Minneapolis is not known for its rap music scene.

Other than Prince, most discussions of local artists revolve almost entirely around rock bands. However, the city is home to a community of talented rappers, singers, DJs and producers who have been ignored by a music community more concerned with national stardom than local pride.

Tim Wilson, owner of Urban Lights Music in St. Paul for over 30 years, has been involved in Twin Cities hip-hop since beginning DJing at 15 years old. A childhood friend of rap group Atmosphere, the Minneapolis native said there is never enough support in this city for local artists.

Wilson said artists in cities like New York and Detroit receive more local support than in Minneapolis. He said the community here needs a reason to support a musician, whereas other communities show more unconditional support for local artists.

“The city has to get behind somebody to get them out of here,” Wilson said.

Finding a supportive audience is one of the most common challenges independent musicians face. Independent artists are responsible for their own recording, publishing, management and promotion.

“Being an artist, you gotta wear multiple hats,” said Minneapolis rapper Fanaka Nation.

St. Paul artist Kion Rose said it can be hard to work on both his music and his branding. A self-taught rapper and singer, Rose said cultivating a fanbase can be difficult because he records multiple genres of music.

“I know my stuff is good, I just need to get it to a place where a lot of people can hear it,” Rose said.

In order to differentiate himself from other multi-genre artists, Rose focused on his social media brand. He said paying for advertisements helps, but it is too expensive.

“I’m not super great on the execution part yet, but I know how I want to build it,” he said.

Dance-pop vocalist and producer SYM1 (pronounced “Sym one” or “Symone”) said connecting with the local community used to be much easier before engagement-based recommendation algorithms. After 10 years of experience in marketing and promotion, she said she felt defeated by advertising on social media.

“Social media preys upon the fact that we want to reach out to our own communities,” SYM1 said. 

Unless you get a lot of traction very quickly, SYM1 said building a brand online can be very expensive. Targeted advertising and recommendation algorithms have made it necessary for artists to tailor their brands to niche audiences, she said.

Outside social media, artists struggle to grow and find supportive local audiences.

Opening for other artists is a great experience and a great way to reach new audiences, Rose said, but it can be very difficult to find opportunities and work with bigger audiences.

“It’s hard to even get a reply from these guys, but I guess that that’s how the game works,” Rose said. 

SYM1 said she has had similar experiences working with local venues. Some bigger local venues are difficult to work with and make artists sign predatory contracts, she said.

Sometimes venues require artists to sell a certain amount of tickets in advance before they can perform or require artists not to perform in the area for weeks, even months.

“They don’t support the local scene like I want them to,” SYM1.

As smaller clubs like Pourhouse close, there are few intermediate capacity venues in Minneapolis remaining, Wilson said. He said all the intermediate venues are owned by Live Nation or First Ave.

Smaller venues have helped give local artists a place to create a community and find a platform, Fanaka said. A close friend of other local acts Ozone Creations and Obi Original, Fanaka said he is both musically and personally inspired seeing his friends perform.

DIY venues, like warehouses and basements, are also important for local artists to reach new listeners. 

SYM1 said she loves performing at DIY venues because of the intimate environment. However, she said the crowds at these shows sometimes do not respond to her futuristic hyperpop, which can make it difficult for her as a performer.  

“It’s hard to have an aesthetic that matches the scene’s,” SYM1 said.

Wilson said there is no community for rap, hip-hop or dance music in Minneapolis because Minneapolis does not have a signature sound. Other than Prince, he said the local scene just adapts to music from elsewhere.

African artists and music have become especially popular in the local music scene. Afrobeats especially have influenced local rappers like Fanaka Nation and Rose Rose.

Fanaka said the embrace of African culture is good for the music and the community. As Afrobeats grows globally, artists in the city have had more opportunities to work with popular artists when they’re on tour.

“Minneapolis is really up next,” he said. “There’s something spicy here.”

Canadian dance-punk band Death from Above 1979 tore the roof off of Fine Line this past Friday, playing their seminal debut LP “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine” in its entirety before continuing the set with an onslaught of hits from their later works.

