Rez Road 2000
Rez Road 2000
Streaming February 22-March 7, 2021
Special $50 group rate, click here to reserve
Single Tickets, click here to buy
written and performed by Jim Northrup in collaboration with Ron Peluso and Bob Beverage | directed by Bob Beverage | History Theatre premiere Jan 27-Feb 27, 2000
Running time: 110 minutes
Note: Performance contains strong language
Jim Northrup is a storyteller, poet, columnist and the award-winning author of "Walking the Rez Road" and "The Rez Road Follies." With humor and biting wit, Jim takes on the "cultural clash" that makes up the American and Native American landscape. "These stories are full of laughter, and the wisdom that comes from heartbreak and loss," shares Joy Harjo, author, "She Had Some Horses."
Donate to American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO)
Minnesota's native community has been hit harder than most by the COVID-19. In honor of Jim Northrup and the Rez Road 2000, History Theatre will make a donation to AICHO. Pat Northrup, Jim's wife of 30 years, selected AICHO as the designated recipient organization. AICHO provides much needed housing and food assistance to Native families in Duluty and the region. Mail checks to AICHO, 202 W. 2nd Street, Duluth, Minn. 55802.
From Artistic Director Ron Peluso
I first met Jim Northrup and his wife Pat in 1990, when I asked Jim to adapt his award-winning book WALKING THE REZ ROAD for the Minnesota Festival Theatre in Albert Lea, MN. Both Bob Beverage and I worked closely with Jim to create a one-man show based on his book. Later that summer, Bob directed Jim and it would be a highlight during my tenure there and a much talked about play for years with our patrons in Albert Lea. It was Jim's first time on stage and he said it was "more terrifying than a firefight in Nam!" Later, when I became the Artistic Director for History Theatre, I asked Jim to reinvent this work for our stage and he did so - REZ ROAD 2000 - which he updated and performed for History Theatre.
Jim is a Minnesota treasure, a Vietnam Vet, storyteller supreme, author, playwright, grandfather, husband and friend to many. His funny, gentle and generous spirit will be missed. His image is prominent above our theater doors and I see his mischievous smile every time I walk into the theater to start my day.
THANKS, Jim for being part of my life and sharing your Ojibwe culture, your stories and humor with so many.
From Pat Northrup
Boozhoo Anishinaabedog and friends from Chibinesiban. Rez Road 2000 honors the legacy of Jim Northrup and the subjects that were important to him: family, friends, veterans and their issues, preserving the Ojibwe language and documenting the history of all indigenous people. He encouraged everyone to take part in living the good life and following the seasons. He always made time to tell stories in winter, make maple syrup in spring, gather birchbark and make baskets in summer and harvest wild rice in fall. Jim wrote to honor the Anishinaabe people he knew and the lives they lived. They welcomed life together for many years. Giinitam from Umpaowastewin*
*My Dakota name is the last word at the end - Umpaowastewin (Beautiful Daybreak Women)
- Pat Northrup, Jim's wife of nearly 30 years
(photo, right: Jim and Pat Northrup. credit: Cheryl Walsh Belville)
Who is Jim Northrup?
Mike Hazard with Jim Northrup
Q. Who is Jim Northrup?
A. Scribbler, Activist, Storyteller, Ogichidag, Chibenashi, Homeboy, Radio Commentator, Shinnob, Writer, Hustler, Hardliner, Letterwriter, Teacher, Wild Ricer, Basket Maker, Poet, Columnist, Anishinaabeg Family Man, Father, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle, Educator, Vietnam Vet, Runner for the Moccasin Telegraph, Doer of Whatever Comes His Way, Short Story Writer, Private Investigator, Stage Hand, Key Grip, Movie Star, Scrabble and Cribbage Player, Fork Lift Operator, Floor Sweeper, Surfer on the Multiculti Wave, Moose Hunter, Reader, Keeper of Memories, Joker, Trickster, Informed Informant, Nice Guy, Ironworker, Tribal Court Lawyer, A Man of Many Headbands, Fonjalacker, User of Treaty Rights, Fond Du Lac enrollee of the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa, Folk Artist, Newspaper Editor, Logger, Lab Tech, Fiberglas Factory Worker, Marine, Deputy Sheriff, Jim "Dump this call" Northrup, One Take Northrup, Grunt, International Indian, Tvaholic, Jeopardy Freak, Jerk, Singer, Luke Warmwater, Lay Attorney, Playwright, Honorary Chair of International Indigenous People's Organization, Fullblown Thespian, Member of the Bear Clan, Elder, Gitchi Anishinaabeg, __________ ?
Q. What do people say about Jim Northrup?
George Carlin: He is an American American.
Juanita G Corbine Espinosa: He's a homeboy.
Wiggy: He sticks his tongue so far into his cheek, sometimes he bites it off.
Dolly Dow: Some of the columns he writes bite like a junkyard dog.
Maddy Moose: He's had a lot of that, experience, and talks about everything. He's a nice guy.
Lester Jack Briggs: He is a complex individual.
Gerry Vizenor, aka Old Musky Mouth: I used to be as big as Jim.
Patrick Hazard: "Walking the Rez Road" makes me think he's a red Virgil. His poems are like prayers.
Susan Stanich: Other people's follies end up in the Follies. He is fearless. Like Roger Jourdain, he is not afraid to take on anybody. He is a good singer even though he thinks he can't sing. I think he is a wonderful writer and I love his humor. I can't imagine Jim getting a penthouse in New York; he will always live in Sawyer.
