Vintage collectors Yana Pietras and Ian O’Neill have spent the past several years transforming their passion for vintage collecting into their living. Now, they’re transforming their digital vintage shop into a physical space.

What began as an online shop in 2014 evolved into a physical storefront in Northeast Minneapolis with a grand opening on June 12.

After watching Moth Oddities grow from a website to a traveling pop-up shop, Pietras and O’Neill are beyond excited that their baby has now found a permanent home.

“It has always been a goal of ours to open a brick-and-mortar,” said co-owner Ian O’Neill. “Our favorite part of Moth Oddities is meeting our shoppers, engaging face-to-face and seeing their reactions when they find that perfect vintage piece. Plus we are designers by trade, and we enjoy the process of creating a feeling and experience within a space.”

Walking through the front door, you are immediately surrounded by a plethora of unique sights — garments hanging from the racks, walls and mannequins, and friendly faces thumbing through the variety of vintage items. The store’s charming back room, referred to as “The Den,” houses changing rooms, couches and a map illustrating the many places that the couple has sourced vintage from around the U.S. The shop is open every weekend.

Co-owner Yana Pietras expressed her thrill following Moth Oddities’ opening weekend.

“The first week has been so fun and busy as heck,” Pietras said. “We have been visited by so many familiar faces and friendly new ones. The community, their adorable pups and sweet kiddos have made us feel right at home. It’s like we have already been there for years. This feeling reassures us that we are exactly where we are supposed to be.”

Pietras and O’Neill first met in college and spent many weekends scouring the racks at local thrift stores. For them, date nights were vintage hunts.

This love of collecting quickly evolved into the idea for their online vintage shop which they eventually launched together. Over the years, the two have acquired large portions of their collections whilst road tripping across the country in their Jeep Wagoneer (a.k.a. Eleanor.)

When Moth Oddities was solely an online pop-up business, they sold their vintage goods at the storefront of lifestyle and grooming product shop, Duke Albert. In the last year, however, the two shops have gone through somewhat of a switch. As Moth Oddities has been opening their brick-and-mortar store, Duke Albert has transitioned to online-only, with their products also available for purchase in the Moth Oddities shop.

“Yana and Ian are the most honest authentic kind people, and you can see that reflected in their new shop and with their selection of vintage. They are all in,” said Sarah Dwyer, co-owner of Duke Albert.

Community and sustainability are at the center of the Moth Oddities mission.

The shop offers local BIPOC- & LGBT-owned products and brands, and the owners plan to continue to include more and more local names to their inventory. The owners also have plans to host workshops in the space that promote sustainable practices of upcycling, mending and generally caring for clothes in eco-friendly ways. During their Grand Opening Weekend, the shop donated 10% of sales to OutFront Minnesota in honor of Pride Month.

Pietras and O’Neill look hopefully to the future as they begin this next chapter of their business. While they look forward to continuing to fine tune the store, they still plan to find the time for their clothing haul road trips.

“Traveling and collecting will always be a part of Moth Oddities, we plan to keep that up even with the addition of the storefront,” O’Neill said. “It is exciting to have a hub to bring all the goods home to.”

After a year and a half of masks and social distancing, in person events are back on. Here is a run down of local summer happenings and how they will be different for the summer of 2021.

Juneteenth Celebrations: (June 13 – 19)

Juneteenth celebrations are on for the summer of 2021. From the 13 through the 19 of June, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will be hosting several events leading up to and on Juneteenth, all of which will enforce minimal restrictions related to COVID-19. The schedule of events is set to include literature readings, drive-in movie screenings and virtual community panel discussions, as well as live music and kite-flying in Bethune Park.

Pride: (Lead up events: June 9 – 27 — Pride Festival: July 17 – 18)

It is truly not a summer in the Twin Cities without Pride, and after an unspeakably difficult year the celebration is back on. The Grand Marshal MASKqueerade Party event will be held at two locations for smaller gatherings, and the Rainbow Run 5k will go off in groups of 250 at 9 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10 a.m., etc. for spacing of runners. For the Pride Festival itself, booths have been removed along the lake side of Loring Park to ease congestion.

Stone Arch Bridge Festival: (June 19 – 20)

The yearly art and music gathering on and beside the historic Stone Arch Bridge will be going forward for 2021 with minor changes to the usual arrangements. With live music, a culinary arts market and a local car show, there is something for everyone. Artists’ tents will be spread out — offering a good amount of space between each tent — and all of the large music events have been scaled back. While the event typically features several stages with a full lineup of performances stretching into the evening, this year there will be two stages featuring primarily acoustic sets of one or two performers.

