Podcasts about theater mu

Theater Mu is just one of the organizations affected by cuts to NEA. Vineeta Sawkar with more on the St. Paul Theater group.

Theater Mu is just one of the organizations affected by cuts to NEA. Vineeta Sawkar with more on the St. Paul Theater group.

How are nonprofits surviving in today's challenging political climate? What happens when government funding freezes threaten essential services? How are state nonprofit associations becoming the backbone of sector defense?In this thought-provoking installment of Fund the People's "Defend Nonprofits Defend Democracy" series, host Rusty Stahl engages in a candid conversation with Nanoko Sato, President and CEO of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN). They discuss the critical challenges facing nonprofits under the Trump Administration.What does it look like when nonprofits and foundations unite to protect vulnerable communities? How can organizations navigate uncertain policies while staying true to their values? And, most importantly, where can we find hope and resilience in a time when the sector itself is under attack?Whether you're a nonprofit leader seeking practical insights, a funder considering how to respond effectively, or another infrastructure group in the field, this episode offers valuable perspective on defending democracy through a strong, united nonprofit sector.You can find all the episodes of this podcast plus our blog, toolkit and other resources at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fundthepeople.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. And we invite you to learn from all the amazing past guests of Fund the People - A Podcast with Rusty Stahl at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fundthepeople.org/ftp_podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Nonoko Sato Bio:Nonoko Sato is the president and CEO for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, the largest state association for nonprofits in the United States. She oversees MCN's strategic response to organizational and sector challenges through public policy and advocacy, responsive and educational programming, and sector-wide research.Nonoko serves or has served in a variety of advisory, board, and trustee roles, including Governor Walz's Council on Economic Expansion, Equity Diversity Impact Assessment Committee of the Minneapolis Public Schools, Coalition of Asian American Leaders, Theater Mu, Carleton College, among others. She previously served as MCN's associate director, overseeing internal operations, programming, finance, and administration, as well as launching BenefitsMN, an association health plan for nonprofit organizations that strives to increase the vitality of Minnesota nonprofits through access to affordable and sustainable healthcare.Prior to these roles, Nonoko served as the executive director of an organization that champions educational equity by supporting students in overcoming systemic barriers on their journey to a college degree. Under her leadership, the organization tripled the number of students and expanded its services through high school. In all her roles, Nonoko is dedicated to enhancing and improving cultural humility, intentionally creating inclusive and accessible spaces, and working to end disparities in power, money, access, and resources.Resources:Minnesota Council of NonprofitsNational Council of NonprofitsMap of Place-Based Nonprofit Associations in the U.S.

Joe Chvala (Artistic Director/Flying Foot Forum) is the founder and artistic director of the highly-acclaimed percussive dance company, the Flying Foot Forum. In addition to the Flying Foot Forum, Chvala has directed, choreographed, and been commissioned to create new works for a variety of theater and dance companies including the Guthrie Theater, the Walker Art Center, the Ordway Music Theater, the Minnesota Opera, Chicago Shakespeare, Children's Theater Company, Arkansas  Repertory, Theater Mu, Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, the History Theater, The Alpine Theater Project, Park Square Theatre, and The Boston Conservatory.  He has been the recipient of both Ivey and Sage awards for theater and dance as well as numerous “Best of the Year” honors from various US newspapers and periodicals and numerous choreographic and interdisciplinary awards, fellowships, and grants from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the McKnight Foundation. His recent film work as a director/writer has been featured in a number of European and American film festivals.Description of WorkFootfall—Choreographed by Joe Chvala, “Footfall” features a mixture of Flying Foot Forum's signature hybrid percussive dances with traditional clogging, folk music and dance to celebrate the passing of time, the ephemeral quality of life and the joys, struggles, strengths, longings, passions, and melancholy that are a part of it all. This piece will appear in its entirety in our upcoming concert May 8-18 at Park Square Theater. NOTE: The a cappella clogging duet “One Hundred Dead Dollars” was choreographed by founding company member, Clayton Schanilec.

kt shorb-Director of FIFTY BOXES of EARTH at Theater Mu.d

kt shorb-Director of FIFTY BOXES of EARTH at Theater Mu.d

In the 1930s, the Kim loo Sisters of Minneapolis was a harmony singing force. From May 4 through the 26th, St Paul's History Theater in co-production with Theater Mu present “Blended Harmony: The Kim Loo Sisters. The production tracks the career of the Kim Loo sisters, which included movies, USO appearances overseas, and other big stages. When for the show's director and Theater Mu artistic director Lily Tung Crystal talked to Phil Nusbaum, Blended Harmony: The Kim Loo Sisters was in the final stages of rehearsal. Phil asked Lily about her work as the show's director.

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.Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.Click here.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-hounds/id525807829?mt=2Crafting tales in silverDiscover the enchanting world of Norwegian folk tales reimagined through contemporary jewelry at the Nordic Center. Renowned artist Liz Bucheit's exhibition "Hand of Huldra" showcases the tradition of silver as protection against evil, blending myth and craftsmanship. Alison Aune is a professor of art education at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and a former board member at the Nordic Center. She recommends a show currently at the Nordic Center, “Hand of Huldra” by Liz Bucheit of Lanesboro.“What she specializes in is reimagining Norwegian folk tales, folk traditions, through her contemporary jewelry,” Aune explains.“In Norway — and in a lot of the Nordic and Baltic countries — silver was thought to protect you against evil. So there's a tradition with the bride wearing a bridal crown of silver, having all sorts of silver pendants so that she's protected.”On display are crowns, as well as other silver objects, which Aune describes as “phenomenal. She's just really an expert on taking those Norwegian stories and finding their way to jewelry.”“Hand of Huldra” is on display until April 27.Celebrating NowruzJoin the Twin Cities Iranian Culture Collective for a vibrant celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at the Ordway in St. Paul. Experience international and local musicians in a concert followed by a reception featuring tea and cookies.Visual artist Katayoun Amjati says she's been hearing from friends in the northeast Minneapolis arts and music scene about the concert “Voices Unveiled: A Nowruz Celebration and Community Gathering,” presented by the Twin Cities Iranian Culture Collective. Nowruz is the Persian New Year, which was celebrated on March 19. The concert includes both international and local musicians and will be followed by a reception afterward that includes tea and cookies. Amjati says the concert will be a chance to celebrate and also to honor and mourn alongside those women struggling for rights in Iran. She notes that two of the singers recently moved from Iran to the U.S., and she looks forward to hearing their voices.  “Voices Unveiled: A Nowruz Celebration and Community Gathering” is Saturday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ordway in St. Paul. Tickets are limited. A tragicomedy journey Embark on a poignant yet uplifting journey with "Phantom Loss," a puppet show by Oanh Vu, staged by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis. Join a Vietnamese American girl in a tale of haunting, friendship with ghosts and the struggles of generational trauma and deportation. Anh-Thu Pham of Theater Mu has seen previous workshops of Oanh Vu's puppet show “Phantom Loss,” and she's looking forward to seeing the final version staged by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis.It's a tragicomedy about a Vietnamese American girl who moves to a new small town with her mother to run a nail salon. The house where she lives is haunted, and she becomes friends with the ghost. It's a refugee story about generational trauma and deportation, told with heart and humor. Pham, who grew up watching “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers,” points out the power of puppetry to take on heavy subjects without losing sight of joy.  “I think, for any of us that have dealt with generational trauma, or any hard things in our lives,” says Pham, “if you sit in the darkness, you won't be able to live, you won't be able to process through that. And I think that's when good art is done: you kind of see and experience life in its wholeness. I think this is what ‘Phantom Loss' can do.” The show opens Friday with a preview show Thursday, and it runs through April 7. There is a pay-what-you-can performance on April 2. The show is rated PG/PG-13. 

