How is surgery similar to being in love? Is there love hidden underneath our eyelids? Is it on a riverbank both immersed in and removed from time? In the numbers that make up a digital photo’s lights and darks?

How many ways are there to see through love?

These are the questions the University of Minnesota Master of Fine Arts class of 2025 asks in their thesis exhibition “see through love.” The exhibition is open in the Katherine E. Nash Gallery in the Regis Center for Art until April 19.

The exhibition takes the form of a maze, winding through the works of the cohort’s seven artists that explore how each of them uses love as a lens to process the precarity of life.

“To see through love is to see with the wide-open and receptive eyes of your own heart,” the artists wrote in their artists’ statement.

“See through love” references a 1994 song by the late musician Arthur Russell, a moody yet driving track with sparse electric guitar befitting an end credits scene. 

The exhibition consists of both interactive scenes and traditional forms of art such as paintings and photographs, but even those traditional works push creative and spatial boundaries.

The paintings of Sarah Hubner-Burns, for example, are gargantuan oil paintings of organic pastel chaos, the smell of the paint emanating from the canvas. In “Auto-fauna,” rich yellows, purples and oranges explode across a lavender backdrop. 

Certain shapes are perceptible through the paintings — a face, an eye, anemone, hands, feet, teeth, the female form. They are what Hubner-Burns calls “shy forms,” or “what hasn’t learned how to be seen.”

Roya Nazari Najafabadi’s acrylic paintings possess a similar melting quality accentuated by shiny textural globs of paint. Her paintings examine women’s liberation in both her home country of Iran and the U. S., showing how women are hidden, melted down and censored.

Two laser-cut wooden figures of women stand in front of the paintings, sturdy and corporeal. One raises one fist in resistance, the other raises both in celebration. Attached to them are rectangular screens of text in Farsi.

The figures emerge from the melting down of women depicted in the paintings, showing Najafabadi’s artistic range and thus accentuating that of her fellow artists.

The most outrageously delightful works of the show are Marcus Rothering’s tufted tapestry rugs and signature ceramics. Explicit gay sex scenes celebrate Black queer love and domesticity in all of its tenderness, weirdness and mischief.

The interactive wings of “see through love” embody the exhibition title by showing how each artist’s worlds are defined by love.

One is greeted by alter hajek’s “waiting room” scene upon entering the Nash Gallery, a lace ribbon cordons off the second half of the wing, which only one person or two people who love each other may enter if the ribbon is open.

Ample reading material is available while waiting, a poetic novel connecting Sappho, surgery and love.

Anna Clowser erected portals of cloth and steel wire to recreate a Mississippi riverbed in Iowa, which is their true home according to signage. Papier-mache sound vessels may be carried throughout the space and everything may be touched, implicating the viewer in interwoven strands of time and place.

Sarah Abdel-Jelil recreates the Earth’s breath with colorful, kaleidoscopic visuals and immersive audio. Justin Allen draws a throughline between the stars, the moles on his back and his dad’s death of skin cancer through handmade books, altered photographs and a video explanation of the constellation Cancer.

Each of the artist’s constructed spaces are a testament to the intimacy, tenderness and unity that persists between them and within each of their lives both inside and outside of art.

During the artist talk before the gallery reception Saturday, Clowser read complimentary descriptions the artists had written about each other. She laughed self-consciously as she read her own, which described her as a beacon of joy that kept everyone on task.

A lot can happen in the three years it takes to obtain a Master in Fine Arts from the University. According to the artists, this period of time is transformative both creatively and personally. The results of this year’s cohort’s transformation is nothing short of complex, inspiring and, ultimately, loving.

“Free Leonard Peltier,” the opening night feature for the 44th Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival sold out three theaters at The Main Cinema, and for good reason.

The powerful and timely documentary opened at MSPIFF just two months after former President Joe Biden granted clemency to the Native American activist during his final minutes in office.

Peltier, now 80, was imprisoned for 50 years for the murders of two FBI agents at the 1975 Pine Ridge Shootout, convictions that have been heavily disputed and, as the documentary demonstrates, entirely fabricated by the FBI.

“If you’re Native American in the United States, you know the story of Leonard Peltier,” Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of Indigenous rights organization NDN Collective, said in the film. 

The film has local significance, too. The American Indian Movement, of which Peltier was a member, was founded in Minneapolis in 1968.

Before the film began, Ojibwe drummers and a dancer performed, and another man said a prayer in the Ojibwe language.

The film begins with Tilsen, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, and the  NDN Collective in the thick of the fight for Peltier’s last opportunity at parole before he was granted clemency.