Loring Park Art Festival: (July 31 – Aug. 1)

Mark your calendars for the weekend of July 31: The annual community arts festival and market is back in full swing. A bustling art celebration across from the Walker, this event will once again be bringing local art, delicious food and a fun loving atmosphere to the Loring Park neighborhood. There will be hand sanitizers throughout the park and there will be limited entertainment and activities to eliminate gathering points.

“The safety of our guests, artists and partners is paramount,” said Pat Parnow, director of the event. “We are working closely within the guidelines set forth by the CDC and the State of Minnesota, and we have been strategizing and sharing best practices with art festival directors locally and nationally for many months.”

Uptown Art Fair: (Aug. 6 – 8)

Come August, the streets of Uptown will be bustling with artists and art lovers once again. As the second most attended event in Minnesota, this event will be packed with folks selling and purchasing visual art of all kinds. The executive director of the Uptown Art Fair, Jill Osiecki, commented on the uphill climb to put on this event after having only recently been given the green light by the state.

“The real challenging thing is that we’re planning an event, essentially in two months, that normally takes us a full year,” Osiecki said. “The fair impacts so many different people, not only 300 plus artists, but also our community. We feel it’s super important to make it happen.”

Minnesota Renaissance Festival: (Weekends Aug. 21 – Oct. 3)

Granted the current condition of the pandemic continues to improve as expected, organizers at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival will once again open doors to their fantasy kingdom in Shakopee, Minnesota. The director of marketing and events at Mid-America Festivals, Stephanie Whipps, shared how the organizers are still unsure what restrictions will look like for what will be the festival’s 50th anniversary summer.

“We are hopeful to have a normal renaissance festival experience, but will do whatever we have to do. If we have to operate with some restrictions, then we will,” Whipps said.

Rock the Garden: (Canceled)

Unfortunately, this cherished Twin Cities music festival will not be taking place this summer. Due to the difficulties of scheduling during the pandemic, it will likely be another year before music lovers can once again gather on the Walker Art Center grounds for a day of loud music and high spirits.

Minnesota State Fair: (Aug. 26 – Sept. 6)

Whether your fix is a bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies, a ride on the giant slide or wandering into random RVs you could never afford, the great Minnesota get-together is coming back with all of the foods and events you’ve been missing. At this time, the State Fair does not anticipate daily attendance limits and masks will not be required for fair guests; however, organizers are strongly encouraging the use of masks for those not fully vaccinated, the Minnesota State Fair announced. Additional announcements regarding the 2021 Minnesota State Fair, including the free entertainment lineup, new foods, full Grandstand lineup and more will be released in the coming weeks.

“It’s more than the media shows you.” “Hold police accountable.” “We deserve peaceful justice.”

These are just some of the phrases that stood tall on South Nicollet Avenue Saturday afternoon. Set on display for the public to see were the wooden murals created during the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing social reckoning and uprising.

The boards were assembled and exhibited as part of the Backyard BBQ, a Whittier neighborhood community event hosted by Pimento Relief Services, Save The Boards MPLS, Memorialize the Movement and the Whittier Alliance.

The groups organized the occasion with the hopes of building community and healing through joy by offering an afternoon of food, music and celebration.

Despite the over 90 degree heat, the festivities went on strong with live poetry readings, free Impossible Burgers courtesy of Pimento Jamaican Kitchen and live painters adding to the already remarkable display of visual art.

The several plywood murals stood in the center of the blocked-off section of the street, showcasing various colorful portraits, intricate artist tags and samples of text begging for justice for George Floyd and abolition of the Minneapolis Police Department.

This was the second time in the past month that Save The Boards and Memorialize the Movement have assembled the boards for an exhibition. On May 22, the two organizations co-hosted an open-air art exhibit in Phelps Park, featuring nearly 150 pieces of artwork that both organizations have worked to locate and store over the past year.

“Our first event was definitely a little more focused on being reflective and sensitive to what bringing out all those boards might feel like for some people,” said Save The Boards founder Kenda Zellner-Smith. “With this event, we want to celebrate Black joy, and we want to honor Black laughter and being carefree while existing as Black. Those are things that often get overlooked because of the climate and the turmoil that’s gone on against Black people in this country every day.”

