Before spring break, Golden Magazine posted a TikTok spotlighting some University of Minnesota students’ outfits during a pop-up event. Some were sporting House of Sunny pistachio cardigans, and others were stunting a classic Doc Marten shoe. Plaid pants, bucket hats, violet corsets, oh my!

Golden Mag’s comment section blew up. “I live here why do I never see people like this WHERE ARE YOU HIDING,” one user commented. Another user said, “this is not the same umn…”

But the thing is, it is. The eclectic and hip fashion scene is what Golden Mag is trying to show its University of Minnesota audience; the Twin Cities fashion scene is burgeoning, and all it needed was a proper platform.

With an up and running blog, haute social channels and the first publication coming out in May, Golden gives a platform to fashion, pop culture and lifestyle magazine lovers.

“When I was 13, I was flipping through Teen Vogue just living vicariously through the pages in my bedroom,” Audrey Ekman said. Now she’s the co-editor in chief with her cousin Ava Ekman, directing and designing the pages of Golden Magazine herself.

The duo spent their summer quarantining together, sifting through the pages of fashion magazines and scouting out different university fashion and lifestyle publications across the country — FIT’s Blush, Iowa State’s Trend and FSU’s Strike, to name a few.

“Why doesn’t this exist at the U?” Audrey asked herself. Immediately Audrey and Ava rallied their closest friends to create a fashion, lifestyle and beauty publication themselves to fill the gap.

“[Ava] randomly texted me one night and was like, ‘Hey do you want to start a magazine?’ and I was like, ‘What the hell is this girl talking about?’ but sure,” Lauren Armani, administrative director for Golden Mag, said.

The magazine offers students in and out of the journalism school an opportunity to get involved in a creative publication. Many of the magazine’s student leaders aren’t even pursuing a degree in journalism themselves. Ava, who is a communications major, felt stuck with her options for professional experience at the University.

“I was having a crisis … like I had to turn my life around or something — the mid-COVID crisis, kind of — and we just felt like we wanted to do something like a creative career path, and I at least kind of felt stuck with the options here at the U for how I could gain experience or join a community that could benefit me,” she said.

Golden’s first issue is slated to come out May 7 on Issuu.com with a debut theme of “community.” The team intends to publish one issue each semester. In the community issue, you will be able to read about the Femme Fatale skate community, dating during a pandemic and finding common ground between the societal push toward minimalism and capitalistic material maximalism.

“It takes a village to produce this magazine,” Audrey said. “In a time of everyone feeling really disconnected because of the pandemic and remote classes, a lot of people were just searching for this kind of creative outlet and community of like-minded students.”

Unlike other publications at the University, Golden focuses heavily on image-based content. The team has brought on a league of photographers, stylists and creative directors to make the photography and media strategy pop. The digital media strategy takes notes from the likes of Vogue and other national publications, Audrey said. “It’s like a media channel in its own right,” she said.

Golden Mag’s head stylist Jorgie Rassi said that the experience she’s gained with Golden is similar to her time freelancing for Vogue Magazine. According to Rassi, Golden offers students an opportunity to dive deeper into their interests in fashion, beauty and pop culture and gain real-life experience while doing so.

“A lot of people, I think, don’t consider the U as a big creative capital or like a destination for fashion. But we’ve got amazing students — super talented — and really good programs too,” Audrey said. “It’s not something that has to be so inaccessible.”

The University of Minnesota quiz bowl team would typically drive down to Rosemont, Illinois, to compete in the NAQT Intercollegiate Champion Tournament (ICT).

This year, the team members competed — and placed second — from their bedrooms.

The Minnesota B team scored second place in the Division II category, losing the first place title to Vanderbilt University on Saturday, April 10. The last time a Minnesota quiz bowl team came this close to victory was in 2019 when the A team placed fourth in the Division I category.

Members of the B team include Peyton Johnson, Ethan Ashbrook, Lucas Pham and the winner of the 2020 “Jeopardy! College Championship” Nibir Sarma.

The ICT, the premier quiz bowl tournament at the collegiate level, brings together some of the top-ranked schools in the country to compete in this “Jeopardy!”-style tournament where speed and intelligence are the names of the game.

Players compete in teams of four, answering various questions that cover anything from thermodynamics to pop culture. The quicker a question is answered, the more points the team scores.

To prepare, some students study up on topics like art history, chemistry and literature, while others spend their time making flashcards, reading religiously, memorizing old quiz bowl questions, watching “Jeopardy!” daily or scouring Wikipedia pages.

After last year’s competition was canceled due to COVID-19, the University quiz bowl team was ready to compete this year.

Leading up to the final rounds of the day, when the B team was inching closer and closer to victory, first-year student Ashbrook felt an odd mixture of “stress and non-stress.”

“I knew we were going into the finals and were so close to winning the whole thing, but at the same time it was still just me sitting in a study room all day, looking at everybody else through a laptop screen,” Ashbrook said.

On Saturday morning, third-year student Sarma woke up around 8 a.m., ate a Clif Bar, read his morning newsletters and hopped onto Zoom for the virtual quiz bowl competition. For the next 12 hours, Sarma competed with Ashbrook and other fellow B team players in 13 rounds, answering questions about polymers, Silk Sonic and more — and eventually placing second.

Sarma’s no stranger to answering tough questions on the spot. Last April, he won “Jeopardy! College Championship,” taking home a $100,000 grand prize. He’s also no stranger to the hard work, high pressure and tough competition required to excel in quiz bowl competitions.

“I know sitting in front of a computer all day can hardly be considered a sport, but it’s almost like an endurance of the attention span when you’re in front of a computer for that many hours and being asked to recall facts and trivia that are, of course, very difficult,” Sarma said.

Learning doesn’t end once the tournaments are over. Even if students aren’t pursuing a career in the quiz bowl topics they study, the knowledge gained through the quiz bowl exposes members to information they wouldn’t have learned otherwise. After learning about the visual arts for quiz bowl, president of the University’s quiz bowl team Tora Husar’s interest in the subject propelled her to pick up an art history minor.

“It’s enhanced my life outside of [my career path] … just by learning more about interesting books to read, or I can go to an art museum and know a little bit and enjoy it more,” Joe Kammann, treasurer of the team, said.

“Everyone’s super fun, driven to learn, really smart people and not just in one way either,” Sarma said. “People have all sorts of varied interests and stories and backgrounds, but the singular shared thing is everyone’s love of learning.”

It’s been a busy year for Minneapolis-based creative director and photographer Mark Khan. Khan has orchestrated a virtual art gallery to showcase his art, dropped a clothing line of his own and had his stunning photography featured in the Coffman Art Gallery on the University of Minnesota campus.

With every additional project you’d think he’d give himself a break, but his work continues nonetheless.

Khan’s newest project, Rejected Sound, brings together local musicians and listeners through DJ sets posted to his website and YouTube, as well as curated playlists music lovers can enjoy throughout the summer.

The first installment dropped on April 10 and spotlighted DJ and music producer Kwey.

COVID-19 hasn’t stopped Khan from creating artistic and captivating environments viewers and listeners can take advantage of. While many were still sheltering at home in July, Khan curated a virtual gallery that gave people the art gallery fix they had been missing since museums shut down.

Rejected Sound is yet another project that will provide listeners with a unique online experience while we all wait for our favorite venues to reopen.

“I’m just hoping it brings us together,” Khan said about his new project and connecting the various Twin Cities artistic communities.

Khan’s idea for Rejected Sound began as a playlist of songs that would accompany his brand. Instead of keeping it as a playlist, he decided to go bigger and employ local artists to make 45-minute-long DJ sets.

Future episodes will host other local DJs, like ech0astral and Kaya Morris, and will roll out throughout the coming months with more episodes slated for the summertime.

It’s been a rough year for local music. The first episode with Rejected Sound is the first time Kwey has DJed in over a year. “Even prepping for the set, I was like, ‘Dang, I miss this feeling of digging for songs and listening to music,’” he said.