The film documents the multi-generational struggle for Peltier’s freedom and the history of the larger AIM with a combination of vibrant archival footage from the 1970s, a 1999 interview with Peltier from prison and present-day interviews with still-living AIM activists.

“I’m very grateful for that generation,” director Jesse Short Bull said to the audience during the post-screening Q&A. “I’m proud to be Lakota and have a Lakota name.”

Short Bull leaves nothing to the imagination regarding the Native American struggle by including footage of boarding schools and first-hand accounts of the Pine Ridge Shootout, which created moments of intense emotional resonance.

Another moment showed Tilsen calling Peltier before his parole hearing from the house NDN Collective bought for Peltier upon his release.

“I’m just so excited, I’m having trouble speaking,” Peltier’s voice crackled through the phone. The people sitting next to me shed tears, as did I.

The real gut punch comes during the parole hearing itself, Peltier’s first in 15 years and, at the time, what many foresaw as his last chance at freedom.

With camera access denied in the courtroom — or rather, a waiting room at Federal Correctional Institution, Leavenworth in Kansas — Short Bull relied on plain white text of the transcript against a black background, interspersed with shots of the AIM activists staring silently into the camera as an FBI representative reiterates facts that everyone except the FBI had set aside.

“The truth didn’t matter,” Short Bull said. “They knew decades ago, and they still let Leonard suffer.”

Even with the writing on the wall, it’s still heartbreaking to hear a news anchor in the next scene announce Peltier’s parole denial.

This was the original ending of the film submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, but Short Bull and his film crew still went out to Leavenworth the morning of Jan. 20 with NDN Collective members with bated breaths waiting for Biden to pardon Peltier.

When the moment comes, eyes widen, victory cries are shouted and people hug, weep and look around in disbelief. A bald eagle glides through the clear blue sky above.

It’s a satisfying and hopeful ending, even though Peltier is serving the rest of his consecutive life sentences under house arrest and is living with severe degenerative scoliosis after half a century of sleeping on a two-inch-thick prison mattress, according to NDN Collective policy expert Holly Cook Macarro.

“They never quit trying (to punish him),” Cook Macarro, who was on the team working to secure Peltier’s freedom, said.

Still, Peltier’s defining quality is his resilience. 

The activist, his hair and mustache now white, appeared on the big screen after the Q&A in a pre-recorded message. His warmth was immediately noticeable, but so was his passion for protecting his people after all these years.

“We are sovereign nations, and we want our nationhood back,” he said. “I’m pleading with you, please help us.”

Peltier told the audience he hoped they enjoyed the film, even though some parts were difficult to watch.

“Sometimes you have to shock the audience to get them to react,” he said.

Viewers dropped their MSPIFF ballots in a brown paper bag as they left the theater. On a MSPIFF ballot, the viewer tears along a dotted line corresponding to a star rating out of five to rate the movie.

The majority of them were torn along the five-star line.

The mythological origins of how we understand queer love between women lays the perfect foundation for Lucy Dacus’ fourth studio album, “Forever Is A Feeling,” which came out March 28.

The word “sapphic” comes from the Ancient Greek poet Sappho, who hailed from the island of Lesbos, where the word “lesbian” comes from. Sappho’s poetry has long been read as queer, even though her sexuality has been endlessly debated.

A little more than a week before the album dropped, Dacus confirmed her relationship with boygenius bandmate Julien Baker, providing a subject for the 13-track epic love story of an album.

Its opening track, “Calliope Prelude,” is a sparse and somewhat screechy violin solo layered on top of itself, creating an ethereal sound befitting of a ballet or some other classic performance art.

Calliope was the eldest of the Greek muses, as well as the goddess of eloquence and epic poetry. The orchestral opener starkly contrasts Dacus’ usual indie rock in a way that pulls the listener in, imploring them to listen front to back.

It transitions seamlessly into the familiar sonic atmosphere of “Big Deal.” Soft snare carries forward Dacus’ echoey, melodic voice detailing the aftermath of a love confession between people who have known each other for years.

Dacus describes how the love she already has for the subject would dull the pain of their romance potentially failing. It’s one of several songs on the album where Dacus freezes a moment in time and teases it for details, giving it a coming-of-age quality accentuated by ringing resonance.

Lead single “Ankles,” which started the album’s hype back in January, is a short and sweet sketch of lesbian love where mutual yearning gives way to passionate sex which gives way to quiet domesticity.

“Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed / And take me like you do in your dreams,” Dacus sings. The chorus concludes with, “Then help me with the crossword in the morning / You are gonna make me tea / Gonna ask me how did I sleep.”

A staccato cello bassline and the gradual addition of glimmering guitar creates a momentous atmosphere similar to “Big Deal,” but one that feels more hopeful.

Epic poems are not without their trials, though. The sixth and seventh tracks “Talk” and “For Keeps” mark the halfway point of the album with a lower pitch and distorted guitar enveloping the listener in a windstorm of a failing relationship and gentle acoustic guitar representing its aftermath.

The songs also demonstrate Dacus’ mastery of kicker lyrics that leave the listener dumbfounded: “I didn’t mean to start / Talking in the past tense / I guess I don’t know what I think / ‘Til I start talking” is how “Talk” ends.

Title track “Forever Is A Feeling” leans into the coming-of-age feeling throughout Dacus’ discography as well as the album’s Neoclassical aesthetic — the glide of a harp ushers in the chorus referring to love as both “bliss” and “hell.”

Backing vocals from Baker make an exciting appearance, as well as those of fellow boygenius member Phoebe Bridgers, pointing to how deep love can run between people.

“Best Guess,” is a warm, upbeat sapphic love anthem that made me smile and then want to cry as I thought of my own partner.

Hozier makes a welcome appearance on “Bullseye,” a reflection on a relationship ending while still being happy that it happened. His and Dacus’ vocals blend wonderfully in a collaboration I didn’t know I needed.

Penultimate track “Most Wanted Man” uses a Southern-rock sound to paint another picture of domesticity and a desire to keep the connection sacred even with how open Dacus is on the album.

Baker, who makes another appearance, plays the role of “the most wanted man in West Tennessee” in Dacus’ eyes (Baker grew up outside of Memphis).

“We can burn it when it’s done / Soot and cinder in the sun / Nothing left for anyone to read and weep,” Dacus sings, perhaps about the album itself.

Endings are certainly Dacus’ forté. The intense distorted guitar outro of “Lost Time” creates a grand finale to our epic story, qualities that exist in past songs such as “Night Shift” and “Triple Dog Dare.”

Still, the ending is not the only place her skills lie. Every track on the album has its place, and removing any of them renders the narrative incomplete, whether or not they stick with you.

You don’t need to be sapphic to recognize good music or a love story for the ages, and “Forever Is A Feeling,” wonderfully combines the two with Dacus’ Grammy-winning skill, radical honesty and open heart.

Comic artist and owner of OddMart Brad McGinty bears a striking resemblance to “Weird Al” Yankovic, so it’s no wonder that his profession deals in the strange.

“I’m pretty nervous,” he said as he took the podium Wednesday night for the latest Insights Design Lecture hosted by the Walker Art Center in partnership with the American Institute of Graphic Arts Minnesota.

But as McGinty spoke to the sold-out crowd about his life’s work, his passion for what he does seemed to dissolve any lingering nerves.

OddMart, the “store of the strange,” opened its current Uptown location just two years ago, but McGinty created its extended universe, the GLORP Gum brand, back in 2012.

Advertised as “the only gum that comes with a free T-shirt,” GLORP exemplifies McGinty’s knack for creating expansive universes filled with his colorful oddball comic characters.

“I like gum, and I thought it was a funny way to sell a shirt,” he said simply.

McGinty played a fake commercial for GLORP Gum for the audience that parodies the classic “How Many Licks?” Tootsie Pop commercial. A little girl walks up to an alien perched on a branch and asks, “Mr. Glorp, how glorpy is GLORP Gum?”

The alien leans over to inspect the gum and promptly eats the girl.

It might seem odd (pun intended) at first for an esteemed art institution like the Walker to host OddMart, but embracing the unexpected is exactly what the Insights Design Lecture Series is all about.

“These designers often pose challenges and push the edges of their profession, in turn inspiring us to identify new perspectives in our own work,” AIGA says on their website.

Mark Owens, director of design for the Walker, said OddMart fit perfectly into the themes of this year’s Insights series, worldmaking and shopkeeping, the storefront being a world in and of itself where art is brought to the people.

“In the history of design, the storefront and the shop window are the places where the relationship between art, industry, and the public was first negotiated,” Owens said in an email statement. “OddMart joins with the rest of this year’s speakers in mining this history for new possibilities.”

McGinty also pointed out that the Walker hosted Extreme Noise Records, a pillar of the Twin Cities punk community, for an Insights lecture in 2023, which made him even more excited and honored to speak.

It also shows that, for all its glamour, the Walker is willing to uplift DIY artists.

