Rendezvous Days & Pow-Wow, Art & Music

by Joan Farnam on August 9, 2018

A foggy evening by Lori Backlund.

This is the second big summer weekend in Cook County as the Grand Portage Rendezvous Days & Celebration Pow Wow gets underway. The annual event, which has been held in Grand Portage for more than 80 years, is the community’s biggest and most grand celebration, as re-enactors from across the country and Canada come to participate in its rich heritage.

Re-enactors set up camp at the Grand Portage Monument during Rendezvous Days. Photo by Derek Montgomery for MPR News.

The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa hold a grand pow-wow in conjunction with the event, drawing in hundreds of dancers and drums from throughout the region. Grand Entry at the pow-wow is at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 7 p.m. Saturday.

The Grand Portage Celebration Pow-wow draws hundreds of dancers for the three-day event. Grand Entry is at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 7 p.m. Saturday.

Visitors can expect a weekend packed with cultural events from the 1800s to 1900s, including as well as chances to try blacksmithing, arts and crafts, Native American cuisine, and recreational activities. This year’s event focuses on what it was like growing up in the fur trade era, so there are special events for children, including games and activities, workshops and music.

On Friday, there will be a special opening ceremony feauturing the Grand Portage Drum, The Stone Bridge Singers, which will take place at the historic stone bridge on the reservation, which has been recently restored. The ceremony is at 10 a.m. Check out the Stonebridge Singers here.

Everyone is invited to Grand Portage this weekend to reconnect with its historic past and the people who make up its community.

There’s lots happening in Grand Marais this weekend, too.

First up are live craft demonstrations at North House Folk School with two instructors: Cody Myers and Kerry Lambertson Thursday through Sunday. Myers is a blacksmith and will demonstrate that craft all weekend, as well as teach a mini-course at 10 a.m. Saturday. Lambertson will give demonstrations on violin-making and will teach a mini-class on carving a spatula on Saturday.

Kerry Lambertson will be demonstrating violin-making this weekend at North House Folk School.

The public is invited to the North House campus this weekend to watch these instructors-in-residence at work. To register for the classes on Saturday, drop by or call 387-9762.

And on Thursday at 4 p.m., local author and researcher Staci Drouillard will give a presentation on “Stories of Work & Play in Chippewa City” at the Chippewa City Church, just east of Grand Marais on Hwy. 61.

Staci Drouillard will give a presentation at Chippewa City Church at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Drouillard is a Grand Portage descendant with Chippewa City roots. She has an M.L.S. from the University of Minnesota Duluth and is the author of “Walking the Old Road: Stories of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Chippewa,” a book manuscript scheduled for publication by the University of Minnesota Press in the Spring of 2019. She lives, works and writes just outside of Grand Marais, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The presentation is open to the public. Free.

Also on Thursday, Cary Griffith, author of “Gunflint Burning” will be at Voyageur Brewing Company for a book signing at 6 p.m.

“Gunflint Burning” author Cary Griffith will be at Voyageur Brewing at 6 p.m. Thursday.

“Gunflint Burning’ tells the story of the Ham Lake fire, at the time the most destructive wildfire in modern Minnesota history.

For theater lovers, “Mom’s Gift,” an award-winning comedy, will be performed at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts at 7 p.m. Thursday. The play is one of the plays being performed for the Grand Marais Playhouse Summer Theater Festival. The next and final performance of “Mom’s Gift” is at 7 p.m. Saturday.

On Friday, Rendezvous Days & the Celebration Pow-Wow begins in Grand Portage.

In Grand Marais, there will be an informal poetry reading and time for sharing stories in honor of poet Joanne Hart from 5-7 p.m. at the Johnson Heritage Post. Hart wrote lived and wrote for many years in Grand Portage.

Joanne Hart’s book “Witch Tree” was published with artwork by Hazel Belvo.

Family members and friends will be reading from Hart’s work, with time for stories, mingling, refreshments, and enjoying artwork by Hazel Belvo and Marcia Casey Cushmore. The event is free and open to the public. All invited.

For music lovers, the Thunderheads Trio will be guests on WTIP Community Radio’s The Roadhouse on Friday. They will talk about their music and play a few songs. The Roadhouse airs from 5-7 p.m.