Tune in to hear Gregory share his journey of becoming an actor, creating modern shaman, and the importance of self-care. We hope this episode will leave you feeling inspired to chase after your dreams and to reframe self-care to work FOR you rather than against you. Big thanks for Greg for being on this podcast, we are looking forward to seeing you in Hells Canyon and all the amazing things you'll do after. Gregory is in the world premiere of Hells Canyon which kicked off on February 24 and will be shown through March 7 at Jungle Theater in Uptown, Minneapolis. Tickets are pay as you are. See the links below to learn more about Theater Mu and to get your tickets! UNLEARNING PATTERNS PODCAST SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unlearningpatternspodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unlearningpatternspodcast GREG'S LINKS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greggrammars Modern Shaman: https://www.instagram.com/modernshamanpilot THEATER MU Website: https://www.theatermu.org Hells Canyon Tickets: https://www.theatermu.org/hells-canyon#gsc.tab=0

Performance artist and musician Tri Vo loves the work of Theater Mu, and he's looking forward to seeing them take on the horror genre in the world premiere of Keiko Green's play “Hells Canyon.” As with many classic horror pieces, we're headed to a cabin in the woods with a group of unsuspecting friends. They've booked a weekend trip in eastern Oregon, near Hells Canyon. In 1887, it was the location where white gang members massacred 34 Chinese gold miners, an actual event called the Hells Canyon Massacre.As the night progresses, supernatural forces threaten to break in, raising the temperature of the simmering tensions among the friends. Vo recalls being "freaked out” by the digital stage effects in Theater Mu's staging of “The Brothers Paranormal” in 2019, and he looks forward to seeing how this play and its stage effects work together to create an atmosphere of horror. “Hells Canyon” runs Feb. 24 — March 17 at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis. There is a post-show playwright talkback on Feb 25. This show is recommended for ages 16 and up. Arts appreciator Natasha Brownlee of St. Paul enjoys both the music and the art of Ian Valor. She calls his solo art exhibit “Wild Imagination” at Vine Arts in Minneapolis a “conceptual dreamscape.” Brownlee was particularly intrigued by Valor's line drawings. Look closely, and you can see a single line of changing thickness; stand back, and the line coalesces into a single image. Valor is color blind, and his earlier work is in black and white. More recent works in color includes bold, eye-catching color combinations. Valor is the frontman of the rock group The Valors, and his art show also includes a wall of hand-lettered show posters for his and other bands. It's a visual dive into the local music scene. “Wild Imagination” is on view at Vine Arts Center in Minneapolis this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a closing artists reception from 5-8 p.m. John Carrier of Winona is a retired scenic carpenter and an ongoing jazz enthusiast. He's spreading the word about the debut album from H3O Jazz Trio, a father-and-sons group based in Winona. The father in the trio is a composer and former St. Mary's University assistant music professor named Eric Heukeshoven, who plays keyboard, among other instruments. The band also includes his sons, Max on bass and Hans on percussion and vibes. Carrier loves watching the trio improvise when they perform in person.  Their new album, “TafelJazz,” translates from German to “table-jazz,” a play on “table music.” Carrier says it's the perfect album to set the mood while sitting around the table with friends. The 12 original songs include guests Janet Heukeshoven on flute, John Paulson of Paulson Jazz and John Sievers of the Rochester-based D'Sievers. H3O will perform the full album this Sunday from 2-4 p.m. at Island City Brewing in Winona. Island City Brewing also hosts a Jazz Jam on the third Sunday of each month that combines local live jazz, local beer and local support; it's a fundraiser for a rotating series of area nonprofits. As of early February, H3O Jazz Trio and Island City Brewing helped support local nonprofits with over $43,000 in total donations from its monthly Jazz Jams. 

Theatermaker Joe Hendren wants people to know about History Theatre's Raw Stages new works festival, taking place through Sunday in St. Paul. There's a reading of a new work-in-progress each day. These are plays and musicals commissioned by the History Theatre, and this festival is an opportunity for the shows' playwrights and artistic team to see how an audience reacts, and for the audience to ask questions and offer feedback in a Q&A following each performance. Find the line-up here.Hendren is especially interested in seeing “Secret Warriors,” a new play written by Rick Shiomi, a founding member of Theater Mu and co-founder of Full-Circle Theater. The play is about the nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II as translators, codebreakers and interrogators. The show highlights a piece of Minnesota history: the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Fort Snelling. That reading is Saturday at 2 p.m.St. Paul artist Stuart Loughridge is looking forward to the opening this Saturday of David Cunningham's exhibit “City Life” at Gallery 360 in Minneapolis.Cunningham's oil paintings focus on urban landscapes and on liminal times of day when the light of dusk or dawn does magical things to a city. Loughridge says Cunningham's paintwork is “exciting and active,” with elements of abstraction, and he appreciates the mysterious narratives of the people who populate his canvasses. Visitors can expect to see familiar Twin Cities sights in a new way. The show runs through Feb. 25. St. Paul playwright Kyle B. Dekker is a big fan of the Minneapolis band Sycamore Gap, who he always enjoys seeing perform at the Renaissance Festival. The group sings old world, revival and original folk music about working people, with sea shanties and some yodeling thrown in for good measure. Dekker loves their harmonies and bass rhythms.  This Saturday, Sycamore Gap will be the closing act in a four-band local concert in South Minneapolis. The event is a fundraiser for the Arbitrarium, an artist coop that is raising money to buy their building and create housing for low-income artists. The show starts at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed on YouTube.  

This week is the conclusion of the interview with Alayna Jacqueline & Hannah Joyce from the Playwrights' Center, who offer so much wisdom and practical advice for playwrights.In this episode, we discuss:Current trends in playwritingDiagnosing script issues in the rehearsal roomAdvice for playwrights just starting outGetting out of Development HellAnd more!Resources MentionedPlaywrights' CenterTheatre Begins Here PodcastAbout Our GuestsHannah Joyce is the Director of Membership and education programs at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. From 2017 to 2022 she was also the producing artistic director of the William Inge Theater Festival in Kansas. Hannah has developed the new work of some the country's finest playwrights over the past two decades and had the joy of celebrating visionary American playwrights. Through her work she has produced countless new play development workshops with playwrights from across the country, and worked with hundreds of theater artists in support of those plays. Originally from St. Louis, Hannah has worked and performed with a number of theater companies throughout the Midwest, including the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Company, That Uppity Theater Company, Daleko Arts, and Prison Performing Arts.  Alayna Jacqueline is a Minneapolis-based playwright, dramaturg, and educator born and raised in Buckeye Nation. She's an instigator for new plays with the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal. In her absurd experimental writing, she loves finding new ways to bend, reshape, and deconstruct stories for the stage. Her writing weaves between themes of identity, mental health, women's relationships, privilege, and the corruption of power. Alayna's work has been performed and/or developed at Theater Mu, Phoenix Theater, Market Garden Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Playwrights' Center, MadLab Theater, Lincoln Theater, Pythian Theater, and Haybarn Theater. Her play ALL OF THE EVERYTHING was produced at the 2019 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. FacebookInstagramConnect with host Melissa Schmitz***Sign up for the 101 Stage Adaptations Newsletter***101 Stage AdaptationsFollow the Podcast on Facebook & InstagramRead Melissa's plays on New Play ExchangeConnect with Melissa on LinkedInWays to support the show:- Buy Me a Coffee- Tell us your thoughts in our Listener Survey!- Give a 5-Star rating- Write a glowing review on Apple Podcasts - Send this episode to a friend- Share on social media (Tag us so we can thank you!)Creators: Host your podcast through Buzzsprout using my affiliate link & get a $20 credit on your paid account. Let your fans directly support you via Buy Me a Coffee (affiliate link).

This week is Part 1 of 2 where Melissa interviews fellow theatre artists/arts administrators/podcasters Alayna Jacqueline & Hannah Joyce from the Playwrights' Center. In this episode, we discuss:The Playwrights' Center and its many programs and offeringsWho can become a memberWhat the PWC has coming up in the near futureThe excitement of working with big name playwrights And more!Resources MentionedPlaywrights' CenterTheatre Begins Here PodcastAbout Our GuestsHannah Joyce is the Director of Membership and education programs at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. From 2017 to 2022 she was also the producing artistic director of the William Inge Theater Festival in Kansas. Hannah has developed the new work of some the country's finest playwrights over the past two decades and had the joy of celebrating visionary American playwrights. Through her work she has produced countless new play development workshops with playwrights from across the country, and worked with hundreds of theater artists in support of those plays. Originally from St. Louis, Hannah has worked and performed with a number of theater companies throughout the Midwest, including the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Company, That Uppity Theater Company, Daleko Arts, and Prison Performing Arts.  Alayna Jacqueline is a Minneapolis-based playwright, dramaturg, and educator born and raised in Buckeye Nation. She's an instigator for new plays with the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal. In her absurd experimental writing, she loves finding new ways to bend, reshape, and deconstruct stories for the stage. Her writing weaves between themes of identity, mental health, women's relationships, privilege, and the corruption of power. Alayna's work has been performed and/or developed at Theater Mu, Phoenix Theater, Market Garden Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Playwrights' Center, MadLab Theater, Lincoln Theater, Pythian Theater, and Haybarn Theater. Her play ALL OF THE EVERYTHING was produced at the 2019 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. FacebookInstagramConnect with host Melissa Schmitz***Sign up for the 101 Stage Adaptations Newsletter***101 Stage AdaptationsFollow the Podcast on Facebook & InstagramRead Melissa's plays on New Play ExchangeConnect with Melissa on LinkedInWays to support the show:- Buy Me a Coffee- Tell us your thoughts in our Listener Survey!- Give a 5-Star rating- Write a glowing review on Apple Podcasts - Send this episode to a friend- Share on social media (Tag us so we can thank you!)Creators: Host your podcast through Buzzsprout using my affiliate link & get a $20 credit on your paid account. Let your fans directly support you via Buy Me a Coffee (affiliate link).

