Minnesotans think of all kinds of cool stuff to keep being cool in the winter, and I've been really impressed by the creativity I've witnessed here since being back home to help out my family. No one lets winter slow things down much at all, and no one is afraid to be outside, as the old adage here goes, there is no bad weather, just bad clothing. So, I bundled up my Mom the other day and went all around Minneapolis to find Art In Ice, the ice sculptures of famous art works put on by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Minneapolis Park Board (site of my Mom's recent exhibition, Foot In The Door!) We decided to make a big circle around the city, and started with Longfellow Park, which featured Veiled Lady by Rafaello Monti done in ice. It was easy to find because there was a crowd gathered around the beauty, taking photos as it gently started to drip under the quickly warming conditions (Hurry if you go search for them! They're up til the 28th, but I don't think they'll last that long.). It was lovely, but we couldn't linger long if we wanted to find them all in the daylight. Off to Boom Island!
I'd never been to Boom Island Park there on the banks of the Mississippi in downtown Minneapolis. The skyline outlines the park, and it's a lovely little bit of peace in the middle of the city. A little crowd had gathered there too, around the Aphrodisiac Telephone by Salvador Dali. The original lobster phones (?) created by the Surrealist actually worked. I'd have liked to have been privy to the meetings where they decided which MIA works they were going to create out of frozen water ... and I like that they went with funkier, less obvious choices. Like a lobster telephone.
Our big circle took us next to North Commons Park in North Minneapolis, where the Celestial Horse was right there next to the parking lot - Mom didn't even have to get out to see it. The heavenly horse was done in bronze for a Chinese Emperor to be escorts to the afterlife. The ice version was so clear that I had to wait for people to get out of the way because you could see them perfectly through it. How do they get it so clear, I wonder? It was beautiful, and I believe it tied with the Veiled Lady for top in my heart.
We were losing light, so raced on over to the park right across from MIA, the Washburn-Fair Oaks Park. There they featured Van Gogh's Olive Trees, but this time it was really just the picture in an ice frame. I suspect it is not the original. We spent the least time here, though were tempted to pop into the museum again. But our light was waning, so to Lake Bde Maka Ska we flew.
There were a lot of people gathered around Your Dog by Yoshitomo Nara there at the end of the lake where they have the rentals and things, and the brightly painted Adirondack chairs. Everyone loves dogs, and this one was probably the most popular among viewers ... so popular, in fact, that someone had broken off the dog's tail, and replaced it in the middle of its back like a strange growth. It was still cool, and we particularly enjoyed the dog's little red nose.
We did it! We saw them all in one afternoon, and greatly enjoyed being out of the house seeing art out there in our neighborhoods, and SO many people appreciating it. Minnesota - cold nose, warm heart. Thank you to MIA for another excellent curation of accessible art for the people of Minneapolis. We really enjoyed it, and very much look forward to seeing what you get up to next. You're cool.
{I hear the dripping of icicles off of our eaves right now as I type and the sun shines outside, telling me that you have increasingly less time to go see these ice sculptures as they were meant to be, and not puddles. Chop chop!}
One of our favorite field trips last year was to visit the Franconia Sculpture Park near Taylor's Falls, Minnesota. It was a super cool day, full of discovery and awe. Franconia seems to have their mitts in a lot of things, because I saw installations by them at the Art Shanties on Lake Harriet this past winter, and just recently saw one of their sculptures by Lake Nokomis. I read that they were having a grand opening of their new "Commons" building this last Saturday, so off we went on our fall color drive.
The scenery was spectacular on the drive up, with us oohing and ahhing the entire way at all of the red, orange, and gold leaves we were seeing. It was awesome. We took it slow, so we wound up getting to Franconia in the later afternoon, just in time for their ribbon-cutting and speeches for the new facility.
