our 25th Anniversary celebration!
music • readings • food • drinks • fun
Wednesday, May 10, 7 pm
Granada Theater
3022 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
Tickets only $25 — one dollar for each difference-making year — or snag a VIP table for two with a special appetizer thrown in for only $100!
Online tickets have concluded, but you can still get a ticket at the door!
Rain Taxi turned 25 in 2020, but we couldn’t celebrate at the time because, you know. Join us now as we celebrate our silver anniversary in style at one of the coolest venues in Minneapolis! You’ll be treated to an extraordinary showcase of short musical performances and literary readings by great local artists—plus the return of the Raintini, our signature cocktail, and other awesome food and drink at the Granada Theater!
We can’t wait to party with you! Located in the heart of the Uptown neighborhood in Minneapolis, the newly renovated Granada Theater is Uptown in a nutshell—arts friendly, forward looking, welcoming to all—we are proud to have them as our sponsoring venue! And we are equally proud to have this event supported by Dispatch and it’s outstanding coverage of arts and culture in the Twin Cities. Come lift a glass with, and to, these terrific kindred spirits of Rain Taxi!
Download a flyer for this event here!
Musicians
The following is an alphabetical list of the six musical acts—set times will be announced the week of the event!
Colin Bracewell
Colin Bracewell, a 22-year-old indie pop artist from Minneapolis, is paving his own, fresh path within the Midwest music scene. Originally hailing from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Colin blends inspiration from the likes of Justin Vernon and John Mayer, though his music holds a raw and unabashed post-Frank Ocean R&B quality. His instrumentation sets Bracewell apart from other singer-songwriters of the same genre, often adding gentle synths, a killer trumpet solo, or a moody saxophone riff to bring a jazzier feel that offsets lyrics of heartbreak (or amplifies them, depending on the listener). Colin is a full-time student at the University of Minnesota majoring in Vocal Performance and Marketing. His most recent release, "Making Me Crazy" has been in rotation on The Current (Minnesota Public Radio) and Radio K (University of Minnesota Radio) since September of 2022.
Dosh
A master multi-instrumentalist, Dosh has been making independent music since 2002. His use of loops to create dazzling musical interplay while evoking deep emotion have made him a renowned solo performer, though he has also collaborated with numerous other musicians, including Andrew Bird, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Gaelynn Lea, and Gayngs. His most recent solo album is Tomorrow, 1972, which reflects upon the anguish of the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the artist’s own childhood to create a layered meditation on our times.
Adam and Ava Levy
Ava Levy and her father Adam have played music together for most of Ava’s life, first in the family group Bunny Clogs but now as a duo sharing originals and covers. Adam Levy is a singer-songwriter guitarist, producer, activist, and educator. He’s led The Honeydogs for almost thirty years, been a founding member of Turn Turn Turn (who just released their second record) and a number of varied musical projects, and recently began teaching high school social studies. Ava Levy was one of the songwriters and guitarist for Femme Punk group Sapphire. She’s finishing up college in Gender Studies at the University of Minnesota and just released her first solo single, “Not Ur Clown.”
Allie McIntosh
Seventeen-year-old Allie McIntosh has been playing music since the age of four. A bonafide wunderkind, she excelled at violin, viola, and piano by the time she entered middle school, but her musical curiosities extended far beyond the notes on the page. At only nine, her original song “Pachyderm Plea” was featured in a video by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From then on, rigorous classical study was paired with explorations on guitar, ukulele, and in Logic Pro. McIntosh’s most recent single, “Want you to stay,” likewise shows an artist with instincts and abilities well beyond her years. Recorded in part in her bedroom and in part at Minneapolis’s Hideaway Studios with super-producer Joe Mabbott (Snoop Dog, Atmosphere, Doomtree), the single is a strong indication of her creative talent. Described by Jon Bream in the Star Tribune as having “skills beyond her years…equal parts Adele and Camila Cabello,” Allie was selected as the youngest ever participant for NYU’s 2020 Summer Songwriters Workshop, has recently graduated from high school, and is just getting started.
Munson-Hicks Party Supplies
Munson-Hicks Party Supplies is a collaboration between John Munson, who does most of the singing and plays bass, and Dylan Hicks, who does most of the writing and plays piano. They make groovily bookish music inspired by far-flung alliances between interpretative singers and less spotlit writers. Munson is best known as a founding member of Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, and the New Standards. Hicks, who’s also a novelist, is the leader of Dylan Hicks & Small Screens and part of other collaborative groups.
Why Not
Henry Breen, Isaac Dell, and Joshua MacGregor met playing in a middle-school music class; before any band member could drive, they had released their first album and booked their first tour. Now based in Minneapolis, the trio have pivoted from their math rock and punk beginnings, incorporating a wide variety of musical influences; the result is an amalgamation of punching drums, intricate guitars, and digital distortion, all built around an incredibly memorable suite of songs. Completed at Hippo Campus’ recording studio, their debut album WHY NOT is a virtuosic, genre-fluid statement from a young band just beginning to harness the heights of their craft.
Writers
The following is an alphabetical list of writers who will be reading—set times will be announced the week of the event!
Michael Bazzett
Michael Bazzett is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Echo Chamber (Milkweed Editions, 2021). His work has appeared in Granta, Agni, The American Poetry Review, The Nation, and The Paris Review. His verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh, (Milkweed, 2018) was named one of 2018’s best books of poetry by the New York Times, and his translation of the selected poems of Humberto Ak'abal, If Today Were Tomorrow, is forthcoming from Milkweed.
Tish Jones
Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, Tish Jones is a poet, narrative strategist, cultural producer, and educator from Saint Paul, MN, with a deep and resounding love for Black people, arts & culture, youth development, and civic engagement. As a performance artist her work has been shared in venues throughout the United States. Her writing can be found in We Are Meant to Rise (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), A Moment of Silence (Tru Ruts and The Playwrights Center, 2020), the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015) and more.
Currently serving as a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and an Arts Matters Artist2Artist Fellow, Jones is grateful to have been supported through grants, fellowships, andawards from The Intercultural Leadership Institute, Springboard for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board and more. The generous support that she has received over the years has allowed her to excavate the kind of stories that chart new worlds—she is eternally grateful.
Michael Kleber-Diggs
Michael Kleber-Diggs is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and a poet, essayist, literary critic, and arts educator. His debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions 2021), won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, the 2022 Balcones Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. Michael’s essay, “There Was a Tremendous Softness,” appears in A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars, edited by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions, 2023). His poems and essays appear in numerous journals and anthologies.
Mary Lucia
Mary Lucia is a writer/actor/voiceover artist, and has been a celebrated voice in MN radio for 28 years. Known for her unique interview style, she has chatted with everyone from Studs Terkel to Trent Reznor. A graduate of New York University Tisch Drama with a BFA, she is currently a regular columnist for Dispatch MSP @Popular Creeps and is in the process of writing her memoir. Though she prefers animals over people, she's open to occasional exceptions.
Benjamin Percy
Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels (includingThe Sky Vault, which releases this September with William Morrow), three story collections, and a book of essays. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His honors include a Whiting Award, an NEA fellowship, a Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.
Sun Yung Shin
신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea and was raised in the Chicago area. She is a poet, writer, and cultural worker. She is the editor of What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories on Food and Family and of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, author of the poetry collections The Wet Hex; Unbearable Splendor (winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for poetry); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (winner of the 2007 Asian American Literary Award for poetry), co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and author of a bilingual illustrated book for children, Cooper’s Lesson. She lives in Minneapolis where she co-directs the community organization Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang.