In Minneapolis and Austin this weekend, artists are surfacing stories that travel across generations, borders and sound. Dancers channel the experiences of Minnesota’s immigrant communities, a storyteller reimagines our connection to Earth through Hindu mythology and the Karen story of “Muyehpen” returns to the stage. 

For a midweek dose of music, head to the Cedar on Thursday, April 30, where south Minneapolis powwow singer Joe Rainey goes electronic with the Wisconsin-based band Bizhiki. 

A dance of displacement

Back in January, while Operation Metro Surge was at its peak across Minnesota, Borealis Dance Theatre opened its doors so the community could sit in on rehearsals for “What We Carry.” While the show was originally scheduled for February, it was postponed out of safety for the performers and the community following Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the area. 

This weekend, the dancers will finally come on stage to embody personal histories of displacement. The dance production is a collaboration with Green Card Voices, a nonprofit that shares first-person stories from immigrants building community in the state. 

After Friday’s performance, a talk-back invites the community to meet the artists and learn more about the state’s refugee communities from Tea Rozman Clark, the executive director of Green Card Voices. 

An Earth Day celebration

If you’re looking for a way to connect with nature following Wednesday’s annual Earth Day festivities, join St. Paul storyteller Satish Jayaraj for “Hindu Myths About Nature” at the American School of Storytelling this Friday. 

His collection of stories explores our relationship to the planet, from a god’s battle to protect the Earth from destruction to legends of forest deities and classic scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. 

The legend of Muyehpen

Exposed Brick Theatre is bringing a piece of Karen history to the Paramount Theatre in Austin this Saturday. “Muyehpen,” by Asian American playwright Ehkhudah Zar, is one of the first English adaptations of a story that was kept secret due to fears of cultural persecution in Southeast Asia. 

The play follows Muyehpen, a girl who is magically born to an older woman after a lightning strike. While she is destined to bring peace to her people, her fate takes a dark turn when King Rama V of Siam (modern-day Thailand) is told that only her sacrifice can lift a generational curse. 

If you take the trip south of the Twin Cities, it’s an opportunity to see a story that has been passed down through generations, finally finding its voice on stage. 

Coming Thursday: Bizhiki and Jada Brown at the Cedar

In the 1990s, south Minneapolis native Joe Rainey spent his time after school at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue, sitting in on powwow performances and recording them on cassette tapes. 

“That’s how I learned,” he said. “I was a student of powwow singing for a really long time. I still am.” 

While he admired contemporary Indigenous musicians like singer-songwriter Keith Secola and blues-rock band Indigenous, he was just as interested in documenting the sound of the Minneapolis community. He began building a personal archive of traditional powwow music.

“What inspired me was where I came from,” he said. “I thought Native contemporary music wasn’t for me. I listened to different powwow vocals in the ’90s and I never thought that I would have the chance to do it on my own scale.”

That changed in his early 30s, when he began his solo music career — a path that led him to the Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival, an annual festival in Wisconsin curated by Justin Vernon of the indie folk band Bon Iver. 

The festival’s mix of electronic dance and traditional Indigenous music sparked a collaboration between Rainey and musicians Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings and Sean Carey. Together, they formed Bizhiki in 2019 — a Wisconsin-based band whose name means “buffalo” in Ojibwe. The band blends traditional powwow singing with ambient and electronic soundscapes. 

Bon Iver’s team showed an “outpouring of respect for what we did,” Rainey said. “Having a Midwest musical family made it really comfortable for us to step into our powwow voices.”

On Thursday, April 30, Bizhiki will perform their 2024 debut album “Unbound” at The Cedar Cultural Center. The project explores grief and humanity’s relationship to nature. 

Twin Cities-based singer-songwriter Jada Brown will open the show with a set of her own material, including her latest single “Charades.” 

If you want to dive deeper into Indigenous music, you can catch Rainey on TikTok, where he livestreams daily from 9 to 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., sharing his personal music archive with an online audience. 

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