This week’s Entertainment spotlights!

The Music

Beenie Man

Fri., Apr. 12, 10 pm • Epic, 110 N. 5th St., Mpls., 612-332-3742 or epicmpls.com

Grammy award-winning Jamaican reggae artist and self-proclaimed “King of Dancehall.”

Fatoumata Diawara 

Fri., Apr. 12, 7 pm • Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls., 612-338-2674 or www.thecedar.org • Catch the Midwest debut by Mali’s new music sensation, who has been wooing critics and lighting up stages around the world with her radiant voice, coolly infectious Afro-pop, and smoking live band.

Eric Kamau Gravatt

Fri., Apr. 12 & Sat., Apr. 13, 9 pm • Artists’ Quarter, 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul, 651-292-1359 or artistsquarter.com • Eric Kamau Gravatt is known around the globe for his incredible drumming work with Weather Report, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner and many others. Eric was raised in Philadelphia, and has lived in the Twin Cities for several years. His local performances, however, are as rare as his talent. Touring with McCoy and other musical ventures have kept him off Twin Cities stages for the most part.

T.I.

Fri., Apr. 19, 8 pm • Epic, 110 N. 5th St., Mpls., 612-332-3742 or epicmpls.com • T.I. is on tour promoting his eighth studio album Trouble Man: Heavy is the Head, which he has hinted may be his last. But considering he reportedly has over 100 unreleased tracks from the Heavy is the Head sessions, this is unlikely.  Travis Scott, I-B-ILL and DJ Enferno open.

Shabazz Palaces w/TheeSatisfaction and Malitia Mali Mob

Fri., Apr. 19, 8 pm • Fine Line Music Café, 318 1st Ave. N., Mpls., 612-338-8100 or www.finelinemusic.com • Shabazz Palaces are a Seattle-based hip hop collective, led by Ishmael Butler aka ’Palaceer Lazaro’ (once ’Butterfly’ of jazz-rap group Digable Planets) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai ’Baba’ Maraire, son of Mbira master Dumisani Maraire • TheeSatisfaction produce and perform their own material, funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke equal parts Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker and Q-Tip. 18+

The Screen

42

Opens Fri., Apr. 12, various metro-area theaters • 42 tells the story of two men — the great Jackie Robinson and legendary Brooklyn Dodgers GM Branch Rickey — whose brave stand against prejudice forever changed the world by changing the game of baseball. Starring Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Christopher Meloni.

Olympus Has Fallen

Various metro-area theaters • Disgraced former presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack; using his inside knowledge, Banning works with national security to rescue the president from his kidnappers. Starring Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Gerard Butler, and Aaron Eckhart.

Tyler Perry’s Temptation

Various metro-area theaters • A marriage counselor’s life becomes complicated after she enters into an increasingly obsessive relationship behind her husband’s back. Starring Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Vanessa Williams, Brandy Norwood, and Eric West.

The Stage

Harlem Globetrotters

Fri. & Sat., Apr. 12 & 13 • Target Center, 600 1st Ave. N., Mpls., www.targetcenter.com

For the first time ever, fans will decide the rules for the game that could affect the final outcome. This could be anything from playing with two basketballs at once, to getting double the points for each basket made. Go online with your kids to www.harlemglobetrotters.com to vote for which ground-breaking rule you want to see implemented in the game. Then, get your tickets, and see the winning rules in live action at the Globetrotters’ world championship game.

Jackie and Me

Through Apr. 14 • Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 3rd Ave. S., Mpls., 612-874-0400 or www.childrenstheatre.org • Joe Stoshack may not be the best baseball player on his Little League team but he does have one unparalleled advantage: with the help of the old baseball cards in his prized collection, Joe has the remarkable ability to time travel! When he’s given an assignment to write a school report about a famous African American, Joe travels back in time to meet one of the greatest baseball players ever — Jackie Robinson — and learns what it was like for the man who endured more than his share of prejudice to break baseball’s color barrier. Joe plans to write a prize-winning report but never expects a temporary change in the color of his skin will forever change his view of history and courage.