Pat Northrup: I pull his headband tighter.
Bob Holman: Is that really a poem, or did you just make it up?
Walt Bresette: He's a Shinnob from Northern Minnesota who married a dogeater.
Jim Northrup on Jim Northrup, Jr.: I am a national treasure in DC, and a circle of hate at home.
Lorna Mangan: He is the conscience of the RBC.
Bill Holm: One finishes the stories with a sense of warmth and sanity in Rez life, a world which though poor, has escaped compartmentalizing and suburbanizing. Young people still visit old people, medicine healers and gifts of tobacco work more effective cures than treatment programs, neighbors feed each other food, affection and spare tires. I don't think Mr. Northrup is likely to run out of stories, and in fact, I think he means to goad his readers to think of a few for themselves.
Jeremy Iggers: I like the way he handled the Martha Stewart people.
Meg Aerol: Surrounded by white pine, Jack pine, and the energy of his ancestors, he records the jabs and jabbering of life on the reservation. Northrup salts and spices the stories of the rez and turns a prison into an amusement park... In a continental context, Northrup's stories belong to the tradition of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Tom King, and other modern Native American writers in Canada and the United States...The sacred hoop will come together as stories like these teach us to walk a mile in one another's moccasins, Reeboks, wingtips, or whatever.
Charley Nauganub: He knows his way around the woods.
Jim Mulligan: He seems to thumb his nose and say, "Come and get me."
Don Soderburg: Jim shoots in both directions at the same time.
Jim on Jim the writer: He hunches over the computer like a monkey fucking a football. He became a writer because he has a bad memory.
I wrote at the time: Jim Northrup is an idea. As he says, “I live my life in the circle of the seasons.” He hasn't always and he doesn't always. But he is trying to set an example as a kind of guerrilla theater. He is walking point for his people. He's on a rescue mission. We could start this story anywhere and end up in the same place. Killing a moose is like making a basket, is like wild ricing, is like telling a story...The end is the beginning.
Of all his writing, his poetry moves me the most. His poems are like prayers and honor songs. I love them and I loved him. Here’s one that sings poignantly today.
END OF THE BEGINNING
Someone said we begin to die
the minute we're born.
Death is a part of life.
Who knows why the Creator
thins the herd.
Another old saying says
we must all be prepared
to give up those we love
or die first.
Take time to mourn.
Take time to remember.
Everything happens in cycles.
The pain you feel was once
balanced by someone's joy
when that baby was born.
The loss you feel today
will be replaced by good
long-lasting memories.
Is there a message here? Yah,
treat others like this
is your last day above ground.
Hear Jim speaking those words. https://youtu.be/jEMbjk7fG4U
Screen the whole movie, WITH RESERVATIONS: JIM NORTHRUP, here. http://www.folkstreams.net/film,239
Dr. Anton Treuer reads "End of the Beginning"
Critical praise for "Rez Road 2000"
Ojibway Northrup entertains, blasts stereotypes
by Lydia Howell (Pulse, 2/9/2000)
There's just a thin membrane between having a conversation with Ojibway writer Jim Northrup and seeing him perform his one man show. A born storyteller in any context he chooses, REZ ROAD 2000 is Northrup intensified, yet anchored in easygoing deliberation. He takes us from government forced boarding school to marine boot camp, shares silly dog stories and harrowing war stories, shows the journey from "gaining warrior experience" to being a grandfather raising the world's oldest nine-year-old boy. The heart of the play is Northrup's experiences during a 13-month tour in Vietnam and "surviving the peace" upon his return. Emotionally eloquent, Northrup reaches in and breaks your heart, then relieves the hurt with his famous "Q&A" jokes. Rez Road 2000 is a stunning start to a new millenium. Don't miss it.
'Rez Road' has humor and insight
by William Randall Beard (Star Tribune, 2/2/2000)
The latest collection of tales from Anishinabe storyteller Jim Northrup are full of his dry, irreverent wit and unique world view. Most of his story revolves around the idea of becoming a warrior. He was born during World War II and grew up hearing stories of World War I and later Korea. And he survived his own war, when, at age 6, he was forcibly sent to a federal boarding school, where the government tried to teach him to be white. His autobigraphy, particularly his experiences in Vietnam, makes for some powerful listening.
Jim Northrup's one-man show humorous, insightful
by Julie Shortridge (Native American Press, 2/4/2000)
Northrup laced his sometimes heart-wrenching, gritty life life stories with disarming wit, one-liners, smiles and jokes. There's no victim identity in Northrup. His sometimes biting insights are tempered by seeing the humor in life, and the humanity of all people. And he raised the roof quoting "Questions of the Week" from his nationally syndicated newspaper column, "The Fond du Lac Follies." Some of the column's questions, Northrup said, have been asked by actual white people. The biggest laugh came from this one: White person Q: How do Indians know when it's safe to go out on the ice?" Northrup's A: When the white people stop falling through. For many in the audience, this performance likely provided an introduction to another culture.
Jim Northrup's specialty is looking at the world through rez-colored glasses
By Dominic Papatola (Pioneer Press , 2/1/2000)
Theater, when you strip away all the glitz and glitter, is telling stories. And Jim Northrup is one terrifc storyteller. It's a heckuva yarn, and it's all true: Northrup's American Indian Everywhere is himself. The show is well focused, and when it's over, you find yourself longing for just a little more. That's a rarity in one-person productions. But, in many ways, Rez Road 2000 is a rare show - one that informs, entertains and feels less like an evening in the theater than a night in well-spent and comfortable conversation.