Art Hounds: Puppets, comedy and Minnesota’s literary roots

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

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Time-traveling puppets and Cherokee futurism

Oogie Push is a Minneapolis-based actor and playwright. She wants people to know about Z Puppets Rosenschnoz’s upcoming performances of “Tales of ᏓᎦᏏ Dagsi Turtle & ᏥᏍᏚ Jisdu Wabbit,” a time-traveling, Cherokee-language-learning puppetry adventure for ages 5 and up.

Shows are Saturday, April 19 at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. There are also upcoming performances at two libraries: April 26 at 10:30 a.m. at East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul and April 29 at 5:30 p.m. at Hosmer Library in Minneapolis. The show runs 45 minutes.

Oogie Push described the show: It’s a musical adventure that goes into Cherokee futurism, and it’s just a really fun sort of sci-fi adventure. Dagsi Turtle and Jisdu Wabbit are racing through time and space to save Grandmother Turtle. So they hop aboard their Turtle Ship and travel across space and time.

I find it amazing that they find a way to get to historical, important events in Cherokee history. So you visit Sequoyah and Ayoka when they are coming up with the Cherokee syllabary, for example.

Chris Griffith, who is Cherokee and part of Z puppets Rosenshnoz, was an adult language learner of the Cherokee language, and so the language came to him in the form of song. And so he thought, How can I incorporate this into a puppet theater? And so he just started envisioning futurism, sci-fi, fantasy and just sort of like this hero's journey.

— Oogie Push

Laughter, identity and healing at the Ordway

Terri Thao of St. Paul loves the Funny Asian Women Kollective (FAWK), and she booked her tickets early to see The FAWK Hmong (+ Friends) Super Show this Saturday at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. 

Thao remembers when FAWK was packing the house at Indigenous Roots Studio in East St. Paul, and she’s looking forward to a night of laughter as a mix of familiar FAWK members, stars and some local newbies bring their comedy to the Ordway stage. 

Thao said: When they came together, I just thought this, this is a great idea. You know, Asian American women can be funny! My understanding about comedy is a lot of people talk about real life, right? They’re making observations about things happening.

And I think so many times in communities, you know, refugee communities, there’s been a lot of strife but at the same time, we’ve used humor to cope with so much. I just think they’re able to just offer a lens into that experience with some humor. Seeing people on stage who look like you matters.

— Terri Thao

Honoring Minnesota’s poetic legacy

Joshua Preston grew up in Montevideo, Minn., and he’s proud of western Minnesota’s poetry heritage, including the work of Minnesota’s first poet laureate, Robert Bly (1926-2021). Preston’s looking forward to the launch of Mark Gustafson’s new book “Sowing Seeds: The Minnesota Literary Renaissance & Robert Bly, 1958-1980.”

The book explores how Minnesota became the literary hub it is today. Mark Gustafson will discuss his new book with poets Jim Lenfestey and Nor Hall at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis this Saturday, April 19 at 6 p.m. People are encouraged to pre-register here. Preston says people who arrive early can see a slide show of The Loft through the years. 

Preston shared why this history matters to him: I believe Robert Bly is one of the most consequential poets of the 20th century. And I’m not just saying that as a Minnesotan from western Minnesota who’s very proud of our literary tradition, but I’m saying this as someone who has had the immense fortune of being able to grow up in a state that takes its arts and culture seriously.

How do you get to a point in a state’s culture to where that is seen as a civic good? It begins with poets. It begins with our creatives. And “Sowing Seeds’” is about the influence of one individual, by no means the only, famous writer from Minnesota, but from someone who is very intentional of wanting to go out and set a new course for American poetry.

— Joshua Preston