Northeast Minneapolis, ran for mayor of Minneapolis in 2017. He suspended his campaign on Nov. 2 and endorsed Jacob Frey. He’s now digital director for Dean Phillips, who’s running for Congress in Minnesota’s Third District against Erik Paulson. In between, Rahman made a four-part TV series for Bravo. He was one of seven professionals from major metro areas who spent six weeks living and working in the small town of Waverly, Kansas, population 563. You can watch the series at home (9–10 p.m. on Bravo) or join Rahman, his friends and family for live watch parties at the St. Anthony Main. 8:30 p.m. all four nights. FMI. Free (first come, first served). Here’s the Facebook event page.

Started in 1940 by a group of businessmen looking to promote their city nationally, the Minneapolis Aquatennial has been drawing crowds every July since for parades, pageantry, and crowd events, highlighting Minneapolis’s status as the “City of Lakes.”

The idea for the Aquatennial was born in 1939 out of a desire to promote Minneapolis as a vacation and business destination through an annual festival rivalling Mardi Gras, the Rose Parade, and, closer to home, St Paul’s Winter Carnival. After witnessing a large parade in Winnipeg for Great Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, a group of Minneapolis businessmen including W. N. “Win” Stephens and Tom Hastings concluded that a similar spectacle would improve Minneapolis’ reputation nationally. With the help of veteran volunteers from the Winter Carnival, they organized a ten-day festival with almost 200 events in less than a year.

The name “Aquatennial” was chosen by contest to highlight the abundance of lakes, rivers, and parks around Minneapolis. Sail and motor boat races were to take place on Lake Calhoun (Bde Maka Ska), and a 450-mile canoe derby down the Mississippi River from Bemidji would arrive on the first day of the festival. A massive airshow and an interdenominational sermon at Powderhorn Park the next day would both draw more than 100,000. The parades, however, were the main attraction. With support from business sponsors, promotional Aquatennial pin sales, and thousands of volunteers, the inaugural Grande Day parade featured eighty-six elaborate floats, 15,000 marchers, and fifty bands, drawing a crowd of more than 200,000. Even more attended the nighttime Torchlight Parade later in the week. Attendance would grow even higher in coming years: 750,000 would watch 1962’s Torchlight Parade.

Along with the parades, the Queen of the Lakes contest has been an Aquatennial mainstay since 1940, drawing contestants from local pageants across the state. A panel of judges choose the next year’s queen and princesses based on personality, public speaking skills, and professionalism. After winners of the pageant are crowned, they serve as ambassadors for Minneapolis in parades nationwide, travelling more miles than the winner of any pageant in the country except Miss America. The contest has undergone significant changes since its origin; while queens do not have the same high-flying international trips and free cars they enjoyed into the sixties, they receive educational scholarships. In the mid-1960s, newspapers stopped listing the queens’ ages, weights, measurements, and home addresses.

[cms_ad:x100]The Aqua Follies, a highly choreographed aquatic revue show, was introduced to great fanfare in 1941, and provided the festival with crucial revenue for years. A permanent pool, diving platforms, and a stage were built on Lake Wirth to host multiple shows for 6,000 spectators at a time. Twenty-four women known as the Aqua Dears practiced routines for months at the University of Minnesota pool. For many years, they were all required to be exactly five feet and four inches tall and weigh 125 pounds. After the audience was warmed up by stunt divers and comics, professional dancers and the Aqua Dears performed a number with elaborate sets and costumes flown in from Broadway and Hollywood.

Over the next half-century, several programs were added to bring in younger audiences. 1967’s festival featured a live show called “The Happening” featuring Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, and the Electric Prunes. In an event promoted by the American Dairy Association, contestants raced boats homemade from milk cartons across Lake Calhoun. The eccentric event was an Aquatennial staple from 1971 until 2015, and was revived by a separate nonprofit in 2017. In the late eighties, an event called Aqua Jam drew hundreds of skateboarders competing for prizes and sponsorships to the festival.

Going into the new millennium, the Minneapolis Aquatennial Association neared bankruptcy as corporate sponsors, individual contributors, and contest fees could not keep up with programming costs. In 2002, the organization was absorbed by the Minneapolis Downtown Council (DTC), a business association which already included many of the companies which sponsored the festival for years. Simultaneously, the Aquatennial Ambassador Organization(AAO) was created to run the Queen of the Lakes program and maintain connections with festivals across the state and nationally. While the length and scope of the festival has been reduced in recent years to reflect busier summer schedules and a greater focus on Downtown Minneapolis, the Aquatennial continues to promote the “City of Lakes” with free shows, parades, contests, pageantry, and fireworks.

For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.

When first we saw the Egyptian god Hapy (pronounced “hoppy”), he was flat on his back in the second-floor rotunda at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His crown and his hands were sheathed in blankets and plastic. Roughly an hour and a half later, he was upright, majestic, large and in charge, daylight washing down him from the skylight above.

Like others who had come to view the installation of the monumental sculpture – nearly 18 feet tall and weighing 9,700 pounds – we stood transfixed and silent except for the click of camera shutters. Hard-hatted, no-nonsense crews from France; the Minneapolis firm Rocket Crane; and Mia raised it with block and tackle and a steel gantry on wheels, then sited it precisely on a platform meant to distribute its weight on the floor.

There were unnerving times when it hung at an angle, swaying slightly. And moments before it touched the ground when men gathered closely around it and we wanted to shout, “Watch your toes!”

Hapy is one of three colossal statues on display for Mia’s new exhibition, “Egypt’s Sunken Cities,” which opens Nov. 4 for a six-month run. The other two, a pharaoh and a queen, are in the main lobby. All had been submerged in the Mediterranean Sea for more than 1,000 years when French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio found them in 2000 while exploring Aboukir Bay near the city of Alexandria.

[cms_ad:x100]After the installation, we spoke with Michael Lapthorn, Mia’s exhibition designer.

MinnPost: How long have you been working on this exhibition?

Michael Lapthorn: About two years. [For Hapy], we needed to review a lot of things. We needed to see whether it would fit. We needed an engineer review to find out what the floors would take. We needed to calculate the weight that would be borne by this floor, and the minimum base we would need to distribute that weight. Plus we needed to know how the geometry would work out, where the pick point would end up exactly. [The pick point is where the rigging is attached for lifting.] We had to calculate – when he goes up, would he travel too far back and hit the railing [around the opening in the third floor above]?

MP: Did he arrive in several parts?

ML: He’s in two parts. A foot part and the rest, all bolted together. We had to crane them in through the front door. We had to take the doors off to have room to move them in. We moved them into the galleries, and they’ve been there ever since. We rolled them back along the floor. That’s how they’ll go out again, too.

ML: Trusting the math.

MP: Who did the math?

ML: We all did a little bit of math, but our engineers do the real math. They’re the ones who said it was OK and gave us the thumbs-up to do it.

MP: Was there ever a moment of doubt?

[cms_ad:x101]ML: I was worried that his crown was going to nick the inside rim there [pointing up at the ceiling]. When I worked it out on the computer – I made a full-scale model and worked it out – it depended on how high off the ground he needed to be in order to do everything we needed to do. The fact that he’s down as low as he is – he’s much lower than the other statues [in the lobby] – was necessitated by the size of the room. And he would look kind of weird if he were up higher. His head would be stuck in a collar.

MP: Did you put him together here?

ML: Yeah, right here. There’s a cool little trolley system. We laid him horizontally on a railway car. The foot part was fixed and raised up to be equal. They rolled the parts together, bolted them down and torqued the nuts extremely tightly. And now he’s distributed over 100 square feet.

ML: He looks perfect in here. I didn’t think he would look as good, but he seems to be perfectly at home. And I wish we could keep him, but we’ll have to give him back. Our “Doryphorus” is a little jealous. He’s just around the corner, holding court in his own gallery.

