Art Hounds: Revisiting roots

Art Hounds

Maricella Xiong of St. Paul admires the work of Urban Roots, a nonprofit community and safe space that serves local youth.

This November, around the Hmong New Year, local Hmong youth dressed in their traditional Hmong clothes and took photograph portraits at the Urban Roots’ Rivoli Bluffs Farm. Youth at Urban Roots then selected the final pictures for the show.

“I thought it was a phenomenal expression of cultural revitalization, indigenous solidarity, and Hmong indigeneity in general," says Xiong.

The photo exhibit “Rooted Legacy” is on view now in the front window display of Indigenous Roots, which is a center for arts and activism dedicated to “Native, Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples” in St. Paul.

Xiong also recommends stepping inside to enjoy Indigenous Roots’ excellent café and programming.

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Rachel Mock of Duluth’s Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe has long been a fan of Bold Choice Theatre Company. Its veteran stage actors are all adults with disabilities, and they’ve been working for more than a year on this Saturday’s country western musical “Sundown on the Jasper County Jewel.”

The original show has songs and music by Duluth’s Toby Thomas Churchill. In the show, a traveling band shows up for their booking at the Jasper Jewel, a grand old country music hall that has most decidedly seen better days.

Based on past experiences, Mock is looking forward to a high-caliber event with good music and some classic western danger, romance and intrigue.

The musical is one night only, this Saturday, Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Duluth Playhouse.

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Improv actor and comedian Bailey Murphy of Minneapolis is glad that “Off Book” is back at HUGE Improv Theater this weekend. The half-improv, half-scripted show is a long-running HUGE Theater favorite.

Murphy has acted in the show several times over the years, but every night is different. The performance is adapted with permission from Upright Citizen Brigade's Gravid Water. In it, one actor goes on stage with a memorized script for a show, and the other must improv their way through.

No matter what the improv actor throws at them, the scripted actor must stay on script. Murphy says the show always gets huge laughs.

“Off Book” opens Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and runs Saturdays through Feb. 24.