Berlin-based poet takes over the Minneapolis skyway

Berlin-based artist/poet Hanne Lippard finds the magic in poetry's seeming uselessness. "Poetry is not created for efficiency or logic," she said. "It doesn't have a mean or a function." Despite this truth, both text and voice interest Lippard the most and also inform her new exhibition at Goethe in the Skyways' odd mix of high-end-gallery meets easy-to-miss commercial retail space. For "C U L8TR ESCALATOR," the opening-night performance on Friday (5:30-7 p.m.), Lippard invites Twin Cities poets Miriam Karraker, Chris Martin, Lara Mimosa Montes and Mary Easter Moore to read with her in the skyway. The resulting exhibition will include text fragments from the four poets' poems, and audio of five Lippard poems, a different one each day of the week. (10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Ends April 19. Second floor of City Center, 40 S. 7th St., Suite 208, Mpls., next to Cardigan Donuts. Free. Goethe.de/Minneapolis)