Arts & Culture Spring Off the Court

If you’ll forgive me for a basketball metaphor — as I write this, the Unrivaled season featuring four Lynx players plus Paige Bueckers just tipped off a couple of days ago, and the Timberwolves just delivered an impressive win on Pride Night against the Cleveland Cavaliers — this Spring Arts & Culture issue is a real three-level scoring threat. We have stories from here in the Twin Cities, from Greater Minnesota, and from across the country. 

First, from outside Minnesota — beyond the three-point line, if you will — we have Q&As from Gregg Shapiro with New York-based singer-songwriter Dar Williams, who will be performing at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on March 6, and Canadian film director Julia Jackman. 

Then, in the midrange — greater Minnesota — we have a feature on the Rochester Rainbow Choir from Shane Lueck. 

As someone who grew up in Rochester, I’m excited to get to feature my hometown in Lavender. The Rochester Rainbow Choir is one of many great LGBTQ+ stories from Greater Minnesota — in my short time as Lavender’s managing editor, I’ve already had the opportunity to publish stories on a mental health-focused art exhibition led by Jean Prokott, Rochester’s poet laureate, and Dance TV, a live theater experience in Duluth. 

If you live in Greater Minnesota (or western Wisconsin, northern Iowa, eastern North or South Dakota, southeast Manitoba? Anywhere the light (of the North Star State) touches, as Mufasa would say) and have anything you’d like to see covered in Lavender, please do reach out and let us know! I’d love to cover more outside the Twin Cities metro.

Finally, as any well-coached team should, we score most of our points in the paint — here in the Twin Cities. While she hails from Madurai in southern India, drag artist Silukku has brought her talents to Minneapolis, and did us the honor of gracing our cover. 

We also feature Denzel Belin, Mr. Twin Cities Leather 2026, Queermunity and FairPlay Entertainment’s “Mic Check” concert series, and Minneapolis comic artist Archie Bongiovanni’s new graphic novel, “Leo Rising: Queer Spaces, Sexuality, and Fame.” I had the privilege of seeing Denzel speak at Twin Cities Quorum’s National Coming Out Day Luncheon last year, and after watching him command that stage, I can imagine how he would’ve captivated the judges at Mr. TCL. I haven’t yet caught a “Mic Check” concert or read “Leo Rising” (I’ll cut myself some slack on that one, it’s not yet out at time of writing), but I hope that I can correct those errors soon. 

I hope that you, too, dear reader, get the chance to experience as much of the wonderful art in this issue as possible — wherever on the court you happen to find yourself.