May 8, 2016, Sunday - Mother’s Day Karma Donation-Based Yoga Class at YogaFit Northeast Minneapolis

Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Location: YogaFit Northeast Minneapolis, 520 First Ave NE

Mother’s Day Karma Donation-Based Yoga Class

YogaFit is partnering with Everyday Miracles for a special Mother’s Day Karma Yoga event!

All donations will go to sponsor Everyday Miracles, a local non-profit that works to support moms in the Twin Cities. Their mission is to improve birth outcomes and breastfeeding rates in at-risk communities by providing doula support, childbirth and breastfeeding education, prenatal yoga, and encouraging community and accessible wellness to low-income families.

All donations will go to support their mission and help ensure that every mother can have pregnancies and births that are happy, healthy, and empowered.

Cash donations may be accepted the day of class, or donations can be made online at www.everyday-miracles.org.

May 7, 2016, Saturday - Mississippi River Gorge Bird Hike

Time: 7 AM - 10 AM

Mississippi River Gorge Bird Hike

The Mississippi River Gorge is one of the best places around for bird watching, and the best time to see and hear them is in May! Join local birding experts Dave Zumeta and Lee Pfannmuller for an exploration of the world-class flyway along the river gorge in Longfellow. Over 170 species have been observed in this area!

Novices and experienced birders all welcome. Bring your binoculars (or let us know you need a pair) and a water bottle. Wear sturdy shoes for exploring the river bluffs and forest and banks.

The hike is free, but RSVP is required as the number of participants is limited to 30. RSVP to joe@longfellow.org or call Joe at 612-722-4529, x13. When you RSVP, you will be provided with the starting location for the hike.

Sponsored by the Longfellow Community Council’s River Gorge Committee.

May 7, 2016, Saturday - 3rd Annual Fulton Gran Fondo

Time: 2:00pm- 9:00pm

Location: Fulton Brewery, 2540 NE 2nd Street

3rd annual Fulton Gran Fondo

Bike Ride. Block Party. Beer.

Join us at the 3rd annual Fulton Gran Fondo for bikes, bands, and beers. The 100 mile ride departs in the morning from the Fulton Production Brewery in NE Minneapolis. This year we're offering a "Medio" 40 mile ride too. The block party kicks off at 2:00 and is free and open to all. $5 Fulton beers all day (cash only), including the seasonal release of The Randonneur, Fulton's Summer Saison. Live music by Nooky Jones, Sam Cassidy, Holidae, Al Church and Fort Wilson Riot. Food trucks in attendance include: Nate Dogs, Mid Nord Empanada, MN ICE Cream, Get Sauced and O'Cheeze.

May 7, 2016, Saturday - Free Boot Camp in Cancer Survivors Park

Time: 10:00am

Location: Cancer Survivors Park, 250 Marquette Ave

Anytime Fitness North Loop will be at The Plaza hosting FREE Boot Camps every Saturday in the Month of May.  Join us at 10:00 AM Saturday May 7th to kick off this month of free workouts

May 7, 2016, Saturday - Mill City Farmers Market

Time: 8:00am - 1:00pm

Location: 704 South 2nd Street

Today at Mill City Farmers Market: Opening Day!

Produce Planner
Asparagus, arugula, morels, rhubarb, hakurei turnips, nettles, baby bok choi, pac choi, radishes, carrots, spring onions, salad mix, spinach, lettuce, mustard greens, swiss chard, cabbage, and vegetable and herb seedlings for the garden!

Community Booth
ALL DAY: Hennepin County Master Gardeners will be on-site answering your vegetable gardening, tree care, insect, pest, and no-chemical lawn care questions! Find them at the top of the market on the Chicago Mall.

ALL DAY: Visit the Wedge Community Co-op booth in the train shed near the Mill City Cooks kitchen to receive free sample of smoked salt, the perfect addition to meats and summer vegetables. Plus, receive coupons good at the Wedge Lyndale store and the Wedge Table Market and Cafe.

Mill City Cooks
10:30AM-11AM: Market Chef, Jenny Breen, is cooking fresh asparagus with citrus and olive marinade with her daughter this Saturday. Learn how to cook fresh, seasonal vegetables at our free 30-minute cooking class located in the train shed patio. Marketing and Ownership Coordinator Mary Van Sant of the Wedge Community Co-op will also be in the kitchen offering helpful tips about buying in bulk.

Live Music
11AM to 1PM: MCFM Welcomes back the Roe Family Singers, “a Good-Time, Old-Time Hillbilly band from the Mississippi-headwaters community of Kirkwood Hollow, MN. Led by wife & husband Kim Roe (Best Female Vocalist, City Pages/Village Voice) and Quillan Roe (Accident Clearinghouse), the band blends characteristic old-time sound with rock & roll urgency and influence.”