River See

Apr. 11-21 • Pillsbury House Theatre, 3501 Chicago Ave. S., Mpls., 612-825-0459 or www.pillsburyhousetheatre.org • Set on a juking boat with blues-women, queers, deviants, and seers, River See by Sharon Bridgforth uses Black American rural southern tradition and an aesthetic steeped in jazz as the base for bringing people together to witness and create. River See is the prayer before the Great Migration. This production features Sonja Parks, Aimee Bryant, Mankwe Ndosi, Leah Nelson, Kenna Cottman, and Truth Maze. Creator Sharon Bridgforth also appears onstage as she choreographs the words, sounds, movement, and singing live in front of the audience.

Ms. Pat

Apr. 17-21 • House of Comedy, Mall of America, 408 E. Broadway,
Bloomington, 952-858-8558 or www.houseofcomedy.net • In 2009 she began touring as the opening act for national headliner Arnez J. In July of this year she made her first TV appearance on the TV Guide Network’s StandUp in Stilettos. She will also be appearing on Nickelodeons Mom’s Night Out comedy special in October. She is a regular guest on the Bob and Tom radio show. Currently she appears on Katt Williams new DVD release Kattpacalypse.

Word Becomes Flesh

Apr. 18-20 • Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-871-4444 or www.intermediaarts.org

Led by a cast of emerging poet-performers, this play integrates hip hop theater and contemporary dance performance to deconstruct Black male identity in the 21st century. This show critically, lyrically and choreographically shares one man’s personal experience of fatherhood and in doing so examines the legacy of patriarchy and male privilege, the continuum between fathers and sons, and the relationships of women and men. Together these narratives confront the intersection between the reality and the mythology of the Black male body — from the cotton field to the athletic field and all spaces in between.

Opening night post-show reception: Thursday, April 18 with performers and writer/director Marc Bamuthi Joseph

The Arts

The Gordon Parks Gallery, Student Salon 2013

Through Apr. 19 • Metro State Univ. Library and Learning Center, 645 E. 7th St., St. Paul, 651-793-1631 • This exhibit pulls together a range of artwork by the students studying art at Metropolitan State University. The exhibit includes art minors, individualized study students as well as students that have taken multiple art courses during their program and nearing completion of their degree. The work exhibited exemplifies the vibrant and diverse talent at Metropolitan State University — from graphic screen prints, to mixed-media paintings, drawings, ceramics and digital photography. Mon. — Thurs. 11-7 pm, Fri., Sat., 11-4 pm

May Day Parade Workshops

Apr. 6 — May 2 • Heart of the Beast Theatre, 1500 E. Lake St., Mpls., 612-721-2535 or  www.hobt.org • Workshops are free and open to everyone; no reservations or experience necessary. Children are welcome but must be supervised by adults at all times. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre will celebrate the 39th anniversary of the annual May Day Parade and Festival on Sun., May 5. In preparation, during the month of April, our theater will be transformed into a giant community art studio and opened to the public for the building of the parade. Workshop participants will be given an overview of the parade theme and then invited to choose which section of the parade they would like to work on. Participants can come to as many or as few workshops as they want, and their creation will be theirs to keep after the parade. Saturdays: 1 — 3 pm, Tuesdays: 7 — 9 pm, Thursdays: 7 — 9 pm

Laylah Ali: The Greenhead Series 

Through May 12 • Weisman Art Museum

333 E. River Pkwy., Mpls. 612-625-5000, www.weisman.umn.edu

The Greenheads Series comprises 43 gouache
paintings by artist Laylah Ali. The Greenheads are enigmatic, round-headed beings of indeterminate sex and race who inhabit a regimented, dystopian world where odd and menacing, though sometimes strangely humorous, encounters prevail.

Gallery hours are Tues., Thurs., Fri., 10 am — 5 pm, Wed., 10 am — 8 pm, Sat., Sun., 11 am — 5 pm. Closed Mon.

Send all Entertainment Spot briefs abuchanan@spokesman-recorder.com, 

or call 612-827-4021.