Touring to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, the two mustachioed band members stepped out onto the stage and immediately began playing the album’s first track, “Turn it Out.”

Neither addressed the audience until they finished performing the album.

Although Death From Above is only a two-person band, the sound of their noisy dance-punk filled the venue, leaving no room for attendees to hear anything else.

Towering over two massive amplifier cabinets, bassist Jesse Keeler played a transparent bass guitar with his signature dirty, high-gain and mid-heavy tone. Drummer and singer Sebastien Grainger played next to Keeler, passionately yelling lyrics into a microphone while holding down tight, fast rhythms on the drums.

During their performance of “Romantic Rights,” Grainger stepped out from behind the drum set to sing directly to the audience as Keeler kept the tempo going by holding down the bassline. Grainger returned to his kit after singing the chorus and started drumming without skipping a single beat.

A small mosh-pit of younger fans broke out almost instantaneously, but the mostly older audience was too hypnotized by the swinging cymbals and thundering basslines to even notice the leather-clad youngsters thrashing around into each other.

Even during the band’s relatively slower material, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the room, as if every audience member was eagerly awaiting another breakdown to let themselves go absolutely nuts.

After performing “Sexy Results,” Grainger finally put his drumsticks down to talk to the audience. In a brief monologue, he talked about how his ex-girlfriend inspired the album’s name and how “Sexy Results” was only included to make the album’s tracklist longer.

Before the audience could catch a breath, however, Grainger picked up his drumsticks again and the band began to rip through some of their most popular songs from their later releases.

The rest of the set was similarly energetic to the beginning, with sweaty moshers constantly slamming into the unbothered middle-aged attendees mesmerized by the band’s sound.

Teen Mortgage, a punk duo from our nation’s capital, opened for the headliners, setting the mood with their messy onslaught of gritty barre chords and sludgy drumming.

Released in 2004, “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine” is an album that combined the emotional dance-pop sensibilities of bands like The Strokes with a noisy iconoclastic sound like Sonic Youth. The album itself is entirely unique, blending romantic lyrics and danceable rhythms with a ton of electronic noise and distortion, unlike anything else.

Despite being two decades old, the album still sounds unlike anything else, a testament to the wild creativity of the crazy Canadians comprising Death From Above.

This weekend, thousands of dedicated fans flocked to the Minneapolis Convention Center for the third edition of Twin Cities Con.

Organized by convention production company Nerd Street, Twin Cities Con is one of the largest fandom events in the Midwest. This year’s convention attracted over forty thousand attendees and cost over a million dollars to produce, according to Nerd Street owner Ben Penrod.

Among the attractions at the three-day convention were celebrity guest appearances, including wrestler Sting and actress Stephanie Beatriz in her first-ever convention appearance. Beatriz was joined by her co-stars from the film “Encanto” and the animated series “Hazbin Hotel.”

Nerd Street Event Coordinator Katelyn Keeley said fans enjoy interacting with celebrities because they feel their love reflected back to them.

Celebrities often appear at conventions because they also enjoy the experience, which creates a positive environment for stars and fans alike, Penrod said.

Although the most popular attractions were the celebrity guests, the convention’s events and exhibit halls were also incredibly popular.

Throughout the weekend, the convention hosted a variety of panels and discussions ranging from Q&As with celebrities to seminars on cosplay financing.

Cosplay-related events are especially popular with convention guests, Penrod said.

Dedicated fans showed up to the convention dressed as characters from almost every media franchise imaginable. Costumes ranged from low-budget interpretations of characters to incredibly realistic and expensive recreations of famous figures.

Local artists designed promotional materials and tickets for the convention, which are incredibly popular with guests, Keeley said. She said the Minnesota-shaped VIP badges were especially popular this year.

Penrod said he wanted this year’s convention to be a full weekend experience and sought to add programming throughout the day and after closing through off-site interest parties. He added that he hoped there would be something for everyone to enjoy at the convention.

In the exhibit halls, artists and vendors sold guests everything from original art, body pillows with faces of heartthrobs like Pedro Pascal, fake weapons and tons of other toys and collectibles.

Artists and exhibitors paid anywhere from $300 to $750 to have a space at the convention, Penrod said.

