When you think of trauma, you might picture a haunting memory that lives on in the mind. But in the Twin Cities this weekend, dancers, visual artists, and youth of color are showing where it actually lives: in the breath, the muscles and the nervous system — and the creative rituals that help set it free. 

Inside St. Paul’s Black Youth Healing Arts Center

“How do you deal with the trauma in your body? How do you regulate your breath? How do you make your mind slow down?” asked Darlene Fry, founder and executive director of the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood. 

Fry started searching for the answers in 2011 when she sat in her office as director of college and career readiness for the Ramsey School District staring at a report that said 300 high schoolers were not going to graduate on time. 

“It was very hard looking at those results,” Fry said. “There were young people attached to those numbers. Leaving without a high school diploma would really close a lot of doors for them.” 

After discovering that 90% of the students struggling to graduate had been in out-of-home placements between middle school and high school, Fry held listening sessions with affected youth, asking what would actually help them graduate. 

“They said they needed a voice and for people to understand their lived experience,” she said. 

Working with theater teacher Jan Mandell, the students created a play, “I’ve Got Something to Say, Fostering Voice,” which premiered at Park Square Theatre and was later performed for Ramsey County child protection staff. 

When the students stood on stage to give testimony to their own lives, Fry saw the future of her work. She founded the Irreducible Grace Foundation to give youth of color a platform to process their experiences through art. 

That effort eventually grew into the Black Youth Healing Arts Center but the youth had one request: drop the “foster care” label from the organization’s mission.

“They said, ‘We don’t want that label to keep following us. We want to dream something different for our lives,’” Fry said.

This Sunday, the dreaming continues with a weekly theater performance workshop helping youth of color and allies, ages 13 to 26, share their own stories. 

The space serves as a multi-disciplinary hub, with programming ranging from Self-Care Sundays and yoga sessions to weekly drumming, poetry and cooking workshops.

Playful work by ‘Fresh Eye’ artists

In a moment when heightened immigration enforcement hangs heavy over the Twin Cities, the “Everybody” exhibit at Fresh Eye Gallery leans into what many Minnesotans are trying to preserve: play and imagination. 

Through the work of artists like Deja Day, Lamine Richards and Yousha Tighe, the show celebrates the spectrum of humanity through vivid color. During the opening reception on Friday, the gallery will be collecting canned goods to donate to neighbors in need. 

Dance across the diaspora

The annual Mosaic Festival in St. Paul will bring nearly 20 local groups to the Landmark Center for back-to-back performances, showcasing everything from West African drumming to Venezuelan and Ethiopian dance.

Between sets, learn how to make a Chinese opera mask with artists from ArtStart or join author Trần Thị Minh Phước for origami. Grab food from the pop-up cafe, which will be selling empanadas, egg rolls and samosas for $7, with pastries for $3. 

Dyani White Hawk’s ‘Love Language’

Catch the final weekend of Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk’s mid-career survey show “Love Language,” featuring nearly 100 works from the past 15 years. Through painting, sculpture, video installations, porcupine quillwork and lane stitch beadwork, she traces the legacies of colonialism and the erasure of Indigenous histories, while pushing tradition into new forms.

Visitors can sink into cozy couches with throws and pillows designed by White Hawk, while experiencing “Listen,” a video series, produced with cinematographer Razelle Benally, of Indigenous women speaking in their native languages on their homelands. 

Another standout is the wall-sized canvas, “Wopila/Lineage,” made from thousands of shimmering beads, strung with the help of family and community members of color.

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