As the summer months inch closer and more Minnesotans get vaccinated, Khan and his team hope that these sets can be played at outdoor gatherings and bring the Twin Cities arts community together after a year of isolation.

Filmmaker Justin “jojo” Ofori-Atta, a videographer and editor for the project, said that he’s looking forward to having these sets playing in the background while he’s at home and eventually gathering with others to listen to them as well.

“We can continue to keep making episodes for artists to come on and have an opportunity to showcase their art and their talent, and then eventually when things open up, we could have an event,” Ofori-Atta said.

With Rejected Sound, Kwey said that more undiscovered talent would be brought to light and recognized by local listeners.

“There are people who actually get a chance to showcase their skills and hear music that people may have never heard before and just keep that chain going,” Kwey said. “There’s a lot of talent in the Cities, like crazy talent.”

Dinkytown is full of character. Proudly a University of Minnesota neighborhood, it is an ever-changing neighborhood with businesses old and new to patronize.

Caffeinate

Gray’s Dinkytown: In December, Loring Bar and Restaurant revamped itself as a coffee shop and casual dining spot now known as Gray’s. Stop by for a quick cup of coffee — Gray’s offers Bootstrap Coffee Roaster’s Blue Collar Blend, a local medium roast that is nutty and smooth — or cozy up with a mug of tea in one of their plush sofa chairs and stay awhile.

Shop

The Book House: There’s something incredibly special about being among old books in a bookstore: the smell, the silence of a quaint shop, the welcoming smile of a bookshop clerk (or presumed smile under a mask). This used bookstore in Dinkytown has been a neighborhood institution since 1976, offering a vast collection of used books and a not-so-vast, yet still worthy of perusing, collection of vinyl. The Book House is currently offering scheduled browsing appointments instead of drop-ins, and you can reserve your spot online through their website.

Eat

Al’s Breakfast: This Dinkytown staple is currently running a takeout-only operation out of their 14th Avenue diner. While we wait for them to reopen for in-person dining, order their José for brunch — one or two jammy poached eggs and housemade salsa blanketed with melty cheddar atop a delightful bed of crispy hashbrowns. The diner delivers warmth and a hearty meal, whether that be through their classic pancakes, scrambles or coffee.

Umami Fries: If it were up to me, I’d eat fries with every meal. At Umami Fries, that’s the name of the game. With 10 signature fry options and four signature burgers, the mix and match options for some much-needed carb-loading are endless. Maybe you’re looking to kick your taste buds with some spice; if that’s the case, try their wasabi fries. For a crunchy and spicy addition to your lunch, try their kimchi burger. Don’t skimp on their Asian-inspired taco options either.

Wally’s: Wally’s specializes in warm pita, rich chicken shawarma and enough falafel to last you a lifetime. Tuck into their creamy hummus and don’t forget to take some baklava for the road.

Sip

Kung Fu Tea: Stop at Kung Fu to curb your afternoon boba craving. The tea shop is tucked away behind the Dinkytown Target and offers a wide variety of reliable teas and toppings.

Relax

The Knoll: Situated between University Avenue, East River Road, Pleasant Street and Pillsbury Drive, you’ll find students and locals setting up hammocks, studying or playing a friendly game of Spikeball. On the warmer days, it’s a go-to spot for high-quality people-watching and socially distant socializing. Take your lunch and a good book and enjoy the green space on campus.

A year has passed since COVID-19 took over our world, and we were all encouraged to shelter in place. With more time at home came more time on the internet, and if it wasn’t already weird enough, the internet got even weirder.

A&E has rounded up the funniest and most memorable moments that took over the last 365 socially-distanced days to commemorate this crazy year.

1. Internet-influenced eating habits: whipped coffee, bread baking, tomato feta pasta, “nature’s cereal.”

In however many years, when I will think back to this weird point in time, the first thing that I’ll remember is the internet’s obsession with dalgona coffee, the first TikTok food trend of the pandemic. Just like every other food trend, this quarantine staple originated on TikTok, but soon enough, everyone, including New York Times cooking contributors, was offering their own recipes, and it immediately became the coffee recipe the internet needed to try.

