11 Jul 2024

Concert review: GALA Choruses Festival begins weekend of voice with joyful sing-along, Minnesota welcome

by | posted in: News | 0

A sea of singers streamed into downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday for GALA Choruses Festival 2024, a 5-day North American LGBTQ choral festival encompassing over 200 concerts and 7,000 voices. Normally taking place every four years, the festival last happened in Denver in 2016. Festival 2020, scheduled to take place in Minneapolis,  was canceled due to COVID-19.

The first big sing-along event, “Rise Up Singing, Together Again,” got moved from Peavey Plaza to the Minneapolis Convention Center because of the rain. There, thousands of singers filled up the MCC’s auditorium.

Jane Ramseyer Miller, artistic director of GALA — and former artistic director for One Voice Mixed Chorus — led the first song, “On The Day We Are Together Again,” by Humbird (the moniker for Minnesota singer-songwriter Siri Undlin). Set to the African American spiritual, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” Undlin first performed the song on Youtube in 2020, with lyrics that expressed hope for gathering again. Undlin’s recently updated lyrics speak of gathering together in the present tense, remembering loved ones who have passed.

The San Diego Women’s Chorus performs at Gala Chorus 2016 in Denver. The group will perform as part of the GALA Choruses Festival 2024, a quadrennial event that gathers some 7,000 singers from 122 LGBTQ+ choruses in Minneapolis July 10-14, 2024. (Josh Gold / GALA Choruses)

After teaching the melody, Ramseyer Miller and the GALA team went about teaching the harmonies to the audience full of singers. Aiding that task were the Multae Voces, one of eight “festival choruses” formed during the GALA week. The choir had just two rehearsals on Wednesday before performing at 5:30, and demonstrated the different harmonies.

“Here’s the deal,” Ramseyer Miller told the audience. “Pick a part, any part. Harmony is any note your neighbor’s not singing.”

After that, Trans Chorus of Los Angeles Artistic Director Abdullah Rasheen Hall, dressed in ruby slippers, led the room in a joyful rendition of “Everybody Rejoice” from “The Wiz.”

After the sing-along, many in the audience walked the several blocks from MCC to Orchestra Hall for “Mní Sóta Sings – Minnesota Welcome Concert,” featuring three Twin Cities choirs: Calliope Women’s Chorus, Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, and One Voice Mixed Chorus.

The concert began with a grand procession from the back of the hall, with the performers singing and waving purple ribbons. Minnesota puppet artist Sandy Spieler processed in with the singers, leading behind her a giant blue puppet operated by multiple puppeteers.

The Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus performs at Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis in March, 2024. The group will perform as part of the GALA Choruses Festival 2024, a quadrennial event that gathers some 7,000 singers from 122 LGBTQ+ choruses in Minneapolis July 10-14, 2024. (Lou R.R. Zurn / GALA Choruses)

The Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus’ rendition of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Modern Major-General’s Song” with LGBTQ-themed lyrics was a hoot, and their fan props and choreography gave the number a nice flourish. Calliope, meanwhile, shined with its quietly intense rendition of “The Earth, The Air, The Fire, The Water,” a Pagan chant set to music by the feminist music group Libana. Besides One Voice Mixed Choir’s repertoire, director Kimberly Waigwa also led the audience in a song, revealing her own lovely voice in the process.

The concert centered around Minnesota’s land and people. A video featuring Native American artist and activist Sharon Day set the scene, and a poem by Minneapolis City Council President and poet Andrea Jenkins evoked imagery of the Minneapolis lake Bde Maka Ska. Jenkins’ piece also referenced the music of Prince in personal, reflective lyricism.

Prince got another nod when singer Roland Hawkins sang a gospel-infused interpretation of “Purple Rain.” Leading all three choirs in the spiritual “This River,” by Uzee Brown, Jr, he and the singers were joined by a menagerie of animal puppets that came on to the stage.

