From Mayhem Fest to Hippo Campus to Katy Perry, there are lots of ways to enjoy live music in the Twin Cities this May. 

House venue shows

Bizzarro World is hosting a Tom’s Foolery single release show with Glencircle and Yellow Roses this Friday. Their next show will be with Social Cinema, Rigby and Weeklong Weekend on June 7.

Como Backdoor also has a show Friday with Virginia’s Basement, Frontega, Stańczyk and Gash performing. On May 10, Como Backdoor is hosting a “Dyke Night” with snakeworld, Spit Takes, Allergen, Selfish Teammate and ¿Watches?. 

There will be a “Trans Night” with the Boy in the Rose Garden, Carter Quinn and Ryan Cassata on May 16, Katy Kelly’s show on May 17 and a From Parts Unknown show on May 20.

 In June, Como Backdoor owner Iris Bolton is planning a show with Social Cinema, another with Doll Chaser and two “Dyke Nights.”

Pink Place is hosting Porch Light, berzica, Mayfly Moon and Sassafras on May 3. There is a show on May 24 with Dalmatian Club, Asparagus, Greentop and Sunsets Over Flowers. The venue is also hosting shows on June 21, June 28 and a few more throughout the summer. The artists performing those shows are unannounced.

Small venues

Mayhem Fest put on by Tumbling Rock, a local music and artisan zine, will run from May 15-17. The first night focuses on screamo music and will be at Klash Coffee with performances from Fly Over States, Lovergirl, pointless animal, Town Square Massacre and whenthedustsettles.

The second night features punk music at Pillar Forum with performances by Anita Velveeta, Slut Intent, Dry Ice and Mary Jam.

The third night highlights indie music at Caydence Cafe with artists Virginia’s Basement, BlueDriver, Sonic Sea Turtles and Odd Prospect.

Other than Mayhem Fest, Pillar Forum is hosting “L.I.S.T.E.N.” on Thursday. A live, immersive, surreal, transcendental entertainment night with Ambient Jam, Non-Sequiturs and Zaireeka. On Friday, Anita Velveeta, Gramma and Mystery Meat are playing. There are more show dates on May 3, May 8, May 22 and May 24-25.

Green Room is hosting a new band night with Megasound, Greentop, Keston Wright and Ringlet on May 6, and another with Bridge Band, Eldest Daughter, Nobody From Nowhere and Quietchild on May 20. On May 13, there is Killed By Kiwis, Quail and Lydia. On May 14, The Soap Girls are playing. 

There are also a couple single release shows at Green Room with Fuchsia and Cat Tales. 

Amsterdam Bar is hosting The Aristocrats Saturday. Throughout the rest of May they are playing several shows with artists like Thornhill, Ashbringer, Fuchsia with Vinny Franco and the Love Channel and Marvelous and many more. 

On May 2, Dial Tone’s tour “Perfect Person” is playing at The Cedar Cultural Center. 

Surly Brewing Festival Field is hosting CAKE on May 29 and Hippo Campus on May 31.

Medium venues

First Avenue is starting May with The Wrecks on the first day of the month. The rest of the month includes Allison Russell on May 9, Julien baker and TORRES on May 11, Bôa and Dream, Ivory on May 13, Yola on May 24 and Wiz Khalifa on May 25. 

7th Street Entry is hosting Teen Mortgage on May 7, Sonic Sea Turtles, Odd Prospect, Lana Leone and berzica on May 8, Shredders on May 16 and Sara Kays on May 28. 

In May, Fine Line is playing Alison Moyet on May 9, Iann Dior on May 11, SPELLLING on May 14 and Rachel Chinouriri on May 21.

The Fitzgerald Theater has Ichiko Aoba on May 3-4 and The Magnetic Fields on May 9-10.

Palace Theater is hosting Lucy Dacus on May 5-6, Amyl and The Sniffers on May 7, Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory on May 10 and Saint Motel on May 13.

The Turf Club has Youth Lagoon on May 10, SASAMI on May 13, The Band Feel on May 14, Flipp on May 17 and The Wedding Present on May 31. 

The Armory has Sturgill Simpson on May 6-7, Megan Moroney on May 15, Peach Pit and Briston Marooney on May 30 and the Driver Era on May 31. 