Along with the three huge statues, “Egypt’s Sunken Cities” includes more than 250 works of art discovered by Goddio’s team, along with artifacts from museums in Cairo and Alexandria. The exhibition opens Nov. 4. Tickets are on sale now ($20/$16/$14).

The picks

Now through Sunday at the Playwrights’ Center: PlayLabs New Play Festival. This annual series started Monday, but you still have Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday to catch staged readings of new plays in an intimate setting, for free. There’s a PlayLabs Party on Saturday and a Playwriting Fellows Showcase on Sunday. More than 65 percent of PlayLabs plays have gone on to full productions. People come in from around the country to see this festival. Times vary. FMI and registration (because seating is limited).

Tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 23) at the Guthrie: The Twin Cities Moth GrandSLAM: “Growing Pains.” Last week at the renovated Parkway, listening to Adam Gopnik, we were reminded of how great it is to sit in a room with a good storyteller. Tonight you can hear ten, all StorySLAM champions, tell tales about their personal growing pains – something we can all relate to, even if we grew up very differently. This event will decide the Moth’s Twin Cities GrandSLAM Story Champion. Javier Morillo will host. Doors at 6:30 p.m., stories at 7:30. FMI and tickets ($25).

Wednesday at Studio Z: Rimon Artist Salon: “The Trail Forward: Music Making Change.” Dubbed “one of the leading series of Jewish events in the country,” Rimon starts its 12th season with Grammy-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Lisa Gutkin (The Klezmatics, the Guthrie’s “Indecent”) and Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg. Gutkin will present a first hearing of her music-theater work-in-progress “The Trail Forward,” about growing up among multilingual, politically radical garment-worker immigrants. Rabbi Lekach-Rosenberg will join Gutkin in conversation about making change through collective action and the power of music to spark it. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($12/6).

Over 400 MinnPost members and friends gathered at the Cowles Center in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 11, to hear MinnPost editor Andrew Putz interview civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. A reception at the Loews Minneapolis Hotel for sponsors was held prior to the event, and photographer Anna Min was on hand to capture the festivities.

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Over 400 MinnPost members and friends gathered in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 11, to hear MinnPost editor Andrew Putz interview civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. Here are more photos from before, during and after the program at the Cowles Center.

One way to understand where Northern Spark is heading is by looking back at where it’s been. Year to year, the only sure thing is it will change, sometimes profoundly.

For the first seven years, inspired by Europe’s “Nuit Blanche” nighttime arts festivals, Northern Spark was one night, all night, dusk to dawn. In 2018, it switched to two nights, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. That’s where it will stay for 2019.

Over the years, Northern Spark has taken place in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, just Minneapolis, just St. Paul, along the Minneapolis riverfront, in the Minneapolis metro – and in 2017, in seven neighborhoods along the Green Line, from the Commons to Lowertown. In 2018, it was back in downtown Minneapolis on the Commons, in the Minneapolis Central Library and along Nicollet Mall. The theme that year was “Commonality.”

Announced late last week, the theme for 2019 is “We Are Here.” On June 14 and 15, the festival will move into places where those words have special, hard-fought meaning: St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood and the American Indian Cultural Corridor in Minneapolis. It’s also back on the Commons, which will be, for the second year, the site of the latest Creative City Challenge winner. (See below for more about that.)

[cms_ad:x100]The subthemes for “We Are Here” are Resilience, Renewal and Regeneration. The theme and subthemes are meant to push artists’ creativity around cultural and societal issues.

The Open Call for artist projects starts soon, with opportunities for participatory installations, staged performances and screenings. This year, Northern Spark will offer a new series of three free workshops to help artists figure out how to fit their work into the festival’s context. The workshops are “Brainstorming and Vision” (Nov. 1), “Crafting a Pitch” (Dec. 1), and “Project Realization” (Dec. 11). Go here to learn more and register.

The picks

Tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 24) at the Showplace Icon: “Who Will Write Our History?” The Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival has partnered with the Twin Cities Film Fest. Among the films to be shown this year is Robert Grossman’s feature documentary about Jewish journalists, scholars and community leaders in the Warsaw Ghetto who created the Oyneg Shabes-Ringelblum Archive, which has been called “perhaps the most important collection of original material compiled by Jews during the Holocaust.” The film features the voices of Joan Allen and Adrian Brody. 8 p.m. FMI and tickets ($12).

Thursday at Jazz Central Studios: Ben Rosenblum. If you’re a fan of classic jazz piano – melodic, emotional, technically masterful and swinging – catch New York-based Rosenblum while he’s in town. Just 24, he started winning awards in 2010, graduated from Columbia-Juilliard in 2016 and released his debut album, “Instead,” in 2017. His second, “River City,” came out in 2018. He’s not wasting any time. Rosenblum will be at Jazz Central with bassist Jeremy Boettcher and drummer Peter Johnson. FMI. 8 p.m., $10 at the door. On Sunday, you can find him at the Ted Mann in “The Call,” a free concert with U of M singers, countertenor Ryland Angel (with whom he has worked on several projects) and Wilco guitarist Nels Cline. 4 p.m. FMI.

Friday at the Cedar: Hailu Mergia. In March of this year, the Guardian published an interview with “the Ethiopian jazz legend who jams in his taxi.” Keyboardist Mergia and his band ruled Ethiopia’s nightclub scene in the 1970s. In 1981, they came to the U.S. for a tour that proved disappointing. Some band members went home; others stayed. Living and driving taxi in Washington, D.C., Mergia faded into obscurity. The 2013 reissue of a 1985 album led to tours of the U.S. and Europe. In early 2018, Mergia released “Lala Belu,” his first new full-length album in two decades. Now 71, he’s enjoying a career resurgence that will include this appearance at the Cedar, co-presented by the Walker’s Performing Arts Series, a badge of coolness and contemporary relevance. Minnesota’s own Yonathan’s Cultural Show will open. Doors at 7 p.m., music at 8. FMI and tickets ($25/20).

Saturday at the Ordway: TU Dance 15th Anniversary Fall Concert. The St. Paul dance company founded by former Alvin Ailey dancers Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands is having a very good year: four sold-out shows with Bon Iver at the Palace, then another at the Hollywood Bowl. Their fall concert will include a new retrospective work that reflects on the company’s repertoire; “Salve” (2017), about human connections and healing; and “With Love” (2011), inspired by the paintings of African American artist Ernie Barnes and set to the music of Donny Hathaway. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($42-22).

In 2016, MovieMaker called Sound Unseen one of the “25 coolest film festivals in the world,” right up there with film fests in France, New York and Havana. Now in its 19th year, Sound Unseen is more than an annual film fest. It’s a year-round Twin Cities presence, hosting monthly screenings at the Trylon, one of the 25 coolest movie houses in the world.

Sound Unseen 2018 will take place Wednesday, Nov. 14, through Sunday, Nov. 18, with screenings at the Trylon, the Bryant-Lake Bowl and opening night at the Uptown VFW. It includes 23 indie films (nearly 40, if you count all the shorts and extras) on music and musicians, labels and the arts. Most are Minnesota or Midwest premieres. Here’s a selection that jumped out at us.

“Sonic Youth: 30 Years of ‘Daydream Nation.’ ” For the 30th anniversary of the album’s release, filmmaker Lance Bangs and Babes in Toyland’s Lori Barbero will present “Daydream Nation”-related films and excerpts from Bangs’ new concert film of the band performing the album live in Glasgow in 2007. (If you’re planning to see the Walker’s “Thurston Moore: Moore at 60” on Nov. 9-10, this would be a great follow-up.)

“Mr. SOUL!” From 1968-73 – before Oprah, before Arsenio, on the heels of the Civil Rights movement – producer Ellis Haizlip hosted a groundbreaking PBS variety show devoted to the African American experience. “SOUL!” is now considered one of the most culturally significant TV shows in U.S. history. Director Melissa Haizlip will be in attendance.

