The Cedar Commissions concert series returns this weekend with early-career artists performing new works across forms, from Somali verse and jazz-infused hip-hop to Midwestern folk and rock opera. 

The Black Europe Film Festival follows with three days of Afro-diasporic cinema split between the Main Cinema and the Capri. At Northrop, The Poetic Diaspora celebrate their latest album with a concert featuring Nur-D and other local performers. 

Chamber-folk confessionals

For two nights at the Cedar, six emerging musicians will have the chance to debut personal, genre-bending compositions as part of the Cedar Commissions program. 

Among them is Venezuelan American singer-songwriter Valentine Lowry-Ortega, whose folk songs with the band Gill Weather addresses queer identity in rural Minnesota, neurodivergence and childhood trauma. 

Before forming Gill Weather, Lowry-Ortega studied acting in college but said the program became isolating. 

“I think there’s a lot of issues in all of the entertainment industry but theater specifically, was very difficult for me,” they said. “I was getting bullied by people because I’m autistic and I’m just a little different, so I felt very alienated and ostracized in my program. To cope with all of these different things, I started writing music about my experiences and what I was feeling in college, and I started to make sense of my world that way.”

Rather than performing scripts written by others — and often cast into BIPOC roles as the only Latinx student in the program — they began writing songs privately. 

“I’m the kind of person who really only writes a song when something’s getting on my nerves or really bothers me,” they said. “It’s how I purge things out.”

Listening to Gill Weather is like being let in on a secret, placing the listener alongside Lowry-Ortega as they process personal experiences. 

“Abuse is so isolating and it can feel embarrassing and shameful,” they said. “You don’t want to tell people about your experience, even if they ask you, truthfully, to tell them more about yourself because you don’t want to be like ‘Well, I was sexually assaulted and then I got abused.’ It kind of feels like you’re trauma dumping but sometimes it’s the real truth of what you experienced.”

For the new Cedar Commission’s work, Lowry-Ortega incorporated chamber instrumentation to support the storytelling. 

“Being with a group of musicians who really understand the sound I’m going for, who respect my identity, the lyrics and the stories I’m trying to tell is so important to me,” they said. “Three of us [in Gill Weather] are trans or nonbinary, and we all have these shared experiences and identities. I think because I have these great people that I love being around, I want to invest in the project more.” 

Friday night features poet and hip-hop artist Deeq Abdi, folk singer Creekbed Carter Hogan and pop performer Bryn Battani. 

Lowry-Ortega performs Saturday night alongside poet Gregory Bess and singer-songwriter Mikey Marget. 

Black life in Europe

The Black Europe Film Festival returns for its second year with a weekend of film screenings exploring the theme “Afro-pasts, Afro-futures.” 

At the Main Cinema on Friday, the film “Hanami” follows a young girl growing up on the volcanic island of Fogo in Cape Verde. After being abandoned at birth by her mother, she navigates an island that everyone else is desperate to leave. The film explores the tension between staying and leaving one’s birthplace. 

At the Capri Theater on Saturday, “Memory of Princess Mumbi,” takes us to 2093, following a young documentarian in a world where ancient kingdoms have risen and AI has taken over the film industry. 

The festival closes on Sunday with “Focus on Ethiopia,” a series of short films from the next generation of filmmakers. 

The Poetic Diaspora

Minneapolis poet Joe Davis and The Poetic Diaspora, a new ensemble of Twin Cities vocalists and musicians, are launching their album “Diaspora: On the Rise” with a release party at Northrop Auditorium this Saturday. The evening will feature performances by Nur-D, KnownMpls, Brandyn Tulloch, Endia Tierra, and more, celebrating Black joy through music. 

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