One of the unexpected boons of COVID-19, which has made the situation much more bearable, has been the many free artistic offering from community arts organizations which can now routinely reach a national and international audience. Theater Mu, a Minnesota-based theater company, offers witty and social conscious programming. This specific cabaret style event showcased the broad range of the Asian American arts scene and talents. Not all performances are being reported here. From top to bottom of the photos above, which are in chronological order of performance:
- Mayda Miller, a well-known local musician, played her acoustic guitar and shared an original indie-rock song.
- Bao Phi, now one of the pioneers of the Asian Minnesotan poetry scene, shared a poem he published in UnMargin, an online magazine giving voice to different perspectives on social justice and progressive commentaries.
- Joelle Fernandez and Frankie Hebres, a husband and wife team of dancers, performed some old-style hip hop numbers.
- Gao Song V. Heu presented an opportunity to hear a traditional Hmong song, which will be part of a solo production putting on stage The Song Poet, a book by Kao Kalia Yang, a well-established Hmong Minnesotan writer, featuring the experiences of her father as a Hmong traditional singer.
- Sisters Francesca and Isabella Dawis contributed the classical singing and instrument playing of the evening, with a Salon-intimate repertoire.
Overall, it was a delightful evening of fun banter sprinkled with some serious remarks on Asian American arts. More of those variety shows would be welcome.