Despite the sale of convention booth real estate, Penrod said the convention raised money primarily from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships. Twin Cities Con has become Nerd Street’s largest event, and this year’s edition was the largest yet, he added.

Keeley said many of the convention’s attendees were first-timers eager to discover what a fandom convention is like. Both Penrod and Keeley said they wanted to give first-time visitors a good experience so they come back for future conventions.

“I love that they are giving us a chance,” Penrod said.

Penrod and Keeley hope to build a strong local community of superfans as Twin Cities Con continues to grow. They said it is incredibly fulfilling to see so many people enjoy themselves at their conventions.

In Anoka, Minnesota, Halloween reigns supreme.

“Nothing touches Halloween,” said Pete Turok, executive director of the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce.

For over a century, Anoka has drawn tens of thousands of visitors each October with its month-long Halloween celebration. The autumnal tradition is so old, it predates modern trick-or-treating.

First held in 1920, the celebration was aimed at curbing the vandalism and destructive hijinks rampant during the holiday season. Tipping over outhouses and opening cattle gates were popular pranks among teenagers, said Rebecca Ebnet-Desens, executive director of the Anoka County Historical Society.

Although it may seem silly today, Ebnet-Desens said Halloween pranks reached problematic levels before Anokans intervened. She said after mischievous teenagers set cows loose downtown on Halloween in 1919, residents decided to host a celebration to distract youths from engaging in tomfoolery on All Hallow’s Eve.

The celebration was a huge success, ending the terrifying reign of Halloween pranksters, according to Ebnet-Desens. It was so successful that it is still celebrated 124 years later.

“You don’t plan on making a 100-year festival when you set out to do it the first year,” Ebnet-Desens said. “The community just grabbed onto it as their thing.”

In 1937, an act of Congress officially declared Anoka the “Halloween Capital of the World.”

Turok, an Anoka native, said he has been celebrating Halloween his entire life and has nothing but positive memories of the city’s annual festivities.

Today, the celebration includes parades, a 5k run, ghost tours, costume contests and a giant pumpkin exposition. Most of the events and activities are organized by the volunteer-run non-profit Anoka Halloween Inc.

As Anoka Halloween Inc. grows the event every year, Turok said he is still mind-blown by how many people come to celebrate Halloween in Anoka.

Pumpkin growing has brought international attention to Anoka and its strong ties to Halloween. Anoka teacher Travis Gienger has won the prestigious World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California three years in a row.

Gienger’s champion pumpkin this year weighed a whopping 2,471 pounds. In 2023, his pumpkin named Michael Jordan became the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded, weighing in at 2,749 pounds.

The main event of the annual jubilee is the Grande Day Parade, which took place Saturday. Ebnet-Desens said so many people come for the parade, that late-comers sometimes need to park in neighboring cities and walk downtown to witness costumed paraders stroll through the city.

A day before the Grande Day Parade, Anokan school children participate in the Big Parade of Little People.

“As a kid growing up in this town, the parade is a big deal,” Turok said.

Even though Anoka Halloween Inc. is in charge of most of the celebration, Halloween gives local businesses great opportunities to promote themselves and raise money. Turok said Twin Cities residents often discover Anoka by visiting during the Halloween season.

“It’s publicity you can’t buy,” Turok said. “If you could, it would cost a lot of money.”

Ebnet-Desens said ticket sales for historical ghost tours guided by volunteers account for 12% of the historical society’s budgets, its largest yearly fundraising event. Tour tickets sell out almost immediately after they are made available, she said.

“The cost of the ticket is going to literally keep the lights on,” she said.

Editor’s Note: Some of Carla Solari’s quotes were translated from Spanish.

Second-year University of Minnesota acting students are starring in a production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna in the Tropics,” which opens Nov. 15 at the Kilburn Theater.

Written by Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz, “Anna in the Tropics” tells the story of a cigar factory lector who reads Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” to the workers. The play and the novel revolve around complicated love affairs, exploring themes of jealousy, loyalty, hypocrisy, faith and, of course, love.

Director Cooper Lajeunesse said he was drawn to the script because of how well-written and complex its characters and story are.

“The play begins and ends leaving you wanting more, which is exactly how I think theater should be,” Lajeunesse said.

“Anna in the Tropics” will be the first play that second-year acting students will perform. Lajeunesse said helping aspiring actors in the cast learn about the craft is as rewarding as directing a great play.

Associate director Carla Solari said the young cast reminded her of herself when she was their age, studying acting in Buenos Aires.

“They have the same desire, the same energy, the same drive,” she said.

“Anna in the Tropics” is set a few months before the Great Depression when demand for cigars fell drastically. Cigar companies began to mechanize their production in order to make up for the lost profitability, which made the tradition of hand-rolling cigars obsolete.

Cigar factories employed cigar rollers who hand-rolled every cigar. They also often employed lectors to read stories to the workers and to keep them entertained while they rolled.

In “Anna in the Tropics,” the lector, Juan Julián, reads passages from Tolstoy’s 1878 Russian novel, “Anna Karenina,” about a married socialite who has an affair with a bachelor cavalry officer. The novel also features plots about the relatives and friends of the lovers, emphasizing the contrast between each character and the story.

Through telling the story of Anna’s affair, her brother’s infidelities and his sister-in-law’s marriage, Tolstoy touches on themes of love, desire, justice and fidelity from multiple perspectives.

The play is not an adaptation of the novel but an original story about literature and searching for understanding in works of art, Solari said. Audience members do not need to know the novel to understand the story of the play.

Characters in “Anna in the Tropics” draw contrasts between the stories in the novel and their lives, which are full of love affairs, quarrels and complications. Even Juan Julián himself is involved in a bizarre love triangle.

The play tells two stories simultaneously, similar to the many subplots in Tolstoy’s novel, Solari said. The relationship between the intertwining plots of the play and the novel is the emphasis of “Anna in the Tropics,” she said.

“You receive the story through human relationships,” Solari said.

Tolstoy’s novel is centered around high-class members of Russian society, while “Anna in the Tropics” follows the lives of working-class immigrants in Florida. Despite the stark contrast in lifestyles, Lajuenesse and Solari said the characters in the play relate to the play deeply, showing how universal the themes of the book are.

“Both of these stories are told at times when things seem like they’re not going to change,” Lajeunesse said. “But there’s a big event that’s coming up that’s about to change everything for everybody.”

The novel is set right before the Russian Revolution, while the play is set in 1929 Ybor City.

Ybor City is a neighborhood of Tampa Bay, Florida, constructed as a company town by Spanish cigar industrialist Don Vicente Martinez Ybor.

Ybor moved his company, Ybor & Co., to the U.S. after he fled Cuba for persecution of aiding Cuban rebels. He originally moved his company to Key West, Florida,  but due to labor and transportation issues relocated to Tampa Bay.

Other companies followed, opening several hand-rolled cigar factories in the area. Ybor and other industrialists controlled the town, developing houses, businesses and public infrastructure.

Cuban and Spanish cigar factory workers initially populated Ybor City. Italian, Chinese, Jewish and Eastern European immigrants came after, opening stores, restaurants and other local enterprises.

By 1910, over 200 factories in Ybor City were producing more than a million cigars a day, earning Ybor City the honor of “Cigar Capital of the World.”

Solari said she was unaware of Ybor City’s history before she began working on the play.

“The play brings history to people,” Solari said.

University of Minnesota acting students will open performances of “James I: The Key Will Keep The Lock” on Thursday and “James III: The True Mirror” on Friday at the Kilburn Theater in the Rarig Center.

Performed in repertoire by senior acting students, both historical plays center around the lives of Scottish kings named James. They were written in 2014 by Scottish playwright Rona Munro as part of a trilogy about the first Stewart kings of Scotland, all of whom were named James.

The University’s Theatre Arts and Dance department chose not to perform “James II: Day of the Innocents,” the second play in Munro’s trilogy.

The first James play tells the story of King James I returning to rule Scotland after eighteen years of captivity in an English prison. An outsider in his own kingdom, James encounters a complicated political state upon taking the throne.

