The annual Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis kicked off Saturday with sunshine.

Rainbows — found in creative outfits, glittery makeup and all sorts of trinkets and flags — covered Loring Park.

Thousands packed the festivities across the 34-acre park, enjoying music, food and stops at over 650 vendors.

More than 500,000 people were expected at Twin Cities Pride events this weekend, according to programming director Kelsey Alto.

New this year was the world’s largest rubber duck: the 61-foot tall Mama Duck. She and her son, Timmy, made their Twin Cities debut at the Pride festival.

Alto said organizers brought the ducks to make attendees smile after the surge in federal immigration enforcement over the winter and legislation nationwide targeting LGBTQ+ people.

“We really wanted to just do something that is queer joy because queer joy is an act of resistance, and I think we all could use a little bit of joy right now,” Alto said.

The weekend’s events started with a reception Thursday for the 2026 grand marshal — represented this year by Minnesota's entire LGBTQ+ community — with a Youth Night for people under 21 on Friday. The festival included a full day of pet-centered programming on Saturday, in addition to a 5K run and parade set for Sunday.

Alto said this year’s theme was “Our Voices, Our Future.”

“It's a dark time for our community, but it's not our first dark time as a community. Pride gives our community a chance to come together, lift up one another's voices, celebrate our resilience especially after the events of the first few months of this year,” Alto said.

Twin Cities Pride 2026

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On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers across Minnesota and beyond to find out what books they’re most excited about right now

Jeff Danz of Zandbros Variety in Sioux Falls, S.D., was looking for some escapist fiction when he was drawn to the story of a traveling carnival. He calls Dan Chaon’s gothic horror novel “One of Us” an engaging read with compelling characters that felt like a darker version of a Mark Twin or Charles Dickens adventure.

Set in 1915, the novel follows 13-year-old twins Eleanor and Bolt, who have a flawless ability to read each other's minds. When their mother dies, leaving them orphaned, a rather terrifying man calling himself their Uncle Charlie shows up to adopt them.

They quickly realize Charlie is a con man who expects them to help with his schemes, and the children devise an escape. They find themselves on an orphan train, traveling through the Midwest with dwindling hopes of being chosen, when a man in a red waistcoat with gold epaulets appears and tells the children “I see you.”

He is Mr. Jengling, and he adopts them into the world of Mr. Jengling’s Emporium of Wonders. The traveling carnival world offers a new family in a sometimes-brutal American frontier, as well as opportunities that may cause the twins to grow apart.

And Uncle Charlie is on their trail...

“It ends,” he said, “in an unexpected way that is satisfying, in that it connects a lot of things. It kept me interested the whole time.”

Last month, the Wall Street Journal declared this summer to be the era of the “man band.” Those would be boy bands who’ve grown up — think New Kids on the Block, Boys II Men and the Jonas Brothers — along with their fans, who now have more disposable income to fork out. Exhibit A: The Backstreet Boys residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas last summer grossed more than $55 million.

But it’s about more than the money. It’s about the mostly middle-aged women who are no longer afraid of the cringe — and the mostly middle-aged boys-turned-men who are no longer afraid to embrace the passion of their fans.

Novelist Emma Straub saw that fandom first hand when she went on a New Kids on the Block cruise several years ago — and was blown away by the intensity and camaraderie of the now adult “Blockheads.” That visit inspired her new novel, “American Fantasy,” which is a deep dive into the lucrative world of a fictional ‘90s-era boy band named Boy Talk and the woman who still worship them.

Straub joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about boy bands, the pleasure of enjoying them without shame and how aging changes our perceptions of our past — and current — selves.

Guest:

• Emma Straub is is a New York Times-bestselling author and the owner of a Brooklyn-based bookstore, Books Are Magic. Her latest novel is “American Fantasy.”

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

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The Guthrie Theater will honor award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell Friday night with its Distinguished Artist Award as Pride celebrations take place across Minnesota.

Tazewell worked on costume design at the Guthrie from 1995 to 2008 and has gone on to become one of the most celebrated designers in theater and film.

In 2016, he won a Tony Award for his costume design for the hit musical “Hamilton.” More recently, he designed costumes for “West Side Story” and won the Academy Award last year for costume design in the film adaptation of “Wicked.”

With that win, Tazewell became the first Black man and the first openly gay man to win the Oscar for costume design.

Tazewell told MPR News that the Guthrie was his “creative home,” adding that his experience in theater shaped his career.

“I’m so pleased that my education and the way I developed was through theater because of its intimacy,” Tazewell said. “I’m able to carry that into my work when I am designing for film or when I am designing for television. I have a fuller, richer point of view on how to tell stories.”

He also spoke about how his identity as a gay Black man shapes his work.

“I choose to carry my authenticity into my creative work, because I think that it helps to keep my voice original,” said Tazewell. “I’m so grateful to have arrived at a place where I have fallen in love with who I am, and I can share that with other people.”

Tazewell will accept the award as part of the Guthrie’s second annual Fanfare celebration.

The World’s Largest Rubber Duck comes to Minnesota (twice), myriad ways to celebrate Pride, soccer on the silver screen, Park Point Art Fair turns 54 in Duluth and more in this week’s MN Shortlist.

‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’ at Walker Cinema — June 26-27

Are you a fan of global sports and contemporary art? Then the Walker Art Center has the event for you. On Friday and Saturday evening, the Walker Cinema screens “Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait,” a documentary about the playing style of former Real Madrid footballer Zinedine Zidane.

The film about the French-Algerian player was shot on 17 synchronized cameras during a match on April 23, 2005, and set to a score by Scottish band Mogwai (this is just over a year before Zidane’s infamous head-butt at the 2006 World Cup).

Hot tip: If it’s your first film at the Walker Cinema, it’s free! (Alex V. Cipolle)

Andrew Walesch and his Orchestra at the Dakota in Minneapolis — June 27

To quote the musical “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “When you say Vegas, you’re saying the blues are always blue.” And the skies are certainly blue when jazz crooner Andrew Walesch steps up to the mic. The Minnesota native has a Bobby Darin quality to his voice, with a bit of Seth MacFarlane and Broadway leading man mixed in.

At the Dakota, Walesch brings his signature sound in a show titled “Vegas 1960,” which aims to evoke the feel of a Las Vegas showroom during the heyday of Sin City.

The show will feature songs made famous by the likes of Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, and with the setting of a cozy jazz bar like the Dakota, you’ll feel like ordering a Manhattan or a dry martini before hitting the casino after Walesch finishes out his set. (Jacob Aloi)

Mama Duck at Twin Cities Pride— June 27-28

What’s more than six stories tall, bright yellow and “filled with pure joy”? Well Mama Duck, of course, the World’s Largest Rubber Duck — and she’s coming to Twin Cities Pride.

The slogan for the 61-foot-tall ducky is, “The world is her bathtub,” and this weekend that tub is booth No. 159 at Loring Park, next to the shuffleboard court.

As TC Pride stated, Mama Duck is here “Because our community deserves moments of lightness. Because joy is part of resistance. Because sometimes, you just need to take a selfie with a 61-foot rubber duck.”

Post-Pride, big mama heads to New York and Ohio, but she’s back July 24-26 for the 20th anniversary celebration at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona. (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ with a live Shadow Cast — June 27

For some, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is the perfect oasis for the queer community — and I am among them. There’s something liberating about being in a room full of people who are celebrating a campy pastiche of low-budget science fiction films — full of fishnets, lace and lots of heels.

It seems fitting that the monthly screening of the movie put on by the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis is happening on Pride weekend, when hundreds of people will be celebrating the fight for queer visibility and rights. As always, the screening will feature a local shadow cast acting out the film in front of the screen with various gags and jokes. (P.S. listen closely for some Minnesota-specific callouts — they always make me chuckle.) (Jacob Aloi)

One Voice Mixed Chorus presents ‘Royalty’ concert — June 27-28

While Pride is a celebration of queer identity, it is also a commemoration of the struggle for civil rights and visibility for the LGBTQ+ community. Events like the Stonewall Uprising, the AIDS epidemic and the fight for marriage equality are part of the long history of why there is a Pride month. And that history serves as the inspiration for one of Minnesota Pride weekend’s most unique events: “Royalty,” a concert featuring drag, choral music and gay anthems.

“I think we kind of get into pride as a celebration — only as a celebration,” said Kimberly Waigwa, the artistic director of One Voice Mixed Chorus, who is presenting the concert. “Even though we know that [Pride] came from a lot of rebellion and a lot of covert-like attempts at freedom.”

For the program, Waigwa wanted to pay homage to drag culture, the cabaret nightlife scene and the pioneers of the queer movement. There are two performances of the concert, which features eight soloists and special guest Dick Von Dyke—a Minnesota drag king and a staple in the Twin Cities nightlife scene.

“I don't think there's anything quite like it going on in the Twin Cities this weekend, so I hope people come out and show up,” said Waigwa. (Jacob Aloi)

Park Point Art Fair in Duluth — June 27-28

There are likely millions of art fairs happening in Minnesota at this very moment, but I don't think there are any on a skinnier or prettier strip of land than Park Point in Duluth.

It’s the 54th annual visual art fair on this 7-mile sandy spit (the actual name for the type of landform Park Point is), and the work of 115 jury-selected artists from across the Upper Midwest will be on display, from woodwork and jewelry to painting, ceramics and, yes, “fantasy daggers” by The Guild of the Gilded Hilt out of Ely.

The free event offers free parking at the Park Point Recreation Area. (Alex V. Cipolle)

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

1967: Summer of Love

“Summer of Love-In,” presented by Adventures in Hostessville at the Hive Collective in St Paul runs June 25-28. Shows will run Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Jen Maren says: “This event is fascinating. Melanie Wehrmacher curates a themed evening that is part cabaret, part comedy, part TED talk, part cooking show, part trivia game, all with live music AND complimentary 1960s themed food and drinks. She takes a specific year and highlights food, music, style, trivia, and history from that year. There is also a deep dive into a specific event from that year, this one being Haight-Ashbury and the Summer of Love. It is one of the most unique events I have been to in a very long time.”

Kelly Schamberger’s scenes of the North Shore

Aurora Webster, an artist and designer who works at the Duluth Art Institute, was delighted to attend the artist reception of Kelly Schamberger. Schamberger was recently named the 2026 Artist of the Year by the Depot Foundation, and she painted this year’s official Grandma’s Marathon 50th Anniversary Commemorative Poster. Her solo oil painting exhibit, “International Attentions” runs through Labor Day weekend at the Great Lakes Aquarium gallery in Duluth.