Kids Activities
ALL DAY: Planting Activity with Juut Salonspa- Children can make newspaper pots and plant herbs and flowers to take home for a Mother’s Day gift. Soil, plants, and newspaper are free of charge thanks to Juut Salonspa! Find this activity near the entrance to the trainshed.

Guthrie Story Telling at Mill City Farmers Market
9:30 & 10AM: Guthrie Story Telling- Enjoy a dramatic reading of a farm yard book by actors from the Guthrie Theater. This event is located in the Music Tent on the Chicago Mall near the Guthrie stairs.

ALL DAY: Power of Produce–PoP Club!- A seasonal vegetable tasting club for kids ages 5-12. Collect punches on trading cards and receive a $2 token to spend on produce at the market for tasting this Saturday’s vegetable! This season PoP will be at the market’s green Information Booth in the center of the market on the Chicago Mall.

Art Market
ALL DAY: This Saturday’s featured local artists include: Larissa Loden, Adam Gruetzmacher, Spring Finn & Co, Old World Cabinet, ArtAndes, Sally Fritz Clothing, and Sassy Knitwear. Find them in the train shed near the entrance to the museum!

Breakfast & Lunch
Enjoy delicious breakfast, lunch, and drinks from this Saturday’s local prepared food vendors:
Black Cat Natural Foods
Chef Shack
Gorkha Palace
Crepes by Spoonriver
Abrothecary
Salty Tart
Heritage Breads
Solomon’s Bakery
The Bolt
Cafe Palmira 

May 7, 2016, Saturday - Open House Program and Resource Fair at MPRB

Be Part of Your Community!

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) will hold its first Open House Program and Resource Fair on Saturday, May 7, from 10:00am to Noon at the MPRB Headquarters, 2117 West River Road.

MPRB staff will be on hand to share information and answer questions about programs, resources, job opportunities and other Park Board offerings. Attendees can register for activities and sports leagues, or buy a parking permit. The event will also include kids’ activities, a truck display, food, a bounce house and more!

May 7, 2016, Saturday - Washburn A Mill Tour at Mill City Museum

Times: 1:00pm

Location: Mill City Museum, 704 2nd Street South

Reservations: required, call 612-341-7555 or register online.

Take an in-depth look at the historic Washburn A Mill complex and the award-winning Mill City Museum building. A museum interpreter will take visitors into the building’s many nooks and crannies, highlighting the lives of the men and women who worked there, how the building functioned during its peak flour milling years and the many changes to the building over time.

This is the only opportunity for a guided tour through the entire museum building and the only chance to see some of its non-public spaces. The tour includes admission to the museum gallery, Baking Lab, Water Lab and Flour Tower show.

Also May 21 and 29

May 7, 2016, Saturday - The Derby Day Affair - Unbridled Fun for Philanthropy at Nicollet Island

Time: 1:00pm to 9:00pm

Location: Nicollet Island Pavilion - 40 Power Street

The Derby Day Affair - Unbridled Fun for Philanthropy

Join in unparalleled pageantry and excitement of The Derby Day Affair, a celebration of the 142nd Kentucky Derby. Expect the finest fare, fantastic fashions at our endless extravaganza. You will be greeted by miniature horses and military guardsmen. Enjoy a cornucopia of canapés and delectable drinks in Derby style. Best dressed, best couple and best hat competition. Special discounts to The Polo Classic, Raffle and so much more!

The afternoon features live polo exhibitions, horses and huntsmen, carriage rides, hunting and jumping demonstrations, miniature horses and much, much more.

May 7, 2016, Saturday - James Eli Shiffer book signing and discussion: The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis at Central Library

Time: 2:00 PM

Location: Central Library, Doty Board Room, 300 Nicollet Mall

Author James Eli Shiffer will discuss and sign copies of his new book The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
City blue laws drove the liquor trade and its customers—hard-drinking lumberjacks, pensioners, farmhands, and railroad workers—into the oldest quarter of Minneapolis. In the fifty-cent-a-night flophouses of the city’s Gateway District, they slept in cubicles with ceilings of chicken wire. In rescue missions, preachers and nuns tried to save their souls. Sociology researchers posing as vagrants studied them. And in their midst John Bacich, aka Johnny Rex, who owned a bar, a liquor store, and a cage hotel, documented the gritty neighborhood’s last days through photographs and film of his clientele.

