A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 79
With assistance from Cloquet area artist Adam Swanson, Cloquet Middle School students created this colorful mural, as featured in the May 6 issue of the Pine Knot News. The finished outdoor mural is now mounted and available for the world to see on the south wall of CMS, facing Washington Avenue. Here, art teacher Andrea Cacek and Swanson’s two sons, sixth-grader Jasper and second-grader Oliver, do some touch-up painting before varnishing. Read the May story about the making of the mural h... Full story
Naomi Guilbert (pictured here in Cloquet) and Hiroshi Koshiyama, professional Japanese taiko drummers, perform an original song called "Covid drive-thru," which Koshiyama said was inspired by a two-hour wait for a Covid vaccination. The husband and wife drummers are part of Fubuki Daiko (Blizzard Drums) from Winnipeg, Canada, and visited the Cloquet and Carlton public libraries last week to both perform and educate. According to their Facebook page, Fubuki Daiko reinvents traditional Japanese... Full story
If the movies weren’t enough, next week’s Free Range Film Festival in Wrenshall will have a twist: live music. The Denfeld Honors Quartet will provide music at intermission Friday, June 24 and guitarist Darin Bergsven will provide entertainment Saturday, June 25. Annie Dugan, one of the festival founders who lives down the road from the former milk barn-turned-theater, announced the festival lineup of independent films last week. There will be a food truck onsite and a “giant century-old barn... Full story
Things are moving quickly at the County Seat Theater these days. Opening today in person and with view-on-demand is the comedy "Jerry Finnegan's Sister." It's been a busy few weeks for the community theater, said general manager Joel Soukkala. "Due to Covid-19 cases in the previous production pushing back its opening date, the actors and crew in 'Jerry Finnegan's Sister' have had a shortened time span to get ready for their opening night," Soukkala said. Less than two weeks after County Seat's...
Duluth musician Gaelynn Lea not only performed for the entire student body at Washington Elementary last Thursday, she had a conversation with them: 250 students at a time in two sessions. "How many of you have ever been in a really bad mood and cranked up the radio and danced around the house, maybe punched the air a few times?" she asked. "How many of you have been in a really good mood and danced around the house for that reason? And how many have ever felt anxious or scared and put on some... Full story
The Northland Foundation recently awarded seven Maada’ookiing grants. The Maada’ookiing board met in March to review and approve awards. Maada’ookiing (“the distribution” in Ojibwe) is a Northland Foundation program to strengthen relationships with Indigenous community, build partnerships with Native nations, and offer support for community members to expand capacity in northeastern Minnesota. A grant opportunity is offered three times per year for Tribal citizens, descendants, or those who have kinship ties or affiliation to Indigenous communi...
Jake Tremble moved to Wrenshall a year ago in June with his girlfriend, Claire, and dog, Gracey. The couple had been living in Duluth, and he had been training as a classical painter at the Great Lakes Academy of Art. The two were looking to be part of a CSA (community supported agriculture) and found Wrenshall's own Northern Harvest Farm. What started as just a place to get vegetables turned into a job at the farm for Claire, and a home for the couple down the road in a farmhouse they share... Full story
With the publication of his new book, "We spoke of many things," Carlton County historian, playwright, journalist, businessman and political activist Dan Reed completed what was really a lifelong project last year. The book tells the story of generations of Reed's ancestors as they made their way to and from Finland to northern Minnesota, with many settling in the Automba area where Reed still lives and serves as a township supervisor. It is culled from recollections of visits over 60 years,... Full story
With Ann Carlander's help and Annie Dugan's encouragement, Knot Gallery curator Ann Markusen put out a call for portrait art for the April/May exhibit, and a variety of area artists responded. One, Ivy Vainio, uses photography as her art form, as Markusen reviews below. While this is the first time Vainio's photographs will grace the 100-year-old brick wall that is the Knot Gallery at the Pine Knot News office, the four other artists are returning exhibitors, and show a different side of their... Full story
Ivy Vainio's large-scale photo prints of Anishinaabe elders grace our multicolored brick wall at the Pine Knot News office, a striking introduction to a portrait exhibit which opens today, April 8, with an artists reception 5-7 p.m. at the Pine Knot Gallery at 122 Ave. C in Cloquet's West End. One set of Vainio's photos depicts elders participating in cultural events. Virgil Sohm shares an Anishinaabe hand drum song, photographed at the Kiwenz Ojibwe language camp. Another captures the late Ron... Full story
The County Seat Theater Company will present what general manager Joel Soukkala calls a "diva-licious farce" beginning Thursday, April 14, after a Covid-19 case pushed the debut back from the planned opening today. "Suite Surrender" is set in 1942 with two of Hollywood's biggest actresses (portrayed by Mimi Effinger and Etta Souter) descending upon the luxurious Palm Beach Royale Hotel with assistants, luggage, and a legendary feud with one another in tow. Everything seems to be in order for...
File this one under "It's a tough job, but someone has to do it." The tough task? Judging beer. Last weekend, the Northern Ale Stars Homebrewers Guild hosted a competition in Duluth where 149 entries of beer, cider and mead were inspected with the purpose of selecting the best of the batch. I was one of the judges. It sounds like it might be all fun and games, but it's serious business once the judges are seated and the bottle caps are pried off. And it's safe to say that judging beer is more...