Now, LAST year Franconia couldn't have been more accommodating with our party, which included my recently disabled Mom. They hooked us up with a golf cart, and we were able to speed Mom around and right up to all of the sculptures positioned around the vast acreage of the park. THIS year - and maybe it was because of the Commons hoopla, but still - not a single staff member or volunteer offered to help us, and really couldn't be bothered to care. They could all see me struggling to push Mom's wheelchair through the ankle-deep gravel that the trails are created from, and we were going nowhere fast. And I was getting mad, looking at all the empty golf carts.
Mom saw me fuming, and told me to leave her and go off and look at things, because she's cool like that. But she shouldn't have to be. A lot of the work was the same as last year, so I darted around quickly to see anything that I thought looked new, so I could take a photo of it and go back and show Mom on my phone (lame). I saw the wooden woven basket one that we saw last year, but it looked so pretty with the autumn leaves that it gets to make another appearance.
There was a kind of Mad Max looking monster out of metal nearby ... not my thing, but it looked cool and hard to make.
The grounds are VAST (which is why there should be readily available and free golf carts for the disabled), and that's part of the coolness of it. You never know what will be around the next corner. Probably my favorite of the new work that I saw was The Compact, 2019 by Eliza Evans. It was three female forms made out of concrete, and meant to "examine the compression of individual agency over millenia and our more contemporary assent to the myriad ways we are surveilled, measured, and archived." O.K. It's rare that I see all of what a sculptor says is there or that I really get what they mean visually as compared to what they say it means ... but I'm always up for it. Women Power.
What's Inside, 2019 by Gabrielle Raye Cordes was a blue blob (a body organ?) that "informs relationships between architecture and the body, and the similarities between the two." There are windows, but not doors, as you're not meant to enter. It would be like going up someone's nose. During a time when one's personal space is particularly important, this one's subject matter resonated a bit more clearly.
An outdoor basketball court on the grass was really Dirtball, 2019 by Kosmologym. As you dribble the ball, you break apart and release minerals into the ground, that helps the soil flourish.
As the soil gets richer, it's better able to pull carbon dioxide from the air and reduce global warming! We actually NEED this sculpture! Sculpture with a meaningful purpose is my favorite kind of sculpture.
I love a bird house, and there was a Vegas hotel sized bird house there in the middle of the prairie, that looked to have very few vacancies - even during Covid.
Betsy Alwin of St. Paul, MN created the sculpture titled Vaticinium Ex Eventu which translates to "A prophecy for an event after the fact." The placard said that this concrete and rebar structure indicate the beauty and the chaos inherent in our human condition. I looked at it, and again said, "O.K.", shrugged, and moved along. It would be cool to tour Franconia with the artists sometime, because the explanations on the placards are always a little bit too precious for me, and I want to hear the real nitty-gritty of what they meant. I'll look into it.
Pollinator Rhyton, Agave, and Bats, 2020 by Rachel Frank based on an ancient offering vessel, and like Dirtball, it points out the art's connection to the natural world. Its focus is on the relationship between the agave plant and its pollination by bats - and also its relationship within the park and all the wildflowers and grasses that surround it. Now, that is pretty easy to wrap my head around, and a welcome new addition to Franconia.
Mark di Suvero of NYC showed his Gorky's Pillow, 1987 - a creation of painted steel. di Suvero is a lifelong activist for peace and social justice, and created the Socrates Sculpture Park on a landfill in NY's East River ... but the placard offered no explanation for this particular piece of his. I just thought it looked cool - and if it has a hidden social justice meaning - even better.
There was a newly constructed (I could smell the wood) little open shed to sit in and reflect that was lovely ... but I didn't want to live Mom sitting by herself for very long, so I just did the Griswold nod and headed back to her.
By now, Mom really needed to use the restroom. The only restrooms are inside the new Commons building, and they weren't letting anyone in until after 4:00 pm to give tours of the new space. There are zero other restroom options, not even PortaPotties anywhere. As it was just after 3:00, we were not waiting until after 4:00. Several people wearing laminates told us we'd have to wait - the same people who saw me struggling with the wheelchair in the gravel that told me I'd have to wait until after 4:00 to get a golf cart - as they sat there idle. Well, I absolutely wasn't having it, and pushed Mom right through the doors and straight to the bathroom. And guess what?! No one died from us going in! The tours went on! Whoever needed to still got to feel exclusive! It's really just a gift shop and a tiny gallery room, so I'm not sure why the tours were taking so long, but whatever.
