Between visits to the spin art booth and cookie stand, Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball sat down, took a look around, and wrote this.
Ball is spending each day at the Fair, watching, listening and writing.
Between visits to the spin art booth and cookie stand, Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball sat down, took a look around, and wrote this.
Ball is spending each day at the Fair, watching, listening and writing.
[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: In a small patch of green between the Caribbean cafe and the restrooms, I sit beneath an Aspen tree, tapping my foot to a band from--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
In a small patch of green between the Caribbean cafe and the restrooms, I sit beneath an Aspen tree, tapping my foot to a band from Ecuador. The drummer smiles down at the woman behind a table spread with merchandise. She is dancing in place, holding a CD up in her hand as she sways from side to side.
She's watching the center of the dance floor where 10 feet away, a silver haired woman stands alone directly in front of the stage, clapping her hands and rocking back and forth. She is smiling as she watches two teenage girls in hijabs deep in conversation at a nearby table, bobbing their heads in rhythm to the music.
As I watch, a young mother approaches and sits on the bench next to me. In one graceful swoop, she shrugs off her backpack, pulls out sundry items, and changes her son's diaper, all in less than half a minute. Throughout the entire procedure, she never stops shimmying to the music and never once takes her eyes off her son's face, who never takes his eyes off of mine. Our fair is more than food fest and farm animals. For these 12 days, we are, all of us, gathered together and swept up into one fluid choreography of pleasure, tenderness, and curiosity.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
Digitization made possible by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
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