Varsity Theater is playing Joe Kay on May 10, Isabel Larosa on May 14, Jensen Mcrae on May 16 and Livingston on May 30. 

Skyway Theater is hosting Wonky Willa on May 9, Muerte and Stoned Level on May 10, The Resistance on May 16 and Tisoki on May 30. 

Large Venues

Xcel Energy Center does not have any big concerts until James Taylor on June 17. 

U.S. Bank Stadium has Post Malone on May 20 and The Weeknd on June 14. 

Lastly, Target Center is hosting Katy Perry on May 13.

In lieu of Charli XCX’s performance at Target Center, the Greenroom and Union Rooftop each held their own Brat Rave on Friday and Saturday.

The Brat Rave is a themed dance party highlighting Charli XCX’s most recent album “Brat” and similar music. The rave plays remixes associated with the “Brat” aesthetic. Some other artists featured at the rave were Lorde, Troye Sivan and SOPHIE. 

People who frequent themed dance nights dress up and enjoy a space where everyone is there for a shared interest in music. 

University of Minnesota senior Abigail Karger is part of the ambassador program for “Gimme Gimme Disco,” a disco dance night inspired by ABBA and other ‘70s artists.  

In her ambassador role, she puts up flyers and posts on social media for the show and receives free tickets in return. Karger said she volunteered to be an ambassador a year and a half ago because of her love for disco music. 

Karger was eager to turn 18 in order to attend her first “Gimme Gimme Disco” show. Now, she has been attending shows for years, and she often wears her grandparents old clothes from the ‘70s. 

“You’re with people that are all on the same wavelength,” Karger said. “It’s also wonderful to see people’s creativity with what they come up with to wear. It’s like a masquerade for the modern times.”

Karger believes a lot of people struggle with being authentic and unapologetically into their interests nowadays. “Gimme Gimme Disco” is a place where people are authentic, she said. 

“These nights kind of allow people to be more joyful and authentic because you all are there for the same reason,” Karger said. 

Ugomma Ugorji frequently attends One Direction dance nights. To her, attending these dance nights allows her to be unapologetically a fangirl. 

Ugorji never got to see One Direction in concert when she was young, and the themed dance nights are a way for her to embrace her inner child. Ugorji said being in a room with other fangirls takes the stigma against what it means to be a fangirl away. 

“It just feels like finally being able to fulfill my fantasies as a kid,” Ugorji said. “When you’re surrounded by other fangirls who know what it feels like and can relate to you on a different level, I think it’s something that’s just so inviting.”

Her first One Direction night was two years ago, and she plans to keep attending shows well into the future. Ugorji believes everyone should go out and dance more. 

“In that moment, you just are not thinking about anything else in life, and that’s okay,” Ugorji said. “That’s the point.”

From “Gimme Gimme Disco” to emo nights, there are a handful of themed dance nights coming to the Twin Cities in May.

“Emo Nite” will be at Fine Line on May 30. In June, there will be a Broadway rave and “sapphic factory: queer joy party” at Fine Line. 

On May 24 at Turf Club, there will be the 5th annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash. 

At First Avenue, there will be music by Queen played by The Rock and Roll Playhouse for kids on May 18. “Solid Pink Disco with DJ Trixie” will be at First Ave on May 30. 

On June 13, “Club XCX” is coming back to First Ave as well. The next night “Hot in Herre — 2000s Dance Party” will be there. 

“Sorry Papi – The All Girl Rave” will be at Varsity Theater on May 9. “Gimme Gimme Disco” will be there on May 17. “Cozy Worldwide: Throwback and Current R&B/Hip Hop Party” will be there on May 24. “Gasolina Reggaetón Party” is on June 7 as well. 

On May 9, there is an “Emo Night” presented by this.is.emo at the Greenroom. “Bee Gees X Beatles Tribute Night” is on May 10. “REVENTÓN: Reggaeton Party” is on June 13.

The third Hip Hop Underground, Under Ground showcase will be at Whitey’s Old Town Saloon on April 25, but this time with an open mic set to open the show.

The show is run by Leonardo Montie and Meddi Noir in Whitey’s basement. Damascus, made up of Montie and Noir, $aD, Malcolm Jabar and Rojohasu, will perform at the showcase.