For the grand finale, a drag performer and three dancers in sparkly costumes performed with the choral groups for an up-beat medley. The event proved a high energy opening to the festival, which continues through Sunday.

GALA Choruses Festival 2024

When: All day/evening Friday, July 12, Saturday, July 13 & Sunday, July 14

Where: Various locations in downtown Minneapolis

Tickets: $30 per concert, free for children under 12 accompanied by an adult. Free admission to the “Choral Carnival” at various locations Friday evening.

Capsule: LGBTQ singers from across North America and beyond celebrate community, song and pride in an Olympian-scale gathering.

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11 Jul 2024

Former St. Paul charter school substitute teacher admits to classroom sexual misconduct with student

by | posted in: Society | 0

A former St. Paul charter school substitute teacher has admitted to sexually assaulting a 17-year-old student in her classroom and will avoid prison as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Caitlin Kalia Thao (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Caitlin Kalia Thao, 24, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty Wednesday to an added charge of felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with assaulting a teenage boy this year at St. Paul City School.

As part of the plea deal, a prison sentence will be stayed and she will face up to six months in jail at her sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for Sept. 10.

Thao resigned from her job on Feb. 27, four days after St. Paul police received a report of alleged sexual misconduct with the boy and a day after school administration confronted her with the accusations.

Thao was originally charged by warrant May 2 with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. She was arrested May 14 and booked into the Ramsey County jail. She posted a $40,000 bond three days later and was released under several court-ordered conditions, including that she has no conduct with children other than her own.

The school said Thao was hired as a paraprofessional on Feb. 21, 2023, and became a substitute teacher after getting her license in December.

According to the criminal complaint, police on Feb. 23, 2024, received a report of alleged sexual misconduct regarding Thao and a student. The school’s then-interim executive director told police of complaints from staff and others about Thao having “inappropriate behavior with students, the complaint states. Thao was asked to meet with a school principal on Feb. 26, then resigned.

Police spoke with the boy on March 13. He said that Thao was “overly nice” and that they would talk through messenger apps. Thao called him handsome and would flirt with him, the boy said, according to the complaint. He said he flirted back “because she would buy stuff for him and his friends.”

The boy told police the sexual encounter occurred in a middle school classroom about a month and a half prior after she had invited him to her classroom through a text before a sports game.

Thao then sent him an Instagram message about it and invited him to her place when her husband wasn’t home. The boy declined the offer.

The complaint says that on March 9 a Regions Hospital social worker completed a child maltreatment form after Thao herself reported that she had a “sexual relationship” with a 17‐year‐old student she met in a class she had taught.

Thao did not respond to requests from police for an interview, the complaint says.

St. Paul City School, located along University Avenue near the Capitol, has been around since 1998. It has 600 students from preschool through grade 12 and employs 64 licensed staff members and 84 non-licensed staff members, according to a March brochure.

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11 Jul 2024

The GOP group behind Project 2025 floats conspiracy theory that Biden will use ‘force’ to keep power

by | posted in: Politics | 0

By GARY FIELDS and ALI SWENSON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A conservative think tank that is planning for a complete overhaul of the federal government in the event of a Republican presidential win is suggesting that President Joe Biden might try to hold the White House “by force” if he loses the November election.

The Heritage Foundation’s warning — which goes against Biden’s own public statements — appeared in a report released Thursday that the group said resulted from a role-playing exercise gaming out potential scenarios before and after the 2024 election.

“The lawlessness of the Biden Administration — at the border, in staffing considerations, and in routine defiance of court rulings — makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president,” the report reads.

The report, issued just ahead of the Republican National Convention and four months from the presidential election, shows how conservative groups supportive of former President Donald Trump are trying to turn the tables on the narrative of which candidate represents the greatest threat to the country’s democratic traditions. Biden has dedicated a handful of speeches to laying out the case against Trump, while Trump and his supporters have pointed to his four criminal cases to suggest that Democrats have weaponized the justice system against their chief political opponent.

