Category: Arts & Entertainment

Kenny Klein returns to Minnesota – Interview

Kenny Klein is  an author, musician, and an elder and a High Priest in the Blue Star tradition of Wicca.  He will be appearing Aug. 2-4th at Eye of Horus, and at Sacred Harvest Festival Aug 5-11th. I spoke to him by phone from Brushwood in New York state.

You are touring now, but how long have you been a New Orleans Resident?
Kenny :   Before Katrina I would winter there every year, as a lot of musicians do in December- Feb, and then go out on tour. When Katrina hit I was in California. About four years ago I felt the call to go back, and have been there ever since. This is the first time, since 2010 that I actually have a leased apartment in New Orleans! I usually leave in May and don’t return until September. This year I toured in April and May, Came back for an appearance at the “Gryphon’s Nest” a Pagan camp ground outside of New Orleans. Fishbird played there in June, then flew up to a pagan festival outside Wasilla , Alaska, where Sarah Palin is from.  I came back to new Orleans, and then took off for New york in July and will be on tour until September.

You are into your second week at Brushwood?
Kenny : Yes, arrived a week ago today. I come to Brushwood every year as both a presenter and a performer.  Each year i offer about six workshops and a couple concerts. This year we did the kickstarter campaign in order to bring the full band, Fishbird  along to here.  This is the first year we have the full band up here. We are doing something most Pagans have never seen me do. Solo I play acoustic guitar and fiddle and sing. In this band I play electric jam dark Celtic rock .I do this down in New Orleans and now with this live recording Pagans will be able to listen to it wherever they are.

Is this what you enjoy playing?
Kenny : I love it, I have a sensational band. The bass player in the New Orleans band didn’t want to come on the trip, so at first I was bummed, but my life long friend Carl Smith, who used to play bass with “Kenny and Tzipora” back in the eighties  was able to come up from Tennessee and play.  We have our drummer and Rachel Maxann my singer from New Orleans are both up here and we doing some awesome shows here. We have complete one of our main stage shows here and will be doing another one  Thursday. There is a small cafe at Brushwood and we have an independent contract to play at their cafe every day.  People are getting a short mini concert each day, and then the two main stage concerts.

How is the recording going?
Kenny : My newest CD, which I should have at Sacred Harvest Festival, is my concert from last year here, recorded live from the stage. That gave me the confidence to bring Fishbird up here to record for a CD.  Except for the “Griffin’s Nest” a Pagan camp ground performance this spring, this is the first time ever that Fishbird has performed for a Pagan audience.

Then you are leaving the end of the week and headed to Minnesota?
Kenny : That’s right, I have three days of performance and workshops at Eye of Horus (event info at bottom), and then right after the weekend I travel down to Sacred Harvest Festival for the week Aug 5-11th.  There I’ll be offering five workshops and a concert on Friday Night.  At my last appearance ar SHF I connected with some local musicians at the festival, and hope to again.

Tell me about your new book .

Lauren Devoe, my girlfriend, and I just finished a new book for Llewellyn. It is a follow up to Fairy Tale Rituals, called Fairy Tale Magic. The previous book looked at Grimm’s fairy tales and elements that could be culled from them and used to create ritual. This book is looking at non-Grimm fairy tales .  We explore Russian tales like Baba Yaga, Briton  and English tales, like Jack in the Beanstalk and Goldilocks.  We look at the elements of magical theory that are contained in these tales. We touch on Qabala and Tora Magic .  We explore Wicca, Pagan, and Ceremonial magic and how the elements of all these different magical forms can be found in these fairy tales. Lauren, who is an academic librarian at Tulane University did a lot of the research through the university to contribute information and obscure tales that we may not have otherwise found. It will be out next spring  from Llewellyn.

Kenny Klein and Lauren Devoe

Kenny Klein and Lauren Devoe

Do you still practice Blue Star Wicca?
Yes, Iron and Cypress, is our coven in New Orleans. We just elevated to neophyte two students into our coven. This took place, here at Brushwood.  I will also be guest priesting an open Blue Star ritual hosted by Hearth Stone coven of Minneapolis on Wednesday night at Sacred Harvest Festival.

Kenny Klein at Eye of Horus:
Friday August 2nd at 7:30 – Kenny Klein, Live in Concert Tickets $17

Saturday August 3rd
2-3:30pm – Book Signing/Meet & Greet Free Event
4-5:30pm – Grimms Fairy Tales: What Your Mother Didn’t Tell You (mature content) Class $20
6-7:30pm – Lost Secrets of Wicca with Kenny Klein – Class $20

Sunday August 4th 2-5pm: Mojo and Magic in Blues & New Orleans Music – combined double-workshop – Just $30

Kenny Klein at Sacred Harvest Festival Aug. 5-11th  – Workshop Schedule

Nels Linde is a Council Member of Harmony Tribe which sponsors Sacred Harvest Festival, and an initiate of the Blue Star Tradition.

Roger Williamson Solo Exhibition Opening Sat. August 3rd

Paintings by Roger Williamson

Roger Williamson, Pagan artist and  founder of Magus books has a show of recent works  opening  Saturday August 3rd, 2013 7-10pm at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts, and running through August 25th, 2013.

In the exhibition, Williamson presents a series of artworks that trace a specific understanding the artist has of Chimera.  Williamson refers to Chimera as a quality of the mythological sphinx, that is mystery rather than Chimera’s usually accepted quality as an illusionary entity or fabrication of the mind; especially as an unrealizable dream.

Mystery is energy, a fitting title of the sphinx and while she retains her mystery she maintains her power.

Only when she gives up her secrets does she lose her power and die.

It is this theme of mystery which permeates the works on display and the viewer is led through a labyrinth of images that challenge one to quest through the door that leads to our inner selves where the answers to all our questions reside.