Montie and Noir hope the open mic will grow the hip hop music scene with younger people and give new artists a space to perform.

“We wanted to give people an opportunity to share their music,” Montie said. “Minneapolis has a really strong music scene, but with hip hop, it feels like there’s not a huge community around.”

Noir said the show being free is a great reason for people to come and perform, especially students. If people do not want to perform, they can come just to listen and be inspired. The show is accessible and everyone is welcome.

To Montie, an open mic is the perfect opportunity to build a stronger stage presence for new artists. Montie and Noir are hoping people will come and do rap battles too.

Noir said they all know what it is like to be an emerging artist, so they wanted to create a space for others.

“We’re just a couple of kids who want to create a space to do what we love,” Noir said. “We know what it feels like to be in those shoes.”

In general, Montie said having a show where anyone can perform helps build a stronger community within hip hop.

“It’s all about establishing that community, giving people opportunities and just hearing dope music too,” Montie said.

Damascus, the rap/hip hop group, began in 2020. The group’s music is inspired by Kendrick Lamar and Bob Dylan for their intentional lyricism. Noir said Damascus blends different genres of metal into the music as well.

Montie and Noir have produced and recorded a couple of EPs and opened some shows for Toussaint Morrison. Now, they are at a point in their careers where they want to give other people the opportunity to share their music in front of a crowd.

Damascus is the first set to go on after open mic.

Malcolm Jabar, also performing at the showcase, has been making music for around six years. 

Jabar’s music highlights his vulnerability. He takes inspiration from Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller, and he loves hip hop because it can take many forms. 

For the upcoming showcase, Jabar is opening his set with poetry. 

“Hip hop can exist in a space where you can be vulnerable, you can be self-reflective, you can just be chaotic, or you just want something to dance to,” Jabar said. 

In the long run, Montie hopes this show can be a mainstay at Whitey’s. Eventually, they want to build a big network of artists and branch out to do different types of themed shows at bigger venues. For now, they get decent sized crowds in Whitey’s basement. 

“As long as people keep coming for these shows, we want to keep doing them,” Montie said.

The University of Minnesota Comedy Club is a space where people can hang out and joke about things that happen to and around them to prepare for the club’s April show Thursday at the Comedy Corner Underground on West Bank.

Every week the small club meets to talk about their days, tell their newest jokes and give each other feedback sometimes in the form of a roast.

The club performs at the Comedy Corner Underground every third Thursday of the month. Each willing member wanting to perform that month has a three- to five-minute set.

To co-president Evan Schwarz, the club acts as catharsis for everything else going on in the members’ lives. Whether they are in a club meeting or on the stage at the bar, members have space to talk about whatever they want.

“It’s very easy to get caught up in that day-to-day grind of doing things,” Schwarz said. “Stand-up is kind of a release valve for all the dumb shit people notice in the day. It’s nice to take an hour or so just to laugh and have fun.”

The meetings each week flow like conversations. When someone has a joke to share, they simply say, “Here, I have a joke.” 

Hayden Lessiter, a freshman and former Minnesota Daily employee, told a joke about economics majors and growing mint. He ended the joke with, “Get it?” The room went silent. 

Senior Seth Bredael responded with, “I don’t even think the structure was there.” Everyone laughed at that.

Lessiter wrote the joke down for later anyway.

They discuss everything from Hinge, Lent and the word “bloomers” being funnier than “underwear.”

The club can have anywhere between eight to 12 members show up, each with different approaches and reasons they enjoy the club.

Schwarz enjoys expressing his jokes in front of an audience. He believes engaging with an audience makes a stand-up performance more interesting and that it is always a nice surprise when the audience laughs at unexpected points in the performance.

Lessiter, who enters the room like the Seinfeld character Kramer and has endless puns, just likes to perform stand-up.

Carissa Wong, a sophomore, joined the club because the people like comedy as much as she does.

Joshua Detloff, a sophomore with a killer Jennifer Coolidge impression, loves writing bits and testing them out on audiences.

“You never know if something’s going to be good or if something is going to be bad until you say it,” Detloff said.

But Detloff said he can get discouraged. He was in a rut at the end of last year after he bombed at a show.