This past year, the internet influenced our eating habits, so much so that — once quarantine began — grocery stores began running out of flour after the great sourdough craze of 2020; everyone flocked to stores for feta and cherry tomatoes for that viral pasta dish; and now, people are putting berries in a bowl, covering it with coconut water and ice and calling it “nature’s cereal.” Needless to say, 2020 put a lot on our plates, and the internet made whatever was on it taste a whole lot better.

2. “Tiger King”

We may never know what happened to Carole Baskin’s husband, but we do know that “Tiger King” united the nation for a hot minute. Everyone and their mother was tuning in to watch the docuseries about the life of felon Joe Exotic and his feline friends. The show sparked online conversation, and a Carole Baskin reference even made its way into another hit song of the year, “Body” by Megan Thee Stallion.

3. “Gossip Girl” Anagrams

The meme rearranging the letters of “Gossip Girl” was all over Twitter feeds way back last April. One anagram featuring Blair telling Serena she had to pee, to which she responds, “Go piss girl.”

4. Everything is cake

This absurd trend made you question what is real and what is cake. The internet erupted over videos of rats, water glasses, Crocs and human arms being sliced into to reveal their true identity: cake. The food artist and chef behind this project, Tuba Geçkil of Red Rose Cake, posted these videos in July, and since then, we haven’t been able to tell man from cake.

5. WAP and Ben Shapiro’s subsequent reaction

The Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion song of the summer — and Pitchfork’s song of the year — took over our playlists and public discourse. The TikTok dance, a complex combination requiring the dancer to perform a jump kick, a ground twerk and a kick split followed by a booty pop, was just as impressively executed as the song’s lyrics itself. Even Ben Shapiro had some questions and comments; he uncomfortably read out the lyrics on camera explaining to the audience that “p-word is female genitalia,” and detailing the song’s vulgarity. The music video has 365 million views and features Kylie Jenner, Normani and Rosalía.

6. Cranberry juice dude

In a year of uncertainty, we all needed a little boost of happiness. That came in the form of a man named Nathan Podaca, also known as @420doggface208, gliding down the street on a skateboard, Ocean Spray in hand and optimism in his eyes as he sang “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.

Podaca posted the video on TikTok, and within a few days, it blew up on every platform imaginable, leading him to Internet fame (the video now has over 80 million views and 12 million likes on TikTok) and a slew of videos copying Podaca’s — one from Mick Fleetwood himself.

7. Mike Pence’s fly

The fly that vibed on top of Mike Pence’s head during the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate distracted the nation from whatever political point Pence was making and became a character in SNL sketches and a topic on Twitter feeds.

8. Bean Dad

It was the first week of 2021, and John Roderick decided to document on Twitter his experience teaching his daughter how to open a can of beans. Through his 23 tweets, we learned that Roderick withheld food from his daughter for six hours until she learned how to open a can. Of course, the internet had a lot to say about it.

9. Bernie Sanders memes

Most people didn’t watch the inauguration with the intention of seeing Bernie Sanders cocooned in his down jacket and knit mittens, but sure enough, the internet took those images and ran with them. Since then, the internet has cropped Bernie minding his business at the inauguration into every setting imaginable, from iconic movie scenes like Forrest Gump to New York City street corners.

Since the pandemic began, we’ve neglected our special indoor spaces – our old libraries, our quaint coffee shops, our favorite art museums – to stop the spread of COVID-19. But many are still missing the feeling of taking in an atmosphere where strangers huddle next to each other, sipping coffee, reading books or appreciating art.

That’s why the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) decided to provide a literal and figurative breath of fresh air to its Twin Cities art lovers through its newest commission. The citywide public art initiative takes the most iconic pieces from Mia’s art collection and puts them in parks around the city.

The twist? Everything is ice.

