Arts and Entertainment

The Northfield Public Library is pleased to host a reading by local author and Carleton professor Gregory Blake Smith, as part of the Minnesota Book Awards Author tour, presented by Selco (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating).  The talk will be on Thursday, April 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Northfield Public Library meeting room.   Greg Smith won a Minnesota Book Award for the novel  and short story category in 2012 for his book The Law of Miracles.  He has written three novels, The Devil in the Dooryard, The Divine Comedy of John Venner, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times, and The Madonna of Los Vegas. His short fiction has appeared in various literary journals, including The Kenyon Review, the Antioch Review, and StoryQuarterly.

Dr. Paul Niemisto was recently named "Northfield’s Living Treasure." A special award ceremony took place on Saturday, March 9th, at the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra (CVRO) concert. Niemisto has created and led several musical ventures, including the CVRO, the Vintage Band Festival (coming again in the summer of 2013) and numerous other musical events throughout the years. Read about the highlights in the Northfield News and this esteemed citation that now resides at Northfield’s City Hall, compliments of Northfield’s Arts and Culture Commission.

Paul Niemisto, was born and raised in a small Finnish immigrant community on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, an environment that was rich with homegrown music.  Although his mother taught piano to kids outside the family, including some of Paul’s friends, Paul followed his own path and, in fifth grade, took up the trombone.  That path subsequently led him to a Doctorate in Music Education at the University of Minnesota and, eventually, after a slight detour to teach in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, to a teaching position at St. Olaf College, and thus, to Northfield. 

Paul’s impact on Northfield has been significant and sustained. 

Shortly after arriving here, he founded the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra which he continued to lead for thirty-four years, giving opportunity to local amateur and professional musicians to make music together, and providing the community with access to locally performed classical music they would not otherwise have had.

The world premiere of Paul Krause's new documentary, "Genesis: The Art of Creation" will take place 7pm, Thursday, March 21 at the Weitz Center for Creativity's Cinema.

The documentary features the artistry of local artist Fred Somers as he worked to create the largest and most significant painting of his long career. Fred has received numerous national awards for his oil and pastel paintings. Most recently Fred received the Bronze Award from the 2012 International Birds in Art Traveling Exhibition, International Association of Pastel Societies 20 Juried Exhibit.

Runs now through April 7, 2013 (closed spring break, March 23 - April 1)

Flaten Art Museum, Dittmann Center, St. Olaf College

Axis Mundi: Levittownis a re-invented miniature neighborhood deconstructing the ideals and pitfalls of the famous post-World War II housing enclave for returning veterans. Levittown remains the quintessential American suburb. This exhibit is an installation that includes a house constructed in the gallery, sculpture (mini houses), light, and sound.

The Defeat of Jesse James Days Committee announces the  2013 board members. Wayne Eddy serves as chairman, and the newly elected members are:  Hayes Scriven, General Chairman; Deb Anthony, Treasurer;, Margaret Haugen, Secretary; Danny Ayotte, Director; Mel Miller, Director and T. J. Heinricy, Director.

This year’s events are planned for September 5th-8th. After the Minneapolis Aquatennial and St. Paul Winter Carnival, the Defeat of Jesse James celebration is largest volunteer celebration in the state.  It is also the largest all volunteer in Minnesota and is always looking for new volunteers. If interested and for more information about DJJD, go to: http://www.djjd.org/ 

Thursday, March 7: As a solo artist and with his bands Carp 18 and The Bottom 40, Joe Fahey has been a favorite on the Twin Cities blues and folk-rock scene for decades. An award-winning and critically acclaimed singer/songwriter, Fahey's latest release, "Bushnell's Turtle," has been featured on 89.3 The Current's "Local Show" and locally on KYMN Radio's "All-Wheel Drive." The Tavern is especially pleased to (finally) bring this talented musician to Northfield. Of particular note to fans of artists like Neil Young, Jonathan Richman, Vic Chesnutt, Wilco and Josh Ritter. www.joefaheymusic.com.

Friday, March 8: Matthew Griswold brings his bone shakin’ voodoo grooves back to the Lounge, keeping your toes tappin’ and hands clappin’ all night long. His brand of foot stompin’ folk-rock pays a tribute to the Delta Blues with a side order of thistle and shamrock. Expect a repertoire of classic covers, reinvented traditionals and well-crafted originals. www.matthewgriswold.net.

"Harvest: A Community's History Founded in Bronze" will be shown four times on Saturday, March 16 on Twin Cities Public Television's Minnesota channel.

It will be shown at 1am, 7am, 1pm and 7pm.

Harvest is a documentary created by Northfield film-maker Paul Krause. It focuses on the creation of the sculpture Harvest by Ray "Jake" Jacobson.

The sculpture was created as part of the 150th anniversary of Northfield and can be found on Northfield's River Walk. The film not only shows Jake's creative genius but gives a detailed explanation of the "lost-wax" process of bronze founding.

For more information about Harvest, visit the website at www.DancingSun.biz/harvest.html

The Arts and Culture Commission (ACC) of Northfield, in partnership with the Friends and Foundation of the Library, is pleased to announce the winners of the City’s third annual Sidewalk Poetry Contest and congratulate them for their efforts.  Chosen from among 121 poems submitted for judging, nine poems have been selected for imprinting in city sidewalks.  

The Arts and Culture Commission applauds and thanks the many local poets who submitted their poetry to the competition.  We are pleased to announce the following winners, in alphabetical order, of Northfield’s 2013 Sidewalk Poetry Contest:

Scott Dominic Carpenter will read from This Jealous Earth Friday, March 8th, 7:30 pm at Monkey See Monkey Read.

A man puts his beloved pets to the knife; a family prepares for the Rapture; a woman in a department store slips a necklace into her purse. Whatever the situation, the characters in This Jealous Earth find themselves faced with moments of decision that will forever alter the course of their lives. Always moving and often touched with humor, Carpenter’s stories examine the tension between the everyday and the transcendent—our struggle to grasp what lies beyond our reach. Whether hawking body parts in a Midwestern city, orbiting through the galleries of a Paris museum or plotting sibling tortures in an Arizona desert, his characters lead us through a series of dilemmas of universal appeal.

The Northfield Arts Guild Theater will be holding auditions for the Shakespeare comedy Twelfth Night.  A much loved and hilarious offering from the Bard, Twelfth Night tells the tale of Viola, a young woman washed up on shore who disguises herself as her twin brother Sebastian.  Thought by all to be Sebastian, Viola must ward of the affections of the fair Olivia even while falling head over heels in love with the Duke Orsino. 

On Thursday evening, February 28, at 8:00 in the college chapel, Carleton College will present the only area performance of vocalist Shara Worden and New York-based yMusic in Sarah Kirkland Snider’s song cycle Penelope. yMusic was sheduled to perform in a second performance on Wednesday night in St. Paul as part of the SPCO’s Liquid Music series, but withdrew from the performance due to the ongoing SPCO labor dispute.

Calling Snider’s work “a gorgeous piece of music,” Pitchfork critic Jayson Greene writes: “The quietly devastating song cycle Penelope begins with an unexpected homecoming. A man returns to his wife's doorstep after 20 years in an unnamed war, suffering brain damage—a shadow of his former self. The woman takes this mournful figure in gravely, sorting through her ambivalence, bitterness, and grief by reading to him from Homer's Odyssey. The story’s parallels to their lives—a husband striving heroically over vast distances and years to return to his wife—become a psychological probe for the woman to sound the depths of her shell-shocked husband’s ruined mind. Speaking to him through the poem, she is able to gently coax him back from oblivion.”

This year the Vintage Band Festival will observe the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States, a tumultuous time in American history, but also a time when musical activity grew quickly and hugely among the citizens. Many new bands formed during those years to meet the ceremonial and entertainment needs of the troops, both Union and Confederate. As the war ended and the military musicians returned home, they brought with them an appetite for band music that spawned an explosion in town bands all over the country.

Many among us grew up attending band concerts in the village square, often at a bandstand. This was the main entertainment of the week in many communities, and these concerts helped to develop generations of music listeners and prompted the inclusion of band music in the public schools. Still today, in communities like Northfield, New Prague, Cannon Falls, and Faribault, weekly band concerts can be heard on a summer evening.

The Vintage Band Festival celebrates this important music-making by inviting several community bands from Minnesota to share their music on Aug. 1-4.

The Northfield Historical Society presents “Hops, Grapes & History,” a benefit event on Saturday, March 2 at the Grand Event Center in Northfield. The evening includes a beer and wine tasting from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring a hand-selected variety of Minnesota craft beers and wines; hors d’oeuvres; and a silent auction with a chance to bid on numerous goods and services from local businesses. Then from 9 to 11:30 p.m., the event concludes with a not-to-be-missed performance of “Guaranteed Cash,” a tribute to the songs and sounds of Johnny Cash, performed by legendary guitarist Bob Wootten (lead guitarist for Johnny Cash’s band for over thirty years) and country rockers, Six Mile Grove.

Please join us Saturday, February 23 at 7pm for an evening of music by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, the second of our events honoring retiring Library Director Lynne Young. With passion, style, and musical sophistication borrowing from the best chamber music and string quartet traditions, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet is one of the world's leading guitar ensembles.