To mark its 30th anniversary, Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul is hosting a 30-hour-long meditation “sit-a-thon” on March 23 and 24.

Yes, that’s right: Thirty straight hours of meditation.

Participants don’t have to sit the full time nor do they even have to be practicing Zen Buddhists, said Renkyo Heather Fehst, the center’s executive director. During the event, people can meditate for as long or as little as they feel comfortable, and there’ll be an orientation space for teachers to show first-time meditators how to sit and spend time with their thoughts. Participants can also join via Zoom.

The sit-a-thon starts 7 a.m. Saturday, March 23, and concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 24. The final hour will feature 108 bell-ringings, a Japanese Buddhist ritual that’s frequently part of New Year’s observations. And after the event concludes, the Zen center is hosting a community lunch.

As of now, one person is planning to meditate for the full uninterrupted 30 hours: Clouds in Water’s guiding teacher, the Soto Zen Buddhist priest Sosan Theresa Flynn — “because she’s a bada**,” Fehst said.

(Fehst and Flynn, like many practicing Buddhists, have Dharma names in addition to their birth names, which they receive as part of a rite of passage called jukai in which they accept Buddhist teachings.)

Clouds in Water, which is affiliated with a Japanese school of Buddhism called Soto Zen, opened in 1994 in Lowertown. They’re now located on Farrington Street in the Rondo area, and Fehst hopes the sit-a-thon will help boost awareness of the center’s existence as a broader community resource. Plus, they run entirely on donations, so the event is an important fundraiser, too.

For those new to the form of mostly silent Zen meditation practiced at Clouds in Water, the experience can feel, counterintuitively, like a “blast of noise” at first, Fehst said. Your mind is trying to compensate for the sudden absence of constant sensory stimulation, she said, and it takes practice to simply let your thoughts come and go, with acknowledgment but not judgment.

“The word ‘zen’ is used very casually to mean you’re so relaxed,” Fehst said. “I think that’s so funny. Yes, Zen can be soothing and relaxing, but it’s really trying to befriend your mind. … It can be really uncomfortable, because we’re not used to being with our thoughts.”

The way Fehst and others at Clouds in Water see it, Zen is not effortless, not passive and not exactly about achieving some sort of ‘enlightenment.’ Instead, it’s an understanding that life presents difficulties of all sizes, and we must face them empathetically, without letting them knock us off-kilter.

“It’s really about, how do I just be with this life that I have, with as much grace for myself and others as I can muster?” Fehst said. “Sitting with ourselves is the foundation of that, but it goes beyond that.”

To that end, Clouds in Water prioritizes what Fehst called the “off-the-cushion practice” — how participants can take Buddhist teachings outside the center’s walls. Leaders place specific emphasis on discussions of race, justice, accessibility and community engagement. Many teachers at the center are women, queer or transgender, and the center has specific sanghas, or Zen practice groups, for people of color.

Another key topic of conversation — “a tricky one,” Fehst said — is what it means to practice a Japanese form of Zen Buddhism in America, especially for participants who are not themselves of Japanese descent. How can participants carry on traditions of another culture they find personally meaningful, but in a way that doesn’t whitewash them or recast them as “wellness” trends?

At Clouds in Water, this sort of engagement with social issues is as central to Zen practice as bowing or studying spiritual texts, Fehst said.

“We don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, we’re just going to sit in our little bubble and meditate for peace, but then not do anything,’” she said. “There are some people who just want to hide away. That’s not what we’re about.”

If you go

What: Meditation “sit-a-thon” to mark the 30th anniversary of the Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Where: Clouds in Water: 445 Farrington St., or on Zoom; links at https://cloudsinwater.org/

When: From 7 a.m. Saturday, March 23, till 1 p.m. Sunday, March 24 — but it’s open-house style, so come any time for as long as you’d like.

Cost: Free! Clouds in Water tries to make their programming as accessible as possible. The sit-a-thon is a fundraiser for the center, though, and several participants are committing to meditate for a certain amount of time corresponding to how much money they raise.

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While History Theatre is known for bringing Minnesota stories to the stage, its latest takes us to 1962 Mississippi. Yet “A Unique Assignment” is a Minnesotan’s story.