“James I” director Annie Enneking said the story is about the consequences of power and love and the inevitability of destiny.

“Life is going to happen to you whether you are ready or not,” Enneking said.

Enneking said she was drawn to the play because of the dramatic violence in the script. The morally complicated conflicts between the main characters bring an element of tension to the story, she said.

“In almost every scene, someone could be throwing a punch,” Enneking said.

Queen Joan, wife of James I, struggles to navigate the tense political strife brought on by her husband’s aspiration to unite a divided Scotland while balancing her role as a woman in the royal court. Her unique and complicated position makes her character very human, according to Molly Oubre, who plays the aforementioned queen.

“She’s trying her hardest to do the best she can,” Oubre said.

The other James play revolves around the grandiose desires of the unpopular ruler James III and the political power influence of his wife, Queen Margaret. As James III jeopardizes his reign with a series of controversial proposals, Margaret takes the reins of the kingdom and tries to steer Scotland towards a better future.

Caiti Fallon, who plays Queen Margaret in “James III,” said there is a feminist appeal to the stories. She said seeing the women of the play navigate life in the royal court is interesting because women are seldom heard in historical dramas.

Margaret is often the voice of reason in the show, Fallon said.

Director Craig Johnson said although “James III” takes place in a historical setting, the themes of the story are still relevant today. He said the play was written when the question of Scottish independence was highest, and the idea of national identity and pride is reflected in the play.

Johnson said the relationship between personal and political is central to the story as characters balance their interests with those of their country.

Logan Lang, who plays the titular James III, said he was excited about playing contemporary characters in a historical setting. He described James III as a ruler who is used to getting everything he wanted.

Playing the leading role in “James III” is fun because the titular king is widely hated by the other characters and playing into that is a fun challenge, Lang said.

Kamani Graham, who plays John in “James III,” said the political themes of the story helped him relate to his character. He said John is a fictional character created to represent parliament who is frequently at odds with the king.

“In our political state now, the idea of fighting makes sense,” Graham said.

All senior acting students have roles in both plays. The leading actors of one play comprise the ensemble cast of the other and vice-versa.

Lang said having a smaller role as part of an ensemble cast is a fun opportunity to explore another role with lower stakes. He said playing a supporting role can feel freer because it draws less of the audience’s attention.

“No one’s looking at me,” Lang said. “I can make whatever random choice I want to.”

Jack Bechard, assistant director of “James III,” said the play’s sense of setting will be established by the actors. He added the cast is composed of skilled actors who can communicate changes in setting through their performances with menial set pieces. 

Both shows will be performed at the Kilburn Theater on the second floor of the Rarig Center. Johnson said the small stage and minimal set will emphasize the actors’ performances.

“The actors are the special effects,” Enneking said.

Actors were selected for their roles by the University’s Theatre Arts and Dance department without any prior indication. Rehearsals began in September, and students have been honing their faux-sword fighting skills and Scottish accents ever since in preparation for opening night.

“There’s a lot being asked of the actors in both shows,” Bechard said.

Editor’s Note: Jo Mattos’ quote was translated from Portuguese.

Cine Latino, an annual festival celebrating Latino filmmaking hosted by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Society, opened Wednesday night at the Main Cinema.

Until Sunday, the festival will be showing a variety of films, short films and documentaries from all over Latin America, as well as Spain. An opening night celebration hosted next to the theater at Pracna took place on Wednesday featuring live music from local group Bossa Soul and a delightfully delicious array of Brazilian finger foods, including coxinhas, a fried dumpling filled with shredded chicken, manioc croquettes and mini-tapiocas filled with goiabada, a guava jam.

Conversations in Spanish and Portuguese echoed throughout the halls as guests mingled while excitedly waiting for the screening of the night’s feature. 

For the first time in its 12-year history, Cine Latino opened with a Brazilian film, the U.S. debut of “Ainda Estou Aqui,” directed by Walter Salles. The film is an adaptation of Marcelo Paiva’s 2015 novel of the same name.

“Ainda Estou Aqui” is a true story about how Paiva’s mother and father were persecuted by the Brazilian government for suspicion of treason. A visually stunning film whose cinematography captures the essence of life in 1970s Rio de Janeiro, the film beautifully tells the story of the family’s perseverance during one of the darkest times in Brazilian history.

