Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities
17 Unique Stations from Border to Border
17 Unique Stations from Border to Border
In wilderness settings, there are connections people can make to the land, regardless of their age, race or gender, by walking in the footsteps of those who have come before them.
With this in mind, a group of Minnesota paddlers set out in the fall of 2020 to travel across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to retrace the steps of a wilderness pioneer named Arthur Carhart. Their journey took them across abandoned portages, streams plugged by beaver dams and through remote territory inside the nation’s most visited wilderness area.
Carhart made his journey to the Boundary Waters in 1921. Though a century has passed since his expedition, there were generations of people who lived in this landscape that is now defined as a ‘wilderness area.’ The Indigenous communities were here long before white voyageurs and government officials put their canoes on this countless collection of lakes, streams and pathways through the Boundary Waters.
Cloquet native Tony Petersen was on the road with The Social Animals when the pandemic hit in 2020 and their tour came to an abrupt end. Since then, he’s kept busy making music at home in the Twin Cities; not only did he release new music with his previous band Saint Anyway and an album with his uncle Kurt Petersen under the name Love + Effort, but he also put out a solo album under the name Ditchbird. He shared songs from that last project when he joined us for a virtual session that aired April 30, 2021.
This Duluth musician released his debut solo album, Canvas and Color, back in November. Coffman’s history in the local music scene includes progressive punk band Phillip of Nazareth and, more recently, pop-rock band the Cuckoo Bees; the new release leans towards the latter, and even includes a few re-worked Cuckoo Bees tracks. We spoke with Coffman on April 15, 2021; listen to our session below.
Protests have traction. We’ve seen historically and just recently how protests have successfully brought attention to crucial issues. People coming together to express their discontent with the powers that be have a huge impact on how we move the needle in the fight for justice.
Painter Diamond Knispel’s exhibit Wild Whimsy of the Northwoods hangs in the MacRostie Art Center thru June. She’ll be giving an artist talk June 16. Click the arrow to hear about her artistic journey, her process and inspiration, how painting becomes a meditative process and more!
In today’s Untold Story of Central Minnesota, we go back over 100 years to hear about the St. Cloud Hospital in the days of the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918. CentralCare Archivist Brendon Duffy spoke at the Stearns History Museum’s Breakfast Club as their first speaker since our recent COVID pandemic closed everything down.
This story features excerpts from Duffy’s presentation, but for the full Breakfast Club presentation, you can find it right here!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Duluth roots-rock band The Slamming Doors has released two EPs during the pandemic, Brown Bears Volumes 1 and 2, the latter of which came out on Valentine’s Day. Adam Herman of the band stopped by for a session on Thursday, February 25, 2021 to talk about the EPs (and his latest book-he’s also an author!) and musican life during a pandemic and to perform some tunes from the latest EP.
After 11 months, we at KUMD were excited to host our first live, in-person Live from Studio A since last March. COVID protocols were in full effect when Duluth musician Breanne Marie joined us to play some tunes and talk about her new album, Juniper, with her alt-country band the Front Porch Sinners on February 19, 2021.
We connect with Betty Firth from the Ely Folk School every first Friday of the month. She educates us on all the learning opportunities happening at the folk school. Cheese making, photography, canoe building and backcountry baking are just a few of this month’s offerings!
Every First Friday Katie Marshall from the MacRostie Art Center fills us in on the first Friday events and the new exhibits at the MacRostie galleries! Food trucks, live music and art, oh my! People are starting to enjoy art and community in groups again! It’s a beautiful thing.
