- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(gentle music) - "R-Town," the show about Rochester, learns about a one-of-a-kind burlesque show, and we hear about a new program to help overcome barriers to home ownership in the city.

We also meet with the owners of Chip Shots and learn how to make moves like a gymnast.

We also find out how students at Mayo High School raise money to support the Women's Shelter.

All that and so much more coming up next on "R-Town," the show about Rochester.

(energetic music) Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota, "R-Town"!

This May, burlesque collective Burly Bluffs is bringing a new show to town to celebrate Rochester Pride.

Here to tell us all about it are co-founders and producers GG and Mona.

Welcome to "R-Town," both of you.

- Thank you.

- Hi, thank you.

- So before we get to talking about the upcoming show, which is divinely titled "Divine Disco," can you share a little bit with us about what burlesque is and why you consider it to be a liberatory art form?

- For sure, yeah, so burlesque is, I think, in, like, the simplest way to describe it, it's stylized stripping, But as I was saying to GG earlier, I like a more artistic definition.

So to me, burlesque is a way of seeing and being seen.

It's queer, it's a resistance art form, it's performative, it has its kind of roots in vaudeville, so it's very, like, slapsticky, like nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

And it's very communal, communal healing, I think.

- Yeah, and lots of folks think of burlesque as just being, like, sexy dancing, but there's actually a lot of storytelling and positive messaging too about our bodies, about our identities as well, so we love encompassing all of those things in our shows.

- Thank you, and you both mentioned, I love this idea of sort of, like, communal healing and then also the empowerment piece of it, the affirming piece of it.

In terms of the mission of Burly Bluffs, how do you work to create these safe and affirming and anti-oppressive spaces?

- You know, as two cis, White, able-bodied people, we're always asking ourselves, how do we expand our community to make sure that it's genuinely inclusive and equitable?

And we're lucky enough in the Twin Cities that the burlesque scene is already incredibly diverse that way and that there is this overlapping community between burlesque artists and drag artists as well, I think.

- Sure, yeah.

One of the, like, some of the things that we kind of, like, concretely do to make our spaces safer for everyone is we hire diverse casts and we pay them well.

We bring our community in when able, so Out Rochester is a local, like, queer organization that builds community.

They are producing with us, and they typically produce with us when we're in Rochester.

We bring local artists in, give them space to sell their stuff.

We set expectations with our cast, the staff at the venue, with the audience.

We're just, we're really focused on making sure, like, queer spaces are also safe spaces, because unfortunately that's not always the case.

But it is, like, kind of a moving target too, like, we're not the experts, but we are always listening and learning and changing how we do things to make them more accessible for everybody.

- Thank you for sharing that and sort of the intentional, very specific things that you sort of do to sort of at least try to approach that safety and that safer sort of space.

Now, let's get into this show a little bit.

What is "Divine Disco," and what can audiences expect at the show?

- Well, being that it's tied to Rochester Pride's weekend, it's certainly a celebration of the queer community and our allies.

We want everybody there just to celebrate that sort of liberatory experience.

This is the biggest show that we've produced so far with Out Rochester and just in general, so we're kind of thinking about this as, like, next level.

So we're bringing our headliner from New Orleans, who's originally from Rochester, and the cast itself is just this robust group of really seasoned and talented artists.

Very excited about that.

And it is disco-themed, so we are really hoping people show up in theme.

(GG laughs) - Yeah.

- Not a requirement.

But yeah, it'll just be, like, a really fun community gathering space but, like, giving people a chance to kind of dress up.

Bleu Duck will be catering cocktails, we'll have local artists tabling, Rochester Pride will be tabling, and Foxy Tann is our host, and she hasn't hosted for us in Rochester yet, and she is, like, an institution in the Minnesota burlesque scene, so we're super excited to have her as our host.

- And we're very excited to be at the Chateau.

We can't say enough about Rochester Downtown Alliance giving us a startup grant.

This wouldn't be possible without the support from the Rochester community.