Webster says: “All but the largest of the vibrant, dreamy landscapes on view were done en plein air, often over the course of days, weeks, or months of trekking out to a remote North Shore vista with the full oil painting setup—quite the accomplishment. The aquarium's gallery is a hidden gem, featuring shows that connect visitors to the beauty of the natural world, and Schamberger's work in the space feels like a literal breath of fresh air.”

Folk Dances from Latvia, Bulgaria, Ireland, and more

Rita Pelecis is looking forward to seeing “Land of 10,000 Ethnicities: Vol 2,” a folk-dance performance by Ethnic Dance Theatre. Shows are June 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m. and June 28 at 2 p.m. at the E.M Pearson Theatre in St Paul. A Q&A will be held with the company following Saturday’s performance; Sunday’s performance has ASL interpretation.

Pelecis says Artistic Director Donald LaCourse “has traveled the world to find dances and buy costumes from very remote regions, a lot of them Eastern European and Northern European. From the dance to the story to the costumes, their performances are just stunning. I love the storytelling that goes along with it.”

For decades, Native American women leaders in the Twin Cities helped build numerous organizations and contributed to the arts, education and community — now their story is being told.

White Earth Nation citizen Audrey Thayer co-authored “Weaving Community: Indigenous Women and Leadership in the Twin Cities” with Colette Hyman.

She says the nine-year project shares stories of women activists who founded and led around 25 organizations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, beginning as early as the 1950s — many of those organizations are still active today.

“They've evolved. They've changed to meet the needs of community, and we think about all the opportunities that they are gathering,” she said.

The book includes stories behind the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, founded in 1987 by Bois Forte Band of Chippewa citizen Sharon Day, and MIGIZI Communications, cofounded by Seneca journalist Laura Waterman Wittstock in 1977. The organizations have evolved to include youth and community programming over the years. They are both located in Minneapolis.

The authors included perspectives from over two dozen voices, including Dakota, Ojibwe and Ho-Chunk women.

“They were the powerhouse,” Thayer said.

Thayer was inspired to write the book due to a lack of readily available teaching resources on the subject. As an educator at Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, she says her curriculum includes Indigenous leadership, though there was little information available that focused on women’s leadership.

“When I went into our Minnesota historical archives at the history museum, I found lots of stories about women, but they had no first names,” Thayer said. She added that their names were more often than not written under their husband’s first name.

When she thought about her students, mainly the Indigenous women in her classes, she wanted them to feel encouraged to pursue their goals and dreams.

“I got very emotional about this book, because it's spiritual. It is entering into the lives of Indigenous women who've worked very hard in their lives to survive and make that path,” she said.

Thayer and Hyman shed light on the historical context of the urban Indigenous community. The book touches on the history of boarding schools and the influx of Indigenous community who moved from reservations to Minneapolis and Saint Paul for work and educational opportunities.

“I can't begin to tell you emotionally how significant it was to interview and listen to these women,” Thayer said.

“Weaving Community: Indigenous Women and Leadership in the Twin Cities” was published by Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Milkweed Books in Minneapolis invites the public to a conversation with the authors Wednesday night. The free event begins at 6 p.m. and will include a book reading and signing.

Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.

Following the murder of George Floyd, many asked the question: “How was Minneapolis, of all places, at the center of a global racial reckoning?”

For Minnesota-native Justin Ellis, it wasn’t surprising. And now, the journalist is out with a new book that lays out Minnesota’s long quiet history of racism to help answer that question.

The book is titled “The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America.” Ellis joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about it.

He’ll host a reading and discussion of the book June 30 at 7 p.m. at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Have you picked up a new cookbook or craft book recently? You’re not alone.

More people are gravitating toward how-to and hobby books that get them off digital devices and away from their worries.

And summer is the perfect time to dive into a good book — whether you’re reading in a hammock, on your porch or listening on the go.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with two booksellers about their recommendations and what Minnesotans are reading — from local nonfiction and “romantasy,” to stories that deliver courage and hope.

Guests:

• Kristin Nilsen is a bookseller at Big Hill Books in Minneapolis and a former children’s librarian. She co-hosts the podcast, “Pop Culture Preservation Society.” She also wrote two middle grade novels, “Worldwide Crush” and “The Scott Fenwick Diaries.”

• Jasmine Baker is a bookseller at Black Garnet Books in St. Paul. She is also a marketing and communications strategist and has worked as an organizer on college campuses in Wisconsin.

  These books were recommended during the show:

  “Big in Sweden” by Sally Franson

  “The Burning” series by Evan Winter

  “A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides” by Gisèle Pelicot

  “Meet the Newmans” by Jennifer Niven

  “The Wild Robot” series by Peter Brown

  “The Amari” series by B. B. Alston

  Graphic novel versions of: “The Diary of Anne Frank”, “The Hobbit” and “Tuck Everlasting”

  “A Year Without Home” by V. T. Bidania

  “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson

  “My Convoluted Life” by Narciso M. Salas

  “Score” by Kennedy Ryan

  “Bromantasy” by Máire Roche

  “The Murderbot Diaries” by Martha Wells

  “The Missed Connection” by Tia Williams

  “The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout

  “Beard” by Kelly Foster Lundquist

  “The Girl with a Thousand Faces” by Sunyi Dean

  “The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America” by Justin Ellis

  “I Cheerfully Refuse” by Leif Enger

  “When the Rain Came” by Matthew Eicheldinger

  "Doorman Wanted” by Glenn R. Miller

  “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger

  “Revolutionaries Are Made of Love” by Mélina Mangal and Sun Yung Shin

  “The Vorkosigan Saga” series and “The World of the Five Gods” series by Lois McMaster Bujold

  “The Women of Wild Hill” by Kirsten Miller

  “The Change” by Kirsten Miller

  “Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books” by Kirsten Miller

  “Die For Me” by Amy Plum

  “Alex Six” by Vince Taplin

  “The High Mountain Court” part of the The Five Crowns of Okrith series by A.K. Mulford

  “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt

  “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir

  “All About Love” by bell hooks

  “Kin” by Tayari Jones

  “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke

  “Swordbird” by Nancy Yi Fan

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

A biography of Hannibal Lecter. A meditation on trees. A memoir by a child prodigy violinist. A treatise on the way we poop. We asked our NPR colleagues what nonfiction they've enjoyed reading so far this year, and these are the titles they shared. (You can also check out their fiction picks here, and sign up for our Books newsletter for weekly recommendations.)

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot, with Judith Perrignon, translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver

What could read like the marital tragedy heard around the world is instead brimming with empathy, for herself and others. True to its title, in A Hymn to Life, Gisèle Pelicot poetically retells the turn of events that led to a public trial in France exposing the breadth of nearly a decade of violent sexual abuse orchestrated by her husband of nearly 50 years and dozens of other men — most of which was filmed and all of which happened while she was heavily drugged and unconscious. In its pages, Pelicot trades sorrow for devotion and chooses love over and over again. — Adriana Gallardo, editor, Morning Edition

Backtalker: An American Memoir by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

True Story: When I launched my first show at NPR, Tell Me More, I wanted to have an audience feedback segment called Backtalk. My staff was horrified; they thought it was rude. Now, though, I think I was on to something. Remember the saying "polite women don't make history?" Law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw has lived it. If you've ever heard the terms critical race theory or intersectionality in the news, she is identified with both, and she explains what those terms mean here. But this is not a dry academic treatise. It's a raw, funny and, at times, heartbreaking account of how Crenshaw was born to be a "backtalker" — and she makes a compelling argument for why we could use more of them. — Michel Martin, host, Morning Edition

Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family — and the World by Gabriel Sherman

Dostoevsky's truism about all unhappy families being unique goes a long way in explaining our cultural fascination with the Murdochs. This account of the family behind the media empire expanded by Rupert — who took over a comparatively modest Australian operation from his father — gives fascinating insights into the mentality and dynamics that fueled their ascent. This is a read that's equally interesting for its dive into how Murdoch borrowed his way to dominance in a consolidating media landscape and for its look at the brutal ruthlessness that shaped his legacy as a businessman, husband and father. Journalism will never be the same. — Tayla Burney, director, Network Programming and Production

Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution by Anand Gopal

Anand Gopal gives us a magisterial retelling of the long and bloody Syrian civil war through the eyes of brave men and women in one tiny city. The death and sectarianism of the war, as it dragged on, became stultifying. But Gopal makes the banal intimate, masterfully re-creating the lives of the people who took part in the war by conducting literally thousands of interviews in Syria. And he is unsparing about how the war bends, even corrupts, the most idealistic. — Emily Feng, correspondent, International Desk

El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory by Jazmine Ulloa

Jazmine Ulloa, a native fronteriza (borderlander), documents key events that shaped El Paso through centuries. Through the stories of five families, she tracks the city from the arrival of Spanish explorers and Franciscan friars, to becoming the "Ellis Island of the Southwest," known for the major role it plays in migration to the U.S. The book also explores the aftermath of a fatal mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 by a white man on a mission to stop what he called a "Hispanic invasion." Ulloa's book is a window to the authenticity and beauty of the border culture. As Ulloa shows, El Paso plays a pivotal role in the making of the modern United States. — Alfredo Carbajal, supervising editor, National Desk

Famesick: A Memoir by Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham writes about the period during and after the production of Girls with the candor and humor we've come to expect. Much of the book chronicles her experience of chronic illness and her journey with addiction and rehab. But even with serious subject matter, it's an enjoyable read (or audiobook listen — she narrates). Dunham is not always the easiest person to understand, but her humanity shines through. And even though most of us will never reach her level of fame, the book still feels relatable. After all, despite her success, isn't she still just one of the (original) girls? — Emma Klein, associate producer, Intake

Fonda on Film: The Political Movies of Jane Fonda by Nelson Pressley

Forever ago (meaning 1985), when I interviewed Jane Fonda about her then-upcoming movie Agnes of God, and also her still-controversial 1972 trip to North Vietnam, I asked what she hoped to be remembered for. Her reply was simple: "Making a difference." Nelson Pressley's deep dive into Fonda's 1960s-'70s film career — from Barbarella and Barefoot in the Park, to Coming Home and The China Syndrome — is a briskly fascinating exploration of how she did that. A wry, politically pointed, very of-this-moment portrait of Fonda as actor and activist, this book's insightful, connect-the-dots analysis bristles with wit and will leave readers eager to revisit her films and reengage with their politics. — Bob Mondello, senior arts critic, Society & Culture Desk

