Artcrank, Kehlani, Pickup Truck Opera: This Week’s Best Events

Welcome to Event Horizon, your weekly roundup of the best events in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and beyond. 

THURSDAY 8.6

“Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies”

Walker Art Center

Recently, Racket ran a story by Drew Ross about what trash and treasures might surface if we were to drain the Mississippi River gorge. By curious coincidence, a new exhibit at the Walker constructs imaginary artifacts from composite, fictional cultures that might be found in the river. In his first solo show, “Hydricosmic Litanies,” the Nigerian-born artist Olalekan Jeyifous, also known as Lek, draws upon Yorùbá, Dakota, and Ojibwe traditions to create stories about the interaction between peoples and the river. At tonight’s opening, he’ll be in conversation with curator Taylor Jasper about how the Mississippi informs the installation. You should check out Jeyifous’s Insta for a taste of what his art is like. And it’s Thursday, so the Walker gallery will also be free. 6 p.m. 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis; find more info here. Through January 3, 2027—Keith Harris

Fringe Festival

Various Locations

Theater fanatics: Your marathon awaits you. Every August, the Fringe Festival brings us a metric crapton of theater meant to be consumed buffet-style. Nearly 100 theater orgs, troupes, and houses are coming to town, so it’s not really cliché to say there’s a little bit of everything here. There will be comedies, there will be musicals, there will be biting social satires, and silly pieces. There will be gems, and there will be bombs. These are quickie productions mostly under one hour each, so if you find yourself in the latter situation, it will be blessedly short. But oh, when you find a gem it’s truly magic. Ask people in line or in the theater what they’ve seen and liked to help you find the best good stuff (or check in next week when we’ll be posting our reviews of as many shows as possible). Plan your Fringe by checking out the schedule at minnesotafringe.org. Through August 16—Jessica Armbruster

Déjà Móó

Pillsbury Creative Commons

Three years ago, massive music festival Coachella sent a cease-and-desist to Minnesota nonprofit Cow Tipping Press, which has hosted a disability literary arts festival called Cowchella for years. While that name has since been retired, the event formally known as Cowchella lives on. Rebranded as Déjà Móó, this year’s fest features a “mega-book release” from over 30 writers with intellectual and developmental disabilities, plus music from KRSM Radio, local jazz/R&B group Bakkwooddrift, and headliners LAAMAR. There will also be local food vendors and a disabilities arts and advocacy fair. In line with the festival’s mission, the event will be wheelchair accessible, ASL interpreted, and cognizant of sensory concerns (with a designated quiet area and a mix of indoor and outdoor spaces). Déjà Móó itself is not particularly bovine-themed (sorry to disappoint!), but I’m sure any cow-based accessories would be welcome. Free. 4–8 p.m. 3508 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis; find more info here.—Clare O’Connor

Kehlani

Armory

I’m gonna put my critical rep on the line here and call “Folded” the best song ever written and sung about meeting your possible ex at the door with his/her/their clothes and seeing if the spark gets rekindled. If nothing else on Kehlani’s newish self-titled album meets that high standard, it’s still their strongest since their 2017 debut, SweetSexySavage. You can tell everyone involved is taking this seriously because the guest list is so long; if anything, there are too many rap features, though most (Weezy, Clipse, Cardi, not Big Sean of course) add a little something. While many of their vibes-first R&B contemporaries place self-esteem before hooks, Kehlani loves a good song—so much so that when Babyface gets a songwriting credit here (on an Usher duet) I can’t help but imagine what a great team they’d make. With Durand Bernarr, Isaia Huron, TheARTI$t, and Waseel. $69 and up. 6:30 p.m. 500 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis; find more info here.—Keith Harris

FRIDAY 8.7

The Artcrank Archive Opening Party

Venture Bikes

For 16 years, Artcrank combined art and bikes in the coolest way possible—Bicycling magazine called it "cycling's coolest art show." The Minneapolis-born event, which started as a one-off poster party before becoming an annual affair and then going national, asked artists and graphic designers to dream up fun and unexpected bike-related designs. And it was a hit! "None of it has really seemed real," founder Charles K. Youel told Racket in 2023, the year he hit the brakes on Artcrank. "The one possibility that I was not prepared for was for it to be as successful as it's been in terms of appealing to people in the way that it has." If you’re among the bike lovers who miss it, you’re in luck: The Artcrank Archive is now on view at Venture Bikes, with hundreds of prints stretching floor to ceiling at the Midtown Greenway bike shop and hundreds more you can thumb through in flip racks. At tonight’s opening party, there’s a group ride, music, food, and a projection show on the Greenway. Free. 6–10:30 p.m. 2834 10th Ave. S., Minneapolis; find more info here.—Em Cassel

