Arts and Culture

For every independent bookstore that has closed since 2020, more than three new ones have opened, according to the American Booksellers Association.

Folk and blues singer Huddie Ledbetter performed a short concert at a friend’s Minneapolis home in 1948. Instead of being lost in music history, someone decided to record it.

It’s been 40 years since the Midwest’s first Native American radio station went on the air. KILI Radio on the Pine Ridge reservation serves as an inspiration for many Minnesotans, including Alfred Walking Bull of Minneapolis.

At just 20 years old, Nakia Neal is making a name for herself in the Minneapolis music scene as Bigg Kiaa. Bigg Kiaa earns her name with her energy and personality each time she performs. 

The Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and Radical Reversal seek to make change through providing access to recording equipment to the incarcerated.  

COVID-19 may no longer officially be a pandemic, but writers and artists will be working for years to come to create pieces that help us make sense of what we've been through.

This Friday on Big Books and Bold Ideas, you’ll hear Kerri Miller’s spring Talking Volumes conversation with Minnesota author Kent Krueger. So it’s only fitting that our archive this week is Krueger’s last appearance at Talking Volumes in 2021.

Sivertson was born into a Lake Superior commercial fishing family, but bouts of sea sickness meant fishing would not be in his future. He became an artist, known for the Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, Minn. which he co-founded with his daughter, Jan.

From excessive hygiene to low-fiber diets, author Theresa MacPhail explores the deep-rooted causes of rising allergy rates in her new book “Allergic.”

Musician J.D. Steele is known for his work with Prince and singing and producing R&B, gospel and soul with The Steeles. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with this Minnesota music powerhouse about his career, directing community choirs and inspiring the next generation to sing.