The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon

As conflict continues to roil the Middle East, this beautifully personal book is a welcome respite. Authors Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are peace activists — one Palestinian, the other Israeli. Both have suffered the loss of family. Aziz's brother was killed by Israeli prison guards. Maoz's parents were murdered by Hamas militants. This book takes readers on the authors' journey through Israel and the Occupied Territories together. It is a personal travelogue of hope but not a road map to peace. There are no easy solutions, and the authors don't pretend to offer one. They do warm hearts and open minds to a different paradigm, away from violence, revenge and hatred, toward peace and mutual understanding. — Carrie Kahn, correspondent, International Desk

Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth by Laurie Hertzel

As an only child, I fantasized about the kind of large families that populated the books I read (Cheaper by the Dozen) and movies and TV shows I watched (The Sound of Music, The Brady Bunch). In her emotionally complex new memoir, journalist Laurie Hertzel departs from the usual rollicking "big family" story. The seventh of 10 children, Hertzel grew up more like an only child in 1960s Duluth, Minn., her birth order and temperament conspiring to make her lost in the crowd. But when sudden death claimed her oldest brother at 18, her noisy house grew still. — Maureen Corrigan, book critic, Fresh Air

Hannibal Lecter: A Life by Brian Raftery

It's been decades since I read Thomas Harris' Red Dragon or seen Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. I honestly hadn't really given Hannibal Lecter that much thought until 2024, when President Trump kept talking about him on the campaign trail ("He'd love to have you for dinner!"). Why Hannibal, why now? Brian Raftery goes deep in this "biography" of one of American pop culture's most notorious and (oddly) most beloved villains. Come for the fava beans, stay for a deliciously dark reflection in the mirror, and perhaps one of the most effective examples of cover art I've ever seen. — Melissa Gray, senior producer, Weekend Edition

Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple

From 1897 until the end of World War II, the Jewish Labor Bund was one of the most important institutions in Jewish life. In this beautifully written account Molly Crabapple tells the group's story and chronicles its fights against antisemitism, communism and Nazism. The Bund played a leading role in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The Bund also was anti-Zionist, believing that Jews should work to build socialist societies where they lived, not migrate. Crabapple is open about her own sympathies, she clearly sees the Bund as a prescriptive model for today. But agree with her or not, she's provided an invaluable service by surfacing a history unknown to most modern-day readers. — Tony Cavin, managing editor, Standards & Practices

How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy by Soumaya Keynes and Chad P. Bown

A book about international trade that's fun? Yes, please! These two have been getting nerdy about trade topics (like anti-dumping duties) since long before it was cool — or, um, deeply relevant. In this analogy-filled book, they take stock of the biggest problems in the pre-Trump trade system and offer some tactics on how to fight — or defend against — trade wars in smart ways, while not shying away from the downsides of those tactics. I know that doesn't sound fun, but it really is. They're funny people! — Nick Fountain, host/reporter, Planet Money

The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence by Sebastian Mallaby

On the surface, The Infinity Machine is a biography of British AI pioneer Demis Hassabis, but it's really a readable introduction to the nuts and bolts inside artificial intelligence. Hassabis took insights from his neuroscience studies to make better AI, and in doing so, formed a team that built models that played Atari video games, beat human Go champions, solved the mystery of how amino acid sequences fold into 3D structures, and paved the way for the current AI boom. Sebastian Mallaby tells the story of Hassabis' quest to learn the universe's secrets, and in doing so, reminds us of the beauty of scientific discovery. — Darian Woods, host, The Indicator from Planet Money

In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor

Recent years have been good to trees, at least in writing. We've seen their hidden lives, met their mother trees. With Robert Moor, we get a philosophy. Rather than just admiring trees, how might we live like them? He puts our growth, as individuals and a species, into tree-speak: branch, prune, gnarl (new favorite word). Moor relearns how to climb them and ends up in a sequoia with David Attenborough. He works to mend his family tree, discovering something vital about healing our roots. The book expands with its histories: of bonsai and treehouses, as well as race, anthropology and activism. It's earnest and passionate and has me looking at every tree like a teacher. — Matthew Cloutier, producer, TED Radio Hour

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe

A 19-year-old man posing as the son of a Russian oligarch leaps to his death from a luxury apartment on the River Thames. That's the heart-stopping opening of Patrick Radden Keefe's London Falling. Keefe investigates the death of the young imposter, as well as the role modern London played in his demise. I loved this book for literary and personal reasons. Keefe is an exhaustive investigative reporter who spins seamless tales. He also uses the man's mysterious death to explore the criminal culture that lies just beneath the glittering surface of Britain's capital. I spent seven years as NPR's correspondent in London. London Falling rings true. — Frank Langfitt, correspondent, National Desk

Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children by Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett is an author of many children's books — otherwise known as books. And he gets asked all the time when he plans on writing a "real" book — by which people usually mean a book for adults. Even though this question is pretty annoying, the U.S. national ambassador for young people's literature did decide to write Make Believe — a book for adults about books for children. One essay did draw some ire, but the book is still worth reading for its staunch defense of the value and potential of children's literature. Plus, you won't want to miss Barnett's close reading of the pure art form that is Goodnight Moon — it's illuminating. — Samantha Balaban, senior producer, Weekend Edition

My Mother's Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family's Fractured Past by Tracy Clark-Flory

When Tracy Clark-Flory was a teenager, her mother told her she'd gotten pregnant around her age and given the baby up for adoption. They didn't discuss it much again. But years later, after her mom's death, Clark-Flory decided to find her half-sister and figure out what really happened all those years ago. She learned that in 1965, her mom was sent off to a home for unwed mothers, where she and other women were coerced into giving up their children. Part memoir, part investigation, Clark-Flory uses her family's story to dig into a larger history of who is considered worthy of motherhood in America, and at what cost. — Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, reporter, NPR Music

Opioids and Organs by Arizona O'Neill

After her estranged father dies of a fentanyl overdose, cartoonist Arizona O'Neill reluctantly agrees to donate his organs to patients in need. Feeling guilty about the decision, she makes sense of it by diving into the world of organ donation and its origins, accompanied by an oafish Frankenstein ("Frankie") character and a cheeky lizard named Izzy. Darkly funny and heartbreaking, this graphic memoir will leave you laughing out loud — and questioning whether it's our bodies that really make us human. — Malaka Gharib, digital editor, Life Kit

Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare by Katrina Manson

Katrina Manson, a Bloomberg reporter, has written a tour de force of reporting where she tells the story of how a determined, dogged and secretive team that — in partnership with some of the world's biggest (and some not so big) tech companies — brought artificial intelligence to the world's most powerful military. After chronicling that early effort, she goes further, showing just how committed the U.S. military is, not just to AI-enabled targeting, but also increasingly to autonomous weapons. She also does a good job capturing the unease a lot of people — in and out of the government — feel about what can only be described as our terrifying new reality. — Nishant Dahiya, editor

Restrung: A Memoir of Music and Transformation by Vijay Gupta

Vijay Gupta offers a raw chronicle of his difficult journey: first as a child prodigy violinist, laboring under intense pressures from his impossible-to-sate immigrant parents, and then as a broken adult who ultimately transforms his own life through making music with people who need community the most. Gupta is the founder of the nonprofit Street Symphony, which brings live music to Los Angelenos experiencing homelessness, addiction and the incarceration system on and around Skid Row. His courageous narrative is brilliant, deeply vulnerable and ultimately exhilarating. — Anastasia Tsioulcas, correspondent, Society & Culture Desk

Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 by Ian Buruma

When I was lucky enough to live in Berlin for a year in my 20s, I encountered a city both bursting with energy and haunted by the ghosts of its Nazi past. Ian Buruma's immersive Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 renders that era in full color by focusing on the individual lives of Berliners as they coped with Allied bombers in the air, and their own genocidal government in the streets. Through archival newspapers, diaries, letters and interviews, Buruma follows the journeys of actors and musicians, Nazi fanatics and anti-Nazi resisters, and Jewish refugees and those who sheltered them, evoking the rhythms and vocabulary of life in a vibrant city hurtling toward disaster. — Tom Dreisbach, correspondent, Investigations Desk

The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War by James Verini

The Russian siege of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol in early 2022 killed thousands of civilians. The siege included the deadliest attack of the war: the bombing of the Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theater. Hundreds sheltered there, including children, as Russian airstrikes leveled the city around it. In his wrenching, vividly written and meticulously reported book, James Verini introduces us to the Ukrainians who kept this sanctuary running while reconstructing, through interviews with survivors, the fullest account of the bombing to date in terrifying detail. It's an unforgettable work of investigative reporting and narrative storytelling. — Joanna Kakissis, Ukraine correspondent, International Desk

When It's Darkness on the Delta: How America's Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land by Ralph Eubanks

This is the story of the beautiful yet tragic pull of the Mississippi Delta, birthplace of the Blues and a landscape that produces agricultural riches. Yet it remains among the most poverty-stricken regions in the country. Ralph Eubanks examines why the place his father once thought presented opportunity for Black farmers has never lived up to that promise, despite generations who have tried to break free from the Delta's plantation economy. He argues real change will require grappling with the legacies of slavery, sharecropping and Jim Crow. And he finds hope in the work of resilient locals determined to revitalize the Delta. — Debbie Elliott, correspondent, National Desk

Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest by James Martin, SJ

A summer job has long been a rite of passage for generations of American teenagers. In Work in Progress, the Rev. James Martin — perhaps best known for his recurring role on The Colbert Report — recounts his resume before his pivot to the priesthood. From his tenure as a first-time busboy to his wholly unqualified work as a golf caddy, Martin mines his childhood journals and even details his time spent in corporate America. Told with humor and heart, Work in Progress is a beach read about labor and what it can teach us about dignity and decency. — Lyndsey McKenna, project manager, Podcast Strategy & Operations

You've Been Pooping All Wrong: How to Make Your Bowel Movements a Joy by Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH

Roughly 95% of U.S. adults are not getting enough fiber! That's going to affect how we poop, but people usually shy away from talking about it. Dr. Trisha Pasricha says that might be hurting our health. Her book was funny, extremely scientific and written to fill in the gaps modern parenting leaves behind — bathroom education that stops after potty training. Pasricha addresses questions like: What should your poop look like? How many times a day is it normal to poop? What is with the gut-brain connection, and what makes you constipated? Hint: It isn't just fiber. I learned so much, and I was smiling the whole way through. — Regina G. Barber, host/reporter, Short Wave

You've Changed: The Promise and Price of Self-Transformation by Benoit Denizet-Lewis

You've Changed is an incredibly well-researched look at how we change (or don't) and why. From political identity shifters to people in therapy for personality disorders, and from trans people transitioning gender to seekers opening their consciousnesses on psychedelics, Benoit Denizet-Lewis follows how we experience these shifts with a curious, empathetic and introspective eye. A great read for anyone who wants to understand a change within themselves — or for people trying to engender a new one. — Liam McBain, producer, It's Been a Minute

Copyright 2026, NPR

In the early 2000s, people all over the country could get insight into their dreams by calling up a different radio program. The Dream Doctor was a nationally-syndicated show hosted by Charles McPhee. He died of ALS in 2011 at the age of 49.

