Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

“Charlotte’s Web” on-stage in Faribault, my take on this classic October 18, 2024

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The promotional poster for the local production of “Charlotte’s Web.” (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

THE CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOK, Charlotte’s Web, comes alive at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault beginning Friday evening, October 18. I was among a theater full of guests who attended the final dress rehearsal on Thursday. Tickets are selling quickly for the six performances. That’s no surprise given the popularity of the Newbery Honor book penned in 1952 by E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams (of Laura Ingalls Wilder illustration notoriety). The book holds universal, long-lasting appeal.

Children and their families glazed these Wilbur medallions at the Paradise Center for the Arts during a special event with funding from a Faribault Foundation micro community grant. Participating kids also got free tickets to the play. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

To see White’s story about Wilbur the pig, Charlotte the spider and Fern, the young girl who loved them both, played out on stage proved entertaining and enjoyable. Entertaining in how the play was presented by a talented Paradise Community Theatre cast of nearly 30 ranging from newbies to seasoned performers of multiple generations. Enjoyable in that a good retelling of a classic book which sticks to the story line is always a delight.

I found this personalized book plate inside a copy of “Charlotte’s Web” at Buckham Memorial Library, Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

Sam Temple, himself a seasoned actor, directed the play, assisted by his mom, Linda Temple. As Sam shares the Temple family backstory, Charlotte’s Web is his mom’s favorite book, one she read repeatedly as a farm girl and then later read with students in her classroom. Sam grew up knowing Wilbur, Charlotte and Fern. That personal connection, that love of the book, shows in the performance.

(Book cover image sourced online)

The part that really stood out for me is the incorporation of digital technology with pages from the book projected onto a screen behind the performers. Those pages, sometimes text only, other times illustrations only, drew me into the book as did occasional narrated excerpts. This truly was literary, visual and performing arts melding to create a unique, immersive experience. Add in the superior surround sound (complete with chirping crickets) and performers sometimes acting in the theater aisles, and I felt very much a part of the story. I was there in the barn, at the county fair, the settings for the two-act, nearly 90-minute play.

A section of the PCA window display promoting the local production. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

The story of Charlotte’s Web, at its core, is about friendship. Charlotte spins words into her webs in an effort to save Wilbur, her new barn friend, from slaughter. The word-filled webs become a local attraction and Wilbur’s life is eventually spared.

The handcrafted medallion depicts the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

Words. As I, a wordsmith, sat in my theater seat listening to the words spoken/read on stage, jotting some in my notebook, I contemplated how much words matter. Charlotte wove “Some pig,” “terrific,” “radiant,” “humble” into her webs. Powerful words. Words with depth. Words worth pondering. Especially today, when negative and degrading words often fly too easily. I couldn’t help but note the arrogance of self-centered Uncle, a pig vying against Wilbur for a blue ribbon at the county fair. He was decidedly full of himself.

For a while, I thought the same of Templeton, a main character in the book and play. But then I changed my mind, considering the barn rat more confident than self-centered. I found myself really liking this outspoken, sly, even funny, character who assisted Charlotte by finding words for her to weave into her webs. Friendships developed inside the barn, home to pig and spider, rat and geese, lamb and sheep.

Mostly, this play is about friendship. At show’s end, Fern calls Charlotte “a true friend and a good writer” who taught her bravery. But this play is also about acceptance. When Charlotte experienced an adverse reaction to revealing that she eats flies, she stood up for herself. “That’s the way I’m made,” Charlotte told her friends. “I can’t help it.” How wise that spider.

And then this line from Charlotte resonated: “People are not as smart as bugs.”

This play by the Paradise Community Theatre really does appeal to all ages. Kids may not catch everything we adults do. But that’s OK. Perhaps they shouldn’t. They have their entire lives to figure out that life is much more complicated than simply a story about a spider, a pig and the girl who loved them.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Hope, joy & kindness at the clinic April 16, 2021

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Photographed along the bike trail in the Atwood neighborhood of Madison, Wisconsin. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2020.

AS I WAITED POST VACCINATION in the clinic waiting room for the mandatory 15-minute observation, I observed. I am a people-watcher. A listener. A person who notices her environment.

After texting family, I set my cellphone aside to watch. Nearly every other person was on their phone, one guy even answering two calls. But, with magazines absent from tables and time to pass, few options remained. I’d left my library book, Funeral for a Friend by Brian Freeman, at home.

I wondered about all these people, if they felt as happy and thankful as me to receive the Pfizer vaccine protecting us against COVID-19. I expect they did.

Occasionally the nurse overseeing the small cluster of vaccinated individuals circulated among us. Checking times. And us. We each had labels stuck to our clothing, noting our dismissal time. I moved mine from just above the denim on my right knee to the right of my Army green jacket, making the label more visible.

Patients filtered in and out of the clinic as I sat there. Watching. A young mother entered, baby balanced on her hip. I was surprised to see her little one, perhaps six months old, wearing a face mask. I felt gratitude toward that mother who understands the value of face masks in protecting others and in keeping her child safe. The baby wore the mask with ease.

Photographed at LARK Toys in Kellogg, MN. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

Soon my eyes shifted to another mother and child waiting nearby, outside the vision clinic. I watched as the observation nurse walked over and asked if she needed help. Her kindness touched me. I expect this mother, a Muslim woman dressed in a black niqab with only her eyes showing through a rectangular slit, may struggle with English. But she understood enough to reply, although I didn’t hear her response. And then the nurse bent toward the child, perhaps nine months old, waving and talking and engaging her. The baby waved back, a broad smile spreading across her sweet face. In that moment I felt joy. Joy in seeing this very basic human interaction. Culture and dress and skin tone and religion mattering not. Just one human being interacting with another in the most loving way.