We're kicking off Season TWO of Twin Cities Theater Chat with a theater season preview! You'll hear from Jill Schafer of Cherry and Spoon, Rob Dunkelberger of The Stages of MN, Erica Skarohlid of Lettered in Theatre, Mary Aalgaard of Play Off the Page,  and Carol and Julie Jackson of Minnesota Theater Love as we chat about the upcoming theater season and why you should consider subscribing. We discuss the upcoming 2023-24 theater seasons of the following theaters:  Guthrie Theater, Six Points Theater,  Ten Thousand Things Theater,  Theatre in the Round, Jungle Theater,  History Theatre, Theater Mu, Lakeshore Players Theatre, Yellow Tree Theatre, Theatre Elision, Penumbra Theatre, Collide Theatrical Dance Company, Theater Latte Da, Stages Theatre Company, Children's Theatre Company,  Lyric Arts, and Open Eye Theatre. WHEW!Twin Cities Theater Chat is produced and hosted by Carol Jackson of Minnesota Theater Love and members of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers collective. As always, you can find the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers on Facebook and on Instagram. Read our review round-ups and go see a show today!

Laura Van Zandt (Bite-Sized Beet) joins us to chat with playwright Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and actor Michelle de Joya about Theater Mu's The Kung Fu Zombies Saga: Shaman Warrior and Cannibals, running July 20 - August 13, 2023 at the Luminary Arts Center.From Theater Mu's website:  "The Kung Fu Zombies Saga: Shaman Warrior & Cannibals brings us to a world overrun by zombies—“and these motherf— know kung fu.” In the first act, shaman warrior Arun must fight the demons inside and out as she tries to rescue her sister with the help of the Monkey King. Then in Act Two, we return to an updated Kung Fu Zombies vs. Cannibals (2013), where Lao American Sika is on a treacherous quest to release her dead parents' ashes in her motherland. Together, they're two halves of one epic saga."Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is an award-winning Lao American poet, playwright, essayist, children's book author, cultural producer, arts & cultural consultant, and philanthropist. Find out more about Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay at her website Refugenius.  Michelle de Joya is a Filipino-American actor, playwright, theater maker, teaching artist, and fitness instructor. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook, or check out one of her classes at The Workroom. Also mentioned in this podcast are Legacies of War, an educational and advocacy organization working to address the impact of the American Secret War and the conflict in Southeast Asia, including removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO), the Southeast Asian Diaspora Project, Minnesota Eight, and the East Side Freedom Library.Twin Cities Theater Chat is produced and hosted by Carol Jackson of Minnesota Theater Love and members of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers collective. As always, you can find the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers on Facebook and on Instagram. Read our review round-ups and go see a show today!

This week we bring back friend of the show Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay to talk about her Kung-Fu Zombie saga, which will be opening at Theater Mu in the Twin Cities later this month. We got a sneak peek at the script that is filled with fight scenes, blood, and insightful commentary about refugees. It’s gonna […]

Welcome to the Green Room Meditations Podcast, presented by the Indiana Repertory Theatre and hosted by Devon Ginn.  Today, we are in conversation with: Eric Sharp (he/him). Mr. Sharp portrays Mr. Green in the Indiana Repertory Theatre's production of Clue! If you missed the Indianapolis run, you can catch our co-production with Syracuse Stage from June 7th - 25th in 2023.   Eric is an actor, writer, and director based in Minneapolis with over 20 years of professional stage and screen experience. Commercial and voiceover clients include Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Independent Lens, Penguin Random House Audio, Best Buy, Mayo Clinic, Target, and more. He has appeared onstage nationally and internationally at the Guthrie Theater, Ten Thousand Things, The Jungle Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre, Alliance Theatre, and the Minnesota, Toronto, and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Eric played Mowgli in The Jungle Book at Children's Theatre Company, and the young Dalai Lama on multiple tours of TigerLion Arts' The Buddha Prince. An Associate Artist at Theater Mu, Eric wrote and starred in the world premiere of Middle Brother, and has appeared in Cambodian Rock Band, Hot Asian Doctor Husband, Two Mile Hollow, Twelfth Night, Charles Francis Chan, Jr..., Yellow Fever and many more. He recently directed the educational video series The Remix with Theater Mu (available on YouTube), and created and produced the audio series: You Shall Hear Me: Stories from Beyond. He serves as curator for AKOA (All Kinds of Awesome): a live storytelling event featuring true stories from the international adoptee community.   www.worksharp.org About the Indiana Repertory Theatre: Founded in 1971, the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) is the largest professional not-for-profit theatre in the state and one of the leading regional theatres in the country. The mission of the Indiana Repertory Theatre is to produce top-quality, professional theatre and related activities, providing experiences that will engage, surprise, challenge, and entertain people throughout their lifetimes, helping us build a vital and vibrant community. Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA): The IRT strives to celebrate and serve the diverse people and cultures that make up our whole community. The IRT is committed to providing access for all; to creating and maintaining an antiracist theatre that is inclusive, safe, and respectful. https://www.irtlive.com/ 

ABOUT THE BLACK FUNDRAISERS' PODCAST The Black Fundraisers' Podcast was founded in 2021 by Kia Croom, CEO of Kia Croom Fundraising and Philanthropy, a Black-woman-owned fundraising firm that works exclusively with nonprofits serving Black and Brown people and communities. Visit www.kiacroom.com to learn more. Subscribe to the Black Fundraisers' Podcast wherever podcasts are available. Connect with us on IG & YouTube, and LinkedIn @Blackfundraiserspodcast **ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST**** Tiffany Ker Xiong is the Advancement Director at The Constellation Fund. She's a proud Hmong American, a mother to three beautiful children, and an avid fisherwoman. She has pursued an ambitious community leadership career focused on building equitable and inclusive spaces and communities through collaborations across different sectors and the amplification of community voice. Tiffany has extensive experience in community and campaign organizing as well as fundraising strategy and execution, providing her with a depth and breadth of perspective that has added value to notable political campaigns, critical grassroots efforts and leading cultural and philanthropic organizations. Tiffany has worked in philanthropy and fundraising in various roles and capacities for ten years. Prior to joining Constellation, Tiffany was the Development Director of Theater Mu, the second-largest Asian-American theater in the U.S. **Connect with Kia Croom**** The Black Fundraisers' Podcast is produced by Kia Croom Fundraising & Philanthropy. This Black-woman-owned fundraising firm helps nonprofits serving Black and Brown communities raise critical funding to fight the byproducts of structural racism. That is, structural inequities such as poverty, homelessness, educational inequity and more. Visit www.kiacroom.com to learn ways you can work with Kia Croom. This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

*******ABOUT THE BLACK FUNDRAISERS' PODCAST******* The Black Fundraisers' Podcast was founded in 2021 by Kia Croom, CEO of Kia Croom Fundraising and Philanthropy, a Black-woman-owned fundraising firm that works exclusively with nonprofits serving Black and Brown people and communities. Visit www.kiacroom.com to learn more. Subscribe to the Black Fundraisers' Podcast wherever podcasts are available. Connect with us on IG & YouTube, and LinkedIn @Blackfundraiserspodcast ******ABOUT TODAY'S GUEST******** Tiffany Ker Xiong is the Advancement Director at The Constellation Fund. She's a proud Hmong American, a mother to three beautiful children, and an avid fisherwoman. She has pursued an ambitious community leadership career focused on building equitable and inclusive spaces and communities through collaborations across different sectors and the amplification of community voice. Tiffany has extensive experience in community and campaign organizing as well as fundraising strategy and execution, providing her with a depth and breadth of perspective that has added value to notable political campaigns, critical grassroots efforts and leading cultural and philanthropic organizations. Tiffany has worked in philanthropy and fundraising in various roles and capacities for ten years. Prior to joining Constellation, Tiffany was the Development Director of Theater Mu, the second-largest Asian-American theater in the U.S. ******Connect with Kia Croom******** The Black Fundraisers' Podcast is produced by Kia Croom Fundraising & Philanthropy. This Black-woman-owned fundraising firm helps nonprofits serving Black and Brown communities raise critical funding to fight the byproducts of structural racism. That is, structural inequities such as poverty, homelessness, educational inequity and more. Visit www.kiacroom.com to learn ways you can work with Kia Croom. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kia-croom/support

Our guests today is a Los Angeles-based chef, award-winning cookbookauthor, culinary ambassador to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundationand co-chair of Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti's AAPI LA initiative. Herfifth book, "Katie Chin's Global Family Cookbook," was published in June2022. Recently in January, she was on the Kelly Clarkson show. Plus,Katie's one-woman show, "Holy Shitake: A Wok Star is Born," is indevelopment with Theater Mu in St. Paul, Minnesota. Like most of us, shehas a story to tell, a story of tragedy, resilience, and subsequent triumph!