“Everybody here embodies the DIY spirit,” McGinty said. “They’re not waiting for someone else to tell them to do it.”

Five local artists who sell at OddMart also spoke at the lecture, and all of them are entirely DIY.

One of those artists was Xiomar, pronounced ZEE-oh-Mar Luna, a Twin Cities cartoonist, writer and zinemaker who has been making comics since 2001 when they were in middle school.

I first met Luna at the inaugural Midwest Queer and Trans Zine Fest in 2023, where I grabbed a copy of the “Leo” edition of their “StarGayz” series, which explores queer themes in astrology.

“Astrology is something that gets very gendered, and I wanted to push back against that,” they said.

Luna said their work is often autobiographical, citing their practice of drawing what they know and wanting to connect with readers as inspiration.

“I want to document my marginalized experiences, being trans, mixed race, having ADHD and growing up very poor, so that people can read my comics and see themselves in my experiences,” they said.

Another OddMart artist, Matt Eng, better known as Monster Matt, took the podium adorned in a top hat and cape.

“I’m Monster Matt, and I make weird things!” he said in an exaggerated, spooky voice.

Eng’s specialty is “Frankenstein-ing” discarded objects, similar to Sid’s mutant toys in the original “Toy Story” movie, to see what else they can be.

Today, this practice might be called “upcycling,” but Eng said it was the result of the DIY spirit and growing up poor.

Eng said it was that same DIY spirit he recognized in McGinty when they met 10 years ago. When McGinty asked Eng to be a part of OddMart, Eng said, “Hell yeah!”

“I love getting crazy things out there to people who enjoy ‘em,” Eng told the Walker audience. “It’s really amazing to find a place like OddMart. It’s not just a retail store, it’s a community.”

There are many ways to find community at OddMart. From their weekly OddMarkets on Sundays or Cartoon Cabarets on Saturdays, everything at OddMart is about bringing art to the people.

“The shop isn’t about me, it’s about the artists,” McGinty said. “I hope I can pass it on to the next generation of creatives.”

Gigantic cats of all ages and colors romp across a verdant, hilly landscape, a storm brewing in the distance. Simple brushstrokes create abstract landscapes that somehow look exactly like somewhere you’ve been before. A soft sculpture skeletal torso hangs from the ceiling and ceramic sculptures made out of thick mesh twist, curve and bulge with glossy globs of glaze dripping from their holes.

These are the surreal scenes you’ll find upon visiting ‘Phantasmagoria,’ the latest show on display at Fresh Eye Gallery in South Minneapolis until April 27.

Featured artist Yousha Tighe (pronounced “TIE”) coined the title, which means “a sequence of real or imaginary images like those seen in a dream,” after hearing it in a Francisco Goya documentary.

Tighe, the creator of the cat painting, hit the nail on the head with the title. The works throughout “Phantasmagoria” feel inexact and blended in form and color, like memories of a dream that linger after waking up.

Tighe is also one of 41 artists with disabilities represented by Fresh Eye Arts.

“I just feel lucky to be a part of it,” she said.

Fresh Eye Arts is the fine arts studio program of the day services provider MSS, which has been serving adults with disabilities in the Twin Cities since 1949. Art has been an aspect of MSS services since 1999, according to Fresh Eye’s website.

Its South Minneapolis gallery space opened just four years ago in 2021, after its first gallery in Lowertown, St. Paul closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The gallery showcases the work of artists with and without disabilities.

“We don’t think that artwork made by people with disabilities should be segregated from the rest of the art scene,” Fresh Eye Arts supervisor Analiese Jarvi-Beamer said. “It helps create access for the artists we support, and it’s a really exciting opportunity for artists in the community who might not get to learn about the work of their disabled peers.”

Third-year University of Minnesota Master of Fine Arts student Marcus Rothering is one of two community artists in the show. He said he was honored to be in a show alongside artists with disabilities.

“I really commend Fresh Eye for making that a part of their mission,” Rothering said. 

Before graduate school, Rothering said he worked with students with autism at Minneapolis Public Schools and helped with the Walker Art Center’s Sensory Friendly Sundays, which made the invitation to be a part of  “Phantasmagoria” even more special.

Even in the chaos of finishing his master’s thesis, Rothering still crafted fresh ceramic sculptures for “Phantasmagoria,” a process he describes as a divine experience.

“It’s a process that’s both mindful and mindless,” he said. “It’s a known connection that’s still not fully understood, something I want to keep sacred.”