“Art in Ice,” commissioned by Mia and created by Chris Swarbrick of Ice Occasions, will be available to view at four Twin Cities parks until Feb. 28, or until the works melt away. From the beloved “Celestial Horse” at North Commons Park to Salvador Dalí’s surrealistic “Aphrodisiac Telephone” at Boom Island Park, the works offer scavenging sculpture devotees or hapless passersby a piece of icy public art.

With the recent warmer weather, “Veiled Lady,” the sculpture at Longfellow Park, was taken down Monday for safety measures. The other four works, however, are still intact — with some of their details melted — and can be enjoyed until they fully melt away, said Katie Hill, Mia’s head of engagement strategy and coordinator of “Art in Ice.”

Behind the sculptures’ glossy sheen and chiseled beauty is a lot of heavy lifting and hard work, Swarbrick said.

The ice sculptures — 2,000 to 3,000 pounds each — take Swarbrick a few days to build and encompass many hours (three to four, on average) of planning and “Tetrising” the multiple ice blocks into a basic shape, drawing and sketching before the ice even hits the walk-in freezer Swarbrick sculpts in.

Then, using a chainsaw and a chisel, Swarbrick carves a picture into the blocks of ice. He’ll sand the shapes down, grind them and eventually torch them for that slick texture.

 

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Ice sculptures are popular all over the country, but in a state known for its chilly temperatures, the art has become a regional delight.

“Here we have the ability to do larger ice sculptures outside that will last,” Swarbrick said. But for how long they will last is a different story.

The sculptures thrive in 10- to 15-degree weather conditions; anything under or over those temperatures can do damage to the work. The ice becomes too fragile and cracks easily in negative temperatures, and the ice melts in higher temperatures. But part of the fun is the impermanence, Swarbrick said.

“There’s something very satisfying about creating something that you know isn’t gonna last,” Swarbrick said. “I mean, the beauty of it is that it’s temporary.”

Long-time Mia member Erica Anderson spent her weekend scouting out the sculptures, traversing around the city on public transit to see the public art. Anderson works from home, and after the sub-zero weather passed, making way for pleasant Minnesota temperatures, she felt like she needed to get out of the house and see the sculptures.

After hearing about the sculptures through Mia’s promotion on its channels, Anderson dedicated her weekend to viewing them.

Did they fulfill her expectations? “Oh, definitely,” Anderson said. “Veiled Lady” was Anderson’s favorite out of the five. “That’s always been my favorite at the museum, and I’ve loved seeing it in other forms.”

“We wanted to try something new that could offer a bright spot in a long winter and meet folks where they are,” Hill said. “People are spending more and more time outdoors, so we wanted to surprise and delight park-goers.”

Kathleen Smith also made it her mission to visit the sculptures this weekend. Bringing along her dog and her husband, she saw four out of the five sculptures.

To the sculptures, people brought their children, dogs and family members to take pictures and enjoy the art.

Smith said, “You don’t get to connect to the community as much now because we’re physically distanced, but it’s a good reminder that we are a small community and to kind of come together to enjoy these works.”

Everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes “good art,” but most people know bad art when they see it.

So it came as no surprise that critics and artists were especially angered when “Emily in Paris” was nominated for two Golden Globe awards when other, more representative works were snubbed. The nominations stirred the age-old conversation about recognition and representation in the entertainment industry.

Wariboko Semenitari, a third-year BFA acting major at the University of Minnesota, is not watching the Golden Globes this year.

Semenitari was upset to find out that “I May Destroy You,” a show written, directed, produced and acted by Black artist Michaela Coel, was snubbed for nominations, while “Emily in Paris,” the light-hearted Netflix series, received two.

To Semenitari, Coel’s series captured a perspective of Blackness unseen by audiences before.

“Frankly, when people think of Blackness on television and films, they only think of Blackness on an African American scale. For the first time, we’re looking at a show that celebrates Black British culture, and shows the parallels across different identities,” Semenitari said.

