The Twin Cities arts scene this weekend is all about reclaiming a communal voice. Three new exhibits by Indigenous, Southeast Asian and Pakistani artists show what it means to belong and speak out in Minnesota today.

A Karen youth circle

Minnesota is home to more than 20,000 people from Myanmar (Burma), many of them Karen refugees who fled civil war in the mid-2000s and early 2010s. Now, a new generation is coming of age, transforming their history and heritage into a flourishing local art scene in St. Paul this weekend. 

Through a collaboration between The Urban Village on St. Paul’s East Side and the Center for Asian Minnesota Youth’s SEA Us Write & Design program, Karen youth will share what it means to resettle — from navigating American schools and language barriers to inheriting family sacrifice. 

“We’ve been oppressed for so many years and that definitely shut down a lot of our brains and created fear,” said program mentor and writer Ku Gay Nahpay. “We’re not exposed much in the art world but now we’re slowly growing that.”

The debut of the Karen Youth Circle exhibit at the Xia Gallery marks the culmination of a 12-week intensive art and entrepreneurship workshop. Participants ages 15 to 18 will showcase original artwork alongside a community-made literary magazine.

“They were definitely shy at first,” said program mentor and visual artist Eh Soe Dwe. “I remember our first session being dead quiet. We had to throw in some icebreakers to get them speaking and laughing. I think once you build that rapport with the students, they naturally bring out their personalities.” 

Through poetry, letters, family photos and visual art, the show is the seed of a new generation claiming an artistic voice in the Twin Cities.

“A lot of the time, our parents tell us the most successful careers are doctors and lawyers, and Ku Gay and I are kind of an example of what it looks like to choose differently,” Dwe said. 

“I hope they see themselves in the art,” she added. “As they’re reading the narratives, I hope they remember who they are and where they come from.”

A lesson in democracy

Pakistani American artist Fawzia Khan interrogates the cracks in American democracy in her latest exhibit “Fragile State” at Form and Content Gallery. Through text-based art and textiles, Khan translates the current political climate into a visual language: binary red and blue represent the partisan divide, while rainbow hues weave in the presence of marginalized communities. Two prayer rugs in the gallery become reminders of resistance through spiritual and communal practice. 

The exhibit’s interactive installation, “Lesson Learned,” invites viewers to participate in a symbolic act of schoolroom discipline. By writing the line “There are no principles, only interests” repeatedly on a blackboard, participants are forced to confront the dissolution of the country’s democratic institutions. 

Join Khan for an opening reception from 2 to 5 p.m. this Sunday, Jan. 11, followed by an artist talk the following week at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18. 

Poetry, tacos and Indigenous art

Multidisciplinary Dakota artist Marlena Myles is bringing a showcase of Indigenous talent to St. Paul’s F-O-K Creatives with Native Voices of Power. The open-call exhibit features more than 20 visual artists exploring the power of Indigenous storytelling, language, ancestry, and creative resistance. Catch the artist reception this Sunday for a gallery of new work, live poetry from nine local writers and an artist market featuring more than 10 vendors, including Trickster Tacos and photography by Jaida Grey Eagle. 

READ MORE

‘Stories that bind us’: Minneapolis exhibit centers Latina and Indigenous voices for International Women’s Day

North Minneapolis artist Namir Fearce builds a Black, queer sanctuary at MCAD

Minneapolis mosque rooted in African American tradition shapes a family’s Ramadan experience