Wintering Well: Thrive // Wintering Well Morning Flow Yoga + Wellness Workshop 

Facilitated by Heidi Zimmer and Rebeka Ndosi
Part of the Wintering Well Series, sponsored by Wild Rice Retreat

Feb 4, 2024
The Market at Malcolm Yards

This 60-minute session will begin with a grounding and inspired all-levels yoga class led by Heidi Zimmer (Founder, Wild Rice Retreat) and breathwork and meditation by Rebeka Ndosi (Founder, Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary)—followed by a discussion on the blessings of the winter season to rest and replenish your spirit. Heidi will conclude the session and series by sharing wisdom, tips, and resources used at Wild Rice Retreat for truly “wintering well” and inviting opportunities for connection and conversation among event participants. 

Please bring a yoga mat and water bottle and plan on wearing comfortable clothing.

Please note that photographs and video footage will be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

About the Facilitators:

Heidi Zimmer, Founder of Wild Rice Retreat, is committed to a holistic and integrative experience allowing each guest to ground themselves in nature, tap into their creative spirit and connect to their body and breath’s inner  wisdom and strength. She creates intentional, safe spaces for people to show up and be met wherever they are. For some that means time to explore and create; for others it means to move, grieve, let go; and others to simply rest, celebrate, and find joy.  

As an accomplished compassionate leader, Heidi also provides wisdom and  guidance for gathering courage, tools for moving through transitions with grace, and building resilience. Heidi’s open-hearted and joyful approach to yoga and personal development is accessible and approachable.  
Certification: Trained by Tanya Boigenzahn at Devanadi School of Yoga in Minneapolis, MN, Heidi has been practicing and studying yoga for more than 20 years and is 200hr RYT Certified through Yoga Alliance. 

Rebeka Ndosi, M.S., L.Ac., is Founder and Keeper of the Vision for Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary, a nature-based emerging healing retreat near the North Shore of Gichigami (Lake Superior). As a Sanctuary and Homecoming, Maji ya Chai will center rest, rejuvenation, joy and thriving for Black, Native and People of Color across generations. Rebeka is a board licensed acupuncturist and herbalist; a teacher and teacher trainer of child, youth, adult and family yoga and meditation; a certified Community Coach in Healing Justice; and a certified Soul Answer Healer. In 2016, Rebeka co-founded the Youth Healing Justice Network, and in 2017, she created Warriors of Light™ Card Deck: Tools & Techniques for Feeling Healthy, Happy, and Whole featuring youth of the African Diaspora. Dedicated to building a culture and practice of soul, mind and body wellbeing for youth of color and the adults in their everyday spaces and places, her work recognizes, honors, and nurtures the individual and collective wisdom that we hold. Rebeka’s practice is driven by the firm belief that lasting, revolutionary, change and healing starts from within. Learn more about Rebeka’s work at www.rebeka.org. 

About the Wintering Well Series:

Wild Rice Retreat’s Wintering Well series, specially curated for The Great Northern, focuses on harnessing the winter months as a time of wellness. The three-part series will incorporate guided breathwork, meditation, yoga, wellness, and bathing practices to support your health and wellbeing during the winter months.

The series is inspired by the wintering well principles of Wild Rice Retreat in Bayfield, WI—the North’s award winning nature-based wellness resort, with a special focus on supporting the BIPOC experience in healing spaces and the great outdoors of the North.  

All proceeds from these events will further the mission of Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary—a Black-led nature based healing retreat being developed on Minnesota's North Shore.

The three-part series will incorporate different wellness and healing practices into the sessions to help you restore, rejuvenate, and thrive in the winter season.

BIPOC Community Steam at The Great Northern Sauna Village 2024

Hosted by Melanin in Motion’s Anthony Taylor and Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary’s Rebeka Ndosi

Feb 3, 2024
The Market at Malcolm Yards
Tickets: $55

Come early for Wintering Well: Heal // Wellness, Rest and Healing: Lessons from the Northwoods panel discussion led by Rebeka Ndosi of Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary inside Malcolm Yards and stay for a community-centered sauna experience. Visitors can flow between The Great Northern Sauna Village’s 22 saunas and try aromatherapy steam hosted by Rebeka Ndosi. 

Before, during, or after the sessions, attendees are invited to relax fireside in the Room & Board vignettes under ambient lights to enjoy time with companions, or slide up to the We Are Water MN’s Water Bar to rehydrate and reconnect with our most precious resource and the relationships—both natural and human—it sustains. Malcolm Yards will be open just feet away to serve you a specialty Great Northern cocktail or another festive libation or fare.

Please note: Sauna participants must be 13+ years of age at the time of their sauna experience during. Attendees under age 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Parents are welcome to bring children ages 5-13 during our Family Day Steam Sessions programming on Sunday mornings. 

How to prepare: Bring easy-to-slip-on/off sandals or flip-flops, a towel, a robe to wear to and from the saunas, and a water bottle to stay hydrated. Bathing suits are required, and we recommend coming already dressed to maximize sauna time. Please note that Malcolm Yards requires shoes and either a robe or clothes to be worn indoors.

Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

Outdoor furniture generously provided by Room & Board.

Walk & Talk: North Mississippi Regional Park

Feb 3, 2024
North Mississippi Regional Park
Tickets: Free

Walk & Talks are popular small-group guided tours led by local subject-matter and parks enthusiasts who share their insights into intriguing places throughout Minneapolis Parks. This winter, attendees will embark on a  90-minute walk that explores the serene trails of North Mississippi Regional Park. A local park expert will guide this walk along park trails and explore the Kroening Nature Center and the new Nature Playscape built in 2021. Located in North Minneapolis, hidden behind the I-94 freeway wall, North Mississippi Regional Park offers spectacular views of the Mississippi River and the surrounding woods and prairie.

In partnership with Minneapolis Parks Foundation.

Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

About Minneapolis Parks Foundation

Since 2003, the Minneapolis Parks Foundation has raised more than $29 million for transformative parks and programming in Minneapolis parks by aligning philanthropic investment and community vision. As the lead philanthropic partner to the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, the Parks Foundation champions equitable investment in Minneapolis parks through the RiverFirst Initiative and Reimagining the Civic Commons, securing community support for such next generation parks projects as Water Works, Great Northern Greenway Overlook, and the upcoming renovation of North Commons Park.

Walker Art Center: First Free Saturday Festival of Snow

Feb 3, 2024
Walker Art Center
Tickets: Free

There’s no snow on the ground, but we’re rooting for winter with art-making and cozy indoor fun, presented in conjunction with Walker Art Center. 

Free First Saturday features free gallery admission on the first Saturday of every month. Tickets are available in advance online and on-site on the event day from the Main Lobby desk. Free admission 10 am–5 pm; activities 10 am–3 pm. 

Activity Information: 

• Silverwinds Flute Choir Performances, 10–10:30 am and 12–12:30 pm  
  Listen in as members of the Hill-Murray School Silverwinds Flute Choir perform a selection of favorite film themes and contemporary pieces.  

• Douala Soul Collective DJ Sets, 10:45–11:45 am and 12:45–1:45 pm  
  Dance it out to funk, reggae, cumbia, disco and more, as Douala Soul Collective spins tracks from their all-vinyl collection for DJ sets that will bring out all your best moves. 

• Tour for Families, 11:30 am / Tour for General Audiences, 1 pm 
  Join a Walker educator for a family-friendly guided tour of artworks on view in the galleries at 11:30 am (40 min.), or take a guided tour for general audiences at 1 pm (60 min.). Tours meet at the Main Lobby desk, five minutes before the tour start time. Tours explore a selection of artworks across current exhibitions and include interactive discussion. 

• Art-making Activity: Snow Ball, 10 am – 3 pm  
  No snow outside? Create your own mini snow ball pompom using yarn!  

• Art-making Activity: Frozen Fishing, 10 am – 3 pm  
  Use your imagination to add to a collaborative paper ice fishing village and fill the lake with collaged fish!   

• J.K. Ping-Pong Club, 10 am – 3 pm  
  One part art installation and one part sport, Ping-Pong Club by Július Koller was launched in the 1960s and used ping pong to encourage community gathering and self-organized play. Remounted for the exhibition Multiple Realties, families are invited to grab paddles and volley together. 

• Short Film: Musical Socks, 10 am – 3 pm  
  Stop by the Bentson Mediatheque to watch a family-friendly short film! An eager rabbit named Darko is excited to perform at the town’s winter festival, but needs some help discovering his special talent. The 10-minute film will loop between 10 am and 3 pm.  

• Visit the Walker Art Center Library, 10 am–3 pm 
  The Walker’s library is open! Explore the stacks and find inspiration in the Walker Library’s collection of artful books. The library entrance is through the Art Lab. 

This program will be documented with photography. By attending, you consent to have your image documented. 

First Look: Arctic Highways

Feb 2, 2024
American Swedish Institute
Tickets: $25

Be the first to experience Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous People and Mygration at this evening preview party.

First Look attendees will enjoy a special conversation about Arctic Highways and Mygration moderated by Angela Two Stars, Director of Arts at All My Relations Arts, and featuring exhibition artists Tomas Colbengtson, Stina Folkebrant, Courtney Leonard, and Karen Goulet. Following the conversation, attendees can embark upon an exhibition tour led by the artists.

Indigenous musician Keith Bedeau and his Spirit Boy drum group will provide music to open and close First Look.

Visitors will also have an opportunity to make a craft inspired by the exhibition. Bar service and light fare will be available for purchase.

Schedule of Events:

5:30 Doors Open
6:00 Spirit Boy Drum Group and Opening Remarks
6:30 Artist Panel
7:30 Chat with the artists in the galleries
8:30 Spirit Boy Drum Group and Closing Remarks
9:00 Event Ends

In partnership with American Swedish Institute.

Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

About the Exhibition
Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous People
February 3–May 26, 2024
 
This February, the American Swedish Institute will host Arctic Highways, a special exhibition of art and duodji handcrafts by 12 Indigenous artists from Sápmi (the Sámi people's own name for their traditional territory) and North America that shares stories of Indigenous People who live on different continents yet regard themselves as kindred spirits. The artists tell their own stories, through their own forms of expression, inviting opportunities to explore what it means to be unbounded—not just for Indigenous People, but for all of us. Curated by Indigenous artists Tomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, Dan Jåma, and Britta Marakatt-Labba, Arctic Highways will include their own works alongside those of artists Matti Aikio, Marja Helander, Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Olof Marsja, Máret Ánne Sara, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Maureen Gruben, and Meryl McMaster. The exhibition opens Feb 3, 2024, at the American Swedish Institute. Visit asimn.org for more information.

Broken Ice: Indigenous Sonic Salve from the North

Feb 1, 2024
First Avenue
Tickets: $25

Broken Ice: Indigenous Sonic Salve from the North brings northern Indigenous bands to First Avenue’s main stage as part of The Great Northern 2024. The lineup, curated by Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit and Unangax̂), will feature Alaska-based multidisciplinary performer AKU-MATU (Iñupiaq); an expansive powwow performance by powerhouse group Bizhiki comprised of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe), Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe), and S. Carey, grounded within a visual landscape by Finn Ryan—followed by Galanin’s Sub Pop Records band Ya Tseen as the headliner with specially commissioned video work by artist Jaida Grey Eagle (Oglala Lakota). The evening will be hosted by award-winning Minneapolis journalist Kate Nelson (Tlingit). Chef Brian Yazzie (Diné/Navajo) of Intertribal Foodways will be present with his Nativ Bowl pop-up, serving dishes with Indigenous ingredients.