Lt. Henry Gallagher was a 23-year-old army officer from South Minneapolis following orders that came all the way from the top: President John F. Kennedy dispatched troops to Oxford, Mississippi, to keep the peace as James Meredith became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. Gallagher was named head of the security detail assigned to protect Meredith from violent racists, arriving amid the gunfire and fury that’s come to be called the Ole Miss riot of 1962.

Assembled from the memoirs of Meredith and Gallagher, “A Unique Assignment” is a gripping piece of storytelling that feels like one of the most important works History Theatre has created in the past decade. With only four actors portraying a virtual battalion’s worth of characters, it’s a story about civil rights seen in close-up, in which one young man’s courageous and confident decision to desegregate a school leads to a life-changing experience for the young officer entrusted to keep him safe.

Directed with a crisp pace and fluid flow by Richard D. Thompson, it’s an expertly executed interpretation of Harrison David Rivers’ deeply involving script. With very few props but a plethora of costume and character changes, “A Unique Assignment” eloquently conveys the danger, hatred and unease that permeated the steamy southern air, as well as the calm contrast found in the relationship that developed between Meredith and Gallagher.

While admirably explaining some principal cultural differences between south and north, Rivers also offers a very believable portrait of U.S. Army culture circa ‘62 and the tug of war between order and chaos that can ensue when soldiers are cast into a role of unclear scope.

Conversely, Meredith is acutely focused on his mission, and James A. Williams imbues him with a fascinating blend of inspiring self-confidence and enigmatic unflappability. Through monologues that sound directly from the pages of Meredith’s memoir, Williams brings us a very private man who decided to take on a very public challenge.

Meanwhile, Kevin Fanshaw’s young Gallagher is disarmingly open about his flaws and misgivings, taking us inside the mind and heart of a kid trying to figure out how to be a leader. As Pearce Bunting ably evokes an older Gallagher narrating his youthful experiences, Rivers’ script frequently finds the humor within this soldier’s reminiscences, with Kevin Brown Jr. making a multitude of characters invariably engaging.

In a story about divisions between black and white, Ursula K Bowden’s abstract set is decked in gray, its tall rectangular panels serving as screens for Brown to duck behind for his countless costume changes. Kurt Jung’s lighting serves the story well, and Kathy Maxwell’s projections combine with Katharine Horowitz’s sound design to make the riot scenes crackle with tension.

Speaking of sound, the show’s true-to-the-times modern jazz soundtrack is great for the atmosphere, but the volume is sometimes way too high. This is a show in which words are very important, so best not to obscure them. For they forge an important link to aspects of recent history that some Americans believe best left untold.

‘A Unique Assignment’

When: Through April 7

Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul

Tickets: $64-$25, available at 651-292-4323 or historytheatre.com

Capsule: An important piece of theater filled with gripping storytelling.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

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The Gophers men’s basketball confirmed a clear improvement for the program on Sunday: they will continue to play in March.

Minnesota will play at Butler in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Minnesota won double the amount of overall games as last season (9 to 18) and more than four times as many Big Ten games (2 to 9).

“It’s a great opportunity for our team to continue to build, grow, get better and compete,” Ben Johnson said in a statement. “Our guys are excited and looking forward to preparing for it this week. It’s the next great step for our program, and we’re ready to get back on the court.”

But the Gophers lost seven of their final 10 games, including a 77-67 loss to Michigan State in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday at Target Center. This left an NIT bid in doubt early this week.

Minnesota’s NET ranking at 89 looked to be too high to make the field, according to national projections.

Butler comes into the game with an 18-14 record. The Bulldogs finished tied for eighth in the Big East Conference with a 9-11 league mark, and they were knocked out in the first round of the conference tournament by Xavier last Wednesday at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

While Butler recorded impressive wins this season over Big East powers Marquette and Creighton, it finished February with a five-game losing streak.

The Gophers cannot host a game at Williams Arena in the postseason due to Big Ten, Timberwolves and high school tournament schedules at Target Center and the Barn.

The winner will advance to the second round on March 23-24.

The Gophers last competed in the NIT since 2014, finishing runner up to Southern Methodist, 65-63, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

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