A conversation with musician Geoffrey Lamar Wilson and artist Torey Erin
Release Date: 03/22/2026
A conversation with musician Geoffrey Lamar Wilson and artist Torey Erin
Conversations from the Barn
Geoffrey Lamar Wilson, also known by his stage name LAAMAR, is a Minneapolis based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. After spending his 20's studying and performing music in New York, and working the craft coffee cafe circuit in Brooklyn, he returned to his hometown in 2016 to "settle down". He emerged on the local music scene in 2023 with his song Home to My Baby, a song which resonated deeply across the state in the wake of the Philando Castile and George Floyd murders. In this and subsequent tracks on his debut EP Flowers, he explored the challenges of being black in America...
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A conversation with writer Chris Stedman
Conversations from the Barn
Chris Stedman is a writer, podcaster, and professor who teaches in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN. He is the author of the books , , and the forthcoming , as well as the writer and host of , named one of the best podcasts of 2021 by the Guardian, Vulture, HuffPost, Mashable, the CBC, and others, and honored by the 2022 Webby Awards under Podcasts – Best Writing. Chris is the founder of , a new podcast studio based in Minneapolis committed to telling stories that, in the words of...
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A conversation with playwrights Kurt Robert Engh and Dave Osmundsen
Conversations from the Barn
Kurt Robert Engh is a theater-maker with the goal to expand the framework of what “theater” is in order to adapt the art form to a twenty-first century audience. He transposes experimental practices to narrative stories, addressing how contemporary audiences consume live performance. He is specifically interested in exploring Midwestern identity, creating characters as complicated as real people, and taking advantage of the metaphysical space of the stage. He likes testing the endurance of audiences and uncovering ways to contextualize a physical space in a digital culture. He borrows more...
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A conversation with Everwood Retreat Administrator Em Haas
Conversations from the Barn
This is a special conversation with Em Haas, Everwood Farmstead’s 2025 Artist Retreat Administrator. Em joined us at the farm this summer to support the 34 artists who traveled from all over the country and Canada to work in the Retreat. Em is a recent graduate of St. Olaf College with a Bachelor of Arts degree focused on English, Creative Writing and Ancient Greek. Em was also a Senior Admissions Fellow for the college, serve as the Literary Editor for The Quarry Literary and Fine Arts Magazine, and work as a copyeditor for The Olaf Messenger. Post Everwood, Em is interested in pursuing...
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A conversation with Playwright, writer, poet and actor Nissa Nordland Morgan
Conversations from the Barn
Nissa Nordland Morgan is a playwright, actor and musician in Minneapolis, MN. She is a member of the Twin Cities' Playwright Cabal and Artistic Director of Twin Cities Horror Festival. Her plays “The Fae”, “Incarnate”, "Stabby Stab Stab" and "Kin" were performed as part of the Twin Cities Horror Festival; “The Fae” was nominated for Best Original/New Work through TC Broadway World. Her Minnesota Fringe play “Xena and Gabrielle Smash the Patriarchy” was awarded the TC Arts Reader Critic’s Choice Award and won the Theatre in the Round Venue Pick. Nissa co-wrote "Finger Lickin'...
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A conversation with musician Sarah Elstran and painter Amanda Hanlon
Conversations from the Barn
Sarah Elstran is an independent musician that bridges the gap between bright-eyed pop composition and hands-on atmospheric live layering of voice. Her vocal loops give us the kind of detail and wide multi-octave range that we might come to expect from a marquee pop star, while her production decisions continually keep us guessing as to what rabbit holes her tracks might fall into next. Amanda Hanlon is a painter and printmaker. She lives and works out of her home located in a historic river town in Minnesota. Amanda has received a MFA in Painting from the University of Washington -...
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A conversation with Ceramic Artist Cym Warkov and Choreographer Genevieve Waterbury
Conversations from the Barn
Originally from Colorado, Genevieve Waterbury grew up in the mountains and in the ballet studio at Boulder Ballet and eventually studied dance at Colorado State University. She then joined Nevada Ballet Theatre in Las Vegas where she collaborated annually with Cirque du Soleil. One of her favorite moments from NBT was working intimately with Cynthia Gregory on character portrayal for the company’s performance of Giselle; It deepened her interest in acting and dance theater, ultimately prompting the move to New York City. In New York, Genevieve had opportunities to work across many...
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A conversation with artist Nichole Gronvold Roller and pianist Brianna Matzke
Conversations from the Barn
Nichole Gronvold-Roller is a painter who received a BFA in Art Education from Minnesota State University of Moorhead, an MA in Art Education from Boston University, MA, and an MFA in Painting from Bradley University. In addition to being an artist, Nichole is a full-time high school art teacher in Tremont, IL, where she has been teaching for the past twenty-six years. Furthermore, she is a contributor writer for the Inland Art column with Community Word. Dr. Brianna Matzke's dynamic pianism shows “a sense of refinement, flair, and technical prowess” (clevelandclassical.com)....
