Pangea World Theater Secures Permanent Home, Expanding Lake Street Arts Corridor 

Following the murder of George Floyd, Pangea World Theater founders Meena Natarajan and Dipankar Mukherjee helped launch Longfellow Rising, an organization focused on healing the Lake Street area through justice, equity, and BIPOC land ownership.

Now, Pangea has acquired 3020 Minnehaha Ave., which will become its permanent home with a rehearsal space, community gathering space, props and costume storage, and offices.

The move from its leased space in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood will give the theater a space of its own and extend the vital corridor surrounding the former Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct. The area already includes live music venues, an independent bookstore, churches, and immigrant-founded restaurants and businesses.

“We want to make that a kind of arts corridor in that space, and we feel like that will help people want to belong to that space,” Natarajan said. “We do so much work that’s around healing, so we want that space to be a place of healing, a space of justice, a space of equity.”

The acquisition is particularly significant because Pangea will be one of the only immigrant-owned businesses to rebuild near the former Third Precinct following the 2020 unrest. Corporations such as AutoZone and Target in the area rebuilt immediately, Natarajan said, while smaller businesses were left behind.

“All the places that had cash at hand and are bigger spaces were able to get their capital immediately and rebuild,” she said. “But none of us were able to rebuild. If you come back and look at the site, it’s still empty buildings around the area.”

Over the past six years, Pangea and Longfellow Rising have been doing healing work in the neighborhood, including theater on the land, story circles near where George Floyd was murdered, and poetry work.

“For us, the arts are a space of healing, and artists are as much a part of rebuilding society as anybody else,” Natarajan said.

The new space will be a place of belonging in the neighborhood, she said, a response to a community still processing recent trauma.

“I think people are at a very different place right now. People are confused. Operation Metro Surge just ended, and we want to create a space where everybody feels like they belong. That feeling of belonging has been fractured, at least for many new immigrants.”

Pangea will work to be a welcoming space through community collaboration, inclusive programming, and partnerships with surrounding businesses such as Moon Palace Books and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The theater will bring in artists who Natarajan said truly represent the diversity of the United States.

“The minute people enter the space, they don’t have labels like ‘alien’ or ‘outsider.’ We want everyone to feel like they belong the minute they step over the threshold.”

The road to acquiring the Minnehaha Avenue site was not straightforward. Pangea’s project was originally planned for a plot of land next to a local post office, where the theater intended to co-develop a combined theater and restaurant space. When Pangea lacked the immediate funds to secure the property, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church’s leadership and congregation voted to purchase the land and hold it in trust for one year. That plan collapsed when the restaurant partner backed out and the original plot was deemed too narrow for a standalone theater.

The project pivoted when the owner of Moon Palace Books offered Pangea a neighboring plot just as a nearby building became available. A grant from the McKnight Foundation allowed Pangea to purchase the existing building. In a final act of community support, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church sold the original post-office plot and voted to transfer the proceeds directly to Pangea.

“It’s been an amazing neighborhood with much reciprocity, much generosity,” Natarajan said. “As an immigrant, it’s very hard to feel a sense of belonging, and so it’s just been this amazing embrace by the neighborhood.”

Pangea is still raising funds for the $6 million project, having secured approximately $3.3 million from the McKnight Foundation, individual donor Katherine Hayes, the state of Minnesota, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the Lake Street Council, and private individuals. The funding will support construction of the community gathering space, a 100-seat performance space, offices, and a building reserve fund for future needs.

For more information on Pangea World Theater, visit www.pangeaworldtheater.org/. 

Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.