About the Artists

Nicholas Galanin is one of the most vital voices in contemporary art. Born in Sheet’ka (Sitka, Alaska), Galanin is Tlingit and Unangax̂; he creates from his perspective as an Indigenous man. His work calls for an accounting of the damages done to land and life by unfettered capitalism while envisioning and advocating alternate possibilities. For the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, he excavated the shape of the shadow cast by the monumental statue of Captain James Cook, a call for the burial of monuments to violent histories, which ArtNEWS and Artsy called a defining work of 2020. Land Swipe—a painted deer hide that depicts the NYC subway map, marked with selected sites of police violence against Black youth—was called one of “the most important art moments in 2020” by The New York Times. His work spans sculpture, video, installation, photography, jewelry and music; advocating Indigenous sovereignty, racial, social, and environmental justice, for present, and future generations.

Indian Yard, his first album for Sub Pop, marks his debut with his band Ya Tseen (“be alive,” and a reference to his Tlingit name Yeil Ya Tseen), including Zak D. Wass and Otis Calvin III. Rich with emotional range and sharp awareness, Indian Yard explores love, desire, frustration, pain, revolution, and connection through the magnetic expressions of an Indigenous mind. The lusty electro-soul cascade of “Close the Distance,” the lithe funk frolic of “Get Yourself Together,” the insistent weight of “Back in That Time,” sung in Yupik: these 11 tracks put Galanin, Ya Tseen, and Indigenous art at large in a current musical conversation with the likes of Moses Sumney and TV on the Radio, FKA Twigs, and James Blake.

Allison Akootchook Warden (aka AKU-MATU) is an Iñupiaq poet, installation artist, and performance artist and a tribal member of the Native Village of Kaktovik. In 2022, her poem “we acknowledge ourselves” was featured in the Land Acknowledgements issue of Poetry Magazine, Alaska Quarterly Review published her poem “portal traveler,” and her poetry was part of Insidious Rising, a hyphen-labs project for Google Arts and Cultures. At the 2022 Time Based Arts Festival at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, she debuted “taigruaq,” a performance art piece with collaborator Aqqalu Berthelesen. She is the recipient of a 2019 United States Artist Fellowship in traditional arts, a 2022 Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship in interdisciplinary arts, a 2022 Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in music composition, a 2018 Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in new genre, and a 2018 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship in music. She is currently working on an album, writing poetry, and is scheduled to open her social practice installation The Inuit Futurism Center at the Anchorage Museum. She lives in a cabin in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Bizhiki: The ethereal vocals and visceral drumming of Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe) and Joe Rainey, Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe) blend harmoniously into the contemporary soundscape multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer S. Carey.

Expanding upon the collaborative energy of the Eaux Claires Music Festival, where Bizhiki first took shape, the performance is multidimensional and engrossing. Connecting the songs is a lyrical narrative in which Jennings and Rainey share pieces of the Anishinaabe experience around identity, loss, and revitalization, grounded within a visual landscape created by filmmaker Finn Ryan.

The talented performers’ diverse instrumentation—including powwow drums, percussion, drum programming, electric bass, synthesizers, guitars, piano, and vocals—expertly evoke the lived Anishinaabe experience in a unique format. Audiences will be welcomed to gather in an intimate community to connect experientially and emotionally to Native American culture, all through the crisp lens of art and collaboration.
 

Jaida Grey Eagle is an Oglala Lakota freelance documentary photographer  currently located in St. Paul, MN.  She is a member of the Women’s Photograph, Indigenous Photograph, and 400 Years Project. 

Jaida served as a Report for America Fellow with the Sahan Journal as a photojournalist. Jaida researched Native photography as a Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) Native American Fellow for the upcoming exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts titled In Our Hands: Native Photography From 1890 to Now in which her role evolved to co-curator on the project. 

Jaida is a co-producer on the Sisters Rising Documentary, which is the story of six Native American women reclaiming personal and tribal sovereignty in the face of ongoing sexual violence against Indigenous women in the United States and has recently received an Honorable Mention at the Big Sky Doc Festival. 

She holds her Bachelor of Fine Arts emphasizing Fine Art Photography from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

An Alaska Native Tlingit tribal member, Kate Nelson (host) is an award-winning writer and editor based in Minneapolis who focuses on amplifying important Native American change makers and issues. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Artful Living, a top independent boutique lifestyle magazine. She has interviewed such luminaries as Padma Lakshmi, actor Mo Brings Plenty, and chef Sean Sherman and written for publications including Esquire, ELLE, the BBC, The Daily Beast, Architectural Digest, W Magazine, Teen Vogue, Bustle, Andscape, and more. A lifelong storyteller, she's also an avid equestrian and a pop culture aficionado.
 

​​​​​​​Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

Thank you to the NEA Arts Challenge program, Marbrook Foundation, Solar Bear, and Native Sun for their support of this project.

This event is funded in part with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

A Winter’s Table

Feb 1, 2024
Mara Restaurant and Bar
Tickets: $295 (limited capacity)

As part of the five-month celebration of winter at Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis, consulting chef and restaurateur Gavin Kaysen and his Mara staff will collaborate with Swedish chef and Team USA culinary director Sebastian Gibrand on a Scandinavian menu and interactive culinary experience. This outdoor and indoor experience will kick off in the Hotel’s Nordic Village and extend into Mara with Akavit, canapés, a five-course meal and optional wine pairings to follow. Chefs Kaysen, Gibrand, Martin Morelli, Thony Yang, and Eddy Dhenin will make tableside appearances to connect with guests. 

In partnership with Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis.
 

About the Chefs

Gavin Kaysen is an award-winning chef known for his nationally recognized group of Minneapolis restaurants, including Spoon and Stable, Demi, and Bellecour Bakery at Cooks of Crocus Hill, as well as his leadership in the culinary profession.

From his earliest hospitality jobs in Minnesota, Gavin knew he wanted to become a chef. After graduating from the New England Culinary Institute, he worked around the world: for Robert Curry at Domaine Chandon in California, Marco Pierre White at L’Escargot in England, and at Auberge de Lavaux in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he met his wife, Linda. He found a home under Daniel Boulud in New York City, working his way up to Executive Chef and Director of Culinary Operations, where he was recognized as one of Food & Wine’s “Best New Chefs” in 2007. It was in this role that he opened Café Boulud at Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, beginning the lifelong respect for and connection to a similarly values-driven hospitality brand.

