A return to the arts
I always wanted to be a singer-songwriter. It was my dream, maybe still is. When I was lucky enough to be chosen by the amazing Ronnie Brooks to participate  in what was then called the Institute for Renewing Community Leadership (IRCL), I surprised many of the 18 other participants by calling that my dream job.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to fulfill that dream...I don't think, but dreams should never die. Ronnie (right) wouldn't be happy with me. But life does bring on limitations. Talent's one of them!

Yet, music fills my soul and carries me places I would have never dreamed going. I have grown to have such an appreciation for music and the arts. I think it's in part because of those talent limitations, in part because I believe so strongly in a liberal arts education. Give every student a well-rounded taste of the arts and you'll have a better, deeper, kinder world.

Us IRCL alumni will always refer to it as such; it's actually now called the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute, with Ronnie Brooks as founder. Amazing people, amazing thoughts.

Over the past few weeks, I've been fortunate to watch and listen and enjoy several diverse regional artists: poet Matt Rasmussen, author Nicole Helget, artist Dana Sikkila and new Executive Director of the Arts Center of St. Peter, Ann Rosenquist Fee (below, right). This region is a far better place because of their presence here.

At the February 22 reading by Nicole and Matt at the Arts Center, some 100 people crammed into that fun space in downtown St. Peter.  The event also welcomed Ann as the new ED there, and her gifts to this region's art scene are already surfacing. What a talent. Ann left the corporate educational world of Minnesota State University-Mankato to be where she belongs -- in the arts and with her music. She and former Mankato Free Press writer Joe Tougas form the acoustical duo, The Frye.

In an interview prior to the Feb. 22 event, Ann explained her need to sing with The Frye nearly every weekend, despite an already hectic schedule: "It's something I need for my well-being. My fix. My high."

Music can do that to the soul. It should.

So can poetry. I'm horrible at it, lack the discipline I believe that's needed to frame those words just right. Matt, on the other hand, has nailed it. Here's what Amazon.com said about his five-star book of poems, Black Aperture, a Walt Whitman Award winner:

"In his moving debut collection, Matt Rasmussen faces the tragedy of his brother's suicide, refusing to focus on the expected pathos, blurring the edge between grief and humor. In "Outgoing", the speaker erases his brother's answering machine message to save his family from "the shame of dead you / answering calls..." 

"...Destructive and redemptive, Black Aperture opens to the complicated entanglements of mourning: damage and healing, sorrow and laughter, and torment balanced with moments of relief."


My take: Wow! His reading moved between dark humor and intense feelings. And a warm smile and deep heart that seems to suggest Matt's both moving on and holding tight. He acknowledged poetry gives him little financial reward, but that's his life work (along with teaching at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter).


Nicole's writings are gaining more steam with her recent release, Stillwater. The Sleepy Eye native and current North Mankato resident weaves a historical story of trapper Beaver Jean in the late 1800s. I have not begun to read it, but if Nicole's inability to hold in her laughter at the Feb. 22 reading is any indication, I can't wait:

"I can't believe I wrote that!" she smiled, detailing a scene in which Beaver Jean attempts to bury his beloved horse, a creature he likely loved more than his three wives...

Dana Sikkila's energy might rival all of them. Dana works a 40-hour-a-week job as a digital press operator for Taylor Corporation in North Mankato, is an adjunct art professor at MSU, and serves as a volunteer executive director of the 410 Project, an eclectic art space in downtown Mankato. There she also serves as Artistic Director of Black Water Press, a community print-making concept for local artists.  And on March 20, Dana will have her own "installation art" exhibit at Twin Rivers Council for the Arts at 523 South Second Street in Mankato, just a block away from the 410 Project.

(Left: Dana Sikkila with Murphy.)

This collection of artists represents only a small portion of the growing pool of talent in the Minnesota River Valley region. Those who are part of that pool understand it already. Those of us still chasing our dreams are finding out, too, and loving it.

Ronnie Brooks' IRCL group of 1999 discussed Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. As time continues to fly by and as I'm searching for hope and direction, I often turn to my IRCL journal:

• Be more reflective
• Take more risks
• Take more spiritual risks
• Take more emotional risks
• Take more intellectual risks
• Be more clear about purpose
• Don't die alone/be connected

Simple stuff, really. Yet so very hard to hold tight.