(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll learn about Native American Quill Box artist, Penny Kagigebi.

But first, joining us now is the Executive Director of the Fargo Theatre, Emily Beck.

Emily thanks for joining us today.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- As we get started, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and your background.

- Sure, I was born right here in Fargo, North Dakota.

Spent the first few years of my childhood here, and then I grew up in Valley City.

I came back to the Fargo-Moorhead area, to attend school at MSUM, where I studied film history and criticism, and that's really when I started falling in love with the Fargo Theatre.

And after my graduation, I worked for a few years for the Marcus Theatres Corporation, and then in 2008 I joined the Fargo Theatre team.

- Okay, 2008.

For those who don't know, 'cause we got viewers from all across, and listeners for that matter, tell us about the Fargo Theatre.

- Oh, my favorite subject.

(laughing) The Fargo Theatre just has my whole heart.

It is a very unique place, and an absolute treasure in our community.

It's a historic landmark, just celebrated its centennial this year.

It's an icon for the city.

Our marquee has been named the most photographed location in Fargo, but we're so much more than just the historic building than just being a landmark.

Inside of the Fargo Theatre is an arts organization that offers programming about 300 days and nights a year.

We show new release movies, specialty movies, and we have lots of live events on our stage as well.

- Well, this year marks the centennial anniversary.

Congratulations.

How does it feel to celebrate 100 years of this landmark?

- Oh, it's been incredible.

The outpouring of love that we've seen from the community has been nothing short of remarkable, and you only get to, an organization like us only gets to 100 years because we are part of a community that is so dedicated to the arts, to our culture, to our history, and that they see the Fargo Theatre as important part of that, important part of our identity.

So it has been a whirlwind of a year as we've planned for the centennial, but it has been, sorry I'm a bit emotional, it's been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

We're hearing stories from people that have made memories for generations in their families at the Fargo Theatre, and it's hard not to be touched by that.

- So what's the official anniversary date?

What was it?

- It was March 15th, 2026.

- And with that said, you know, what have you done thus far to celebrate the anniversary?

- Oh, yeah, we've definitely been celebrating.

The weekend of the actual centennial, we hosted a Roaring Twenties-themed soiree in downtown Fargo, where folks dressed to the nines, and all was very "Great Gatsby."

It was fantastic.

The day of the actual centennial, March 15th, we held a celebration at the Fargo Theatre.

That was very true to the Fargo Theatre's origins.

It was multidisciplinary, because that's what we've always done.

We've always had live entertainment on our stage, so we had singers and dancers.

And then the event concluded with the premiere of a 30-minute documentary, "Fargo Theater: The First 100 Years," because we've also always been a cinema, and telling stories on screen has been just the most important part of our legacy.

So we wanted to take the opportunity to tell our story on screen.

And a Minnesota filmmaker, Mike Schultz, put together a beautiful documentary.

I think there were 55 different local participants, people telling their stories about the Fargo Theatre, sharing their expertise on our history.

And it's just this perfect little way to capture the first part of our story.

- I know I always hate naming names, but who are some of the people who've made it possible for the Fargo Theatre to have existed for 100 years?

- Oh my goodness.

There's too many to mention.

This really is a community labor of love.

One of the people that we celebrated on March 15th, though, is somebody I would love to shout out, Rick Solarski received our Fargo Theatre Luminary Award, because believe it or not, there was a time when a corporation wanted to buy the Fargo Theater, and tear down, and turn it into a parking lot.

And Rick was amongst a group of folks with the Red River Theatre Organ Society that said, "This is special.

This is worth preserving and protecting."

And Rick really took the lead on that.

So he is one of so many people that's responsible for the theater still being here, and still thriving.

- Of course, you've been talking about it, but, you know, put into words, how important would you say the Fargo Theatre is to the community.

- Well, obviously I'm a little biased, (laughing) but I think we've seen firsthand, especially with the centennial, how much it means to people.

And it means different things to different people.

Whether it's a place that they went with their family every December to watch The Blenders, and they have those warm holiday memories with us, or we're a sign that says home to them.

It's been pretty remarkable to see that outpouring.

- And for that matter, it contributes to tourism.

It's not just Fargo-Moorhead people that go, you talked about The Blenders, but there are a number of events besides movies that you have there.

- Absolutely.

We host about 80,000 people a year for different films and concerts and events, and so many of them are traveling from outside of our community to attend and be a part of that.

We're very, very proud to be one of the anchors for our downtown community, our neighborhood, to be a part of the economy here, whether that is tourism, restaurants, hotels, shopping.

You know, sometimes folks will come down for an afternoon at the movies, and then maybe they'll take in a nice cup of coffee and do some shopping.

We're so glad that we get to play a part in that.