Ready to raise his two children outside of New York City, Gavin and his family moved to Minneapolis in 2013, where he founded Soigné Hospitality and opened his first restaurant, Spoon and Stable. For his impact in the region, he earned the “Best Chef: Midwest” award from the James Beard Award Foundation in 2018.

Sebastian Gibrand has a well-known competition background as former team captain for the Swedish national team, for the win in the Swedish tv show “Kockarnas kamp” and for his silver medal in Bocuse d’Or 2019, the world’s most prestigious cooking competition. Today Sebastian is part of the Team USA Bocuse d’Or 2025 as the Culinary Director. A highlight in his career so far has been the honorable task of being responsible for cooking the Nobel Prize dinner in December 2019.

Today he runs his own private dining company together with his colleague Robert Sjöberg and who has a background from Sweden’s first Michelin starred “organic” certified restaurant. His cooking approach has a tight, uncompromising focus on the individual ingredient – elevating its characteristics and bringing out its natural magic, with a polished technical finish.

Executive Chef Martín Morelli joined Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis in February 2022, bringing with him two decades of high-level culinary experience. He oversees the signature Italian restaurant and bar on the Hotel’s fourth floor pool plaza, in-room dining and all business and social events, while leading the culinary team.

Martín’s career began in his home country of Uruguay, following his graduation from the Escuela Superior de Hoteleria, Gastronomia y Turismo at the U.T., as the Commis Chef at the former Four Seasons Resort Carmelo. From 2003 to 2010, Martín dedicated his time to the resort, where he worked in such culinary roles as Commis Chef, Demi Chef de Partie, and Chef de Partie.

Originally from Montevideo, the arts and culture capital of Uruguay, Martín has always had an appreciation for avant-garde techniques while remaining loyal to his minimalist culinary roots. His innate creativity and enthusiasm for experimentation has led him through various kitchens in South, Central and North America. Martín artfully executes innovative menus showcasing the culinary vibrancy of the region.

Four Seasons Minneapolis Chef de Cuisine Thony Yang’s story starts in a small town in France. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to the Twin Cities. He worked in family restaurants until he was 21 and found he had an interest in cooking. The first member of his family to get a post-secondary education, he attended Schoolcraft College, then culinary school, where he graduated at the top of his class. 

One of his first culinary roles was with Takashi Yagihashi, a renowned Chicago chef. Thony worked at his namesake Japanese-French fusion restaurant, then moved to his ramen restaurant, Slurping Turtle. Wanting to be closer to family, he started researching the Twin Cities culinary scene and found Gavin Kaysen. He set up a stage at Spoon and Stable (in which a chef spends some time working in a kitchen to see if it’s a good fit), and was hired in 2016. From there, he made his mark on all of Kaysen’s restaurants, moving to Bellecour before becoming sous chef at Demi, and eventually Chef de Cuisine at Four Seasons Minneapolis.

Four Seasons Executive Pastry Chef Eddy Dhehin’s love of cooking started as a kid in Saintes, a historic town in southwest France. He initially set out for a career in IT, but a passion for food soon took over, and he enrolled in culinary school. He found himself not only drawn to pastries, but the art of hospitality as well. 

As both Executive Sous Chef and Executive Pastry Chef at several different Four Seasons hotel and resort locations — including Four Seasons Resort Anguilla and Four Seasons Resort Nevis — his edible works of art have received many accolades. He earned Best Pastry Counter in Bali, garnered a nod for 10 Best Desserts in the Asia Pacific and won the Grand Marnier Young Restauranteur competition in Paris. He also won a spot in the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort Top Chef competition, where he was one of five pastry chefs to compete on stage in Las Vegas. 
 

​​​​​​​Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

American Composers Forum’s McKnight Composer Fellows Concert

Featuring Mychal “MMYYKK” Fisher, deVon Russell Gray, LaAerial, and Troy Rogers (aka Robot Rickshaw)

Jan 31, 2024
Cedar Cultural Center
Tickets: $17

The Great Northern joins forces with American Composers Forum (ACF) to showcase ACF’s most recent cohort of Minnesota-based McKnight Composer Fellows: Mychal “MMYYKK” Fisher, deVon Russell Gray, LaAerial, and Troy Rogers (aka Robot Rickshaw). Each visionary artist will present 20 minutes of new music (to be announced). 

Copresented with American Composers Forum.

Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.
​​​​​

About the Artists
 

Mychal “MMYYKK” Fisher (he/him)
MMYYKK (pronounced “Mike”) is a visionary multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and producer based in Minneapolis, MN. With an eclectic sound at the intersections of soul, jazz, electro, and R&B, his music blends analog synthesis with neck-breaking rhythms, resulting in mesmerizing sonic alchemy. Recognized as the new high priest of neo-soul, MMYYKK’s understated tunes evoke D’Angelo strapped to a spaceship, drawing inspiration from the cosmic funk of Thundercat and Flying Lotus, and the finesse of Anderson .Paak and Stevie Wonder. His forthcoming project, “Midst of Things,” challenges societal norms, questioning American values, exploring the impact of technology and globalization, and addressing personal experiences of trauma and the resilience of the black community. MMYYKK aims to provoke conversation and engage listeners, using his voice as an instrument to create an inspiring and thought-provoking sonic journey.

deVon Russell Gray (he/him)
Who is deVon Russell Gray? A divinely guided multi-media social justice activist or a pantheistic audial alchemist? Central to his creative practice is the fundamental belief of starting from a place of “I know nothing” when approaching any new composition, performance, or creative endeavor. Embracing the idea that empty vessels receive new knowledge more efficiently, he constantly seeks a transformative death/rebirth process to expand his artistic horizons. Among other known knowns about this artist, Gray absorbs tremendous inspiration from the natural world, finding solace and reflection in the great outdoors. He cherishes moments of indulgence in eating, drinking, and merriment, and he possesses a deep appreciation for activities such as moon gazing, leaf peeping, and immersing himself in the world of cinema. In his downtime, he reluctantly participates in the commonplace mixed economy, feeling frustrated by its limitations and yearning for something different. In his uptime, he creates exceptional art while also taking every opportunity to integrate himself in tent camping adventures.

