Shannon Fitzgerald here with Episode 9 of the Underground Arts Club, a newsletter for the readers of Minneapolis Voices. The club is a recommendation, not a review. My goal is to introduce you to all of the Twin Cities art that you haven't yet discovered.
The Must-See
Ode to Walt Whitman
Who: Created and Performed by Bart Buch and Company
When: May 29 - June 8, 2025
Post-show celebration of Walt Whitman’s birthday: May 31
Post-show celebration of Federico Garcia Lorca’s birthday: June 5
Where: Open Eye Theater, 506 E 24th Street, Mpls
From the website:
A Surreal Puppet Poem to Whitman and Lorca
Bart Buch’s acclaimed ODE TO WALT WHITMAN is a tender, silent puppet poem that uncovers a dialogue between Walt Whitman and Federico Garcia Lorca. Within the context of an online gay chat, their poetic dialogue contrasts Whitman’s America, a nation full of lovers and comrades, with what Garcia Lorca sees, an America inundated with machines and tears.
This show includes “Hand puppets, a butterfly marionette, masks, grass bunraku puppets, toy theater, shadows, video projections…and live organic electronica music.”
Puppets and poetry both have a unique ability to communicate absurdity, tragedy, love, and story, and the combination of the two is profound. This production played to sold-out shows in New York, and the team on this project is brilliant. (I once sat in on a puppet workshop with Masanari Kawahara, one of the performers/puppeteers. He told the class that anything can be a puppet, and proved it by bringing a plastic fork to life.) If you haven’t seen a puppet show before, this is a great place to start.
Things to know
- Parking: Free parking is available in the lot on the southeast corner of 24th Street and Portland Avenue, courtesy of Lutheran Social Services.
- Dining: On a nice day, it’s a lovely 15 minute walk from Open Eye to Eat Street on the corner of Nicollet and 26th. There’s plenty to choose from, but I’d recommend Luna and the Bear for their Shared Plates and Gin & Jams.
- Attire: Open Eye is funky and artsy, and if you’re going to walk to dinner you need comfy, so whatever that means to you!
- Accessibility: ADA accessible; ASL interpretation by request. More information here.
The Discovery
Since we’re talking so much about poetry, I wonder if there is an underground poet among our readers. Someone who has poetry in them, but doesn’t know how to speak the language to get it on paper. The Twin Cities is lucky to hold one of the nation’s leading literary arts centers and they teach the language of poetry (and memoir, and creative nonfiction, and novel writing, and screen writing, and…)
The Loft Literary Center is housed at Open Book on Washington Ave in downtown Minneapolis, and offer virtual and in-person classes. Explore all of the offerings here!
Field Notes
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 51
If you’ve never had the opportunity to read Whitman (school might not count unless Mr. Keating was your English teacher), now would be a good moment for it. Whitman saw an America that was messy, complex, and full of hope - he called it “The Greatest Poem.” I have to believe that this America can still exist.
Song of Myself is very long (52 stanzas), but full of ideas worth your time. If you can, set yourself up to read the whole thing at once, preferably outside where you can also watch people go by. Extra points for reading it out loud, quietly to yourself or loudly to the whole neighborhood if you don’t care what anyone else thinks (Walt would be proud).
