Our Friday best: Water Is Life Festival, Bay Front Blues Festival

Landing the first Bon Iver show in Minnesota in over two years would be remarkable enough, but the Water Is Life Festival also boasts an impressive cross section of Native singer/songwriters (Dorene Day Waubanewquay, Annie Humphrey, Keith Secola, Quiltman, Corey Medina); Upper Midwest indie-rock, folk and Americana mainstays (Hippo Campus, Lissie, Low's Alan Sparhawk, David Huckfelt, Charlie Parr, Larry Long and Superior Siren); and a couple of critically acclaimed rising stars making a special trip to the North (Baltimore area R&B/jazz poet Mumu Fresh and South Carolina neo-blues singer Adia Victoria). The 10-hour marathon will benefit Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke's environmental organization, Honor the Earth, in protest of the Line 3 pipeline. In the headlining slot, Eau Claire's Grammy-winning favorite, Justin Vernon, will present a stripped-down version of Bon Iver that could be a nice contrast to the massive spectacle offered at Xcel Center in 2019. (Noon Wed., Bayfront Festival Park, Duluth, $65, axs.com.)

Chris Riemenschneider

One of the first shows back at the community-driven Cedar Cultural Center promises to also be one of the most powerful artistic reactions yet to the chaos that enveloped the Twin Cities over the past year: Experimental jazz vocalist Mankwe Ndosi is celebrating the release of her new album, "Felt / Not Said," with a band featuring Davu Seru and Tomeka Reid. Via compositions with titles including "Slide Shift Shine" and "Press Together," the percussive, string-driven record alternately offers meditative and manic emotions that Ndosi says will involve "release and healing" from the audience at this interactive concert. (8 p.m. Fri., the Cedar, 416 Cedar Av. S., Mpls., all ages, $15-$18, thecedar.org.)

C.R.

While New Orleans just pulled the plug on this year's Jazz Fest, the 32nd annual Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth will have some NOLA flavor this weekend. Louisiana blues guitar star Tab Benoit headlines on Saturday night, and festive zydeco scion C.J. Chenier tops the bill on Sunday. Friday's headline act is the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Texas' "Tuff Enuff" blues-rockers fronted by harmonica blower Kim Wilson, who spent his salad days in Twin Cities barrooms. The two-stage outdoor festival also features veterans Alvin Youngblood Hart, Joanna Connor and Tommy Castro as well as such newer names as Danielle Nicole and Joyann Parker. (12:30-9 p.m. Fri.-Sun., Bayfront Park, Duluth, $69 and up, bayfrontblues.com). For blues in the metro area, the annual Lowertown Blues and Funk Fest, starring blues guitar heir Bernard Allison, has moved from Lowertown to the Midway area of St. Paul. (5:30-9 p.m. Sat., Dual Citizen Brewery, 725 Raymond Av., St. Paul, free.)

JON BREAM

Minneapolis' rising indie strummer Siri Undlin made a name for herself as Humbird writing intimate, daydream-y bedroom folk, so no surprise she's coming out of quarantine with a new "visual album" that she's billing as "experiments from a year at home." It sounds like a perfect combo for the newly reopened Parkway Theater, as it will combine the visual storytelling of Erik and Sarah Elstran on screen with Undlin and her band. (7 p.m. Sun., Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Av. S., Mpls., $15-$25, theparkwaytheater.com)

Who will be Osmo Vänskä's successor as the orchestra's artistic director after the 2021-22 season? One candidate appears to be France's Nathalie Stutzmann, a renowned contralto who's become a charismatic conductor. She and the orchestra displayed fine chemistry on visits in 2017 and '19, and now she'll lead them in Sergei Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto — with Lukas Vondracek as soloist — and Antonin Dvorak's "New World" Symphony. (8 p.m. Fri-Sat., Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., $72-$12; 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org.)

ROB HUBBARD

North Minneapolis-based artist Tia Keobounpheng (aka Tia Keo) doesn't shy away from dealing with the trauma of our lives and bodies. But rather than hold onto trauma, she wants to DeFUSE it all, which is also the name of her solo exhibition at the Duluth Art Institute. In her patterned watercolor and woven material that morph into sculptures and two-dimensional paintings, she seeks to understand if we can unlearn deeply formed psychological patterns. "Baggage," a wire bag hanging on the wall, takes a comical approach, while the two large-scale multimedia paintings "Who Do You Think You Are" look like rewoven stoplights that force viewers to question how they perceive reality. (506 W. Michigan St., fourth floor, Duluth, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, free. Ends Sept. 15. duluthartinstitute.org or 218-733-7560)

Alicia Eler

The Minnesota Children's Museum celebrates 40 years of educational play with an outdoor block party this weekend. Careen down a giant slide, play games, mini golf and dance to the tunes of a live DJ. With advance reservations, admission to the museum has a sweet throwback price of $1.25 per person. (10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. Free. Minnesota Children's Museum, 10 W. 7th St., St. Paul. 651-225-6000. mcm.org.)