The Wake

Many children dream of growing up to become astronauts and explorers only to abandon these dreams before even reaching middle school. Kobie Boykins, a mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, would like to convince children that those dreams can actually become reality.Boykins states that many children stop dreaming of having an atypical career once they reach about ten years old. “And why should that happen?” says Boykins, who grew up knowing he wanted to build space equipment. “And now I can,” he says.At 32, Boykins is renowned for his work on the solar arrays of the 2003 Mars Expedition …

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There are certain places that young women are advised not to travel alone to at night. Whether well-earned or not, Northeast Minneapolis holds a reputation as the “bad part of town”. For a neighborhood that boasts the highest concentration of children in the Twin Cities, it looks in poor shape, full of traffic, liquor stores, and fast food restaurants. In little steps at a time – one group is trying to change perspectives of Northeast from the inside out. Juxtaposition Arts’ initiative, aptly titled “Remix: Creating Places for People on West Broadway,” is responsible for the mysterious bursts of life …

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“We have become spectators to our own culture.” These are the prophetic words of Sandy Speiler’s vision “Invigorate the Common Well,” being staged at the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater. Both hopeful and painful, the theatrical performance is a passionate combination of public art and social justice. “Come to the Well,” the first in a three part series, confronts the problems of water distribution throughout the globe, from the suburbs of the Midwest to the slums of India. The show begins with a slideshow/live action performance piece. Images of streams are juxtaposed over poverty-stricken children; …

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Who: Jazzy Literary Soiree
What: Jazz and readings with authors Sheila O’Connor; Patti Frazee; Maureen Millea Smith; Pamela Carter Joern.
When: Wednesday, March 21st, 7:30 pm.
Where: First Universalist Church (3400 Dupont Ave S, Mpls.), FREEWho: Deborah Keenan
What: Poetry.
When: Thursday, March 22nd, 7:30 pm.
Where: Weisman Art Museum (U of M), FREEWho: Vincent Wyckoff
What: The mailman discusses ‘Beware of the Cat and Other Encounters of a Letter Carrier.’
When: Thursday, March 22nd, 7:30 pm.
Where: Lyndale United Church of Christ (810 W 31st St, Mpls.), FREEWho: Kamau Brathwaite
What: The Carribean poet discusses ‘The Arrivants: A New …

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a time and a place
a time and a place
a penny saved
a penny earned
a penny earned
if at first you don’t succeed
try try again
try try again
try try again
mind your p’s and q’s
mind your manners
pleases and thank yous
the early bird
catches the worm
catches the worm
the early bird
you’re never fully dressed
without a smile
a smile
smile
smile
silence is golden
and actions speak louder than words
actions speak louder than words
actions speak louder than words
sincerely yours

The body is not a prison
it is a temple;
not a cage from which the soul escapes,
but a holy place built
for sanctification, redemptionon that Day
bone and ash will rise
from graveyards and cisterns,
swirl upward like smoke
re-creation of fingers, palm, wrist
glowing gloriously in light
toe by toe, a foot, a leg
dancing as they rise
a people resurrectedlips sealed from life’s last kiss
open to holy, holy, holy
for they did not feel
the sting of death.

This semester the Institute for Advanced Study is hosting a weekly series of events titled “Thursdays at Four.” As one might assume, the lectures are held each Thursday at 4 p.m. in room 120 or 125 of Nolte Center. The series hosts a broad range of lectures and features people from all disciplines and areas of work. On Thursday, February 22 University of Minnesota psychology professor Bruce Cuthbert enlightened listeners on the new science of emotion.Feelings and emotions have always been regarded as mere roadblocks on the way to higher human intellect; a not-so-close second to the sophisticated …

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Leonardo da Vinci once said, “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the Earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” This philosophy has possessed skydivers’ lives since the dawn of the parachute and continues to do so still. But skydiving is in danger of losing its population. Not from skydiving related misfortunes, but from low participant numbers. The media only likes to focus on extraordinary survival stories of skydivers hitting the ground from parachute malfunctions and ignores the amazing breakthroughs in the world of human flight. In …

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A tumultuous season of Gopher basketball finally concluded, leaving much more to be desired for next year. Coach Dan Monson resigned seven games into the season and left Jim Molinari to pick up the pieces of a struggling ball club. The team dealt with injuries, a transfer and mounting frustration. This group faced tall challenges all season and did the best they could with the talent they possessed. Jamal Abu-Shamala summed the season up as disappointing but added that it might help build character for next year. The most positive thing this team will take with it from this season …

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Minnesota’s indoor lacrosse team, the Swarm, have looked for quality opportunities for the public to take notice of their achievements throughout their infancy. The team made the playoffs last year at 8-8 and lost their playoff game to the Buffalo Bandits by one goal. The games between the Bandits and Swarm have started to become a rivalry since the playoff loss the Swarm suffered last year.On March 4, the Swarm played the Bandits at home, looking to exact some revenge. What transpired on the field, though, seemed a replay of the playoff game with the Swarm losing by one goal …

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Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Rosa Parks sat resolutely on the bus. Rock Hudson was a fine, gay actor. Cole Dennis changed history with his brilliant writing and chiseled pectorals. Anna Nicole Smith was a national joke.As you’ve all probably heard — and you’d better have because I would like to think of myself as having an informed readership — Anna Nicole Smith recently died. Everyone seems to think that this is hi-freaking-larious. I have not gone one day since then without overhearing someone joking and laughing about it.As I said, Anna Nicole Smith was a national joke. Maybe …

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A pair of grand openings representing the cultures of celebrity and coffee has occurred at the University’s Wilson Library in the past two weeks. Though they are physically separated by three of Wilson’s six floors, these two unveilings are more closely related than they appear at first glance. The fourth floor of Wilson Library was radiating with warmth and energy on yet another cold evening last Friday during the debut of the most recent Gorman Rare Art Books exhibit, The Birth of Celebrity Culture in the City of Lights (1880-1900). The exhibition, which runs until April 27, showcases a …

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As the stage lights come up, five people stand in small bowls, singing and motioning as though they’re in a shower. One by one, they recall being children in South Africa, and the moment that they realized things were changing, and they were becoming adults. Each of them speak of the difficulty of the past and the desire to move forward. As the sequence comes to a close, one actor describes the past as covered in dust, and says that “until we go back and claim each piece, we will never be free.”Each of these actors grew up in South …

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Sunday, February 11 the Twin Cities Theater Company presented the last of eight performances of The Shape of Things at the Old Arizona Theater. Local acting teacher and consultant Randy Reyes directed the play, written by Neil Labute in 2001.Buddy Haardt, a University of Minnesota Guthrie Theater Professional Actor Training Program student, stars as Adam, a somewhat nerdy and socially awkward undergrad at a small university. While working as a guard at the local art museum Adam runs into Evelyn (Kate Lawrey), a rebellious art student working on her masters thesis. Adam, who has hardly even talked to …

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The San Francisco Psychedelic exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art presents a strange juxtaposition. It is slightly uncomfortable to see photographs embodying the boundary-snubbing acid trip that is the 1960s counter-culture movement lined up in one of Minnesota’s most respectable art museums. “[I convinced myself] that the Institute should build a collection of photographs of the late 1960s San Francisco musicians, a genre overlooked by most other art museums,” explains assistant curator Christian A. Peterson. Peterson’s idea took shape and the San Francisco Psychedelic exhibit was born: a collection of concert posters, CD cover photos, and other miscellaneous art …

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