- Well, the historic landmark is part of it, and that's a part of the rich history, but you also added Theater B, the small theater.

Can you tell us about that?

- Absolutely.

In 2009, the theater expanded to a duplex.

So that means we're a movie theater with two screens.

Theater Two is a part of an urban infill project led by the Kilbourne Group.

So it's part of the same building.

If you've seen Sandy's Donuts or Erbert and Gerbert's on Broadway, our Theater Two is actually part of that same building.

And that addition has been tremendous for our organization.

It's allowed us to expand our programming in some really exciting, exciting ways.

- But the architecture and the landmark of the Fargo Theatre is still there, and so I don't detract from that.

Recently you held the 26th Annual Fargo Film Festival.

How did it go?

- It was a delight.

(laughing) Again, I know I'm biased, but it was just such a joyful week of celebrating film and filmmakers, and bringing the community together, which is the thing that we like to do the most.

We had 48 filmmakers attend the festival this year from literally all over the world.

And we had audiences attend from all over the world.

We think we found our guests that traveled the furthest came in from Singapore to attend the Fargo Film Festival, and she spent the week with us just taking in movies and eating lots of popcorn.

And it was a wonderful week.

- Did the theater do anything to recognize the centennial during the festival?

- Absolutely.

One of the highlights of this year's festival was the worldwide premier of the film "Pre-school," which was directed by Josh Duhamel and starred Josh Duhamel.

And I think the theater centennial was a big part of the reason that that was able to happen, and that Josh was able to come and spend time with us.

And so we definitely saw that premier as a special celebration within the festival, that was also somewhat tied to our centennial.

- So have plans started for next year's festival, yet?

- We have a team of just under 70 people that work on the festival.

We always get a few weeks off after one festival, and then, yeah, back to work, working hard planning for 2027.

- Well, the film festival's, one of the theater's, well, biggest fundraisers.

You know, did you ever expect it to become that huge a part of the theater when it started?

- I think the people that founded the festival, they were dreamers, and so I think that this is what they hoped for us, that they hoped it would continue to grow.

So many festivals start in smaller communities, and they make three, five years, and there just isn't enough support.

But I think our founders knew that Fargo was special, and that Fargo would come out and support something like this, and to see it grow and thrive.

- Well, an organization like the theater, Fargo Theatre, you don't reach 100 years without some obstacles along the way.

You mentioned the one about tearing it down for a parking lot, but what are some of the challenges that, well, the theater and for that matter, any nonprofit arts organization, faces?

- Sure.

Well, of course there are numerous.

The pandemic was certainly a challenge for the Fargo Theatre, but yet again, our community stepped up and supported us through our closure when there were no movies being released, and no acts on tour.

So we were very fortunate to be a nonprofit, to have that support from our community with donations, with curbside popcorn sales.

Everybody just came out and they supported us.

And that was, now as I look back, there was a lot of love in those days that were very uncertain.

- You know, how does the Fargo Theatre compete with the bigger chains, AMC, Marcus Theatres, especially in the Fargo-Moorhead region where we're not rural, but not metropolitan.

- Yeah, we are kind of in a unique position in this community.

I'm not really sure we exactly do compete with them, because I think what we do is so special, it's so unique.

When people come into the Fargo Theatre, hopefully they are having experience like they can't get anywhere else.

I always like to think you're kind of transported back in time a bit.

You walk in our doors, you see the beautiful art deco architecture, you smell the best popcorn in town, (chuckles) and I hope it's truly a unique experience.

- You know, something, the theater has, the pipe organ, and you mentioned the Organ Society.

Can you tell us about that relationship?

- Oh, they have been our partners from day one.

The Red River Theatre Organ Society is a group of incredible people who are very dedicated to the preservation and continuation of the art form that is playing a theater pipe organ, which is, it's a bit different than say, a pipe organ you might find at a church.

And these folks are so dedicated to keeping it in good shape, keeping it in repair, keeping it tuned, and keeping a nice roster of players, of developing new talent, because it takes years and years and years to learn how to play that incredible instrument.

So we're very fortunate that we have such an active chapter of the Organ Society here in the Red River Valley, and they have been the Fargo Theatre's partners from day one.

- Well, I know my dad and others always loved going and seeing that organ.

So how important is that Wurlitzer organ for the theater and its history?

How much can you say about that?

- It's priceless.

It's honestly one of the reasons the Fargo Theatre is still here, and didn't become a parking lot all those years ago.

The fact that we housed Mighty Wurlitzer made us unique.

It added to that special quality of the Fargo Theatre, and it was the Organ Society and Rick Solarski that actually first stepped up and shepherded the Fargo Theatre through its early days as a nonprofit organization.

So there's no way to overestimate the impact they've had on the Fargo Theater, and how much we love, we love that organ.