The King of Skid Row follows Johnny Rex into this vanished world that once thrived in the heart of Minneapolis. Drawing on hours of interviews conducted in the three years before Bacich’s death in 2012, James Eli Shiffer brings to life the eccentric characters and strange events of an American skid row. Supplemented with archival and newspaper research and his own photographs, Bacich’s stories recreate the violent, alcohol-soaked history of a city best known for its clean, progressive self-image. His life captures the seamy, richly colorful side of the city swept away by a massive urban renewal project in the early 1960s and gives us, in a glimpse of those bygone days, one of Minneapolis’s most intriguing figures—spinning some of its most enduring and enthralling tales.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James Eli Shiffer has been a professional journalist for twenty-five years and is currently a columnist and editor at the Minneapolis–St. Paul Star Tribune. In 2010 he partnered with Ewen Media to create Rubbed Out, a multimedia history of the murder of a journalist in Minneapolis in 1945.

THE KING OF SKID ROW: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis
By James Eli Shiffer
University of Minnesota Press | 192 pages | April 2016
ISBN 978-0-8166-9829-5 | hardcover | $22.95

PRAISE FOR THE KING OF SKID ROW:
"In its final years, Skid Row was avoided by everyone except the police, storefront Bible-thumpers, slumming sociologists, and the occasional entrepreneur such as John Bacich—‘Johnny Rex’ to the drunks, drifters, and down-and-outers he served as publican and hotelier. James Eli Shiffer recalls the life and times of Johnny, Polack Wally, Moon Face Mary Ann, and other late-stage denizens of that dingy corner of Old Minneapolis with insight, wit, and compassion. The King of Skid Row is terrific urban history, beautifully told." —William Swanson, author of Stolen from the Garden: The Kidnapping of Virginia Piper and Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson

"The King of Skid Row brings to boozy life the alcohol-sodden, corruption-filled era when Minneapolis’ lost Gateway District harbored flop houses, slop joints, cage hotels, brothels, and raunchy speakeasies filled with B-girls and ‘gandy-dancers.’ Exceptionally literate, relentlessly humane, Shiffer peels back the veil from a dark and often violent past that, until now, had been literally paved over and believed forgotten. The King of Skid Row is a deft book that stirs together memoir, mystery, and history with the heartbreaking drama of how a city treats its most despondent and destitute. Moving and fascinating." —Paul Maccabee, author of John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook’s Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul

May 7, 2016, Saturday - Kyle Pettis Fine Art Show at A-Mill Artist Lofts

Kyle Pettis Fine Art is having an open gallery show at the A-Mill Artist Lofts May 7 from 7:00pm - 10:00pm. 
Talented within multiple disciplines, Kyle maintains a focus on the canvas.

May 6, 2016, Friday - Art-A-Whirl Fundraiser and Preview Party at Northrup King

Date/Time: Friday, May 6, 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Location: Northrup King Building, 1500 Jackson St NE, Gallery #332

Thank you for your support of Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA)  - you make a difference and help to advance our artistic community.

Please join us at the most important fundraiser for NEMAA and our premier event, Art-A-Whirl.

• Be the first to bid on 130+ pieces of exceptional artwork, plus gift cards and items from local businesses.
• NEW! Online bidding this year. Bid via your smart phone, desktop computer, or on-site iPads with NEMAA volunteers. Pre-register at Art-A-Whirl.cbo.io.
• Sip on craft beer on tap from Indeed Brewing, cocktails from Aviv Vodka, or wine (cash bar). 
• Sample delicious hors d'oeuvres from Red Stag Supperclub.
• Festive music from KFAI DJ's.
• Celebrate with NEMAA members, artists, and supporters!

Suggested Entry Donation: $3-5
*Our Sustainer Sponsor Neighborship will provide up to $5,000 cash match for donations received at the silent auction room and info booths during Art-A-Whirl! Please help us meet our match goal.

RSVP & share on Facebook. (Optional)

May 6, 2016, Friday - Think Fast! The Improvised Standup Showcase at Day Block Brewing

Time: 9:00pm

Location: Day Block Brewing Company, 1103 Washington Avenue South

Tonight: Think Fast! The Improvised Standup Showcase from HUGE Theater

Each comic improviser (comproviser) must perform a 3-5 minute set based on randomly-assigned topics. Those best at meeting the challenge go on for a full 10 minutes.

 "It's not improv. It's standup, improvised."

