Art-A-Whirl Proves Successful Books That Play With Time

Annual festival features artists, fun activities

Evan Vezmar | Managing Editor

F or a moment while I walked from the car park to the Northrup King Building, there were only a few people on the sidewalks, strolling between art exhibits. Then, I was hit with an explosion of noise, color, and excitement. Everywhere I looked, crowds of people milled about, admiring beautiful art and enjoying a wonderful environment for creativity.

In the 28th year of Art-A-Whirl, 1200 artists from Minneapolis showcased their art across nearly a hundred locations. The festival was split into sections but it was no more than a 10-minute walk from one side to another portion of the exhilarating and lively celebration of art. Featuring ce - ramics, drawings, photography, woodworking, clothes, and so much more, Art-A-Whirl had everything to offer. When I wasn’t watching a live band perform on a stage, I walked through endless rooms of beautiful creations, each piece reflecting one person’s unique interpretation of Minneapolis and the world. The festival ran from May 19 to May 21, and the energetic crowd, even in the afternoon sun, was en - gaging and exhilarating. It’s a shame that the festival only runs for 3 days as there were so many exhibits that I wasn’t able to see. There were plenty of food trucks and restaurants dotted around the area to try, ranging from brownies and ice cream to tacos and dumplings. Art-A-Whirl is a brilliant, eclectic collage of fun, art, and music and it’s an event everyone should look forward to come next May.

Unique story-telling, cycles, death as a narrator

Uma Bhardwaj | Columnist

Theschool year is ending, and if you’re anything like me, you’re realizing that everything is fleeting, and time is but a human creation attempting to slow our inevitable descent into death! But no, really. Time keeps moving forward– unless you like to read. So here are some books that distinctly don’t have the linear timelines our world seems so obsessed with. Books whose clocks go backwards, or sideways, or up. Enjoy.

“Genuine Fraud” by E. Lockhart. This book starts at the end of the story (with chapter 18) and works backwards, until we get back to when everything started, adding together puzzle pieces until a truly shocking picture emerges. Following a morally gray protagonist with a mysterious past, “Genuine Fraud” is breathtaking and enthralling as we learn what, exactly, the main character is running from.

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. Narrated by potentially the most omniscient of narrators, Death, “The Book Thief” tells the story of a girl in Nazi Germany, and all of her encounters with Death. The book spoils its own ending, so to speak, very early on. There’s none of the suspense, or element of surprise often found in novels, instead leaving readers to focus on the beautiful characters and heartbreakingly pure storytelling.

“Life after Life” by Kate Atkinson. Another WWII era historical fiction novel, but this time instead of just encountering Death, the main character actually does die. And then dies again, and again, and again. By developing her character through multiple timelines Atkinson is able to dive deeply into the ways we all make decisions, and the ripple effect that those decisions have, not just on our lives, but the world around us.