CEO of Pimento Jamaican Kitchen and Executive Director of Pimento Relief Services, Tomme Beevas, echoed the importance of maintaining a space for healing amid continued suffering and trauma.

“Even with the pain, we know we still have to celebrate life,” Beevas said. “We all have to keep moving onward and forward to ensure that we can continue to create better humans, a better planet and a better community as a whole.”

Both Save the Boards and Memorialize the Movement will continue activating the boards for future community events. Founder and executive director of Memorialize the Movement, Leesa Kelly, is currently looking into organizing summer events that would feature the boards in partnership with Twin Cities neighborhood associations and organizations.

“I don’t want to be the person who just stored them in a warehouse and never brought them out again,” Kelly said. “I want to make sure that we can continue this movement and continue this protest through the murals and honor the original purpose of them. We will definitely be out all summer and all fall participating in as many arts and community events as we can.”

In addition to finding pop-up display locations, there are also plans to find permanent exhibit spaces — both physically and virtually — for the boards. One of the long-term goals of these panel reservation organizations is to create a digital archive of the boards they have collected, which, between the two, total over 800 boards. Both Zellner-Smith and Kelly champion the idea that the boards immortalize this historical moment of social change and civil rights.

The boards “aren’t the beginning of this movement, and they’re not the end of the movement. They aren’t going to make change, but they are a piece of the story that is necessary in order to get to that point where change can happen,” Zellner-Smith said.

Kelly expressed her dedication to this work and her commitment to ensuring that the boards are not forgotten.

“We are largely unpaid for this work, and we don’t do it for the money,” Kelly said. “We don’t do it for the clout or the media or public attention. We do it for the love of our people. I do it for the love of my people. If I can continue to activate these murals which were created as an act of protest, and somehow contribute to this movement, this global civil rights movement, I’m gonna do it.”

Looking for a cold brew in a great atmosphere this summer? Here are A&E’s top 10 local breweries that are sure to please.

612 Brew: 945 Broadway St. NE, Minneapolis

Enjoy a quality beer in a fun-loving environment. Sit in the taproom or heated patio or go in for one of the many games available — giant jenga anyone? No reservation required; parties are limited to six or fewer.

The Freehouse: 701 N. Washington Ave. #101, Minneapolis

Serving food from breakfast to bar close, it’s hard to decide what’s better: the food or the beer. Stay and enjoy a meal on the patio, order food to go or go for one of the family meal options. From the menu to the taproom, this brewpub serves nothing but the best.

Fulton Brewing Taproom: 414 N. 6th Ave., Minneapolis

From beers to hard seltzers, Fulton knows what it’s doing. The patio and taproom are both open for seating with reservations required.

Inbound BrewCo: 701 N. 5th St., Minneapolis

With the indoor seating officially reopened, Inbound is ready to rock for the summer. Complete with a patio, Inbound has plenty of open space to enjoy the sun and get some fresh air while social distancing. Home to some of the best beers in Minneapolis, Inbound is top tier.

Insight Brewing & Taproom: 2821 E. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Whether you want IPAs, stouts, lagers, ciders or sours, Insight has what you’re looking for and then some. With a plethora of delicious options, a spacious taproom and good energy all around, you can’t go wrong with Insight. No reservations required; tables are first come, first serve.

La Doña Cervecería: 241 Fremont Ave. N., Minneapolis

La Doña is a Latin-influenced craft brewery with both the taproom and patio currently open for seating. With beautiful decor, a friendly atmosphere and a miniature soccer field for 3v3 matches, a night at La Doña is a guaranteed good time.

LynLake Brewery: 2934 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis

While the rooftop patio is temporarily closed, the taproom is open for seating. Come for the beer, stay for the food; the Burger Joint serves up some of the top burgers and sandwiches in the area.

Pryes Brewing Co.: 1401 West River Rd. N., Minneapolis

With outstanding IPAs and delicious food from Cason Italian Eatery, Pryes’ taproom is a quality spot. Using compostable materials, including cups, Pryes does its best to strive for sustainability. With the taproom and beer garden open, all tables are separated for socially distanced seating.

Sociable Cider Werks: 1500 Fillmore St. NE, Minneapolis

Not on the IPA wave? Looking for something light and sweet? Head over to Sociable Cider Werks where there’s always something new to try. With picnic tables outside, a cold drink in the sun might be just what the doctor ordered.