The Heritage Foundation and other pro-Trump groups have continued to promote the same false claims of election fraud that fueled Trump’s attempts to stay in office despite his 2020 loss to Biden. Those efforts culminated in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when rioters sought to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

During a news conference to discuss the report, the authors warned about the upcoming election, employing a technique Trump has used throughout his political career to cast doubt on the validity of an election in case he loses.

“As things stand right now, there is a zero percent chance of a free and fair election in the United States of America,” Mike Howell, executive director of the foundation’s Oversight Project, said.

The report alarmed experts who pointed out that there’s been no indication Biden intends to hold onto the presidency if he loses.

“This is gaslighting and it is dangerous in fanning flames that could lead to potential violence,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biden has said he will accept the election results.

“Like President Biden has previously committed, he will accept the will of the American people,” his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters in May. “That is a commitment from the president.”

The Biden campaign on Thursday denounced the claim and noted that the group is the same one pushing Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for dismantling many parts of the federal government and making far-reaching changes that include rolling back protections for the LGBTQ community and infusing Christianity more deeply into society. It said the group was “laying the groundwork to try and steal another election.”

“This document is nothing more than an attempt to justify their efforts to suppress the vote, undermine the election, and ultimately another January 6,” said James Singer, a spokesperson for the campaign.

Trump has stopped short of making a commitment to accept the results, saying in CNN’s recent presidential debate that he would do so “if it’s a fair and legal and good election.”

The Heritage Foundation report details the results of two role-playing exercises it says were conducted by a bipartisan group of participants who it declined to name, saying it kept them secret for safety reasons. It lists several key lessons and findings, largely centered around potential left-wing efforts to interfere with the election.

It instructs the public to “reflexively disbelieve and challenge the intelligence community’s allegations regarding Trump, foreign interference, and Republican efforts to legally win the White House.”

Hasen said those recommendations seem aimed at sowing doubt about institutions that “help protect election integrity and give voters truthful information they need to evaluate evidence before them.”

The report was created as part of a collaboration dubbed the “Transition Integrity Project,” which Heritage says formed in January in response to Biden’s “weaponization of government” and “record of violating norms and constitutional limitations on executive power.”

The authors took inspiration from a different group by the same name that ran an exercise in 2020 anticipating that Trump would likely contest that year’s election results. Howell said he felt that group’s efforts were ideologically biased while his own project was bipartisan.

Rosa Brooks, one of the organizers of the 2020 exercise, said of the new report that she would have “welcomed a good faith assessment of the vulnerabilities, but this isn’t it.” She said she has criticisms of Biden, but “I don’t have the slightest concern that he will refuse to accept the results of the election.”

The report’s release comes a week after Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast that the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

___

Swenson reported from New York.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

11 Jul 2024

I-94 eastbound will remain open this weekend, but road work will close MN 36 westbound in Roseville, Little Canada

by | posted in: News | 0

If you saw a flashing notice along Interstate 94 in St. Paul recently about lane closures this weekend, disregard it.

Road and bridge work in the eastbound lanes has been postponed due to an extreme heat warning this weekend, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, though an unrelated road resurfacing project will temporarily close Minnesota 36 westbound between Interstates 35W and 35E.

The closure along westbound MN 36 in Roseville and Little Canada is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Friday and run through early Monday morning. The loop ramp from northbound Cleveland Avenue to westbound MN 36 is also closing at that time. Drivers are asked to continue north on Cleveland Avenue to County Road C to loop back south on 35W.

Work on MN 36 began a few weeks ago, with the goal of resurfacing the highway from 35W in Roseville to Edgerton St. in Little Canada, while making additional improvements. A new auxiliary lane will be added from southbound 35W to eastbound MN 36 with the goal of making merges safer. The ramp from northbound Cleveland Avenue to eastbound MN 36 will be reconstructed, and the merger lane onto eastbound MN 36 will be extended.

Drainage improvements and guardrail replacement are also planned as part of the $17 million project. Work began in mid-June and is scheduled to continue into late September.

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