Coel’s snub is one of the many choices the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) made that displays the entertainment industry’s recognition inequities. For example, the Best Motion Picture in Drama and Musical or Comedy category features no work from Black creatives even though many notable works centering Black actors and writers premiered this year. Semenitari mentioned that Zendaya wasn’t recognized for her performance in “Euphoria,” nor was Noma Dumezweni in “The Undoing” while her white counterpart, Nicole Kidman, was.

“You’re having all this work cut out for award shows, and they’re not giving people their flowers and their dues,” Semenitari said.

“Hollywood pays lip service to its diversity work when it suits them, but seems to have a problem putting its money where its mouth is. ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ ‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘Sylvie’s Love,’ ‘Miss Juneteenth,’ ‘One Night in Miami,’ ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ — I’m not saying all of these films should have been nominated, but not one? That’s ridiculous,” said Maggie Hennefeld, associate professor of cultural studies and comparative literature.

“Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung’s drama about a Korean family’s migration and cultural adaptation was nominated in the Foreign Language category due to a divisive HFPA rule. Because the majority of “Minari’s” dialogue is in Korean, it was ineligible to be nominated for Best Drama.

Keya Ganguly, professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature believes the choice to nominate “Emily in Paris” over other works was due to the show’s escapist and palatable qualities that entice the masses.

“‘Emily in Paris’ was a pretty ridiculous show; but any show set in Paris is likely to be received well, not only by audiences but also by selection committees,” Ganguly said. Ganguly noted that the HFPA is made up of foreign media persons who are based in the United States. “The focus on Blackness, while certainly important in the context of U.S. history and culture, was evidently not as critical to the HFPA.”

The show was set in the world’s biggest tourism destination and pairs fashionable clothes with shots of Parisian food. Of course it would get nominated. “This is not a surprise because we know that mass entertainment is primarily geared towards profit and escapism,” Ganguly said.

Isabel Lee Roden, a second-year BFA acting major is never shocked by the under-representation in award shows, but they’re always disappointed.

“We want to be able to tell stories that aren’t just pleasing to white audiences. A lot of times when creators of color want to produce their work like there’s this idea that it has to appeal to everybody: It has to appeal to white people, but also white people have to like it if you want to be successful. At the end of the day, that shouldn’t have to be the case,” they said.

Roden also alluded to the progressive cloak the entertainment industry wears that absolves it from real representation in art.

“We’re only as progressive as the actual action we’re taking rather than just letting ourselves off the hook and being like, ‘We’re artists — we’re progressive by nature,’” Roden said.

Brown paper to-go bags line the counter of Al’s Breakfast, where plates of eggs and hashbrowns and mugs of piping hot coffee were once consumed by hungry patrons. The items inside the restaurant’s brown bags, however, aren’t your usual brunch suspects.

The bags contain a spinach salad with fresh fixings like avocado, grapefruit and jicama, a lamb stew with polenta, roasted Brussels sprouts and veggies with a honey-chipotle glaze and a lime white chocolate tart finished with a topping of berries — not your typical Al’s order.

But typical food is for typical times, and the past year has been anything but typical for the restaurant industry. That’s why in May, Alison Kirwin, the owner of Al’s Breakfast, decided to offer a weekly staff meal special to the Twin Cities community.

For $50, customers will get two large servings of an assortment of different weekly specials: a “three-course culinary delight,” according to employee Andrew Wilkins. From Christmas lamb shanks to summertime prosciutto and melon, the weekly options offer a new and refreshing take on their regular takeout operation.

What initially began as a way to feed the staff through the pandemic evolved into a creative approach to keep the restaurant relevant and offer customers something different. By Monday of each week, customers can order the meals advertised through Al’s social media, newsletter and on their website and pick them up in store every Wednesday.

Al’s Breakfast employee Will Harris said the staff meals are a great option for students. Although they are advertised as two servings, the meals will last you a few days, Harris said. All you have to do is heat them up.

“It’s relatively profitable and … it also is fun for me to have a little bit more creativity with what we’re doing and just to get to show off some of my other skills,” Kirwin said. Along with profitability and relevance, the extra cash helps “keep the lights on” at the iconic restaurant and gives the employees a free weekly meal.

