Eva Valesh was only 22 when she first went undercover to report on women workers in the 1880s for the St. Paul Globe. She wrote under the pseudonym Eva Gay. Each week, she would either sneak into a workplace to speak to the workers, or she would simply fabricate her references and apply to a job herself. She visited clothing factories, laundries, dress-shops, dry goods stores, and food factories. Often she encountered women being exploited or working in dangerous conditions. Eva fought for the workers and helped them fight for themselves.
In this episode of the MinneCulture podcast, reporter Ben Heath explores Valesh’s work, and the role of investigative journalism on the labor movement of the late 19th century.
Jaida Grey Eagle is an Oglala Lakota photographer with a focus on the lives and stories of people of color in the Twin Cities and beyond. As a photojournalist, her work empowers local communities through representation. Her fine art celebrates Native women while intertwining the personal stories of her subjects with greater themes of history and traditional culture.
Jaida has been researching Native photographers, past and present, in preparation for an exhibition that she is curating at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. KFAI’s Ben Heath spoke to Jaida about her work and the upcoming show.
Leif Brush was a pioneering sound artist based in Duluth since the mid 1970s. His Terrain Instruments were just some of the audible sculptures that isolated and emphasised the sounds of otherwise natural phenomena. KFAI’s Ben Heath celebrates the work of a remarkable Minnesotan.
Support for MinneCulture on KFAI comes from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.