As the Guthrie Theater celebrates its 60th anniversary, the landmark theater has chosen to open their season with Qui Nguyen's Vietgone. The show is a romantic comedy about two Vietnamese refugees who fall in love at a resettlement camp in 1970s Arkansas. Director Mina Morita said that during the rehearsal process input from the local Vietnamese community was an important part of the story telling. “We [had] a lot of conversations both amongst the cast and creative team about how we were reaching out.” Morita said, “[We] had spoken to some elders as well, from the Vietnamese community, in preparation for rehearsal.” The show also hired a cultural consultant to help with the nuances of presenting a story with a specific cultural lens. While it is notable that the Guthrie is opening the season with an all-Asian cast that focuses on the Vietnamese American experience, “Vietgone” is not a new show, having premiered in 2015. Eric Sharp, one of the cast members, said that as more Asian plays show they can be successful, the more they are being produced. “Now there is a critical mass of plays that have been found viable.” he said, “I hate that word, but it's true. There are plays like “Vietgone”... like “The Great Leap,” like “Cambodian Rock Band,” that not only Asian people know about now.” While Asian voices have been part of the American theater as far back as the 1920s with the drama "The Submission of Rose Moy,” by Ling-Ai Li, Sharp has noticed wider recognition especially in the last decade. In fact, when Sharp graduated college nearly 20 years ago, he wasn't sure what it looked like to have a career as an Asian American theater artist. “My idea was that I was going to fit into this white American theater or this idea of what it means to be white on stage and that I would do that irrespective of my race.” Sharp said. “Well, you graduate, and then you find out very quickly that that's not the case.” He found Theater Mu, which allowed him to explore what it means to be an Asian American artist, without compromising his ambitions. “I always call it the happiest accident of my life” Sharp said. Ben Hovland | MPR News Rick Shiomi poses for a photo at the Kling Public Media Center in St. Paul on Sept. 22. Rick Shiomi, playwright and co-founder of Theater Mu, said he always wanted that to be the purpose of the organization, to act as both a theater that produces Asian work and give artists the opportunity to grow so they can work in other theaters. “The thing I didn't want was for people in the larger community to be able to look at Theater Mu and say, ‘Okay, that's a little niche group,'” Shiomi said. Much like Sharp, Shiomi did not think there was space for him to write theater from his Japanese Canadian view until he found the community of Asian theater makers in San Francisco in the 1970s. “I actually wanted to become a writer for a long time, but really felt like, there was nothing that I could say, in an odd way,” Shiomi said, “because I had no understanding that there was an Asian Canadian, or an Asian American perspective.” The Guthrie is not the only theater in town with a show featuring Asian artists and playwrights. Theater Mu's 30th season opens Friday with the world premiere of “A Different Pond,” a stage adaptation of the children's book of the same name. Meanwhile, Full Circle Theater premieres Shiomi's new play “Fire in the New World” in October at Park Square Theatre. Courtesy of Theater Mu. | Amy Rondeau Benji Stoebner (left) and Hieu Bui (right) play father and son in "A Different Pond." Park Square is currently showing “The Humans” through Oct. 9. The show usually casts white actors in the one act drama, but director Lily Tung Crystal decided to cast Asian actors to play the daughters in the piece and portray them as Korean adoptees. “I felt like this community in Minnesota would understand that choice, because so many in our community are Korean or Chinese adoptees,” Crystal said. “I don't think that choice would have happened if they didn't hire an Asian American director.” The flourishing of dramatic arts in the Twin Cities comes during a nationwide rise in hate-motivated crimes toward Asians and Asian Americans. “We believe at Theater Mu that one reason for the rise in anti-Asian hate and violence is because of the lack of our stories in film, television and stage,” said Lily Tung Crystal, who also serves as Theater Mu's artistic director. “When people don't see our stories, then it's easy for them to see us as other, or un-American, or even subhuman.” Even with all the current productions running with Asian representation, Crystal says that there is still work to be done to ensure the work is recognized properly. “Maybe right now there is a lot of Asian plays, but that's not to say for the rest of the season there'll be this flurry of activity.” Crystal said. “It can still be considered by some institutions that that's a sort of outside thing to do ... like ‘we might consider doing an Asian American play this season, but not next season.'” Listen Minnesota's Guthrie Theater turns 60: A look at its legacy 2021 All the home's a stage: Far-flung actors, crew unite for Theater Mu's new show “Vietgone” at the Guthrie runs until Oct 16. Theater Mu and Stages Theatre Company's “A Different Pond” runs until Oct. 23, and Full Circle Theater's “Fire in the New World” opens Oct 19.  

Lily Tung Crystal is the Artistic Director of Theater Mu, an award-winning coach, and an accomplished multimedia producer. Lily joins the club to discuss telling the Asian American story through performance arts, making hard decisions, and the complexities of producing a live theater show. Join us as we break down one the the most combustible and beloved albums of all time - Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.

St. Paul creative Tommy Sar recommends checking out the play “Cambodian Rock Band” at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, co-produced by Theater Mu. The play follows a Khmer Rouge survivor returning to Cambodia after 30 years as his daughter prosecutes a war criminal. Key to the show is its music, as the actor-musicians perform popular Cambodian psychedelic rock music from the 1960s and new music by the American band Dengue Fever, whose lead singer is Cambodian. “Many times, whenever we Cambodians are portrayed as survivors and victims of tragedy, and that is very valid,” said Sar, whose father survived the Khmer Rouge and was also a musician. “But I also feel it's important to see Cambodians not just as survivors but as rising again and thriving again and rediscovering and creating new music, we have so much to offer. And we are very proud of our heritage.” The play runs through July 31 at the Jungle Theater. Single tickets are valued at $45, but people may choose to pay less or more depending on their situation. Jean Marie Durant is a big fan of public art, and she plans to hop on a bus tour this Saturday for a Women on Walls tour of murals by women artists. The bus tour is part of Chroma Zones Mural and Arts Festival, which runs through Sunday, celebrating murals and graffiti art by local and international artists. Five women artists will collaborate on a new mural over the course of the five-day festival. The 45-minute guided bus tours will explore the stories behind at least eight woman-created murals in the University-Raymond Ave. area, including a look at the mural-in-progress. Tours leave from Workhorse Coffee at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Tanya Anderson, co-coordinator of the St Anthony Park Arts Festival, loves the original jewelry of Louise Payjack-Guillou. Anderson loves the unique ways the Duluth artist pairs gems and metal. Her store, Atelier & Stone is located in Duluth, and the trained goldsmith will be at Park Point Art Fair this weekend and at the Grand Marais Arts Festival July 9 and 10. Her jewelry “just has this stately presence. It's kind of magical in how it makes you feel when you see it and and wear it,” Anderson said.