LaAerial (she/her)
Drawing inspiration from the depths of her soul and experiences, LaAerial calls herself a Purveyor of All Things Creative. Her multidisciplinary work dances across music, poetry, audio-visuals, and prose. She is a scholar holding three distinguished degrees in creative fields and has a body of work that stretches back to the 2000’s. Her career has included touring as a supporting vocalist and morphed into performance residencies in Asia. She has since found her voice as an independent creative. LaAerial is passionate about writing, lyricism, and visual art as an extension of musical expression. She has independently produced/composed four music projects to date and is a fan of concept albums. Her fifth release: ‘Some Come to Destroy’ will explore a range of topics, including addiction, colonization, and heartache. In addition to these works, LaAerial has self-published two books of poetry and is working on a memoir based on her life and travels.

Troy Rogers (aka Robot Rickshaw) (he/him)
Troy Rogers is deeply involved in the creation, performance, and dissemination of early 21st-century semi-nomadic robot herder’s music. His Robot Rickshaw was a human-driven cart full of musical robots designed for all-terrain performance scenarios ranging from guerrilla drive-by rapid-fire black-MIDI-burst-spewing dadaist street interventions to extended duration post-human dronecore therapy sessions. His instruments and performances joyfully teeter between mind-bending wonder and catastrophic failure, underscoring both a skepticism for the chances of contemporary civilization surviving its technological adolescence, and yet an unwavering belief in the power and potential in humans as amplifiers of low probabilistic states.

About the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program

Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s Arts & Culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.5 million annually to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit https://www.mcknight.org/programs/arts-culture/mcknight-artist-culture-bearer-fellowships/.
 

About the American Composers Forum

ACF supports and advocates for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We connect artists with collaborators, organizations, audiences, and resources. Through storytelling, publications, recordings, hosted gatherings, and industry leadership, we activate equitable opportunities for artists. We provide direct funding and mentorship to a broad and diverse field of music creators, highlighting those who have been historically excluded from participation.

Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. ACF frames our work with a focus on racial equity and includes within that scope, but does not limit to: diverse gender identities, musical approaches and perspectives, religions, ages, (dis)abilities, cultures, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and broad definitions of being “American.” Visit www.composersforum.org for more information.

MSP Film Series:
The Electric Indian

Wed, Jan 31, 7 pm
The Main Cinema
Tickets: $15

Hockey legend Henry Boucha was a former National Hockey League player, a U.S. Olympic Silver Medalist, and member of the Ojibwe Nation. The Electric Indian profiles his outstanding life and hockey career from early stardom to crushing defeat, and journey to healing.

The Electric Indian is a co-production of Twin Cities PBS and Vision Maker Media, with funding provided by the Minnesota Legacy Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and Manitou Foundation.

Director: Leya Hale | 2024 | 57 min | USA | Feature Documentary

Presented in partnership with MSP Film.

About the Filmmaker

Leya Hale comes from the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Diné Nations. She is a multiple regional Emmy award winning documentary producer for Twin Cities PBS. Her work brings visibility to Indigenous lifeways and issues impacting her community. She is best known for her feature films, The People’s Protectors and Bring Her Home, both distributed by PBS. In 2020, Leya was awarded the Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellowship for Indigenous Artists and Bring Her Home was selected to represent the US at INPUT 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. When not producing features, Leya works on a variety of short form content in efforts to highlight underrepresented stories within the upper Midwest region.

About MSP Film

MSP Film's mission is to inform and transform individuals and communities through the power of great cinema. MSP Film has spent the last six decades celebrating a myriad of cultures, countries and issues of collective local and global concern through film, believing in the potency of storytelling to move people, and to move people to action. Our widely recognized Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, Cine Latino, or daily screenings at The Main Cinema represent a diversity of perspectives and 100+ cultures and countries each year, providing unique platforms for learning and action through film and conversation.

K’óoben pop-up

Jan 30, 2024
Glass House
Tickets: $100

Food collective K’óoben (Mayan for “kitchen” or “stove”) is a collaboration between chefs Gustavo Romero (Oro by Nixta), José Alarcón (previously Centro, Vivir), and Noe Lara (Pints & Paddles), and mixologists Mike Hidalgo (Rumba), Daniel Guerrero (Colita), and Daniel D Torres (Rumba). They describe their work as “a space that belongs to everyone but does not belong to anyone—a sacred place for Mexican families, meeting point of collaboration and coexistence with family and friends, with one goal: to keep alive the roots of Mexican and Latin cuisine.” 

For this unique pop-up experience, the K’óoben collective has invited guest chefs Yia Vang (Union Hmong Kitchen, Vinai), Peter Bian and Linda Cao (Saturday Dumpling Co.), and Baaska Tegshbileg (Real Wasabi, Cobble Social House) to explore their immigrant experiences that shaped them and the Minnesota influences that define them today. Guests will be invited to sample mouthwatering dishes and specialty beverages at each of the six chef stations as they mingle and enjoy music with Samuel Sanchez & DJ Giaan and storytelling from the chefs themselves. 

Art Speaks: Celebrating the 2023 McKnight Fellows in Fiber Art 

Presented by Textile Center
Jan 30, 2024
Textile Center
Tickets: Free

Join us for an engaging conversation celebrating the work and vision of 2023 McKnight Fiber Art Fellows Marjorie Fedyszyn and Delina White in conjunction with an exhibition (more information to be announced) featuring their work at Textile Center Jan 16–Apr 6, 2024. These artists address sustainability and environmentalism through personal connection with their materials, technique, and the traditions which they hail from.

