Collection
Black Art in the Twin Cities: Cultural Expression and Creative Connection
This collection brings together stories where theater, music, visual arts, and literature are utilized as creative tools for cultural expression and connection across Minnesota’s Black communities.
From Penumbra Theatre and the Givens Collection of African American Literature to music halls, art galleries, and literary centers on both sides of the Mississippi River, Black Minnesotans have created and occupied spaces where they take center stage.
Rather than creating art for art’s sake, the stories in this collection highlight artists who use these mediums to share their experiences, cultivate community, and reflect on what it means to be Black in Minnesota.
23 Collection Items
- The night Uncle Clarence went out to shoot a white man
MPR’s Marianne Combs reports on Dead King Mother, a composition created by local composer Davu Seru, who calls piece a "blues for chamber ensemble." The subject matter is a 1968 incident in which Clarence Underwood, a Minneapolis Black man, who upon hearing the news of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, told his wife, "My King is dead." He vowed to kill the first white man he found. Underwood went on to murder John F. Murray, a white man in neighborhood.
- Community reading for Black Poets Speak Out at Penumbra
People in our community are expressing their feelings about the death of Philando Castile in many ways. 15 local poets gathered at the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul for a community reading. It was part of Black Poets Speak Out, a poetry-driven protest that began after the death of Michael Brown in 2014.
- Black women Minnesota writers perform readings at The Loft
MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles a group of six Black women Minnesota writers Carolyn Holbrook, Lori Young-Williams, Andrea Jenkins, Shannon Gibney, Tish Jones, and Mary Moore Easter. They gathered at the The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis for a reading series called “More Than a Single Story.”
- African American artists on the Twin Cities' arts scene
Is life better for an African American artist today living in the Twin Cities than it was twenty or thirty years ago?
- Penumbra archives will become a part of the Givens Collection of African American Literature
The University of Minnesota Libraries have acquired the archive of Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul.
- "Rondo Oratorio" musical performance celebrates Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul
MPR’s Karl Gehrke reports on Seattle composer Stehen Newby’s Rondo Oratorio. It is a multi-movement work for large chorus, chamber orchestra, rhythm section, soloists and narrators that captures the spirit of the people who lived in St. Paul's long-gone Rondo neighborhood.
- Somali students identify with conflicts in "Snapshot Silhouette" play
MPR’s David Molpus profiles Snapshot Silhouette, a product of the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis. The play provides Twin Cities students a glimpse of what life is like for some of the region's newest immigrants. It is built around two 12-year-old girls, one Somali and one African American who, as circumstances have it, find themselves living together in the same Minnesota home.
- "Fredrick L. McGee: A Life on the Color Line" - Minnesota's first African American attorney
MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews author Paul Nelson about his book, Fredrick L. McGee: A Life on the Color Line.
- Voices of Minnesota: Barbara Cyrus and Archie Givens Jr. / Peter Sagal discusses "Denial"
On this Midmorning, a Voices of Minnesota with the perseverance of two families in facing racial discrimination. Barbara Cyrus tells of her family's move to escape discrimination in the south only to encounter it in the north. Then, Archie Givens Jr. tells how his father's commitment to education led him to donate African American art and literature to the University of Minnesota.
- "The Palm of My Heart" - Kids publish poetry
MPR’s Mary Stucky reports on local poetry book The Palm of My Heart, which collects vivid poetry by African American children who live in Minneapolis and St. Paul.