In the Twin Cities art scene this weekend, artists turn to the body, the gallery and the page to tell stories of survival and belonging. At Red Eye Theater, five performers present unfinished works that move through Black lineage, queer visibility, disability and the cyclical nature of time. At All My Relations Arts, 15 Indigenous artists turn ancestral stories into contemporary art. And in Burnsville, more than 30 local Somali writers and publishers gather for an afternoon of storytelling, music and dance.

Black queer artist time travels through grief

In Red Eye Theater’s “New Works 4 Weeks Festival,” five artists share their “Works-in-Progress,” inviting audiences into the raw, evolving process of performance-making. Among the experimental performances this year is Twin Cities-based artist and movement therapist Bri Blakey’s “remembering future mornings — again and again.” 

Blakey’s work blends dance, poetry and Black quilting traditions to explore grief — both personal and political. 

Drawing from the aesthetics of science fiction and Afrofuturism, she frames personal and collective grief as everyday time travel, where mourning becomes a way to revisit the past and imagine alternative futures. 

“How do you get up every day and begin again?” she said. “I keep coming back to this idea that what we’re experiencing now has happened before.” 

For Blakey, history isn’t linear but cyclical — a pattern she finds “informative and activating.”

Over the course of several months, the five “Works-in-Progress” artists — Blakey, Snem DeSellier, D. Hunter, Jess Kiel-Wornson and Taylor West — met regularly to share works in development and offer feedback — a process Blakey described as “fruitful” community-building. 

The artists will perform each night, Thursday through Saturday, exploring themes like Black ancestral memory, queer embodiment, chronic illness, institutional violence and feminist resistance. A post-performance discussion with the artists will follow Friday’s show.

Blakey sees the festival as a space that invites both artists and audiences to arrive as they are. In a culture that often values urgency and resolution, her work encourages audiences to pause, reflect and sit with what remains unfinished.

“Being Black and queer has called on me to think creatively about how to move forward and how to live life even when it grates up against people,” she said. “These aren’t things I’m intentionally looking into, but they’re part of my own fabric.”

Indigenous artists explore origins of the world

 All My Relations Arts and the Native American Community Development Institute present “Creation.Story,” a traveling exhibit rooted in the oral traditions of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ — the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people. The exhibit brings to life traditional stories about the origins of time and the formation of the world.

Co-curated by Lakota artist Keith BraveHeart and David Meyer of the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, “Creation.Story” features the work of 15 contemporary Indigenous artists honoring ancestral knowledge and spiritual connections. Highlights include Marlena Myles’ depiction of Haŋwí, the Dakota Spirit of the Moon and James Star Comes Out’s buffalo sculpture made from buffalo hair, bells, beads and feathers, paired with a muslin-draped figure evoking the Lakota sun spirit, Wí. 

Book fair celebrates Somali authors

Darusalam, a community center in Burnsville serving the Muslim community, will host the second annual Somali Community Book Fair, founded by artists Fadumo Yusuf and Anisa Hagi, at Diamondhead Education Center. The event will spotlight  more than 30 local authors and publishers and bookstores, including Green Card Voices, Rabata, Baal Press and Diverse Voices Press. 

Programming includes a poetry session and a children’s event with readings by authors Fardowsa Yossuf, Marian Hassan, Mariam Mohamed, Nasra Noor and Mohamoud Mohamed, plus Somali children’s songs and cultural dances. Find the lineup of authors here.

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