I LOVE Franconia's art ... but this experience left me feeling that the staff is a bit wanting. Like, would they rather clean up after someone's accident than let someone in to use the only bathroom? Like, would it have ruined anyone's day to let us use a golf cart that wasn't being used by anyone else? Was it fun to watch someone nearly horizontal from trying to push a heavy wheelchair through thick gravel up a hill and not offer any solution? Mom and I were both a bit aghast - she to the point of asking to skip Franconia next time and just go look at the surrounding nature, which she prefers anyway. I get that they had a lot going on that day, but to ignore and unapologetically deny a person with disabilities is not a good look. K, there. That's off my chest.
*And Congratulations on your new Commons, Franconia! Just remember that there's some things that are still important during little ceremonies. Thanks.
I hope you will visit the magic of Franconia soon yourselves ... but maybe call ahead if you're bringing someone handicapped to make sure they'll accommodate you - because this was a total bust for my Mom. But "Start Seeing Sculpture!" for sure.
Today we all celebrate Juneteenth, the end of slavery in the United States! Well, not the real end, because it took two and a half years for the news to get to the entire country finally on June 19, 1865. And also not the real end, because Black Lives in America often still feel enslaved because of the awful treatment they continue to be subjected to - and that will no longer be tolerated in this nation.
In the weeks since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of brutal Minneapolis Police Officers (don't you wish the news would call that like it is? Instead of "when George Floyd died in police custody", or however else they try to lighten it up with), there have been actions in support of Black Lives every day, and they will continue until the police brutality stops (which they just can't seem to bring themselves to do - STILL), and there is justice and equality for ALL citizens. They just will. And should.
In addition to the marching and protesting that we simply can't let up on, it has also been a time for reflection and learning. There are so many resources available on how to be an Anti-Racist, that there really is no excuse not to.
There are several great films that I have watched in the last couple of weeks that really give insight as to what our Black brothers and sisters have been - and ARE - dealing with forever, and as to what absolutely must change. Start with 13th on Netflix.
After that MUST watch, watch Blindspotting. A harrowing story of what it feels like to be a Black man just going about the business of his own life, and being terrified about being killed by Police every single day. It's so tense, and I felt sick to my stomach that my friends have had to feel like this their entire lives. We all have to work together to bring them the relief that they are FREE and can live like they are.
I watched Seberg on Amazon last night, about the actress Jean Seberg, who became a star of the French New Wave, but was a country girl from Iowa who strongly supported The Black Panthers - and had her life completely ruined as punishment by our garbage government for doing so. I really identified with her, because I'm very outspoken about my feelings about the overt racism in this country - and just got out of Twitter Jail for it (as Trump is allowed to spew his hate and disinformation freely - disgusting). That won't deter me - nothing will. And Jean was the same way. Please give it a watch as you look for inspiration on how to be an ally.
Spike Lee's new joint Da 5 Bloods on Netflix isn't nearly a perfect film, but it does shed some light on what it was like to be a Black soldier in Vietnam, and how the U.S. Armed Forces put them on the front lines to die first, as they were considered expendable. Man, we sure have a lot of work to do to make up to our Black and Brown citizens for the horrors this country has put them through, even as they have fought to protect it. Shameful, and a permanent scar on our nation's face.
I'm halfway through reading Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, a beautifully written story about a young slave boy and the adventures of his life. Slavery is so disgusting, and when you read about the daily horrors inflicted on these people, you wonder how in the world they could ever even begin to forgive this country ... so the very least we can do - THE VERY LEAST - is to put an end to them being murdered by Police in our modern world. Like, it's just beyond shocking to me that it STILL happens - but then it isn't either.
