Art Hounds: Hair, Hindustani Music, Fitting the Profile

Rikki Davenport playing tabla.

Writers and artists pondering their Jewish identity, tabla and sitar sounds at Gandhi Mahal and a teen revival of a musical about young people changing the world while not cutting their hair are all on the hounds' radar this week.

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Rachel Reiva is privy to the latest and greatest in local youth theater as Teen Fringe Festival Reviewer for the Twin Cities Daily Planet. That's why Rachel's looking forward to a production of the musical "Hair" by Blank Slate Theatre, a company by and for Twin Cities teens and young adults. Given Blank Slate's track record, and that hippie values and concerns might be making a comeback amongst the younger crowd, Rachel predicts this will be an awesome show. On stage at the Lowry Lab in St. Paul, June 18-26.

For Shahzore Shah, one of life's pleasures is going to the restaurant Gandhi Mahal in Minneapolis, and listening to North Indian Hindustani music on tabla and sitar. It's performed by Minnesotans Mark Ilaug and Rikki Davenport. Shahzore, who sings in the Twin Cities choral group Cantus, says Ilaug and Davenport have been studying Hindustani music for the last several years and are excellent musicians. They play this Friday, and most Fridays, from 5-9pm.

Beth Mayer is a writer in Lakeville who strongly recommends the latest linkage of writers and visual artists by the group TalkingImageConnection. "Fitting the Profile" is happening tonight at 7pm at the Tychman Shapiro Gallery in St. Louis Park. It's a juried art show featuring artists exploring diversity in the Jewish community, and local writers responding to their work.

For more Art Hounds' recommendations, check us out on Facebook.

And you can get an early sneak peek at the Art Hounds' picks every week by texting the word ART to 677-677.