May 23, 2012 - As part of Minnesota Mix series, MPR’s David Cazares reports on Malamanya, a Twin Cities band that plays traditional Cuban songs. Cazares interviews lead singer Adriana Rimpel and band leader Tony Schreiner.
May 16, 2012 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on pollutants from the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico showing up in Minnesota birds that migrate to the gulf.
May 10, 2012 - Penumbra Theater is presenting James Baldwin's The Amen Corner at the Guthrie. Director Lou Bellamy says he's waited 30 years to do the show, but now he has all the elements he needs, including his own perspective.
May 8, 2012 - MPR’s David Cazares profiles Twin Cities jazz guitarist Zacc Harris, co-leader of several Twin Cities jazz projects, including The Zacc Harris Group, which has released “The Garden” CD.
April 27, 2012 - MPR’s Elizabeth Baier profiles the Faribault Hot Shots and the Wanamingo Bulldogs, the only two granny basketball teams in Minnesota. Players share their love of the game and physical activity.
April 25, 2012 - The Guthrie's 2012 -13 season features 12-productions on its two larger stages. All are written by white men, and only one show will have a female director, staging the production as a co-director. And, as some of Minnesota's arts leaders continue to react to the decisions of the region's largest theater organization, we wanted to get reaction from the Guthrie's artistic director himself. Joe Dowling joins MPR news from Dublin, where he's traveling. He said scheduling any theater season requires balancing a lot of interests.
April 20, 2012 - The 2012 winner of the Laurence O'Shaughnessy prize for Irish poetry is Gerard Smyth. The prize is given annually by the Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas. Smyth is visiting the St. Thomas campus and stopped by MPR's studios. He shares a poem from his collection “The Fullness of Time” - and it includes a nod to Minnesota's own Robert Bly.
April 16, 2012 - MPR’s Marianne Combs reports on two of the Pulitzers announced that have Minnesota connections. Kevin Puts won a 2012 Pulitzer in Music for "Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts" that premiered at the Minnesota Opera. Also, poet Tracy K. Smith won a Pulitzer for "Life on Mars," published by Minneapolis' Graywolf Press.
April 11, 2012 - MPR’s Sasha Aslanian reports that faculty at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul voted on a resolution to oppose the constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between one man and one woman, and prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.
March 30, 2012 - A photography exhibit at the Whittier Gallery in Minneapolis aims to showcase young Somali men who are improving the lives of others in the Twin Cities. MPR’s Nikki Tundel meets the Somali-American photographer, Mohamud Mumin, behind the exhibit and catches up with some of his subjects.