The Twin Cities art scene is anchored in the power of music this weekend. Gospel choirs and jazz ensembles perform in celebration of Walker West Music Academy’s expansion in St. Paul’s Rondo community. The Hmong Cultural Center celebrates the qeej instrument at their fourth annual Hmong Arts Festival at Union Depot. Aztec dancers and Latine puppeteers bring movement and tradition down the Midtown Greenway, and at the St. Paul Art Crawl, textile art tells the stories of Peruvian women. 

Gospel, jazz and a new era at Walker West

When local musicians Rev. Carl Walker and Grant West began teaching piano in a St. Paul duplex in 1988, they planted the seeds of what would become Walker West Music Academy. This weekend, the institution will celebrate the opening of its first fully-owned cultural center at 650 Marshall Ave. with a two-day event featuring live music, community reflections and guided tours of the new space. 

Walker and West met while leading separate choirs at a church function in South St. Paul.  Already teaching piano lessons from their homes, the two soon decided to combine their businesses. Their first shared space, a duplex on Hague Avenue, turned out to be too noisy for residents. When their lease wasn’t renewed, they relocated to the basement of a former barbecue restaurant on Selby Avenue.

“The challenge that immediately presented itself was rent,” West said. “Our [piano] lessons were $7, and I remember saying to Reverend Walker, it’s going to take a lot of $7.”

Despite limited resources, the pair built a music program in the heart of St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, which has continued to offer the community a creative outlet rooted in Black musical traditions, including gospel, jazz and improvisation. 

“I think the uniqueness of ‘Walker West’ was it was founded by two Black men,” Executive Director Braxton Haulcy said. “It took African American men to come in here and say, ‘We’re going to take back this neighborhood, take kids off the street and we’re going to teach them.’”

The new center features Black liberation colors, custom wall coverings by Black designers, a recording studio, digital music lab, 200-seat performance hall, and 18 studios — each designed to either project outward into the hallway or tuck inward, creating an architectural call-and-response. The academy can now serve twice as many students — up to 600 per week — and reach over 5,700 program participants annually.

“This is a cultural destination,” Haulcy said. “We’ve been on a growth trajectory — when I first got here, our revenue was $450,000. This year, we’ll finish with $3.6 million and a surplus.”

The grand opening kicks off Friday at 4 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting. It will be followed by a performance by the Walker West Brass Ensemble, remarks from community leaders and a reception featuring food from Flame Kitchen. The celebration continues Saturday with performances from the student jazz ensembles, the Amazing Grace Chorus and the String Department Recital.

“There’s a whole lot of James Browns and Luther Vandrosses out there who have not had a chance to express themselves,” Walker said. “We are giving space so that music can be heard, revived and taught.”

St. Paul Art Crawl highlights Peruvian textiles, Indigenous stories

The St. Paul Art Crawl returns this spring with art exhibits, live music and local food across three weekends. At Mary’s Pence, a nonprofit supporting women-led social justice work, “Cuadros From Pamplona Alta: Pictures by Women of Peru,” showcases textile scenes of daily life, resistance and resilience from women living on the outskirts of Lima. On Sunday, the venue will also host a T-shirt printing event. Just two blocks away, Erta Ale Ethiopian Restaurant joins the crawl with food and beverages.

In the following weekends, Black, Indigenous and other creators of color will be featured at Art at 967 Payne, Urban Roots and Springboard for the Arts. At 825 Arts, Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble will present “Niizh,” an Ojibwe love story.

Caravan celebrates Indigenous, Mexican art

Kick off your Saturday morning with the Midtown Greenway Coalition’s “Jump Up!” caravan (traveling event) series, featuring live music, arts activities and puppetry. Each caravan begins at 11 a.m. on the Midtown Greenway, across from Venture Bikes and Coffee. This Saturday’s lineup includes a performance by Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue, a traditional Aztec dance group, and an alebrije (Mexican folk art) activity led by the Little Coyote Puppet Theater. At noon, attendees are invited to walk or bike together to Midtown Global Market. 

Hmong arts festival blends music and dance

The Union Depot in downtown St. Paul will become a Hmong cultural hub on Sunday as the Minnesota Qeej and Hmong Arts Festival returns for its fourth year. Hosted by the Hmong Cultural Center, the festival features 20 performances and celebrates the qeej, a Hmong reed instrument, and the khaen, a Laotian free-reed mouth organ. Performances include Hmong dance group Nkauj Hmoob Mankato, instrumentalist Mai Se Yang, hip-hop dance crew Cypher Side Dance School, and Iny Asian Dance Theater. 

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