DECADE: Celebrating 10 Years of The Hook

Hook and Ladder

It’s a real accomplishment for a new venue to make it a full decade, and it deserves a celebration—two whole nights of hooking and laddering. (Pretend those words mean “eating and drinking” and “listening to music,” I guess.) The Hook has been holding it down since 2016, which truly feels like a different era, a time before its Longfellow corner became the epicenter of the 2020 uprising. Musically, Friday serves up a father-son lineup, with Alan Sparhawk’s Black-Eyed Snakes and daughter Hollis’s Willem Dafoe Fan Club, along with Duluth’s Entheos Enclave. Saturday’s lineup includes unkempt punks the Silent Treatment, soul man Nicholas David, the West Bank Social Club, and the Potluck String Band. And all the while you’ll be wolfing down picnic faves like watermelon and potato salad. Free, but donations are always welcome. 6 p.m. Fri.; 4 p.m. Sat. 3010 Minnehaha Ave.; find more info here. Through Saturday—Keith Harris

“Living Threads”

Rosalux Gallery

“What does it mean to carry a culture within you—its patterns, its language, its stars?” That’s the query explored in Hend Al-Mansour’s latest exhibition, opening this weekend at Rosalux. The Palestinian-American artist, based in St. Paul, creates engaging installations exploring life and the meaning of it, often with a focus on the experiences of Islamic women. This show is a mix of mediums, with embroidery work, painting, and large-scale screen printing, featuring nods to Middle Eastern architecture, American Sign Language, astronomy, and geometry. There will be an opening reception from 7–10 p.m. Friday, August 7. 315 W. 48th St., Minneapolis; find more info here. Through August 30—Jessica Armbruster

Twin Cities Irish Fest 

Harriet Island Regional Park

One of the funniest moments related to St. Paul’s large Irish community came in 1999, when Gov. Jesse Ventura explained the differences between the capital city and Minneapolis to David Letterman’s national TV audience. “Whoever designed the [St. Paul] streets must have been drunk,” Ventura said. “I think it was those Irish guys. You know what they like to do.” The Body/Mind proceeded to make the classic glug-glug motion. “‘BODY’ SLAM OF DRUNKEN IRISH BACKFIRES ON JESSE,” screamed a New York Post headline and, closer to home, the PiPress published reactions from local Irish-Americans, ranging from outraged to amused. Why are we relitigating all this? Because it’s still entertaining, and because Twin Cities Irish Fest—a celebration of heritage that, yes, features plenty of glug-glugging—returns this weekend to St. Paul. (Publicists have been emailing us about an “urgent” fundraising campaign to help boost Irish Fest; see details here.) As always, there'll be traditional dancing, food, drink (including whiskey tastings), sports (hurling, camogie, boxing), comedy, and vendors, plus loads of live music (the High Kings, Chasing Abbey, and Biird headline) and activities for kids. $30 day pass; $75 weekend pass; VIP options abound. 3–11 p.m. Fri.; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sat.; 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sun. 49 Harriet Island Rd., St. Paul; find more info here. Through Sunday—Jay Boller

Asian Street Food Night Market

The Pan Asian Center

Have you been to this much-loved Asian street fest in downtown St. Paul? If so, then you know it gets super crowded. Expanding the days it’s offered helped a bit, but now the event needs more room to spread out. So this year the gang is moving to Maplewood’s Pan Asian Center. There will, of course, be an insane variety of food—momos, meats on skewers, sticky rice, halo halo, eggrolls, boba—as well as a beer garden for those who like to wash that pad thai down with a cold Tsingtao. A variety of cultural acts will appear onstage, from traditional lion and dragon dances to modern K-pop groups, ending with club DJs in the evening. Kids’ activities will keep the little ones busy, and an artist market promises old-world finds as well as kawaii cuteness. Free. 4–11 p.m. Fri.; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sat.; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sun. 3001 White Bear Ave. N., Maplewood; find more info here. Through Sunday—Jessica Armbruster