Photographed several years ago in the window of a downtown Faribault business. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

Moments like this give me hope. Hope that we can accept one another. Connect. Express kindness to one another. Care about each other. And realize that, at the core, we are all simply human beings living on this earth. Individuals with wants and needs, no matter our skin tone, our beliefs, our culture, our language, our job status, our anything.

Love in three languages (Spanish, Somali and English), printed on a mirror along Faribault’s Virtue Trail. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo August 2018.

Understanding and acceptance start with each of us. Like the interaction I witnessed between nurse and mother and child at the clinic. When the observation nurse cleared me to leave at 3:38 pm, I thanked her. Beneath my face mask, I smiled. And although she couldn’t see that smile, I hope she heard the joy and gratitude in my words.

© Copyright 2021 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

The positive steps toward embracing diversity in Faribault January 18, 2019

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I took this photo, reflecting Faribault’s diversity, during a downtown event several years ago. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

 

FARIBAULT IS A COMMUNITY EVOLVING. Changing as our population diversifies and we are no longer a place of mostly European and Scandinavian peoples. Rather, my southeastern Minnesota city is now home to people of many colors. We are increasingly diverse.

 

1960s vintage art that represents, to me, the colorful and beautiful diversity of my community. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

 

An article published last week in the Faribault Daily News stated that from 2010 to 2018, the population of students of color in the Faribault School District increased from 25 percent to 55 percent. That’s a remarkable change in just eight years.

 

Faribault Community School is hosting two more Harboring Voices Choir evenings on January 22 and 29. Led by St. Olaf College students, the gathering gives adults and kids an opportunity to sing together in a community setting.

 

Equally as remarkable is the shift I’ve noticed in attitudes, in efforts to welcome our newest families. I’m hearing fewer negative comments about Somalis, Hispanics and other immigrants. I’m not saying those attitudes don’t still exist. It’s just that I don’t hear that animosity as much or sense such strong resentment toward these newcomers.

Why the change?

 

One of the virtues highlighted as part of The Virtues Trail Project. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo August 2018.

 

After time, people become more accepting as they adjust and as newcomers assimilate into the fabric of Faribault. I think much of that can be attributed to the kids, who see their classmates as classmates and friends, not defined by their skin color.

 

This notice is posted, among the one above and the one below, on a community bulletin board at Buckham Memorial Library, Faribault.

 

But adults have also made concerted efforts to help locals and newcomers accept one another. The Virtues Project Faribault, the Faribault Diversity Coalition, Faribault Community School and the creators of 1855, a local history series on Faribault Community Television, are all making a difference. I am grateful for their efforts.

 

Faribault celebrates MLK Day on Monday as noted in this notice posted at the library.

 

My great grandparents emigrated from Germany to America. They faced challenges in language, culture and more. It’s important to remember our immigrant roots. But no matter our ethnicity, our language, our culture, our skin color, we are all just people…with hopes and dreams. And voices.

© Copyright 2019 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Welcoming signs of change in Faribault August 30, 2018

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One of many photo signs extolling virtues and posted in the downtown Faribault business district.

 

I INTENTIONALLY CHOSE ONE BLOCK in the central business district of my southeastern Minnesota community to look for Faces of Faribault—Downtown posters in storefronts. I found several placards featuring photos of downtown business people and a chosen virtue. But I also discovered much more. I found inspiring quotes and welcoming signs that show a city working hard to effect a change in attitudes, to embrace all who live here, no matter their ethnicity.

 

Many Somali immigrants live in apartments above downtown Faribault businesses. They often gather on street corners to socialize. That has resulted in complaints from some locals who claim to feel unsafe and intimidated. I’ve never felt that way, choosing instead to say hello and smile. I recognize that, because these immigrants are not living in ground level apartments, they need an outdoor space to meet and talk.

 

We are a diverse community of some 23,000. Home to Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Somalis, Sudanese, Asians and more. It’s been a struggle for newcomers to gain acceptance, for locals to adjust to immigrants settling here to work, to start new lives. Differences in language, in social behavior, in dress and more have created a sense of unease. And conflict.

 

On the Sunday afternoon I shot these images, a couple celebrated their wedding at the 3 Ten Event Venue, recently opened in an historic building in the heart of downtown Faribault.

 

It takes effort to connect, to begin to understand one another, to see each other as individuals rather than as locals or foreigners, to celebrate our differences.

 

 

I applaud business owners who are reaching out with strong messages of acceptance posted right there on their shop windows. In a small-ish city like Faribault, there’s always the risk of losing business over taking a stand. But it’s the right thing to do, to declare that The only thing that should be separated by color is laundry.

 

 

Or to say, We stand with refugees and immigrants in our community.

 

 

One of many photo virtues signs posted in shop windows throughout the downtown business district as part of Faces of Faribault.

 

Yet another Faces poster.

 

These are positive signs, as are those Faces of Faribault posters, a project initiated by Cindy Diessner, who serves on The Virtues Project—Faribault Steering Committee. Her Faces endeavor is funded by an Artists on Main Street grant.

 

 

When we get to know each other as individuals, then the walls that separate us fall. We begin to understand that we are all just human. We may differ in skin color, language, dress, customs and more. But we still live under the same sun, the same moon.

 

FYI: A St. Paul-based theater company will present a free one-act play about an immigrant family’s daily struggles to follow the American dream at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 12, at the Paradise Center for the Arts in historic downtown Faribault. A cast Q & A and an appetizer reception follow the performance of Help Wanted by Teatro Del Pueblo. The nonprofit, Latino theater company promotes cultural pride in the Latino community and cultural diversity in the arts. The play is based on a true story.

 

© Copyright 2018 Audrey Kletscher Helbling