Local Events: The History of Hip at the Turf Club

The Minnesota History Center is sponsoring a series of events at the Turf Club in St. Paul in connection with their fantastic exhibit on Prohibition. In January the program covered the history of cocktails and distilling in Minnesota. Last night the subject was DUIs, Bootlegging and Murder in the Midway. In March they'll cover beer. The series is part of MHS' ongoing "History of Hip" programming, and each event has sold out well in advance. For $10 you can head over to the Turf Club, walk downstairs to the Clown Lounge, order a beer from the guy in the Hymie's T-shirt, and hear a history lecture in the same venue where, three years ago, you would have been hearing Fat Kid Wednesday play experimental jazz. The woman next to me in the front row pulled out a pen to take notes. I did the same thing, and I couldn't help thinking: all of us here are causing the history of hip.

For one thing, the Minnesota Historical Society is not often cited as an arbiter of hipness, historical or otherwise. Institutions like MHS confer a different kind of cultural value on the events and sites they interpret; they select particular aspects of popular culture to exhibit for an exclusive audience. MHS hopes that this series will draw first time visitors to the Clown Lounge, and that people who have never been to the MN History Center might attend this event because of its setting. Which is awesome. But bridges between institutions can also isolate them from a broader community, separating culture from public culture to paraphrase a smart friend.

At an institutional level this separation seems inevitable. At the Clown Lounge on Tuesday it was more difficult to discern. The crowd was a little different from normal - mostly seated; mostly sober - but MHS is working hard to treat these events like a community meeting. Priority goes to local voices and the audience. At each of the first two History of Hip programs we had conversations with local brewers and distillers about their experiences living and working in the Midway. An historian is on hand to provide some context, but the important details were manifest as discussion. When nobody could remember the name of the distributing company on Prior that used to be Griggs-Cooper, our bartender shouted out, "Mark VII!"

"We buy from them," he explained.

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A few more words from our bartender might have helped us measure our proximity to or distance from public culture at the Clown Lounge. The club has struggled to keep its doors open in recent years, and three months ago First Avenue took over operations. The sale means that the Clown Lounge will continue to function as a cultural center for the Twin Cities community for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, another iconic club that was forced to close its doors in Minneapolis' West Bank neighborhood is hoping for a similar result from a similar institutional partnership. The 400 Bar is planning to re-open in June on the fourth floor of the Mall of America. The venue will be part of a 25,000 square foot entertainment complex that will also feature a restaurant as well as the brand new Midwest Music Museum.