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Postmaster: Send address chang- es to City Pages, 650 3rd Ave. S., Ste. 1300, Maybe we did SAVAGE LOVE Minneapolis, MN 55488. need a Little Miss No part of this publication may be repro- duced without written permission. Copyright Sunshine Jr. 2019 City Pages. City Pages is a registered cover credit trademark of Star Tribune Media Company, LLC. Photo by Emily Utne JANUARY 22–28, 2020(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)3(cid:2) THE SHORTLIST Just 24 photos of Minnesotans Sunday-Thursday thriving in the snow “BESTHOTDOG” 4-6pm&10-12AM 2019 citypages.com $2offdrafts&dogs “BESTNEW BAR” 2018 Fresh,localbeeroptions ondraft&incans thoughtfullycrafted cocktaillist 17,179,869,84possible hotdogcombinations! MIKE MADISON open11am-2ameveryday THE STAT SHEET under18withanadult 9,700 2024 21+after9pm Drivers ticketed during the Planned debut of the St. Paul to 113E26thStreet•Minneapolis first five months of Minnesota’s Woodbury bus-rapid transit line—it hands-free cell phone law was just cleared by the FTA 612-236-4089•Tiltpinballbar.com $100 million $10 million Dollars over budget a Duluth In upgrades allotted for the 2020 interchange project has ended up before State Fair, including metal detectors construction even starts in spring at entrances and maintenance “‘We’d pay you less, but legally can’t’ is a terrific look.” Reader Dave Haddy responds to “Min- neapolis-St. Paul airport businesses not POPULAR STORIES freaked out about $15 minimum wage” at citypages.com. AT CITYPAGES.COM GUN SANCTUARY Minnesota badass TOOK A KNEE during Trump- NORMALLY, the term “sanctuary city” refers adjacent national anthem to places where the government limits coop- eration with feds to protect immigrants from Report: Rapper LEXII ALIJAI deportation. Sherburne County’s GOP law- overdosed on Percocet at makers want to protect a slightly different Minneapolis hotel sort of person: gun owners. They’re trying to establish MN’s first “Second Amendment Facing eviction, Sanctuary,” meaning they’d impede enforce- IKE’S COCKTAIL BAR CLOSES ment of gun control measures that pro-gun in downtown Minneapolis activists deem contrary to the amendment. Universal background checks? Red flag laws? Can we blame millennials for the Who needs ’em! “We look forward to doing COST OF LIVING in Minneapolis? our part as legislators to protect and fortify 4 of the Twin Cities’ greatest the Second Amendment at the state level,” a HOT DOG SHOPS letter signed by Rep. Shane Mekeland (R-Clear Lake) and five other lawmakers reads. 4(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)JANUARY 22–28, 2020 BLOTTER MAZDA CULPA Charges: Eagan mayor drove drunk, got SUV stuck in snowbank E agan Mayor Mike Maguire is and declined to take another. He was facing criminal charges after placed under arrest and, “swaying and an arrest for driving while staggering,” was helped into a police car. intoxicated earlier this month. A breathalyzer registered his blood The Eagan Police Depart- alcohol level at .19, or more than twice ment responded to a report of a vehicle the legal limit of .08. Maguire faces two stuck in a snowbank around 8 p.m. on gross misdemeanors for driving while January 11, according intoxicated. A gross to a criminal com- misdemeanor carries His blood plaint. A Mazda SUV a maximum penalty of had gone “up over the one year in jail and/or alcohol level curb” before getting a $3,000 fine. stuck, and was still Aside from a speed- registered running when cops ing ticket and a park- GLEN STUBBE, STAR TRIBUNE arrived at the scene. ing violation, Maguire at .19. Maguire was sitting has no criminal record in the driver’s seat. in Minnesota. Maguire, 52, was first elected mayor Maguire also owns Emerald Advocacy, The mayor smelled His case has been of that eastern suburb in 2006, and is described on LinkedIn as “offering public like alcohol, spoke outsourced to the city now serving his fourth term. In 2018, affairs expertise, traditional and social with a slur, and had “bloodshot, watery, attorney’s office in Hastings, county seat Maguire’s most recent reelection, he ran media strategies and integrated lobby- and glassy” eyes, the complaint says. He of Dakota County, to avoid a potential unopposed and received 98 percent of ing and grassroots action” to clients. failed a field sobriety test at the scene, conflict of interest. the vote. —MIKE MULLEN FFFFEEEEBBBBBRRRRRUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY666–––––1111222222,,,,,,, 22222222000001111199999    |||||CCCCCIIIIITTTTTYYYYYYYPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGEEEESSSSSS...CCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM|||||FFFFRRRREEEEE Be sure to check out our 