Some might remember the night my friend and podcasting partner Karl Jacob and I co-hosted a Roaring ’20s 100th birthday party for the Hibbing High School auditorium last month. It was a lovely evening of storytelling, sketch comedy, jazz and old time music in one of the great cathedrals of Iron Range education.
What you did not know is that after the show, Karl and I went to the Do You, a new nightclub in Hibbing. It’s a curious place trying to build something new in a place notoriously resistant to change. Though I am not a “nightclub person,” per se, it was fun and I was very impressed with the vision of the club’s owner, Andrew Hanegmon.
Today, my latest essay for the Minnesota Reformer details my night at the club, and what this new business — and the blowback it has encountered — represents to small towns across Minnesota and the people within them who don’t always fit in.
Read my essay, “Different in a Small Town,” at the Minnesota Reformer.
