Kith and Kin Chorus is a Twin Cities-based group of singers, ranging all abilities and experience levels. Kith and Kin aims to be an inclusive, welcoming arts community, especially for those who have been marginalized and excluded from such spaces in the past. Each year, the chorus hosts open sings, concerts, and fundraisers for local organizations.
Kith and Kin was founded in 2017 by Rachel Ries, a Minneapolis-based musician and songwriter. Seeking a sense of community and a way to take action through music, Rachel founded Kith and Kin Chorus, named for the ever-important ideas of friends and family. Now, over 70 singers join her to spread joy and good throughout the Twin Cities. No audition is necessary, and no experience with sheet music or theory is needed to join. The chorus sings a wide range of material, from pop and rock to folk and indie, and often collaborates with local artists. Each season concludes with a concert benefiting a local justice organization.
Music has a unique ability to connect people across culture, race, and language. It speaks to the soul, rather than a political identity or persona. It asks nothing more than an open ear. K+K embodies these musical values, lifting its voice to make our cities safer and healthier for everyone.
Most recently, K+K has closed their 8th season with a concert benefiting Rock the Rez MN. Past organizations have included: Open Arms of MN, Raíces Sagradas, and CAPI USA. Season 9 will begin in fall of 2025, meeting Monday evenings in Minneapolis. Joining is a great way to get involved with your community, meet new people, and make a difference for our cities.
Soften butter and in a medium mixing bowl, mix the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until combined.
In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together.
Combine both bowls into one.
Fold in the chocolate chips, raisins, and pecans/sunflower seeds.
Roll batter into golf ball sized balls and set on a baking sheet.
Bake for 8-10 mins or until golden brown.
Take out and let cool.
Enjoy!
Review:
Have you ever tried to find the perfect cookie to bake? For me, this recipe is it. My family and I made this recipe and decided to name these cookies “everything cookies” because they have everything you could think of for a cookie.
I associate these cookies with my mother because I have always made these cookies with my mom and older brother ever since I was a little kid. Whenever we would make everything cookies we would always have extra so we would share them with our neighbors, my grandma, and I would bring a bag to school and share with my friends at lunch. I think these cookies really made me feel connected to the people around me, especially my mom.
I have a lot of great memories making these cookies with my family. When we put them in the oven, the whole house would fill with the sweet warm smell of cookies and it would stay for the rest of the day. When we finally took the cookies out, we would always put on a movie or show and sit down in the living room with a glass of cold milk and the cookies still warm. They were always perfectly gooey on the inside, but golden around the edge.
Sometimes the ingredients change. Sometimes we add new things or take away something, but they always taste nostalgic. These have always been my favorite dessert, and maybe they’ll be yours too! Try these out! Enjoy!
In paranormal history, there are many haunted objects around the world, but Annabelle the doll is the most captivating worldwide. Her legend included real-life investigations, movies, and as of recently, public appearances.
Behind the movies of Annabelle lie a backstory rooted deeply into Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal research.
Ed and Lorraine have investigated over 10,000 cases of paranormal activities and originally presented their findings in Catholic schools. Ed was a self-taught demonologist and Lorraine was a medium. Together, they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) in 1952.
Annabelle, originally an innocent Raggedy Ann doll, was gifted to a nursing student named Donna, by her mother in the 70s. Donna and her roommate started to mess with the doll, leaving it in different positions and even making it a tradition to scare each other.
However, their fun came to an end when they began noticing strange occurrences around her living area: the doll would change positions, move to different rooms, and leave notes behind, none of which Donna or her roommate had any knowledge of causing.
Donna and her roommate concluded that it was just their vivid imagination and dismissed the occurrences but questions started to arise when the doll’s movement became more pronounced—like shifting its arm entirely or relocating more often.
Donna, believing that she was targeted by demonic forces, flew to a renowned medium. They soon discovered that the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a young girl. Donna allowed the young girl to stay and even started to treat the doll like an actual child, often buying the doll clothes, toys, jewelry, and candy.
