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163: Arts Freedom Weather Report: MINNEAPOLIS JAN. 2026
Description
What does it look like when artists and cultural organizers respond to authoritarian pressure—not with silence or fear, but with imagination, strategy, and collective action?
This January 2026 Arts Freedom Weather Report comes from Minneapolis, a city once again at the epicenter of grief, rage, courage, and creative resistance. In the wake of multiple killings, intensified ICE activity, and federal misinformation, communities across Minnesota are responding not only with protest—but with song, ritual, writing, mutual aid, and rapid-response cultural organizing.
In this episode, we explore three urgent realities shaping this moment:
- How culture becomes infrastructure for democracy when institutions fail—through singing vigils, collective mourning, and grassroots artistic action.
- What decentralized resistance actually looks like on the ground, as hundreds of small, uncoordinated acts add up to something powerful and sustained.
- How imagination, grief, and creative practice help people endure and act, especially in communities long accustomed to state violence and surveillance.
Listen in for an on-the-ground report from Minneapolis that shows how artists, organizers, and neighbors are transforming fear into solidarity—and keeping democratic culture alive under pressure.
NOTABLE MENTIONS
People
Host of ART IS CHANGE and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.
Minneapolis poet and mother whose life and work are honored in this episode. (Minnesota Public Radio)
U.S. Border Patrol official referenced in discussion of federal enforcement escalation in Minnesota.
Political theorist cited for her insights into authoritarianism, fear, and the erosion of civic imagination.
British poet and playwright; excerpt from The Sleep of Prisoners is referenced during the episode.
Minneapolis-based poet, teaching artist, and cultural healer whose reflections on grief, writing, and survival appear in this conversation. (MN Artists / MPR)
Organizations & Groups
Center for the Study of Art & Community
Producing organization for ART IS CHANGE.
National movement using collective singing as protest, courage-building, and democratic practice.
Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
Host site f