And the Chateau is a space, I think, we, like, started dreaming about when we started producing two years ago, so to be going into that space now, it just feels, like, very pivotal, and, yeah, very exciting.

- Well, thank you both so much for being on the show and for sharing with us and get the information out there so people can get their tickets to this awesome show coming in May, thanks a lot.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Be sure to stick around, we have much more coming your way on "R-Town."

We catch up with the owners of Chip Shots on R Spotlight, and we also hear about a home ownership mentorship program hoping to address barriers to home ownership.

But up first, we learn how Mayo High School students raised and donated almost $29,000 to the Rochester Women's Shelter and what this generous gift will allow the Women's Shelter to do in this week's R Culture segment.

(lighthearted music) - When I first took on the position here at the Women's Shelter and Support Center, I was informed by staff that the local high school participated in an amazing fundraiser that the Women's Shelter has been on the receiving end of for a number of years now.

So being able to see where it's gone and how it's grown over those five years that I've been here is just amazing.

(lighthearted music) - This is an annual thing that we do, GOFA, every single year.

So every single year, we donate to both the Women's Shelter and the Dorothy Day House, and really they're both really vital organizations in our community, as they help not only women and children in maybe domestic violence situations, but also our homeless populations within Rochester, which are both critically underserved communities.

- The generosity that the students put forth and their efforts that they put forth for this cause, it's truly amazing.

We are just so grateful that the students think enough of us and survivors in the community to fundraise in this manner.

- Well, growing up, I've, like, been exposed to a lot of, like, failures from people in power to, like, really help protect and, like, serve communities, and so a chance to do something like this where we can, like, be the support that the community needs when people in power are not always providing that kind of assistance.

(bright music) - I just think that it's really hard to not have a place to go necessarily, and especially for women, and being able to have that money go to the Women's Shelter is really important to have, like, those essentials that women need because they need a place to stay.

- When I first learned about the GOFA fundraiser, I was truly impressed with the efforts of local students.

It has grown exponentially over the last five years, so to see what they're doing now is truly amazing.

- It's definitely taught me about the power that community can really bring, because here at Mayo High School, whenever we really hunker down for GOFA in December, it's really our school coming together as a community.

Whether people are just selling things in the hallways or whether they're going to and participating at events and all this sort of stuff, it's really all going towards, you know, these two great organizations that we support.

- We've received upwards of close to 20,000, so in the teens.

This year, it has grown to close to $30,000, so we're just blown away.

(bright music) - [Claire] The whole student body looks forward to GOFA every single year.

Like, there's almost, like, countdowns, it feels like, in November to when GOFA starts, so it just really brings our whole community together.

- We're able to provide more direct assistance to clients, and what that means is a little bit of everything.

So we're able to provide bus passes, Lyft rides, all types of transportation.

We're able to assist with security deposits, we're able to assist with U-Hauls and moving expenses.

We see a lot of costs associated with moving.

These funds will go to assist with actually getting survivors into a safe, affordable, decent apartment.

(bright music) - At Mayo High School, it just feels like a sense of spirit, that whether it's, like, our homecoming week, people are always, like, in the hallways, like, talking about, like, "Oh, I'm excited for this," and, like, I feel like I always see someone wearing green and gold, like, every single day.

I feel like there's so much spirit and connection in our school here.

- [Artyce] We are very, very grateful for their efforts.

- [Announcer] For more information about this story and other "R-Town" features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, @KSMQ #RTown, or ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Danielle Teal with "R-Town" Spotlight, where we talk about happenings, organizations, businesses in Rochester that are doing really cool stuff.

And today I have with me Chip Shots with Ryan and Hannah, welcome.

- Hi, thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you so much for being here.

So Hannah, tell me your role, and what do you do at Chip Shots?

- Yeah, I am the general manager at Chip Shots.

- So you have the fun job.

- Yeah, I get to do it all.

- Right?

- Mm-hmm.

- And Ryan, what do you do?

