rakemag

If you’ve always thought of jazz dance as a bit too, shall we say, jazzily mainstream, then you haven’t seen Danny Buraczeski. Steeped in dance history, he has been called “the thinking man’s jazzman.” His desire to share that history and his many years as a teacher bring a distinctive character to his choreography and … Read more

The 1992 telling of this anti-holiday tale on National Public Radio launched the career of author and commentator David Sedaris. His look at Christmas from the perspective of a verbally abused adult, one wearing the curly-toed shoes and green tights of a Macy’s Christmas Elf in New York City, is hilarious and uniquely Sedaris. Bryant-Lake … Read more

• Shared bathroom with Bill O’Reilly • “Mission Accomplished” branded into flesh • Kidneys pecked out by Lee Atwater • Daily brunch with Dick Cheney • What’s left of hair pulled out by mixed-race love children • Steady audio feed from the Hillary Clinton Presidential Library

Mars’s newest paintings address the demons of mental illness, yet they dig through the ugliness to find something beautiful within. That is, they achieve the feat of being simultaneously repellent and alluring: His depictions of monsters are horrific on the surface, but rendered in such rich detail and glowing colors that their humanity cannot be … Read more

Artists of all stripes have turned the MIA’s gallery devoted to Minnesota artists into a ground zero for political propaganda. Sweeping, populist, and endearingly shaggy, the exhibit has more in common with the bulletin boards on college campuses or at community centers than with the remote atmosphere of your average art gallery. Through an ongoing … Read more

Hard to believe it’s been five years since Franklin Art Works, the little art gallery that could, added a new chapter to the life of a vaudeville theater-turned-porn multiplex. Now, of course, it’s a sleek yet simple space exhibiting work from both local and national artists, many of whom probably wouldn’t otherwise be shown in … Read more

Our good friend Webster defines the book primarily as “a set of written sheets of skin or paper, bound together in a volume” or “a long written or printed literary composition.” Its secondary (and, we feel, more progressive) definition is “something that yields knowledge or understanding.” The selections from Walker Art Center’s library on display … Read more

Chang acquired quite an illustrious reputation with Hunger, her first collection of stories. Now she’s exceeded the expectations generated by that book with her first novel, Inheritance, a multi-generational saga that follows the Wang family through the twentieth century, from imperial China to modern America. At one point, Chanyi, “old” at thirty-four and part of … Read more

In a world without Paul Wellstone, Gilb is that much more of a treasure. Having written two acclaimed story collections and a novel, he is back with a potent series of thirty-six essays, Gritos. A quote from one, a brief tribute titled Steinbeck, tells you where he’s coming from: “The literary world is a powerful … Read more