At the heart of Pillsbury House Theatre's work is commitment to its community; to foster connections and strengthen the relationships between neighbors and engage them directly in a multitude of meaningful ways.

To rephrase a popular aphorism, it's all stars and snowflakes until someone gets hurt...meaning, amid last-minute maker markets and star gazing this holiday month there's a "House of Cards" style production at the Guthrie to clear the senses and a concert to ground our sensibilities.

The Hmongtown Marketplace, on Como Avenue near Rice Street, is the place to find story cloths, Hmong women's headgear, Laotian fashions, videos of water buffalo fights, Thai movies, silver jewelry, slabs of delicious Hmong barbecue, cold pumpkin soup, medicinal plants in pots, counter after counter of the most beautiful produce anywhere in Minnesota...and unfathomably much more. One of the men who knows this ten-acre mini-Asia best is its general manager, Ying Xiong, and he's our guide into the reality and the dream that the Marketplace represents.