This year, 2022, marks the 30th anniversary of the Asian American Renaissance, which was a community based Asian American arts organization which began in 1992 and was an anchor in the Asian community here in Minnesota for the decade that followed. The Asian American Renaissance gave birth to many of the Asian arts and cultural organizations we know today such as Theater Mu, Mizna Arts, Pangea World Theater, Pan-Asian Voices for Equity and more! David Mura reflects on how the Asian American Renaissance came about back in the early 1990's, why its founding was such a significant turning point in our history as Asian Minnesotans and how its legacy might inspire the next generation of creatives, organizers and dreamers. Visit www.caalmn.org/podcast, for more stories from our Asian Minnesotan communities,

Next weekend, 30 artists from around the country will have only 24 hours to create 6 brand-new 10-minute plays.  Our own Theater Mu is organizing this whirlwind effort, which begins the creative process Friday night and premieres Saturday night.  We hear about this whole event from the company's artistic director, Lily Tung Crystal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, guest host Stevie Scheurich speaks with Dr. Angela Ahlgren, professor of theatre and film at BGSU, and Dr. Kareem Khubchandani, professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Tufts University, about how their lives as performers and professors inform each other. Angela and Kareem discuss their research as both performers and performance studies scholars exploring how political, economic, and transnational power structures shape individual and communal performances of racial, gendered, and sexual identities.   Announcer: From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society this is BG Ideas.Musical Intro:I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment.Stevie:Welcome back to the BiG Ideas Podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society and the school of media and communication at Bowling Green State University. I am Stevie Scheurichm, A PhD student in BGSU's American Culture Studies program and a graduate assistant at the Institute for the Study of Culture & Society. Due to the ongoing pandemic we are not recording in the studio, ultimately by phone and computer. As always the opinions expressed on this podcast are those are the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees. Bowling Green State University, and its campuses are situated in the Great Black Swamp and the Lower Great Lakes region.Stevie:This land is a home land of the Wyandot, Kickapoo, Miami Potawatomi, Odawa and multiple other Indigenous tribal nations, present and past, who were forcibly removed to and from the area. We recognize these historical and contemporary ties in our efforts toward decolonizing history and we honor the indigenous individuals and communities who have been living and working on this land from time in memorial. Today we are joined by Dr. Kareem Khubchandani and Dr. Angela Ahlgren. Kareem is a Mellon Bridge Assistant Professor in theater, dance and performance studies and women's gender and sexuality studies at Tufts University. He is the author of Ishtyle, Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife, co-editor of Queer Nightlife and creator of criticalauntystudies.com. Kareem is currently working on two new book projects, Decolonize Drag and Ontologies, Queer Aesthetics and South Asian Aunties.Stevie:Kareem has just finished a digital residency at BGSU, including a critical drag workshop and a lecture entitled Divas, Drag Queens, Aunties and other academic personas. Angela is an assistant professor and graduate coordinator in the department of theater and film at Bowling Green State University. She is the author of Drumming Asian America, Taiko, Performance and Cultural Politics, which focuses on the racial, gender, and cultural politics woven into the practice and performance of taiko, Japanese ensemble drumming in the US and Canada. Her research interests include Asian American theater and performance, critical dance studies, queer and feminist theater and performance, and the politics of mourning. Thank you both so much for joining today.Angela:Thank you. Kareem:Thank you. Stevie: So we'll just start by doing some introductions. Kareem, you're a scholar of performance studies and a performer yourself. Can you give us a little background about what it is that you study, who you study, how you study and how do you see your identities as an academic and a performer sort of entwined?Kareem:So my recent book is a study of nightlife in LGBT communities, primarily gay male communities in India and in the south Asian diaspora. And it looks at how people move across national borders and are forced to move across national borders by economic projects of globalization. And it thinks about how nightlife and queer nightlife spaces offer these migrant subjects, places to practice their identities and places to feel beautiful and places to find desire and love. It's somewhat of a reenactment of my own journey moving to the US when I was 17 years old and finding these incredible spaces of dance and pleasure and play in New York city and in San Francisco. So when I moved to Chicago to start graduate school in a performance studies program, I started organizing queer Bollywood nights there. Modeled on what I'd seen in other cities.Kareem:And it was my beginning as a graduate student. It was also the first time I had lived in a big city and all of these things coming together, it just sort of all folded on each other. My research, my teaching, my study and my social life all sort of became intertwined with each other and it's hard for me to separate them. To me, I try to bring queer nightlife into the classroom. I'm currently teaching class on queer nightlife. I'm editing a book called Queer Nightlife. I wrote about this transnational Indian nightlife, and I try to practice it. And I perform in online drag shows right now in the pandemic and had performed at bars, et cetera. So for me, all of these things are laid on each other and are integrated into each other.Stevie:Thank you. And then Angie, you're also a performer, performance studies scholar. Could you give us background on your research and how your life as a researcher, performer and educator are connected?Angela:So the research that I did as a taiko player culminated in a book that you mentioned, Drumming Asian America, and this book looks at what I'm terming cultural politics as opposed to sort of international politics or partisan politics. But I'm really looking at race, gender, and sexuality, kind of both in different chapters, one or the other of those things as foregrounded, but they're really all connected across the book. I was actually a taiko player before I was a taiko scholar, but it was also actually my work in theater that put me in contact with taiko in the first place. So when I was an undergraduate student, I was a theater major and an English major in Minneapolis. And when I graduated, I was waitressing. So I started stage managing for an Asian American theater company called Theater Mu in the late 90s.Angela:And it was through my work there that A, I really got exposed to sort of Asian American history through theater. And it was also there that they had been starting a taiko group just around the time that I started stage managing. So that was really my introduction to taiko and I was really captivated by it and I really wanted to try it. And I took some classes thinking that I would have a kind of four week class and have an interesting experience and then go about my life. But I really loved it and I kept up with it. And that sort of turned into a whole... I guess I started performing with the group. It made me think about things in many different ways beyond the kinds of things that we may have learned in school. Didn't really think all that hard about race especially my own.Angela:So that really was a kind of new experience for me that I ended up exploring in much greater depth as I kind of moved into my work as a scholar. So it was really my experience as a taiko performer that when I went to graduate school as a master's student in English, led me to take some Asian American studies classes that again, accumulated and helped me think about my experiences as a taiko player in a different way. So I really knew that once I went to graduate school, I wanted to write about taiko as my dissertation project, but that I wanted to do it, not in a theater program. And I wasn't a musician. So that was never really an option, but that performance studies seemed to me to be the place where I could do that, because it thinks about performance really expansively.Angela:And because at least the things that I was exposed to there, I felt that performance studies had an affinity with critical race theory and queer theory, feminist theory and that, that would really be a field that could sort of accommodate the project that I had when I was going into graduate school. So my sort of life as a performer and my life as a scholar, especially of taiko are deeply intertwined in that sense that it's not something I ever would have written about if I never had performed it, even though I would have found it interesting, I think. In a sense, there's a way that the things that I feel most passionate about or feel that I can really get into the crevices of in a certain way are things that I have done myself and know what it feels to be in that world.Stevie:Kareem, yesterday in your talk you partially focused on academic personas and you detailed how your drag persona, LaWhore Vagistan, occasionally visits your classes. And so to both of you, since you're both performers, you're both in class, right? Could you both speak to how you use your experience as performers, your knowledge of performance and navigate the classroom, which is really right in an environment built by and for white cisgender or straight men?Kareem:Yeah. I mean, my second year of graduate school, I was really intimidated to teach the sort of core class in our performance studies department at Northwestern, because I didn't know how they would react to a small brown queer person teaching them about performance, right? I was really self-conscious about what especially straight men would think of me trying to teach them how to use their bodies and turn poetry into performance. In retrospect, I realized I needed to take control over myself and my body to enter that space and to feel like I had some command over it. Again, performance studies is a place that accommodates issues of gender, sexuality, race post-colonial histories, things like that. So it is a comfortable space, but in general, the academy doesn't.Kareem:So when I teach these kinds of core classes that expose me to students that I don't already know or don't have affinities with, I feel like I have to put on a persona, right? I have to lean into things I'm good at to feel confident in front of students and to do new things in the classroom. And one of the ways I've done that is doing drag and bringing my drag persona, LaWhore Vagistan to teach classes. And what that has done has made me realize that I was right all along that students are seeing me through my body. It matters who they see in front of them. And women of color have been telling us this for a long time. Women of color in the academy have been telling us this for a long time, that their labor is devalued because of their race and their gender and their sexuality.Kareem:When LaWhore walks into the classroom, I'm treated differently and it brings out a different reaction, but really drawing on drag's history of playfulness and camp and lack of sincerity, I get to be as boisterous as I want, right? So really leaning into drag as a tradition, I get to make fun of my students back to their faces. And we all laugh together because they're in on the joke in that moment. But again, it makes me realize that performance can really work for us in the classroom to defamiliarize the space and say, "Last week was a whole other moment when we were talking to Kareem. How do we talk about that moment as a time where we learned something very specific?" How do we re-explain it now to LaWhore who "doesn't know" what's going on here, right?Kareem:So being authentic isn't what I'm most interested in. Creating opportunities for learning and discussion and troubling what we think we already know is what I'm actually most interested in. So performance can do that. And then there are other ways that I use performance in the classroom asking folks to interpret ideas through gesture, or asking them to develop their own drag personas. So I think there are other ways that we can use performance in the classroom. But bringing my drag persona into the classroom is this way of appending what they think they know the classroom is supposed to be doing and appending who they think I am. And making them realize, and myself realize that it matters who you're learning from and asking as to interrupt our biases as well.Angela:Yeah. I think that's really awesome and I love that idea. I feel like hearing you talk a little bit about that at the talk yesterday too made me think about sort of developing personas in a way that I think that we sort of do it in a half conscious way in certain ways, but really taking that to another level and using it to be able to destabilize identity. I think that's really awesome. One of the wonderful and tricky things about teaching performance studies is that it's sort of everything and also nothing at the same time. It's so capacious and flexible, which is awesome. But it also, I think, thinking about when I first started teaching this class at BGSU, I also had a certain trepidation more because there's a sense of, "Well, what is my performance studies understanding?"Angela:Because I think that everybody could teach it in a very different way and still be right or correct and within the boundaries of what it is. Because it's also made up of so many different lineages from sociology, anthropology, theater studies, ethnography. I felt like especially the first couple of times that I taught this classes that students would continually ask, "But what is performance studies?" Or, "Is this thing we're doing performance studies or is that thing performance studies?" And I think that that is a little bit of a tricky line. But I think that ultimately my own, I think sort of as I'm continuing to teach it is to really rely on my own lineage in performance studies and theater studies to be able to bridge that sort of perceived gap, I guess.Stevie: I was listening yesterday, I was thinking about my first time as instructor of record. I was sort of like, I'm all over the place on how I present my gender and I was immediately navigating all of these assumptions that I hadn't really thought about, about sort of who the professor is and how they sort of present themselves. The first time I taught I skewed towards sort of the traditional sort of set up and it didn't work. It didn't work. This time, teaching this semester, I just worked something I thought it was neutral and I had a student be like, "You're not buying it, right? I can tell."Stevie:And I was like, "Okay, they know." They're going to know. That's the second time I showed up and I was like, "Just put it all out on the table." And the response to me being like, "Y'all know I'm a queer non-binary femme." The response was so much more positive and so much more when I was able to just kind of like... it was just so much more. You're being read. I definitely think of professing as a performer.Kareem:Well, you're making me think of my early days as a graduate student who was solo teaching classes. I went out and bought khaki pants and belts and ties just to feel professional, but also I would end up awkward sweating into them because they're just not what I used to wear. But I think that we understand the professor as this straight white man with elbow patches on his tweed blazer, but femme embodiment in the classroom is just not in our public imagination. And so just taking seriously gender, race, sexuality altogether can help us reflect on how we want to bring our bodies into classroom spaces and what that can do to distribute power. The way you were talking about a student seeing you as non-binary and what that does for them to feel like they're inside of the... that they belong, I think it matters.Stevie:We're going to take a quick break. Thank you for listening to BiG Ideas podcast.Announcer :If you are passionate about big ideas, consider sponsoring this program. To have your name or organization mentioned here, please contact us at ics@bgsu.edu.Stevie:So you both are studying at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality performance. Performativity is a big word that gets thrown around in our field. So I was wondering if we could all take a shot at unpacking both the difference and the connection between performance and performativity, and also thinking about how performance helps us understand the ideas that are performative.Angela:Sure I can say, I can take a stab at this. I mean, I want to echo what I said to the last question is that these are both really capacious and flexible terms and that there are ongoing conversations and debates about what each of them means, but I'm thinking on one level, that performance is something that happens all the time on stages, in the classroom as we were just discussing, in a wide variety of social context like sports, religion, digital space. But I think the word performativity can be a little bit more slippery. And in particular, because I think that recently it's become a pejorative term for showy, fake, theatrical. And that this in some ways runs really counter to the way that performance studies have theorized the term performative or performativity, which is often based on JL Austin. Angela:The linguist, JL Austin's idea of the performative utterance, a thing that you say that makes something happen, right? I do. When you're married means that you're placing a bet. And that a lot of scholars have taken that in different ways to mean that if something is performative it's something that actually causes something to happen or make something new happen, or urges an audience to do something. There's a lot of different ways that this kind of takes shape in scholarship. So in that sense, the term performative in the way that people in the field use it is really different from this sort of more colloquial understanding of what performative means, which often I think comes to mean theatrical or dramatic. I mean, these ended up all being such terms that people in the field have problems with.Angela:But in another sense I think the term performative it sort of means both fake and real in the sense that if we think about the way that Judith Butler talks about gender as performative, she's saying that gender is a kind of series of acts that happen and repeat so much that we take them to be natural or to have an origin and some biological fact. That in fact, gender is performative because it's actually fake, but it has real effects on the world. So there's sort of this tension, I think in thinking about that word between what is real and what is not real, and whether it's fake and showy. I'm thinking about the ways that people are using performative as performative allyship, like when you just post on Facebook a lot, but you don't actually get out there and do the work.Kareem:You hit the nail on the head. It is shocking to me to hear the word performative said so often outside the academy, but especially since last summer during Black Lives Matter protests, a lot of people were also calling out what they saw as insufficient activism as performative allyship or performative activism, where performative is assumed to be the adjective of performance. Friends of mine like to say... Actually, I think what you're trying to say is performancy, performance like. But it assumes that performance is a bad thing. And that to me is really dangerous because so much activism has actually relied on performance to have its effect in the world. When we think about the role of dress in civil rights activism, or even the hoodie in the Black Lives Matter movement and the hands up, don't shoot gesture, right?Kareem:All of these are performance practices and they're not fake, right? They have this viral effect of inviting more folks into activism, allowing them to be legible to each other. The public conversation doesn't take account how powerful performance can be, whether it's how people present themselves in the world every day. But one of the ways I think the field has shifted a little bit through the work of critical race studies scholars like, Saidiya Hartman and E. Patrick Johnson and Joshua Chambers-Letson and Jose Esteban Munoz is to say, actually performance is also something people are compelled and forced to do, especially minoritarian subjects are required to use their bodies in particular ways. Kareem:And how do we take stock of the ways that performance is actually a means of managing labor, managing life, and therefore takes serious of the way people use their bodies to survive, to find pleasure, to access wealth in ways that they're denied, right? I think it's important to take performance seriously and a deeper understanding of performativity, which I understand is, performance is ability to work in the world. Can really help us understand performance is power. Stevie:What does your research and performance work reveal about the ways in which race, nationality, class shape the way we understand and perform our gender and sexual identities?Kareem:So maybe one of the simplest ways I'll put it is in the nightclub, we think we're going there to dance and be free and feel the music. But in fact, there are very regimented rules to how we're supposed to be in the nightclub. All of those things are being controlled from the bouncer to the DJ, to lights, to what's on the walls, to the size of a space. All of these are cues that are telling us how we're supposed to be in those spaces. So we think we're going into the nightclub to feel free and feel the music and in fact, we are going in there to follow a bunch of rules. What I found is that folks who are migrants to the city whether it's from the small town in India to a bigger city or folks who are migrating from south Asia to the US, suddenly find themselves not knowing the rules when they enter the club.Kareem:The way they move, the way they dress, the way they style themselves runs up against the dominant aesthetics, right? And what I'm saying is that these aesthetics are in fact controlling devices. The donut aesthetics are what gives us capital. So if we look like what the club is supposed to be, we're great. People might talk to us. When we start thinking about what are the dominant aesthetics, we start to see how people of color, sexual minorities, gender minorities don't always fit with that dominant way of bringing your body into the world and fitting into environments. That's sort of the method that I take to my research is to ask, well, who's doing the wrong thing in the club? Because we think that just sort of stepping side to side is the natural way we dance. But in fact, people only started dancing solo in club environments in the '60s onwards with the rise of disco.Kareem:So the ways that people move in clubs together is actually quite organized. So who's going to change the layout of it. So one of the things I write about is how South Asian dancers in Chicago clubs bring their Indian dance styles like Panera or Bollywood to disrupt what is expected of the space. They don't necessarily know they're doing the wrong dance, but in doing the wrong kind of movement, they help us see what the dominant movement is. You suddenly see the contrast and you're like, "Oh, I didn't know that this is what the dominant was until I saw the contrast." And what else is possible when you have these kinds of frictions inside of the club, it's sort of thinking about dominant aesthetics as they're tied to race, gender, coloniality that rub up against minority practice of the body that people just come in wanting to practice because it's what they know.Stevie:Thank you. And for you, Angie, what have you learned from your research and performance work about how racial identity and gender norms are negotiated by the different groups of people participating in taiko drumming?Angela:I mean, one of the things I would say is that there's not a really neat way to sort of define how sort of taiko is practiced or thought about. The kind of responses that I had from people that I interviewed, especially when I was asking them specifically about how race or gender or other aspects of their identity sort of inform their practice of taiko or perhaps instigated their practice of taiko, it was really quite diverse. And part of this I think is because Asian American itself is a contested term and it's always being negotiated. But I guess the best way for me to answer this is maybe to think about a couple of specific examples. So one of the examples that I kind of point to is in Minnesota, in the group that I performed with.Angela:Because of the sort of geography and history of Asian America in Minnesota, a lot of the participants in my group were Korean adoptees. That's because there is a high number of Korean adoptees in Minnesota for reasons that to do with Lutheran churches and the sort of way that social welfare works in Minnesota as a state. But nonetheless, that's a significant population. So in my interviews with this particular couple of people talked about how Asian-American identity worked with them was often quite compelling because they were people who were mostly raised by white Midwesterners. So in some ways, taiko was a way of practicing Asian-American identity.Angela:That was I won't necessarily say new, but that was an intentional choice as a way to sort of forge community with other Asian-Americans. And I think that isn't that necessarily different from the ways that other, maybe Japanese Americans in California, for example, practice. But it has a sort of different context because of the ways that there are not sort of long established geographical enclaves of AsianAmerican communities in Minnesota the way that there are in California and New York, for example. Stevie:Another question for both of you, and we've kind of hinted at this, right? Talking about power and performance. So some people might think that drag, dancing, drumming are activities that are just recreational fun outside if they're all in politics. How does looking at performance help us identify how power that work in these almost invisible ways that we navigate our everyday life that we're not necessarily thinking about when we're in the moment, right?Angela:Yes. So I think one of the things that I would think about is this sort of ability to participate based on money and access for certain people. Another scholar of taiko, Debra Wong said to me once that, "Taiko is really an elaborate leisure activity for people who have the means to participate in it." She and I are both taiko players and very passionate about the way that it can be so powerful visually sonically in its embodied form. But I think to be able to acknowledge that starting a taiko group, for example, you need drums and those drums are quite expensive, at least $1,000 for each one.Angela:And if you are wanting to have a group, you need a lot of drums. But not only that, the sort of space that you need to be able to practice in, the space that you need to perform, or even just having the time to have a leisure activity like that, that requires a lot of practice. So thinking about the ways that leisure itself is very much tied up in class and therefore power is one of the things to think about. I think I'll pause there.Kareem:That's a perfect place to pause, because that's where I want to pick up. Fun is always measured in relation to work. I don't deserve to go out because I haven't done enough, right? And that's precisely what I'm thinking about in relation to nightlife is that I'm thinking about these global laborers who one, are only in nightlife spaces because patterns of globalization have given them mobility to enter these spaces. But again, like I was talking about before, they're not aesthetically trained to be inside of them, right? So now they're made precarious subjects. They're made to feel awkward. They're made to feel shame.Kareem:All these larger political economies that produce the very small encounter in the club where you're like, "Oh, my hair is not cut like that. I feel awkward about myself," right? Even the most minor transactions in these leisure spaces actually have to do with processes of global labor, if we look closely enough and if we think historically enough. Also, when it comes to drag. One, drag is a leisure practice for a lot of people, but for a lot of folks it's also work, right? So we go to the club to have fun, but they're actually bartenders and bouncers and bar backs and drag artists and go-go dancers working, right?Kareem:Trying to get paid in that time where we are having our leisure moment. So work is always at play in those contexts. And lastly, I think any conversation about drag in gender binaries and gender in general, has to think about the history of managing gendered bodies. That is massive economy from advertising to medicalization. When we're talking about how people dress, how people present their bodies in the world, we're actually talking about all these industries that have tried to produce gender binaries and sell the gender binary as attractive. I want to add also, so I'm working on this book called Decolonized Drag, and there are so many drag artists who are making performance about colonization.Kareem:So they're responding to political and economic violence through performance in very explicit ways. One person, Ms. Shumai in California takes Britney Spears as a womanizer, womanizer and turns it into colonizer, colonizer. I think that, again, these spaces of leisure are considered apolitical, but in fact there's so much politics being practiced in them and I think that that's important to recognize.Stevie:And in a way, I think it makes it so much more effective when you make those politics explicit and giving people an opportunity to see like, "I am participating in these power sectors in ways I didn't necessarily know." So maybe we can answer this question in a way that doesn't feel prohibitive, but enabling and encouraging. Do you have any tips for our listeners on how they can be engaged in critical audience members? And really thinking, what does it mean to be a critical viewer? Since a lot of folks might just assume that that's just looking for flaws in the performance so to speak?Kareem:I think a couple of things, one is that audience members can learn that they're also performers. So I think what I would say is, as an audience member, especially when you're entering new kinds of performance spaces, is to really watch other audience members to get a sense of what is a good respectful way to be in conversation with that art form, right? I guess alongside that research the form that you're an audience of. Get a sense of how much actors and performers get paid. Understand the economy behind it and that might get you to this place of being like, "Maybe I should mediate my criticisms." Kareem:This person wasn't working with a lot of resources. Isn't getting paid, even if they're being given a platform to do X, Y, or Z show or podcast or interview. So I think that these are some of the ways I think folks can be aware of how to be critical listeners, audience, members, witnesses, and remember that they too are in their bodies much like other performers and artists.Angela:I love those suggestions and I think that some of mine kind of overlap, but one of the things to put this from a slightly different lens, this idea of audience convention. So I teach theater history for undergraduates. One of the things I love teaching about is that the kind of conventions or rules or etiquette of being in an audience or being a spectator changed drastically based on time period, and geography and form and context. So I'd like to think about unruly, very vocal audiences of Japanese Kabuki performance versus standing in an Elizabethan theater versus maybe the kind of much more buttoned up sort of darkened theater.Angela:You have to be quiet, you have to put away your cell phones, sort of conventions of attending maybe a national theater today. So I think paying attention exactly to what are the rules and conventions of how you conduct yourself in various spaces. And I think that's its own kind of pleasure in thinking about what's expected of you and what do performers want from you. And I also wanted to echo this idea of let performances make you purious. So thinking about like, maybe find something out about the performer. What are their politics?Angela:And then thirdly, just that, I think that that moment of being a student, especially a student of theater, performance studies, cultural studies that sort of period of being like, "Oh my gosh, I can't watch everything. Everything's terrible." All I can do is see everything wrong with it. But I think just thinking about the fact that we all have really complex engagements and relationships with the world in so many things. I mean, often with our own family members, why not remember that you can have a kind of complex multilayered relationship to performance too.Stevie:Thank you so much for joining us today Kareem and Angie. Listeners can keep up with other ICS happenings by following us on Twitter and Instagram via @icsbgsu. You can listen to BiG Ideas wherever you find your favorite podcast. Please subscribe to us on your preferred platform. Our producers or Chris Cavera and Marco Mendoza. Sound editing by DeAnna MacKeigan and Marco Mendoza. Stevie Scheurich researched and wrote the interview questions. 