[cms_ad:x100]“Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records.” Founded in Denver in 1975, relocated to Chicago in 1978, Wax Trax! was a hugely influential retail store and label that focused on international New Wave, punk rock, jazz and experimental music. The first screening has already sold out.

“Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes.” In archival performance clips, interviews, and photos, director Sophie Huber tells the story of one of the most important record labels in the history of jazz, from its founding in New York in 1939 by German-Jewish refugees Alfred Lion and Frances Wolff to its remarkable renaissance under Don Was.

“Shake Sister Shake: Women in Blues.” A new look at an old genre – the blues – still dominated by men, Lisa Eismen’s film features the best female blues artists from California to New York. Narrated by Bruce Iglauer (Alligator Records), Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, it explores their struggles, relationships, sisterhood and music.

“Mapplethorpe.” Made with the support of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, featuring his original art, this is the first-ever biopic of the controversial artist. With Matt Smith (“Doctor Who,” “The Crown”) in the title role, it traces his life from the start of his friendship with Patti Smith to his final struggle with AIDS. Director Ondi Timoner had full access to archival material and early works.

“Milford Graves Full Mantis.” The first-ever feature-length portrait of percussionist Graves, a founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz who remains one of the most influential living figures in the evolution of the form. Directed by Jake Meginsky and Neil Young (not that Neil Young), this film takes you inside Graves’ life and heart.

“Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me.” Olivia Lichtenstein’s film tracks the R&B legend’s career from his breakout with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes through his meteoric chart success, the tragic accident that left him paralyzed and his perseverance. Lichtenstein will be in attendance.

The opening night party on Nov. 14 will be at the Uptown VFW, with DJ Jake Rudh hosting “Transmission.” Panels and live music events are being finalized. More than 20 visiting filmmakers will be at the festival. FMI including the complete schedule, tickets and trailers.

The picks

Tonight (Thursday, Oct. 25) at the U’s Andersen Library: Exhibit reception for “Such a Big Dream: Edward S. Curtis at 150.” Seattle-based photographer Edward S. Curtis, a white man, spent 30 years photographing Native Americans. Between 1907 and 1930, he published more than 2,000 of his sepia-toned photographs in a series of 20 volumes titled “The North American Indian.” Co-curated by Curtis expert Christopher Cardozo, this exhibit looks at Curtis’ work, his life and the impact he had on photography. Today Curtis’ photographs are considered controversial. To learn more about that, you can read this, for starters. 5:30-8:30 p.m. FMI and reservations. Free. Ends Jan. 18.

Tonight through Saturday at the Great Hall in Lowertown: Artability Art Show & Sale. Presented each year by People Incorporated, this sale celebrates the creativity of people with mental illnesses and their contributions to our community. Nearly 160 artists from the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota will offer more than 550 works of high-quality art for sale. Artists take home 80 percent of the show proceeds; the remaining 20 percent support People Incorporated’s year-round Artability workshops, which are open at no cost to any adult over 18 with a mental health diagnosis. 180 5th St. East in St. Paul. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. FMI. Free.

[cms_ad:x101]Sunday in the Ordway Concert Hall: The Sphinx Virtuoso. Performing music by Shostakovich – and by Syrian American composer Kareem Roustom, Uruguayan American composer Miguel del Aguila, and multiple Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard – the musicians of this acclaimed chamber ensemble walk the walk and play the tunes of diversity in classical music. All are alumni of the internationally renowned Sphinx Competition for black and Latino classical soloists. See the concert, then stick around for a post-show mingle with members of the orchestra. FMI and tickets ($10-20; students free).

Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Paul: VocalEssence Chorus & Ensemble Singers and the St. Olaf Choir: “Music for a Grand Cathedral.” Glorious voices and music in a glorious space. One of many special performances in VocalEssence’s 50th anniversary year, this concert will feature a full rendering of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Mass in G minor,” written when the composer turned 50. There’s a nice bit of synchronicity. 2 p.m. FMI and tickets ($10-40).

It was high time for Twin Cities mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski to make an album. She has won and placed in prestigious international competitions, performed numerous operas and recitals, premiered several new works and sung on world stages. In 2017, she stepped in for an ailing Susanna Phillips when the superstar soprano had to cancel her Schubert Club dates. Earlier this year, she won a McKnight Artist Fellowship. She has a lush, beautiful voice and a blooming career as a solo artist.

On Sunday, Osowski will release her debut CD, “Haunted Blue,” at the Dakota. It’s not what most people who know her will expect. No Schubert or Schumann, Libby Larsen or Dominick Argento. Osowski has recorded 13 original songs by composer and jazz pianist Jeremy Walker. Art songs. Jazz art songs.

The two first worked together in 2016, when Consortium Carissimi commissioned Walker to write five original songs for their fall concert. “Someone got sick, so the solo got sent to me a few days before the performance,” Osowski said. “Jeremy and I found a kindred musical experience working with each other. I said, ‘Hey, will you write some more songs for me?’”

In 2017, they performed the new songs at Crooners, some with tenor Tesfa Wondemagegnehu. Walker kept writing. Two songs on “Haunted Blue” are from the original Consortium Carissimi commission, reworked. One is a poem by Walt Whitman, another a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Several feature lyrics by Twin Cities poet Greg Foley. Anthony Cox is on bass throughout, and Wondemagegnehu joins Osowski for two duets.

We spoke with Osowski on Thursday afternoon. This interview has been edited and condensed.

MinnPost: What exactly is an art song?

Clara Osowski: I’ve been wrestling with this because I’ve had to think about it now a lot. I think it’s just sung poetry. It’s not necessarily a classical tradition. I don’t think it’s just a Western tradition, either. I have some friends who excel in Arabic classical music, and their main thing is words and a melody. That’s pretty much all we need for art song. It’s musical poetry.

MP: What makes the songs on “Haunted Blue” jazz?

CO: There’s so much flexibility. Jeremy has written out my vocal line, but he improvises the entire time. It’s never the same, and it’s terrifying at times. [Laughs.] You have to have the right musical skills. I have to be able to hear when he puts down the chord that I need for the vocal line. Sometimes he hides it really well. It’s super fluid. And then there are the harmonies. I’m not used to singing sevenths – unless I’m singing Copland, or Ives, at times.

MP: You’re known for art songs. Is this a normal career path for a mezzo-soprano?

CO: No! Totally not normal. We’re trained in the opera world. There’s a lot of expectation and rigidity in the opera world today, even down to what you’re supposed to wear for an audition. We’re lucky in Minnesota, because we do a lot of new opera, but so much of the opera world is “Beverly Sills sang it this way, and this is the appropriate, traditional way, and you will not stray from that idea.” I kind of recoiled from that.

MP: Why this album, and why now?

CO: I’ve always had an appreciation and a fondness for jazz. But I’m a little afraid to jump right into singing [jazz] standards. They’ve been recorded and done so well. Also, this type of music allows me to be unique right away, without any expectations of “Oh, that sounds like Billie [Holiday]” or “That sounds like Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.” It’s unique enough to make a statement: Jeremy’s music and Clara’s voice. It’s nice to make that statement without any preconceived assumptions about what that’s going to sound like or what the audience is going to feel. I think that’s where live music is going.

MP: Talk a bit about the concept, “Haunted Blue.”

CO: There are so many different ways to be haunted. You wake up at three in the morning and you’re haunted by your dream. Or you remember something and you’re haunted that way, good or bad. It’s a state of being mesmerized, or in a state of flux. It’s about being a haunted person, a haunted soul. It’s a little out there, but all the songs have a theme.

Song cycles are huge in the classical world, but this has also been done in the jazz world – like [John Coltrane’s] “A Love Supreme.” It makes things cohesive in a very creative way.