Malcolm Yards 5th Anniversary

The Market at Malcolm Yards

Happy birthday, Malcolm Yards! This decade’s food hall craze has yielded mixed results, broadly speaking, but Malcolm Yards has carved a bona fide winner out of the industrial ruins beneath the UNITED CRUSHERS silos. Hell, if nothing else, the Prospect Park establishment has the best reuben in town, according to us. Kinsley's Smokehouse Deli rules, Bebe Zito rules, Saturday Dumpling Co. rules, Wrecktangle Pizza rules, and World Street Kitchen sucks. Just kidding—WSK rules, too. The food hall will celebrate all those vendors and more this Friday and Saturday with a b-day party that’s brimming with $5 food/drink specials; click here to see ‘em all. Local singer-songwriter Mike Bustin is set to perform Saturday evening on the patio. “What began as a vision to transform a historic building into a vibrant destination has exceeded our expectations, and we’re excited to continue evolving, supporting independent food businesses,” owner Patricia Wall says via press release. Free. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fri.–Sat. 501 30th Ave. SE, Minneapolis; find more info here.—Jay Boller 

Uptown Art Fair

Lake of the Isles

Starting in 1964, the Uptown Art Fair took place on Hennepin Avenue in south Minneapolis. Due to construction, in 2024 it was re-christened SoMi Art Fair and relocated several neighborhoods over to the scorching parking lot of Bachman’s Windom-area location, where it stayed for a few years and languished. This year, the Uptown Art Fair is back, kinda, returning to its original moniker and setting up shop in… East Isles, just a few blocks north of Uptown. But a lake is an upgrade from asphalt, and old mansions are better backdrops than empty storefronts, so let’s consider this an incremental improvement. Should you go, expect artists both local and national, food trucks, and live music. 1–7 p.m. Fri.; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat.; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sun. 2500 Lake of the Isles Parkway E., Minneapolis; find more info here. Through Sunday—Jessica Armbruster

SATURDAY 8.8

Pickup Truck Opera: Tales of Hoffmann

Various Locations

Each summer, Mixed Precipitation’s Pickup Truck Opera offers a mashup of classic works, modern tunes, and current dilemmas to give us a delightful show in the park. This year the gang will be taking Jacques Offenbach’s 1881 opera, Tales of Hoffmann (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), and turning it into an accessible romp for all. The story follows a roving poet as he crosses paths with both technology and the supernatural, from robots to ghosts. Along the way there’ll be grunge tunes, R&B anthems, and yes, some opera. Bring a blanket. You can find a list of locations and make reservations at mixedprecipitation.org. $5–$45 suggested donation; teens and kids are free. This week’s preview show begins at 7:30 p.m. at Bronx Park Community Garden, 2500 Georgia Ave. S., St. Louis Park. Through September 13—Jessica Armbruster

Creekbed Carter's Hot Dog Ball 

Cedar Cultural Center

Creekbed Carter Hogan’s new release, Peasants Revolt, collects just the sort of anti-capitalist country songs you’ve been waiting for. Inspired by the likes of Fernando A. Flores’s novel Brother Brontë and Julius S. Scott’s history of the Haitian Revolution, The Common Wind (but not in an overtly lit’rary manner), the self-described “court jester of the apocalypse” doesn’t flinch from the perils of our age (“I hear it’s warmer than it ought to be/Up at the mouth of the Mississippi,” he sings on “Burn”). But his bright voice addresses a world in flames without being a scold or a sucker about it. How can you not love a fella who sings, “When it all falls apart/Will you cradle my heart/Like the hot dog I’m dreaming of?”—especially since Carter promises ”medieval hot dog themed costumes” as well as consumable dogs from The Wienery down the street for tonight’s show. And look at me, I made it through this whole blurb without quipping about a certain still-raging civic scandal. With Pine & Fire and Jo Kellen. All ages. $20/$25 at the door. 8 p.m. 416 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; find more info here. —Keith Harris