During the pandemic, Minnesota's theater companies lived their industry's credo: The show must go on. Some worked outdoors, others offered livestreams and virtual performances and some went deep with pandemic-specific programming.  Now that Broadway has reopened and many local venues are returning with masks and social distancing, theater companies are applying what they learned during the quarantine to their futures. Guest host Euan Kerr checked in with Minnesota theater directors on life during the pandemic and returning to the stage in all its forms. Guests: Joseph Haj is the artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis Kevin West is general manager, artistic associate and director of the Capri After School Theater in Minneapolis Lily Tung Crystal is the artistic director of Theater Mu in St. Paul Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Even though they couldn't stage productions with lights, sound design, costumes and a live audience, during the pandemic Minnesota's many theater companies lived their industry's credo: The show must go on. Some companies worked outdoors, others offered livestreams and virtual performances and some went deep to offer pandemic-specific programming.  Now that Broadway has reopened and many local venues are returning with masks and social distancing, theater directors and their companies are taking what they learned during the quarantine and applying it to their futures.  Guest host Euan Kerr checked in with Minnesota theater directors on life during the pandemic and returning to the stage in all its forms. Guests: Joseph Haj is the artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis Kevin West is general manager, artistic associate and director of the Capri After School Theater in Minneapolis Lily Tung Crystal is the artistic director of Theater Mu in St. Paul Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Ten Black, Indigenious, Latino and Asian American-led arts organizations in the Twin Cities and Dultuth are getting grants of at least half a million dollars each. The grants were given in recognition that these organizations have not enjoyed the deep and sustained investment that many predominantly white cultural institutions have received. --Samantha HoangLong reports: Ten Black, Indigenious, Latino and Asian American-led arts organizations in the Twin Cities and Duluth got news Tuesday of surprise grants of at least half a million dollars each.One of the organizations awarded is Theater Mu, a company dedicated to celebrating and empowering Asian Americans through theater. Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal says she's grateful for the award — especially after the past year.“It's been a challenging time for the Asian American communities around the country with the rise in Anti-Asian violence, and we believe one reason for the violence is that Asian American stories are not told enough in the general media, like in film, television and stage, so we will continue our work in telling those stories in our theater,” said Tung Crystal. “And the funding will help us do that in that it will help us give work opportunities to our artists.”The grants, totaling $7 million to be distributed over the next five years, were instigated by the Ford Foundation, and matched by the McKnight Foundation. McKnight Arts Program Director DeAnna Cummings says the Cultural Treasures initiative aims to honor the important work these POC organizations have done.“Recognizing that these organizations are real treasures in our country, and that they have not received the kind of deep and sustained investment that many other predominantly white cultural institutions have received over time,” Cummings said. “These organizations are the bedrock of culture in our country, and that in fact, they should be thought of, recognized and held up as the treasures that they are.”Other organizations awarded include Indigenious Roots, Ananya Dance Theatre, TruArt Speaks, and the Somali Museum of Minnesota.

