Events - Oct 2024

PLAY ABOUT CAREGIVERS RUNS OCT. 18-NOV. 3
Wonderlust Productions premieres a new play about caregiving: “Thank You for Holding: The Caregiver Play Project,” performing Oct. 18 - Nov. 3 at 825 Arts on University Avenue. The show, which is performed by both professional actors and community caregivers, asks the audience to consider: What does a community of care look like? How do we place a value on care as a society? Tickets can be purchased online for a sliding scale cost from $5-50, with a suggested price of $25.
For the past two years, Wonderlust Productions has been conducting interviews and story circles with almost 150 Twin Cities caregivers. These include staff at MSS (formerly Midwest Special Services), therapists at Creative Kuponya, caregiver support groups at Comunidades Latinos Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), the Karen Organization of Minnesota, and Covenant Living Senior Living, home health care workers, daycare workers, end of life doulas, educators, doctors, and more.
The full production features a mix of professional caregivers, at-home caregivers, and professional actors collaborating in a show that features the diversity of caregiver experiences, the joy and grief that comes with caregiving, the complications of the healthcare system, and celebrates care as the glue that holds all of us together. Advanced tickets available at wlproductions.org/caregivers/.
This summer and fall, Wonderlust created a series of audio plays accessible via QR Code in Downtown St. Paul, co-produced the show Every Brilliant Thing with the University of St. Thomas, and workshopped local playwright Brian Grandison’s play Redemption, about recovery in the African American community. Visit wlproductions.org to learn more about Wonderlust’s wide breadth of work.

BOOK FESTIVAL OCT. 19
Rain Taxi has announced its author event schedule for the 2024 Twin Cities Book Festival on Saturday, Oct. 19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The literary organization has curated exciting juxtapositions, conversations, and solo presentations that honor the year’s output of books in a wide array of genres. Along with the previously announced Book Fair with over 140 exhibitors, these author events will happen in the fairground’s vast Progress Center – home of the Eco Experience during the State Fair – on three separate stages. This FREE, day-long festival presents internationally renowned visiting authors, local literary heroes, and activities for kids, PLUS a giant book fair and more.

JOHNSON TO PERFORM NOV. 1
Local flutist/composer Julie Johnson will celebrate the release of several of her original works now available as sheet music at a live performance at Hamline University’s Sundin Music Hall, 1531 Hewitt Ave, St. Paul, MN, 55104, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at 7 p.m. The show will also be livestreamed; information can be found at https://ep.stretchlive.com/hamlineadmin/events/scheduled. Free admission. Freewill donations accepted.

RE-IMAGINING JUSTICE NOV. 19
The Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) will host its annual Re-Imagining Justice Conference on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Minneapolis. The convening brings together a diverse group of criminal legal system practitioners, scholars, advocates, impacted persons, and community members. This year’s conference theme is “Pivoting from Problem to Possibility”, which aims to foster a reimagined criminal legal system that is not just reactive to current problems, but also proactive in achieving truly just outcomes.