And, the Grand Marais Playhouse Summer Theater Festival continues, will the performance of “Shrek The Musical” at 7 p.m. Friday. The final performance of this popular musical will be at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Saturday in Grand Marais opens with the Cook County Market at 9 a.m., featuring a wide variety of work by local artisans. The Market is held in the parking lot of the Senior Center. Fresh produce from Round River Farm in Finland is available at 10 a.m. The Market held until 1 p.m.

Also on Saturday, celebrated Minnesota author Faith Sullivan will be featured at a Writer’s Salon at Drury Lane Books at 7 p.m.

Author Faith Sullivan will be the featured author at a Writer’s Salon at Drury Lane Books at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Sullivan is the author of several novels set in the fictional Minnesota small town of Harvester, including “The Cape Ann,” “Gardenias,” and “Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse.” She will read from her forthcoming Harvester novel (out in fall 2019) and take questions from the audience. All invited.

On Sunday, Aug. 12, the 6th annual August Afternoon of Classical and Jazz Music will be held at the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department Hall #1 (Poplar Lake) at 5 p.m. This is always a great concert, featuring talented musicians from the throughout the community and the region playing great music. Musicians include: Philis Anderson (oboe); Kathy Bolstad, (clarinet); Sue Anderson (violin); Fred Anderson (guitar); Hugh and Nancy Magill (vocal & piano); Michael Ferguson (piano); SVEA: Rose Arrowsmith DeCoux, Erika Ternes, and Yvonne Mills); the Borealis Brass Quartet: Eric Anderson (euphonium), Don Grant (trumpet), Dave Coleman (trombone), and Robert Reed (trumpet) and the Sky Blue Jazz Ensemble: Mike DeBevec (piano), Mike Roth (string bass), Erik Hahn (sax), Thomas Stamps (percussion and vocal), and Karina Roth (vocals).

The event is a fundraiser for the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department. To reserve tickets, contact Patsy Coleman, 313-673-6202 or at PColeman@chem.wayne.edu Checks and credit cards accepted.

And for star watchers, next week, the Dark Sky Caravan from the University of Minnesota-Duluth will be in Cook County, with a portable planetarium and telescopes to give presentations about the sky and offer opportunities, weather permitting, to see planets and galaxies close-up and personal. Free.

The Dark Sky Caravan will be in Cook County next t week.

They will give presentations at Birch Grove Community Center on Monday, Voyageur Brewing on Tuesday, Grand Portage on Wednesday and Chik-Wauk on Thursday and Friday. The presentations take half and hour and begin at 5 p.m.

On Tuesday of next week, the dynamic Americana duo, Moors & McCumber, will perform at the Seagull Lake Community Center which is in Fire Hall # 3, near the end of the Trail at 7 p.m.

Moors & McCumber perform at the Fire Hall #1 on the Gunflint Trail on Tuesday. They will also perform at Papa Charlie’s on Monday night.

This event is also a fundraiser for the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department. An anonymous donor will contribute $10 to the Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department for each person who attends, up to $500. To learn more about the musicians, click here.

On Wednesday, Glen Everhart’s Heebie Jeebies Family Comedy Music Show will be at the Grand Marais Public Library at 3:30 p.m. All invited. Free.

An finally, the Grand Marais Art Colony will hold at Artist Talk at 7 p.m. Wednesday with artist Kristen Lowe. Her presentation, “Drawing–Timeless and Versatile” will talk about why the drawing process has remained central to her artistic practice for more than 25 years.

Kristin Lowe will give an Artist Talk about drawing at the Grand Marais Art Colony at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Lowe will explore how beauty awakens our senses, empowers us, stuns us, how it weaves itself through our artistic process and keeps us coming back for more. This event is free. All invited.

Exhibits:

This is the final weekend to see the exhibit, “Belvo/Cushmore: Paintings & Drawings 2018″ at the Johnson Heritage Post.

“On the Edge” by Marcia Casey Cushmore.

“Lake Superior at Devil Track Lake” print by Hazel Belvo.

This exhibit has received rave reviews. The Heritage Post is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and Monday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. It is closed on Tuesdays.

In Duluth, the Duluth Art Institute is exhibiting three shows this month: Chholing Taha: Every Spirit Tells A Story, Payton MacDonald: Sonic Divide: Art Meets Endurance and Jonathan Thunder: Suspension of Disbelief.

Artwork by Payton MacDonald’s “Sonic Divide,” now at the Duluth Art Institute..