Rothering also included one of his older tufted rug pieces, “You’re Always There,” which strays away from the explicit sexuality that his newer pieces do. There’s a hand and a claw, both with red nails, and a fist, but the scene ultimately feels disjointed and indescribable.

Rothering said he seeks to depict Black queer sexuality beyond its traumatic aspects in his rugs — a literal softening of the subject matter.

The soft sculpture and tapestry works of another community artist Ivonne Yáñez add to the softness of the show, creating a dreamlike space that is tranquil and not disorienting.

Fresh Eye artist Lamine Richards’ painting “Untitled [Landscape 2]” serves as the promotional image for “Phantasmagoria,” and for good reason — with simple yet expressive brush strokes, the soft, cool blues in the landscape literally bring goosebumps to the skin.

Tighe’s and Richards’ art, along with that of their peers, are available in the Fresh Eye Gallery gift shop, which Jarvi-Beamer said is the best way for people to support the program and its artists along with coming to events.

She said that donations to Fresh Eye go even further these days since it’s being affected by federal budget cuts that are leaving nonprofits across the country in the dark.

“Art made in our studios is really good,” she said. “If you’re interested in creativity, this is the place to be.”

The Whole Music Club will welcome Freak Slug and Huron John Saturday night, two relatively niche indie acts who are still nothing to sneeze at.

The British indie rocker, real name Xenya Genovese, will be playing in support of her debut album, “I Blow Out Big Candles,” which came out last November. Its deluxe edition, subtitled “(But With A Cherry On Top),” dropped earlier this month.

With the support of a larger budget and more production capabilities, “Big Candles” is a radical departure from the bedroom pop sound that first earned Freak Slug 15 minutes of fame when her 2020 single “Radio” blew up on TikTok.

Instead, the artist adopts an ethos of following her intuition no matter what, according to Still Listening Magazine, yielding a debut record that’s delightfully eclectic, authentic and just plain fun.

“If people come to the show, they won’t find it difficult to become enraptured by the hypnotic sounds of Freak Slug’s new take on the indie genre,” Whole event planner Maddy Wittmers-Graves said in an email.

A Freak Slug fan themself, Wittmers-Graves named “Piece of Cake” and “Radio” as favorites.

“Piece of Cake,” which is also the artist’s favorite from “Big Candles,” laments dating people who seem attractive, but who are actually nothing good.

It begins with a sunny, saxophone-accented sound, but devolves into a heavier, rock-forward middle section with a backing track of the artist’s sobs — a microcosm of the album’s best sounds.

Opening track “Ya Ready” provides a similar experience. A gentle intro featuring acoustic guitar and saxophone transforms into something slower, harder and grungier that fans of  Blondshell will appreciate.

Freak Slug leans into edginess on “Ya Ready” by adding vocal distortion and singing with her real British accent. She lets the freak in her moniker shine through, an energy she brings to the entire album.

Expect similar experimentation from Chicago-born, Nashville-based opener Huron John, whose two-disc opus “Indigo Jack & The New World Border” came out last February.

Huron John, aka John Conradi, produced, wrote and engineered his entire discography himself, a commitment to creative freedom that has yielded true genre-fluidity.

Like Freak Slug, Huron John goes where the musical winds blow him. “Indigo Jack” features both the funkadelic “BLOOD DIAMOND RING” and the more electronic “CALDERA.”

It’s difficult to find early-career artists with as much sophistication as Huron John, but he pulls it off gracefully.

The Whole has done an excellent job of booking exciting acts to visit the University of Minnesota. Rising indie stars Indigo De Souza and Sorry Mom graced us with their presence in the fall, and now with Freak Slug, it’s surprising to hear how easy the booking process seems to be.

“The student staff give names they would like to plan a show around, and mostly have free reign on who they pick, so there’s a lot more freedom with these types of shows,” Wittmers-Graves explained. “We’ve noticed that the indie/punk genres have been really popular lately, and those interests also happen to align with what our student staff are passionate about!”

It’s refreshing to see a space on campus run by direct student input, and the possibilities of who could play the Whole next seem endless.

Student tickets for the show are $5, while general public tickets are $10. They can be purchased here.

Last month, Lady Gaga made waves with her dance-forward single “Abracadabra,” an instant club classic. A short of her dancing to its satisfyingly staccato post-chorus that aired during the Super Bowl and its delightfully weird and opulent music video raised hopes even higher for her latest album, “Mayhem.”

The album, released on Friday, starts strong with the kind of experimentation we know and love Gaga for and a fresh take on the dance music trend. It’s an exciting fusion of dance music, synth pop, recession pop and even disco. 