For those of you who do not know, in 1964 a U.S.-backed coup d’état overthrew Brazil’s democratic government and replaced it with a ruthlessly oppressive conservative dictatorship. The military regime ruled with an iron fist, censoring the media, exiling intellectuals and killing dissidents. 

The story of “Ainda Estou Aqui” revolves around Paiva’s mother, Eunice, and her struggles caring for her five children after her husband, Rubens, is kidnapped and murdered by the Brazilian government. At 48 years old, Eunice received her law degree and spent the rest of her life fighting for social justice and human rights on a national and international level. 

Fernanda Torres, daughter of iconic Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro, gives an incredible performance as Eunice Paiva. In every scene her performance is incredibly emotional and deeply touching, truly bringing the film’s story to life. 

Bringing these stories to Cine Latino is important because it allows others to see Latino experiences and stories from Latinos themselves, said Jo Mattos, a member of the Brazil Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce is one of Cine Latino’s many sponsors.

“It’s important to share our culture with Americans,” Mattos said. 

Even though some of the films are about the dire situations in Latin American countries, artistic director Hebe Tabachnik said Cine Latino is like a party. She said the festival’s events will feature music, dancing and a good time.

Tabachnik said festivals like Cine Latino are important because they often screen films that do not have wide releases in the U. S. Festivals draw audiences who are truly interested in the language of cinema, regardless of any language barriers, she said. 

“It’s an opportunity for film lovers to gather and have a moment,” Tabachnik said.

Cine Latino will be showing both underrated classics like “Central do Brasil” and new films from underrepresented cultures like “Ozogoche,” a documentary about a Kichwa community in the Ecuadorian Andes. 

If the only Latino movies you know are “Rio” and “Coco,” you should familiarize yourself with the classics of Latin American cinema. Whether you watch “Y Tu Mamá También” or “Tropa de Elite,” you will not be disappointed.

As we near the harrowing date of All Hallows’ Eve, let us take a moment to appreciate the history and artistry of horror cinema.

Below is a curated list of some of the best horror films, recommended by local ghost hunters, goths and fans of frights. Enjoy, if you dare.

Suspiria (1977)

This dream-like, iconic Giallo film revolves around a young girl who attends a ballet school run by a coven of witches. Directed by legendary Italian filmmaker Dario Argento, “Suspiria” is an absolutely beautiful film with a uniquely terrifying atmosphere.

“It’s one of the most ingenious scary movies ever,” said Peter Harle, a University of Minnesota professor who studies fear and folklore.

Every frame was hand-colored and made to appear surreal, Harle said, adding another dimension of dreaminess to the uneasy bizarre set -pieces. The film’s sound design is incredible as well, cutting back and forth from overdubbed dialogue to an eerie, orchestral score produced by the Italian band Goblin with both synthesizers and strings.

Stylistically, “Suspiria” is like no other film before and has inspired every generation of horror cinema since its release.

Scream (1996) 

Wes Craven’s late nineties classic is a must-watch, not just for horror fans, but for everyone. 

A genre-redefining masterpiece, “Scream” is an incredibly self-aware slasher with an enthralling plot that combines meta-humor with serious scares. Unlike other self-referential horror movies, “Scream” is not a parody, it is an artistic statement that completely changed the way people see horror movies. 

The film has a star-studded cast, featuring marvelous performances from A-listers like Drew Barrymore, Courtney Cox and Matthew Lillard, among so many others. The sequels are pretty good too, at least compared to other horror franchises.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

A modern reimagining of Bram Stoker’s classic tale of an immortal bloodsucker and his lost love, this film is perfect for all of those hopeless romantics out there who also like to be scared every once in a while.

Gary Oldman is unrecognizable in his role as the titular count, shining brightly among an incredibly talented cast of performers including Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. 

Minneapolis Goth DJ and event organizer Mar Navarro said they love how “Dracula” blends themes of love and death through Dracula’s immortality and unending passion for his (spoiler) long-dead wife.