The haunting soon turned malevolent after attacking multiple times through paralyzations and scratches appearing over the chest.
After realizing the spirit was more than just an innocent child, Donna contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren—the paranormal investigators.
The Warren’s determined that the doll was in fact taken over by a demonic entity and its goal wasn’t to haunt people but to possess a human host.
They took Annabelle to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, preventing further harm. She was placed in a glass case with warnings not to touch, and it quickly became one of the most dangerous items in their museum.
The story of Annabelle gained popularity after its feature in ‘The Conjuring’, leading it to have its own spin-off series that begins with ‘Annabelle’.
The movie versions featured a porcelain doll, but the real Annabelle is a soft stitched Raggedy Ann. Despite the difference in visuals, the legacy remains the same.
After Lorraine’s death, the museum closed, and Annabelle remained inside. But as of 2025, Annabelle has begun going on tour as part of the traveling exhibit called “Devil’s On The Run Tour”, visiting various cities throughout the U.S.
The tour began in May and is scheduled to be on tour throughout the summer, allowing horror movie enthusiasts to meet the real Annabelle.
According to NESPR, the Annabelle tour was created in response to those with questions and in hope of funding the museum.
The tour brought concern to religious figures saying they shouldn’t treat the doll like a “novelty”, stating that it was disrespectful to provoke the doll after knowing the risks. But organizers of the tour have claimed that all participants were careful and all events were handled with caution.
This tour brought attention to social media, especially Tik Tok and Instagram. Many videos and post made about the tour gained millions of views, with people sharing everything from selfies to behind the scenes.
Cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until light in color and creamy.
Add in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt), mix into the dough. Mix until completely combined. The dough will be soft.
Mix in the red food coloring (add until it looks like the desired color), then fold in the white chocolate chips.
Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to portion out the dough. Roll the dough and flatten them slightly. Arrange 6 cookies per cookie sheet. This will make 12 cookies.
Bake at 350° for 15-17 minutes – the cookies should spread slightly, crackle a little bit and the centers should not look shiny and wet anymore.
Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes on the pan before serving. Serve warm.
These cookies were pretty easy to make but there would be some modifications I would make. One, I would change when you add the food coloring. The dough is a thicker kind so when it said to add the food coloring last, I struggled. I couldn’t mix the coloring evenly throughout the dough, so it ended up streaky and not really red velvet. I would recommend adding the food coloring when you are mixing all the wet ingredients. This makes sure the food coloring mixes nicely and you can add some more in the middle of mixing the dry ingredients in if you want it more red.
I would also recommend mixing the chocolate chips by hand. Once again, because the dough is thicker my stand mixer struggled getting the mix evenly throughout the dough. This made some of my cookies to have no chocolate chips or some to have a lot.
Finally, I would recommend that if you don’t like huge cookies to make them smaller. I think they are good this big but for my family we just like smaller cookies so then you don’t have to break them apart if you don’t want that big of a cookie. My parents agreed that they would have enjoyed them more if they were smaller.
I would say these are pretty close to the ones from Crumbl, but Crumbl’s have a better texture and are more flavorfull. Overall, I really liked making these cookies and they were tasty. I think most people can bake them with ease with just a few adjustments.
Jimmy John’s, the popular sandwich franchise, was founded in January 1983 in Charleston, Illinois, by Jimmy John Liautaud. Jimmy John’s is an American multinational sandwich franchise.
After college Jimmy took a twenty five thousand dollar loan from his father to start a business with the promise that if his business did fail he would enlist in the United States Army. Jimmy decided on starting a hot dog cart but he later came to the realization that a hot dog cart might be too expensive for his budget and decided against the hot dog stand.
Later on Jimmy came across a sandwich shop and considered starting one himself. He knew that there’d be more ingredients so he’d have to be careful with his budget. He started to bake his own bread and purchased premium meats from a nearby neighborhood market to limit spending.