“I felt like I was on a negative downward trajectory,” Detloff said. “But I feel like you just put in the work and put in the time and perform until you can get out of a rut.”

They all agreed jokes pop up randomly. There is no deeper strategy for coming up with a joke. When a joke comes up, Schwarz likes to sit down with it and write it all out to see if he can expand it.

Justin Johnson, otherwise known as “lefty crumpet,” is a University alum who will be opening the show next week. 

Tickets are $3. The club’s last show of the year is on May 15.

Aspiring and experienced filmmakers and actors gathered to network and talk about the aspects of filmmaking at A-Mill Artist Lofts for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival filmmaker panels on Saturday. 

From tips on breaking into the film industry to Minnesota-made filmmaking experiences, MSPIFF collaborated with the Upper Midwest Film Office to hold four filmmaker panels free to the public.

Actress Angela Garza, who graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in studies in cinema and media culture last year, went to the panels to network and seek a job as a production assistant. 

During the first panel, “Breaking and Entering: How to Get Started in the Industry,” the filmmakers talked about the importance of creating and maintaining professional connections in the industry.

“You just have to really get into people’s inboxes and reach out to them and reach back out to them again,” Garza said. 

The film community on the University of Minnesota campus is really small, Garza said. She feels there were not enough opportunities to network or enough structure to break into the film industry within her major. 

To Garza, events like the filmmaker panels are great opportunities for students and those who get into filmmaking to network. 

Paul Ngang, 20, has been networking and working on sets since he graduated from high school. He went to the panels to grow his skillset. He has directed short films but is now looking to get into acting and submit to festivals. 

The panel “Swiss Army Knife Filmmakers,” a panel about the importance of having a diverse skill set, was particularly helpful to Ngang. He believes more young people should take advantage of events like these.

“Students and young people belong in these spaces,” Ngang said. 

Jiccarra Hollman, 33, recently acted in a short film co-directed by Ngang. She is an actress looking to expand her skills in filmmaking and went to the panels to chat with other filmmakers. 

“This is a great opportunity to meet filmmakers that have been doing this much longer than we have,” Hollman said. “Learn from them. Soak up as much information as possible. Be a sponge. Pick their brains. Maybe some of them will become mentors.” 

During the third film panel, “MN Made Filmmaker Focus,” Minnesota filmmakers talked about their experiences in writing, directing and producing films. They talked about the importance of diversifying crews and stories. Additionally, they said taking care of your crew and feeding them is crucial.  

For the last panel on tips on how to enter films into film festivals, three film festival programmers came to talk and answer questions. 

Kelly Nathe from MSPIFF said film festivals are great places to network. Other panelists, Jim Brunzell from Sound Unseen and Andrew Peterson from Provincetown Film Fest, agreed. They also talked about personalizing cover letters and when to submit a film to a festival. 

“We are an audience-driven festival,” Nathe said on the panel. “We are about celebrating film, bringing in filmmakers, so you get to talk to them.” 

During “Swiss Army Knife Filmmakers,” a makeup and special effects artist raised their hand and asked the filmmakers how they plan to bring more of the film industry to Minneapolis. 

Panelist Matt Olson said filmmakers and set workers need to reach out to state agencies, like Explore Minnesota, to let the state know people want to build up the film industry in the Twin Cities. 

Another panelist, Matt Osterman, said filmmakers need to stop waiting for the industry to appear in Minneapolis.

“Let’s not wait for the white knight on the coast to do it,” Osterman said. “Let’s do it ourselves.”

The 44th annual Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival offers more than movie-watching. 

The film festival, run by MSP Film Society, returns April 2-13 to The Main Cinema and a few other local theaters, such as Capri Theater. Over 200 international films will be shown, including several Minnesota-made films and Sundance premieres with Minnesota connections.  

Several filmmakers and professionals in the industry are coming for filmmaker conversations and Q&As.

The first Saturday of the festival, April 5, is a full day of Minnesota feature filmmakers talking about their experiences and panels on topics such as career navigation, filmmaking skills and how festivals and programming work. 

There are other panels on intimacy coordinators, documentary filmmakers and Minnesota’s growing animation industry.

“The panels are really geared towards entry-level student filmmakers and students in general,”  MSP Film Society publicity manager Kelly Nathe said. 