The Changeling (1980)

Created by some of our friends up north, this spooky spectacle centers around a composer who moves into a haunted mansion in the Pacific Northwest. Unlike other more straight-forward haunted house movies, this flick is much more unorthodox in its approach to storytelling and cinematography, resulting in a bizarrely twisted tale of a vengeful spirit.

“It’s not bloody or a slasher-y movie, but I think it’s creepy,” said Twin Cities paranormal investigator Thomas Troupe.

Vampyr (1932)

Recommended by visual artist First Church of the Corrupted Signal, this nearly-centenarian film is a beautiful work of art blending expressionist cinema with gothic horror. Released right at the advent of sound films, the film tells the chilling tale of a young wanderer who stumbles upon a, you guessed it, vampire while staying in a small French village. 

Although “Vampyr” has dialogue, its sound design and cinematography closely resemble silent horror films like “Nosferatu” and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” An unsettling and creepy atmosphere persists throughout the entire film, amplified by sudden changes in sound and usages of darkness and shadows to make it thrillingly terrifying.

Of course, it is nice to watch a movie at home, huddled under a blanket with a bucket of popcorn and maybe a loved one, but if you really love cinema you should get out and support your local theaters.

The closest movie theater to campus, the Main Cinema, will be showing some incredible foreign horror classics, including one of my personal favorites, “Ringu,” as part of its Classic to Cult series. And fret not those of you who do not like old movies and/or subtitles, the Main is also showing “The Substance,” a bold, bratty film starring Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore.

Whether you want to be scared or you just want to watch a weird-looking immortal nobleman lust after Winona Ryder, at least one of these films is worth a watch or two.

Underneath the deep, dark Minnesota night sky lies a diverse and vibrant community of goths.

Whether hosting picnics and flea markets or dancing to the bittersweet beats played by alternative DJs, goths welcome anybody and everybody who wants to become closer to their dark entries. Although you may not know it, the goth scene is as diverse and varied as the music at its center. 

Although the goth subculture began in the early 1980s with the gloomy post-punk of British bands like The Cure and Joy Division, it quickly grew beyond music from the United Kingdom, becoming the incredibly varied and unique community it is today. 

There is not one concrete definition of what it means to be goth, but many still find themselves enamored with the beautiful darkness of the goth world.

Goth and goth-adjacent club nights are the most popular places where fans of dark music conglomerate to celebrate the beauty of the macabre and sorrowful art they so passionately enjoy. 

Mar Navarro, who DJs and organizes goth nights under the name Gothess, said they found a place of acceptance within the goth community.

Unfulfilled by the music played in other bars and clubs, Navarro said they began seeking alternative venues that played their kind of music. Eventually, Navarro found themself in the midst of the goth clubs, where they said being tender and showing emotion is encouraged and celebrated.

“It’s a celebration of love knowing that death is coming,” Navarro said.

Navarro said their mission is to give representation to historically marginalized groups through music. They said when people think of goths, they usually think of someone tall, pale and “vampire-looking,” which is a common misconception.

Fellow goth DJ Jei Herald-Zamora said they aim to give a voice to underrepresented communities through their events. 

Herald-Zamora goes by the name DJ Gwiingwans, which they said means “Little Shooting Star” in Ojibwe. They host an event called Dead Star Nation which has a residency at Mortimer’s Bar on Lyndale Ave.

Visual artist First Church of the Corrupted Signal produces glitchy visuals inspired by the occult and alchemical research for Dead Star Nation. He said creating visuals is an interesting meditative process.

“Creating magic is similar to the process of creating art,” First Church said. 

Further down Lyndale, the Uptown VFW hosts “Transmission” a free post-punk and new wave themed dance night organized by local DJ Jake Rudh. Rudh said he does not consider himself goth, but he shares many of the same interests, especially music.

“Everyone’s got a little bit of darkness inside of them,” Rudh said. 

No two goths are the same. Some dress all in black all the time and listen almost exclusively to the dark, synth-heavy music synonymous with the subculture, while others choose to express themselves differently than the traditional goth image.

“Subcultures don’t have to be all about nonconformity,” First Church said.

