Twin Cities artists are easing into summer this weekend with a concert at The Cedar’s outdoor plaza, a Minneapolis taco truck festival and the annual mini State Fair kickoff. 

At The Southern Theater, a dancer and theater artist reunite to explore the everyday labor of Pan-African women. 

Pan-African stories on stage

More than a decade before they would share the stage at The Southern Theater, Minneapolis dancer Leanna Browne and St. Paul playwright-performer Atlese Robinson first met as teenagers at Penumbra Theatre’s Summer Institute, a youth arts program rooted in Black storytelling and activism. 

At the time, Browne already knew dance was central to her life. She was raised in a Caribbean family with roots in Montserrat and grew up dancing at church, with cousins at family gatherings and in local studios across the Twin Cities. 

Robinson arrived at Penumbra much more timidly. As a writer and poet growing up in St. Paul, she never imagined herself onstage and initially enrolled in theater only to fulfill a high school arts credit. But the institute introduced both artists to a creative language that could hold personal and ancestral history. 

“In a space like Minnesota where the Black population isn’t as large as it is in other metropolitan cities, it can feel like you have to maneuver around the white gaze,” said Robinson, founder of the performing arts company Ambiance Theatre. Theater and dance “gives us permission to connect, to convene and to communicate with one another.”

This weekend, Browne will present “Kuumba: A Gathering of Black Dance and Theatre,” a performance exploring the ways Black women sustain families, cultural traditions and Pan-African movements across generations. The work is supported by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, with Robinson performing as a guest artist. 

“Often, when we talk about Pan-Africanism, we focus on men and political leaders,” Browne said. “I wanted to highlight Black women — named and unnamed — and the everyday ways we hold communities together.” 

Her new dance work, “Tuko Pamoja” (“We Are Together” in Kiswahili) features five dancers and draws from umfundalai, a contemporary African dance technique. The piece incorporates excerpts from a 1949 essay by Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones while examining collective survival through choreography. 

Robinson approaches similar themes through autobiographical storytelling. Her solo play “Chores” centers on her aunt Rita, whose life continues to shape Robinson’s family long after her death. 

“I’m sitting with what it means to be coming into my own,” Robinson said. “I’m in my 30s now and it just means something different to be able to document what our family contributed, the complexities of Black womanhood and what it looks like to be in a body that people both hypersexualize and demonize.” 

Though their mediums differ, both artists describe their work as part of a larger continuum of Black art traditions. 

“Dance has always been a way that we have created community,” Robinson said. “A circle will form at a party and that’s us going right back to the village without us knowing. To me, those are the things that keep us connected to our intrinsic memory of our identity, our culture and our heritage.” 

The fair before the fair

If you can’t wait until late August for the Great Minnesota Get-Together, the Fairgrounds will open its gates this weekend for the annual Kickoff to Summer at the Fair. 

More than 40 food vendors will serve everything from giant eggrolls on a stick and sambusas to Caribbean soul food and Mediterranean gyros. 

The mini-fair will also offer a second look at last year’s crop art exhibit, plus live performances from local ensembles, including the South Asian Arts and Theater House, Rondo Double Dutch, Colombia Live, and the Somali Museum’s dance troupe. 

Sounds of the diaspora

The Cedar is bringing the music outdoors on Saturday with a Summer Kickoff Party on its plaza. The lineup features West African pop artist Papa Mbye, Brazilian hip-hop artist D. Santos, and sets from DJs Nectar and Miguel Vargas. Check out Papa Mbye’s music videos here for a preview of what to expect. 

Tufawon headlines Minneapolis taco festival

Local Latin American bands and food trucks are heading to Insight Brewing & Taproom for Twin Cities Taqueria, a taco truck festival on Saturday. 

On stage, expect a mix of Latin rock from Calavrosa and Yuca Frita, indie R&B from Solana and the Sunsets, and rap from Indigenous and Puerto Rican artist Tufawon. 

You can grab Mexico City-style street tacos from Rosa Frida and Habanero Taco, Mayan-inspired pork tacos from La Cochinita, or Salvadoran dishes from Que Tal.

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