Additionally, every visiting filmmaker will have a Q&A after their film showing. 

Ang Lee, the director of “Brokeback Mountain,” is coming to the festival on April 6 for a special screening of the film in honor of its 20th anniversary. The directors of the opening night film “Free Leonard Peltier,” Jesse Short Bull and David France, will be attending the opening night party after the film screening. 

Attending these Q&A sessions benefits all students just by having important conversations about the content of the films. 

“Those are great opportunities for students,” Nathe said. “They don’t just talk about how they got their films made. They’ll talk about topics they explore in their films.” 

“Free Leonard Peltier” is a documentary that premiered at Sundance earlier this year. It follows the Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who started the American Indian Movement in Minnesota in the ‘70s, Nathe said. He was falsely imprisoned for the murder of two FBI agents in South Dakota and was sentenced to life in prison until Biden pardoned him as one of his last acts as president. 

“Checkpoint Zoo” and “Brooklyn, Minnesota” are some of the highly anticipated films being shown. 

“Checkpoint Zoo” follows a family who owned a zoo near the border of Ukraine when Russia first invaded and how they tried to evacuate the zoo when it was in the line of fire. The director, Joshua Zeman, will be attending the festival. 

“Brooklyn, Minnesota” is about a father-daughter duo who live in Brooklyn, New York and return to a small lake town in Minnesota for a funeral. The daughter, Maise, meets her extended family for the first time. Her dad, Kurt, wants to return to Brooklyn as soon as possible, but Maise wants to stay. 

Writers and directors Jessica Blank and Erik Jenson will be attending the festival along with the cast. They are from Minnesota and filmed a majority of the film in Minnesota. 

The film festival also offers a comedy show, karaoke night and all sorts of parties and happy hours at Pracna on Main that may be interesting to students. 

Kareem Rahma, host of “Subway Takes,” stars in the film “Or Something,” showing on April 3. He will be coming with his co-star, Mary Neely, to do a live comedy show.

The karaoke party is inspired by a couple of karaoke scenes in two of the featured films, “Bitterroot” and “Or Something.” The party is also at 9 p.m. on April 4. 

There will be a MN Made Happy Hour celebrating the films made in Minnesota, by Minnesotans and the state’s film industry in general on April 5. On top of that, there will be a thirsty Thursday happy hour in honor of Minnesota women in film and television on April 10. 

Students get discounted all-access passes to the film festival for $75. A package of six films is $30 and regular individual screenings are $10. 

During the festival, The Main still offers their “Midnight Mayhem” late-night showings on the weekends which have always been a hit with students. There is even a “Midnight Sun” party on April 12 to close out the festival.

Models of all body types walked the runway to show off apparel design seniors’ capstone projects on Saturday for their senior fashion show “Unveil.” 

Each senior designer displayed three to four outfits with individual themes and addressed an issue within the fashion industry. The models, most of whom were friends with the designer they walked for, walked and posed to a song of the designer’s choosing. 

There were looks from wedding dresses to hiking apparel. Some looks displayed intense drama. A model walked in a bonnet and apron with her hands tied to the song “Just A Girl” by No Doubt.

Laura Dahlin designed the bonnet and apron set with straps tied around the model’s wrists. Dahlin said she wanted to create three wearable statements that represent how men tend to view women as housewives. 

“My love life is full of guys that are always impressed with how ambitious I am, how driven I am and how I want a career,” Dahlin said. “It’s a play on how I’m being pulled between what I want to do, which is have my own career, and the guys that I like being like, ‘Oh, you should be this.’”

A couple of days before the show, Dahlin had doubts about showing her pieces in front of an audience. She was not sure her artful statement pieces would be as good as her peers’. 

During the show, the audience reacted with applause.

“Seeing how people reacted to it is really validating because as a designer, I know my harshest critic is me,” Dahlin said.

T-Jay Yang closed the show with four avant-garde looks reflecting inner conflict. 

One model was bound and blindfolded in a wedding dress. Another model wore a ruffled straight jacket tied by black lace. The third model wore a structured jacket with her arms stuck out wide due to the long sleeves. The final model was in a black suit with a puncturing metal decal on the shoulder and red beads dripping from it.