Al’s employee Olive Weston has grown up with Kirwin’s cooking. Weston, Kirwin’s goddaughter and niece, has fond memories of her aunt’s best dishes that she’s made in and out of the restaurant.

“I think it’s really cool that the people that know her as making hashbrowns and pancakes every week — which are amazing and delicious too — but I think it’s great that she gets to show all of these people that have known her for many years over at Al’s all the other amazing things that she can cook,” Weston said. “They’re spot-on every week and always impressive.”

The close quarters that make the dining experience so unique are also the reason that Al’s won’t be able to return to indoor dining until a majority of the community is vaccinated, Kirwin said. Until then, the staff meals and the takeout model allow the restaurant a way to stay a part of the University community.

Kirwin said the area neighborhoods have been supportive throughout the pandemic, but business is nowhere near where it used to be pre-pandemic.

The day when we are back, wolfing down hashbrowns, bumping elbows with our breakfast bar strangers and listening in on everyone else’s conversation feels far away for now.

“I would do anything to get back to that,” Kirwin said. “It’s going to be a tough go for the next nine months but I think we’re gonna make it out on the other side.”

You can sign up for the weekly staff meal newsletter here.

During the colder months, we gravitate toward food that will sustain us and make us feel whole. I can’t think of anything better than a plate of bariis iskukaris, Somali-style rice, shared by the Somali Student Association (SSA).

Pronounced “Ba-rees Iska-Ku-Ris,” this aromatic and colorful plate of rice is not only simple to make, but it also boasts flavorful and warm spices that contribute to a nourishing meal, pairing well with vegetables or meat of your choice.

From Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and finally to the U.S., the SSA president, Mohamed Elmi, has moved around a lot. One thing that doesn’t change wherever he goes? This plate of rice.

“You’ll find a Somali person everywhere from Southeast Asia to America. But one thing that, no matter where you go, at a Somali restaurant, you will always find bariis no matter how it’s cooked or if it has different spices. It’s one thing that, despite politics and everything that’s happened, we all share in common,” Elmi said.

In the early 1990s, the Somali Civil War caused many Somali people to flee to different countries and spread across the world. Many came to Minnesota. In fact, the state holds the largest concentration of Somalis in the country, according to American Community Survey in 2017.

With just one bite of the rice, the warm and savory spices contrast with the sweet and plump rehydrated raisins in olive oil with onions sprinkled atop the dish. The Basmati rice’s aromatic flavor pairs beautifully with the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom and clove.

The dish uses a Somali spice blend called xawaash that, when paired with the saffron, lends a yellowish tint to the rice. The spices bloom in the hot oil and fill your kitchen with a fragrant aroma.

Elmi pairs his bariis with banana — a staple in Somali cuisine — and different types of meat, from goat to steak to chicken. “It’s a nice balance of sweet,” he said.

In high school, Elmi’s mom would make him bariis three to five times a week. “It just gives you a feeling of family and home, and it just ties you back to your culture in a way,” Elmi said. Now he goes to the West Bank Diner with friends to eat the staple dish.

“Everyone knows it, and everyone eats it,” Elmi said.

Recipe for bariis iskukaris adapted from New York Times Cooking

Ingredients:

For the rice:

• 2 cups Basmati rice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole green cardamom pods
• 5 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon xawaash spice mix (see below)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon saffron threads, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins
• Salt to taste

For the xawaash (Somali spice mix):

• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons dried whole sage
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 8 green cardamom pods
• 10 whole cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/3 cinnamon stick

For the topping:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced
• Salt to taste

1. Soak rice in cold water for 30 to 45 minutes, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the xawaash: Combine all the spices in a spice grinder and finely grind. Set aside.
3. Prepare the topping: Heat olive oil in a wide, deep pot over medium-high heat and add the onions, occasionally stirring until translucent.
4. Add raisins and allow to soften, about 2 minutes, then add red bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes. Season with salt and set aside on a paper towel.
5. In the same pot, make the rice: Heat 1/4 cup oil. Add onions and sauté, frequently stirring, until softened, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves and xawaash and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
6. Stir in stock and rice. Bring to boil, then cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Stir in saffron and raisins and season to taste with salt. Cover, turn off heat and steam for 5 more minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, using a large spoon to pile rice in a heap onto the platter. Sprinkle topping over rice and serve.

