Northern Lights.mn Newsletter May 11th
Down the Green Line: A Northern Spark preview, Part 1
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Donate to Northern Spark!
Northern Spark is getting closer, and so is the end of our fiscal year. Help close the last gap in our 2017 budget with a donation in any amount — $10, $25, $50 or however generous you can afford to be. All year long Northern Lights.mn delights and surprises you with art in public places throughtout the Twin Cities — from wintry poems on Nicollet Mall to this summer’s Northern Spark along the METRO Green Line. Your support is essential to making these projects happen. Make your contribution here by the end of May, then celebrate with us on June 10th at the biggest and most exciting Northern Spark yet!
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Art(ists) on the Verge 8 Exhibition Opens June 1st
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Announcing the Northern Spark Launch Party specialty cocktail
Try this festive twist on the classic French 75 with your Launch Party friends, at either of the ticket levels: Adapt or Sustain. Cheers to Crooked Water Spirits, Barefoot Bubbly, and Bittercube for their support! Our toast is to you, Launch Party ticket holder, because your support is truly what makes this night come alive! |
Beyond Just Breathing: NS Artist tony the scribe in His Own Words
Northern Lights.mn’s Assistant Curator, Elle Thoni, sat down with tony the scribe to discuss his upcoming Northern Spark project, environmental injustice and the need for caffeine. Elle: So, Tony, you’re known around the Twin Cities primarily as a rapper? Tony: Yes, I think rapping is a really important art form and it’s one that I connect to really well. And increasingly I’ve realized that it’s such an inclusive art form as well. Hip hop is made for hybridization in a lot of ways, so you can do a lot of really interesting cross-genre, interdisciplinary stuff with it. That’s one of the reasons that I wanted to start pushing those boundaries a little bit and see what other mediums I can work in. Elle: What enticed you to move in a public art direction? Tony: I’ve always been fascinated by the way that physical space changes when art is made in it. Thinking about the times that I’ve performed music live and the way that a roomful of people moving feels. It feels different than sitting on the bus alone with your headphones in. And then I started thinking about performance art and rap and where they intersect. They both seek to transform physical space, right? So I wanted to figure out exactly what that looks like. Elle: So what does that look like with your Northern Spark project? Tony: just breathe is an installation that I’m collaborating on with Ananya Dance Theater. It is basically a project about environmental injustice in cities. Environmentalism traditionally has talked about a lot of problems like air pollution and water contamination – those sorts of things – but the lens that’s missing a lot of the time is talking about racism and the way that systemic racism functions within that, right? My experience is mostly doing political organizing work on the North side. That area has the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the entire state. It has the highest lead contamination rates. The lack of thinking about sustainability and environmental justice in where we locate all of our infrastructure has resulted in literal death over there. And the same is true, by the way, over in Saint Paul. Highway 94, which Northern Spark runs parallel to this year, is infrastructure that was constructed so that people could move from the suburbs to downtown Saint Paul without ever having to pass through black neighborhoods. That’s why Rondo, which was the most prosperous black community in MN, was destroyed to build 94 through it. The effects of that and the pollution that comes from 94 still affects the community today. So, what we’re really trying to do with just breathe is take that ongoing violence and that ongoing trauma and put it in a physical context, for people to have to interface with people of color just trying to breathe. I don’t want to give too much away – but the installation is going to involve dancers trying to fix that unjust history in a physical space. Read more of the conversation here. |
Connect with us on Social Media!As the festival draws nearer and nearer, our social media channels have been increasingly flooded with great behind-the-scenes content to keep you in the know about all things Northern Spark! Are you following us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? If not, click those links and “like” or “follow” us to get instant access to amazing content like… Post on Twitter on May 7th, 2017 @NL_mn
French Meadow @FrenchMeadow the nation’s 1st certified organic bakery will be at the#NorthernSpark Launch Party! http://nspk.mn/launch Post on Facebook on May 7th, 2017 @NorthernSparkMN
Post on Instagram on April 26th, 2017 @northernlights.mn
We’ve partnered with Metro Transit to commission a spectacular full-color train wrap created by artist Andrea Carlson, which can be currently seen on a METRO Green Line train all the way until June 10th! Have you caught a glimpse of it yet?? |
We’re Hiring!We are looking for several individuals to join our Northern Spark 2017 Production team as Production Assistants! Production Assistants work with the Production Coordinator and Producer to support all aspects of outdoor festival production. Read more on our website here, and apply by sending a resume and cover letter to jobs@northern.lights.mn. Do you have a knack for nighttime photography? We are looking for professional photographers and videographers to join our documentation team to capture images of Northern Spark all night long. Must be able to work in very low-light environments. Read more on our website about the photography or videography calls, and apply by sending an email to photos@northern.lights.mn with an email explaining your interest and a link to your portfolio. Volunteer With Northern Spark
With just under one month left until our most ambitious Northern Spark ever, we still very much need your help to make it happen! Sign-up is first-come-first-served, and earlier shifts go quickly. If you are a night-owl, consider attending the festival and volunteering for one of our short late shifts. At only two hours long, they are quick but mighty additions to your Northern Spark experience! Interested in something extra awesome? Consider our Social Media Volunteer roles – applications are due next week, so act fast! |
Northern Spark 2015, Photo by Kory Lindstrom