Urban Growler Brewing Co.: 2325 Endicott St., St. Paul

The first woman-owned microbrewery in Minnesota, Urban Growler is a place for great beer and amazing food. The self-serve tap garden is a lovely place to enjoy a beer in the shade; leashed dogs are always welcome. Limited indoor dining is now available with a reservation.

Combining genres of indie-pop, neo-soul, hip-hop, techno and so much more, Colby Hansen’s new full length album, “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” is exactly that. The Minnesota-born musician’s eclectic influences shine across the entire tracklist.

Officially released April 7 but made available on streaming platforms April 18, the project runs just over 23 minutes in length.

Hansen recorded all of her parts for the project in her bedroom. She went in with a vision to create an album featuring a wide array of genres that also showcased the talents of her musical friends. Made with collaboration in mind, the album is packed with featured instrumentalists and vocalists.

“It was a really fun time because I was able to reach out to so many artists that otherwise I probably wouldn’t have even thought of reaching out to,” Hansen said. “That really is what the album is, just a big melting pot of genres and styles from a lot of my friends and myself.”

From one song to the next, each track offers a new style and texture while maintaining a cohesive tone for the overall project.

One moment you’re head bobbing to the funky groove and hook of the chill hop banger, “Drifting,” and in the next you’re tapping your foot to the smooth synths and floating guitars of the indie-pop track “15 Again.” With each of the eight songs offering something new, “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” is one that you start over as soon as it’s done to catch what you missed.

Hansen began work on the project at the start of the pandemic, and ended up recording, producing and mixing a majority of the parts and songs herself. A jack-of-all-trades, Hansen shows off her chops on guitar, vocals, drums and even on the oud, a fretless Middle Eastern string instrument. Her skills as a musician, however, stand out most clearly on her primary weapon of choice, bass.

Having studied jazz bass performance at Portland State University, Hansen’s low-end grooves, flavorful tone and crunchy licks are standouts on a project already chock full of fantastic sounds.

Hansen started out on drums at 8 years old, eventually gravitating toward the bass, intrigued by the role that a bass could play in the sonic landscape.

“A big reason was just because I wanted to learn an instrument that had more melody and harmony built into it,” Hansen said. “I love the low end, and it really is like the foundation of dancing and dance music, I realized as I’ve gotten older. It really just moves your body in a different way than the rest.”

Friend and featured artist on the album, Jacob Jarchow aka Jarx, champions Hansen’s approach to her music and her work on this album.

“This [album] really reflects Colby as an artist just because it shows all of her influences, with all the different genres,” Jarchow said. “It really shows that she has a wide range as an artist. She’s definitely getting into her stride in terms of becoming a producer and is definitely improving a lot with this album.”

Much of the sound on “Everything but the Kitchen Sink” was inspired by Hansen’s current musical influences.

Indie acts like Men I Trust, electronic artists like Chris Lake and neo-soul performers like Erykah Badu, and so many more have all influenced Colby’s taste, and as a result, her music.

Local rapper Devin Barksdale aka Devinci, who also released an album in 2021, offers a sublime verse on the track “Drifting.” Barksdale admires Colby’s versatility and hopes to work with her again.

“The proof is in the pudding, I feel like, when you listen to Colby’s music,” he said. “Very rarely are you going to say, this is a specific type of genre that she’s doing. Just because she’s kind of in her own wave doing her own thing.”

To Jacob Bernier, a University of Minnesota graduate student, canoes carry not only passengers’ weight but also the weight of history.

“They have carrying capacity, and not just in the physical sense. They have the ability to teach and to help people to learn,” Bernier said. “That’s been something that’s been going on for millennia and will continue to do so. As long as there are people there will be canoes.”

Bernier is one of the student curators behind the newest exhibit at the Northrop Gallery “Why Canoes?,” an installment focusing on the function and cultural significance of Indigenous watercraft.

The exhibit highlights three Indigenous canoeing communities based around the Minnesota area and the work they are doing in canoe revitalization. Representing the Dakota, Ojibwe and Micronesian communities, the exhibit showcases the ways these groups are participating in not only the historical study of canoes but also in the contemporary construction and use of them.

Along with Bernier, the exhibit was co-curated by American Indian Studies professor Dr. Vicente Diaz and former University student Chrissy Goodwin.