About the Fellows

Marjorie Fedyszyn addresses the universal experiences of loss and human vulnerability, and the palpable tension around it, through her sculptural practice in textiles. Careful attention to process and the inherent properties of materials informs her creative vocabulary for this work, which simultaneously expresses ideas from broad environmental concern to personal grief and introspection. Using traditional craft techniques such as paper-making, hand stitching, and felt-making, Fedyszyn’s forms and installations emerge as emotional histories that investigate ideas of control and the realms of the personal and the global. Her work has been exhibited regionally and throughout the US, including at the Silverwood Park Gallery in St. Anthony, Hopkins Center for the Arts, South Dakota Museum of Art, Duluth Art Institute, Sebastopol Arts Center in California, and the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY. Fedyszyn has been a Jerome Visual Arts Fellow and a Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grantee, and has received two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants to support her work. marjoriefedyszyn.com

Delina White is a Native apparel designer, beadwork artist, and enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Grounded in the traditional designs of the Great Lakes Woodland Anishinaabeg, her artist-designed fabrics utilize contemporary materials in her wearable works. As an intergenerational, cultural knowledge keeper, White communicates the values and beliefs of the original people of the Great Lakes Woodlands as passed from her grandmother and her grandmother before her, using apparel as a catalyst to widen approaches of learning, research, and creative exploration with her community. She has produced and participated in numerous fashion shows, including Northern Lights: A Native Nation Fashion Night in Minneapolis, the SW Association of Indian Arts fashion shows, and Walker Art Center’s 2Spirit Fashion Show. White was recognized as one of six Star Tribune 2019 Artists of the Year for her work with Hearts of Our People, Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ landmark exhibition, and was named a 2020 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow by the First Peoples Fund. She has also been recipient of a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and a US Artists Fellowship in Traditional Arts. iamanishinaabe.com

About the Fellowship

The intent of the McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists is to recognize and support talented Minnesota fiber and textile artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit. These fellowships are in support of individual artists who are at a career stage beyond emerging. Fiber Artists, as defined for the purposes of this fellowship, are artists who use textile and fiber arts materials, processes, histories, traditions, and/or sensibilities in their artistic practice throughout the conception, execution, and resolution of their work. The fellowships are funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by Textile Center.

About the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program

Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s Arts & Culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.5 million annually to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit https://www.mcknight.org/programs/arts-culture/mcknight-artist-culture-bearer-fellowships/.

About Textile Center

A national center for fiber art, Textile Center’s mission is to honor textile traditions, promote excellence and innovation, nurture appreciation, and inspire widespread participation in fiber art. Textile Center’s facility features fiber art galleries with rotating exhibitions, an artisan shop which supports working artists, a 300-seat auditorium, classrooms, and the Textile Center Pat O’Connor Library, one of the nation’s largest circulating textile libraries open to the public. Also included is the Ellen Erede Wells Dye Lab, the natural dye plant garden A Garden to Dye For, and staff offices. 

Winter Roast: Comedy from the North

Jan 29, 2024
Parkway Theater
Tickets: $40

In Minnesota, winter is our great equalizer. Winter Roast brings the heat we crave with belly laughs courtesy of Khadijah Cooper, Ali Sultan, Mary Mack, and Jenny Zigrino—a standout lineup of Midwest-born comics seen on Comedy Central, Colbert, and Drybar. 

About the Comedians

Ali Sultan saw his first stand-up comedian when he moved to America from Yemen at 15. He grew the desire to go on stage, but first, he needed to learn English. Ali became the first Yemeni-Ethiopian American to make a stand-up television network debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Ali has been on Comedy Central’s Hart of The City with Kevin Hart. He filmed his Half Hour comedy special in Dubai for Comedy Central Arabia. He represented Minnesota and won the Best in The Midwest competition at Gildas LaughFest. His albums Happy to Be Here and Funny First are available on Spotify and Sirius XM and have more than 1 million streams on Pandora. His last special from Drybar has over a million views on YouTube. Learn more at alisultancomedy.com.

A hybrid of Minnesota and Wisconsin (with a severe cheese dependency), comedian Mary Mack is a favorite on radio shows and podcasts around the country, including The Bob and Tom Show, Marc Maron's WTF podcast, and The Grand Ole Opry. Mary plays Jesse in the Hulu animated sitcom Solar Opposites by the creators of Rick and Morty. She has appeared in Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival, HBO's Andy Kaufman Awards, San Francisco's Sketchfest, and the clean Dry Bar comedy series. Mack's television credits include Comedy Central's Live at Gotham, TBS' Conan, Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and NBC's Last Comic Standing and Last Call with Carson Daly. To see where Mack will be next or to check out her podcast Amber and Mary Get Dressed (co-hosted with comedian Amber Preston), visit marymackcomedy.com. 

Khadijah Cooper grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis as an only child. Working as the Education Director of a local nonprofit focusing on adolescent sexual health, her confidence in public speaking and her quick wit gave her the fuel she needed to burst onto the comedy scene in February 2018, making her name known. In March 2019, Khadijah was in the top 5 for the Best Comedian for the City Pages Best of the Twin Cities. In 2021, Khadijah was named one of MN Comedy’s “Comics to Watch,” and in June 2023, Khadijah was accepted into Limestone Comedy Festival. Her point of view in her stand-up as a mother, a Sexuality Educator Director, and someone with confidence and comfort in her skin makes her irresistible to laugh with and relate to. Learn more at kcooper111682.wixsite.com/mysite.

With the sweetness of the Midwest and the sharp edge of the East Coast, Jenny Zigrino brings a powerful comedic performance to any stage. Jenny made her late night debut on Conan with Conan O’Brien and performed a total of three guest appearances. She was a Just For Laughs New Faces in 2016 and since then has been featured on Comedy Central, MTV, TBS, and many others. She starred in films such as Bad Santa 2 along with Billy Bob Thornton and in the horror comedy Too Late in 2021. She’s headlined festivals like Moon Tower, New York Comedy Festival, and High Plains Comedy Festival. She’s written and performed several comedy specials, including Comedy Central Presents the Half Hours. Her latest appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2023 was met with rave reviews. Her brand new hour, Jen-Z, is available now on Comedy Central’s Youtube. Learn more at jennyzigrino.com.