His sister, Larkin McPhee, lives in Minneapolis. She’s won Emmys and Peabody Awards for her documentary films. But for her brother’s story, she turned to writing. McPhee is out with a book this month about their relationship. It’s called “I’ll See You in My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir.” She joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the book.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Between death and emigration, Ireland lost almost a quarter of its population in the mid 1800s to the Great Hunger. Entire villages starved to death after potato blight wiped out the island’s primary subsistence crop, and British overseers did little to help.

“Hamnet” author Maggie O’Farrell’s ancestors lived that history and stayed in Ireland. According to family lore, her great-great-grandfather was a map-maker who helped the British redraw maps of the island after the famine altered the land.

Inspired by that story, O’Farrell decided her next novel would be centered on her homeland of Ireland and the tragic era that marked both the place and her people.

“I think it’s hard for us,” she tells Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “These days, we can look at the statistics [of death and people leaving]. But if you zero down to one or two people’s tiny little lives, you see the enormity of tragedy behind it.”

O’Farrell’s new novel, “Land,” tells the story of two such people, Tomás and his wife, Phina, who survive the Great Hunger and have four children. It’s a universal story told through the specifics of one family and one piece of land. She talks about it — and her work on the Oscar-winning adaptation of her novel, “Hamnet,” — on this weeks Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

• Maggie O’Farrell is an author and screenwriter. Her new novel is “Land.”

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Three picks for celebrating Juneteenth, a summer-long plein air art competition begins in Otter Tail County, “Come From Away” at the Guthrie, the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona and more in this week’s MN Shortlist.

‘Every(body) Wants to Be a Showgirl’ at Rose Academy of Burlesque in Minneapolis — Through June 21

This nationally touring exhibition – self-described as the “largest global celebration of Black burlesque artists – began in February in Washington D.C. and has arrived in Minneapolis for a special Juneteenth Jubilee Edition. The exhibition features a burlesque archive of costumes, photography, archival footage of Josephine Baker and stories of more than 100 “performers who have shaped American performance culture without institutional recognition,” including Minnesota performers like Red Bone, Foxy Tann, and Tré Da Marc.

Curator Aquarius Moon, a Somali-Nigerian performance artist who founded the D.C. Metro Cabaret Club, is in town for the event.

“There was a lack of an emphasis of capturing the history of Black people's contribution to the art form. It's always had heavy influences from the Black American experience as well as the Black diasporic experience,” Moon tells MPR News. “Minneapolis has a phenomenal burlesque scene.”

Moon says the exhibition’s Minneapolis stop will center the Twin Cities Black burlesque community that created Juneteenth Jubilee, a series of shows and workshops across Minneapolis now in its fifth year. (Alex V. Cipolle)

Soul of the Southside festival in Minneapolis — June 19

The free annual Juneteenth celebration “rooted in joy, belonging and Black liberation” is organized into four pillars: creative expression, education and reflection, wellness,healing and community wealth. This means there is a whole lot of activity and neighborhood-building in the span of the festival's eight hours.

Within a few blocks along Minnehaha Avenue, attendees can throw clay at Mudluk Pottery, shop an art market, attend a mini film fest featuring the work of local Black artists or cooking classes and mocktail samplings, get a free massage at the MN Wellness Center, visit the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder staff, help paint a community mural, and learn about how it all started five years ago with a “Soul of the Southside” exhibition at the Coliseum Building.

Founded by South Minneapolis community members Fancy Lanier-Duncan and Emmanuel Duncan, the celebration takes place in an historic spot at Minnehaha and Lake, where the former Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct building burned in the uprisings after the murder of George Floyd.

A staple event is Ancestral Food Waves. “We partner with chef Lachelle Cunningham who is an incredible chef storyteller who really dives into the history of what nourishes our bodies,” says Lanier-Duncan. “What did our ancestors, what did our grandmas and our aunties, and our uncles and our grandfathers — what did they do to stay healthy, to nourish themselves? How creative did they have to get with the food that they were cooking?”(Alex V. Cipolle)

Twin Cities Jazz Festival in St. Paul — June 19-20

The event began 28 years ago and has grown into one of the largest free jazz festivals in the Upper Midwest. Over two days, dozens of musicians perform across two outdoor stages at Meers Park in downtown St. Paul, as well as more than 18 bars, restaurants and venues across the metro area, from Erta Ale Ethiopian Restaurant and the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul to Berlin in Minneapolis and Crooner’s Supper Club in Fridley. Headliners include the Grammy-winning Yellowjackets band, the JazzMN Orchestra with Michael Mayo, and Peruvian-American saxophonist Lucia Sarmiento. (Alex V. Cipolle)

“Movement Werk” Juneteenth Celebration at the Capri in Minneapolis — June 20

Located in the heart of North Minneapolis, the Capri Theater is celebrating Juneteenth with a dance party, poetry readings and community. The event, “Movement Werk,” begins at 3 p.m. in the Capri’s community hall “Paradise at the Capri.”

Featured artists include A.E. Wynter (who's been involved with Minnesota literary organizations like More Than A Single Story and the Loft Literary Center) and Junauda Petrus, an award-winning author and Minneapolis’ current poet laureate. (Jacob Aloi)

“Come From Away” at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis — Through August 9

A musical about the most devastating day in recent American history certainly raises eyebrows. But “Come From Away,” now playing at the Guthrie Theater, isn’t exactly a musical about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Rather, it's a reminder of the good in humanity and how people can band together in dark times.

Following the terror attacks on 9/11, the U.S. airspace was closed, causing dozens of flights to be diverted. In response, the Canadian government enacted “Operation Yellow Ribbon.” Across Canada, communities welcomed stranded international travelers, one of which was Gander, Newfoundland. The experience of the people who were in that small town in the North Atlantic serves as the basis for “Come From Away.”

While it has been produced across North America, the Guthrie's production strikes a chord with Minnesotans. In one scene, the Newfoundlanders organized mutual aid networks in a matter of hours because “they can’t watch the news anymore,” echoing the similar networks that came together during the height of the recent federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. (Jacob Aloi)

‘Longest Day of Art’ in Battle Lake — June 20

This event in Otter Tail County is two-fold: A community photography project to capture the essence of Battle Lake as the town turns 135, and the kickoff to the Prairie Lakes Plein Air festival, which culminates with an awards ceremony in September. For the rest of the summer, artists will be painting the lakes country starting with an opening day plein air workshop event with artist Mary Boylan at Glendalough State Park. There will be plein air workshops throughout July, August and September. (Alex V. Cipolle)

Opening nights at Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona — June 24-25

When I was growing up, no summer felt complete without a visit to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. There’s just something about summertime that calls for a production of one of the Bard’s plays—and the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona understands this.

Producing two plays each summer, the festival features a single acting company trading off between shows and roles at different nights of the week. This year’s offerings include the oft-produced love-farce “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Pericles,” an obscure play about a Levantine prince adrift at sea, giving audiences a nice variety based on personal taste. The cast for these shows is also full of great interpreters of Shakespeare that have graced Minnesota stages—including Will Sturdivant and Melissa Maxwell who had memory-making turns in the Guthrie Theater’s “Henriad” a couple years ago. While opening nights are on the 24 and 25, both shows run well into July. (Jacob Aloi)

An ex-Children's Theatre Company employee, Ricky McAllister, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of child pornography.

The new charges are stirring up dark memories of an explosive child sex abuse scandal from the 1970s and ‘80s.

Filmmaker Norah Shapiro spoke with survivors who broke their silence and told their story in the documentary “MAGIC & MONSTERS,” which debuted last year. Shapiro, who is also a parent of a child actor who worked with McAllister at CTC, joined Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition Thursday.

“What stood out to me about what they had to say was the pain, not just from what happened to them originally, but from the erasure of what had happened to them by how the institution responded in the years following what happened to them,” Shapiro said about the survivors from the ‘70s.

CTC called the current allegations against McCallister “troubling and also very different from the historic abuse.” The theatre says it is cooperating with law enforcement, McCallister hasn’t been employed by CTC since June of last year, and that he passed all background checks “as recently as 2023, had a clean employment record at CTC for 24 years, and is not accused of having abused any CTC student or community member.”

Shapiro said McCallister interacted directly with her son in multiple productions.

“I was awakened by a text from a friend with a screen grab of the email that had gone out the night before to stakeholders. I, as a parent of a former child actor, did not receive that, but I can also tell you that my son did not receive that email. There was a tone in that email that was all about protecting yet again their reputation,” she said.

CTC told MPR News it’s aware of one parent “whose email address was unfortunately mistyped in the letter to parents and caregivers. We regret this error and thankfully had an opportunity to connect with the family in person to apologize.”

When CTC settled with survivors in 2019, they committed to creating a community council, being transparent about past abuse, annual child safety training and a “survivor fund.” From her vantage point, Shapiro isn’t convinced the culture has changed substantially.

“I can only respond to what I see and what I see again in this latest instance,” she said. “I think it's the same thing, which is giving lip service to caring ultimately about children's safety, but when push comes to shove, not doing the work.”

Listen to the conversation with Shapiro by clicking the player button above.

“MAGIC & MONSTERS” is available to stream through July 1.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers across Minnesota to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Eric Plumb of Amazing Alonzo Bookstore in Duluth recommends the memoir "It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect" by fellow Duluthian Gaelynn Lea.

Lea is a composer, musician, speaker and disability advocate whose accolades include winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016 and composing and recording the score for “Macbeth” on Broadway.

Writing in a conversational style, Lea traces her love of music and the many paths on which it has taken her. Plumb enjoyed learning about Lea’s collaborations with other Duluth musicians, including Alan Sparhawk from Low and blues musician Charlie Parr.

If you can, Plumb says, listen to the audiobook, which incorporates some of her music interspersed with her story.

Listen to Lea’s interview with MPR’s Kelly Gordon, which aired on Minnesota Now.

Plumb recommended the memoir at a live Ask a Bookseller event at the Zeitgeist in Duluth last week. Find summer reading recommendations from North Shore bookstores and libraries here.

Multidisciplinary artist Lex Marie has gone viral on TikTok and Instagram for her artwork confronting discipline within Black households.

At Lex Marie's art studio, a belt is no longer just a belt.

I met the multidisciplinary artist in Washington, D.C., at the American University's Katzen Arts Center.