“It’s my way of expressing my emotion and my words that I can never ignore,” Yang said.

The frilly straight-jacket look was inspired by a feeling of not being able to speak, Yang said. The wedding dress was inspired by Yang’s mother and the fact that women in Hong Kong can be subjected to marriage. 

Another senior, Phoebe Kotecki, designed three wedding dresses to capture the beauty of traditional bridal wear from three Catholic countries — Italy, Spain and Poland.

Three of Kotecki’s friends wore dresses with tiered skirts, billowy sleeves and lace necklines. Kotecki wanted to pay homage to the radiance religious wedding dresses can provide for women.

Kotecki’s capstone was inspired by her grandma’s Catholicism.

“The wedding industry is facing away from religious weddings, and I wanted to create something that thought of people who are very religious,” Kotecki said.

In Isabel DeVetter’s capstone project, she wanted to make hiking apparel with varying colors, silhouettes and functionality. She felt women’s hiking clothes made today are not very unique. Her goal was to make comfortable and functional clothes that she would wear in her everyday life. 

DeVetter’s looks included colorful red and white striped leggings, a baggy orange hiking set with a plaid fleece lining the inside of the jacket and a cropped utility vest with a matching flowy khaki skirt. 

DeVetter was really nervous to show her looks in front of an audience on the runway. 

“You’re putting your entire soul out there in a creative way, and it’s all going to be judged,” DeVetter said. 

Gina Bradford designed a collection of three dresses made to celebrate the women wearing them. Her looks are bridal attire inspired by “The Birth of Venus” painting by Sandro Botticelli. 

The dresses embrace women’s natural body shapes and use varying colors and styles to reflect each model’s individuality. 

Bradford made her three looks with her three models, who are also her friends, in mind. One dress is baby pink with a corset and draped skirt. Pink flower petals adorned the model’s hair and shoes. Another was a soft, flowy turquoise gown with a matching scarf hanging from the model’s neck. The last dress has a white silk skirt and a pearl-embedded bodice that took Bradford 50 hours to make. 

For her capstone, Bradford addressed size inclusivity. 

“I’m passionate about ditching standard sizing and going back to made-to-order, everything tailored to you,” Bradford said. 

After each apparel design senior showed their looks on the runway, audience members clapped and cheered. The seniors walked with their designs for the finale with big smiles on their faces. 

During the post-show reception, bouquets of flowers were stacked on tables, and family and friends proudly hugged the seniors.

This year, seniors within the University of Minnesota apparel design major decided to put together their own senior fashion show, “Unveil.”

Last year, the College of Design decided not to hold a fashion show because not enough students created pieces. The college, which typically organizes the show, chose not to again this year. 

Instead, seniors organized a show themselves to proudly display their capstone projects at the wedding venue The Whim on March 22. 

There will be two fashion shows, one at 4 p.m. and another at 7 p.m. Each show will be around an hour long and showcase designs from 15 seniors.

“This is what I’ve been looking forward to for four years of school,” Devin Schwartz, a senior apparel design major, said. “When I first got here, I was like ‘I can’t wait for the senior fashion show.’”

Olivia Bartol, another senior apparel design major, said her family has been waiting to see her work showcased for four years as well. The show is called “Unveil” because seniors finally get to show the designs they have been working on all through college.

Current seniors began research for their projects last spring, according to senior apparel design major Greta Wolsky. For their capstones, professors guide students to resolve an issue within the fashion industry. Students started sourcing fabrics over the summer and last fall, students finished up their research and made most of their garments. 

Bartol designed women’s intimates to fit overlooked body types. She created pieces that work for women with breast asymmetry and sourced fabrics with stretch and softness.

“I just want women to feel comfortable but also feel confident in what they’re wearing,” Bartol said. 

Schwartz wanted to push the boundaries of standardized sizing and gender separated clothing. He made the same pair of pants for four models with different body types to show the different ways clothing can be made to fit everyone. Two of the models are female, one is male and one is non-binary. 

“Fit is something that can be addressed,” Schwartz said. “Gender is only in clothing because we make it a part of clothing. Anybody can really wear whatever they want as long as it’s made to fit.” 