The exhibits continue through Sept. 2.

At the Tweed Museum of Art, check out the exhibit, “In Solidarity: Revolutionary Women of Print.”

Marisol (Escobar), “Women’s Equality,” lithograph, is at the Tweed Museum of Art.

The exhibit closes this weekend.

In Thunder Bay, the 30th Anniversary Members Show at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery continues through Sunday.

The Members Show at Definitely Superior Art Gallery in Thunder Bay closes this weekend. Pictured are works by Matthew O’Reily, Shayla Hickerson and Sebastien Hardy.

And finally in Thunder Bay, the Baggage Building Arts Center is featuring an exhibit of work by the Group of Stephen through the end of the month.

The Group of Stephen is exhibit at the Baggage Building Arts Center through the end of August.

Upcoming:

Singer/songwriter Peter Mayer will be in concert at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on Aug. 18.

Peter Mayer will be in concert at the ACA Aug. 18.

The concert is sponsored by the North Shore Music Association. Stay tuned for details.

The 11th annual Radio Waves Music Festival (Sept. 7-9) will feature 26 acts this year, and the West Virginia band, the Carpenter Ants, will be one of the featured acts. They’ll do the Saturday night show and Gospel Hour on Sunday morning. It should be a great music festival, which is held at Sweetheart’s Bluff at the Rec Park under the Big Tent. To see the complete schedule, click here.

Here’s a video of the Carpenter Ants:

Kudos:

Ann Possis was named to the 2018 “50 Over 50” list, which celebrates and recognizes Minnesotans over the age of 50 who have made significant contributions and achievements in their communities.

Ann Possis was named to the 2018 50 Over 50 list, which recognizes and celebrates Minnesotans who have made significant contributions to their communities. Congratulations, Ann!

Possis was named in the nonprofit category. Individuals will be recognized at a special event in October. To find out more, click here.

Window Shopping:

Maggie Anderson has some great pottery at Kah-Nee-Tah Gallery in Lutsen.

The Cook County Historical Society has put a calendar for 2019 featuring historic photos of Cook County. The calendar can be found at the Historical Society and at the Johnson Heritage Post.

Music Video

Here’s an interview with Grand Marais’ Tim Styles.

Tim Styles was interviewed on WTIP’s The Scenic Route the other day. Listen in.

Tim grew up here and is now a professional singer/songwriter based in Bakersfield, Calif.

Here’s the music schedule for the week:

Thursday, Aug. 9:

Jim & Michele Miller, Cascade Lodge, 6 p.m.
Joe Paulik, Lutsen Resort, 6:30 p.m.
Plucked Up String Band, Gun Flint Tavern 7 p.m.
Kilborn Quartet, Wunderbar, 7 p.m.
Gordon Thorne and the Wildcats, North Shore Winery, 7 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 10:

Eric Frost, Eagle Ridge Resort, 7 p.m.
Timmy Haus, Voyageur BrewingCol, 4 p.m.
Portage, Grandma Ray’s, 6 p.m.
Common Ground, Wunderbar, 8 p.m.
Thunderheads, Gun Flint Tavern, 8:30 p.m.
The Millers, Bluefin Grille, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 11:

Over the Waterfall, Grand Portage Monument, 3 p.m.
Eric Frost, Cascade Lodge Restaurant, 6:30 p.m.
J Squared & the Makers, Papa Charlies, 6 p.m.
Plucked Up String Band, Lutsen Resort, 7 p.m.
David Huckfelt of The Pines and Frankie Lee, Wunderbar, 8 p.m.
Brothers in Arms, Grandma RAy’s, 8 p.m.
Thunderheads, Gun Flint Tavern, 8:30 p.m.
Timmy Haus, Papa Charlie’s, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 12:

Briand Morrison, Mobuls Grille, 10 a.m.
Gene LaFond & Amy Grillo, Wunderbar, 11 a.m.
Plucked Up String Band, North Shore Winery, 3 p.m.
Jacob Mahon and brother John, Skyport Lodge, 4 p.m.
Gunflint Woods, Winds, Strings … and a Little Jazz, Gunflint Trail Fire Department #1 (Poplar Lake), 5 p.m.
Open Stage with Joe Paulik, Wunderbar, 6 p.m.
Adam Huber, Gun Flint Tavern, 7 p.m.