We've clearly got so much work cut out for us, as reading any comment section on any post about this topic clearly shows. Some people - usually with a MAGA type profile picture - are so backwards thinking and so uneducated about life in 2020 that you almost want to give up on them - but we can't. We need them to STOP IT TOO. The daily videos of privileged white people still trying to oppress Black lives are so sad and embarrassing ... but I have to believe they're still acting out because they know their days are numbered and their pathetic little outbursts are the last gasps of a dying breed. They have to be.
And we ALL have to be advocates. Gone are the days when someone would say something on the edge of being racist and everyone just kind of moves on. That shit needs to be called out WHEN it happens, and made clear that YOU won't put up with it. Consider this fair warning that if anything like that is uttered in my presence, you will be made to feel like the gross dumbass you are. And you won't soon forget it. If that means I get less invites from people that like to be racist, cool with me. Bye.
I'm going to celebrate every Juneteenth with music by Black artists, viewing entertainment by Black artists, cooking from Black restaurants, and supporting all Black businesses. Today I went to the Calhoun Square (Bde Maka Ska Square?) in Uptown Minneapolis to see all of the murals that have gone up there since the murder of George Floyd by brutal Minneapolis Police Officers (maybe if we say it enough it will sink in). They are wonderful - and it would be great if they could be permanent.
In the three and a half weeks since George Floyd's murder at the hands of the murdering MPD, I have felt a unity in this city - and in this WORLD - that I've never felt before. Sane and compassionate people of all races and styles have all come together to insist that Justice is served for all Black Lives, and to insist that the days of ALL being treated EQUALLY is HERE. It's HERE. We're living it in real time, and it's something spectacular to behold.
We must not let up. We must not give in. We must stay united. And we must live with LOVE - for ALL. C'mon, Everybody! Once things are great for everyone, they really WILL be great. But not until then. To KNOW Justice - is to KNOW Peace.
Please, as a way to celebrate and honor Black Lives, PLEASE remember to LOVE, not HATE (as my friend's daughter, Lucy, painted here!) Just start there. With empathy.
There is so much to process, I needed a few days to mull it all over before I went went off on a rant for the ages. People are real touchy, myself included. The world has changed since the Memorial Day murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, and we can never go back to how it was. After so much grief and upheaval, it really does seem like the future will now be brighter - no matter what your race is. It HAS to be.
The last couple of weeks have been SO heavy, yet also so incredibly beautiful. The moments of true humanity and grace will stay with me forever, and give me the encouragement to hope against all hopes that this time - THIS TIME - really will be different, and that our country's future will truly be better and equal for us ALL. It HAS to be.
Pimento Jamaican Kitchen has been a real community leader through all of the uprising after the murder of George Floyd on Memorial Day. They have fed people, they have organized the donation drives ... they are honestly Nobel Prize-worthy. They are also fun. They hosted a "Summit" on Saturday at their location on Nicollet Avenue, as a day of peace and healing for everyone who has been so super maxed out stressed.
Art, Mural making, kid activities, Jamaican food, live reggae ... it was all the stuff I love on a regular day, but this time it was for the cause. It was for JUSTICE and PEACE. Because it HAS to be.
My dear friend and fellow activist, Rebecca, met me at Pimento, and we got to meet Tomme Beevas, the owner and ringleader of all of the activities happening in and around Pimento. What a cool dude, and what a good heart. The kind of heart we now all need to strive for in order to truly implement change. Because we HAVE to.
Nicollet Avenue was packed all day, with people walking the sidewalks and looking at all of the new mural art that has popped up since that day the world began to change in Minneapolis - because it HAD to. The soundtrack of the day was heavy on Bob Marley, which was totally fine with me.
A big, crazy thunderstorm moved in on Saturday night, so our outdoor revelry was cut short, but Sunday dawned very gorgeous, and very hot. There was a community meeting planned for Powderhorn Park in the afternoon, so I headed that way to see what the City Council was going to say. I hoped that there would be a call for real and systemic change, and boy, was I not disappointed! The beautiful park was full of concerned citizens of Minneapolis, all there because we need to stand together now to implement the ideas on all of the signs we've been reading at the marches the last couple of weeks.
