Documentary: Carl Gawboy

Local filmmaker Lorraine Norrgard will introduce a screening of her documentary film Carl Gawboy Portrait: The Art of the Everyday on Saturday, November 5, at 10:30 a.m. Carl Gawboy is a local artist whose work depicts his dual Native American and Finnish heritage growing up in northern Minnesota. He is a retired professor of American Indian Studies at the College of St. Scholastica. Ms. Norrgard was awarded a regional Emmy Award in 2002 for producing and directing on the PBS-8 series Waasa Inaabidaa (We Look In All Directions).

"The Grocer's Son"

The second Tuesday of the month's International Film Series continues on November 8 at 6:30 p.m. with a recent offering from France, The Grocer's Son (Le fils de l'épicier, 2007).

Antoine is a 30-year unmarried man making a living in Lyon when he is summoned home to his family's village to help with the family grocery business. The film chronicles the tensions with his family and his increasing feelings for a young woman from Lyon who accompanies him, all set against the beauty of the Alps of southeastern France.

In French with subtitles. For mature audiences.

Halloween Fright Film

Halloween night at 6:30 p.m. is the perfect witching time for a screening of the restored version of the cult-horror classic Suspiria on our 55” wide-screen TV. From acclaimed giallo director Dario Argento, this 1977 film presents a nightmarish dreamscape that has influenced a number of American directors. Suzy Bannion is a young American dancing student who finds that the historic building in Freiburg, Germany, housing the dance academy where she is enrolled, is also home to a horrifyingly murderous and supernatural sect. Besides its garish visuals and heart-pounding score, the film is also notable for featuring former MGM-star Joan Bennett (who was then starring in the gothic daytime serial “Dark Shadows”) and also one of Alfred Hitchcock’s stars, Alida Valli. This film is not recommended for audience members under 17 years old.

Artists’ reception and open house, Nov. 1, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

An artists’ reception and open house will be held at the Cloquet Public Library, Tuesday, November 1, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., celebrating the completion of a sculpture by Sean Elmquist, commissioned by the Cloquet Public Library with a grant from the Minnesota Legacy Amendment funds appropriated to the Arrowhead Library System. In addition to the sculpture, the library has also received a donation of rock art from local artist, Bryan Schaap.

The sculpture evokes the power of reading and its ability to transform words into material reality- with a connection to the location. The iconography used in the sculpture: the pages of a book, a tree, a fish, a cloud, the St. Louis River- represent Cloquet, the region, and its ties to reading. The scroll-like forms extend from the Library’s sign as pages of a book, representing the act of reading and the texts contained in the library, and also the area’s ties to paper-making. The “pages” support and present the symbols, evoking the written word’s ability to manifest itself in reality- and to conjure images.

The tree, fish, river and cloud represent the natural beauty of the area, but each symbol contains its own meaning. The tree reflects the area’s forests, as well as its forestry traditions- the tree is also what books are made of. The cloud evokes nature while simultaneously representing thought and imagination. The river spanning the pages is the St. Louis, the main artery of Cloquet, but can also be seen as a “river of knowledge”- with the fish swimming in it a metaphor for the reader.

The sculpture is made from acrylic sheets that are bent, cut, and painted, and then attached to the site by a welded steel framework. Acrylic was chosen for its translucency, and will lend a more nuanced, visually interesting experience than opaque materials such as steel or wood might. Acrylic is also incredibly strong and lightweight, so it will still be structurally sound and long-lasting, but will also be moveable if any construction or expansion of the library is needed.

Bryan Schaap has etched designs into a couple of boulders that greet people as they enter the library. Bryan came up with the idea as a way to help divert the water runoff from the roof and make something attractive in that place. One boulder has a set of children’s hands and the other is a turtle.

Ghost Hunters at the Library

The Minnesota Paranormal Study Group (MinnesotaGhosts.com) will appear at the library on Tuesday, October 25, at 6:30 p.m. These real-life ghost hunters will tell about their investigations of hauntings in northern Minnesota. A slide show documenting some of their eeriest experiences will be followed by questions and answers from the audience. The group explains the reason behind hauntings and how paranormal events can be evaluated.

We're hearing that a number of locations around Cloquet may be haunted--maybe even the library! Come and find out what's really going bump in the night.

Author Connie Claire Szarke

Connie Claire Szarke will read from her novel Delicate Armor (North Star Press of St. Cloud) on Thursday, October 20, at noon. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow. The event is co-sponsored by Our Savior's Lutheran Church's Cover to Cover Book Club and the library. Refreshments will be provided.

Szarke grew up in southwestern Minnesota, amid small towns, farms,lakes, and prairies. She graduated from St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota and was a teacher at Chaska Senior High School for 30 years. Delicate Armor is her debut novel. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous publications, including Stories Teachers Tell, Lake Country Journal Magazine, Community Connections, and The Minnesota Project.

Set in the Upper Midwest, Delicate Armor is the coming-of-age story of Callie Lindstrom, a cheeky eight-year old who shares a special bond with her father after the loss of his infant son. Delicate Armor is about lost time, the tenacity of the human spirit, a father-daughter relationship, and the feisty narrator’s emerging consciousness as she passes from young girl to self-possessed woman.