Minnesota poet, teacher and men's movement founder Robert Bly was a major figure in American literature for decades who drew adulation and controversy. Bly died Nov. 21. He was 94. Born in 1926, he grew up on a farm in southwest Minnesota near Madison. He had a cabin in Carlton County, on Moosehead Lake in Moose Lake. Bly studied writing at Harvard University with poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish. His classmates included Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, George Plimpton and his lifelong friend...
The passing of Robert Bly, a well-known poet and author of "Iron John," brought back many memories for me as a longtime reporter and resident of the Moose Lake area. Bly lived in the Twin Cities area with his wife, Ruth, but the couple had a second home in Moose Lake on the shore of Moosehead Lake. His first wife, Carol Bly, also lived in the Moose Lake area for a number of years. They shared children and co-parented them until they were grown. I remember when Bly once brought a request to the...
People who appreciate great photography and the great outdoors are invited to attend the opening art reception for two local photographers from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2 at the Pine Knot News office at 122 Avenue C, Cloquet. Retired Cloquet doctor and photographer Dan Malkovich will have a number of landscape photos on display, often taken at Jay Cooke State Park. The show will also feature wildlife and nature photos by Cromwell native Will Stenberg. Because of the high rate of Covid... Full story
The County Seat Theater Company will present the comedy “A Doublewide, Texas Christmas" at the Encore! Performing Arts Center in Cloquet. “Growing up in a small town sparked long ago holiday memories as I first read ‘A Doublewide, Texas Christmas,’” said director Larry Anderson. “Yes, it is a wonderful farce, but beneath the mayhem and madness is the hope of one young girl to be able to meet her father, a father she has never known.” In this outrageously funny comedy, it’s Christmas-time in the... Full story
United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo will make a virtual visit to Carlton County next week, and local artists and writers have been preparing for her appearance. Harjo is a writer and performer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation serving her third term as the 23rd poet laureate of the United States. She is the author of nine books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed "An American Sunrise," several plays, children's books, and two memoirs, "Crazy Brave" and "Poet Warrior." Harjo's many honors... Full story
Pinehurst Park looms large in my memories of growing up in Cloquet during the 1940s and 1950s. Daily life during that post-Depression Era meant every penny had to be accounted for. Families had to plan very carefully when and if you could buy anything. If you could buy it, you either had to make it or grow it. During that time we had two major wars - World War II and the Korean War - that very much limited what you could buy. But for us kids, not having money didn't matter so much. We gathered... Full story
The Agate Encores special concert series is back. In recent conversations with local residents, one of the things that people have missed most during our past year of Covid shutdowns is live musical performance. That is certainly true of Agate Encores Community Concerts, whose mission is to present professional entertainment to the Moose Lake community. Later this month, the Agate Encores will kick off the first of four live concerts at the school auditorium in Moose Lake. The concert series...
Watch the County Seat children’s theater production of “When Silents Was Golden” on CAT-7. For the month of August, the cable access channel is showing videos of weeks 3 and 4 of the children’s theater production at 3 and 6 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Each show is roughly 30 minutes long. Also on CAT-7, enjoy video of this year’s July Fourth parade and Harry’s Gang episodes, along with recordings of Cloquet City Council and Cloquet Economic Authority meetings. Other new shows on CAT-7 in... Full story
United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo will visit the Northland Oct. 18, 2021. Through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, the Bringing Joy Committee will create an e-book dedicated to art and poetry inspired by Harjo’s work. Local writers and artists are invited to submit work inspired by Harjo for publication in this anthology. Those whose work is chosen will receive a free copy of the e-book as well as entry into a drawing to attend Harjo’s reading and a feast at Fond du Lac Tri... Full story
Shooting Stars Dance students were alternately giddy, nervous or bored Saturday morning, as they waited for the spring recital to begin at Cloquet High School. There were tears from a couple of the youngest dancers, still in diapers, in the hallway behind the stage. Meanwhile, the Cloquettes were calmly practicing their tap dance moves in the band room. Recitals are old hat to these veteran dancers, some who count 26 years (Deb Zahar) and 30 years (Sandy Hemsworth) in the popular dance troupe.... Full story
The past 14 months have been a rollercoaster ride for 2011 Cloquet graduate and full-time musician Tony Petersen, from a rock 'n' roll tour of Europe to riding out the pandemic in Minneapolis. When all travel between the U.S. and Europe was suspended, Tony Petersen and his Social Animals bandmates (vocalist Dedric Clark from Cloquet, drummer Boyd Smith from Esko and Roger Whitten from Lino Lakes) were in Norway. It was 3 a.m., they were on a tour bus, in the middle of a European tour. "We had... Full story
After the fall musical was canceled because of the pandemic and the One Act play was entirely online - including rehearsals - director Darrell Davey was determined to make sure every student who wanted to be in the spring play could do so. Of course, he also had to take Covid-19 into consideration. After pondering, Davey and assistant director Iris Keller decided the best way would be to have two completely different casts for a one-act play. The casts did everything separately: rehearsals,... Full story
The Carlton Area, Cloquet and Moose Lake public libraries will be offering juggling kits May 1-31, while supplies last. The “Juggling: A Not-So-Brief Introduction” take-and-move art kit, designed by COMPAS Teaching Artist Benjamin Domask-Ruh, provides a primer on the ancient artform, introducing the history, science, theory and beginning technique. Three antibacterial handmade Russian-style juggling balls, filled with 100 grams of salt and sealed, are included to encourage immediate jug... Full story
