St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood is one of three locations that will be illuminated this weekend by the annual night arts festival, Northern Spark.
Free public art events — from dancing to creating music to a two-story-tall projection on the side of a building — will also take place in the American Indian Cultural corridor of Minneapolis and The Commons in downtown Minneapolis.
For the first seven years of Northern Spark in the Twin Cities, it was a dusk-to-dawn affair. Last year, it shifted to two nights, cutting out the wee hours when crowds diminished and festival participants pushed themselves to stay awake. Over the years, events have shifted between St. Paul and Minneapolis, one year running the length of the Green Line between the two cities.
“It is impossible to say which area of Northern Spark I’m most excited about since they are all going to be fantastic,” said co-director Sarah Peters. “Overall I’m jazzed to see months-long community partnerships in Rondo and the American Indian Cultural Corridor come to fruition. Each neighborhood has a distinct feel.
“People are going to be dancing and snapping to serious beats in Rondo and reflecting on deep questions of story and place along Franklin through sound, poetry and moving image,” she added in an email statement. “I’m also so happy that we have two libraries to explore at night! The Franklin Library in Minneapolis and the Rondo Community Library in St. Paul will both be open with artist-driven wonders, plus all the books.“
The 2019 Northern Spark theme, “We Are Here: Resilience, Renewal, Regeneration,” focuses the projects from 31 artists over the two nights.
Here are a couple of highlights from each location.
RONDO
Rondo Family Reunion: Pictures and Poems for Our People: Photographer Chris Scott and poets Hawona Sullivan Janzen and Clarence White all have connections to Rondo and have spent the past 18 months documenting the lives of neighborhood elders. They’ve put some of the images and poetry excerpts on lawn signs, which will be installed on the grounds of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center for Northern Spark. After Northern Spark, the lawn signs will be “hosted” in 21 yards in the community for the rest of the summer.
Resounding Strength — Resilient Song: Baba Jesse and Resounding Rhythms will create an interactive-audience drum circle “to help invigorate you using centuries-old sacred traditions that are alive and vibrant.” Baba Jesse Buckner has been performing and teaching drums across the United States and in Minnesota public schools for more than 40 years. He teaches djembe drum weekly at Rondo Community Library. Benita Buckner is project manager and lead dance artist for Resounding Strength — Resilient Song. She teaches African dance at a charter school in Minneapolis and leads an all-girls drum circle at Rondo Community Library.
AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURAL CORRIDOR
Manifest’o: Artist Jonathan Thunder has created three separate animated vignettes based on Ojibwe stories about connection to the land, sky and water. In one of the pieces, “Gold Finch Counts the Leaves,” a cartoon bird flits from leaf to leaf while Thunder’s wife counts to 100 in Ojibwe (which is said to resemble the sounds of the gold finch). The images will be projected on the side of a two-story building at 1518 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis.
The Biker: Exhibit visitors can hop on a stationary tandem bike to help power artist Victor Yepez’s bicycle sculpture. The sculpture will be “given life” and create a shadow on the wall. The piece “honors the biking culture in Minneapolis,” according to the Northern Spark description.
THE COMMONS
Radical Playground: This participatory art installation by Candida Gonzalez and Mary Anne Quiroz will stay in the downtown Minneapolis park through the summer. It invites participants to “heal through play,” according to Northern Spark. The piece has interactive “alebrije,” animal sculptures inspired by dream creatures from the Caribbean, Mexico, the Pacific Islands and the indigenous cultures of Minnesota. “The outer posts are topped alternately by alebrijes and flowers representing the four directions. Four selfie panels anchor the four direction posts at the bottom and invite people to become alebrijes themselves as they put their faces in the panel cutouts.”
Radical Playground will open at 9:10 p.m. Friday with a blessing and procession by Kalpulli Yaocenotxli, a traditional Mexica-Aztec dance and drum group founded in 2006, led by Sergio Cenoch and Mary Anne Quiroz.
Digital Graffiti Wall: Anyone can grab a “digital” spray can to create work on the digital wall — built to look and feel like real street art. The wall has custom backdrops with images taken in the American Indian Cultural Corridor and Rondo, bringing a piece of each of the other Northern Spark locations to downtown Minneapolis. Presented by the Walker Art Center, Digital Graffiti Wall was designed by Tangible Interactions, a studio based in Vancouver.
IF YOU GO
- What: Northern Spark
- When: 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday and Saturday
- Where: American Indian Cultural Corridor and The Commons in Minneapolis, Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul
- Info: 2019.northernspark.org; you can customize your list of projects to see, including time and locations, with the My Night feature on the website.
- Plus: There will be red and white Northern Spark information tents with lights on Franklin Avenue near the Many Rivers East building in Minneapolis, in front of Hallie Q. Brown Community Center in St. Paul and on the west side of The Commons in downtown Minneapolis.