22222222000000000111111111199999999 people issue next week! IIIIIssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeee Hitting the streets JANUARY 29, 2020 DRINK Cheers to low-ABV beers? p. 33 A-LIST Girl Scout cookies and beer p. 37 MUSIC Anyone remember 1989? p. 47 JANUARY 22–28, 2020(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)5(cid:2) u s k Lik e e b o o ff ! c o F a % n 0 o 1 r o f 45 years and still going strong Largest smoke shop in Saint Paul, located right next to the Excel Energy Center CARRYING CBD, KRATOM AND MORE! FFOOLLLLOOWW UUSS @CITYPAGESSTREET @CITYPAGES 205 7th St W, Saint Paul, MN 651-292-1623 #CITYPAGES facebook.com/maharajasgifts 6(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)JANUARY 22–28, 2020 Meet one of America’s most celebrated contemporary poets: A black, queer writer and performer (and selfie icon) from St. Paul by M I C H A E L K L E B E R - D I G G S I t’s inked on Danez Smith’s inner right arm in handmade, all-caps letters, set vertically from up near their shoulder down to just above the crook of their elbow: fearless. On their left arm—same font, same size, same placement—the word “limitless” appears. Tattoos that seem part description and part reminder. Because at just 30, Smith has already claimed a place in American poetry’s upper ech- elon thanks to work that’s fearless in its confrontations with truth and limitless in how it both embraces and upends form and tradition. F Smith and I first met in 2015—before they signed with Graywolf Press, before Don’t Call Us Dead was published and shortlisted for the National Book Award, E before they became the youngest poet ever to win England’s prestigious Forward Prize. And before the publication of their widely anticipated and highly praised A third collection, Homie—released Janu- ary 21—which has already awed readers and critics alike. L “I’d like to invent or order up new adjectives to describe the startling orig- R inality and ambition of Smith’s work,” Parul Sehgal wrote in a rave New York E Times review, calling Smith one of the most acclaimed poets of their genera- tion. “I’d like to unwrap some brand-new words, oddly pronged words, to convey S their wary intelligence and open heart.” Here in Minnesota, friends who know Smith well touch on similar themes. Smith is simultaneously exceptional and nor- S mal—utterly uncommon yet down to earth. “It goes without saying that they are brilliant,” says Tish Jones, founder and executive director or TruArtSpeaks, who attended Central High School with Smith and was active with them in the early days of performance-based poetry. Jan Mandell, the highly regarded St. Paul Central High School theater-arts NE teacher, shares similar sentiments. “Danez T LY U tells me everything—where they hurt, MI who they love,” she says. “Danez is not E JANUARY 22–28, 2020(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)7(cid:2) Advertorial WantNaturalRelief? MostAmericanscanrememberthelasttimetheytookacommonplacepainpill. Ibuprofen,Advilandothernon-steroidanti-inflammatorydrugs,orNSAIDS,arewidely popularacrosstheUnitedStatesandformanytheyareascommonplaceascoffeeinthe morningoradrinkontheweekend. Whatmanydon’tknowisthatNSAIDscarrywiththemsignificantrisks,accordingto theU.S. FoodandDrugAdministration.Becauseofthis,manyhavefoundnaturalCBD productscanofferhelpfulandhealthyalternativestopopularover-the-counter NSAIDs. AccordingtostatementsfromtheFDA,includingarenewedwarningin2015,NSAID painrelieverscarryariskofheightenedbloodpressureandheartattacks. HarvardMedicalSchoolreportedthatoneNSAIDwasresponsibleforasmanyas 140,000casesofheartattackswhileonthemarket. EMILY UTNE ThemostriskyusesofNSAIDscomefromprolongeduse,accordingtoHarvard. ThesciencebehindCBDisnewandexciting,butnoveltybringsitsownproblems interested in being with anybody in an THE POET withresearch.ThehempplanthaslongbeenprohibitedintheU.S.andscientists inauthentic way.” And they strive for excel- AND THE PERSON haverushedtolearnmoresincefederalhemplegalizationin2018. lence: “To Danez, writing is not something F you do when you’re inspired. You do it earlessness. Limitlessness. Bril- Inthesummerof2019,theWorldHealthOrganizationpublishedfindingsthatCBD usecarriesnomajorhealthrisks. because it’s your discipline; you write liance. Transparency. Authentic- every day... I don’t know many people ity. Humanity. TheNationalInstitutesofHealthhavepublishedmultiplestudiesaboutthepotential who have that kind of rigor and that kind I think about Smith’s poem usesandbenefitsofCBD,includingasatreatmentforchronicandhard-to-treat of humanity.” “The 17-Year-Old & the Gay Bar,” a stun- painaswellasforinflammation.Bothofthesearecommonreasonspeopleturnto When we spoke last week, a few days ning work of art that’s simultaneously