From Kao Kalia Yang to Queer & Funny Improv: Three Twin Cities arts events to explore this weekend

For centuries, Minnesota artists have depicted the people who call the state home through portraiture. This weekend, the Minnesota History Center brings out select works from its portrait collection for a new exhibition stretching back to the 1850s. Also on Saturday, writers and readers converge at St. Paul’s Union Depot for an annual book festival, while local comedians head to the Phoenix Theater for a weekend of workshops and live performances. Journey to Minnesota. Credit: Rose Smith 170 years of Minnesota life The Minnesota Historical Society houses an estimated 1,000 portraits dating from the 1850s to the present. Starting Saturday, visitors to the Minnesota History Center can see 68 of them in the new exhibition “See Be Seen.” “We really wanted to allow the collection to speak for itself and to have a collection-forward exhibit,” said Arielle Fields, the Minnesota Historical Society’s fine arts curator. “Portraits can tell us so many things. They’re a reflec