Please note that photographs and video footage may be taken throughout this event. These will be used by The Great Northern and its partners for marketing and publicity, our archives, on our website and in social media.

​​​​​​​Artist accommodations generously provided by Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot.

Víkingur Ólafsson in Conversation with Dave King

Jan 29, 2024
Berlin (venue preview)
Tickets: SOLD OUT

Join Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, the “new superstar of classical piano” (The Daily Telegraph) for an intimate conversation with drummer, composer and Minneapolis treasure Dave King (“better than anyone at mixing the sensibilities of post-‘60s jazz and indie rock” —The New York Times) ahead of his Schubert Club recitals at the Ordway, presented in partnership with The Great Northern. Ólafsson, recognized as “Iceland’s Glenn Gould”, is a captivating communicator both onstage and off, and his incisive musicianship and visionary programs connect deeply with audiences. King will guide a wide ranging conversation on topics such as artistic motivation, Iceland, winter, Goldberg Variations, practice, and more. 

About the Artists

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of highest level musicianship and visionary programs. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon—Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020), and Mozart & Contemporaries (2021)—captured the public and critical imagination and have led to career streams of more than 400 million. His latest album, From Afar, was released in October 2022.

Now one of the most sought-after artists of today, Ólafsson’s multiple awards include the Rolf Schock Prize for music (2022), Gramophone magazine Artist of the Year, Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental (twice), and Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards. 

Ólafsson continues to perform as artist in residence at the world’s top orchestras, concert halls, and festivals, and work with today’s greatest composers. In the 2022/23 season he performed with orchestras including Philharmonia Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, The Cleveland Orchestra, London and Bergen philharmonic orchestras, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

A captivating communicator both on and off stage, Ólafsson’s significant talent extends to broadcast, having presented several of his own series for television and radio. He was Artist in Residence for three months on BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts program, Front Row—broadcasting live during lockdown from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, he reached millions of listeners around the world.

Dave King is a drummer and composer originally from Minneapolis Minnesota. He is best known as a founding member of the internationally recognized jazz groups The Bad Plus and Happy Apple.

He has also recorded and/or toured with many other jazz luminaries including Bill Frisell, Joshua Redman, Julian Lage, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Jeff Beck to name a few. He has appeared on over 100 recordings including 7 records as a leader under his own name and played concerts on 6 continents in some of the most renown venues in the world including Carnegie Hall, The Village Vanguard, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, The Chicago Symphony Center, Opera National De Paris, The Vienna Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and many more. He has been featured as the cover story and/or major features in many top publications for creative music including Downbeat and Jazz Times magazines, The New York Times, Modern Drummer Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Esquire Magazine and the London Times to name a few. King was also the artist in residence for Winter Jazz Festival in NYC in 2016 and with The Bad Plus was the artist in residence at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2017 and The London Jazz Festival in 2014. He has written music for and toured with the famed Mark Morris Dance Group and was an artist in residence for composition at Duke University in 2012.

King was a 2015 McKnight Composer fellowship recipient and was also honored with a two night retrospective of his composition oeuvre at the world renown Walker Art Center in 2010 resulting in a documentary film directed by Noah Hutton released to the international film festival circuit entitled “King for Two Days”.

King has also worked in the world of fashion writing and performing music for 3 consecutive New York Fashion Week shows for legendary designer Issac Mizrahi, and is currently an adjunct professor at The New School in NYC and has taught at Stanford University, New England Conservatory, Duke University and many more major institutions around the world.

About the Venue

Inspired by the experimental music culture of Berlin and centered around a high quality sound experience, this intimate venue and cocktail lounge will bring live music to North First Street when they will open their doors in February 2024.

Sam Kass: The Last Supper

In partnership with Chefs Andrew Zimmern, Marque Collins, and the Hewing Hotel 

Jan 28, 2024
Hewing Hotel

Join The Great Northern for a last-in-a-lifetime dining event exploring the intersection of food, place, agriculture, and climate. Led by former White House chef Sam Kass in collaboration with Minnesota-based, James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Zimmern, and in partnership with chef Marque Collins and his team at the Hewing Hotel—the evening will feature a regionally inspired menu with wine pairings and dishes crafted from what experts believe to be near-extinct ingredients, highlighting the challenges we face in Minnesota and beyond.

This powerful experience is intended to spark an emotional connection to these issues and showcase solutions emerging in the food and agriculture industry that offer our best hope of staving off the worst impacts of climate change. Enjoy a night of conversations on food with luminary chefs and get ready to learn, taste, and be inspired to take action!

About the Chefs

Sam Kass is the former Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition in the Obama administration, Executive Director of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign and the Obama family chef. He is a Partner in Acre Venture Partners. 

After cooking for the Obamas in Chicago for two years, Sam joined the White House kitchen staff in 2009. During his White House tenure, he took on several additional roles, including Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and Senior White House Policy Advisor for Nutrition. Sam is the first person in the history of the White House to have a position in the Executive Office of the President and the Residence. As one of the First Lady’s longest-serving advisors, he helped the First Lady create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden. 

Currently, Sam is a Partner at Acre Venture Partners. Acre is a venture capital fund investing in the future of food with a mission to improve human and environmental health in the food system. The fund focuses on early stage, highly disruptive, impactful companies in the food system focused on agriculture, supply chain, and consumer. 

In 2011, Fast Company included Sam in their list of 100 Most Creative People, and in 2012, he helped create the American Chef Corps, which is dedicated to promoting diplomacy through culinary initiatives. He is an MIT Media Lab fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago. 

Sam is the author of Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World, which was published by Clarkson Potter on April 17, 2018.