(Danielle laughs) (Ryan chuckles) - I'm one of the co-owners, and we try to help out wherever we can, whether it's an event or planning, however we can assist Hannah.

That what we try to do.

- Perfect.

- Awesome, Hannah, let's talk about all the fun happenings at Chip Shots.

What do you got going on over there?

- We have a lot, so we have six of the multi-sport simulators, so four of them have, like, baseball, basketball, soccer, football, dodgeball, kind of every sports game, with golf.

We have one that has a racing simulator, we have one that's just golf games, so you can do, like, mini golf, you can play darts and cornhole, but it's all golf-related.

Then we have three pickleball courts.

- Which I love, by the way.

- Yes.

(Ryan chuckles) Yes, fun time.

(Danielle laughs) But then we have, like, cornhole set up in the front, there's a ping pong table, we just added a lot more arcade games, kind of just everything available.

- It's a one-stop shop for entertainment.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- What are some things that people really enjoy there, (clears throat) like the pickle pizza?

- Yes.

(Ryan laughs) Our pickle pizza is super good.

We have, you know, a full bar, full kitchen, a lot of great things.

We're coming out with a new menu here shortly.

We usually do, like, some live music.

We kind of have, you know, everything to entertain a family.

- Huge fan of our wings.

I'm a wing guy, and they're phenomenal.

- Yeah, the food is good, the entertainment is there, and wasn't there a famous person that stopped by recently?

- Yeah!

(Danielle laughs) - Yes, yes.

- Yeah, I don't know if you were there that night, but Hugh Jackman, yeah.

- I wasn't, no.

- Can you believe that?

- Yeah, I know.

- Wolverine himself was playing football on one of our simulators, so.

- I would've been, like, in complete shock.

Any cool stuff happening this summer?

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

We have a lot of events kinda planned up.

One coming up is our Green Jacket Social, so it's kind of an anniversary of when we opened.

So we do a golf tournament all day, and then we have a pickleball tournament in the morning, and then followed by cornhole at night, and then we're actually gonna do beer pong as well, or beer water pong too.

- What is the sport that you're really good at there?

- She's kinda learned it all.

- Yeah.

I was like, I play pickleball.

(Ryan laughs) that's my sport, so I'm in two of the leagues now, and we'll probably have to do the tournament, but yeah, pickleball.

- I try to play golf, and I enjoy it.

- Okay.

What do you mean you try?

So you're good, or you're?

(Ryan laughs) - I'm average, (Danielle laughs) and I enjoy the game.

- Okay, you enjoy the game.

- You know, hence the concept.

(chuckles) - I mean, really that's the essence of it, right?

Bringing people together.

- Yeah.

- I know that, you know, I had my daughter's birthday party there, we had a blast.

- Thank you.

- So much fun.

Why do you think pickleball is, like, a huge craze right now?

- I think it's a very easy sport to do it, it's not, you know, any age can play, so, you know, I play in the morning where you might be playing against someone at 65 or you might play someone that's, you know.

We had a tournament where a 10-year-old was playing, and he was keeping up.

(Ryan chuckles) He was beating me, so.

(Danielle laughs) - I love it.

- Yeah, so all ages can play, and it's just a fun time.

- I love it, awesome.

- Yeah.

- Thank you so much.

This is Danielle Teal with "R-Town" Spotlight.

(upbeat music) - Hello, this is Michael Wojcik with your "R-Town" Legislative Rundown.

Let's start out with that flag controversy.

Not Minnesota, but let's go to Canada in 1963.

The flag that you see here was the flag up until that point, and there was a competition for a new flag.

You might recognize it as one of the most beloved and recognizable flags today.

However, that doesn't mean it wasn't hugely controversial to change that flag.

And ultimately, why the new flag, despite the controversies, eventually became one of the most popular flags in the world is it followed the five simple rules that Roman Mars laid out for a good flag design.

The first of which is, you have to keep it simple, it should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory, with meaningful symbolism.