MP: This is an interesting evolutionary step for both you and Jeremy.

CO: Jeremy had instincts, and I had instincts, and they lined up, and we were willing to say – OK, if we believe in this, then someone else might. This is fun. This is actually really contemporary. If I can get behind it, someone else might, too.

To be very frank, I’m embracing this. Jeremy played “I Like the Sunrise,” an Ellington tune, for my McKnight audition, and then I won a McKnight. So I don’t take this lightly. I think there’s super, super value in embracing all styles and genres as a musician. So I’m willing to sing and perform this as much as I am Schubert. I’m excited about it.

We’re on the cusp of something. People are identifying with words so much, for whatever reason. Whether we need to be heard at this moment, or we need to feel we’re not alone, words – however they’re being presented in music – are what people are latching onto.

MP: I’ve heard the album, and one thing I noticed is you don’t get any help with the melody. Jeremy is doing his thing and [bassist] Anthony Cox is doing his thing.

CO: Jeremy does a really good job of voicing roots of the chord. Or when it’s my turn to make noise, he’s good about keeping the area of the piano consistent. If I can see Anthony’s body language, I know when to tag off of him. I’m getting better at this. It did not come easy, but it really just comes down to musicianship skills.

There’s some sort of communication between Jeremy and me. I don’t know if it’s because we both like [John] Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. He’s a big Duke [Ellington] fan, and he’s been listening to his songs for so, so long and knows more about that than I do.

I think part of it is we just have a similar language, even though we’ve come up in two different styles. And I trust him with all the words I can find to throw at him.

The “Haunted Blue” release concert will take place at the Dakota on Sunday at 6 p.m. FMI and tickets ($20); 612-332-5299.

The picks

Starts tonight (Friday) at the Film Society’s St. Anthony Main Theatre: “The Price of Everything.” After Njideka Akunyili Crosby watches one of her paintings sell at auction for $900,000 – she’d sold it two years earlier for way less – she remarks wryly, “A flipper bought it.” Today, works of art are assets, and auction houses are trading floors. In this fascinating film, director Nathaniel Kahn (“My Architect”) pulls back the curtain on the red-hot art market. He speaks with artists (including Crosby, Jeff Koons and George Condo), dealers, auction house bigwigs, critics and collectors, like the hugely successful and enormously wealthy Stefan Edlis, who laughs a lot. Art is selling for jaw-dropping prices. Are we in an art crisis? A bubble? Does it matter if we let the marketplace decide who’s an artist? Should we care if great art disappears from public view into private collections? FMI including trailer, times and tickets.

Tonight through Sunday at the Cowles: James Sewell Ballet Fall Season. In a program called “Dynamic Rhythms,” JSB will present two repertory classics and the world premiere of a collaboration with choreographer Darrius Strong. Company favorite “Moving Works” is an intricate contemporary ballet. The poignant “Appalachia Waltz” uses Texas fiddle music as the backdrop for expressing ideas of relationship and community. The brand-new “I See You” fuses ballet and hip-hop to reflect on vulnerability and humanity. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. FMI and tickets ($20-35).

[cms_ad:x100]Saturday at Magers & Quinn: Owen Husney presents “Famous People Who’ve Met Me: A Memoir by the Man Who Discovered Prince.” Husney signed Prince to Warner Bros. and guided his early career. He also had dealings with Elvis, Al Jarreau, Richard Harris, Yanni, Jimi Hendrix and K-Tel. The Current’s Andrea Swensson (whose own book, “Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound” explains where Prince came from) will host; Husney will show some rare Prince photos. 7 p.m. Free. Michael Anthony wrote about Husney’s book earlier this year.

Sunday on your teevee: Minnesota Original. The third broadcast episode of MNO’s ninth season spotlights dance, fashion design, hip-hop – and animal training. Dancer/choreographer Laurie Van Wieren creates site-specific improvisational works in spaces large and small. Fashion designer Joy Telken finds inspiration for her Joynoelle line in fungi and lichen, space and the solar system. Forty-one years ago, William Berloni trained the first Sandy for the original Broadway production of “Annie.” He’s been an animal trainer ever since. (P.S. All of his animals are rescues.) Among the many responsibilities of running the hip-hop collective Doomtree, Lazerbeak finds time to make his next solo album. Watch Sunday at 6 p.m. on TPT 2 or view all four stories online.

Decades after their arrival, the Kurdish immigrant community in Fargo-Moorhead – now into its third and fourth generation – is doing so well it’s hard to get members to sit for an interview.

Newzad Brifki, an author and the founder of Moorhead’s Kurdish Community of America, is running for mayor. He will face off Nov. 6 against City Council Member Brenda Elmer and attorney Johnathan Judd to replace Mayor Del Rae Williams. Brifki said he was too busy to be interviewed.

Equally busy is Chrah Maii, an 18-year-old freshman at Concordia College in Moorhead. He was born in Fargo and grew up in Moorhead with two brothers and two sisters.

“My parents are from Northern Iraq,” Maii said. He’s not sure exactly where they are from or when they immigrated to the United States. “They don’t really talk about it. They think they’re in America, they’re here for a fresh start.”

[cms_ad:x100]Brifki’s run for mayor has not gone unnoticed by Maii.

“It’s awfully inspiring. Here’s a guy who was born over there, came over here and is making a name for himself, running for mayor. Me, being born in the U.S., I believe I could do even more.”

What does “even more” entail? Maii’s goal is to achieve a dual major in neuroscience and biology en route to becoming a pediatric oncologist.

Independence remains elusive

Many of the 1,000 people or so of Kurdish descent who live in the Fargo-Moorhead area were either born in the United States or immigrated from the traditional Kurdish homeland, which encompasses parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Political divisions created at the end of World War I left the Kurds without a homeland. While the hope of political independence is dim today in Turkey and Iran, the Kurdish militia is active in the Syrian civil war while their greatest hope and greatest frustration for independence comes in post-Saddam Iraq, where Kurds have voted for an independence that has remained elusive.

Salman, owner of A&R Auto Sales and Repair in West Fargo, fled Iraq in 1988, lived for four years in a migrant camp in Turkey, then emigrated to the United States. He and his brothers first arrived in Nashville, where exists to this day a large community of expat Kurds. He longed for a smaller town where he could more easily establish himself and so lived in Sioux Falls for four years. He was drawn to the Kurdish community in Moorhead-Fargo and eventually made his home there.

Salman is busy running a business. He says the auto sales and repair business is tough these days. Easy money means more people lease cars rather than buy them and trade them rather than repair them.

‘I came here to find peace’

But Salman is not buffaloed by tough times. “I come from a rough life, not peaceful. I came here to find peace, even if it’s not easy. I have the freedom to do my own thing here even if it’s not easy. My parents had a rough life. I want to show my children they have the chance to be something. I can’t do that there (in Iraq).”

One of his sons is a supervisor at a Fargo-area bank. “I’m so proud of him. I helped send him to college and he got the chance to be a banker. People are really happy with the way he’s helping run the bank,” Salman said. In a reflective moment, Salman added, “When it comes to survival, people come here to make a new life, a better life for themselves and their children.”

Many of the émigré children, like Salman’s son and Chrah Maii, have gone through the school system, making the 288 students who speak Kurdish at home in 2017-18 one of the largest ESL groups in Moorhead Public Schools.

Kari Yates, the district’s director of Elementary Learning and Accountability, wrote in an email (because she’s busy) that “of the 288 students with Kurdish home language, only 150 of them continue to qualify for participation in the English Language education program. Many of them have been here long-term and have either not entered EL programming or have exited through annual ACCESS testing.”

[cms_ad:x101]When it comes to being busy, few can match Nezir Ahmed. He has a full-time job as a corrections officer with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, a part-time job as an officer with the Glyndon Police Department, has children ages 5 and 2,  and his wife is due at any moment with their third child.