(chuckles) - Well, we're talking about the Organ Society a lot, and should, but you know, in your history, how much have you partnered with other organizations, or do you still continue to do that?

- That is what we love to do at the Fargo Theatre.

We actually partner with about 50 different organizations every year from local nonprofit arts organizations.

We host annual performances by the FM Opera, the FM Ballet, the FM Symphony Orchestra, dance schools like Messiah Dance.

So we certainly host those arts organizations, but we're always looking for partnerships out in the business community as well, and with other nonprofits.

So for example, every year we partner with Homeward Animal Shelter to produce the annual Cat Video Festival, which is a blast for families.

It's about an hour and a half of hilarious internet cat videos.

And then we have adoptable cats and kittens in the lobby that folks can meet, and perhaps welcome into their homes if that's a good fit.

And it's also a fundraiser for both of our organizations.

So partnerships like that, whenever we can find a way where movies or the arts can help spread awareness, share a message, we are so thrilled to partner with other organizations.

- Well, Emily, I understand the theater is currently running a capital campaign for renovations.

So tell us more about that.

- Sure.

Kind of in celebration of our centennial, we launched a $5.5 million capital campaign to restore the Fargo Theatre's beautiful Art Deco interior, and fund some really important projects that might not be quite as glamorous, but are incredibly necessary to the continuation of our services.

So there's a large-scale plumbing project, HVAC project, some electrical work that needs to be done.

And that beautiful Fargo Theatre Marquee, which actually houses nearly 900 light bulb.

Each and every one of those 900 light bulbs has to be changed.

They're still incandescent bulbs, and they need to be upgraded to LEDs.

So that's just one of the projects that we have going.

- I was gonna ask if they were gonna be converted.

But talk about have, you know, how long will these renovations take?

Have you already done some, and how long?

- Yeah, we actually finished phase one of our renovation on Valentine's Day, and that included fresh paint, new carpet, some of that HVAC work that I mentioned in the historic building.

And I think the thing that people are most excited about, all new seats in the historic auditorium.

(chuckles) It's been on the bucket list for quite some time for us to replace those seats.

Some of them were dated back to the '40s.

- Well, that was the charm of that though, Emily.

Well, it's probably nice that you're upgrading seats.

When was the last time you did a capital campaign?

- The theater's last large-scale capital campaign was for the '98, '99 renovation and restoration.

We've done a few small fundraisers since, but that was our last multimillion dollar renovation.

- Okay, so this one is a much bigger... Maybe you said it, and I didn't, when do you expect the renovations to be complete on this time?

What's the target date?

- Oh, we're taking it all in phases.

Our next phase is plumbing and projectors.

We have to replace miles of water pipes, and replace our digital movie projectors, and we're hoping to have that done by October of this year.

After that, it'll just be in stages as we complete the fundraising.

- Okay, when you say phases, do you have a total number, or do you know yet?

- Hopefully four, yes.

So hopefully four phases, and we are complete with phase one.

We've completed phase one, I should say.

- Well, as you said, being a Fargo native, and you've already expressed some of this, what does it mean to you to be a part of the Fargo Theatre's history?

- Again, I'm sorry.

I get a little choked up when I talk about this, because when you're looking at an organization that's been a part of our city story for 100 years, my little time, my little 17 years at the Fargo Theatre, it just feels like the tiniest slice.

But it is an honor to be a shepherd, even for my relatively short period of time, to something that has meant so much to so many people.

- What can the Fargo Theatre patrons and community look forward to for the next 100 years?

(Emily laughing) - Well, I'm not sure about the next 100 years, although I truly believe that the theater will make it to that the next milestone.

But for the year ahead, we want the party to continue.

We want the celebration to continue.

We are so full of gratitude.

We wanna share that with the community, and continue to gather people to together to celebrate.

So in April, we are launching our Centennial Film Series that will feature one title each month from each of the theater's decades of existence.

So one from the '20s, one from the '30s, and so forth.

So in April, it was "Fargo," the movie "Fargo" was celebrating its 30th anniversary, and we thought that couldn't just be a coincidence.

So we kicked things off with the film "Fargo," and then you're gonna see a different film from a different decade each month moving forward.

- Well with that, or what else can people look forward to for the rest of the centennial year in the fall and winter maybe?

- So that Centennial Film Series will continue.

We have Buster Keaton's silent film, "The General," just a masterpiece, coming up.

And then we'll go into "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" the following month.

And something that'll be available all year long will be our very special Fargo Theatre Centennial Merchandise, which is available online and at the Fargo Theatre box office.

It was just another way we could get everybody in on the celebration.

- Well, if people wanna find out more information, if they wanna contribute to the theater, or if they wanna come see a movie, where's the best place to find information?

- Fargotheatre.org, everything, upcoming movies, events, information on our campaign, everything right there.

