A six-day Kwanzaa celebration will bring art, meditation and communal gatherings to the Midtown Global Market this weekend. At the Hook and Ladder Theater, Nur-D kicks off an early New Year’s countdown and Twin Cities musicians perform experimental jazz live at Berlin.

The launch of an elder collective

If you spend an hour with elder Atum Azzahir, the founder of Minneapolis’ Cultural Wellness Center, you start to see modern America through a different lens. 

You notice the way people rigidly stand in line at the grocery store, the distance we keep from one another on the sidewalk and the digital silos we retreat into behind our phone screens. For Azzahir, these aren’t just social habits. They are symptoms of a deeper disconnection. 

Born in Mississippi in 1943, Azzahir’s worldview was forged in the segregated South, where community was a requirement for survival. A recent trip to Kenya reinforced her belief that human beings are meant to be close. 

“Nairobi, for example, people walk, eat, sit, and drive in very close proximity to each other,” she said. “The population is dense — lots of people in what feels like small spaces — and I was sometimes amazed at the rhythm of movement.” 

In the United States, we guard our space with a vigilance that Azzahir finds troubling. 

“Culturally, at this point in time, we see ourselves losing our ways,” she said. “We don’t even know how to talk to one another, look each other in the eye and listen.” 

To bridge this gap, Azzahir is forming an Elder Collective to honor seniors as the essential keepers of Pan-African traditions, spiritual knowledge and intergenerational connection. 

“It’s going to take a few months for us to know many people will be part of the Elder Collective,” she said. “Besides studying, creating and collecting wisdom, we also want to be accessible to the younger generations who are building institutions and movements.”

These “keepers” will be the heart of this year’s Kwanzaa celebration at Midtown Global Market. From Dec. 26 through New Year’s Eve, the market will serve as a communal hub centered on Kwanzaa’s seven principles. 

This week’s events include creating a tapestry for Umoja (Unity), redefining wealth through Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) and exploring Kuumba (Creativity). While the market will be closed on New Year’s Day, the final principle of Imani (Faith) will be observed privately as the elder collective gathers with the Cultural Wellness Center staff to officially launch their work for the year ahead. 

“We have to restore and heal so that we don’t have to walk around with so much inside of us,” Azzahir said. “I’m envisioning a gathering where people feel a sense of belonging — a sense that when they go home, they are still not alone, even if they may be the only person in the car.”

Nur-D’s New Year’s Eve

Nur-D’s latest album “Chunkadelic” is an anthem for the unapologetically different. The queer Minneapolis rapper blends hip-hop, pop, funk and ’80s glam rock — inviting listeners into a world of love on “Windows Down” and fierce authenticity on tracks like “Chunkadelic” and the Mall of America-filmed video “Sandy Cheeks.” 

Nur-D’s New Years Eve Eve Eve EVE Party this Saturday at The Hook and Ladder Theater will feature The Rumors, a 13-member Minneapolis collective blending indie pop, R&B and electronic sounds, and other special guests. 

The duo forging Twin Cities jazz

As part of a December residency at Berlin in Minneapolis, pianist Kavyesh Kaviraj and trumpet player Omar Abdulkarim will record a live experimental album on Sunday, where audiences can become part of the project’s texture. Their performance will explore jazz as a living, breathing art form, drawing on hip-hop, gospel, R&B and funk. 

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