The exhibit will remain available to the public through the end of the fall 2021 semester. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m.

As a Red River Métis descendant, Bernier is looking forward to the exhibit as an opportunity to share an important part of his own culture and to highlight the work being done in partnership with the three communities.

“Honestly, everything has to start with a conversation. Speaking with different members of each community, [we are] just trying to have a better understanding of where they’re at with their revitalization efforts,” Bernier said. “Personally, I feel this exhibit has helped highlight what these communities are doing, and the work that communities are putting in to learn from each other.”

Much of the research used for the exhibit was based on work being done by the Native Canoe Program through their partnership with Indigenous communities. Founded and directed by Diaz, the group uses traditional Indigenous watercraft to advance community-engaged research, teaching and service.

Having worked closely with Diaz during his coursework in American Indian Studies, Bernier was inspired by the hands-on study of canoes that Diaz’s courses introduced him to.

“Jacob really threw himself into the material that we were looking at,” Diaz said. “He’s the kind of person that likes to be outside, he likes to work with his hands, and so it’s not surprising that he really took to the communities that were involved in canoe building.”

This appreciation for Bernier’s work ethic is echoed by University architecture professor and producer of “Why Canoes?” Greg Donofrio. He believes Bernier has helped create an experience that offers a valuable look into the lives and practices of local canoe communities.

“Part of what this exhibit tries to do is to understand what a canoe might mean from an Indigenous perspective,” Donofrio said. “It’s something much more than just a boat. It’s something that might be hard for many of us to understand but it’s [the exhibit] an incredible opportunity to try to see the world through a different set of eyes.”

For his final project in his Heritage Studies and Public History coursework, Bernier is working to create an online representation of “Why Canoes?” to be captured on a 360-degree camera. This virtual exhibition is set to be added to the Northrop website by the end of this semester.

“Honestly, it’s hard to try to really accurately represent [the importance of canoes to Indigenous communities] in an exhibit-type form because things are always changing. Work is constantly being done,” Bernier said. “To try to capture something in one picture or paragraph just is not enough. But we did do our best.”

Whether recording over a hard-hitting trap beat, an atmospheric and emotional guitar track or a captivating a capella arrangement, local artist Mack OC leaves it all on the table. Mack’s newest mixtape, “Write Back,” released in December 2020, showcased his versatility as an artist tackling the highs and lows of relationships and his personal experiences with love and loss.

Only a few months after its original release, Mack is preparing to drop the deluxe edition of “Write Back.” A response of sorts to the original project, the deluxe will highlight the woman’s perspective of Mack’s love songs. Partnering with several female artists and musicians, “Write Back (Deluxe)” will feature Mack’s material reimagined with an R&B focus. With portions of the material based on words from Mack’s exes themselves, the Twin Cities MC hopes the project will be an empowering addition to his December release.

“Me showing my side is only one side of the story. It’s not the full story,” Mack said. “Talking about these love experiences, it may make me seem that I am the victim in all of these different stories, or I was the hero and they were the problem. I know that subconsciously it’s going to always end up coming out that way, but having the deluxe gives me a chance to have women on here come and speak their own side and tell their own truths.”

Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Mack has been passionate about music since childhood. He says he spent his elementary school years trying to learn all of the words and dances to Usher and Justin Bieber videos.

Mack’s manager and sister, Kelly Ibekwe, said Mack has always had an interest in performing.

“In a sister way, he’s always been the obnoxious center of attention,” Ibekwe said. “He was always in talent shows with his peers, and he really enjoyed it. He enjoys being on stage; he enjoys making people smile and showing off his musical talent. It’s just been something he’s always had.”

Audio engineer and musician, Jalen Johnson a.k.a. “Itzahpollo,” has been working with and producing for Mack since high school. Johnson respects Mack’s adaptability as an artist and his level-headed approach to his music.

“He’s always open to new ideas and new changes to something. A lot of rappers and in hip-hop, a lot of people like to have over-cockiness or an over-the-top aesthetic, but he’s extremely humble. He’s an extremely chill dude to work with.”

Mack plans to continue recording and hopes to release more songs in 2021. He hopes that listeners will resonate with his stories and that his work will continue to represent his whole self.

“I’m a strong believer in what is real shall prosper,” Mack said. “Talking about a topic such as love, especially as a Black male or just a male in general, it’s often seen as a weakness to a lot of people in today’s day and age, and I just wanted to show a different perspective. I’m trying to represent, and I’m trying to be a voice for whoever can’t talk about it.”

