After a long career in the radio and music business, Sanni Brown is leading a new Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) music stream onto the scene as its host. Last month, The Current launched Carbon Sound, which will showcase the diversity and range of Black musicians outside of the current molds society places them in. University of Minnesota graduate Julian Green works as the content director and Andre Griffin works as the community engagement specialist.

A graduate of Concordia University, Brown has experience in everything from teaching kids at the YMCA to musical performances and radio production. As the new host of Carbon Sound, Brown is more than ready to help lead public radio into the ever changing future of music. The Minnesota Daily caught up with her to talk about everything from genre labeling to Legend of Zelda to her prophetic stay in a shelter home.

How did your background in music and radio lead you to hosting Carbon Sound?

“I graduated from Concordia, St. Paul in 2008 with a degree in psychology. After taking a year off, I went to Globe University for their music business program and ended up applying for a scholarship called the “Do you want to be a DJ?” scholarship. I ended up getting it and got to go to the University of St. Louis for their journalism and broadcasting program. Since then, I have worked at 89.9 KMOJ, myTalk 107.1 and eventually at MPR.”

What made you apply for the scholarship in the first place?

“Honestly, I was looking for more money because I had exhausted all my funds with my undergrad, but it also came from a childhood fascination with radio. When I was young, having your own boombox was like having your own phone today. When you didn’t have enough money to go buy cassette tapes, you would record songs off the radio. I started editing the tapes to have space between like produced records. Then I started recording my voice, making up songs, listened to how people talked on the radio and recorded my own commercials. It blew my mind that I could press record and pick up the sounds around me. I’ve been infatuated with sound ever since then. If you ask me how I got here, that’s how.”

How is Carbon Sound different from the other shows and streams that the Current has launched in the past?

“So the show that I have been hosting for the Current over the last five years is called The Message and we pretty much do hip-hop and R&B. When I think of music, I don’t really think about Black people making electronic, punk, rock or all these other genres that they’re clearly making. Carbon Sound is not just another hip-hop and R&B stream. It’s all the genres. And it’s based on Black musical expression. That’s why I’m so honored to be on it.

Why is it called Carbon Sound?

Carbon is in everything around us. When you think about Black musicians and the styles that they created, it’s used in everything in music today.

Going off of Carbon Sound’s goal of expanding our understanding of Black musical artists, what do you think of genre labeling now and do you see it in the future of music?

“I think as humans, we don’t want that genre rating and I think we don’t want it because look at all the fusion, we’re naturally just fusing sounds. I really don’t like putting folks in a box and I don’t know anyone who likes it.When I grew up, hip-hop was more simple, but look at it today. There is drill, trap and so many legs of dance music. It’s nice to hear how people express themselves in music so differently and if you are boxed in, you just miss out on hearing about and experiencing new attitudes.”

How long has Carbon Sound been in the making?

I first started hearing about the project in mid-2020 and then I started to learn more. It’s a nationwide program by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which started in my hometown of Chicago. Basically, it’s their effort to bring a new wave of young people into public radio.

Why do you think Carbon Sound is an important show to have specifically for the Twin Cities community?

I’m not going to lie to you. I was scared in 2020 about how the music scene was changing, especially after the murder of George Floyd. I do feel like this is necessary because of everything that’s happened in the last few years. Have you ever noticed what happens when something goes away and you’re scared, and then something new comes along? I’m gonna give you a great example. Do you play Legend of Zelda?

No, but I have definitely heard of it.

“Okay, so when I was playing Ocarina of Time, the Deku Tree, which is the guardian of the forest, died. I was so sad until I saw a sprout. Like the sprout, Carbon Sound is this hope. That’s why it’s important, because it illustrates that we’ve got to pick up and keep going. Let’s keep what we did wrong in mind, but you gotta get up and keep going. We are making changes to music movements, and this is like some phoenix out of the ashes type stuff happening right now.”

This is a cheesy question, but what is your favorite thing about being a radio show host for a living?

“Sharing information. I love giving people information that makes their life better, or even their day better. I’ve taught kids for 20 years, so that’s a little bit of teacher in me. When I’m sharing information on the radio about a new album dropping or a concert, you get to stop for a second because nothing else matters. I know it seems small, but to me, it’s not. When I was little and Boyz II Men were going on tour, I was glued to the radio for tickets. I ended up missing it and that was the worst. I look back on it and laugh, I literally have so many memories of good radio like that.”

Why should young people and college students listen to Carbon Sound?

“I think it’s useful to them for just being in the know like this is a new project and it’s made for them. I’m so on top of that. It’s just nice to be locked into something that’s not like everything else. And I know that’s what I liked when I was young. I liked being like, this is new and I’m the first person to know. Also, I want young local artists who feel like they don’t have a platform for their sound to get that completely out of their head; there is a platform for your sound. We’re tied into the local music community. If anybody knows any local musicians, send them our way, I want people to know we’re a resource, whether you’re a consumer or creator.”

After all of your years in the radio industry, how does it feel to be the host of Carbon Sound?

“It feels good, my hard work paid off. I’m excited to get up and go to work and tell people about music. I’m not gonna lie, it was hard. It was a lot of putting my ego to the side because in entertainment, you kind of gotta have an ego or people push you around. Right now, even though there is still more work to do, a lot of work is done and everything’s in place.

Now, I want to have a hot dog and just lay down and just kind of reflect on my life. I’m really glad my daughter got to see me fulfill my dream, I really am. I remember when I lived in the shelter that was right across the street from MPR and looking at, you know, the little news that goes across the building. I just want young people to know it’s gonna look like it’s impossible, but just keep pushing.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

While many 2020 quarantine trends, including bread baking and whipped coffee, faded in time, many Americans picked up reading and never put it down thanks in part to BookTok.

Due to the sheer amount of bookstores in the metro area, it is no surprise that book influencers are leaving a mark on the local book scene. In the Twin Cities, finding a local bookstore within a 5 mile radius is not difficult. Although the metro area may not receive as much book clout as Portland, Oregon or the Bay Area in California, both Minneapolis and St. Paul are in the top 50 US cities with the most book establishments per capita. Along with bookstores, Minnesota also has many book influencers on social media that contribute to both the local and national reading scene.

Chain bookstores, like Barnes and Noble, jumped onto this trend and have it woven into their marketing by sprinkling tables labeled “Popular on BookTok” throughout their stores. To keep up with the demand for physical books and large booksellers, local bookstores are figuring out how they fit into the future of reading.

Established in 1976, the Book House in Dinkytown remains the last non-University of Minnesota owned bookstore in the campus area. Walking among the twisting stacks and booklined walls, the store leaves its visitors to hunt for a book that interests them, rather than organizing a “Popular on BookTok” table. One of the owners, Matt Hawbaker, explained that compared to large booksellers, the Book House doesn’t pay as much attention to book influencers on social media, partly because used bookstores function differently. Instead, the store itself serves as its own influencer.

“It’s hard for us to respond to requests because that’s not our business model; I like the randomness of it.” Hawbaker said. “People can browse here and find what they’re looking for, but also find something of interest that might be older or under-discussed and like influencers, we want to bring new things to people.”

Another Twin Cities bookstore that is sticking to its guns is Next Chapter in St. Paul. Like Dinkytown, it caters to its local readers more than it attempts to adhere to trending books on the internet. Graham Overby, a bookseller at Next Chapter, noticed this after coming to the store from a job at Barnes and Noble in 2021.

“In my previous experience at Barnes and Noble, Booktok played a huge role in our sales,” said Overby. “When I started here at Next Chapter, none of my coworkers knew these authors because the type of books seen as social media phenomena don’t sell here the way they would at a mall.”

While Barnes and Noble uses social media influencers to draw a younger crowd, Next Chapter is using manga to reach its youth audience. They broadened their manga section and are even starting a manga club this fall.

“When I started here last year, me and a coworker made an effort to stock more manga and since then, we’ve gradually seen the number of college-age shoppers increase,” said Overby. “We’re stocking more titles that younger readers are interested in, and it’s paying off.”

Stephanie Henigin is one of the Twin Cities area’s major book social media influencers.

“We have a lot of great Minnesota bookstagrammers and authors,” Henigin said of her St. Paul-based Bookstagram. “Minnesota is definitely on the map.”

Henigin, who commands more than 8,000 followers through the account @stephsbooktherapy, picked up reading again as soon as the pandemic shut down the nation, thus a typical example of contemporary American reading trends.

“The publishing industry is tapping into influencers because of social media,” said Henigin. “That just seems to be the way people get noticed for their books.”

Book social media influencers first rose to popularity in the fall of 2020, causing an uptick in younger readers and viralized the reading of physical books. This pattern continued into 2021, when sales in print books rose by 9%, the highest the industry saw in years. While TikTok led the physical book-buying charge, book influencers on other platforms, like Instagram and Youtube, also gained a following.

Henigin, who also works a full-time job as a speech pathologist, sees her bookstagram as more of a hobby than a job. As local bookstores have become gathering places in their own neighborhoods for book-lovers to share recommendations and learn about others, Henigin explained that Bookstagrams create a similar sense of community on the internet.

“The community is so encouraging and supportive,” Henigin said. “I feel like I gained so many valuable, genuine new friends.”

The influence of BookTok on readership still leaves these local bookstores to fill in the gaps in their local communities and supply young people with books outside of the algorithm.

Despite the differences in book selection and marketing by different stores and social media accounts, a passion for reading is at the root of the lives of both booksellers and Bookstagrammers.

“I think there’s sort of a parallel track with how vinyl has come back,” said Hawbaker. “There’s also a rare book and printed material culture that also I think exists alongside the influencer world.”

Sitting just off Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis, the Museum of Russian Art (TMORA)’s new exhibit, “Say No to War: Political Cartoons by Ukrainian and Russian Artists,” addresses the newfound global significance of the region’s culture.

Although its name may suggest an affiliation exclusively with Russia, the depth of the museum’s content has always contained art and culture from every former Soviet country, including Ukraine.

“This organization is not a Russian organization, it’s a cultural organization that deals with the art and culture of all 15 countries of the former Soviet Union,” said Mark Meister, the president of TMORA. “The name has always meant to be an overarching name.”

In 2002, an art dealer and collector named Raymond E. Johnson founded TMORA in its original Bloomington location after obtaining a large collection of Russian Realist paintings. Three years later, the museum moved to its current location in a distinctive reconstructed church with white arches that peek over the nearby I-35 walls.

In the months following Russia’s invasion, the museum expressed their support for Ukraine in many ways, including through an art auction, participating in the World Wide Readings Project with Ukrainian playwrights and, most prominently, the “Say No to War” exhibit currently on display.

The exhibit sits in the center of the museum’s permanent collection. Although there is a stark difference between the humbling oil paintings in golden frames and the darkly satirical prints of the cartoons, the juxtaposition amplifies the gravity of the war’s cultural impacts.

With the help of Russian cartoonist Andrey Feldshteyn and TMORA’s curator Maria Zavialova, the exhibit quickly came together so artists could have an arena to face the war’s implications.

“We needed and wanted to respond to this war immediately,” said Zavialova. “We wanted to give space to the oppositional voices.”

Similar to many other Russian artists, Feldshteyn wanted to find a way to support Ukrainian and Russian artists after the war began.

“For the first few weeks after this terrible thing happened to Ukraine, I couldn’t imagine what I could do,” said Feldshteyn. “But then it struck me that I actually have abilities and tools to do something.”

Through his online forum that allows cartoonists all over the world to connect, Feldshteyn collected cartoons from numerous artists in Eastern Europe. While the artists are from Russia and Ukraine, many of them have since relocated to different countries out of concern for their safety. A few Russian artists even chose to remain anonymous in the exhibit to avoid punishment from the Russian government for speaking out against the war.

“It is very important to see how people think and what they have to say, instead of just relying on other voices,” said Zavialova. “Here you can look at artifacts and get a lot of information non-verbally and it allows you to form your own independent ideas and thoughts.”

The combination of cartoons highlighting the war’s impact on children and drawings mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin gives attendees an alternative view of the war that American news media cannot provide as succinctly. One cartoon by Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Kustovsky titled “Red Swan Putin” depicts Putin as a grotesque ballerina launching rockets out of his tutu and exposing his hairy armpits with hammers and sickles sticking out.

Although Russia has not experienced any physical destruction, Russia’s people face newfound cultural issues caused by the nation’s ostracisation from the West and the war’s human toll on Russian soldiers. In one of Feldshteyn’s displayed works, he made a spin off of the famous Russian painting “The Rooks Have Returned” by giving it a deadly and gloomy essence to represent the death of Russian culture.

The exhibit has no official end date and will stay up throughout the duration of the year. During this time, the museum will rotate the pieces and have a second batch prepared to be displayed soon.

“It’s brave and poignant,” said Barbra Bicchieri, a TMORA attendee from Minneapolis. “Art tells us who we are and where we are going, an artist will keep painting no matter what.”