St. Paul composer Adam Wernick looks forward to the Rimon Artists Salon series — and in particular, the world premiere of a new work by composer and vocalist Anat Spiegel. Submitted photo | YourClassical Anat Spiegel Spiegel is a Dutch-Israeli composer who now makes her home in the Twin Cities. Rimon executive producer David Harris saw her work as a Cedar Commissions fellow and commissioned Thursday’s performance.  “I would describe her music and her performances as bold, theatrical, hugely imaginative — and always surprising,” Wernick said. The Zoom event is entitled “I Once Was a Boy: on the Edge with poet Anna Margolin.” Spiegel’s song series puts music to poems written in Yiddish by Anna Margolin. The evening includes a conversation between Spiegel and vocalist Sarah Larsson about the Yiddish language, poetry, and music. The event Thursday at 7 p.m. is free, but registration is required. Landscape painter Joshua Cunningham recently made a trip to Duluth, Minn., to get a sneak peak at the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Arts’ first student show. The school is a four-year program that teaches a classical style of art. The first graduating class was in 2020, but the pandemic prevented the academy from putting on a year-end showcase. This year’s show includes work by the first two graduating classes as well as current students.  Austin Jasurda | Courtesy of Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art ‘St. Jerome Cast Drawing’ by Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art student Austin Jasurda who used charcoal on paper to create this work of art. Cunningham was intrigued by both the showcase and its location; the school is housed in a decommissioned Catholic church, with pews turned into easels surrounded by original stonework and wooden scaffolding. “It's really neat because beauty endures beyond its original purpose. And so for the students to be practicing and learning in a space about beauty for a bigger thing,” Cunningham said. As for the artwork, Cunningham said “some of those drawings and paintings will be the fruit of weeks of observation. Just think about the last time you spent weeks looking at and studying something.”  The student showcase runs Friday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. Looking ahead to next weekend, visual artist Heather Lou in St. Paul is planning to attend the New Eyes Festival 2021: (Un)Scene. The annual festival of short plays from Theater Mu and the Playwrights’ Center will feature a series of 10-minute plays, presented virtually. This year’s playwrights are Carla Ching, Aditi Brennan Kapil, Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, Isabella Dawis, and Lisa Marie Rollins. This year, the five playwrights respond in some way to growing anti-Asian violence in the country. Lou also appreciates that the plays explore “the ways our community can be celebrated and put in the limelight.” Friday, May 21 at 7 p.m., you can hear from the playwrights and producer Katie Hae Leo during a “Mu-tini Hour” on Facebook live. The plays air live on May 22 at 7 p.m. and will be available on demand May 23 through May 29. All the home’s a stage Far-flung actors, crew unite for Theater Mu’s new show

The East Side Freedom Library and the Ramsey County Historical Society invite you to our monthly “History Revealed” program, featuring Kao Kalia Yang. As the country's doors were closing and nativism was on the rise, Kao Kalia Yang—herself a refugee from Laos—set out to tell the stories of the refugees to whom University Avenue is now home. Here are people who have summoned the energy and determination to make a new life even as they carry an extraordinary burden of hardship, loss, and emotional damage. In Yang's exquisite, poetic, and necessary telling, the voices of refugees from all over the world restore humanity to America's strangers and redeem its long history of welcome. KAO KALIA YANG is a Hmong-American writer. She holds degrees from Carleton College and Columbia University. Yang is the author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir winner of the 2009 Minnesota Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir and Readers' Choice, a finalist for the PEN USA Award in Creative Nonfiction, and the Asian Literary Award in Nonfiction. Her second book, The Song Poet won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction Memoir, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, a PEN USA Award in Nonfiction, and the Dayton's Literary Peace Prize. The story has been commissioned as a youth opera by the Minnesota Opera and will premiere in the spring of 2021. She is now writing a series of children's books. For this event, before we open the virtual floor for questions and comments from audience members, Yang will be joined in conversation by four readers of her book: Saymoukda Duanphouxay Vongsay is an award-winning Lao American poet, playwright, cultural producer, and social practice artist. She is the author of the children's book WHEN EVERYTHING WAS EVERYTHING (Full Circle Publishing) and is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Theater Mu. Visit her at www.SaymoukdaTheRefugenius.com and follow her @refugenius. Thet-Htar Thet (she/her/hers) is a writer, educator and activist originally from Yangon Myanmar. Now based in her home country, Thet-Htar is focused on education reform and identity-driven writing as a consultant for UNESCO and a freelance creative nonfiction writer. Sangay Taythi is a Tibetan refugee born in India who with his family immigrated to the United States in 1998. He has been a community and labor organizer, including the Students for a Free Tibet chapter at the University of Minnesota, the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of Minnesota, the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota, the Tibetan National Congress and Tibetans for Black Lives and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota. Najaha Musse is a 4th year medical student pursuing a doctorate in Osteopathic Medicine. Her family fled rural Ethiopia for a refugee camp in Nairobi Kenya, and then settled in Minnesota where she began formal education in the 3rd grade. As the oldest in a family of 8 children, she became the first in her family to graduate from high school and receive a college degree. While attending medical school, Najaha has focused on social justice issues pertaining to educational access for disadvantaged students and social medicine. To view the video: https://youtu.be/c_p7Nx_SmD8

(S2, EP 12) For this week's episode of The Banh Mi Chronicles Podcast centering on the theme "1975", Lao American writer and playwright Saymoukda Vongsay aka "Refugenius" joins in as a guest and shares her family's migration journey from Laos to Minnesota after the Laos Civil War. She shares her experience growing up with the Lao community in Minnesota, the process of finding her voice through spoken word / poetry, and creating plays centered on the Lao experience in the theatre community. She recently received a large grant from the Mellon fund that will fund her work as a full-time playwright. In this episode, she also reads one of her personal poems. You won't want to miss this memorable episode! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special thanks to my sponsor, Lawrence and Argyle, a Viet-American owned merchandise line representing immigrant empowerment. Get yourself a pin, hoodie or t-shirt and show off your immigrant pride. Visit them at www.lawrenceandargyle.com or on Instagram @lawrenceandargyle or on their Facebook page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bio: Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Lao writer. CNN's “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell called her work “revolutionary.” Governor Mark Dayton recognized her with a “Lao Artists Heritage Month” Proclamation. She's a recipient of a Sally Award for Initiative from the Ordway Center for Performing Arts which “recognizes bold new steps and strategic leadership undertaken by an individual...in creating projects or artistic programs never before seen in Minnesota that will have a significant impact on strengthening Minnesota's artistic/cultural community.” Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Theater Mu, and elsewhere. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/banhmichronicles/support