Summer Social: Free Event Series at the Walker Includes Summer Fun for All Ages
The Walker is the place to be this summer for an incredible array of activities! You’ll enjoy performances and poetry readings, exhibition openings and artist talks, tours, film screenings, art-making, and meditative movement, all with the opportunity to connect with friends and discover something new.
Some details subject to change, visit our Summer Social page for the most up to date information.
FEATURED EVENTS
Artist Talk and Tour: Angela Two Stars in Conversation with Darlene St. Clair Thursday, June 23, 6–8 pm
At 6 pm, Walker Chief Curator Henriette Huldisch will lead a short tour of Okciyapi. Please meet at the artwork located on the west side of the Garden, near the Parade Stadium Parking Lot.
At 7 pm, artist Angela Two Stars discusses her recent Walker-commissioned
work Okciyapi (2021) as well as her studio and public art practice with associate professor Darlene St. Clair. The multisensory, participatory sculpture Okciyapi (Help Each Other) honors the work of Dakota language revitalization and is the first public artwork by a Native artist to be sited in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The talk will be held in the Walker Cinema.
Free tickets for the talk will be available at the Main Lobby desk beginning at 5:30 pm.
Green Roof Poetry Series
The Green Roof Poetry series returns on three Thursday evenings between June and August. Green Roof Poetry brings together some of the Twin Cities’ most dynamic writers for literary evenings at the Walker. Grab your picnic blanket, stop at Cardamom’s outdoor bar to purchase curated picnic boxes and libations, and relax on the hillside for these fresh air readings.
Green Roof Poetry: Queering Juneteenth Curated by Free Black Dirt Thursday, June 30, 6:30–8 pm
Juneteenth is a story of liberation delayed. Freedom that came on in waves. Cresting as it reached new ears, cresting as it broke over new opportunities and new realms. And the ripples continue as we find more ways and places to get sovereignty. During Pride Month, we get to lean into our most unexpected, weird, eccentric selves. Insist on deliverance, on release. To live out loud.
Join Free Black Dirt in celebration of our individual and collective liberation. And the pursuit of more.
Featuring Junauda Petrus, author of The Stars and the Blackness Between Them (Dutton Books), Erin Sharkey, editor of the forthcoming, A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (Milkweed Editions), Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, author of Soft: A Memoir (North Star Press), Donte Collins, author of Autopsy (Button Poetry) and ShaVunda Brown, award-winning spoken word artist and host of Power Perspectives on KRSM Radio. Enjoy a movement offering by ImagineJoy and chill out to sounds by DJ Yonci.
Green Roof Poetry: Coalition of the Possible Curated by Chris Fischbach Thursday, August 4, 6:30–8 pm
What if a better world is ahead of us? How can our imaginations lead us to action? Curator Chris Fischbach invites four local writers to collaborate on imagining a climate and ecological future, not shaped by doomsaying, but rather a roadmap of storytelling and poetry that visualizes a world worth fighting for. Victoria Blanco, Seth Bockley, Douglas Kearney, and Halee Kirkwood present their projections of the future of the Twin Cities and beyond, inspiring all of us to see ourselves as a coalition of the possible.
Green Roof Poetry: FAWK curated by May Lee-Yang Thursday, August 25, 6:30–8 pm
Join us for a night of stand up and storytelling featuring Funny Asian Women Kollective (FAWK). Curated by May Lee-Yang, the event features local Hmong women artists Houa Moua, Kazua Melissa Vang, Tsuab Yang, and May Lee-Yang using comedy to converse with Pao Houa Her’s powerful exhibition on the Hmong diaspora in the United States.
Summer Social: Common Ground Thursday, July 7, 5–8 pm
Join public artist Witt Siasoco in a raucous night of artmaking, music, and conversation about issues of land in the Twin Cities. Make a simple kite from a recycled broadsheet and watch it take flight over the Walker green space. Take in the tunes and dance to the sounds of DJ Chamun. Strike up a conversation inspired by a series of talks about land issues on handpainted picnic blankets created by Siasoco. Lend a hand in creating a large-scale stencil portrait by muralist Reggie LeFlore.