His children are born under very different circumstances from the ones into which he was born in 1986. When he was 2 years old, his family fled Iraq to Turkish migrant camps where, like Salman, they waited for four years until they were able to emigrate to the United States.

They lived in his aunt’s house in Fargo — he, his parents and eight brothers and sisters in the upper floor while his aunt’s family lived in the main floor. His father worked three jobs and Ahmed started kindergarten without knowing a word of English.

But Ahmed said that by first grade his English was about 80 percent fluent just from being with other children and playing sports. His family eventually moved to Moorhead, where Ahmed remains to this day.

Respect for traditional culture

He said that while he has adapted to American culture, he and many of the émigrés don’t want to leave their old culture behind. They celebrate Kurdish holidays like Newroz, as well as birthdays and weddings, although he hasn’t attended many recently because he’s very busy.

His brothers and sisters have jobs as teachers, accountants and nurses, while two sisters are stay-at-home mothers. Most have one to three children, and while most still live in the Fargo-Moorhead area, some have moved as far away as California and Texas.

As for Ahmed, his desire to be a police officer came in junior high. He said his family had just made the move from Fargo to Moorhead and, in a bid to feel that he belonged, he fell in with a tough crowd. After he found himself in trouble, the school’s DARE officer and GREAT officer “took me aside and said ‘Hey, you have to shape up,’ ” Ahmed said.

“They gave me a vision of the path of where I was going to be as opposed to the path of where I could be. I started getting more into education, sports, listening to the discipline of my father and family. [My brothers and sisters], we kept each other on the right path.”

He said they watch out for each other. “If you see someone going down the wrong path, you try to help them out.”

Ahmed said he was the focus of some bullying while in school. He was in ninth grade during 9/11 and experienced bigotry not only from students but from teachers as well.

“After that, give or take a week, I learned that some of my friends were not my friends – people I had known for years didn’t want to know me. People called me terrorist, jihadist, ‘is bin Laden your uncle?’ … Without my family support, it could have been a lot worse. You don’t want to just take it, but my parents said to just let it go, it isn’t worth it. Pretty soon people learned that I was Kurdish and not Iraqi. You live and you move on.”

‘More American than Kurd’

While Ahmed’s generation still has a toe in the old country, the newer generation does not.

“My kids, my nieces and nephews, they’re more American than Kurd. They don’t even speak their own language. My brother has a daughter who is in a Spanish immersion program and doesn’t speak a lick of Kurdish.”

Ahmed, who has a degree in criminal justice from North Dakota State University, hopes that being a police officer will offer hope to the next generation.

“I wanted to be a cop and you can be one too. I tell them that if you work hard, you can be anything – not just a cop, but a doctor or a lawyer. You just have to work hard.”

And stay busy.

Anoka, Minnesota, became the Halloween Capital of the World in 1937. The title recognizes its status as one of the first cities to discourage Halloween tricks by hosting a city-wide party: the Anoka Halloween Celebration.

In the early 1900s, Americans braced themselves every October for pranks committed by not-so-innocent children. The mischief-making spiraled so out of control in Anoka that the town decided to put an end to Halloween-night shenanigans by throwing a celebration.

Starting in 1920, Anoka civic leaders and local organizations, led by businessman George Green, formed a Halloween committee to address the growing prankster problem. The Halloween committee hoped to create an event so captivating that Anoka’s youth would forgo the usual troublemaking and join in the festivities.

On the evening of Sunday, October 31, 1920, the committee sponsored its first-ever community-wide Halloween celebration. The highlight was a parade down Main Street that included the Fireman’s Band of Minneapolis, the Anoka police and fire departments, and the Kiwanis and Commercial Clubs. A drum corps, the Anoka National Guard, and hundreds of children also marched. After the parade a bonfire was lit in nearby Bridge Square, and the youth who marched received free popcorn, peanuts, and candy.

The event was so successful that the police received no reports of pranks. Soon, plans were underway for the next Halloween celebration. Anoka’s new tradition expanded each year to include activities like dances, parties, games, concerts, and fireworks. It also grew to include community sing-alongs, races, costume contests, and a storefront-decorating competition for local merchants. Together, the festivities attracted thousands of people each year.

The city’s multi-day Halloween activities helped establish Anoka as the Halloween Capital of the World. That title, however, wasn’t official until 1937, thanks to an act of Congress. In that year, twelve-year-old newspaper carrier Harold Blair of Anoka was one of 200 Minneapolis Journal paperboys to win an all-expenses-paid trip to tour the nation’s capital. Civic leaders behind the Halloween activities seized on Blair’s visit as an opportunity to establish their little town as a big player on the Halloween scene.

Anoka’s Commercial Club, headed by drug store owner Bernard Witte, lead the charge. It commissioned local artist Alyce Vick to create a customized patch for Blair to wear in DC. The large insignia showcased a witch flying in the light of a full moon with “Halloween Capitol” (sic) written in the sky and “Anoka, Minnesota” below it. On the bottom of the patch was an open gate with the words, “The Gateway to the Great Northwest.”

The patch was sewn to Blair’s yellow sweater, a gift from Anoka clothing storeowner and Commercial Club member Craydon Colburn. The club sent Blair off with a proclamation to deliver about Anoka’s unique achievement in attracting youngsters to the annual celebration. In recognition of this, the town asked for Anoka to be officially known as the Halloween Capital of the World. In DC, Blair did his best to represent a city on a mission and gave the proclamation to Minnesota Representative Millard Rice. Shortly afterward, Congress granted Anoka’s wish.

With Anoka officially the Halloween Capital of the World, 1937 proved to be an especially celebratory Halloween season. The following year, Life magazine sent a photographer to Anoka to capture the Halloween spirit in a town that was virtually unknown outside of Minnesota. New events were added each year. Meanwhile, civic organizations and community volunteers raised money and worked year-round to make each celebration more impressive than the last.

Anoka’s Halloween traditions continued without interruption until 1942. By then, many of those involved in the planning of the Halloween activities were called to service in World War II. In their absence, the committee opted to focus on home-front activities like raising money for the war effort instead of celebrating Halloween. The festivities were suspended again in 1943 but reinstated in 1944 when the war ended.

Over time, Anoka’s Halloween events moved away from Halloween night so residents were home for the trick-or-treaters. New traditions began, including haunted houses, royalty coronations, celebrity appearances, Pumpkin Bowl football games, and house decorating. As the Halloween Capital of the World continues to defend its title, the celebration remains ever-evolving and expanding, providing a month’s worth of Halloween fun every October.

For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.

Women will be in the spotlight at the 6th annual Cine Latino film festival, which will take place November 8-11 at the Film Society’s St. Anthony Main Theatre Screen No. 3. Of the 13 features and 13 shorts to be presented this year, nine are directed by women. Three features by male directors tell women’s stories.

The opening night film on November 8 is “Roma,” from Oscar-winning Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”). Centered on a young domestic worker for a family in a middle-class Mexico City neighborhood in the early 1970s, a time of political turmoil, it’s a love letter to the women who raised him. “Roma” won top prize at the 2018 Venice Film Festival and is Mexico’s submission for best foreign-language film to the 2019 Oscars.

Three features have women directors. Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” which chronicles the origins of the Colombian drug trade through the story of an indigenous Wayuu family, is Colombia’s submission to the Oscars. Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada’s “Miriam Lies” is a Caribbean coming-of-age tale centered around a fraught quinceañera. “The Chambermaid,” the debut feature from director Lila Avilés, is about a young chambermaid at a luxurious Mexico city hotel who seeks a better life. Lead actress Gabriela Cartol will be attending.

Among the six women-directed shorts is Mariel Sosa’s “Máxima, This Land of Mine,” about an indigenous Andean family who battles a mining company, and Mayra Veliz’s “Far from Home,” in which a Japanese teenager lost in Mexico City gets help from a local boy.