When their first restaurant opened in Charleston, the menu consisted of four different sandwiches. Over ten years later, Jimmy John’s first franchise opened in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. About three years after opening their first franchise Jimmy John’s had created their first drive through restaurant in Saint George, Utah. They then began being considered as a fast food restaurant with their drive through, quick service, and fast delivery.
The first four sandwiches The Pepe, Totally Tuna, Turkey Tom, and Vito’s are still on the menu today and are still very popular items. When Jimmy John’s first opened they had smoked ham and provolone, turkey, homemade tuna salad and capicola & salami. From there, the restaurant has been gaining more and more ingredients for customer satisfaction.
Today, the menu has 18 sandwiches and even consists of unwichs. An unwich is for those who crave less bread and carbs so the bread is replaced by lettuce leaving all unwichs with twelve grams of carbs or under.
Vincent van Gogh Self-portrait, Chokwesculpture, Temple lion, Japanese porcelain, Detail from the Venus (Botticelli) by: User:Husky and h3m3ls, Mischa de Muynck and Niels via Wikimedia Commons
Art has been around since the beginning of humanity, being a way for people to express themselves and their feelings through creating artwork. Throughout many centuries of changing trends, there have been prominent art styles featured throughout the years. In this article, I will cover the different art styles throughout different eras.
Prehistoric Art
The earliest days of art can be traced back to around 100,000 B.C.E, with examples including cave paintings, clay sculptures, and rock carvings. Most of these artworks, especially the cave paintings, depicted some kind of story, using both humans and animals in the artwork. Most of these artworks were symbolic and represented the civilization’s culture.
This zoomorphic cave paintingis located Tanzoumaitak in Tassili n’ajjer park in Djanet in Algeria by: IssamBarhoumi via Wikimedia Commons
Ancient Era
After around 4000 B.C.E, art began to evolve when more advanced civilizations like Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, and civilizations in Asia developed more cultural, symbolic items that they incorporated into art. Though the style of art can vary among these different cultures, most of them were made to tell a story of some kind. Some examples of this can be murals, sculptures, and art created on everyday objects such as bowls or weapons.
Ancient Egyptian art collection in Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by: Jakub Hałun via Wikimedia Commons
An ancient bowl from the Bactrian civilisation, Central Asia, 3rd-2nd millennium B.C. From the private collection of Khosrow Mahboubian, London, UK by: Boubi via Wikimedia Commons
Medieval Era
The Medieval era, or “The Dark Ages” was a time that spanned from 400-1400 C.E. Art was dominantly focused on Biblical or other religious stories that varied throughout different cultures. Though the art in this distinct period featured bright colors, most of the content being depicted could sometimes be gruesome or unsettling. Most art in Medieval times included flat imagery, rather than using depth.
Some other forms of art in this era include illuminated manuscripts, stained glass windows, and paintings.
Stained glass painting depicting St. Nicolas, possibly from Träkumla (Sweden). Now in the Swedish history museum, Stockholm. Medieval by: Gabriel Hildebrand via Wikimedia Commons
Mystic wedding of Catherine of Siena by Master of Margaret of York in a manuscript made for Louis of Bruges by: Master of Margaret of York via Wikimedia Commons
Renaissance Era
The Renaissance period (about 1400-1600 C.E.) was an important period in time in European civilizations. Originating in Italy, this was the time that artists began to adapt depth and new imagery into their artworks. The common Biblical or religious themes in art—which was found mostly in the Medieval era—shifted into a focus on the human form or other topics. The Renaissance era was a rebirth following the Medieval era, with revived ideas in economics, education, politics, and art. The art in this period was revived from Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civilizations. Some important artists from this time were Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Sandro Botticelli.
Art was found in various forms within this time, but was most prominent in paintings, sculptures, and architecture. It was also found in music and literature.