SUNDAY 8.9

Twin Cities Brewvet

Forgotten Star Brewing

“Kind of like an alleycat, kind of like a lazy Sunday ride.” That’s how organizers describe the annual Brewvet, a self-guided brewery crawl bike ride to 10 taprooms in and around northeast Minneapolis. Everybody gets a hot dog and a beer at Forgotten Star’s finish line, and your registration also earns you a Brewvet-branded bandana and entry in the raffle. Complete three full circuits and you’ll get a few bonus prizes—plus, you’ll earn your rightful spot on the wall at Forgotten Star. Locations include Broken Clock, Fulton, Falling Knife, Indeed Brewing, and 56 Brewing. $30. Noon to 7 p.m. 38 Northern Stacks Dr., Fridley; find more info here.—Em Cassel

ONGOING

Sunset Yoga in the Sculpture Garden

Walker Art Center

You don’t have to pay money or hit up YouTube for a good yoga practice this summer. Free classes and special events are happening all over town. One great example: This weekly evening yoga session, held right by the Okciyapi piece in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Bring a mat and some water for this one-hour Vinyasa-style (pose focused) session led by the Twin Cities Yoga Cooperative. And if you’re really ambitious, you can do free yoga almost every day of the week, with train depot yoga (Mon., Wed., Sat.), Greenway yoga (Fri.), anti-fascist yoga (Sun.), and even cemetery yoga (Sat.). Free; donations accepted. 7:30 p.m. 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis; find more info here. Through August 6—Jessica Armbruster

Once Upon a Time in Manhood

Walker Art Center

This summer, our fancy modern art museum hands the keys of the Walker Cinema (I know that metaphor doesn’t quite work, just roll with it) to Dallas Goldtooth, who looks back on his youth and the movies that shaped him with a series of films from the '80s and '90s. Goldtooth is an Indigenous (Mdewakanton Dakota/Diné) comic/writer/activist who summered in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis; you probably know him best from Reservation Dogs, where he played William "Spirit" Knifeman, the somewhat unreliable warrior who appears as a vision to Bear. The series starts off with movies that feature Indigenous characters—Ron Howard’s Willow, Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans—and concludes with Taika Waititi’s Boy. In between come some touchstones of cinematic masculinity: Die Hard, The Shawshank Redemption, and Fight Club. $15 ($12 for Walker members.) 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis; find showtimes and more info here. Through August 14—Keith Harris

Taking the Scenic Route

Trylon

Road trips? In this economy? Fortunately, to save you the cost and hassle of driving across our large, dumb country, the Trylon is screening 14 cinematic road trips throughout the summer. And we’re working with a very expansive definition of “road trip” here, broad enough to take in both Chantal Akerman’s Je Tu Il Elle and The Muppet Movie, at least one of which is sure to sell out quickly. You can catch the muppets on Trylon’s fancy new laser projector, as well as Paris, Texas, because Nastassja Kinski deserves to be seen in the highest definition possible. A mess of these will be on 35mm film, including Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (a stone classic even if the dream sequence bored you in film class), It Happened One Night (simply one of the funniest movies of all time), and Two-Lane Blacktop (the definitive ’70s American road race movie). And each screening will only cost you $8, which wouldn’t get you enough gas to get out of the metro area. 2820 E. 33rd St., Minneapolis; find complete listings, showtimes, and more info here. Through September 29—Keith Harris 

Skyline Mini Golf

Walker Art Center

Warmer weather means it’s putt-putt season in Minnesota. Yeah sure, you can play mini-golf year-round in the North Loop, but it’s just not as whimsical an experience when you drop a course into a dimly lit bar with a “hot young singles only” vibe. The Twin Cities’ only putt-putt in the sky is back at the Walker, featuring 10 quirky holes made by local artists. New this year is Indhaha Dayaxa–Eyes of the Moon by Ifrah Mansour, a Minneapolis-based Somali artist who you may have seen performing at the Minnesota State Fair, featured on TPT’s Minnesota Original, or exhibiting works at the Mia. Return holes this year include the hot dog one, the one where you race via color, the one with ping-pong paddles, and the pool-hall one. Bring sunscreen and enjoy those views of Loring Park, downtown Minneapolis, and the endless Hennepin-Lyndale traffic jam. $12. 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis; reserve a time and find more info here. Through October 4—Jessica Armbruster