Conversations from the Barn

Julie Landsman's first love has always been poetry. Over the past thirty years her poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies. She is presently a poet and teacher for the Alzheimers Poetry Project. In 2019 she won the Bechtel Essay contest for "Music and Story: How We Enter." Her three published memoirs , Basic Needs, A Year With Street Kids in a City School (Milkweed Press) A White Teacher Talks About Race and Growing Up White (Rowman & Littlefield) center around education and her connections to the stories of her students. She spent 28 years teaching in Minneapolis Public schools and the Minnesota Center for Arts Education High School

"Performer is the word that sums up what I do. You can find me on a stage doing theatre, sharing my own music, or in front of the camera. I prefer my name as my pronoun, but they/them is good is well.

I started acting in my elementary school and church. I also would write songs with my brother to perform to our family. My first community theater performance was in 7th grade, which was also the time that I started writing music seriously. I focused on my rap career off and on, mainly doing music with a Christian theme. I decided to fully pursue acting and music, so I left my small town in Wisconsin, and moved to Minneapolis.

So far, this city has been a dream. It's helped me to continue to grow into the person I am daily."

Rachel is a Minneapolis-based musician, songwriter, Kith + Kin Chorus director, sideman, auntie, artist and tiny home inhabiter. She has released four albums and four EPs, including the country ep, a split 45 of countryish duets with longtime friend and collaborator, Anaïs Mitchell. In 2016, with the release of To Gentlemen, Rachel parted ways from performing as "Rachel Ries" and now writes for and tours with her new project, HER CROOKED HEART. HCH carries Rachel's wry and powerfully tender writing farther down the path of instrumental expansion and distillation. HCH's debut album,To Love To Leave To Live, was released May 2019.

Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of story. As an ordained priest, a playwright, a theologian, and a writer all of his work revolves around making meaning through story. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Uprising Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the co-founder of QueerTheology.com, and will soon publish with Eerdmaan's books. Shannon is a recipient of the Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellowship in 20/21 and he was a Lambda Literary Fellow for 2019 and a Finnovation Fellow for 2019/2020. He is a sought after speaker on transgender issues and religion as well as a skilled facilitator of a variety of workshops. His work with Brian G. Murphy at QueerTheology.com has reached more than a million people all over the world through videos, articles, and online courses and community. Shannon's plays include Body+Blood, in a stand of dying trees, Line of Sight, Twisted Deaths, The Resistance of My Skin, and Who Has Eyes To See. He's currently working on a television pilot.

Cleo Person is a dancer, emerging choreographer, and writer. Her work explores the soulful qualities of the human being and the mysteries of the natural world. Working with the languages of classical ballet, modern dance, and poetry, she aims to connect audiences with the beauty and intelligence of our inward and external environments. She is a graduate in dance of The Juilliard School, and currently resides in Southern California, where she works as a collaborative multi-disciplinary artist. She has worked with groups such as the Arts Fusion Initiative of NYC (http://www.arts-fi.com), has been commissioned to choreograph by Perry Mansfield Performing Arts in Steamboat Springs, CO, and has had poetry published in Border Voices Anthology.

Carrie Elkin is one of those rare artists with a tidal wave singing voice, and a stage whisper writing voice that brings you to the edge of your seat, emotionally. Like Patty Griffin or Brandi Carlile, she straddles the Americana, Folk, and Indie Rock worlds, where meaningful songs meet the fierce-yet- fragile voices of powerful women. Like these other seminal artists, Elkin has the gift of projecting very personal intimate moments into transcendent universal experiences that move us all.

Con Davison is a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist living in St Paul, MN, and is a member of the band Bad Bad Hats. Originally from Austin, Texas, Davison moved to Minnesota hoping to get away from an orchestral music degree and put the drums away for a while, an escape that only lasted as long as the 17 hour drive up I-35. Surrounded and supported by an amazing community of artists and musicians, Con has found a place for himself in the Twin Cities music scene as a jack of all trades with a sound that is all his own. He loves tacos, sleeping outside and playing with his two dogs.

Allegra was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, raised in Lexington, KY, and currently lives and works in Minneapolis, MN as a freelance illustrator, designer, and muralist. She received her BFA from MCAD in Fine Arts Studio in 2010, and since then has worked with both commercial and nonprofit clients. Recent clients include: Starbucks, Mondelez International, Google, Target, Penguin Random House, Buzzfeed, Eater, The Verge, The Globe and Mail Canada, AARP, and The Walker Art Center. Outside of her client-focused practice she maintains a fine arts painting practice.

Kate creates visual artwork that is grounded in the processing of experiences. Nature, wilderness, and organic materials are sources of inspiration as well as mediums for creation. Her work results in three-dimensional, complex, layered, and visceral forms. Her work often draws upon the totality of experiences found in the connection of mind, body, and spirit.