When you step foot into the Cargill Gallery on the first floor of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), you will see an assortment of assemblages, quilts and works of found wood, metal, paint and more. The exhibition is impactful, it’s intentional and a University of Minnesota student curated it.

Curated by Starasea Nidiala Camara, Mia’s newest exhibition, “In the Presence of Our Ancestors: Southern Perspectives in African American Art,” will be open and free to view until December 2021.

The exhibition centers on past and present African American artists from the southern region of the United States.

Camara is a fourth-year student pursuing an individually designed interdepartmental major with concentrations in Arabic language and literature, African diaspora studies and art history. Camara’s opportunity came from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, which annually selects three undergraduate students of color to work at museums across the country, including Mia. The foundation aims to diversify collections and the employment pipeline, affording undergraduates paid professional development within the museum field.

Camara grew up with art all around her — her mother is a lifelong artist — and at a young age, she cultivated a love for drawing and painting, eventually moving into welding, glasswork and ceramics as she got older.

“The first activity that was of interest to me was creating,” Camara said. She developed a curiosity for museum work in her midteens and worked at Mia as a visitor experience representative when she applied to the Souls Grown Deep internship program.

The exhibition features environmentally specific works using industrial materials like metal, wood and paint, Camara explained. For “Royal Flag” by Thornton Dial, Dial utilized paint, an American flag, a toy bull and a doll. Joe Minter’s “Old Rugged Cross” incorporates planks of wood and nails, and Lola Pettway made a quilt of corduroy, while Lottie Mooney’s quilt is cotton and rayon.

The exhibition walls are painted black, and each artistic work is accompanied by a label that informs the viewer of the artist’s background and provides a photo, giving the reader a further understanding of the artist’s life.

“I think that I very much wanted to create a specific ambiance, challenging the idea of a white cube gallery with works traditionally being presented without context, which is very common in the contemporary fashion in which galleries are often organized,” Camara said.

The opportunity to curate an exhibition as an undergraduate is rare, said Robert Cozzolino, curator of paintings at Mia. Cozzolino worked with Camara throughout the exhibition’s curatorial process.

Learning about curatorial work goes beyond the theoretical readings and exploration that happen within museum studies classrooms, Cozzolino said.

“The first thing that I found out when I started working in museums was there really isn’t a way to learn until you’re thrown in,” Cozzolino said. “I don’t know what happens in museum studies classes, but I know that if people are just talking theoretically about exhibitions, it doesn’t compare to the weird range of experiences and serendipitous events that happen when you’re actually dealing with the stuff and the people.”

Throughout the curatorial process, Camara sought out Mia’s Black, Indigenous and people of color Curatorial Advisory Committee (CAC), which helped her walk through layout choices like the nontraditional color of the walls and the labels that further explain the artists, among other programmatic elements of the show.

The work of the committee “horizontalized” the curatorial process, said Anniessa Antar, Mia activation specialist and CAC member.

“Bringing in other voices [for the committee] just helps kind of democratize the museum visitorship,” Antar said.

Antar said the committee is one component of a larger arc to develop more equitable museum practices.

“It’s a good start, but we need to also be looking at the structures, including payment, you know, just the general workplace culture and retention of people of color at the museum,” Antar said.

Camara explained that in some exhibition work, the communities that the exhibition is about are not always brought into the conversation or do not have agency over the work presented about them.

“The arts is a center of education — the arts is a pillar of education — but it’s also a methodology that can be applied to representation,” Camara said. “So if we’re not a part of these conversations — if we’re not leading these conversations — it’s not necessarily about being invited. It’s about being a part of the conversation from the beginning, contributing and working together to develop something new, something that’s beneficial to everybody. If we win, everybody wins.”