NSAIDs. in advance of Homie’s release, I said when sacreligous and sanctified, offensive to Still,findingtherightCBDproductscanbedifficult,andafloodedmarketofnew I think of them, two adjectives come to those who view God in specific places, businessesandretailershasconfusedmanyasthenewsofhemp’sutilityhas mind: candid and fast. “You think fast and holy to those who know the divine is spread. talk fast,” I remark. “You move fast and ubiquitous. It opens: Luckily,NothingButHemphasprovidedanimportantbasisfornewCBDcustomers process fast, and this is probably unfair, tolearnaboutthebenefitsofhempandwhichproductsarerightforthem. but you seem to work fast too.” this gin-heavy heaven, blessed “I would probably say I’m fast, but I ground to think gay & mean we. AtavarietyoflocationsacrossthestateofMinnesota,inFloridaandNevada, wouldn’t be talking about how I work,” bless the fake id & the bouncer visitorswillfindawealthofhempexperienceandexpertiseamongseasonedretail Smith replies, laughing. who knew teammembersandmanagers. “I feel like a very happy ghost that this need to be needed, to belong, QualityandtransparencyarealsokeytoNothingButHemp,withleadingthird-party everybody has decided to see. And that to know how testedbrandslikeSiskiyouSungrownCBD,Charlotte’sWebCBDandlocalfavorite is how I move through the world. I’m a man taste full on vodka & free MinnyGrownCBD. just grateful that people have decided of sin. i know not which god to LOCATIONS to see me and my little ghost self. I feel pray to. MAPLEWOODMALL FORESTLAKE SAINTPAUL like a ‘regular-degular’ ’90s kind of girl. 3001WhiteBearAve 143LakeStN 844GrandAve And I just write my little poems and try Smith is Smith wherever they go, on the Maplewood,MN55109 ForestLake,MN55025 SaintPaul,MN55105 to call my mama.” page, on the stage, IRL, and online. Espe- UPTOWN CLOQUET WHITEBEARLAKE “The poems,” they add, with a mea- cially on Twitter and Instagram, where they 617WLakeSt 6N14thSt 4762BanningAve, sure of seriousness, “are part of how I pay promote sex positivity and body positivity Minneapolis,MN55408 Cloquet,MN55720 WhiteBearLake,MN55110 attention to the world. I’m happy to be a in ways that seem simultaneously automatic part of it. I don’t know how to describe and intentional. “In the early days of the FindusonFacebook /nothingbuthemp myself. I like to teach. I like to write, and internet, I had a lot of folks who were like, I like to dance. I’m normal, but I think ‘Hey, you might want to calm down a little bit www.nothingbuthemp.net I’m cute and funny.... That’s how I feel.” of who you are or how you are,’” Smith says. 8(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)JANUARY 22–28, 2020 “I think from an early point, before I on Myspace—my morality went out the was considered Anybody’s Known Poet, door a long time ago.” I was like, you know what? If my poems Asked how they first took an interest can cuss and be nasty, if my poems can get in poems, Smith replies: “A lot of us were fucked, if my poems can have their asses sort of tricked into writing poetry.” We got this. out, if my poems can have sex and I can’t, Smith was enrolled in Jan Mandell’s if my poems can be about sex work, but I St. Paul Central High theater class, and can’t actually say that out loud, then what’s says it naturally lent itself toward poetry CommercialandResidential the point? Most of my [poetry] modes have just as performative poetry was gaining ElectricalServices been confessional or personal—even if it’s national attention. Mandell brought in not me, there is skin in the game for me celebrated Minnesota-based black actors, in everything I do. So, to me, I can just playwrights, and directors: “She had Mar- be real online. ion McClinton come through and work SERVICINGENTIRETWINCITIESMETRO 612-750-5724|BYRONELECTRIC.COM “ THE POEMS A R E PA RT OF HOW I PA Y AT TEN TION T O THE WOR L D. FEBRUARY8 I’M H A PPY T O BE A PA RT OF I T.” Karneval T anzparty “I suck dick in poems,” Smith continues. with us and folks like E.G. Bailey and Sha “And guess what, I suck dick in real life. Cage. Who she had us working with—and Sometimes, I talk about that.” the way theater manifested itself in that From “a note on the phone app tells me class—called for poetry.” how far i am from other men’s mouths”: Timing played a role as well. Smith revelry Anightof GermanKarnevalstyle became interested in poetry during the headless horsehung horsemen rise of the HBO show Def Poetry Jam and Burlesque & Amateur Drag gallop to my gate during the early days of slam poetry. “So dressed in pictures stolen off all of a sudden,” Smith says, “for us at least, Google poetry was exciting. There was poetry on 21+ TicketsatGAI-MN.ORG TV… and it was all over Minneapolis too.” men of every tribe mark their