The colors, pattern should somehow relate to what the flag seeks to represent.

There should only be two or three basic colors.

There should be no lettering ever, no seals, and it should be distinctive and related.

Now, if you look at the previous Minnesota flag, ultimately, it doesn't really meet any of these rules, and that's why it's been an issue.

Here in Rochester, we have Herold Flags, which is one of the premier flag shops in the state.

And Lee Harold is a wealth of knowledge, and he's taught me a lot about flags over the year.

And some of the things that you don't recognize at first, is the old Minnesota flag, you can't recognize it flying on top of a flag pole from a distance away.

The new one, you're going to be able to.

Also, all those colors that are on the Minnesota flag make it really expensive to produce.

So chances are if you've seen a Minnesota flag, it's probably flying on a government building or something like that, it's never been popular with the public.

The new Minnesota flag has some meaningful symbolism.

It's controversial, as all new things are, but ultimately when there's 2,000 to choose from, most people didn't get their first pick.

Ultimately, the shape represents the shape of Minnesota, the colors reflect our skies and our waters, and the star is representative of the star that's actually in the Capitol rotunda.

So we'll see if Minnesota comes to love this flag over time.

This had been Michael Wojcik with your "R-Town" Legislative Rundown.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (gentle music) - Hi, this is Danielle Teal with "R-Town" Walkabout.

We're at ROGA with Aubrey.

And Aubrey, can you share exactly what ROGA means?

- [Aubrey] Yes, Rochester Gymnastics Academy is ROGA here.

- And what do you do for ROGA?

- I am a competitive team coach, and I also work with the non-competitive teams.

- [Danielle] All right, Aubrey, what's happening right now?

I see a lot of cute stuff happening.

I know that there's probably a class, share a little bit more about that.

- [Aubrey] All right, so we have our preschool open gym going on, and this is where our littles can come in, they can explore in a creative way, and they can meet up with their friends, they can have a good time, and I think it helps with their development, and it helps them grow and just be creative with themselves.

- I see that there are a lot of different obstacles here.

Share a little bit more about that.

- So right behind us here, we have our bars and our rings, and this is where they can kinda flip around, they can learn their new skills, and they can practice, like, flipping over the blocks.

We have our climbing area here, and so they can go up and climb up and fall into a foam pit on the other side.

We have our trampoline, we have some little beams for them and some mats that they can roll up and down.

- [Danielle] And there's not just this class for open gym, there are other ones, correct?

- Yes, so we actually have an adult open gym, and those are on Sundays, and we also have a youth open gym up until the age of 17, and our adult one's 18 and up, anyone can come.

- [Danielle] That's really awesome, where can people find out more information about the classes and other offerings?

- [Aubrey] Online on our website, we have all of our listings.

We have our spring session going on right now, and enrollment is still available for the kids if they wanna come in, as space allows.

- [Danielle] Awesome, thank you so much, Aubrey.

- [Aubrey] Thank you.

- This is Danielle Teal with "R-Town" Walkabout.

(bright music) - We are joined today by Magda Haji-Yusuf of Three Rivers Community Action, here to tell us about a mentorship program aimed at overcoming barriers to home ownership.

Welcome to "R-Town."

- Thank you for having me, Nicole.

- Can you tell us a little bit about the BIPOC Home Ownership Mentorship Program and its goal?

- This program is designed to support and empower Black, Indigenous, and White, excuse me, Black and people of color through their journey in home ownership.

And the goal of the program is to provide support, guidance, and knowledge for BIPOIC home seekers in partnership with mentorship program.

We know that Minnesota and Olmsted County has one of the worst gaps in the nation of BIPOC and White home ownership.

We pursue and target that gap intentionally by addressing the barriers, you know, and also providing resources.

- I thank you for mentioning that gap, I think it's something that not everyone is aware of, and it comes to sort of thinking around what are some of the key barriers that people are facing, particularly BIPOC people are facing, when it comes to home ownership.