Wolsky will not have pieces on the runway. She chose to research personal protective equipment (PPE) for women in construction. She conducted interviews with women construction workers and investigated hindrances of PPE for women in a male-dominated field. 

According to Wolsky’s research, there is no PPE made for women due to a small percentage of women working in construction. Women’s bodies are different from men’s bodies, so women are stuck with gear that does not fit them properly. 

“It causes a lot of injuries for them on the job,” Wolsky said. 

Despite the challenge of putting together this show on top of their other work, Bartol, Schwartz and Wolsky agreed it is worth it. They said it has been really rewarding, and they are excited to show off their progress as learners. 

“It’s exciting to see the progress that not only I, but all my classmates, have made in the time that I’ve known them,” Schwartz said. 

Apparel design seniors spent four years learning the nitty gritty of fashion design. With the showcase, it all comes to a head for people to see. There are seats to fit 250 people at the show. 

“It’s easy to think of clothes as high fashion or trend cycles,” Wolsky said. “You come to our show and you see everything that fashion can be. It’s fun to see how far fashion can go.”

After the runway show, there is an exhibition reception. Tickets are $17 for student seating, $6 for student standing and $32 for the general public.

Choreographers and dancers showcased their talents and broke the boundary separating the stage and the audience over the weekend in “chaos theory.”  

Two student choreographers, Rayven Cherry and Meghan Morgan, faculty artist Carlo Antonio Villanueva and visiting artist Laja Field choreographed four distinct dances with University of Minnesota dance majors. There were several moments when dancers interacted with the audience, and the choreographers said they worked hard to emulate that. 

Cherry, a recent graduate, choreographed her dance “in-teriority” as a capstone project during the 2024 fall semester. Her dance is an expressive contemporary dance with influences of ballet, jazz, hip hop and African Diaspora.

Cherry wanted to tell her own story of adversity while making it relatable to the dancers and audience members. She wanted the dancers to bring out their truest selves in her dance. 

“How can you bring everything you know within this piece?” Cherry said. “It’s not just like you’re watching me, and I’m just dancing for you.”

To Cherry, the dancers are more connected to the dance and the audience when they are present with who they are and their current emotions. 

At the start of the dance, Cherry came out by herself and danced without music. It was just her breathing. Later in her piece, Cherry and the rest of the dancers performed only to the sound of breathing. Then there was a 30-second period when the dancers stared at the audience. 

Morgan, a junior, also tried to break the barrier between the dancers and the audience in her dance, “land as One leave as Many.” Her dance was space-themed, and she edited the music herself. The music was a mix of sound clips counting down a takeoff and sonar beeps. 

A lot of the time, Morgan said dance performances can be so formal. She did not want hers to feel that way. 

“I want to include the audience in on the piece,” Morgan said. “The dancers are experiencing something, and I want the audience to experience it with them.” 

Morgan is studying abroad in New Zealand, so she did not dance in the concert. 

Her dancers, clad in purple and silver gloves, made wide facial expressions. They made eye contact with the audience. They even came into the audience and danced in a line down the stairs of the seating area. 

At the end of the dance, there was a flash of light. The dancers imitated the look of them running into the audience at full speed just as the lights turned off. They stomped, and audience members giggled and shrieked. 

In Villanueva’s piece “on and on our way,” the dancers looked into the audience several times and would run in front of the audience. The dancers rotated in circles around each other as the lights rotated above them. 

The last dance, Field’s piece “Futura,” was a long story about furniture. Dancers acted as characters called “pastels,” chairs and a lamp. One pastel did not want the furniture to be used and to keep the furniture stored away in the attic. All the other pastels wanted the furniture to be seen and used. 

The dancer, as the lamp, wore a long, gold dress with a glowing lampshade on their head. All the furniture dancers wore white, like the physical chairs used as props in the dance. The pastels wore pastel-colored outfits. 

A pastel dancer acted out an advertisement to the audience to show the many uses for the chairs. They moved two chair dancers into a seated position on the floor, sat on them and the chair dancers shook the pastel. The pastels imitated the sound a person makes when they sit on a massage chair. 

The audience laughed, whooped, hollered and cheered throughout the piece. 

Julia Jacobson, a senior, danced as a pastel in Field’s piece. Jacobson learned the art of building character, expanding herself as a dancer and expanding the story in the performance.