Mandell says when Smith first came doors in blood to class, Smith had so much energy, they No Fats, No Fems, No Blacks, spent some of it “rolling around on the Sorry, Just A Preference :) floor.” But in the Black Box Theater, Cen- tral’s acclaimed performing-arts incuba- I’m offered eight mouths, three tor, Smith “found a safe space and began asses, & four dicks before i’m given to direct all that energy.” The class was a name, i offer my body to pic- designed to provide room for each student tures with eyes to create work based on their life story, and Smith’s work shined. “When someone On Instragram, Smith is a master of speaks their truth, everyone rises to their selfies—everything from come-hither level,” she says. “With Danez, it was never selifes to back-the-fuck-up selfies. Here about ego or standing out, it was always they are at work, behind a microphone, about: Who can I bring along?” or in more intimate settings, dressed for Soon after Mandell’s class, Rock the a night in or a night out, wearing a robe Mic, the erstwhile Minneapolis-based or a cheetah costume, topless or almost performance poetry organization, started bottomless—drawers only. sending a team to Brave New Voices and Smith says this presence isn’t contrived; the International Poetry Slam. Smith was it’s important to them. “I’ve struggled involved from the beginning and went on with my body and with body image all to have an illustrious slam poetry career. my life, and it just became a way to check They were an Individual World Poetry in on myself and actually feel good about Slam finalist. They were twice named myself. I don’t think it’s too intentional, Rustbelt Individual Champion, and they but it is a public way to share the joy I’ve were on the 2014 Championship team found in private. To look in the mirror Sad Boy Supper Club with three other and say I like what I see there and who poetry superstars: Cameron Awkward- I am there; I think it’s powerful.” Rich, Hieu Minh Nyugen, and sam sax. It’s not that sex was something that was It all started here in the Twin Cities. shamed in Smith’s family or community. “Poetry was happening in a very bright “People talked about it; people had it. But and abundant community all around the it was straight sex. It was not queer.” Cities from when I was 14 and 15 on,” “I don’t believe in that particular kind Smith says. of respectability. People have sex; we can Smith has maintained a strong connec- talk about it. People go to strip clubs; we tion to performative poetry, but during can talk about it,” Smith says. “Blame it their time at the University of Wiscon- JANUARY 22–28, 2020(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)9(cid:2) sin-Madison, they began devoting more it was for people, that it resonated with attention to written work. This increased them in a particular way—I’m so grateful interest in poems on the page came about for that. The one hope I have for my work in part when Amaud Jamaul Johnson, is that it’s useful. To feel the poems did a a Dorset and Pushcart Prize-winning lot of work for folks or were of use, was professor and poet, asked, “Danez, are more than I could ask for.” your poems only going to be good when you’re around to read them?” HOMIE “Poetry was, for me, a performative A art,” Smith said. “So writing was a form of sked where Smith’s work fits wanting to eventually get it to the stage. within the modern American [Professor Johnson] was trying to make canon, Kearney summarizes writers out of us. He wasn’t interested in it as “deeply fluent in its pres- perfecting us as performers or spoken- ent—especially in the ways Danez writes word artists. He didn’t shame that par- about how physical intimacy is managed ticular branch of poetry, but he was like, through what often amounts to vast and ‘Be about this work, about the page,’ and impersonal networks of connection. Erot- that shit shook me up.” ics and exchange. The tension between Smith began to think about writing that kind of logistical, algorithmic under- with more curiosity, eventually study- structure and the precarity of how Black ing Patricia Smith and Willie Perdomo people and their bodies get moved and and other poets who’d made a success- managed through large systems. I think ful transition from the stage to the page. those two elements slow grind in a lot of “I think it was helpful to me to really Danez’s poetry. think deeply about spoken word. But “These are long-held concerns,” he eventually, you just want to be a good continues, “but the distance between the poet and a good writer and a good maker figurative and the literal swings over time of things—no matter what that is.” and I’d say Danez recognizes that shit acutely. The body as a site of pleasure and danger is