She led me to her studio, where some belts are stretched across a canvas in meticulously organized rows and columns.

Others are used as a tool. Marie dips them in paint and swings them like a brush, leaving thick, violent marks across a white canvas.

Marie says each piece of work carries a story about childhood, discipline, survival and the complicated ways love can be expressed.

She is building a body of work that confronts a topic many families know well but rarely discuss openly: corporal punishment in Black households.

"I'm critiquing discipline in Black households specifically," Marie says. "But I'm trying to tackle the history behind discipline in black households, behind spankings and whippings, and speak to the difference in how millennials are raising their children as well."

The work is personal for her. Marie is 33 and the mother of an eight-year-old boy. As her son continues to grow, she says the questions that shape her art often come directly from her parenting.

"Through motherhood, I'm starting to think about my own childhood, and I'm comparing and contrasting it. So some of these works are just speaking from my experiences with spankings, and they're also going from the perspective of how I feel."

One of the larger works in the series is called "Watch Your Tone." The six-by-six-foot piece is composed entirely of belts — dozens of them — arranged carefully across the canvas. They are an assortment of different shades of brown, black and pink to represent the color of flesh.

The title of the piece echoes a phrase many children hear growing up: "Watch your tone when talking to me."

But Marie says the belts also represent something deeper.

She explains that she created this piece to convey multiple meanings. The different skin tones help her explain the different ways punishment is tied to American history.

For some historians and scholars, the conversation around corporal punishment in Black American households cannot be separated from the legacy of slavery. During enslavement, physical violence, such as being beaten with whips, was used to control Black bodies. Over generations, those discipline practices have evolved into modern parenting practices.

Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, believes that the link between corporal punishment and African Americans is rooted in slavery.

"This idea of whipping, this idea that black bodies require extreme punishment — that there's something about the constitution of blackness that requires excessiveness in terms of discipline — has deep roots. Roots that extend beyond slavery. But it [was] really reinforced by the enslavement of Africans. And then once they come to the United States, you have this adoption of punishment systems within slavery that continue after slavery; that continue that process with that practice of brutalization of … black and brown bodies," he said.

"Because I Love You, another piece in Marie's series, highlights the physical act of enforcing punishment.

Marie painted a wooden panel white, dipped a belt in acrylic paint and struck the surface again and again, leaving marks scattered across the piece like scars and welts.

"I spent hours just kind of beating the same thing over and over," she said.

The process left her physically sore the next day.

The piece's title comes from a phrase many children hear after a whipping: "This hurts me more than it hurts you" or "I'm doing this because I love you."

Marie explains how making this work has been cathartic and difficult. When the videos of her art began circulating online, the reactions were immediate.

Thousands of people commented on her post, sharing their own childhood stories. Some were painful and defensive, while others were grateful the topic was being discussed.

But Marie stands firm that the goal of this work isn't to accuse or shame. It creates space for a conversation that is often buried.

Williams says that in order to have these discussions, Black families have to reimagine how they think about discipline.

"I think a lot of parents — black parents — struggle with this because there is this inherent knowledge that this is the way that we came up. And there is this belief that, well, you know, … maybe we're more stable, maybe we're more durable, maybe we've been able to endure more. We've developed a particular type of grip because of this experience," Williams said.

Williams says it's time to have an "honest" conversation about the historical legacy of corporal punishment within the Black community. "That would be far more communal and affirmative of human dignity and the dignity of black life," he said. "Coming out of the Black Lives Matter movement, you kind of look back at this, and you go, 'We understand it from a historical standpoint.' But from a humanistic and community-centered, restorative justice practices standpoint, there's something that just doesn't sit right with me about this practice. And I think we owe it to ourselves as a community to revisit that."

Marie sees her art as a pathway to discuss extremely difficult and triggering conversations about childhood trauma, especially for people who might struggle to find the words themselves — just like her.

The project will continue to grow over the next year as Marie develops more pieces for a planned exhibition this fall. The series has nearly 20 pieces, and she has even sold two to filmmaker Spike Lee, who is known for his films Do the Right Thing and Malcolm

X

Lex Marie has a solo show at The Bishop gallery in Brooklyn, New York this fall which will feature this series.

For Marie, the most important outcome isn't agreement. It's recognition.

This story was edited by Olivia Hampton and produced by Nia Dumas. The digital story was written by Nia Dumas.

Copyright 2026, NPR

From Jewish cantillations to 1990s power ballads, “Come From Away” is a musical that boasts an impressively wide-ranging score.

“They've got me playing some shakers … I get to play a cajon with a kick pedal,” said Ben Yats, one of the percussionists in the Guthrie Theater’s production of the show, who also plays instruments like the Irish bodhrán and West African djembe.

“I have 18 different instruments,” said renowned local Celtic folk musician Laura MacKenzie, who is also lending her talents to the production. “They’re mostly whistles, from very low bass whistles to little teeny high ones, and a couple of wooden flutes and Uilleann Pipes.”

The choice to have an eclectic range of instruments is in line with the show’s plot, which is based on the true story of international travelers stranded in a small town in Newfoundland, Canada, following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that caused the U.S. airspace to close.

“A lot of [the] instruments are not used in what I would presume is a traditional sense,” said Yats. He gave the example of the udu, a Nigerian instrument that resembles a clay pot, which he uses when an Egyptian character in the show is on stage. Yats said the score doesn’t have exact directions on how the instrument should be played, so he uses a technique he picked up from playing a South Asian instrument.

“[The composers] really found a clever way, I think, to sneak in a lot of different outside world influences onto this score,” Yats said.

At the core of the show’s music, however, is the English and Celtic-inspired folk music found in Atlantic Canada, which is why musicians like Yats and MacKenzie were brought on to play the show.

“The traditional music, from what I've heard in Newfoundland, is more of sort of the pub music, ballad singing tradition. So heavy Irish influence, a little Scottish and a lot of English influence as well,” said MacKenzie, who has been called a “High Priestess of Celtic music.”

The musical doesn’t shy away from some of those influences. In one scene, the characters coalesce at a local bar where they sing songs together—one of which is a sea shanty.

“I love this show, because it seems that the composers really wanted it grounded in the people's music, and so they have that flavor of Newfoundland folk music,” said MacKenzie.

Those more joyous moments of pub singing are contrasted with slower ballads and quiet moments of a cappella, all of which capture the rollercoaster of emotions some were experiencing in the wake of 9/11.

“There's such high moments, and all of a sudden you're just trying to hold it together,” said Ben Yats. “I think the musicians are reflecting that kind of emotional gravity on stage.”

“Come From Away"' runs through Aug. 9 at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Summer means unwinding outside with a book in one hand and a cool drink in the other. Or, if you’re on the North Shore, it may include a slice of Betty’s Pie and an affogato from Superior Creamery.

On Thursday, host of Ask a Bookseller Emily Bright spoke with local bookstores and libraries about their recommended summer reads.

Amazing Alonzo Bookstore, Duluth

• "It Wasn't Mean To Be Perfect" by Gaelynn Lea

• "Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen

• "The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson

Though it’s a breezy read, it’s full of twisty mystery and rich in characters from corrupt government agents, greedy and murderous crime bosses, bumbling criminals and a micro-dosing, ex-military, fringe governor character that maybe — maybe not, but probably was —inspired by one of Minnesota’s own former governors. This is the book I most often recommend for a vacation/beach read. — Eric Plumb, owner of Amazing Alonzo Bookstore on “Skinny Dip.”

Back Forty Books, Two Harbors

• "The Verdant Cage" by Jess Lourey

• "This Story Might Save Your Life" by Tiffany Crum

• "Dolly All the Time" by Annabel Monaghan

• "The Book Witch" by Meg Shaffer

A fast-paced book that is part dark thriller, part romcom, and wholly excellent. I can attest for audiobook readers that the vocal cast knocked it out of the park. You want to give this a read/listen ASAP! — Randy and Katie Lancaster, owners of Back Forty Books on “This Story Might Save Your Life.”

Drury Lane Books, Grand Marais

• "Ink Blood Sister Scribe" by Emma Törzs

• "The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett

• "Lady Tremaine" by Rachel Hochhauser

• "God’s Country" by William Kent Krueger

A totally fresh retelling of Cinderella told from the perspective of the stepmother, wonderfully upending all the tropes of the fairytale. All of the characters are fully realized, neither all saint nor all villain. Responsible for her own two daughters as well as her stepdaughter, Lady Tremaine struggles to maintain respectability, looking for future security for herself and the girls, while also keeping actual food on the table in their crumbling mansion. I sympathized with her and shook my head at some of the decisions she made while recognizing her challenging situation. The book races on towards a satisfying conclusion. — Kelly Kager and Kevin Kager, owners of Drury Lane Books on “Lady Tremaine.”

Bookstore at Fitger's, Duluth

• "Liar's Creek" by Matt Goldman

• "The Jilted Countess" by Loretta Ellsworth

• "Beneath a Broken Sky" by Joshua Moehling

• "The Shortest History of the United States" by Don Watson

• "Happy Ending" by Chloe Liese

A captivating historical fiction novel that takes place in the aftermath of WWII in Minnesota. — Jennifer Jubenville, store manager of Bookstore at Fitger’s on “The Jilted Countess.”

Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers, Superior

• "Empire of Shadows" by Jacquelyn Benson

• "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

• "Immoral" by Brian Freeman

• "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" by David Grann

The intersection of The Mummy and Jungle Cruise, this historical whirlwind had me hooked within 50 pages. A breath of delightfully feminist air, Ellie and Adam are the kind of protagonists you can’t help but root for. Hints of magic woven with real history made this series not only enjoyable, but educational. — Maria Lockwood, owner of Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers on “Empire of Shadows.”

Wildflower Bookshop, Grand Rapids

• "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke

• "The Quarry Girls" by Jess Lourey

• "Our Perfect Storm" by Carley Fortune

• "Whistler" by Ann Patchett

A gentle tale about childhood friendship blooming into more that is sure to charm readers. Gorgeous vacation setting with lovable side characters, and witty banter, this is sure to be an amazing summer read. — Abby Daigle, owner of Wildflower Bookshop on “Our Perfect Storm.”

Zenith Bookstore, Duluth

• "Upward Bound" by Woody Brown

• "Honey" by Imani Thompson

• "Look What You Made Me Do" by John Lanchester

• "The Listeners" by Maggie Stiefvater

• "Astronaut!" by Oana Aristide

A female grad student accidentally kills her problematic professor, and instead of panicking... she likes it! Soon she is seeking out other male chauvinist pigs to keep her high going — but how long can it last? How long until her own family secrets come to light? — Sarah Brown, owner of Zenith Bookstore on “Honey.”

Cloquet Public Library

• "It Wasn’t Meant To Be Perfect" by Gaelynn Lea

• "The Dungeon Crawler Carl" series

• "One Summer: America, 1927" by Bill Bryson

This wildly inventive series begins with an outrageous premise: a Coast Guard veteran and his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning cat are thrust into a deadly alien game show set inside an 18-floor dungeon. As Carl battles to survive, he discovers the importance of community while seeking revenge against the creators of the galactic “World Dungeon” television spectacle. With the eighth of a planned ten books recently released, the series offers action, humor, and a welcome escape from the constant churn of real-world headlines. — Keiko, adult services on “The Dungeon Crawler Carl” series

Duluth Public Library

• "I’m Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom" by Jason Pargin

• "Sky Daddy" by Kate Folk

• "The City of Belgium" by Brecht Evens

• "The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case" by Chuck Hogan

• "The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" by Stuart Turton

• "Mexican Gothic" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• "The Library at Mount Char" by Scott Hawkins

• "Wizard’s First Rule" by Terry Goodkind

• "What No One Tells You About Money: The Real Key of Getting Unstuck from Someone Who’s Been there" by Jade Warshaw

• "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski

• "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky

• "Hide" by Kiersten White

• "Murder by Memory & Nobody’s Baby" by Olivia Waite

• "Becoming Ghost" by Cathy Linh Che

A locked-room mystery where our narrator reincarnates into a different body within our cast of characters and relieves the day of Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder in order to figure out who’s responsible. This genre-bending science fiction mystery is mind boggling in the best way and the reveal will leave you thinking about it long after you’ve finished. Perfect for a day when it’s too hot to do anything else. — Emily, fiction librarian on “The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.”

Duluth MPR office picks

• "Emperor of Gladness" by Ocean Vuong

• "Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere" by by Maria Bamford

• "Crux" by Gabriel Tallent

• "When We Were Vikings" by David MacDonald

“Emperor of Gladness” is one of those novels whose characters and story remain vividly alive long after the final page. It was easy to visualize the characters, and I was deeply moved by the empathy and tenderness shown toward ordinary people simply living their lives. Long after finishing the book, I continue to think about these characters and what they represent — the resilience, struggles, and quiet grace found in everyday life. — Maria, MPR regional director

When novelist Ann Patchett is on Big Books and Bold Ideas, watch out. She and host Kerri Miller trade quips, stories, theories and book recommendations like two longtime friends.

And this week, Patchett returns to talk about her latest novel, “Whistler.” She and Miller discuss the backstory about the novel within the novel. They trade stories about why friendships lost and rediscovered have a special mind of magic. And, of course, they talk about Minnesota author and friend of the show Kate DiCamillo, who has a special knack for editing Patchett’s work — and vice versa.

This is a rollicking, warm and delightful conversation — a singular Big Books and Bold Ideas, as only Miller and Patchett can do.

Guest:

• Ann Patchett is a prolific writer. Her latest novel is “Whistler.”

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Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

David Hockney believed painting could change the world; in the midst of all our miseries, he said, art lets us see the world as beautiful, thrilling, mysterious. Hockney, one of the best-known contemporary artists, has died at home, age 88, his publicist said Friday.

The artist, who died on Thursday, was one month short of his 89th birthday, publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement. He is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.

"David Hockney's enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humor, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase," she said. "Love life."

British, he spent decades working in Los Angeles, making images that captured the wealth and sunshine of Southern California. Hockney created art on canvas, paper, photographic film, videos, iPhones and iPads. His bright, cheerful paintings sold for millions.

"I enjoy looking ..." he explained to me when he was 79. "I can look at a little puddle on a road in Yorkshire and just of the rain falling on it and think it's marvelous. I see the world as very beautiful."

With electric colors — blues, greens, yellows, fuchsia — he made merry beauties all his life. Pictures of tree-lined roads, flowers, snow-covered trees, the Grand Canyon. The world became new in his hands. Hockney also made portraits of friends and helpers.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Stephanie Barron remembers posing for him. She figured she'd go to work after a sitting. "What I found instead is that I was so exhausted from the intensity of the scrutiny, I went home and took a nap," she said. (You can hear from many more of Hockney's models in this story from 2018.)

Happily and luckily, I interviewed Hockney over the years. Our first encounter was in Paris in 2010 — an exhibit of little pictures he was making on his recently-discovered iPhone. He was charming, lively, open and engaged — and crazy for technology. An app called Brushes gave him a virtual paint box. Dipping his fingers into various colors, he touched the small iPhone screen and drew with his thumb. Then he got an iPad.

"The moment I got to the iPad, I found myself using every finger," he said.

He was engrossed, his friend Charlie Scheips, said. "He said he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he's going at it, he rubs his finger on his clothes to like, clean the finger as if he was using real paint." (You can see artworks Hockney created on the iPhone and iPad here.)

Raised by supportive parents in a simple English town, Hockney struggled with his sexuality. In the early '60s he came out. Films show him then with dyed blond hair and flamboyant outfits — a pink plaid suit, wide black and white striped tie, a red sock on one foot, green on the other. His lovers were young and beautiful. In the LA paintings they loll around at swimming pools, displaying divine derrieres. Pools were an obsession.

"Water offers an interesting graphic problem, it seems to me," he explained. "Say, a swimming pool, the water is transparent. How do you paint transparency? It has reflections and things."

A Bigger Splash, his best-known painting from 1967, shows a California swimming pool, tan diving board angling in from the bottom right, and rising from the aquamarine water, a lively, white splash. Someone just dove in.

"I spent longer on the splash than on any other thing in the painting," Hockney says. "I spent about a week painting it because it's painted with small brushes. I mean, I didn't want to just take a brush and splash it like that. I wanted to paint it slowly. And I thought then it contradicts the splash really."

An actual splash lasts a few seconds. Painting it took a week.

As his 80th birthday approached in 2017 museums were flooded with Hockneys. He was getting ready to go to London for one opening. I saw him then, for the last time, at his LA studio, surrounded by some comfy chairs, five easels, and clouds of cigarette smoke. The floor had dark brown smears from the smokes he chain-puffed, then stubbed out with his foot. Knowing he'd be fussed over in London, he said he didn't like parties anymore. "Too deaf for them," he said. They made him sad.

"I just have to leave and go home, have a sit in a quiet bedroom," he said. "And that's what I do. And then I read. ... That's my life now. I mean, that's what it's going to be."

But his eyes twinkled when he said that. And friends sitting near smiled indulgently.

He went on painting after I left, and made art the next day, the day after that, the day after that.

David Hockney: Always looking, and giving us the world as he wanted us to see it. Through joyous, vibrant pictures. That 80th birthday year, in Paris, there was a huge retrospective. The last piece in the show was graffitied on a white museum wall. In blue, on the white, Hockney had painted: Love Life D.H.

Copyright 2026, NPR

“Spamalot” at the Ordway in St. Paul — Through June 14.

Through their films and sketch comedy show “Flying Circus,” British comedy troupe Monty Python’s absurdist humor and endlessly quotable jokes have developed a cult following across the world. So the question of adapting their best known work, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” into a Broadway musical was less of an “if” and more of a “when.”

Spoofing the name of the golden-age musical “Camelot,” Monty Python’s “Spamalot” debuted in 2005 and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Now on a revival tour, the show includes glitzy dance numbers, and a mix of original music and songs from previous Monty Python projects, yet it still maintains the manic energy and cutting humor people come to expect from giants of British comedy. (Jacob Aloi)

“Ole and Lena’s Wedding” at Boat Club Productions in Duluth — Through June 20

If you’ve lived in Minnesota for any amount of time, you’re likely aware of “Ole and Lena” jokes. They often poke fun at Midwestern and Scandinavian traditions, and usually end with a punchline at the expense of the titular husband and wife. Due to their ubiquity, they pop up everywhere from restaurant names to merchandise –and even theater.

Boat Club Productions, a dinner theater in Duluth, is producing “Ole and Lena’s Wedding.” Rather than a usual play, however, the show is immersive, with audience members treated to a reception meal after “attending” the wedding of Minnesota’s favorite couple—as the producers told FOX 21 in a recent interview. While the run of “Ole and Lena’s Wedding” is only a couple of weeks, Boat Club Productions is gearing up for two more productions later this year: “Church Basement Ladies” in the fall—another play that leans heavily into Midwestern culture—and the musical “Come From Away” in the winter. (Jacob Aloi)

“The Wizard of Oz” on 35mm at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights — June 13 & 15

Minnesota has a few favorite sons: Bob Dylan, Prince, Paul Bunyan. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a more beloved daughter of the north woods than Judy Garland. After all, there’s a whole museum dedicated to her in her birthplace of Grand Rapids—which was central to a national true crime story involving the ruby slippers she wore in her most iconic role. For two special screenings, Minnesota audiences will have the opportunity to soak up Garland’s turn in Technicolor, as a certain Kansas farm girl, in glorious 35mm—the way God intended one of the greatest musical movies to be seen. (Jacob Aloi)

Mohanad Elshieky at Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis — June 12

If your social media algorithm is anything like mine, you’ve been seeing quite a bit of Mohanad Elshieky as of late, and it’s a delight. Story goes that the Libyan comedian, who is based in Brooklyn, got his start doing comedy as the host of a twice-weekly political call-in radio show in Benghazi during the Libyan Revolution in 2011, that is, until someone burned down the radio station. In 2014, Elshieky moved to Portland, Ore., and the U.S. granted him asylum in 2018. Since then, Elshieky has worked for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and appeared on “Conan” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (RIP to all three shows).

Elshieky performs a deceptively laid-back style of comedy, with a mellow demeanor commenting on everything from growing up Muslim (“I read the Bible sometimes just to see what the competition is up to”), being kidnapped in his home country (“I love drama”) to Tesla-driving Lyft drivers (“I will never understand because like, do you have money or not?!”). Elsheiky performs 7 p.m. Friday, June 12, at Cedar Cultural Center. Cedar Cultural Center will also host a June 13 screening of the documentary “Dinkytown: A Tale of a Legendary Village,” which looks at 150 years of the university neighborhood. (Alex V. Cipolle)

“Prairie Dreams: A Trail of Quilts” at Frontenac State Park — June 13

The bluffs are alive with … the color of quilts! For this unique, one-day only event, more than 120 artist-made quilts will line a trail from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 13, at Frontenac State Park along the Mississippi River just southeast of Red Wing. The Frontenac State Park Association put out a call to regional artists to submit quilts that “present prairie-inspired dreams,” from “a story passed down through generations, a dream of regeneration for future generations or simply the day dreams of looking at clouds scudding across the sky while listening to the sound of meadowlarks as one walks a trail.” Visitors can come talk to quilters along the trail and vote on their favorite quilt. (Alex V. Cipolle)

“Pearl Fantasy Festival” Interact’s 30th Anniversary in St. Paul — June 13

The campus for Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts celebrates 30 years supporting contemporary artists living with disabilities, including artists such as Janice Essick, Lucy Picasso, Michael Engebretson and Victor Van, who this spring became the first Interact artist to have work purchased by the Walker Art Center. The Pearl Fantasy Festival, which runs 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, will feature live music, performances, a puppet parade and two new exhibitions highlighting the work of all 70 Interact visual artists. (Alex V. Cipolle)

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

West African Drum & Dance Conference

Joshua Gillespie, a Minneapolis drummer and storyteller who performs as Brotha Ase, wants everyone to know about the Fakoly Drum & Dance Conference this weekend, put on by Duniya Drum and Dance.

The conference includes classes in West African drumming and dance for beginners as well as experienced performers. Instructors are visiting from Guinea, Mali and Nigeria. Classes run Friday through Sunday at the Barbara Barker Center for Dance on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Campus.

A culminating performance, “Bridges of Rhythm: A Path of Generations,” is open to all this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Duniya Drum & Dance also teaches weekly community classes.

Brotha Ase says: It's a great opportunity that you should take advantage of this weekend, if you're looking for something cool to do and getting some cultural healing in your spirit.

— Brotha Ase

Plein Air painters flock to Red Wing

Joshua Cunningham is a landscape painter in St. Paul who works primarily with Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis. He highly recommends the 20th annual Red Wing Arts Plein Air events taking place this month. Artists are painting within a 25-mile radius of Red Wing, including in the city itself, over the next week.

Opportunities to watch artists at work — and for kids to paint for free — include this Saturday from 9-11 at the Red Wing Arts. An exhibition of the work they create runs June 20 – Aug. 16 at the Depot.

Joshua says: They have had between 50 and 100 paintings done every year, so you can imagine the body of work that has been created over the last 20 years. Though some of those areas get painted more frequently than others, [each] day only comes once.

The light and the air of a given day is what defines all of the colors and the values — and often the mood of the place — so you're never really standing in the same place twice.

— Joshua Cunningham

Football meets dance performance

Scott Pakudaitis, board chair of Revolution Dance Works, has been a fan of Corpus Dance Works since he saw their fringe show inspired by plant biology in 2022. He’s looking forward to their new dance show inspired by sports team culture, “Line of Scrimmage,” at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis June 11-15.

He anticipates high energy and some comedy that will appeal to sports and dance fans alike:

Scott says: They create very innovative and frenetic dances that touch on a lot of things that everybody can relate to.

There will be things like mascots and a marching band and dancing referees, a look behind the locker room, tackles and lots of balls flying in the air from dancers who do not know how to catch footballs.

— Scott Pakudaitis

For decades, LGBTQ+ history in Minnesota has often been told through the lens of the Twin Cities. A new book out this month argues that some of the state's most important fights for LGBTQ rights happened more than one hundred miles away in Duluth and Superior, Wis.

"Remember the Main: The Gay Bar That Started a Movement in the Northland” tells the story of Bob Jansen, owner of the Main Club, a gay bar that opened in the 1980s.

Author Meg Gorzycki told MPR News host Nina Moini the bar served as a refuge and organizing hub for LGBTQ+ people in northern Minnesota during a time when being openly gay often came with significant risk.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Are you tired of entering baked products at the Minnesota State Fair and never winning? You’re in luck. A new cookbook from the fair came out this week with 100 blue ribbon winning recipes that might just give you an edge over your fellow competitors.

“50 Years of State Fair Recipes: A Collection of Minnesota State Fair blue ribbon winners from 1976 to 2025” is the first cookbook published by the fair in 50 years. Christine Noonan, advertising director for the fair, said numerous departments worked together to form a recipe book committee.

It has been a bucket list project for the fair for several years. They asked people in 2025 to send in their recipes, hoping people would share their secrets. Many replied — from newbies to veterans across the state.

Recipes are accompanied by personal stories, Noonan’s favorite part of the book.

“One of the most endearing things is how much it means to them to be a part of a State Fair competition. They’re using their grandmother’s recipe or a recipe that shows up on their holiday table every year,” she said. “The stories, the memories, the connection to the fair and capturing this moment in time was especially important.”

Due to the overwhelming number of submissions just like the contests themself, it was hard for the committee to pick which recipes to include. They focused on having a variety of difficulty levels and regions of the state represented. Some people have two recipes in the book, but they must be in different categories.

Noonan said while putting together the book it was important for the team to think about how readers would feel represented and proud to live in Minnesota. As they parsed through submissions this winter, the ICE surge was unfolding.

“When we were doing the book, it was heavy times in our state so reading these stories really brought us a lot of joy here on staff and we really hope to share that with the wider community as well,” she said.

The book is available to buy in-person through June 13 at the J.V. Bailey House at the fairgrounds. After June 14, it will be available for purchase at statefairwear.com.

Books may be available at the fair itself, but it is a limited-print batch, and Noonan suggests getting your copy sooner than later. Books are $30 and all proceeds go to the Minnesota State Fair Foundation.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Rachel Ostrom of Acorn Bookshop in St. Paul says TJ Klune’s new novel “We Burned So Bright” might make you cry. Klune is author of charming and hopeful New York Bestselling fantasies “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Under the Whispering Door,” among several others.

This new stand-alone novel has a starker premise than some of Klune’s other works: the end of the world.

A black hole has been gobbling up the solar system, and in a month’s time, life on Earth will end. Faced with a clear deadline, husbands Don and Rodney take a road trip across the U.S. to reach an important destination before time runs out.

On the way, Ostrom says, they encounter memorable characters with their own varied responses to the end of life on earth. She describes one memorable conversation Rodney and Don have around a campfire with a younger couple, where they recall a previous catastrophic experience:

“When they were first together, it was in the 80s, in the midst of the AIDS crisis. They're talking about their friends who died during the AIDS epidemic, and how, like, the government did nothing to help them, and it's just really devastating to hear about that. The conversations they have around that were really incredible and even sparked me to want to learn more about that time.”

Acorn Bookshop is the most recent addition to the Twin Cities’ rich indie bookstore scene. It opened in late March in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul.

Ostrom says it’s a feminist bookstore, with 75 percent of titles written by women. The store has a sizeable children’s, middle grade and young adult section.

Ostrom says the store also has a strong nature focus; Acorn Bookshop gives a percentage of sales every month to Voyageurs Conservancy and Friends of the Mississippi River.

The 79th Annual Tony Awards celebrated the best of Broadway performances on Sunday in New York City, but the night was stolen by a performer who's never starred in a Broadway show at all: the singer-songwriter P!nk.

P!nk, who hosted the evening, started the show dressed like Peter Pan, swinging from the ceiling, but soon donned a pink bustier to sing a raucous version of "Lady Marmalade" that celebrated women in theater. She was joined by Megan Thee Stallion, Broadway stars, and a cast of about 170 others stretching across the huge stage at Radio City Music Hall. That opening number was written by Dear Evan Hansen's Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, plus Mark Sonnenblick, who wrote songs for KPOP Demon Hunters.

There was no big winner this year. Instead, awards were spread among several shows — best new musical went to Schmigadoon!, which won four awards; best play revival and direction went to Death of a Salesman (it won six Tonys in all.)

Plenty of celebrities showed up to share the stage, including cameos from former hosts Neil Patrick Harris and Ariana DeBose, plus presenters Sting, Paul Rudd, Billy Crystal, Bernadette Peters and Adrien Brody.

Later, P!nk sang "All That Jazz" from the long-running musical Chicago, along with the current Broadway cast. Other performances that received rapturous receptions from the crowd included The Rocky Horror Show cast singing "Time Warp" and a number from CATS: The Jellicle Ball — a musical that brings Andrew Lloyd Webber's show into the world of drag ballroom. Members of the audience were given branded fans from the production, and they snapped them happily.

The ceremony also offered a few surprises, like best new play going to Bess Wohl's Pulitzer-winning Liberation, beating out Giant, about Roald Dahl. Wohl's win was the first by an American woman playwright in 37 years.

The design awards were given out in the pre-show on Pluto TV, which made room for the CBS broadcast to focus primarily on performances of new and longer-running shows. In the pre-show, Qween Jean, who won for best costume design for CATS: The Jellicle Ball, became the first openly transgender woman to win a Tony. In 2023, J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell were the first nonbinary actors to win Tonys.

The full list of winners is below.

Best New Musical

WINNER: Schmigadoon!
The Lost Boys
Titaníque
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best New Play

WINNER: Liberation
The Balusters
Giant
Little Bear Ridge Road

Best Revival of a Musical

WINNER: Ragtime
CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show

Best Revival of a Play

WINNER: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Becky Shaw
Every Brilliant Thing
Fallen Angels
Oedipus

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

WINNER: Joshua Henry, Ragtime
Nicholas Christopher, Chess
Luke Evans, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brandon Uranowitz, Ragtime

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

WINNER: Caissie Levy, Ragtime
Sara Chase, Schmigadoon!
Stephanie Hsu, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Marla Mindelle, Titaníque
Christiani Pitts, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

WINNER: Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw
Christopher Abbott, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Danny Burstein, Marjorie Prime
Brandon J. Dirden, Waiting for Godot
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Richard Thomas, The Balusters

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

WINNER: Lesley Manville, Oedipus
Rose Byrne, Fallen Angels
Carrie Coon, Bug
Susannah Flood, Liberation
Kelli O'Hara, Fallen Angels

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

WINNER: Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys
André De Shields, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Bryce Pinkham, Chess
Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
Layton Williams, Titaníque

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

WINNER: Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
Hannah Cruz, Chess
Rachel Dratch, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon!
Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime

Best Direction of a Play

WINNER: Joe Mantello, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Nicholas Hytner, Giant
Robert Icke, Oedipus
Kenny Leon, The Balusters
Whitney White, Liberation

Best Direction of a Musical

WINNER: Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Lear deBessonet, Ragtime
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Tim Jackson, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

WINNER: Laurie Metcalf, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Betsy Aidem, Liberation
Marylouise Burke, The Balusters
Aya Cash, Giant
June Squibb, Marjorie Prime

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

WINNER: John Lithgow, Giant
Will Harrison, Punch
Nathan Lane, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Daniel Radcliffe, Every Brilliant Thing
Mark Strong, Oedipus

Best Book of a Musical

WINNER: Schmigadoon!, Cinco Paul
The Lost Boys, David Hornsby and Chris Hoch
Titaníque, Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Jim Barne and Kit Buchan

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

WINNER: Schmigadoon!, Music & Lyrics: Cinco Paul
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Music: Caroline Shaw
August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Music: Steve Bargonetti
The Lost Boys, Music & Lyrics: The Rescues
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Music & Lyrics: Jim Barne and Kit Buchan

Best Scenic Design of a Play

WINNER: Chloe Lamford, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Hildegard Bechtler, Oedipus
Takeshi Kata, Bug
David Korins, Dog Day Afternoon
David Rockwell, Fallen Angels

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

WINNER: Dane Laffrey, The Lost Boys
dots, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Soutra Gilmour, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Rachel Hauck, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Scott Pask, Schmigadoon!

Best Costume Design of a Play

WINNER: Jeff Mahshie, Fallen Angels
Brenda Abbandandolo, Dog Day Afternoon
Qween Jean, Liberation
Emilio Sosa, The Balusters
Paul Tazewell, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Best Costume Design of a Musical

WINNER: Qween Jean, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Linda Cho, Ragtime
Linda Cho, Schmigadoon!
Ryan Park, The Lost Boys
David I. Reynoso, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show

Best Lighting Design of a Play

WINNER: Jack Knowles, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Isabella Byrd, Dog Day Afternoon
Natasha Chivers, Oedipus
Stacey Derosier, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Heather Gilbert, Bug
Heather Gilbert, The Fear of 13

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

WINNER: Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Kevin Adams, Chess
Jane Cox, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Donald Holder, Schmigadoon!
Adam Honoré, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Adam Honoré and Donald Holder (Lighting Design) and 59 Studio (Projection Design), Ragtime

Best Sound Design of a Play

WINNER: Mikaal Sulaiman, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Justin Ellington, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Tom Gibbons, Oedipus
Lee Kinney, The Fear of 13
Josh Schmidt, Bug

Best Sound Design of a Musical

WINNER: Kai Harada, Ragtime
Kai Harada, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Adam Fisher, The Lost Boys
Brian Ronan, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Walter Trarbach, Schmigadoon!

Best Choreography

WINNER: Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, CATS: The Jellicle Ball
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ani Taj, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show
Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant, The Lost Boys

Best Orchestrations

WINNER: Doug Besterman and Mike Morris, Schmigadoon!
Ethan Popp, Kyler England, Adrianne "AG" Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann, The Lost Boys
Lux Pyramid, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brian Usifer, Chess
Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Wilson, Trevor Holder and Doug Schadt, CATS: The Jellicle Ball

Copyright 2026, NPR

Flying vampires. A musical spoof of the megahit movie “Titanic.” Another spoof, this time of golden-age Broadway musicals. And a new “Death of Salesman,” one of America's most decorated and mournful plays. It's Tony Awards time.

Twenty-four Broadway shows will hope to nab at least one win Sunday across the 26 Tony categories, which can mean the difference between keeping the doors open and pulling down the curtain.

Grammy Award-winner Pink is the host of the show, which will be broadcast live on CBS and streaming for Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. to both coasts on Sunday from 8-11 p.m. Eastern/5-8 p.m. Pacific.

Three generations of Pink's family

Pink promises a big, honking opening number — written by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Mark Sonnenblick that ends with some 170 people on stage — with lots of costume changes and some wire work, which she is familiar with from her acrobatic concerts. She has tapped Amber Ruffin, a writer and performer for “Late Night with Seth Meyers” for help with jokes.

In the audience will be Pink's mother — who took her to shows growing up in Philadelphia, instilling a love of musicals — and Pink's two children, a passing of the musical theater baton. Pink's 15-year-old daughter, Willow, is an aspiring theater actor and urged her to host the Tonys.

“The biggest reason she wanted me to say ‘yes’ was so that she could have a seat at the show because she loves the show so much,” says Pink. “I was like, ‘I can probably get you a seat anyway.’”

Plenty of performances

There will be performances from the seven best new musical and best musical revival nominees: “The Lost Boys,” “Schmigadoon!,” “Titanique,” “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “Ragtime” and “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Other performances include the original lead cast members of “The Book of Mormon” — Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley and Nikki M. James — this year celebrating its 15th anniversary. Leslie Odom, Jr. will sing “Without You” from “Rent” during the In Memoriam section, in honor of that show’s 30th anniversary.

Another show celebrating a milestone, “Chicago” now at 30, will have a performance slot featuring Pink, as well as Queen Latifah, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren, Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt and Dylan Mulvaney. Plus, “A Chorus Line,” which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary, will get a special tribute by Rachel Zegler.

The musical and play races

The competition for best new musical is between four very different shows: “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” an opposites-attract rom-com; “The Lost Boys,” a stage adaptation of a 1987 teen movie vampire thriller; “Schmigadoon!,” which gently mocks golden-age Broadway shows; and “Titanique,” a camp musical comedy that reimagines the 1997 movie “Titanic.”

The two top best play nominees are “Giant,” exploring accusations of antisemitism against children's author Roald Dahl, and “Liberation,” about a consciousness-raising women’s group in the 1970s that explores inequality, gender roles and racism.

There are intriguing races in both the revival categories: A “Death of a Salesman” led by Nathan Lane is competing for best play revival with a modern-set “Oedipus” led by Marc Strong and a sweet “Every Brilliant Thing” starring Daniel Radcliffe.

The best musical revival pits a new “Cats” reimagined as a “Pose”-like competition show, the sweeping American history show “Ragtime” and a rollicking, frisky “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Bill Rauch, who secured his first Tony nomination for co-directing the reimagined “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” was a nominator for three seasons until this one and is impressed by the range now on Broadway.

“I look at everything as an artist within the season, but also as somebody who has seen the wealth of work on Broadway for three years running,” he said. “I just think there’s so much variety on Broadway and so many artistic risks that people take. I left my three years as a nominator really impressed by the landscape, I have to say. And I feel that this year as well.”

June Squibb became the oldest Tony-nominated actor in history at 96 and could become the oldest Tony winner if she hears her name called, surpassing Lois Smith who was 90 when she won in 2021. And Lane is hoping for his fourth Tony for “Death of a Salesman,” which would make him tied as the most-awarded male performer in Tony history, alongside Boyd Gaines and Frank Langella.

For the last five years, the sharpening of a giant pencil sculpture has dominated social calendars for the first week of June.

The 20-foot tall No. 2. pencil sits in the yard of John and Amy Higgins. The story goes that a few years ago an oak tree was damaged in a storm and instead of removing it, they consulted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad who turned it into a pencil.

Now, thousands of people gather annually for a party in the Lake of the Isles neighborhood with costumes, pencil hats and of course, commemorative No. 2 pencils to take home.

Amy said at first, her expectations were low. Would people really come out on a summer day to watch a pencil sculpture be sharpened? She did not expect the event to become a viral local moment.

“We thought maybe a couple 100 would be a lot, and the first year I think maybe we had 300 or 400 but then it’s just gotten bigger as more people hear about it, and now last year I think it was about 4,000,” she said. “I mean, it’s crazy that it’s grown that much but it speaks to people’s yearning for some fun and you know, just joy.”

Amy said people from up to 30 different states and even a few countries have made the journey to the pencil. Her favorite part of the sharpening is the sense of community the day has created, and pride to live in Minneapolis.

“We just love Minneapolis. We love the people here, it's a very welcoming community and very community-minded as everyone knows from the past year. It brings us a lot of happiness to do this,” she said.

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Fans gathered Saturday for a free, all-ages block party and sing-along as part of Prince Celebration 2026.

A couple thousand people dressed in purple packed the intersection in front of the Prince mural Saturday evening to sing along to his greatest hits. Puppets from Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, including a large white dove and a puppet version of Prince, moved through the crowd.

A 100-voice community choir led the sing-along to Prince’s biggest hits, directed by Sanford Moore, musical director of jazz ensemble Moore By Four, outside of First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The event is part of several days of celebrations for what would have been Prince's 68th birthday. April marked the 10th anniversary of his death.

Ben Johnson, the arts and cultural affairs director for the city, got the idea of the sing-along from festivals in Estonia where tens of thousands of people sing. The Estonian Song Festival started in 1869 and inspired resistance against Soviet control of the country.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, if we could just make the ground shake in Minneapolis with thousands of people singing Prince, that would be a really glorious moment,” Johnson said.

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The space can fit about 10,000 people, but Johnson expects it to reach over 15,000. Prince performed frequently at First Avenue and it served as the central location in Prince’s blockbuster film “Purple Rain.” When Prince died in 2016, thousands of fans gathered outside First Avenue and sang his songs.

Nearby is the 100-foot mural of Prince that debuted in 2022.

“Nothing Compares 2 U” will be sang as a tribune to the city of Minneapolis and “Sometimes it Snows in April” as a dedication to Prince’s death, according to Johnson.

Moore said for months he has been in the depths of Prince’s catalog to focus on the meanings of the songs and learning all of the lyrics. Ages of those in the choir range from middle schoolers to late 70s. Moore said even if you don’t know all the words — don’t worry. There will be lyrics on screens and the point of the sing-along is to honor Prince.

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“I’m really looking forward to having this experience and all those voices just singing along and paying tribute to this genius of a man,” he said. “I really want them [attendees] to feel that they have celebrated Prince in a magnificent way and that the community of this great city in the Twin Cities has come together to really acknowledge his contribution to the music scene.”

He’s most looking forward to performing hits like “1999,” “When Doves Cry” and “Kiss.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Kari Meutsch of Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, Vt., loves recommending Katherine Arden’s novels to readers who enjoy historical fiction and want to dip their toes into fantasy. “The history is so well researched that it almost makes the magic and the folklore seem just as real,” Meutsch says.

Arden’s bestselling Winternight Trilogy was set in medieval Russia, and Meutsch says Arden’s new novel, “The Unicorn Hunters,” out this week, “feels like spring: it just feels like growth and promise.”

“The Unicorn Hunters” follows Anne of Brittany (1477-1514), a politically savvy Duchess of Brittany and twice queen consort of France, who did everything in her power to preserve Brittany’s independence. She died without a male heir, and Brittany ultimately became part of France.

But what would have happened if she had magic?

That’s the question of “The Unicorn Hunters.” The novel does indeed involve a unicorn hunt as well as the fairy realm.

“So Anne has the opportunity to try all of these other ways to save her kingdom. Or, it might destroy her; you don't know,” says Meutsch.

“Katherine has such a beautiful way of writing. I really loved the whole package of this book.”