*Speaking of marches - they are working. There has already been so many cases of people demanding accountability from the police, it's actually staggering. Minneapolis Schools and Parks have cut ties with the MPD. So has First Avenue and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. All four murderers of George Floyd have now been arrested. Believe me, NONE of this would ever have happened without the video taken of the murder. It would have just been yet another murder of a black man swept under the disgusting police department rug. But not anymore.
Keep filming everything messed up that you see, because that is really now the first line of defense. And stick up for people yourself! I'd really like to think that George Floyd would not have been dead if I had been there. I can't imagine not bum-rushing that sicko cop the minute I heard "I can't breathe!" I just can't. We HAVE to put ourselves out there to protect our fellow citizens of all colors if there is ever to be peace for everyone. Seriously. I've already had an incident at Augsburg Park in Richfield, with yet another gross, entitled white woman telling a Somalian woman she didn't belong in the park with her "Disgusting, yucky children." My heart was crushed that someone could behave like that, especially NOW. Racists are getting terrified that their time is up, and there will be more gross examples as they struggle to try to be superior - as usually their being white is about all they have going for them - at least in this case. We all simply must be better.
OK - back to Powderhorn Park. Speakers spoke, poems were read, and then the City Council President, Lisa Bender, got up there and said she was no longer a "reformist", and didn't believe that the MPD could be reformed. She and a veto-proof group of 9 council members straight up told the crowd that they were going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department! And look into how we can go forward with "Community Led Public Safety (CLAPS vs COPS?!). The crowd went wild, as it was exactly what we wanted to hear. This is obviously early stages of figuring it all out, but THAT is progress - in just two weeks.
Of course the arguments online began immediately, with an uproar (usually from suburban whites) about how in the world can there be a world without police? Well, to that I would reply, when was it last safe WITH police? Breonna Taylor was killed in her OWN HOME by police - they got the wrong house, shrug. Justine Damond (white woman) called the police to help someone else, and ended up being shot and killed by the police, in a case that I still can't believe. If you live in Venice, California - they just never come, and if they do, the person causing the trouble is usually back out on the streets the same day. I've had my own run-ins with the police as a blonde, blue-eyed woman, enough that I don't even think to call them. If I had to call 911, I would ask them to send EMTs (Heroes), never the police. And judging from all of the mass gatherings I've been involved in the last couple of weeks, the PEOPLE are way better at policing themselves. The only trouble I saw was both started and escalated by the police. Period.
The brutality we're seeing coming out of cities around the country has been sickening. Even on camera now, the police just don't care. I've seen maybe two good cop stories among the thousands of brutal ones. We will be better off without them, trust me. I know this is super controversial right now, but it's new. And it's been done before, with far better results for Camden, NJ. Also, for those arguing about defunding the police - Okaaaaaay ... but you were fine with the government defunding of schools, national parks, Medicare, food safety, the postal service, the sciences, and the arts, just to name a few? Please educate yourselves before you begin your panicked rants, because ... C'mon. You and WE can all be better - and scrapping the police department as it has been is a wonderful start. I can't wait.
After that large victory of a speech at Powderhorn, I headed back over to 38th and Chicago to see how even bigger the George Floyd Memorial has become. I mean, WOW. An entire block of Chicago is now painted with the names of the many, many people who have drawn their last breaths in the hands of police officers. Flowers had been laid on every name, and it was both beautiful and soul-crushing to see so many lives lost at the hands of those intended to protect and serve us. They have failed miserably at that basic tenet of their jobs, and are not even close to being worthy of the keepers of peace intention either. It's terribly sad what that line of work has become, and I'm really sad for the men and women that got into it to try to be "the good ones", because it's so systemic that they end up being bad too, just by being complicit and not preventing their colleagues from their dastardly deeds. The saying is "One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch" - meaning they're all spoiled by proximity, not that there are good ones exempt. (Please stop using that line of defense - you sound dumb. And why are you defending murder and brutality anyway? That would be a good self-reflection moment for many).