[cms_ad:x100]Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses,” Paraguay’s 2019 Oscars submission, and Arturo Infante’s “The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garciá” have women as their subjects. In “The Heiresses,” a lesbian couple’s settled partnership is strained by finances, new freedom and young love. Celeste Garcia’s extraordinary journey is an invitation from aliens to visit their planet.

Other films that caught our eye include Javier Fesser’s “Champions,” Spain’s box-office smash and 2019 Oscars submission that features a cast of actors with intellectual disabilities. Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows” stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Aitor Arreg and Jon Garaño’s “Giant,” about a young man who grows to enormous size and the brother who exploits him, won 10 Goya awards, Spain’s Oscars. “Rubén Blades Is Not My Name” is a look at the life and legacy of musician, actor and politician Blades as he begins a new chapter in his life. He ran for president of Panama in 1994 and served as minister of tourism from 2004-09. This film is Panama’s Oscars entry.

All films are shown with English subtitles. New this year: ¡Viva Kid Flicks! This Saturday-morning program of animated, documentary, and live-action films from Mexico is a partnership with the New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Immediately after the festival, five of the films will return for encore presentations. FMI including trailers, times, and tickets.

The picks

Thursday at Orchestra Hall: Meet a Musician: Charles Lazarus. A member of the Minnesota Orchestra’s brass section, trumpeter Lazarus is usually seated way at the back during concerts. This event, held in the Target Atrium, brings him a lot closer. It includes a buffet dinner and a presentation by Lazarus, with music. Because he’s also a jazz artist, it will include an extra hour with Lazarus and his trio. 6 p.m. happy hour (drink ticket included), 6:30 presentation. Ends at 9 p.m. FMI and tickets ($45). Limited to 125. This event is part of the popular Meet a Musician/ACCENT series from the Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra. Future artists include composer Libby Larsen (March 7), violinist Susie Park (April 4) and clarinetist Timothy Zavadil (June 6).

Friday and Saturday at the Walker: Frederick Wiseman’s “Monrovia, Indiana.” Over a career spanning half a century, documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has found almost everything interesting. Through his democratic eye, we’ve seen a state hospital for the criminally insane, a Benedictine monastery, a primate research center, a state legislature, a hospital’s ICU, the American Ballet Theatre, the New York Public Library, and – in what has become a sort of Wiseman mini-series – various small towns in America. “Monrovia, Indiana” is his latest immersive look at a place most people wouldn’t think of filming. It’s also a window into today’s rural, mid-American way of life. Wiseman’s films can, um, go on; the longest, “Near Death,” clocks in at 358 minutes. “Monrovia” is a mere 143 minutes. 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($10/8).

Friday through Sunday: The SPCO: Bach’s “Saint John Passion.” Early music expert and artistic partner Jonathan Cohen leads the SPCO in a rare performance of Bach’s magnificent oratorio, Written for Good Friday in 1724, it describes the events leading up to Christ’s crucifixion. The SPCO will be joined by six vocal soloists and Minnesota choral artists The Singers – more than 70 vocalists in all. Which should be thrilling. Sunday’s concert will stream live starting at 2 p.m. The Friday performance (8 p.m.) is at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Both Saturday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.) are at the Ordway Concert Hall. Best bet: the Cathedral. FMI and tickets ($12-50; kids and students free).

For 1,000 years, they lay undisturbed under blankets of silt at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Now they’re collecting frequent flier miles. Statues colossal and small, coins, jewelry, bronzes, household items and ritual objects from Egypt have arrived in Minneapolis via St. Louis after stops in Zurich, London and Paris.

All are part of “Egypt’s Sunken Cities,” an exhibition that will open Nov. 4 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and continue through April 14. From here, it will go to Massachusetts and Colorado.

Most of the 250-plus items on display were discovered by French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team while exploring Aboukir Bay near the city of Alexandria. They found two lost cities: Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion. Canopus was home to a huge temple. Thonis-Heracleion, a city with two names – one Egyptian, one Greek – was a center of trade and a place where both civilizations met and merged.

Goddio has been called “the marine ‘Indiana Jones.’” The grandson of a seafarer, and the founder and president of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, he has spent much of his life excavating shipwrecks and, more recently, an area the size of Paris beneath the sea. His excavations are noncommercial and carried out with national authorities and a team of experts. In person, he comes across as a man who’s passionate about his work and astounded by his own discoveries.

[cms_ad:x100]The show is a mind-blower. It may not have the wow power of King Tut, and the only mummy is made of barley and clay. But it’s so surprising, so thoughtful and new – many of the objects hadn’t been seen or even imagined for centuries until Goddio found them – that you want to see everything.

And you can. Exhibition designer Michael Lapthorn has given each item breathing room. Mostafa Waziry, the garrulous secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, praised Mia’s installation at a press preview last week: “Here there is enough space so you can enjoy the pieces, piece by piece.”

1. The exhibition includes objects from Goddio’s excavation and works from Egyptian museums, found on land, that provide context. Wave symbols on the labels indicate pieces that were found underwater.

2. If you saw “Power and Beauty in China’s Last Dynasty” at Mia earlier this year, “Egypt’s Sunken Cities” is the opposite in terms of reading. The Robert Wilson-designed China show had zero reading. This show has a lot of reading. Labels and wall panels describe the objects you’re seeing, how they relate to each other and what it all means.

3. Two threads wind their way through the exhibition. One is the Mysteries of Osiris, secret rites related to the worship of the Egyptian god. The other is what Mia curator Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers calls “early globalization.”

4. The Mysteries were celebrated each year for 22 days in every temple in Egypt. Pharaoh was required to go to the temple at Thonis-Heracleion. Goddio discovered that temple and many items used in the Mysteries. As he said rather thrillingly during the press preview, “Only Pharoah and the priest of Osiris could see what you see here.”

The Mysteries are rooted in the colorful myth of Osiris, which was central to ancient Egyptian culture. Briefly: Osiris was married to his sister, Isis. Everyone loved him except their wicked, jealous brother, Seth. Seth killed Osiris, cut his body into 14 pieces and scattered them all over Egypt. Isis found them (well, most of them), put them back together (making the first mummy), reanimated Osiris and conceived a child, Horus.

To the ancient Egyptians, celebrating the Mysteries secured the order of the cosmos, the fertility and abundance of the land and the continuity of the dynasty.

5. The exhibition shows how Egypt mixed with Greece politically, religiously and aesthetically. Just as menus in Montreal are written in French and English, a small gold plaque dating from 221-204 BCE is written in Greek and hieroglyphs. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, Osiris was renamed Serapis. Statues from this time look more Greek than Egyptian. Serapis has long, curly hair and a curly beard.

[cms_ad:x101]The statue of the queen/goddess Arsinöe is reminiscent of the Venus de Milo but was carved a century earlier from much harder stone – by an Egyptian, since Greeks used softer stone. Grootaers called it a “beautiful example of the mixture of styles” and “extremely important to the history of art.”

About the statue, Goddio said, “When we saw that underwater, it was a kind of dream … This is the happiness you can have when you are doing an excavation.”

6. “Egypt’s Sunken Cities” is a ticketed exhibition. But you can see four spectacular pieces for free. Colossal Statue of a Queen and Colossal Statue of a Pharaoh, each more than 16 feet tall and weighing thousands of pounds, stand in Mia’s main lobby. Colossal Statue of the God Hapy is in the second-floor rotunda, where Doryphorus usually holds court.

7. If you’re wondering what it cost to bring “Egypt’s Sunken Cities” to Minneapolis, Mia isn’t telling. But one article about the St. Louis show mentioned $2 million, and another $4 million. So – somewhere around there?