Williamson’s installation is composed of oil paintings on both wood panels and canvas.

OPENING:  Saturday August 3rd, from 7-10 p.m., for the exhibition opening and to meet the artist.


Roger Williamson is a Minneapolis-based artist who has exhibited his paintings in local galleries.

He is also the author of several books which include The Sun at Night and the Lucifer Diaries and is the

creator of Tarot of the Morning Star tarot deck. Some images from the deck will be included in the exhibit.

Comets Ov Cupid is a space rock project by Jason Kesselring, formerly of Skye Klad and Satyrswitch.

Darkly cosmic the music evokes a sense of eternal twilight creating sonic landscapes of distorted voices,

cosmic pulse and hazy drones. Guitar based in composition the sounds range from full-blown metalgazer

walls of sound to ethereal astral folk.

Stevens Square Center for the Arts (SSCA)

1905 Third Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404

T (612) 879-0200 ssca@stevensarts.org

Gallery Hours— Friday thru Sunday, 1:00 – 5:00 PM (During Exhibitions).

Eostre’s Kiss – Poem by Sam Dodge

Spring

Spring

flood coming
worms drunk in puddles
sun cusp stuck under thunder
bugs huddled in bubbles
ducks plunging swollen runnels
come, love
let’s shove on rubber boots
stumble, trudge and run
galumphing through slush

snow was going slowly
cold overlord
holding down the posies
now it’s flowing
little frozen boats
corroding and imploding
we hop from floe to floe

riding ice islands
childishly smiling
might be we’ll get chilly
it isn’t in our minds
silly sprites, we spiral
inspiring in this icy idyll
sighting birds and singing
high as spring kites

every sense is effervescent
smelling earthy treasures
dense scent of sweet ferment

dead weeds and wet leaves
let’s eat of Eostre’s essence
fecund, swelling
heady feelings
melting into everything
pealing bells
elation

awash in April ardor
casting away dark angst
hearts all in a rapture
laughing, dancing, chanting
hand in hand and arm in arm
rapt and wrapped in all
laying in damp grass
a’tingle, passion saturated
at last, at last, at last!

Fecund, frolicking love,

Sam

Paganicon adds ‘Sacred Gallery Space’

The third anniversary of Paganicon, a three day convention for Pagans, Heathens, and polytheists held in the Twin Cities, also features The Third Offering, a sacred gallery space and temporary shrine.

Producers for the art show say this exhibit is quite different from an art exhibit at a science fiction convention or even other Pagan conventions.  “This is one of the things that makes our project different from, for instance, a typical science fiction con, where anything and everything that might possibly  relate to the SF scene is brought together in a fairly chaotic assemblage,” says Paul Rucker, co-producer for The Third Offering.  “We are combining the atmosphere of a gallery with a temple. And to my knowledge, there is no other indoor Pagan con, not even Pantheacon, that is doing anything quite like this.”

The idea for this year’s gallery began with an art exhibit that Rucker and fellow Helga HedgeWalker created for Paganicon 2012.  It was open for only two hours, but the positive response by attendees convinced the Paganicon board to expand the concept and have it open throughout the duration of the convention.  Rucker and HedgeWalker were asked to design and co-produce the prototype  for this exhibition this year.

The name for the exhibit, The Third Offering, comes from local ritualist and historian Steven Posch. Posch and HedgeWalker belong to the same coven, which made three  offerings to Minnehaha Falls at the autumn 2012 Pagan Pride festival.  The first sacred offering was water, the second was bread, while the third offering was rose petals, representing beauty. “Steve’s model of the “three offerings”  not only demonstrates the value of making beauty, of creativity, as valid and essential components of experiencing the sacred, but also, as I came to see, a useful way of picturing cultural maturity,” said Rucker.  He went on to say that when concerns for survival, legitimacy, and other cultural basics are addressed, space is made for beauty. “I suggested calling our exhibition space,  “The Third Offering Gallery” to highlight the importance of Beauty as food for the soul, and for an evolving culture.”

Yet the space is not just an art exhibit, it’s also a temporary shrine.  That idea came from HedgeWalker, who believes shrines are part of how a community can interact with the sacred and the beautiful. Both co-producers say, in future years, they may expand the sacred gallery space to include artists whose specific task is to design the shrine and ritual activity for this event.

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1 Nuit_Queen-of-HeavenThe Third Offering features paintings, charcoal, photography, ceramics, and mixed media.  Seven artists, including Rucker and HedgeWalker, are part of this year’s show. Rucker and HedgeWalker also hand selected the artists due to a shortened time table for getting the exhibit launched.  The Paganicon Board also wanted to create a first example of what this could be, before it was opened up further the next year.  For 2014 there will be an official Call For Art to give area artists time to  create new works for submission and there will be a committee that reviews submissions for acceptance.  Rucker says they are open to more three dimensional and sculptural works in the future and ” If we can figure out how to incorporate video and perhaps “time-based” installations in future, we would like to open up the field further.”

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Rucker, who has created other group Pagan art shows in the past, says, “Pagan themed art is diff

icult to place in traditional galleries, and opportunities to experience several artists whose works and worldviews overlap in this vein, is rare.”  He

 hopes attendees gain something through the concept they are creating for Paganicon, “Helga and I are both committed to the idea that art’s essence must be experienced directly, in the flesh as it were, by contact with original works. There is a mana in originals that cannot be described, only experienced. How much more so, when several like-spirited works are housed together.”

The Third Offering opens with a reception this Friday at 9:30pm in room 232.  Some of the artists’ works are available for purchase.  Rucker, HedgeWalker, and Posch are offering a panel presentation Sunday morning on The Third Offering: Sacred Beauty.