The Early Modern period (about 1600-1800 C.E.) was a time where advancements in technology, transport, and manufacturing were very prominent and art began to adapt alongside these changes. Artists no longer had to only focus on art that told a story, and were able to use art to paint whatever they wished. Artists began to open up more to different art styles, which had a more abstract approach. Take ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch for example, it’s unique art style included loose brushstrokes and vivid colors, which was not usually found in art before its time. Art came in numerous forms throughout this period, but once again typically found in paintings or drawings.
Girl with a Pearl Earring by: Johannes Vermeer via Wikimedia Commons
Today, art comes in many forms that are unique to their artists. Art is still a very prominent part in society today, and continues to be created by millions of artists around the world. Art has adapted into many different styles or even styles that I showed previously.
I hope you found this article interesting as I covered the basics of art styles from different eras and that it might have inspired you to create your own.
‘Ma’, directed by Tate Taylor and starring Octavia Spencer, is a psychological thriller that blends teenage rebellion with creeping dread in a small-town setting. At first glance, the movie seems like a typical teen drama: new girl in town trying to fit in, high school parties, and awkward crushes. But it quickly takes a sharp left turn into something much darker and more disturbing.
The story follows Maggie, a seemingly sweet and well-behaved girl who’s just moved to a small town with her single mom. She’s adjusting to a new school, new friends, and the usual teenage awkwardness. Maggie is introduced to a group of classmates who are more outgoing and party-oriented. At first, she turns down an invite to hang out, choosing to stick with her mom instead. But when her plans fall through, she decides to give it a shot and go out with them just once.
That one night quickly snowballs into something much bigger when the group crosses paths with Sue Ann, a middle-aged woman who at first seems like any other local. They meet her outside a liquor store and, after some hesitation, she agrees to buy them alcohol. What starts off as a random favor turns into an open invitation to party at her house, in the basement, to be exact. She gives them rules: stay in the basement, don’t go upstairs, and one person stays sober. At first, the teens think they’ve hit the jackpot. A cool adult who’s not only letting them drink but giving them a place to do it safely? What could go wrong?
Well, a lot, as it turns out.
One of the strongest parts of ‘Ma’ is Octavia Spencer’s performance. She’s known for playing warm, empathetic characters, so seeing her take on such a twisted and unpredictable role adds an extra layer of tension. She plays Ma with such complexity you can sense there’s pain and trauma behind her actions, but that doesn’t make her any less terrifying. She shifts between friendly and frightening so fast that you never really feel safe when she’s on screen.
Visually, the movie does a great job of creating contrast. The bright, energetic scenes of teens partying clash with the dark, confined space of Ma’s basement. The further the teens fall into Ma’s world, the more unsettling everything becomes. The film uses silence and music effectively to build suspense, and there are moments that genuinely make your skin crawl not from jump scares, but from the slow, psychological unraveling of the situation.
Personally, I found ‘Ma’ to be a unique take on the thriller genre. It’s not your typical horror movie, it’s more about mood and tension than blood and gore. It plays with your expectations, especially with how it sets up Ma as a kind, slightly awkward woman and then peels back the layers to reveal something much darker. It also makes you think about how people carry emotional scars and how dangerous it can be when those scars are left untreated.
I do agree it kinda has it’s more cheesy parts though the movie is slow and the gore/scary stuff doesn’t happen to the very very end which gets kind of annoying if your a frequent horror movie watcher.
If you’re looking for a thriller with a strong lead performance, unexpected turns, and a creepy atmosphere that sticks with you after the credits roll, ‘Ma’ is definitely worth watching. Just be warned you may never look at a friendly stranger the same way again. I rate it a 3/5
The new Netflix show named ‘Forever’ is about this teenage boy named Justin Edwards (played by Michael Cooper Jr.). Justin goes to a party and reunites with his childhood friend named Keisha Clark (played by Levied Simone).
The first episode of ‘Forever’ starts off with Justin wanting to ask his parents Dawn (played by Karen Pittman) and Eric (played by Wood Harris) if he can go to a party. When he does go to ask, he can hear that his parents are fighting. When he walks in the room his parents go silent and when he asks to go out his mom automatically says no but his dad says yes. He listens to his mom and goes back into his room.
A couple of minutes later, his dad walks in telling him he can go. When he gets there, he realizes he is one out of two Black guys there after he sees his friend. They hang out and after a bit, his friend leaves. When he gets up, he realizes he see this beautiful Black girl and when she comes up to him he realizes she was his closest friend in elementary school. After a bit of talking, he asks her on a date and after a while they decide to go to the movies. When the movie is over, Justin finds out about a scandal that happened at Keisha’s old high school.
After watching the first episodes I was automatically so invested into the shows I couldn’t stop watching it.
In the show I really enjoyed watching the relationship between Justin and Keisha where you see them blooming together and then changing into a toxic relationship, then getting older and realizing they belong together, even though they’re going to different colleges.
Overall, watching ‘Forever’ for the first time was the best decision I have ever made. I really enjoyed it and I found it very interesting seeing Keisha and Justin’s relationship develop. Ten out ten and I would definitely recommend this to others.
Combine oats, peanut butter (or other nut butter), honey, chocolate chips and coconut in a medium bowl.
Using a 1-tablespoon measure, roll the mixture into balls.
Put balls in the fridge (or freezer) to harden.
Enjoy!
Review:
This recipe was great to make. It took me less than 10 minutes to make the balls, and it was so easy. There aren’t many ingredients at all and only 3 steps! The balls themselves tasted amazing, the peanut butter was very savory so the sweet honey really balanced it out. The chocolate chips and oats gave it a bit of a crunch and great texture. Sometimes I like to dip them in melted chocolate and freeze them to make them into more of a dessert.
I absolutely love eating these before going to the gym or going on a run. They give me lots of energy and protein, just without the unnecessary additives like a protein bar has. It has all very natural ingredients and is so healthy. I also eat them just for a snack because they are very satisfying and filling.
I got this recipe from Eating Well (https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/275207/peanut-butter-energy-balls/) by Lisa Valente. She made this recipe so easy to follow and the website is very easy to navigate. The peanut butter balls were so good and so healthy, and she balanced health and a treat perfectly.
I have made these many times now, and each time they are gone very quickly because my brother likes to eat them before a workout as well. I really enjoy them, and I think you would too! Try this easy recipe out!
Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most well known artists, with countless world renowned pieces of art. His work was very imaginative. It challenged the way that people thought about art at the time, and heavily influenced the way that people expressed themselves through art later on.
There are a lot of things that make Van Gogh’s art so unique. At the time, it was not very typical to see art like his. His style, color schemes, attention to detail, brushwork, and his appreciation for natural landscapes were all factors that set him apart from other artists.
He was born in 1853, in the Netherlands, and he passed away in 1890, in France. As he grew up, he always had an appreciation for art, and he spent a lot of time trying to make a career out of it, although he was not successful with that. Over his lifetime, he created more than 1500 pieces, yet he only sold one. His art went by unappreciated, as he never really gained any attention for his art until after he had passed away.
A major contribution to his unsuccessful career was the fact that people were not able to appreciate his art at the time. It was very common for artists to paint extremely realistic portraits, or landscapes, rather than to experiment with abstract art. While Van Gogh still made realistic paintings, the techniques he used had set him aside from the typical style of art that people were interested in, so he was never able to profit from his passion.
Near the end of Van Gogh’s life, he unfortunately began to suffer from mental illness. He started to lose a grasp of reality, and he was very sad with his life. Although he tried to recover through medical attention, he ultimately shot himself, which led to his death at 37 years old.
It is important to recognize how much of an impact Van Gogh has made. Although his story contains isolation, and struggle, he still managed to create such an intriguing and beautifully creative legacy. Overall, his work has been able to bring together wide and diverse groups of people to appreciate his art, and he has forever changed the way people have gone about making art.
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