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A conversation with multi-disciplinary artists Cori Nakamura Lin and Tori Hong
Conversations from the Barn
Cori Nakamura Lin (she/her) is a Japanese, Taiwanese, Okinawan-American multimedia visual artist based in Chicago. By painting, documenting, and weaving, Cori is finding her way to a world that prioritizes ecological and community care. Descended from East Asian island peoples and born and raised in the midwest, Cori’s art practice is an ongoing self-archive where she examines her own multiple identities as a story of self. Cori’s work asks: How do we dream beyond our fears in the face of climate collapse? How do we carry multiple legacies, multiple ancestors, through the...
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A conversation with singer/songwriter Leslie Vincent
Conversations from the Barn
LESLIE VINCENT is a prolific songwriter and jazz vocalist. Equally at home singing the Great American Songbook, musical theater, and contemporary rock and pop, she has quickly become one of the most notable voices to emerge in the vibrant Minneapolis music scene, being hailed for her joy-filled performances and her “fun, human, beautiful interpretations” (Levi Weinhagen). Born into a military family, Vincent spent childhood moving along the East Coast and United Kingdom, where she spent her spare time singing along to Frank Sinatra and the Les Mis soundtrack. The one constant was...
info_outlineGeoffrey Lamar Wilson, also known by his stage name LAAMAR, is a Minneapolis based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. After spending his 20's studying and performing music in New York, and working the craft coffee cafe circuit in Brooklyn, he returned to his hometown in 2016 to "settle down". He emerged on the local music scene in 2023 with his song Home to My Baby, a song which resonated deeply across the state in the wake of the Philando Castile and George Floyd murders. In this and subsequent tracks on his debut EP Flowers, he explored the challenges of being black in America and Minnesota, at a time when many folks were seeking understanding and connection across social and cultural lines.
He carried this momentum into several very busy years of performances supporting notable local and national touring artists, appearing at music festivals and shows across the state, and as a guest on various radio, podcast, and television broadcasts(and one billboard). In 2025 he released a full-length record In the Light, to critical acclaim. An album which expands his creative palate, turning the lens inward towards fatherhood/partnership, and further outward toward stories rooted in humanism, empathy, nature, and poetry. Instagram
Torey Erin is a Minneapolis based interdisciplinary artist primarily working in moving image, sculpture, installation, ecology, and land art. Torey received her Bachelor’s of Fine Art and Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota. Torey’s work amplifies environmental phenomena to create places where people may share their stories and co-create new art works. She has created a living participatory land artwork for the 4Ground Land Art Biennial titled Love Letters to the Earth, where she invited the community to discuss ecological grief and write devotions to earth on handmade seed paper to plant into a perennial garden. She proposes ways of re-imagining material approaches to art and landscape that serve human and non-human life, focusing on environmental change, empathy and relationality. During her most recent residency at Franconia Sculpture Park, she transformed one acre of turf grass into native prairie, inviting participants to seed the landscape by hand and dance the seeds into the ground. This intention is to connect people to landscape through ritual and body movement that will benefit non human species and soil quality for years to come.
Torey has exhibited at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Mirrorlab, Soo Visual Art Center, Company Projects, Public Functionary, Q2 Gallery, Rosalux Gallery, Yeah Maybe Project Space, FilmNorth, Gamut Gallery, and has an outdoor installation at Silverwood Park in Minnesota and Rabanus Park World Garden in Fargo, North Dakota; she has created costume and set/interior design at First Avenue, the Palace Theater, and the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Torey’s films have been featured in the Franconia Environmental Film screening, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Regis Center for Art, Duluth Film Festival, Trylon Cinema, Saltless Sea Cinema, Headwaters Film Festival, and Franconia Sculpture Park’s 5 Minute Film Festival. She is a recipient of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Grant, Everwood Farmstead Artist Retreat, 4Ground Midwest Land Art Biennial (with support from Plains Art Museum and Franconia Sculpture Park), Joan MaCloed student Leadership Award (landscape architecture), 2020 Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant, Springboard for the Arts Hinge Artist Residency, Jo Tushie Fellowship, the Blacklock Sanctuary Fellowship, and is a Landscape Architecture Foundation Olmsted Scholar.
She is the current Franconia Sculpture Park inaugural Prairie Artist in Residence of 2024. She is a Research Fellow at the Minnesota Design Center working on the Empowering Small Minnesota Communities project and Design Assist, which include asset based community co-design, climate resilience, and systems thinking for long term development strategies.
She is also an adjunct professor in architecture/landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota College of Design.
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