Over the past 50 years, MPR has been a conduit for regional authors to connect with their readers. This past year, with a grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission, the Archive team has been actively identifying and digitizing the best of these interviews, essays and public appearances. In this collection you will hear the essential voice of Minnesota in authors like Sigurd Olson, Tim O'Brien, Robert Bly, Louise Erdrich and many others. Also included are recordings of visiting authors--non-Minnesotans, but part of our literary pantheon.
This project has been funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
June 22, 2016 —
June 17, 2016 — The story of a young Filipino's fascination with the world of pro wresting is the 50th new work Mu has produced.
May 17, 2016 — Louise Erdrich's fifteenth novel opens with a brutal tragedy: A man shoots and kills his best friend's five-year-old son in a hunting accident.The law holds no one at fault, but the man and his wife can't escape the weight of the death. They do the only thing that seems right to them: They give their own son, LaRose, to the bereaved couple: "Our son will be your son now."
May 9, 2016 — Long before "The Revenant" there was "Lord Grizzly," Frederick Manfred's novel retelling the true story of Hugh Glass. He was the frontiersman who survived a grizzly bear attack only to be left for dead by two trappers who were with him. Despite his injuries he crawled 200 miles back to the safety of the nearest settlement driven by the need to extract revenge on the renegades who abandoned him. "Lord Grizzly" was acclaimed when it came out in the 1950s, but attempts to make it into a film failed. Now Manfred's family is holding a reading May 10th to remind people of the book, and to introduce it to a new generation of readers.
March 17, 2016 — Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer Jon Meacham has written about Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, and his new book is about President George H.W. Bush. Meacham says he writes biography rather than history, because history is shaped by individuals who, despite their flaws, do the right thing in moments of crisis.Meacham spoke March 11, 2016 at the Pen Pals Lecture series sponsored by the Friends of the Hennepin County Library. His book is titled, "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush."
February 29, 2016 — This week the Penumbra Theatre opens its run of "The Dutchman" and "The Owl Answers" - two surreal one-act plays that explore race relations, sexual politics and biracial identity.
February 4, 2016 — The History Theater pulls together a dream team of playwright Carlyle Brown, director Marion McClinton, and actor James A. Williams to tell the story of African American voyageur George Bonga. The story focuses on a time in 1837 he was sent into the wilderness during a winter storm in pursuit of an Ojibwe warrior accused of murdering a white man. What was once perhaps viewed as a historical oddity now becomes an examination of the racial tensions of pre-statehood Minnesota.
January 22, 2016 —
January 8, 2016 — A discussion about the future of theater. Four of the longstanding Twin Cities theaters have new artistic directors and this hour they talk about the challenges they face in bringing plays to the small number of adults who want to attend live theater.
December 15, 2015 — Well... here's a question. "What are you?" It's a question that people of mixed race get all the time. A new play produced by Mu Performing Arts explores what it means to be mixed race... and how it leads one family on a journey of self-discovery.