Photo: Liam James Doyle/MPR News.
David Huckfelt performs on the Turf Club stage. “We’re building these little fires in small places,” Huckfelt says.
Because I still believe that “one and two and fifty make a million,” as Pete Seeger used to sing, I get a kick out of all the stories I’ve been seeing lately that confirm the power of small.
Alex V. Cipolle reports at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) about one small but mighty effort, a new arts collective that “goes on tour to build community in rural Minnesota and beyond. …
“On a September evening at the Turf Club in St. Paul, models weave through bar tables in upcycled designs.
“Annie Humphrey, an artist and musician based on the Leech Lake Reservation, performs on the stage, followed by Minneapolis musician David Huckfelt. On a back table Shanai Matteson, an artist from Palisade leads printmaking demos with a stencil of a black aandeg (the Anishinaabe word for crow) and an orange-red sun.
“ ‘There’s a story about the crow. Long ago, the crow had bright, beautiful, vibrant colored feathers,’ Humphrey recalls. ‘But crow also saw that the people were suffering because they had no fire.’ To bring fire to the people, crow flew close to the sun and scorched his feathers black.
“ ‘He was able to grab the fire and bring it back down to the earth and bring fire to the people so that they could be warm,’ Humphrey continues. ‘If you take a crow feather and hold it in the sun, it’s iridescent, and all these colors are still in that feather.’
“The stencil is the logo for the new arts and community-building collective Fire in the Village, started by Humphrey, Matteson and Huckfelt this year. (Fire in the Village is also the title of a book of Ojibwe stories by Humphrey’s mother, Anne Dunn.) …
“The trio all share a background in activism, specifically fighting the Line 3 oil pipeline. … But with Fire in the Village, the collective wants to do something untethered from any one cause.
“ ‘If we were going to start something, I knew that it should center on art and the human spirit, the human condition,’ Humphrey says, ‘and have no politics involved at all.’
“Through art, fashion, music and collaborative events with schools and local organizations, the collective is hoping to heal divides and put a dent in the loneliness epidemic in rural communities and on reservations.
“ ‘I think a lot of people are feeling isolated,’ Matteson says. ‘There’s a lot of divisiveness going on. Personally, I’m not interested in continuing that. I don’t want to be part of a cause where it feels like it’s putting another barrier between me and the people who live around me.’ …
“ ‘We like the feeling of the collective and not pushing one person as a front for something,’ Huckfelt adds. ‘So, we’re really working together with our skillset because we believe in music, we believe in art, we believe in community, and so that’s what’s being put forward here.’ …
“ ‘Fire in the Village is a way to connect with individuals and to smaller communities that you’re a part of,’ says Meira Smit, one of the Macalester students who came to the Turf Club. ‘A way to build messages and movements around the things that we deeply care about.’
“Haley Cherry, a producer for Minnesota’s Native Roots Radio on AM950, also came out to walk in the fashion show after meeting Humphrey and Huckfelt this past year.
“ ‘It’s important to hear from both perspectives: issues of Indigenous identity, but also [from] David, as a white ally, I think it’s important to draw those bridges of community concerns,’ says Cherry, who is a descendant of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. …
“In June, Humphrey also led a community mural with youth groups on the Leech Lake Reservation, the Boys & Girls Club in Deer River and the Long Lake Conservation Center. Soon, the mural will be installed at the powwow grounds in Ball Club, a village on the reservation. There are more murals to come, Humphrey says.
“The tour is also about revival, Huckfelt says, stopping at historic community buildings in small towns, such as the 210 Gallery and Art Center in Sandstone Oct. 19 and the Historic Chief Theater in Bemidji on Nov. 2. ‘A lot of these spaces are really beautiful old music and theater art spaces,’ Huckfelt says. …
“Huckfelt says, ‘We’ve been doing this work in our own ways for a long time, individually and together. It’s a natural step to call it “Fire in the Village” — little fires that we can sustain and we can huddle around for good ideas and for community.’ …
“ ‘It’s a very gentle way to say really hard stuff,’ Humphrey says. ‘I have played in front of people who don’t agree with what I speak, but when I sing it?’ “
More at MPR, here. No firewall. Great pictures.
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