Halfway through its nearly one-hour length, though, you’re left wondering how many times in a row you can hear the same song.

The album opens with its other single, “Disease,” which was released before “Abracadabra” in November 2024. The heavy synth and pronounced beat pair excellently with Gaga’s rich vocals and prime the listener for the magic of “Acadabraba.”

“Garden Of Eden” highlights the operatic notes of the album, particularly in the backing vocals telling the DJ to “hit the lights,” and its chorus is a groovy guitar riff guaranteed to lodge itself in your brain.

“Perfect Celebrity” is an electronic critique on fame, something artists of Gaga’s caliber are all too familiar with (throwback to when the media decided to transvestigate her). Its electronic sound enables its danceability, but its melody sounds almost haunting, alluding to something darker.

Gaga also employs some of the smartest songwriting of the album on this song, utilizing a double entendre in the line “sit in the front row, watch the princess die” to evoke the beloved Diana, Princess of Wales whose fame ultimately killed her.

“Vanish Into You” is a longing breakup song that leans into the recession pop sound that was Gaga’s stairway to stardom. “Killah” is a funky feature with French DJ and “Mayhem” producer Gesaffelstein, who also worked with today’s queen of recession pop Charli XCX.

When Gaga’s chanting gave way to a sparkling disco melody at the beginning of “Zombieboy,” I audibly said “What the hell?” in a good way. The track stands apart from the rest of the album and is by far its most exciting non-single track. Gaga sassily saying, “Put your paws all over me, you zombieboy!” is a definite highlight.

Unfortunately, after “Zombieboy,” Gaga falters and falls back on a sound we’ve all heard before.

“LoveDrug” returns to the recession pop formula, but infuses it with ‘80s-style synth with notes of 2015 Daft Punk.

Then there are three songs that sound pretty much the same and aren’t worth mentioning.

“The Beast” is a welcome break in the pop music monotony in the form of a sexy slow jam. Sonically and thematically, it transitions well into the album’s penultimate track “Blade Of Grass.”

The melancholy, piano-driven power love ballad dedicated to Gaga’s fiancé Michael Polansky feels very similar to a Lana Del Rey track, and its exceedingly tender lyrics hammer the comparison home. They honestly trend a bit more hopeful than anything Del Rey has written.

“You said, ‘How does a man like me love a woman like you?’ / I said ‘Hold me until I die and I’ll make you brand new,’” Gaga croons.

As you’re listening to this beautiful declaration of love, you’ll be stunned to remember that “Abracadabra” was, in fact, the same album. But it’s this type of range that we should expect from legends like Gaga, and she shows she still has it.

“Blade Of Grass” would have been a satisfying conclusion to “Mayhem.” Even a triumphant return to the album’s primary dance sound would have been nice.

Instead, Gaga tacked on her Grammy Award-winning duet with Bruno Mars “Die With A Smile” onto the end of the already-too-long record. Grammy win aside, it’s a lazy move that sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the originality of the album’s first half.

Even though their voices blend well, as of 2025, society has moved on from Bruno Mars. Additionally, though not officially connected with the film, the song is far too reminiscent of the musical “Joker” sequel “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a flop that Gaga pioneered.

“Mayhem” was Gaga’s chance to move on from that misstep, but it’s all the listener is left with at its conclusion.

Perhaps Gaga has outgrown her meat dress, but that unabashed weirdness is why she’s so beloved and reminds us of what she does best.

Gaga’s dance pop has always been a source of solace during difficult times, and it’s her latest reinvention of this classic sound of hers that’s the highlight of “Mayhem.” It’s what makes the album’s subpar second half all the more disappointing.

On the last day of Black History Month, more than 30 people gathered in Black Garnet Books for the first meeting of Noname Book Club’s Twin Cities chapter.

Founded in 2019 by rapper Noname, aka Fatimah Nyeema Warner, the book club connects community members both inside and outside of prisons with radical books, according to its website. This involves monthly chapter meetings in cities across the world as well as sending free books to incarcerated people.

“We believe everyone (especially racialized and colonized people) should have access to unlimited educational materials,” the Book Club’s website says. “It’s our job to make sure our folks feel taken care of and not forgotten.”

Last June, University of Minnesota student LeShay Andrewin reached out to Noname Book Club in hopes of starting a Twin Cities chapter.

“I felt like we needed one,” they said. “When it comes to Noname Book Club, there’s more you can do with it, and the word gets out.”

It took until January to get a response. In the meantime, Andrewin started their own book club, The AfroReads Collective, to try to achieve the same community as a Noname chapter would.

“I’d see (Noname) post photos of all of the book club chapters, and there’s always a bunch of POC all reading the same book, and I was like ‘I need that in my life,’” they said.

Andrewin said they were thrilled when a response finally came. Though they said the set-up process was easy, they admitted that they were nervous the whole time.

Andrewin also didn’t expect to become the chapter’s facilitator, but they said they felt the first meeting at Black Garnet went well despite their nerves.

“I could’ve talked more, but it was a room full of intellectuals, and I was scared to open my mouth,” they said. 

Still, Andrewin said, “I feel like everyone left our discussion with something they didn’t know about before.”

February’s read was “Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle” by Thomas Sankara, the president during the 1983 revolution in the West African country of Burkina Faso.

The short, 50-page read covers two of Sankara’s speeches, one of which he gave to a rally of thousands of women in Ouagadougou, the country’s capital, on International Women’s Day 1987.

For Andrewin, it was quite different from the books they usually read, such as Black literature. Like many in attendance at Black Garnet, they were astonished that a man had made a speech in favor of women’s liberation.

“It was a really interesting viewpoint,” they said. 

Several chapter members who were the children of African immigrants said Sankara’s words starkly contrasted the attitudes of their male relatives.

Sankara gave the other speech shortly after the revolution’s triumph in 1983, detailing the roles women should play in the popular revolution. Some femme-presenting chapter members bristled against this, asking who Sankara, a man, thought he was to tell women what to do. Others at the meeting posited that lower-class women in Africa at the time weren’t aware of their own oppression and needed convincing to join the movement.

The general consensus became that oppressed peoples should lead their own liberation movements and that allies should support them, but ultimately step aside.

“No matter how radical you think you are, you still have blind spots,” said chapter member Cynthia Abalo.

March’s read is radically different. “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a “Hunger Games” meets the prison industrial complex dystopian novel.

The wildest part, according to Andrewin, is that the book is set in the present. 

It’s even cooler to realize that the book is also being sent to incarcerated people.

“I feel like all of the Noname books are books I wouldn’t pick up out of my own curiosity, but it’s really good,” they said.

Andrewin said that you don’t even need to read each month’s book to attend chapter meetings. 

“If you’re looking for a sense of community with like-minded people who are passionate about making a change in the world and discussing the Black experience, even if you aren’t a Black individual, you should join Noname Book Club,” they said.

Those interested in joining can follow the Noname Book Club Instagram as well as The AfroReads Collective for updates on the Twin Cities chapter.

If you’re sticking around the Twin Cities for spring break, or if your plans start after this weekend, consider coming to PILLLAR Forum’s second-annual Rage & Reset, a three-day celebration with line-ups stacked with the Twin Cities’ best indie sounds.

Friday and Saturday will be rage-filled nights of rock, hardcore, punk and post-punk (think Anita Velveeta, bugsy and Dad Bod), while Sunday will be a folksy, singer-songwriter matinee.

Last year’s Rage & Reset, which was two nights instead of three, served as the inaugural event of the PILLLAR Forum venue space on Central Avenue in Minneapolis, according to PILLLAR owner Corey Bracken.

Since 2021, PILLLAR has been hosting shows in the cafe side of its retail space which sells skateboards and related merchandise.

“We’d have to move all of the tables and chairs and set up this portable PA system,” Bracken said. “There was no stage, and it was fun, but it wasn’t what I would say was a really good music experience. We would have hardcore shows and walls would get damaged.”

The opportunity to open a PILLLAR music venue came to Bracken in the winter of 2023 when their insurance company neighbors vacated the space next door.

After urging from his staff, Bracken took the plunge and opened a music venue; the rest is history. 

“Last year I think we had somewhere between 175 to 225 shows, and we had music probably four to five nights a week,” Bracken said. “It’s been just amazing to see all the different bands and styles come through.”

Bracken said that while he’s excited for both “rage” nights, he’s looking forward to PILLLAR veteran Anita Velveeta’s performance on Saturday night in particular.

“She just played a sold-out show at PILLLAR recently, and she’s been playing here since we started having shows at the café,” Bracken said. “She puts on such a great performance. The energy is palpable, and it’s just so much fun to be in the room when she’s performing.”

Bracken also named sludgegaze group Haze Gazer and Mommy Log Balls, another veteran PILLLAR group who Bracken called “a trip,” as performances to catch on Friday.

“They have such a diverse following and they put on such a unique show that it’s just always a good time,” he said of Mommy Log Balls.

