Phantom Tails playing with toys

The (fabulously lit) Fort Wilson Riot

Fort Wilson Riot at The Key in Northfield, MN from Griff Wigley on Vimeo.



Friday, July 23rd. $4. 6:30-10:30. Rocking music. Be there.

The Northfield Union of Youth teamed up with Twin Cities rapper and spoken word artist Kristoff Krane for a special educational workshop for participants of the Summer Plus program. Summer PLUS is a summer-long academic and recreational program for elementary and middle school students and part of the PRIMEtime Collaborative. Kristoff Krane led two one hour sessions, loosely titled “So you Wanna be a Rapper,” but was more focused on finding the passion to write for oneself and how to do so. About 10 members of the The Key came along to assist Kristoff in his endeavors. Many youth spoke and rapped their final piece (or their work in progress) in front of the others or had staff and members of the Key perform their pieces for them. A huge thanks to Jenny Kramm and Tim Hollinger for being such a big help in making this happen. For more photos click here.

That’s right– Eccentric Circus is back, and will be going down Saturday, June 20th, at 4:00 p.m.  The fun will be held in Sechler Park in Northfield.  Admission is $4, but if you come dressed as a robot, admission is only $3.  Lots of Northfield-area bands will be playing, including this band called Detective Ventriloquist that I keep hearing so much about.

So please, come on down to the park next Saturday for a whole mess of fun.  And check out the poster that Dan Zenner designed. 

Prof and Slim are out promoting their new FREE album “Recession Music,” which is available to donwload on the world wide interweb.

Next week– SATURDAY JUNE 6TH– to be exact, The Key will welcome back Kristoff Krane for this third performance.  Krane is still riding high off of the release of his LP “This Will Work For Now,” which was released in the fall of 2008.  He’s a busy dude who plays a lot of shows in the Twin Cities, but genuinely seems to enjoy working with the youth in Northfield and playing at The Key.  This time out, he’s bringing with him Listener and Fienix.  If you have a free moment, check out some stuff by Listener– it’s like nothing I have ever heard before.

Admission for this show is $4, and the music starts at 7:00 p.m.  So the doors will probably open around 6:00 or 6:30.

Here is a slightly less snazzy poster that I designed earlier today.

Also, look forward to A Night in the Box at the Key, date currently undetermined, but shooting for sometime in late summer. It’s going to be a night filled with stomping, clapping, cheering, accompanied by Minneapolis rock/bluegrass.

anyway, we hope to see you at these shows.  thanks for reading this post.

The Northfield Union of Youth went on their annual winter/spring board retreat this past week. On a sunny day the youth board met at the Key, ate at Chipotle, gamed it up at Grandslam, swam at the Holiday Inn pool, and had a slumber party at that very same Holiday Inn. The group spent about 2 hours discussing a wide variety of topics including fundraising, current and future programming and the future of the organization. The retreat minutes are loosely as follows:

Carleton Garage Sale: stressed how important it will be do help out with this collaborative fundraiser sale. This is a lot of work. Prep begins June 9th.

New Board Recruits wanted!! Youth Board said they would recruit and work on a poster. June 3 are elections.

Smoking on Riverwalk: though we are not the youth police, we are still trying to curb this. Talked about power struggle between staff and youth smokers; how some kids listen but how some youth rebel and have even thrown rocks at staffers. Best preventative measures are:
GETTING THESE YOUTH INVOLVED. How? Hip Hop Night! Starting soon. Basketball hoop on back deck Parker?). Sports checkout (basketballs, soccer balls, football and flags, bikes, cones, bases, etc.). Thursday sports night (Nolan tackle w/ Rachel and Addy)? Could host giant meeting for non involved youth to see what they want from Key. Wednesday the 20th? 4:30pm back deck? Food? Also, Robbie is working on foosball.

Fundraising – Spaghetti Supper and award ceremony. Bagging at Cub – Tim. Beg letter by June. EC. May 29 hip hop show. Youth and adults door to door.

Programs – ART – Rachel and Audrey next year? More guest instructors via colleges. Tie dye, boat race, practical things to teach, glass beads, may day stuff for DJJD.
WW – ask Olivia to renew. Audrey, Maisie, Andi said they would do a review. Recruit.
Movie – plain white sheet needed. Options may help. Key netflix account.
College Prep – U of M, MKat, Gustavus, McNally, etc. More visits.

On Saturday the 2nd, the Northfield Union of Youth participated in 5th Bridge’s 2nd annual “Goods for Good”. The NUY was one of 26 sties throughout the Northfield area hosting rummages sales of which proceeds went to a charity of their choice. Guess who the NUY picked as their charity? Youth were present from 7:30am until around 5:30pm working on the sale and the cleanup. A number of youth also went over to the ice arena to recycle books left over from the annual book sale. Why did the Key do this? Well they are the recipients (along with 4H) of the Waste Management Green Team Award for the months of May-July. For more classy photos please click here.

The Key’s Art Project took a week off from pinatas to head up to the In the Heart of the Beast Theater to work on the theater’s annual May Day parade. The parade is this Sunday, May 3rd from 1:00pm – 4:00pm at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis and a number of youth from the Key will be participating in the parade. For more photos of the field trip click here.