Download a photo of the Milan and Morton canoes.
Download a photo of Tamara Isfeld.
Download a photo of Carlyle Larsen.
GRANITE FALLS, Minn. — Pioneer PBS’s Postcards program will feature stories about dugout and outrigger canoes, an art teacher who goes the extra mile in her community and a 94-year-old WWII veteran and musician on Thursday, March 19 at 7 p.m. The stories will also be available for online viewing through the station’s website: www.pioneer.org/postcards.
In the opening story, the Postcards crew travels to Lac qui Parle, Milan and Morton to document how the Micronesian community in Milan partnered with the Dakota community from Morton and the University of Minnesota to build traditional Native American and Micronesion canoes and launch them on Lac qui Parle, the Minnesota and the Mississippi rivers. The purpose of the joint project is to revive the traditional native craft and life for the next generation and to lift up commonality between two cultures. Featured in the episode are Mat Pendleton and Ryan Dixon of the Lower Sioux Indian Community; Gabriel Elias of Milan’s Micronesian community; Mario Benito, a navigator and canoe builder from Micronesia; and Vicente Diaz, a professor of American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota. The U of M’s new president Joan Gabel makes a cameo appearance in the story as a passenger in the canoe.
Tamara Isfeld is an art teacher at Yellow Medicine East who believes in getting art out of the classroom and into the community. Long known for her landscapes -- her murals, mosaics and “peace art poles” -- created with students and community members, she’s now gaining regional attention. Isfeld’s portraits and paintings in the Granite Falls Historical Society’s Andrew J. Volstead House Museum have also helped to tell the story of Prohibition and the Capper-Volstead Act, the founding legislation that led to the rise of farmer owned cooperatives. To make a thriving arts town like Granite Falls, Isfeld says, “you have to be invested and give back to the community.”
The final Postcards story of this episode centers on the amazing life of Madison’s Carlyle Larsen. A Morse Code radio operator in WWII who survived Japanese bombing raids, Larsen returned to western Minnesota to play trumpet for more than 1800 dances with five different bands over a period of 54 years. Not only that, Larsen played hundreds of concerts with the Madison town band and has performed taps at more than 200 military funerals since 1996. He’s 94 years old now and can still fit into the military uniform he wore when he was 20. “Music has given me a full life and a good life,” Larsen said.
About Postcards
Postcards is produced by Dana Conroy with videography and editing by Kristofor Gieske and Ben Dempcy. The program is made possible by contributions from the voters of Minnesota through a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Production sponsors for the program include Shalom Hill Farm, Explore Alexandria Tourism and the Lake Region Arts Council.
About Pioneer PBS
Established in 1966, Pioneer PBS is an award-winning, viewer-supported television station dedicated to sharing local stories of the region with the world. For more information visit: www.pioneer.org