Second-year neuroscience graduate student and studio artist Samantha Montoya has found a bridge between her two passions. Working over several visual mediums, including oil, acrylic, and embroidery, Montoya centers much of her work on neuroscience topics and visual concepts.

Montoya’s latest project is the “University of Minnesota Coloring Book,” a coloring book collection based on images from journal articles published by researchers in the University’s neuroscience graduate program.

Originally, the coloring book was to be available to incoming applicants of the neuroscience graduate program as they go through the interview process. Within the neuroscience department, second-year graduate students are in charge of planning the recruitment weekend, and Montoya proposed the coloring book as something to help potential incoming students de-stress.

“I really liked the idea of giving something to de-stress in a really stressful time,” Montoya said. “And I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t we make the neuroscience coloring book for the people interviewing?’ Because it would be nice to have something that shows that we actually care about their mental health when they’re going through what can be an intimidating interview process.”

As there are no in-person interviews this year, Montoya made the coloring book available for digital download on her artist website.

Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Montoya got into painting at a very young age. While in grade school, she experienced difficulty learning to read. After consulting with a tutor, Montoya’s family discovered that she most likely had Meares-Irlen Syndrome. A condition just being discovered at the time, Meares-Irlen Syndrome is a disorder that causes visual distortion, warping, after images and visual snow and can cause extreme difficulty reading.

This condition has created challenges for Montoya in her academic career but has also become a point of inspiration. She has focused several of her works and projects on visually representing her experience with the condition and educating people on its nature and potential accommodations.

Montoya’s partner, graphic designer Jacob Bergen, assisted with some of the final formatting and layout of the neuroscience coloring book. Bergen admires Montoya’s work depicting her unique point of view.

“I’m a really big fan of some of her paintings where she paints the world and as she sees it. … The world is kind of contorted or fuzzy a little bit,” he said. “Knowing her, I know that she can see perfectly well, but just understanding how she can see how a lot of people see has given me a better understanding of what she does and what she’s interested in.”

Dr. Cheryl Olman, a psychology associate professor, oversees neuroscience outreach and engagement for the University’s neuroscience graduate program. She champions Montoya’s creativity and humility.
“Sam is a powerful woman, and I’m excited that she’s part of our program. I’d like to see her brag more often about what she accomplishes on campus and off,” she said.

In light of brain awareness week, which takes place March 15-21, Montoya’s coloring book will be part of a University-hosted neuroscience coloring contest. Judged by Montoya, the winner will receive two tickets to the “Mysteries of Your Brain” planetarium show at the Bell Museum.

Montoya hopes to continue the neuroscience coloring book with an annual edition and plans to continue working in her unique sphere of artwork celebrating the beauty of the brain.

“I think it’s really important because it allows people to engage with what can otherwise be a really difficult-to-grasp concept in an interesting and engaging way,” she said. “It also allows for a conversation where the public can speak back with the scientists, and I think that’s also really vital.”

What is normally a full weekend of live theatre in the Rarig Center for the graduating BFA acting seniors to showcase their capstone projects has gone digital, like most things in the past year. As displayed on the event’s website, “Freeplay Weekend looks a little different this year.”

Freeplay Weekend is an annual showcase for fourth-year students in the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Acting program. During the showcase, students present their final thesis projects, which can be absolutely anything. The requirements for the project are extremely loose, encouraging students to tackle anything from writing and performing their own plays, recording music, writing poems and whatever else they choose to pursue.

Chase Bishop chose to record the first episode of a new podcast where he discusses the paranormal.

“The concept [is] you can really do anything you’d like,” Bishop said. “As long as it uses your artistic and creative abilities, the faculty is really open to allowing us to do whatever we want this year.”

Students typically present over one weekend in the UMN theater building, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event moved online. The weekend is now a website, and all of this year’s projects are in one virtual location. The site went live Friday, Feb. 19.

The company of actors decided to keep the site up permanently to immortalize the Freeplay projects of 2021.

Of the 12 projects available, there is a little bit of everything. Nnamdi Darlington wrote and recorded a full-length album for the project and included an artful photo portrait collage on the site. Sebastian Grim crafted a written piece that is both poetry and text art. Finally, a group of students created a six-part mockumentary series about a group of actors struggling to put on a production of “Annie.”