Bracken said Twin Cities heavy hitters Early Eyes and bugsy will put on exciting shows on Saturday, along with Thumper, the band of PILLLAR barista Juno Parsons, who is also a member of Haze Gazer.

Kicking off Sunday’s day of “reset” will be folk duo The Penny Peaches, the family band of singer-songwriter sisters Grace and Hattie Peach.

According to their Instagram bio, the Peaches are “like the Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit without the accent.”

Sunday’s shorter, more relaxed afternoon line-up will be the perfect palette cleanser after two nights of raging, according to Bracken.

Bracken said that PILLLAR prides itself on being a safe, all-ages venue that is both band and audience-centered.

“Some of these bands play venues where if you’re under 21, you can’t see them play,” Bracken said. “What we provide is a safe atmosphere where people can come out and have a good time and appreciate live music.”

Bracken attributed PILLLAR’s successful shift from a makeshift to an official venue, to those very people who come out to shows.

“We just want to celebrate all that we’ve done and all that these bands are doing,” he said.

Whether you rage for two nights straight, relax to some chill folk vibes on Sunday or partake in the full Rage & Reset experience, PILLLAR will have something for everyone.

Information about day and weekend passes to Rage & Reset can be found here.

Many people are quick to distance themselves from art because they can’t draw more than a stick figure, but creative expression is more essential to our well-being than we realize.

According to the Mayo Clinic Press, even simply appreciating or experiencing art has a host of health benefits, including reducing blood pressure and anxiety and increasing levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences our happiness and pleasure.

This connection isn’t arbitrary, either. It’s deeply rooted in our humanity.

“Anthropology has shown that in early human history, art, religion and healing evolved in the same social space,” the World Health Organization’s website says. “Artistic expression grew in lockstep with human cultural development and has long played an integral part in how we teach, learn, communicate and heal.”

Today, students use art to cope with the stress of academia and express the myriad emotions of young adulthood, especially those that can’t be put into words.

Ingrid Balciunas, a fourth-year family and social sciences major, aspires to help people process trauma and repressed emotions as a therapist, and they think art therapy is equipped to do just that.

“Sometimes you can’t talk or think out a feeling,” Balciunas, who also minors in art, said. “When I’m in the zone making art, my thinking brain isn’t driving me as much. I think that’s a good way to let things come out as they need to.”

Balciunas said art therapy can be more exploratory than talk therapy, though they said talk therapy was still beneficial to them.

“(Talk therapy) can get to be too cerebral,” they said. “If somebody has trouble talking about a specific incident or even remembering a specific incident, just creating space to see what things flow out through art is a good way of approaching that.”

Art of Counseling, PLLC, a psychotherapy group based in St. Paul, offers art therapy and traditional talk therapy among other services to “(provide) a holistic blend of art, relational, and trauma informed therapies,” according to their website.

One of their services is the Expressive Arts Trauma Processing Group, a 10-week program of “engaging with expressive media and supported reflection” for female-identifying people with previous trauma processing experience in individual therapy.

Though there is some exclusivity with Expressive Arts (payment and registration are both required), there are more casual ways to practice creativity for your well-being.

One upcoming opportunity is the Arts and Wellbeing Club, a new program offered by the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing. 

The group is open to undergraduate and graduate students of all artistic media and experiences looking for a safe, non-judgmental space to make art in community with others.

“What I want for people to get out of the club is some unlearning about who is an artist and what it means to be creative,” said Maria Arriola, the club’s student facilitator and a graduate student studying music composition. “It’s not something that we have to try very hard at. The impulse to create is a sign of being alive.”

Those interested in joining the Arts and Wellbeing Club are welcome at either of their introductory meetings on Tuesday, March 4 and Wednesday, March 5. Additional information can be found here.

Balciunas said that though it’s sometimes difficult without the structure of a class, making art on their own is rewarding, and even just thinking of concepts for projects can be fun.

“The stuff I draw tends to be more abstract, but if there is realistic it tends to be faces, people, figures,” they said. “If I’m not good at drawing something or I kind of f-ck up I’m just gonna make it all really abstract and surreal.”

Swiping through their art folder on their phone, Balciunas revealed a theme of violence in their art. One drawing showed them eating their fingers, and multiple others were heads with axes in them, but Balciunas’ doodly, surreal style made the sketches more comical than gory. 

Balciunas said art has been an essential part of processing emotional turmoil, given their habit of overthinking.

“I feel like a lot of really great art comes out of feeling,” Balciunas said. “There’s no standard or expectation. You don’t have to be an artist to feel something.”