Our third and final Music @ Franconia event of 2018 is coming up THIS Saturday, August 25th from 2 to 6pm! Starting off the afternoon in our artist-designed Earthen Amphitheater will be Superior Siren, an all-female band from Duluth bringing eerie folk sounds from the shores of Lake Superior, and Dakota poet and performer Strong Buffalo, Headlining the event will be Ben Weaver, a songwriter and poet who travels by bicycle. Ben uses his music as a tool to strengthen relationships between people and their local ecosystems.
Bring a blanket, bring your dog, and bring a story to share. Grab a bite from local food trucks or a beer from Surly Brewing at Mary Johnson’s famous Lizard Lounge! Join an artist-led tour in between set breaks and stop by the Upstream mobile tea trailer to learn more about the work of 2018 FSP Open Studio Fellow Anna Metcalfe. For now, enjoy a bit of Q&A with Saturday’s performers!
Laura Sellner of Superior Siren
How did the band meet each other?
I began Superior Siren as a solo project. While crafting the eerie folk sound, I met cellist Rachel Gobin and began collaborating with her. I then sought ought Emma Deaner for her minimalist style on drums. Finally, I lured in Nyssa Krause to join on upright bass, and complete the all-female band.
In the Duluth community, you’ve performed at some unique venues from Concerts on the Pier to Sacred Heart Music Center… Have you ever performed surrounded by large-scale sculpture?
We have been fortunate to perform at many beautiful and unique venues, but none such as Franconia Sculpture Park.
Is this your first time visiting FSP?
This will be the first time!
You’re stranded on a boat in Lake Superior with little hope for rescue:
a) What song is stuck in your head
Whole Wide World – Wreckless Eric
b) What artist would you regret never meeting or working with?
Thom Yorke and Beyonce
c) What’s the first thing you would eat or drink upon rescue?
Fresh Water
What can we expect from you in the next year?
New music by Superior Siren. Thanks for the interview!
Strong Buffalo
Tell us a bit about your performance with Open Studio fellow Thomas Matsuda at Franconia Sculpture Park last fall. What can park visitors expect to hear from you this time?
Sure, I will, let’s see, I will just ramble. Tom Matsuda is old AIM (American Indian Movement) friend from Japan and the Bay Area. He interviewed me about my life and thoughts, we cried at the end, for our lives are so similar, he being Japanese-American and my father is presumed Japanese-American soldier from the 442, my mother a Dakota Sioux. He sculpted a wooden buddha for me years back and it got lost in the process of life and he made me new brass one that sits in my living room. I did some poems with musician James Everest at Tom’s dedication fire for Oneness, the blaze made me write a poem ‘Fire’. This time I am accompanied by several musicians, Dean ‘Dakota Blue’ Peters, Myron Throne from Leech Lake and we call ourselves ‘TiWakan’, which is Dakota for Holy House. We will be a five piece band, and it will be awesome to perform on your stage.
Through Oyate Hotanin / Voice of the People you work to support art, healing, and change among indigenous communities and other communities that have experienced trauma. What events or community conversations do you have coming up?
Oyate Hotanin does a cabaret at Bryant Lake Bowl this fall September, October, and November, which just got done with ‘Flower Power II’ at Indian Burial Mounds Park in Saint Paul eastside, a cut flower installation for ‘Mass Incarceration’, performances and stories from families and presentations on healing the trauma. We have ‘Inequality’, our social justice arm that works on social justice and restorative justice, doing a solo 3-act play in joint production with Pangea World Theater titled ‘Tatanka’ due to be presented in October, and we are doing the ‘Unholy Tour’, ongoing historical stories of American Indians and AIM on Franklin Avenue, for the fifth time this September. And we are releasing a CD, “Live at the Buffalo Show” online this fall.
You’ve received many grants and awards for your work, but what experiences have brought you the greatest sense of honor and purpose?
As an elder, when in 1990 I was given a Young Leaders Award by the Six Nations Council for running across the United States, Japan, and Europe with other Native American runners in spiritual reality for Land & Life.
If you could make a 3-dimensional sculpture to represent your life’s work, what would it look like, and what would it be made from?
It would be a herd of Buffalo made of natural elements with the roar of millions of buffalo running free…
Ben Weaver
What prompted the shift from traditional touring to touring by bicycle?
I was not happy, and I needed to find a way to find more congruence the things that inspired my music and the pathway through which my music reached the greater world. Playing in bars, late nights, always being in cities and surrounded by overly consumptive mentalities is not where I am happy.
After finishing Music for Free and riding about 3,000 miles along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route… what has surprised you the most? What were the biggest challenges, aside from the sheer distance?
I think one of the most profound things I saw was how unified each community was that I went through. Very kind and welcoming. Yet when you look at the landscape of this country as a whole its very divided. I have some ideas about this but you will have to wait to watch our film to hear more. Overall I was taken by the generosity and openness of strangers.
What’s the difference between wilderness and wildness?
Wildness is inherent. Self willed. A spirit, energy, power present in everything living. It cannot be extracted or made. It can either be related to or it can be ignored. Wilderness is a commodity, it is maintained, manufactured, a creation of colonization… The Department of Agriculture (always in fine print). This is not to say that wilderness is bad, but it’s important to think about the difference. It is a place where wildness can be found, but not the only place and they are not to be confused with each other in my mind.
When or how did you become connected with Strong Buffalo?
We met about 2 years ago through another mutual friend named Bethany Lacktorin through a site specific movement piece we were both a part of. It’s been an honor working together.
On top of using your own human power to travel between most shows, you also do a great deal of your own letterpress printing for your albums and books of poetry. Tell us about your latest book and the process that went into it.
My most recent record is called Sees Like a River. I believe things should be made with stories and the best place to get stories is by making things with your hands. I made a limited edition letterpress book/CD package for this release. The book is a handset print of my poem called Considering Leaves. The artwork for the cover was made from a piece of cottonwood bark my friend Gaylord Schanilec gave me. We were talking once about how the way wood grain flows around a knot is not that different from the ways that water flows around a rock.
Our 2018 Music @ Franconia series will feature a wide variety of musicians. Make sure to participate in a guided tour during band breaks to meet artists-in-residence and learn about works-in-progress! All events are family & dog friendly, please pick up after your furry friends. Concert admission is free! Parking is $5 per vehicle.
This activity is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the East Central Regional Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Thank you!