The street fair atmosphere continues, as so many people are coming to pay their respects and to see this place that has been plastered all over the news. The feeling of unity that lives there now between everyone there is beautiful and humbling - as the tangible feeling of solidarity is the biggest takeaway. It's now finally starting to feel like people are starting to really get that we are ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. That's always been a nice platitude, but when white people start realizing that black people being murdered by the police makes us ALL less safe - then change can really occur. And it MUST. We absolutely cannot let this feeling die among all the other deaths.
A block or so away from the Memorial is a big park field, now filled with cardboard gravestones of people who were also all murdered by the police. There are so many that it feels like a gut punch, and the people walking among the names were very quiet and reverent as they did so. The sad thing is that the artists add to it every day - because they can. They won't run out of names. And that is why we march.
A big cardboard fist had been erected in the middle of the circle of flower at the 38th and Chicago intersection. A fierce looking Black woman got up to have her picture taken, and raised her fist in the international symbol of fighting the power. I raised my fist back to her and we looked directly at each other when I took her photo. That is what it's going to take - people of other races looking out for each other - because we HAVE TO. I believe the majority of us have decided that enough has been WAY more than enough, and will now do what it takes to implement the real change this country so desperately needs. For the sad few who still don't get it and still argue online about how "All Lives Matter" (we know, we know -that's not the point right now), and how "It's just a few bad apples in the police" and care about the "rioting" (peaceful protesting) and having their commuter route messed up for an afternoon, I plead with you to educate yourselves, and learn how to be an Anti-Racist. Because when you say all of those above tone-deaf things - your innate racism and privilege really is showing, and it's not a good look.
To those who choose to remain on the sidelines and say nothing - that is a problem too. Now is EXACTLY the time to be speaking up and out, and worrying what your play group moms or whoever will think is not advancing anything - and prolonging everything. Think about the world you want to leave for those kids - and I'll bet it's not one where you have to explain to them why the nice officer murdered someone in broad daylight on t.v. as they shouted for their mother. I'm pretty sure that sucks for you too. I saw this yesterday, and share it with you now because it's so extra right on:
Pandemics are real, whether or not you know someone who is sick.
Racism is real, even if you aren't a racist.
White privilege is real, even if you don't feel it (but you do).
Police brutality is real, even if the cop you know is kind and just.
Your world isn't THE world Everything is not about you.
George Floyd was finally laid to rest yesterday in Houston, Texas, next to that mother he was crying out for (after a four hour funeral that also insisted that this time IS different). I think that's what has stuck with most people - because we've all been scared, and we've all cried out for our mothers - just not with a policeman's knee choking the life out of us.
And we're all witnessing what happens when we decide we're never going to allow that to happen again. As we slowly but surely get on the same page (aside from those sad, disgusting racists that you just have to hope die out soon and ignore and block in the time-being - and many are trolls/bots so keep that in mind before you self-combust with anger at the guy with something MAGA in his profile pic), the time for healing has begun. The time to maybe dare to have the audacity of HOPE, that we will one day be deserving of the name UNITED States. I'm pretty sure we can do it, and we're already seeing what happens when the People have the Power - and there will always be more of us than them. That too is hope.
So, as my favorite piece on Nicollet last Saturday said, LOVE TO ALL WHO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE! And I'd like to think that means love to ALL. The work continues ... and I will see you out there in the brighter, better future. Thank you for doing your part too. We need you. YOU.
I'll leave you with the video my brother Paul just released, using footage from my marching in Minneapolis, and friends marching in Venice. It's rad and so is he.
*I know I'm super left-leaning, and pretty radical to many of my Minnesota friends. I've lived in the Venice bubble of like minds for really long time, and it's weird to hear counter-arguments - or worse, silence - from some here that don't jive at all with my thinking. I don't apologize for my stance on these issues, because I know my heart is in the right place. I would ask anyone who disagrees with anything I have to say to first think about it, and see if you can find some common ground with me before you freak out. I bet you can. And if you can't ... you might want to go back and think some more, because I pretty much only care about justice for all - why wouldn't you?
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