- With what we have seen so far in serving, you know, the BIPOC community, it's either language barriers, cultural barriers, it could be past experiences, low or no credit, you know, challenges navigating the banking system, also accessing down payments program, or maybe income challenges, those are the barriers we see.

- And mentorship seems to be a very sort of key component to this program, sorta really the center of the program.

Why is mentorship an important part of supporting BIPOC community members who are seeking home ownership?

- We have, first of all, the mentors that we, you know, picked through our pool of recruiting, the process, these mentors are, you know, assigned to mentees or participants each to guide and, you know, provide guidance, support, and also knowledge through the home ownership process.

These mentors are not just anyone, they're leaders from the community that have had already faced, you know, challenges and, you know, have the experiences in, you know, home-buying process.

It's very valuable, you know, journey for the mentors or the participants to have someone they can relate to, you know, foster sense of community and provide that guidance.

You know, also, it helps them gain that tool they need to make informed decisions through the home-buying process.

So it's really a journey that we matched, you know, knowing the backgrounds of these mentors with the mentees.

- Yeah, thank you for sharing that.

I think the mentorship, the way that you're describing it, it seems as if it's also really important for the participants, the mentees, to be able to sort of see themselves in their mentors.

- Absolutely.

- And to sort of see someone who has faced the same- - Relate.

- Barriers, and then has been able to overcome them.

- Absolutely.

- How is Three Rivers Community Action working with other community partners in this program?

- You know, with the recommendations of the co-designers through the Coalition for Rochester, this program was implemented and then joined forces with Three Rivers Community Action to facilitate the program through our existing Achieve program.

So, Achieve home ownership program that has been happening since 2008 and serving families.

- Okay, I know before, when we were just getting set up here, you talked a little bit about, you already have your, the mentor program is actually full of mentors already and mentees.

- Absolutely.

- If folks are interested in just learning a little bit more about the program or just other roles that they could play in supporting these participants, what would you suggest?

- I would suggest really, you know, already, like I said, we have reached the capacity of mentors, but then, of course, we have, you know, areas where we wanna also make sure we complete the BIPOC category, like maybe filling those ones that we need to serve, those are still we're looking for.

And to look out for informations through our website and maybe sharing that information with the mentors so they can join forces with us in serving these BIPOC community.

- And you've been working really closely with this program.

Why are you so passionate about this work and just the work that you do with Three Rivers Community Action?

- I'm really very passionate about this.

This program has been initiated a year ago, some time May, like I said, with the recommendations of the co-designers.

I feel like we are here to bridge that gap, that disparity, you know, and connecting those participants that are facing the hardship have someone to work with them aside from our advisors or, you know, staff at the Three River Community Action.

And they feel sense of, you know, confidence that they have this one person, individual, that is allocating their time and tool to provide them in order to succeed in this field.

You know, and it's no longer something that they're very hesitant about, so I'm really very passionate about it so that way our community can reach, and it's not just dreamable, but it's also attainable, you know?

- Definitely, it's something that can, it can actually happen.

- Yes.

You mentioned the term co-designer and the role of the co-designers being really important.

I know co-design is actually something that has come up a lot in a lot of other community initiatives and spaces.

In terms of the co-design process for this, you know, in building this program, how have you found that to be beneficial?

- I really think they're doing great and tremendous effort, and, you know, they are the leaders that are speaking for this people that are facing the barriers and coming up with strategies and ways to, you know, help them overcome those barriers.

So I think by sharing their input and their experiences is great, and one of the reasons why this has boomed is because of their recommendation and the things that they've seen in the community.

- Wonderful, well, thank you so much for joining us, Magda.

Thank you for your work, and yes, we look forward to catching up with the work of Three River Community Action again.

- Thanks for having me.

- And thank you all for joining us today, I hope you learned as much as I did about all that's going on in our city and the people making it happen.

For more wonderful content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of "R-Town," the show about Rochester, we'll see you next week.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.