12 artists went to 12 Twin Cities communities and got people talking

When Mark Valdez began his tenure as the new artistic director of Mixed Blood Theatre in June 2022, he wanted to find a way to get to know the Twin Cities. He had moved from California, and was joining a theater company in Minneapolis with a 46-year history.

"I knew that I needed to meet artists, and I knew I needed to get to know and build relationships with neighborhoods and communities," he said.

So Valdez came up with an ambitious five-month performance series called "12 x 12" that would help people to learn about their cities and neighborhoods. With the help of the Mixed Blood staff and board members, he selected 12 artists and 12 neighborhoods to create pop-up performance projects all over the metro area.

"We've been using the tagline, 'Twin Cities, meet yourself.' I think we've been able to do that," he said.

At its heart, "12 x 12" is about taking the shows to communities, asking residents for their stories and what they care about, and creating projects for and with those people. It kicked off in April in Minneapolis' Powderhorn Park with multimedia artist Alison Bergblom Johnson, who explored disability, identity and joy.

Composer Reinaldo Moya created a musical piece with Edison High School students and writer/composer Natalie Nowytski and performed it during Art-A-Whirl in northeast Minneapolis. On St. Paul's West Side, a team led by theater artist Ernest Briggs showcased that neighborhood's history and path to the future.

Other projects ranged from tattoo and digital artist Bryce Burton creating a new visual art piece based on stories from the trans community around body modification and reclamation in Loring Park, to chef Yia Vang offering a demonstration in Brooklyn Center that explored the immigrant experience.

The synchronized swimming group Subversive Sirens performed at Minneapolis' Phillips Community Center pool, and St. Paul-based ensemble Brownbody presented a dance/movement piece that explored experiences of young people of color for the Woodbury Days festival. In the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, theater and visual artist Ifrah Mansour meditated on healing within a traditional Somali hut.

Valdez learned to expect the unexpected over the course of the project, which culminates this weekend with a two-day, three-act festival at Mixed Blood.

For instance, 20 minutes before Hawona Sullivan Janzen was to share "Freeway Stories" with St. Paul's Rondo community, a huge gust of wind came and blew away the tents that had been set up. Luckily, no one was hurt.

In Maplewood Mall for a project created by Rebecca Noon, Eric Mayson performed a song about the Myth Nightclub that stirred a lively debate among participants about whether the club was in fact still open or not.

"12 x 12" highlighted communities and the people working to make them better. Joe Davis brought together musicians, visual artists, poets and community developers to think about the future of north Minneapolis.

Valdez called the project a gorgeous and joyful one, remembering the walking tour by Katie Ka Vang through Little Mekong. When walkers squirted water from their bottles, it made the butterfly umbrellas that people were holding change color. But he added that "12 x 12" also was complicated at times when it got into policies and politics.

He talked about the challenges and achievements and if he will do the project again. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What has been the most challenging part of "12 x 12''?
A: So many! We're doing 12 brand new pieces that were created by 12 different artists of 12 different disciplines, which Mixed Blood oftentimes doesn't have experience producing. What does an event with a tattoo artist look like? Or producing a play in a swimming pool? We haven't done that yet, and they're all taking place site specifically in each community.

Every time we did something, we learned from it. Not all of it transferred to the next one because the next one was completely different. Now we know how to produce something inside a mall.

Q: What's something that you're most proud of?
A: The thing that makes me the happiest is that our community partners want to keep working together. Many folks have said, "Hey, we didn't know that we could partner with a theater company" because nobody had ever asked that. Now they want to keep those relationships, they want to keep doing things together.

Q: What was one thing you wish you would have done differently?
A: I would have gotten the artists all onboard a little sooner so that they could have had more time. Now I know what to look for in different spaces because we also streamed all of these online for accessibility. I would look for venues where we'd have stable internet access. And I would have looked at community calendars to see what's already happening in the community so that we could have coordinated better.

Q: Will you do it again?
A: Not formally, but it's been going so well that I definitely want to do another version of it. It feels like if we do this next year just to deepen the partnerships, that the following year, we'll be in a better place to advance the work to include more stories and in new communities.

Q: What's the plan for the finale?
A: It is like a community palooza. We're going to bring all 12 artists together, and you can see all 12 performances in one day at Mixed Blood. So it really is kind of a marathon of reflecting and celebrating the Twin Cities, the people and the stories.

'12 x 12: The Festival'

When: Act I at noon, Act II at 3 p.m., Act III at 6 p.m., Sat. & Sun.

Where: Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. 4th St., Mpls.

Tickets: Up to $50. mixedblood.com, 612-338-6131.