Even though the goth scene is incredibly diverse and consists of countless branches, subgenres and styles, what brings them together is their love of the subculture and — most importantly —their love for each other.

“I think that’s a beautiful thing,” Rudh said.

Minneapolis is home to countless reports of ghosts, ghouls, spirits, specters, phantoms and paranormal activity.

From the scornful spirits skulking around a historic skyscraper to the clueless ghost of a clumsy barmaid, a plethora of supposed spirits have been reported in the community. Skeptics and believers alike have come up with inconclusive evidence of these hauntings, leaving the truth behind these ghastly stories a mystery.

One of the most famous haunted places in the mill city is Foshay Tower, said to be haunted by Ponzi scheme pioneer Wilbur Foshay. Legend has it that Foshay jumped off of his namesake tower. In reality, Foshay died of a stroke in a nearby nursing home in 1957.

“Dangerous” Linda Lee, local ghost tour guide and regional vice president of American Ghost Walks, said she believes she knows whose spirit is actually haunting the historic building downtown. Lee said the Foshay Tower is haunted by the ghosts of Mrs. Genevieve Clark and her family. 

The sole woman juror on Foshay’s fraud trial, Clark was also the sole holdout on the jury, ultimately leading to a mistrial. It was later discovered that Clark and her husband had financial dealings with Foshay, and she was charged with contempt of court for not disclosing her relationship with him during the trial.

Clark, her husband and two sons died of carbon monoxide poisoning in an apparent suicide in 1933. Lee said she believes Clark may be haunting the Foshay Tower because of the unresolved emotional conflict between her and the utility magnate. 

Lee said she has been preparing and guiding ghost tours in Minnesota for almost ten years, occasionally assisted by a spirit named Alice. 

“It’s storytelling, it’s history, it’s spirituality,” Lee said. “This was made for me.”

A few blocks away from the downtown stops of Lee’s ghost tour is the historic Black Forest Inn in Uptown, where many claim to have seen or felt the presence of strange supernatural spirits.

Gina Christ, co-owner of the family-owned haunt, said she began to believe the ghost stories because so many of the restaurant’s employees reported paranormal activity in the building, especially in the basement. 

“I think it’s haunted because of the consensus,” she said. “There is a level of universality that I find really compelling.”

Reports of hauntings eventually led Christ to invite the Twin Cities Paranormal Society to investigate the Inn’s supposed haunting. The Twin Cities Paranormal Society claimed to have recorded a disembodied voice saying “Help me” during an overnight investigation of the restaurant, according to member Thomas Troupe. 

Troupe said investigators contacted the spirit of a former maintenance worker named Dale at a workbench in the basement of the restaurant. Using an array of recording devices and an electromagnetic frequency measuring device, he said investigators were able to ask the spirit questions about their life and afterlife.

“The conversation was pretty one-sided,” Troupe said. 

In 2013, the Twin Cities Paranormal Society investigated another of Minneapolis’ haunted landmarks, the nearby Turnblad Mansion, home to the American Swedish Institute. Reports of hauntings at the mansion date all the way back to 1921, said Andrea Justus, volunteer and interpretive services coordinator of the Institute. 

Justus leads flashlight tours of the mansion in the days before Halloween, giving guests a history lesson about both the mansion and the reported hauntings. However, Justus said she is still unsure whether she believes in ghosts.

“I leave it up to people to come to their own conclusions,” she said. “There’s no super conclusive evidence.”

Despite his belief in the existence of ghosts, Troupe said he understands doubts about the validity of evidence produced in paranormal investigations. 

Lee said she also understands the skepticism because most people who have not experienced anything paranormal have difficulty understanding the supernatural.

“Do we have definitive, absolute proof? No,” Troupe said. “But we have weird things we can’t explain.”

Peter Harle, a University of Minnesota professor and folklore enthusiast, said believing in ghosts can be both comforting and exciting. Ghost stories are a way for people to understand something operating differently from reality, he said.

Harle said ghost stories take us out of our own existence. Investigating suspected supernatural synchronicities is a way for people to put themselves in the story, he added.

“We relate to our ghosts in curious ways,” Harle said.