not abstract for them.” THE WRITTEN WORK Smith’s work, Kearney concludes, is where “that urgency meets parts of the S mith began to garner widespread tradition.” attention for their written work Homie, Smith’s third full-length poetry EMILY UTNE with the publication of 2015’s book, was released Tuesday. It has already [insert] boy, which established garnered high praise in Publisher’s Weekly, them as an urgent poetic voice for their international praise. There was a glowing delicate; there’s energy and pain, blood the Star Tribune, from Parul Sehgal at compelling consideration of violence review by the New Yorker’s Dan Chi- there—and heat. I find tenderness in them, the New York Times, and in a reverential against black bodies. asson: “I hope this book brings fans of too. When Danez leaps into the specula- Brontez Purnell essay published in the In “THE BLACK BOY AND THE BUL- Smith’s astonishing performances, all tive—[the poem] ‘summer, somewhere’ journal Poetry. LET,” Smith writes: readily available online, to the printed for example—maybe they are the most Homie includes “how many of us have page.” The collection was shortlisted for tender, and I think that might be because them” a poem that takes its title from the one is hard & the other tries to be the National Book Award, and Smith won that’s a world they build and not one they rap classic “Friends” by Whodini. A poem the Forward Prize. inherit.” I still remember knocking me out in my one is fast & the other is faster Speaking about the reaction to Don’t From “summer somewhere”: kitchen, where I stood at the end of a Call Us Dead, Smith says it was difficult. long work day, jacket still on, stack of one is loud & one is a song “I mean, I’m a Minnesotan! It was there, my mother cried over me, bills in one hand and Poetry magazine with one note & endless rest exhilarating and frightening and all those open casket in the other, staring slack-jawed at lines things. I am very much a Leo. A Leo should and ideas like one’s whole life is a flash never be given that kind of attention for but i wasn’t there. i was here, a thing they did, because their egos can by my own ...roast me. name me in the old ways, “I worked really hard on [insert] boy, get out of control. It can be damaging for water, singing a song i learned your shit-talk a river i wade, howling and I realize that it’s complicated because their egos too. You start to think—when somewhere until it takes me. my name started to be recognized more is everybody going to realize that I’m a i can’t stop laughing, more river because of what I was writing about out of fraud, you know?” south of somewhere worse. wades need and anger and protest,” Smith says To be clear: They’re not. I asked Douglas now everywhere i am is down my throat. could be drowning of the outpouring of recognition. “The Kearney. Kearney, a Whiting Award-win- could be becoming the water, first time I felt in the national spotlight ning poet and performer, and an assistant the center of everything. i must could be was for that work, but it was hard to feel professor of poetry and creative nonfic- be the lord of something. a baptism from the inside out. like I had this rising star that was feed- tion at the University of Minnesota, says ing off this elegiac mode or the death of “[Smith’s] poems are rigorous. They reflect “I knew I had wrote a good book,” don’t save me, i don’t wanna be these people. a keen composition. But there’s dirt in Smith says. “I knew that when the last I saved. “You’re happy to have your work rec- there, a kind that shines anyway.” was made lowercase and the last T was ognized,” Smith continues, “but having “So when we encounter the familiar crossed that I did my thing. I poured my Smith explains how Homie fits in con- work that was so personal also be the cause in a Danez Smith poem,” Kearney says, guts into that book. I think that’s all you versation with their earlier work [insert] of attention like that means the applause “Danez doesn’t ‘elevate’ it because that can ask of yourself as a writer—that you boy and Don’t Call Us Dead and their comes with complications.” would suggest it was somehow lower, surrender to the piece in a particular kind chapbook black movie. After [insert] boy came 2017’s Don’t Call lesser. What Danez does that strikes me of way—and I knew I did that. I was grate- “I think there’s this sort of thread of Us Dead, which was published by Min- is get at the capital-B beauty that Robin ful for the response to it, that the book myself as a confessional elegist hap- neapolis’ Graywolf Press to national and Coste Lewis talks about. It’s not pretty or was resonant or challenging or whatever pening throughout those three books. 10(cid:2)CITYPAGES.COM(cid:2)JANUARY 22–28, 2020