May 6, 2016, Friday - Minnesota Children's Museum: Play For All Ball at Nicollet Island Pavillion

Time:  6:00pm - 11:30pm

Location:  Nicollet Island Pavillion, 40 Power Street

Minnesota Children's Museum: Play For All Ball

Minnesota Children's Museum will host its 4th Annual Play for All Ball, a fun and interactive celebration that allows adults to experience first-hand the powerful benefits of PLAY. It will be a night filled with cocktails, food, games, dancing and plenty of surprises. Proceeds from the Play for All Ball directly support the Museum’s Play for All program, which ensures that playful learning at the Museum is truly accessible to ALL families – by reducing barriers such as income, transportation and physical access. More than 100,000 children and adults visit the Museum with free or reduced-price admission through Play for All each year. Admission: $150.00

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May 6, 2016, Friday - WineFest No. 21 - A Toast to Children’s Health at The Depot (2 nights)

Time:  See link for May 6 and 7 schedules

Location: The Depot, 225 3rd Avenue South

Wine Fest No. 21 – A Toast to Children’s Health

An event to benefit children’s health research, education and care at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. Choose from a variety of experiences to enjoy fine wine and fine food.

Complex children’s health challenges. Tenacious pediatric physicians and researchers. And absolutely astonishing breakthroughs. At University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, children and families find strength and hope.

May 5, 2016, Thursday - Pillsbury Hall and the Legacy of Architect Harvey Ellis at Mill City Museum

Time:  7:00pm - 8:30pm

Location: Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd Street

Pillsbury Hall and the Legacy of Architect Harvey Ellis

Join architectural historian John C. Guenther for a discussion about how architect Harvey Ellis came to be described as the link between the great romantic H. H. Richardson and the masters of the Prairie School. Ellis was an accomplished architect who journeyed from his home state of New York through the Midwest and back. While in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Ellis produced competition entries, renderings and numerous architectural designs, some of which were realized. Ellis' most noteworthy contribution from this time was Pillsbury Hall (1887-1888) for the University of Minnesota.

John C. Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP, is president of the Society of Architectural Historians, St. Louis Chapter and a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. This program is sponsored by the Cass Gilbert Society.

Free

May 5, 2016, Thursday - Children's and Young Adult Literature Conference 2016 at The Loft (3 day event)

May 5, 6 and 7

Location: The Loft Literary Center, at Open Book (Loft Classroom), 1011 Washington Ave

Children's and Young Adult Literature Conference 2016

Genre: Children's and Young Adult

Pricing:
• Regular: $275.00
• Member: $247.50

May 5, 2016, Thursday - Riverscape: A Conversation on Riverfront Revitalization at Wander North Distillery

Time: 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Location: Wander North Distillery, 771 Harding St NE

Riverscape: a conversation on riverfront revitalization

Hosted by Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership

Free event, but please register

The Minneapolis Riverfront is a constantly evolving landscape of parks, homes, offices, and industry. That landscape has been undergoing dramatic change in recent decades - first in the Central Riverfront downtown, and more recently in the Upper Riverfront above St. Anthony Falls.

How is this riverfront evolution progressing? What areas are seeing healthy change? What areas need more attention? What areas might act as a model for future revitalization efforts? What might we do to accelerate positive change?

Join us at Wander North Distillery for great local drinks, as we launch into an in-depth exploration of riverfront change through the lenses of economic health, riverfront access, community engagement, and natural resources. Come with your ideas and questions.

May 5, 2016, Thursday - Treehouse presents: Life, Transformed: A Journey of Grace at The Depot

Time: 4:00pm

Location: The Depot Minneapolis, 225 Third Avenue South

Treehouse presents: Life, Transformed: A Journey of Grace

Reserve your space at the 2016 TreeHouse gala today, benefitting Treehouse, Inc., and featuring musical guest Susan Boyle.

TreeHouse brings living hope to hurting youth and families leading to life transformation.

TreeHouse programs are designed to meet social, emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual needs of at-risk teens. TreeHouse provides a safe environment as well as mentoring for teens to receive support, guidance and practical skills in making better choices today to live as healthy adults tomorrow.

May 2, 2016, Monday - 2nd Annual Minneapolis Public School & True Food Chef Council Jr. Iron Chef Contest at Solar Arts by Chowgirls

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Locatioin: Solar Arts by Chowgirls, 711 15th Avenue NE

.

2nd Annual Minneapolis Public School & True Food Chef Council Jr. Iron Chef Contest!

The best way to spend a Monday in May? At a local food competition, of course!Come watch as local chefs and middle school students team up to compete “top­chef” style!

Sign up & get more info here.

Presented by Minneapolis Public Schools & True Food Chef Council. Wedge Community Co-op will be stocking the Junior Iron Chef Pantry, and Solar Arts by Chowgirls is providing the event space.