Lola LaFond, a senior, performed in three of the four dances. She said she learned how to balance working closely with friends and being professional when the stage lights turned on from dancing in “chaos theory.” 

This concert was one of the seniors’ last public performances. 

“It’s our last hurrah,” LaFond said. “We get to dance with each other, and it’s our last show. It’s bittersweet.” 

Both LaFond and Jacobson related the dances to their lives outside of dance. Each dance deals with something unknown, and with both of them graduating this spring, they relate to the chaos in that. 

“We’re all working through it,” Jacobson said. “There’s also so much going on politically. We’re working together, especially in the art community.” 

There is a lot of stress in the world, but both LaFond and Jacobson are relishing their time in the Barbara Baker Center for Dance. They agreed they feel comforted by the arts. 

“As much as how horrible it is everywhere else, I know I can walk into this building, be with these people and know we are all safe,” Jacobson said.

After a decade of thinking about owning a bookstore and two years of planning, Elizabeth Foster finally showed Inkwell Booksellers Company to the public.

Inkwell Booksellers Company, a bookstore and coffee shop, opened in Northeast Minneapolis this past weekend. The grand opening Feb. 22 and 23 included Girl Scout Cookies, an Alchemy Permanent Jewelry pop-up, giveaways and a couple of author talks. 

Foster envisioned a space where people could find community amongst a great passion of hers — books. She hopes people use the large seating areas for book clubs and meetings. 

“We want people to feel welcome,” Foster said. “We want to have those interactions with people on a daily basis and not just be someplace that you walk in and out of.” 

Lucy Cohen, 24, picked up some Girl Scout Cookies earlier in the day on Saturday. She left, ran into her friend Angelina Gallego, 27, and brought her back to Inkwell to show her the new bookstore. Cohen and Gallego are happy to have a bookstore nearby where they live in Northeast. 

“It eliminates barriers from someone being like, ‘Oh, but it’s just easier and quicker to get it on Amazon,’” Cohen said. 

Gallego appreciates Inkwell as a new, accessible third space in her neighborhood. Neither Cohen nor Gallego has their license. To Gallego, walkability is important, and she wishes she had Inkwell when she was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. 

Foster also chose the location in Northeast because it is a walkable neighborhood. Foster said there are a lot of small shops, grocery stores, restaurants, great bike lanes and lots of foot traffic, but no bookstore. 

“It would have been nice to have this as a study spot, a space to chill and drink coffee or tea and chat with a friend,” Gallego said. 

It was crucial to have a coffee shop inside Inkwell for Foster. She said not enough bookstores have a coffee shop with larger seating areas, and it really enhances the experience a bookstore has to offer. 

Caleb Peterson, 29, likes the wide variety of books Inkwell offers. Peterson also sees the potential for Inkwell to be a popular spot. 

“You can do book clubs over here, over there,” Peterson said. “I think it’s a really good spot for it, especially for a book-reading community.” 

The grand opening on Saturday was crowded. People of all ages were sipping out of ceramic mugs and browsing for books. Large groups of people were slouched on the couches and conversing. Foster herself was taking coffee orders and checking people with books out. 

At around 5 p.m., a bartender started pouring complimentary cups of champagne and rosé along with platters of macarons to commemorate the first day of the grand opening. At the same time, local author Allan Evans sat down to discuss his crime thriller novels. 

Customers came in and told Foster how beautiful it was inside. 

One of Foster’s favorite things about the space is the tall windows. Foster said the light, the artwork and the smells of books and coffee encourage a better mood in people. 

“It’s been hard to get the words to explain what things would look and feel like,” Foster said. “Being able to show everyone the physical space and having experienced what I have had in my brain for so long is really exciting.” 

Foster stressed wanting Inkwell to be a safe space for people. Foster said her staff is quirky and welcoming, which she hopes helps people be their truest selves in the space.

Inkwell carries every book from fiction to nonfiction, children’s books to adult books and books across the political spectrum. Nonetheless, there are limits to what Inkwell sells. 

“We are not carrying books that promote hate speech or that are targeting individual groups of people,” Foster said. 

Inkwell is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day except Sunday. On Sunday, Inkwell is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.