- Well, Emily, we wish you the best.

You've been doing a great job.

- Thank you.

- And thank you.

Stay tuned for more.

(upbeat music) Penny Kagigebi has always loved art, and knew what her path in life was the first time she saw a quill box.

Each quill box and birch bark basket connect her to her Native American culture, and she combines her art with activism for her Two-Spirit relatives.

There's a freedom in being your authentic self, and Penny strives to promote that freedom so everyone can find their path.

(gentle music) - It's hard to be here.

Life is hard.

But one of the gifts that we have is beauty, and artwork is beauty that walks through the day with us.

(gentle music continues) I was born in Mahnomen, raised on White Earth Reservation, and have always lived near, on, or adjacent to the White Earth Reservation.

My mother went to boarding school at White Earth, and my father's family was Scandinavian.

I got really interested in artwork when I was in high school, and when I started looking to reconnect culturally, I started making artwork as ceremony gifts.

In the late nineties, I saw a quill box for the first time.

It was like I'd been struck by lightning.

I knew that that was my path, was to make quill boxes.

What quill boxes are is they're this elegant combination of birch bark and porcupine quills and sweet grass, and they serve as a storage container for dried foods or dried medicines.

In 2014, I went to work with Mel Lash in Bina on the Leach Lake reservation, and learned how to make quill boxes from him.

I have to find a piece of bark that's big enough for what I'm trying to accomplish.

So if I want a really big basket, that can be limited by the size of the tree.

The tree I really like peeling bark from is a birch tree that would be standing kind of out by itself in a sunny area.

It affects how the bark grows and how pliable it is.

I have to soak the bark to make it pliable again, cut out the bark, bring it together in a form, and then tie it off, and let it dry for several days.

I go into a meditation, and see what images come to me, what designs come to me.

I'm able to sketch that out onto the birch bark and apply the quills, apply the beads, and then I have to consider the collar on the top.

I like that collar to match the bark that I'm using for the basket itself.

The process of putting a porcupine quill into the bark, it's a woodland style of doing quill work.

I'll soak them in water and make them pliable like a rubber band.

And once they're pliable, we're able to take an awl and put holes in the birch bark, and place the quill through the holes in that birch bark.

As the quill dries, they grab onto each other and it holds that quill in place.

I find that I'm more interested in doing things that are a little bit out of the ordinary.

A lot of my baskets have machines-sewn ribbon work on them now, or I'm adding bead work to introduce color that's moving them into more of a contemporary expression of basketry.

And sometimes people don't recognize what I'm doing, because it's unusual to see that color brought into that medium in that way.

Right now I have baskets that are being shown in the exhibit Queering Indigeneity at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St.

Paul.

The exhibit itself is a community collaboration of queer and Two-Spirit native artists from the upper Midwest.

The term Two-Spirit is kind of a modern term, but the concept is ancient.

It's a queer, but absolutely has to be a Native American person.

And as a result of assimilation and boarding schools, a lot of people feel like they don't have a place or a right to be present in their communities.

A lot of my work in the last few years has really focused on Two-Spirit cultural reclamation.

So that is both the drawing in the knowledge and the understanding of the value and the celebration of Two-Spirit people, and also providing safe spaces and places for people to come and feel like they can just be themselves.

There's a freedom in being able to just come forward as your authentic self.

We've particularly designed this moment in this time, and that place for that opportunity for people.

Having my baskets there is super exciting, because I did particularly create some of those pieces to advocate for Two-Spirit relatives everywhere.

And I'm really glad that I got an opportunity to both curate there and to have my baskets in the exhibit.

One of the pieces that's at the exhibit is a basket that's called Anishinaabe Descent.

And that one was a particular effort on my part to retell the story of how Anishinaabe people descended from the stars here to Turtle Island.

There's a blue and red double helix as we descended from the stars here to Earth.

And that red and blue double helix is red for women, blue for men.

But through the center were the Two-Spirit people providing balance so that we could arrive here safely.

Working with birch bark and working with porcupine quills has really deepened my understanding of my culture, but more so in the fact that what I'm doing to help others that come behind me, that is a primary focus for any Anishinaabe person, is what do we leave for those who are coming behind us?

Being able to teach, being able to leave a legacy of some sort, really fulfills that need within myself.

One of the things I've learned about making quill boxes and working in community, is that each of us has a unique path.

When I talk about feeling like I was struck by lightning the first time I saw that quill box, I think each of us has that within ourselves.

We should look for the thing that lights us up, and we should go for that, 'cause I think that's how we know what it was that we came here to do.

That's our path.

That's where we're meant to go.

That's what'll bring us joy, and that's where the freedom in being our authentic self comes in.

(gentle music) - Well, that's all we have on "Prairie Pulse" this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funded by The Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money form the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.