“Egypt’s Sunken Cities” opens Sunday, Nov. 4. FMI and tickets (prices vary). See it free on Third Thursday (Nov. 15, 6-9 p.m.). The film “Swallowed by the Sea: Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Lost City” will screen most Fridays every hour from 10:15 a.m. until 7:15 p.m. Those screenings are free.

Heather Bray knows the pros and cons of her Minneapolis restaurant’s location all too well.

The good: The small, American-style eatery called The Lowbrow is tucked between local businesses in the heart of the city’s Kingfield neighborhood on Nicollet Avenue, giving it a down-to-earth feel featuring lots of comfort food and craft beer.

The bad: She can’t serve Manhattans, margaritas or other cocktails at customers’ request — thanks to century-old language in Minneapolis code that allows restaurants only in certain areas of the city to sell hard liquor. The Lowbrow, like about 70 others in neighborhoods across Minneapolis, is limited to offering wine and beer.

“It’s a really unhip situation,” Bray says. “Minneapolis is a hip town, and we have all these old-school, prohibition-style rules.”

[cms_ad:x100]That’s why she joined a group of Minneapolis restaurant owners pushing to lift the prohibition via a citywide ballot measure, a campaign called “Vote Yes on 1.”

The question for voters — “Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to remove from the City Charter the area and spacing requirements pertaining to liquor licenses?” — would (if approved) eliminate the boundaries that restrict liquor to restaurants within seven acres of commercially-zoned areas, also known as the “7-acre rule.”

Supporters say the amendment would make the city’s liquor-licensing system fairer. And opponents? That might be the strongest piece of evidence for just how antiquated the current language is: No group or public figure has come out against changing it.

A brief history of Minneapolis booze laws

It was about 140 years ago when state lawmakers made the first rules for where in Minneapolis people could sell — and not sell — liquor.

They deemed several blocks along the downtown riverfront, as well as Northeast and Cedar-Riverside, OK for bars, based on the rationale that police could easily get around those areas by foot. Those so-called “liquor patrol limits” eventually included hundreds of saloons, and the city’s influx of immigrants built a beer-drinking, booze-loving identity in those areas that prevails today.

Then came Prohibition. After Minneapolis bars officially closed in 1920, people joined high-profile, underground rings of alcohol sales; made their own moonshine; or patronized casual mom-and-pop speakeasies. When that era ended 13 years later, with the federal government’s decision to repeal the 18th amendment, officials re-enacted the same liquor patrol limits in Minneapolis from before.

“There was always this idea that neighborhoods would be dry and if you wanted liquor, you needed to go downtown,” said charter commissioner Matt Perry, who is also president of the Southwest Business Association and introduced the charter amendment.

But throughout the years, some homeowners in the city’s quieter, residential areas feared city leaders allowing bars everywhere in Minneapolis — and bringing with them loud partiers and crime. They resisted bigger geographical boundaries for the patrol limits and fought against looser restrictions to alcohol laws.

It wasn’t until 1959 that a voter-approved change to Minneapolis charter expanded the boundaries downtown, as well as along Franklin and Hennepin avenues. Then, in 1974, the public overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to get rid of liquor patrol limits all together. But officials also began putting rules in their place. Among the new guidelines: The 7-acre rule.

[cms_ad:x101]“I’m not sure where these ideas came in. It didn’t make sense to me. Bar owners could have proposed it,” said Charter Commission Chair Barry Clegg. “Minneapolis is unique in that it has big chunks of charter that deal with liquor,” since many Minnesota cities deal with liquor laws through ordinances.

And yet, even now, some neighborhood restaurants, including at least one nearby Bray’s, can legally serve cocktails. That’s because owners with enough time and money can go to the state Legislature and request special liquor licenses. That work, which often requires hiring a lobbyist, can cost upwards of $20,000, according to the Vote Yes on 1 campaign.

“If you’re well-funded and have a friendly state Representative, you can propose your own legislation to get a liquor license,” said Clegg, describing how one state lawmaker introduced a bill to reform the process last session, but it died quickly. “It was basically warning Minneapolis to fix its legislation.”

Recent changes

In recent years, elected leaders at both the state and local level have ushered in a new era of looser alcohol laws. In 2011, Gov. Mark Dayton signed the “Surly Bill,” allowing breweries and taprooms to sell beer on site for the first time. Then, last year, the state lifted the century-old prohibition on Sunday alcohol sales. (Municipalities can decide for themselves if, or to what extent, they allow the change. Many towns are deciding with ballot measures this election.)

In Minneapolis, though, the 2018 campaign is a sequel to restaurant owners’ push in 2014 to change requirements for food-to-alcohol sales ratios. Before that initiative, restaurants had different requirements depending on their location, and voters overwhelmingly agreed to get rid of the rule.

Now is a “challenging climate” for restaurants in Minneapolis, she said, though voters’ decision to amend charter this year could offset those new costs. Her menu right now has just a handful of mixed drinks with beer or wine as bases, as well as Bloody Marys made with saké. A longer list, she said, could give customers more options and raise the total of checks. “It makes a lot of sense.”

The details

Minneapolis City Council members are already working on an ordinance to regulate the new liquor licenses in neighborhood eateries, pending the outcome of the Nov. 6 election. A committee passed the policy framework unanimously last week, and the full Council could consider the idea Friday.

“We believe in allowing liquor in the same environment in addition to beer and wine  isn’t going to impact patrons or neighbors,” said Council Member Linea Palmisano. “Should this ballot measure pass, our small-business team intends to update procedures and give notices,” to restaurants about the new option quickly. 

Because it involves liquor, state law requires a 55 percent majority for the measure to pass. If that happens, the new language would take effect Dec. 7, meaning all restaurants would shortly after have the option of applying for licenses to serve alcohol.

“The reality is, America has evolved; our dining and restaurant culture has evolved greatly,” said Charlie Broder, who owns two bars and an Italian restaurant in the city’s Fulton neighborhood. “This could provide an opportunity for everybody to play on the same playing field.”

Over the past decade, Rose has led the Knights orchestra collective, International Contemporary Ensemble, Arco Collaborative and the Lark play development center, all based in New York, through significant transitions. As a consultant, she has helped to expand EarShot, the national orchestra program for emerging composers, and guided groups such as the Talea Ensemble and Orchestra of St. Luke’s through organizational and staff changes. She has been an ACF board member since 2018. She’s also a violinist.

“The American Composers Forum’s commitment to connecting composers and communities and to nurturing the rich ecosystem that supports composers links to my own experience and passions,” Rose said in a statement. LeBaron praised Rose’s “visionary and collaborative spirit, along with her substantial experience in advising, developing, and strengthening dynamic new music ensembles.”

Rose will succeed John Nuechterlein, who announced his retirement in April after 15 years. ACF will host an open-house retirement party for Nuechterlein on Dec. 6. Rose will move to the Twin Cities from New York. She’ll begin her new position on Jan. 1, 2019.

Founded in 1973 by Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus, formerly the Minnesota Composers Forum, ACF supports the work of living composers and develops new markets for their music. Its 2,000 members include composers and performers, presenters and organizations, individuals and institutions who work in virtually every musical genre. ACF programming reaches composers and communities in all 50 states. Its Innova Recordings is the premier label for American new music.

“Sonic Youth” film out, “Bathtubs Over Broadway” film in at Sound Unseen

Looking on the bright side, there are a lot of Broadway fans in the Twin Cities.

Sound Unseen, our annual festival of films on music, has pulled “Sonic Youth: 30 Years of Daydream Nation” from the lineup. Filmmaker Lance Bangs was scheduled to appear. In its place: “Bathtubs Over Broadway.”

[cms_ad:x100]Dava Whisenant’s award-winning film tracks “Late Show With David Letterman” comedy writer Steve Young as he pursues his obsession: industrial musical stage productions and recordings from the 1950s-70s. These were million-dollar productions for companies and businesses that the public never saw, staged in the service of insurance policies, burgers and dog chow.