Summer Social: Feminist Parking Lot with Jennifer Reeder
Thursday, July 14, 5–8 pm
Filmmaker and visual artist Jennifer Reeder’s Feminist Parking Lot is an all-ages, all-genders celebration of the radical handmade with artists and friends. Gather together and reclaim the joy of hanging out in a collective space. Catch the spirit of suffragettes by making a banner to wear, carry or display with Lacey Prpić Hedtke. Join in on zine making workshop with artist Z Akhemotova and expand your feminist thinking in our artist-inspired pop-up library.
Free Jazz: Dave King/Jeff Parker/Chris Speed Trio Sunday, July 17, 7 pm
Imagine this: unforgettable music from three of the leading voices in contemporary jazz, outdoors, as the sun sets. And yes, it’s free. Sonic visionaries Dave King, Jeff Parker, and Chris Speed (known from The Bad Plus, Happy Apple, and Tortoise) offer an evening of fresh sounds with their striking new trio. As a highlight of the sounds, words, and activities at the Walker this summer, this special concert on the hillside will captivate and inspire with its improvisatory ingenuity. Come for a convivial night of music on the hillside from these dynamic artists.
Summer Social: Drawing Club: Re-bild Thursday, July 21, 5–8 pm
The German noun “bild” means image, reflection, drawing, picture, or scene. Reflecting on the past, how do you imagine your future? What do you want to recreate? What can be left behind? Whatever lies ahead is uncertain, but we can set the scene.
Join Alyssa Baguss and Jenni Undis for Re-bild, a drawing club for liminal times. At this summer social, everyone’s invited to decorate their own notebook cover using multi-color carbon paper and found images.
Finished notebooks will be wire-bound on the spot with graph paper, carbon paper, and an envelope for stashing ephemera. Ideal for both remembering the before times and planning for new days to come.
Thursday Evening Tours in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden July 21 and August 18, 6 pm
Enjoy an evening stroll while experiencing world-class contemporary art. Discover something new, whether it’s your first visit or your 51st, on these free guided tours! They are designed for adult audiences, but participants of all ages are welcome. tours will be cancelled in the case of inclement weather.
Opening-Day Talk: Pao Houa Her Thursday, July 28, 6 pm
In celebration of the opening of Pao Houa Her: Paj quam ntuj / Flowers of the Sky, join us for a conversation with the artist and exhibition curators Victoria Sung and Matthew Villar Miranda. The exhibition centers the experiences of the Hmong Americans in the Mount Shasta region of Northern California, a much-contested landscape that has in recent years become the site of considerable subsistence agriculture and cannabis cultivation. Through her large-format photographs of the surrounding landscape, Her’s work lends a poetic dignity and bodily reality to the community’s on-the-ground experience. Free tickets to the talk will be available at the Main Lobby desk beginning at 5 pm.
Summer Social: Primary School For Behavioral Art with Marcus Young Thursday, August 11, 5–8 pm
Re-learn some of the basics of life at the Primary School For Behavioral Art, conceived by artist Marcus Young 楊墨. There will be rotating participatory art experiences covering the simple things we’ve forgotten these past two years. At the Primary School For Behavioral Art the motto is: “Awareness is art. Participation is essential.”
Sound for Silents 2022: Film + Music on the Walker Hillside Thursday, August 18, 7:30–10 pm
Grab a blanket and meet us on the hillside for Sound for Silents, an electrifying evening of live music paired with films from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Returning for its sixth year, this summer’s program will feature a newly commissioned score from ethereal Iowa City–based singer-songwriter Pieta Brown and her ensemble. The event begins at 7 pm with DJ tunes and food trucks; film screening and live performance begin at 8:30 pm.
FilmNorth Cinema Lounge Thursday, August 25, 7 pm
Filmmakers and curators Valérie Déus, Merit Thursday, and Xiaolu Wang host a line-up of short video projects, including narrative, documentary, music video, web shows, animation, and experimental work, all made in our community. Presented by FilmNorth, the original short film showcase connects local indie filmmakers with new audiences in an intimate gathering and screening space.