Andrew Zimmern is an Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, writer, and social justice advocate. As the creator, executive producer, and host of the Bizarre Foods franchise, Andrew Zimmern’s Driven by Food, MSNBC’s What’s Eating America, Magnolia Network’s Family Dinner, and the Emmy-winning The Zimmern List, he has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance, and understanding through food. You can also find him judging Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend on Netflix, The Silos Baking Competition on HBO Max, and teaching live fire cooking on Outdoor Channel’s Andrew Zimmern’s Wild Game Kitchen. He has written four books, including the Ippy Gold Medal award-winning AZ and the Lost City of Ophir. Andrew is the founder and chairman of Intuitive Content, named one of the top 100 production companies in the world by Realscreen, and Passport Hospitality, a restaurant and food service development company. He is passionate about his philanthropic endeavors and sits on the boards of Services for the UnderServed, EXPLR Media, Soigne Hospitality and Beans is How. He is on the advisory boards of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, serves on City Harvest’s Food Council, is the International Rescue Committee’s Voice for Nutrition, and is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme, and for The Nature Conservancy. Andrew is a founding member of the Coalition for Sustainable Aquaculture and the Independent Restaurant Coalition. He resides in Minneapolis.

Chef Marque Collins leads the culinary program at Tullibee, a Scandinavian-influenced restaurant located inside the Hewing Hotel in Minneapolis’ historic North Loop neighborhood. He also oversees the kitchen, Hewing Bar & Lounge’s menus, as well as spearheads a nose-to-tail butchery program. A self-taught chef with more than a decade of experience, he previously worked as executive chef at Aparium’s Surety Hotel and its flagship restaurant the Mulberry Street Tavern located in Des Moines’ burgeoning downtown district.

Prior to that, he spent seven years working across Chicago’s Boka Restaurant Group’s portfolio of restaurants. After living and cooking his way through the Midwest for the past decade, Collins is passionate about utilizing the bounty of the region in his cooking.

At Tullibee he ties together traditional fermenting and foraging techniques while showcasing the best ingredients that each season of Minnesota has to offer.

Made a Universe screening

Jan 28, 2024
North Garden Theater
Tickets: $10

Musician, artist, and filmmaker Tunde Olaniran’s debut short film Made a Universe combines science fiction and social realism, and tropes from horror movies and TikTok videos to comment on serious issues such as environmental injustice and the carceral state. The 30-minute film examines what it means to unlock your power in the face of fear and repression, and how one must unify various fragments of their psyche to connect with the world and themselves on a deeper level.

The film screening will be followed by a conversation with Olaniran about the intersection of art and climate justice.

Tunde Olaniran is an artist based in Flint, MI, whose work spans the worlds of music, dance, film, literature and performance art, exploring themes of Blackness, gender expression, class, agency, and psychic/emotional power.

Their debut and sophomore albums led to critical praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, The New Yorker and countless others. They have produced globally-impactful work in collaboration with many artists including Mona Haydar, adrienne maree brown, Nick Cave, Esperanza Spalding, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Olaniran is a 2017 Art Matters Fellow, 2019 United States Artist Fellow, and 2020 University of Michigan Artist-in-Residence. Tunde’s work for PBS won a 2021 Regional Emmy. In 2022, they created an experimental short film/exhibition entitled Made a Universe (as well as a companion performance installation entitled Everything is a Portal) in 2022, commissioned by Cranbrook Art Museum, with support from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. They were lead producer for Walk with Amal's 2023 activation in Flint, MI. Their third album, Chaotic Good, is due in early 2024.

Related event: Join Tunde Olaniran for a concert of genre-bending blend of pop, soul, and experimental electronic sounds Sat, Jan 27 at Amsterdam Bar & Hall. Learn more here.

This activity is supported, in part, by the City of Saint Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program.

This program is funded in part with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. 

Frozen Footgolf Snow Sculpting

Jan 28, 2024
Silverwood Park
Tickets: Free

Grab your friends and shovels and join in a day of play in the snow! Alongside teams of professional artists, attendees are invited to creatively design and sculpt their own challenging hole to be part of a collaborative frozen footgolf course. Instead of a club and golf ball, players use their boots to kick a soccer ball through the course and into the designated hole. Teams are encouraged to bring their own tools and creative props, though some materials will be available to borrow. 

Schedule of events:
10 am–1 pm: Team registration, hole sculpting
2–3 pm: Limited open course play

This event is free and open to all ages. Drop-ins are welcome.

Presented in partnership with Silverwood Park.

Tunde Olaniran: Chaotic Good

Jan 27, 2024
Amsterdam Bar and Hall
Tickets: $15

Flint, Michigan-born musician, filmmaker, and artist Tunde Olaniran (they/them) subverts the status quo and delivers messages on environmental and social justice through a genre-bending blend of pop, soul, and experimental electronic sounds. Known for their energy, intimacy, and emotional resonance, Olaniran’s work draws on their intersectional identities as a Black and queer person. This lively, entrancing performance as part of The Great Northern 2024 will showcase a spectrum of work including songs from their forthcoming album, Chaotic Good.

Related event: On Jan 28, the day following the concert, The Great Northern will present a free screening of Olaniran’s debut short film with music Made A Universe, which depicts the impact of the Flint water crisis on Olaniran’s community. Join us at North Garden Theater for the film and a conversation about climate justice with Olaniran.

About the Artist

Tunde Olaniran is an artist based in Flint, MI, whose work spans the worlds of music, dance, film, literature and performance art, exploring themes of Blackness, gender expression, class, agency, and psychic/emotional power.

Their debut and sophomore albums led to critical praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, The New Yorker and countless others. They have produced globally-impactful work in collaboration with many artists including Mona Haydar, adrienne maree brown, Nick Cave, Esperanza Spalding, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Olaniran is a 2017 Art Matters Fellow, 2019 United States Artist Fellow, and 2020 University of Michigan Artist-in-Residence. Tunde’s work for PBS won a 2021 Regional Emmy. In 2022, they created an experimental short film/exhibition entitled Made a Universe (as well as a companion performance installation entitled Everything is a Portal) in 2022, commissioned by Cranbrook Art Museum, with support from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. They were lead producer for Walk with Amal's 2023 activation in Flint, MI. Their third album, Chaotic Good, is due in early 2024.

This activity is supported, in part, by the City of Saint Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program.

This program is funded in part with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.