Sound Unseen director Jim Brunzell said in a statement, “As much as we looked forward to screening ‘Sonic Youth: 30 Years of Daydream Nation’ and welcoming Mr. Bangs … we couldn’t agree on terms … I happen to think audiences will fall in love with ‘Bathtubs Over Broadway.’” Brunzell saw it and liked it at the Tribeca Film Festival. Like most films in Sound Unseen, this will be a Minnesota premiere.

Sound Unseen will take place Nov. 14-18, mostly at the Trylon. FMI and tickets.

VocalEssence: Singing with the stars

VocalEssence – the choral music organization founded by Philip Brunelle, now celebrating its 50th anniversary year – is making friends in high places. First they sang with the Rolling Stones. Then they opened for Idina Menzel on Nicollet Mall during Super Bowl Live – in December, brrrr.

On Friday, they’ll sing four songs with Josh Groban at the Xcel as part of his Bridges tour, where Menzel will be a special guest. The songs will include Groban’s signature, “Raise Me Up.”

The concert will begin at 8 p.m. FMI and tickets (start at $55).

The picks

Another Thursday pile-up. It is not our fault that so many things happen on Thursdays.

Tonight at the Capri: First Thursday Films @ the Capri: “Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story.” Filmmaker John Whitehead will attend this special screening of a film that debuted at MSPIFF during the 2018 snowstorm. If you missed it then, try again. Featuring the Grammy-winning bluegrass trio, it tells the story of how African and European Americans collaborated to create this earliest form of American popular music. Co-presented with the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul and the Minnesota Historical Society. 7 p.m. FMI, trailer and tickets ($5). A discussion with Whitehead will follow, moderated by the Film Society’s Craig Lawrence Rice.

Tonight at the Electric Fetus: “Prince: Before the Rain” book launch. Photographer Allen Beaulieu worked with Prince from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. He was always at Prince’s side, camera in hand, shooting album covers, promo photos and live performances on tour. This book is a big, full-color photo album of images from the “Dirty Mind,” “Controversy” and “1999” era. We’d call it a page-turner except you’ll want to linger on every spread. Jim Walsh wrote the lengthy, luscious introduction, Dez Dickerson the forward. The book also includes reminiscences from Bobby Z, André Cymone and more. 7-9 p.m.: Book talk with Beaulieu, Dickerson and Walsh. 8-9 p.m.: Signing with music by Curtiss A. Free and open to the public.

Friday and Saturday at Orchestra Hall: Vänskä Conducts Mahler’s Seventh. The magnificent Mahler, performed without intermission before the Orchestra records it for the Swedish label BIS. Friday’s concert will be broadcast live by Classical MPR (KSJN 99.5 FM in the Twin Cities). After both performances, Vänskä will sign copies of the orchestra’s previous Mahler CDs in the lobby. Having recorded all the Sibelius symphonies (and won a Grammy), all the Beethoven symphonies and all the Beethoven piano concertos, the orchestra is halfway through the Mahlers. If you think that’s business as usual for American orchestras (or any orchestras) these days, read Terry Blain’s article for the Star Tribune. 8 p.m. both nights. FMI and tickets ($12-97).

Sunday at MacPhail: The Bakken Trio: Three Bs. The esteemed chamber music ensemble opens its 2018-19 season, “By the Numbers,” with Bach’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 and Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor. The two sonatas, which transformed the role of the keyboard in chamber music, will be followed by the string quartet, complete with its original final movement, the Grand Fugue. To co-artistic director Stephanie Arado, the three composers are a sacred trinity that has guided her musical journey. With Arado and Natsuki Kumagai on violin, Pitnarry Shin on cello, Korey Konkol on viola and Timothy Lovelace on piano. In MacPhail’s lovely Antonello Hall. 4 p.m. FMI and tickets ($25-15).

Where will you spend Election Night? Under the covers in the fetal position is one option. Watching returns at home is another, with a dog in your lap. Remember Barry ZeVan, the Weatherman? He’ll be at Crooners, singing songs and telling stories. (ZeVan spent two years as a singing cast member of “The Perry Como Show.”) And there’s always your local bar.

Or you can go to the newly (and beautifully) renovated Parkway Theater, where the Theater of Public Policy will hold its signature “election night party for people without a party.” It will be funny. And it will be bipartisan.

Co-founded by Gustavus Adolphus alums Tane Danger and Brandon Boat, launched at HUGE Theater in 2011, T2P2 combines improv comedy with what they call “hard-thinky stuff” – conversations with experts about big issues that affect our lives, like politics, education, road construction, religion, public utilities and the minimum wage. They invite people from both sides to the table and treat everyone with respect. No screaming, shouting or name-calling. You laugh, you learn something and you leave a bit more hopeful that the world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket.

Oh, but that sounds so serious. This will be fun, no matter which side of the aisle you’re on. There will be music by T2P2 house band Dennis Curley and the Explainers. There will be sketch and improv comedy. Lots of comedy. Results of key races in Minnesota and beyond will be projected on the Parkway’s screen in splashy graphics. A bipartisan panel of experts will react to the results. The panel will include Sarah Walker, founder of the MN Second Chance Coalition; Brian McDaniel, longtime Republican lobbyist and Wrong About Everything co-host; and Naomi Kritzer, a political blogger famous for writing profiles/explainers of basically every local race. And maybe others TBD.

[cms_ad:x100]On the night of the last presidential election, T2P2 held its party at the Bryant-Lake Bowl. We were there, and it was a class act, despite the shock and disappointment some people were feeling. That’s why this gets our vote. Also, the Parkway has a bar. Doors at 7 p.m., program at 8. FMI. Free and open to the public.

The picks

Opens tonight at the Lab Theater: The Moving Company: “The 4 Seasons.” The Moving Company’s show before this, “Speechless,” was one of the best things we saw and heard in 2017. (It returned for another run in 2018.) Their latest devised work – conceived by Stephen Epp, Nathan Keepers and Dominique Serrand, influenced by Chekhov –  features a hotel cleaning crew in a world on the brink of change. The music is by Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla. With Heidi Bakke, Joy Dolo and Epp, directed by Serrand. 7:30 p.m. FMI and tickets ($10-38). Ends Dec. 2.

Sunday at the Dakota: Cameron Graves Trio. Best known outside of L.A. as the pianist for Kamasi Washington – he’s all over Washington’s “Epic” album – Graves released his debut album, “Planetary Prince,” earlier this year. It’s a work of boundless energy and imagination, very exciting to hear. Rolling Stone described Graves as “the house pianist for the party at the end of the universe, pulling in signals from John Coltrane, J Dilla, Meshuggah and points beyond.” 7 p.m. FMI and tickets ($25-35).

Monday at the Parkway: Rafiq Bhatia: “Breaking English.” Guitarist Bhatia performed the world premiere of this work – commissioned by Liquid Music and the Walker – in the McGuire Theater last October before a sold-out house. It has now been released as an album, and Bhatia’s tour will bring him back to the Twin Cities. In this live set, improvisational jazz will meet electronic experimentation – and visual artwork by Minneapolis-based collaborators Michael Cine and Hal Lovemelt. The New York Times has called Bhatia “one of the most intriguing figures in music today.” With Ian Chang and Jack Hill. Opening set by WILLS. FMI and tickets ($16 advance, $20 door).

Monday at Open Book: Wing Young Huie: “Chinese-ness.” If you missed the official book launch at the History Center on Tuesday here’s another chance to see and hear the new McKnight Distinguished Artist talk about his latest book, in which he explores race, authenticity, cultural uncertainty, fitting in – and sometimes switches clothes with Chinese men, as if trying on other lives he might have lived. 7 p.m. in the Target Performance Hall up the stairs. Free.