Several students kept to more traditional theater. “The Everyday Negro Project” is a collection from Sarah Grace Goldman and Willie E. Jones III. They partnered to write four original plays centering around the Black experience, performing and filming two of them. Amy Eckberg chose to adapt Anton Chekov’s 1896 play “The Seagull” for the Zoom screen, while a group of students put on an hour-long arrangement of several short plays and Shakespeare scenes, all filmed from the comfort of the actor’s home.

Some students have only been able to get a start on their projects, as several of the site’s entries are students’ descriptions of their plays and films that are currently in progress or still in their pre-production phases.

Fourth-year student Nigel Berkeley, who premiered his original play “Simply So Much Night” over Zoom last weekend, found that the pandemic-related restrictions of this year’s Freeplay projects pushed him and his classmates to step outside their comfort zones and explore new areas creatively.

“Anytime you’re put into some kind of container, like when the way you can get creative is limited, it actually opens up the possibilities a lot more,” he said. “I feel like people’s efforts were much more streamlined this year.”

Goldman sees Freeplay as a unique opportunity for students to branch out and improve on their craft, even within the confines of Zoom.

“I think it’s [Freeplay Weekend] wonderful and also very forgiving. It’s a great place to try out or master other skills that you have, or just show what you have learned or have been thinking about the past,” Goldman said. “I would really encourage people to check it out because, despite all the things working against us, I think we’ve created some really exciting and beautiful pieces of art.”

Local filmmaker David J. Buchanan premiered his film “Black” in 2018. The film centers around a Black man who sparks a nationwide movement against police violence after his brother is killed by an officer during a traffic stop. Following the summer of 2020, and the police killing of George Floyd, Buchanan re-distributed and retitled the film, changing the name to “Black in Minneapolis.” The film is currently available on Amazon Prime Video.

Buchanan chatted with A&E about the film and its relevance to current social issues.

When did you first begin work on what at the time was titled “Black.” What initially drew you to tell this story?

I feel like the year was 2016, when the live video of Philando Castile getting murdered on Facebook was happening. And that’s when I sort of put pen to paper and started writing it, and actual production started in the summer of 2017.

What led you to rerelease the film and change the title from “Black” to “Black in Minneapolis?”

That was actually the distributor’s idea since we were already released as “Black,” and they wanted it to be a new film. They were like, well, we usually don’t do this but since you guys are local to Minneapolis, and since George Ford had just happened, because this was last year, they were like, ‘This seems like something that we should really look into,’ and so they ended up picking up the film. We settled on “Black in Minneapolis” just because of everything that was happening with George Floyd in Minneapolis because that was such a big deal.

How do you see this film highlighting and informing on the issues of police brutality and discrimination within the Minneapolis Police Department?

The film itself being made after Philando Castile was supposed to be this call to action that Black people aren’t going to put up with bullshit. That was the whole point like Philando wasn’t doing anything wrong and he got killed. So, what was in the movie was a brother being murdered by police and that brother, going out and creating this like revolution, getting Black Lives Matter on board from different chapters in different cities across the United States, in building this sort of exactly what was happening after George Floyd. It was like, almost a premonition sort of thing. I think the movie is telling exactly that same story of what’s happening in real life now.

I think we just need to continue on that road to have people recognize that Black people are human beings and we’re not out here trying to be intimidating. With all these things coming up [in the Derek Chauvin trial] I think it’s just keeping on kind of the same course that’s been happening and, hopefully, lawmakers and legislation and people who are in power kind of adhere to these things.

How do you view the role of the arts in bringing about social change?

I think when it comes to change, I think it’s a very individual thing. Sometimes it’s hard to determine what’s going to change somebody. Film is very much an informative piece more than it is this kind of entertaining thing. And so I hope that people would be able to take away some information from it and make some changes that way. But when I think of just art, changing people, I guess, as an individual, I don’t know how much that actually happens. From what I did with this specific film “Black in Minneapolis,” was I trying to do that? Yes. And I do think that happens but, I don’t know. I don’t know if it always does.

What can we expect next from David Buchanan?

There are various projects that I’m trying to keep going while things are still kind of slowly opening up. But I don’t have a crystal ball so I have no idea what’s going to happen. Whatever I can slowly work on at home, in terms of writing and doing some filming here and there, in a safe way of course.

This interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity.