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MN Shortlist is your weekly curated roundup of recommended events from MPR News, highlighting standout performances, exhibits and gatherings around the region.
Historic Wisconsin Roadsides — In Conversation with Tom & Kristi Manus
July 12 — Just across the eastern border this Saturday, two travel writers will reveal the ultimate Wisconsin must-sees. These historic road-trip destinations are gathered in Tom and Kristi Manus’ new travel book, “Historic Wisconsin Roadsides: Towns Off the Beaten Path in the Badger State.”
Kristi is a Madison-area native, and Tom has since become a Wisconsinite after their marriage in 1995. Their new book is filled with over 1,200 recommendations. Included: memorable ice cream treats, Elvis’ favorite roller coaster, the home of the butterburger and a motel with an on-site music radio station. (Anika Besst)
Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair
July 12 — Nearly 40 booksellers from the used, antiquarian and rare book trade will be at the annual Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair this Saturday. Located at the Minnesota State Fair’s North End Event Center, this fair welcomes both beginning and experienced collectors.
It will include specialties of collectible books in all fields. Included: books for beginning collectors, first editions, signed books, fine bindings and books about social movements. Also on hand: science fiction and fantasy, art books, comics, children’s books and more.
Some vendors have decades of experience in bookselling, offering historical context for purchases. Many dealers also offer books and manuscripts connected to underrepresented groups. (Anika Besst)
Grand Marais Arts Festival
July 12-13 — This Saturday and Sunday, the Grand Marais Art Colony is hosting the 34th annual Grand Marais Arts Festival. The juried event is free and open to the public, drawing about 10,000 visitors annually to downtown Grand Marais (the town itself has a population of less than 1,500).
The event includes artist booths, live music and dance, along with art-making demos. (Alex V. Cipolle)
‘Amm(i)gone’
Through July 13 — Greek tragedy, Islam and queer expression mix in the regional premiere of “Amm(i)gone” this weekend. Created by East Coast theater artist Adil Mansoor, “Amm(i)gone” has been performed in the nation’s capital and is fresh off its run off-Broadway.
The play is metatheatrical, and follows Mansoor, a queer theater director, as he works on a translation of Sophocles’ “Antigone” with his devout Muslim mother. In working on the piece, the mother-son duo also works to recover their strained relationship. (Jacob Aloi)
Minnesota Salsa Fiesta! at Mill City Museum
July 13 — If there is one place that does not scream “salsa dancing,” it’s the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. But think again. This Saturday evening it’s the venue for the annual Minnesota Salsa Fiesta.
The event, which is hosted in the Ruin Courtyard and indoors, will be filled with music, dance and food. Two stages will be set up outside, with Cuban percussion star Yolanda ‘Yuya’ Rodriguez performing with a salsa orchestra that includes Twin Cities talent. The other stage will feature professional dancers and salsa team ensembles. There is even a free salsa lesson.
Inside the museum, there will be Latino food and drinks for sampling and art vendors. At 10 p.m., DJs will spin salsa favorites like merengue, bachata, and cumbia until the event ends. (Anika Besst)
Certified Binoche! and Lumières Françaises at The Main Cinema
Through July 17 — Juliette Binoche is one of the few French movie stars, a vrai vedette, to break through into mainstream U.S. culture with swoony films like “The English Patient” and “Chocolat." A three-film retrospective on Binoche, called Certified Binoche!, will be one of the centerpieces of Lumières Françaises, the MSP Film Society’s annual celebration of French and Francophone cinema at The Main Cinema.
This includes the 2000 thriller “Code Unknown” and the 2014 psychological drama “Clouds of Sils Maria.” There’s more psychological drama on July 13 with a screening of “BLUE” (1993), the first in Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors trilogy, loosely inspired by France’s motto liberté, égalité, fraternité — just in time for Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.
Other films of note include two biopics: “The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire,” about the mid-century anticolonist, feminist and Afro-surrealist author from Martinique, and “Niki,” about the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, famous for her voluptuous kaleidoscopic women (fans of season three of “The White Lotus” will recognize Charlotte Le Bon as the lead).
For a curious Minnesota connection to Saint Phalle, see this story about Minnesota artist Hollis MacDonald, in 1966, firing a pellet gun at her painting “Untitled from Edition MAT 64,” which is in the collection of the Walker Art Center. (Alex V. Cipolle)
‘Glensheen’
Through July 27 — In Minnesota, few true crime stories have had as much stay power as the Glensheen murders of 1977. Its infamy even inspired the musical “Glensheen,” which premiered in 2015 and has returned to St. Paul’s History Theatre year after year. The show’s book was written by Minnesota playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, known for his murder mystery plays and work on crime procedurals like “Columbo.”
“It’s always been amazing to us, it’s always been like an ongoing shock that they’ve kept asking us back,” Hatcher graciously said. “The fact that this seems to have connected with an audience, many of which come back … that’s something we could never imagine in a million years.”
Now, for its tenth anniversary, the theatre is once again staging the play, with a special birthday celebration on July 12. (Jacob Aloi)
‘Nazis … We Hate These Guys!’ at Trylon Cinema
Through Sept. — Indiana Jones, the von Trapps and Jack Benny are onscreen this month in films that look at Nazis with a mix of horror and satire.
The series runs through September with showings of movies like “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “The Dirty Dozen.” The next two in the series are “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” which are screening July 11 through 15. (Jacob Aloi)
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